**PKILL
Keywords:
**PKILL
Player Killing is allowed on The Gathering... under certain circumstances. The player combat systems have been designed in a way that it is possible for a player to roleplay a peaceful character and never be pkilled, while at the same time if a player is being abusive to others they are not immune to the attacks of others.
This particular help entry gives a complete overview of all aspects in the
pksystem. It directs you to additional help entries for specific details on
particular aspect of the system. In our documentation the terms 'Player
Killing' and 'Player Killer' are often abbreviated to PK, and are used interchangeably.
The PK System on Dawn works by having two categories of player (active and peaceful) to suit the varing tastes of our players. All players begin the game as peaceful and may choose to become active at any stage (read HELP BECOMEACTIVE for more on this).
The rules for engaging in any pkill related activities vary depending on what category combination of active and peaceful any two players make. Pkill related activities here is defined to include Pkill, Pbackstab and any spell that initiates combat with a mob when casting fails (agressive spells as well as any spell with a ! to the immediate right of the classes in cspinfo - sleep, charm, weaken...)).
If both players are active, then pkill actions may be initiated without requiring the use of any special commands prior to the pkill activities. In all other situations PK activities can not occur unless there is mutual agreement which is gained using the duel system (see help duel) or the duel system is bypassed using the bypassduel command.
The ability to bypass the duel system has the advantage that it prevents someone from using their peaceful status as a form of immunity, ignoring or declining all challenges to duel, while at the same time being extremely abusive and insulting in the IC realm.
Because the bypassduel system will often result in losses for the attacker it is only used when there is a strong enough in character basis for its use, for more info on bypassing the duel system see help bypassduel.
The dueling system does not protect you from being stolen from, when you steal or attempt to steal from someone, you will automatically accept all challenges to a duel regardless of your PK status for the 20 minutes (real time) following your use of the steal command (even if you failed to get anything).
It is REQUIRED that ALL players have an IC basis for killing or subduing another player. There must be at least some role-playing prior to starting pkill combat, and you MUST NOT initiate pkill combat within 5 minutes of logging into the game. The administration obviously dont have large amounts of time to try and determine if a particular pkill had enough IC basis and therefore unless a pkill is obviously OOC, or a number of people mention that a particular player has consistently had strong OOC undercurrents in their pkilling, the admin will not be getting involved.
The consequences to your character when you die varies depending on a few
aspects involved around your death. Help death documents the general
situation when you die as a result of a non playing character killing you. If you are killed by another player (pkilled), then you may possibly lose a 'karn'... if you die in a situation where you would lose a karn, and you
have zero karns you are permanently dead! For more on the specifics of the
karn system see help karn. A quick summary of important features of the
karn system follow:
* You will lose a karn if pkilled by someone lower level than you
* You will lose a karn if pkilled by someone up to 10 levels higher than you
* You automatically regenerate karns by simply spending time in the game
playing.
* The maximum number of karns you can have at any time is 5.
* The maximum number of karns you can have may be less than 5 if you have
pkilled a lot of players, and you did not 'becomeactive' at level 10 or lower.
NOTES:
* Becoming a active player, is done using the becomeactive command and is
irreversible.
* Any noble can request players involved in a pkill to write a note explaining
the IC basis of it... This includes fights between two active players, and
fights where all involved have accepted duels. If there is not enough IC basis
then futher steps may be taken.
* PKNotes are only required to be written if the bypassduel command was used
by someone involved in the incident.
* Active players can not be dueled by a peaceful player (unless they have
been stealing), if a peaceful player wishes to attack a Active player that hasnt been stealing they must either use bypassduel or become active themself. * The pkinfo command shows you the state all your duels are in.
* You can duel as many people as you like, and each duel can be in any of
the dueling stages.
* If a player is seen to be continually abusing their peacful status, they
will be forced to become an active player.
* Autoassist in pkcombat is slightly different, if there are 3 people
involved in combat, (A, B and C)... B and C are grouped... B somehow gets into a fight with A, C will only automatically assist in the following
situations:
- If both A and C are active, C will be able to autoassist
- C is actively duelling A
- B is actively duelling A
- C is bypasses the duel system to attack A