By playing Got Ragnarok Online you agree to follow these rules and will not argue or cause more trouble if one is broken and you are punished. You agree to accept your punishment or suffer more severe punishment as seen fit by the gRO Admin/GM team.
Last updated on 7/2/10 by Admin Suki

I. General Rules
II. Player Vs Monster Rules
III. Player Vs Player Rules
IV. War of Emperium/Guild Rules
V. Player Vs GM Rules
VI. GM rights and responsibilities
VII. How GM’s handle cases
VIII. Questioning an ingame feature or element
IX. Special Services offered to players

I. General Rules

---

- Spamming Skills
You can’t spam skills in the main town, Hugel. Spamming skills involve casting area of effect skills like Storm Gust repeatedly, as well as constantly using self buffs such as Over thrust, and consistent use of Pharmacy or Plant Cultivation are all not allowed. Targeted support skills like bless are less enforced in this manner, but constant and unneeded buffing are not allowed as well. Breaking this rule may earn you anywhere from 1-10 hours of your character muted. Continuous offenses may lead to jailtime.

—> You cannot spawn monsters in Hugel in any way. This includes using the Creator’s cultivation skill, which falls under skill spamming.

- Chat Rooms
Chat rooms in Hugel are to be placed along the sides by the benches or the grass. Any chat caught in the middle of the street will be moved. Repeated offense will result in up to five hour jail. As for the case of any other town,  any chatroom placed to prevent the use of an NPC will be moved and repeated offense will result in anywhere from one to five hours of jail time.

- Dead and Bloody Branch proper usage
Dead branches or Bloody branches can only be used in the DB town and in your own House. Access to the DB town is provided by an NPC in Hugel, free of charge. Refer to House section for such information. Any usage of dead branches or bloody branches outside of DB town & Houses is prohibited. If you find anyone using DB/BB please screenshot and send to a GM ASAP. Punishment ranges from 5 hours-5 days jailtime depending on area and severity as well as repeated offense.

- Merchant vending
There is a specific map in which merchants can put up vending shops. This map is accessible via the warper Avani. The usage of the map itself has certain rules listed by an npc, and every merchant vending is expected to follow them. Failure to follow these rules will result from the character being muted to being moved to jail. You may not vend on the stairs of merchant square, or in the very center either. Keep this clear so characters can visit your stores. First time offence will be kicked, 2nd time and afterwards will result in jailtime from one to ten hours. Depending on severity and GM discression.

- Exploitation
Exploitation is the abusive use of an ingame bug, glitch, error for an unfair advantage. This involves, but is not limited to, using the WoE warp bug, having a cart that has weight beyond the weight limit, among others. This is a severe offense and can earn you from a week of jailtime up to permanent ban from sever.

- Botting
Botting is not allowed in this server. Period. There is a strict enforcement of this rule and its a one strike policy. Once you are caught botting, your account as well as all the other accounts connected with your IP address will be banned. Beware that if you share an IP with a family member or friends they too will be banned. We make no exceptions.

-Stages

1st offense – Warning + mute depending on offense

2nd offense – 24 Hour online time jail. No exceptions (even a single word is punishable)

3rd offense – Account ban. Period.

- Misc.
—–> Mentioning other servers in the game or in the forums is a bannable offense.

—–>Modding the client, particularly to bypass the chat filter, is a stage 3 offense.

—–>Using @autotrade or @at in any other exploiting way (such as killing monsters while offline) other than vending is a stage 3 offense.

—–> AFK = not moving/talking/using emotes/using pots/being Away from you keyboard and not seeing what’s happening in your monitor.

II. Player Vs Monster Rules

---

- Kill Steal
Kill stealing, also known as KS, is prohibited in the server. KS means to kill a monster that has already been hit or obviously lured by a player. The only time KS-ing is legal is when the monster is a miniboss or an MvP, for they are Free for all (FFA). All other times, the offense is punishable by mute, jail or in extreme cases, ban. If you find a player committing this offense please take multiple screen shots and place in  forum.

———-> Monsters spawned/changed by players
Monster created by players belong to that player only. These include, but is not limited to, Dead branch summoning, Creator’s cultivation, monsters transformed by azoth, among others.

- Homunculus
A homunculus is your responsibility.

———->Camping/AFK
If your homunculus is attacking monsters while you are AFK or inactive, it is considered to be camping and is an illegal action. If you plan to go AFK then you must set your homunculus to passive mode. (Alt+T). Punishment is a 2 day jail, no exceptions.

———->Kill Stealing
Homonculus are considered extensions of players. Meaning, if they are kill-stealed from, its the same as kill stealing from the player who owns it. At the same time, if a homunculus kill steals someone, the owner is held liable for it.

- Mob Kill
Using monsters to kill other people is a form of harassment and rudeness, and as such is illegal. This may come in the form of leading aggressive monsters to other players to spawning aggressive monsters in town to kill other players. MvP’s and minibosses are less enforced by this rule, but will still be punished if done purely, willingly and intentionally for the sole sake of harming other people. Violations of this matter will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

- Mob Help
Healing and buffing monsters to cause other players their kill is a form of harassment and is not allowed at all cases. This applies to all monsters, even on MvP’s and Minibosses.

———->Definition of FFA
Free for all is defined in this server as free for all to kill and defeat. Most MvP’s require parties to defeat them and as they only spawn at certain times, should not be limited to one party or person. However, once a person or a party helps the MvP by casting defensive buffs to it such as Heal, Pneuma, Assumptio, Kyrie Eleison and other such spells, this prevents any other party to kill this MvP or miniboss. These actions will therefore not make the monster Free-For-All anymore. Therefore, all mob help on MvP’s and minibosses are illegal, and will be handled on a caseby case basis.

-MVP Death
Any player found dead in a map where an mvp spawns, for longer than 5 minutes, will be jailed. Constantly doing so, purposefully, will incur greater punishments.

III. Player Vs Player Rules

---

- Harassment
Harassment is defined in the server as causing unnecessary and offensive actions to other players which causes high levels of unavoidable discomfort. All forms of harassment is illegal, and this rule is especially enforced.

———-> Verbal Harassment

Verbal Harassment comes in the form of:

1. Racist, sexual and vulgar insults or words spammed in town or private messaged to another player.

2. Constant asking of warps, buffs, items, zeny among others after they have said no.

3. Constant spamming of virtually anything, that can range between unnecessary repetition of trade offers to spamming of text made images.

In all cases, be very careful of what you say in public. Minor insults are generally let go by this rule, but there is a fine line between minor insults and insults that actually hurt people. All offenses will be handled on a case by case basis and players wishing to report such incidents must post their case with screenshots in the forums under Hall of Shame.
*Kill on Sight, abbreviated as KoS, is NOT a form of harassment as it can be easily avoided by simply not coming into that PvP room. However, all the other forms of harassment mentioned above applies in all places, even in PvP.

———-> Language
Any of the above forms of verbal harassment done in a foreign language is also illegal. Anyone caught using other languages to harass players or moderators and is purposely using said language in order to cover up what is being said will be severely punished. Don’t do it. The GM team does not only speak English. Most of us speak multiple languages ( not including computer languages ). This event will be handled by case to case basis.

———-> Skill Harassment
Casting skills or preventing other people from casting skills while in town is not allowed in the server. This includes standing on the warps made by acolyte classes, killing spawns made by other monsters or spamming single target skills to players in town, among others. Skill Harassment will earn you up to 10 hours in jail, perhaps more with multiple offenses.

———-> Warp Portal
All classes that have the ability to use Warp Portal have the private privlidges as to who can walk inside their said portal. If any player is caught jumping warps without permission from the caster of warp portal then you can be punished and dealt with accordingly by a GM. Punishment ranges from 2 to one week of jailtime depending on multiple offenses.

- Disputes between players
Serious disputes among players must only be reported to the GM’s if it falls under most of these categories.
1. Requires GM intervention to solve.

2. Requires GM access to prove truth.

3. Disputes on a rule.

4. Involves serious cases such as harassment or account security.

All other disputes weapon strength, better job classes, or other such minor details does not need GM intervention and as such, GM’s are not required by their job to solve that problem. However, the GM can interveen and may mute players if they are harassed for prolonged periods because of said dispute.

- Item Trading
gRO enforces a special rule in terms of item trading. Items traded via deal windows makes it a legal and binding contract. Therefore, when one trades one item to another player, that item now legally belongs to that other player. Players have the full responsibility to double check all their trades to ensure the fairness of the trade.
Letting other players “borrow” equipments and other important items is at the sole risk of the player. No matter the circumstances, once an item is dealt to a player, he or she now technically owns that item. This problem is commonly known as scamming. GM’s cannot and will not reimburse any items lost by this method, for we have no responsibility over it. At best cases, if the player provides a screenshot containing the precise details of the terms of the trade, GM’s can act with the player to make the player give the items back or even get the items locked down rendering them inaccessible. However, this only applies to exceptionally and concisely presented cases; any doubt in a GM’s mind of the clarity of the case will result in the case to be deemed unsolvable.

———-> Under the table bug
The under the table bug is a deal window bug. This bug creates an error in the system which will make the player accidentally deal an item to another player, while in reality, it is being dealt to a third party. The details of this bug can be seen in the forums under GM announcements. As the perpetrator of this bug is almost always impossible to discern, players have the full responsibility of making sure that the trade will occur in a private place where there can be no third party; GM’s cannot reimburse items lost by this bug (for its sheer impossibility).

- Account Sharing
Account sharing is not suggested nor encouraged by the GM’s. This is due to the fact that once a player gives his or her account info away, he or she is granting complete rights to the account to the other player. As such, any items, zeny or characters lost or extorted from the account cannot be reimbursed by GM’s.

———-> Acct sharing vs Hacking
Account sharing is very different from hacking. Account sharing is the conscious and willing sharing of accounts with other players, granting them access to it. Hacking on the other hand, is the unconscious and forced account break ins by a third party via a control panel exploit. Contrary to popular belief, gRO’s control panel has not been hacked for the past 4 years, so most cases reported as hacking are 99% account sharing.

————- FAQ about Account Sharing————-

---

1. It’s the GM’s job to help me when I lost items! Why won’t you (insert expletive here) give me them?!

GM’s cannot help players who don’t help themselves. GM’s do indeed work for the betterment of the server, but they are also people, not your slaves. All the GM’s work for nothing and they do other things as well besides being a GM. They have other responsibilities and as such, they do not have the time to investigate every single case one by one. You willingly granted other people access to your account, so you should know the risks involved in doing so.

2. In other servers, GM’s will act when there has been items lost by account sharing.

We are aware of this. However, those GM’s have the time, access and resources to be able to afford to do all the cases on a case-by-case basis. In our case, we only have a handful of GM’s and not that much time to make accurate and precise judgments on each case. Also, as you may have noted, players find a way to extort items from GM’s in those other servers by making it seem as an account sharing case. We simply don’t want that.

3. So you’re letting these bad guys roam free on the server?

Not so. We may not be able to reimburse items because of unclarity, but we have dependable ways in determining who went into what account at what time. Repeat offenders in particular, once brought up time and time again in cases such as these, will find themselves banned indefinitely from the server. So, reporting cases such as these to GM’s is not a lost cause at all; we don’t want people such as these to roam the server as much as you do.

IV. War of Emperium and Guild Rules

---

- Castle Limit
The current castle limit is one castle per town per guild. As the server grows this number is expected to change.

-Item Dropping
Dropping items in WoE, intentionally,friendlily, dealing players , using @duel in WoE to bypass the portal will result in the guild getting a 2 week ban from WoE if any of the above is abused.

- Sub Guild

———-> Definition of a Sub Guild
Sub-guilds are a guild extension of another guild designed to bypass either
the 3 castle limit or to bypass the guild member limit. Players are free to report
their suspicions to a GM if they think a guild is sub-guilding, but only GM’s can
actually prove and punish a sub-guild. GM’s conduct thorough investigations in
doing so as well as meeting and collaborating with other GM’s about the matter.

———-> Difference between merging and Sub Guild
Merging is the combining of two guilds to form one guild. This may seem as an unfair advantage over all other guilds, but keep in mind that merging lowers the number of castles the former two guilds can take from 6 castles to 3. By definition therefore, this is not a form of sub-guilding.

- Guild Emblem

———-> Visibility and Content
Guild emblems for guilds who intend to join the War of Emperium must be easy for everyone to see, at least 60% visible. Also, the content of the guild emblem cannot be racist, sexually vulgar or insulting in any way. Guilds caught violating this rule will be asked to change their emblem to a much more suitable one.

———-> Clear difference between your emblem and another guild’s
Your emblem must be clearly different from another guild’s emblem. Any guild violating this rule will be asked to change the emblem, or be banned from WoE until it is changed.

———-> GM emblem
The GM emblem cannot be used by any other guild. Any guild caught using the GM emblem will be forced to disband the guild or to have all its’ members banned.

- War of Emperium Town
The following WoE towns in accordance with times are as follows:
Prontera WoE: Friday, 7pm Central Time (-6.00)
Guilds can only break castle’s emperiums in the right WoE time and town. Any guild taking castles out of town will be banned from WoE for two weeks.

———-> Banning from WoE
Getting banned from WoE means two things:

1. Any member of the guild cannot be inside any guild castle during WoE times.

2. No one in the disciplined guild is allowed to leave the guild at the time the punishment is announced. Anyone caught leaving the guild will be banned indefinitely. No exceptions.

———-> Player punishment

If it is successfully proven that a person or people have disobeyed this rule, they will be banned for two weeks from the game itself. However, this does not replace the punishment given to the guild.

- What not to do during the course of WoE

1. WoE without a guild. You cannot enter a guild castle if you have no guild or without a clear emblem.

2. Intentional dropping of items or intentional dealing/friending of enemies. This is very rude for the opposing guild, and it abuses an ingame feature to gain an unfair advantage. Anyone proven to do this shall be warned and on repeated offense, jailed until the end of Sunday’s WoE. Also if three players or more from any guild are proven to have been dealing during WoE this will result in a one week ban for said guild. No exceptions. Everyone should be reminded that you can avoid trades and friend requests during WoE by simply using /nt or /notrade.

—–> Play Dead, or any other forms of it that produces the same effect, cannot be used in regular War Of Emperium. Any guild caught doing so will be banned from
WoE for two weeks.

- Guild disbandment

Guild masters have the sole power of breaking a guild. He or she must kick every character in the guild before disbanding the guild. Any character that could possibly be lost in the process cannot be replaced by the GM’s, but the guild master will be banned for doing so.

- Warp Jumping or Impeding
Impeding warps or any other skills during the course of WoE is not allowed. (IE, casting land protection over warps) Any person caught doing such things can be jailed, muted or on extreme cases, banned.

V. Player vs GM Rules

---

- GM no-nos

———->Pestering
Do not pester GM’s, especially when he or she is in the midst of an announcement. Constantly demanding an answer or response from a GM falls into this category. GM’s are handling multiple people at the same time; adding to their stress causes tremendous discomfort. Pestering GM’s can result in a mute or jail of any time depending on the GM.

———->Annoying
When a GM says no, he or she means it. Constantly asking for the same stuff over and over again from GMs is very annoying, and will result in your character getting muted or jailed.

———->Lying
When a GM asks something of importance, any answer they get from players is taken as trustworthy and thought of as true. Any player then who lies to a GM about anything will get jailed or banned, depending on the gravity of the case.

- GM events
Players joining events are expected to follow all the rules of the event put by the GM. Also, delaying an event is very rude not only to the GM, but also to the rest of the players. Delaying the event or not following the rules put forth by the GM will cause anything from ejection from the event, jailing or muting of the player and in extreme cases, banning for a certain period of time.

- GM impersonation
Impersonation of a GM is strictly forbidden. Anyone caught pretending to be a GM, whether it be casual or for gain, will be banned. A good tip to prove if someone is a GM is to ask him or her to log on to the GM character or to demonstrate some sort of GM command power. Real GM’s will not hesitate to prove his or her identity.

- GM authority
———->A GM’s decision is final.
When a GM decides on any case or matter, what he or she says is final. Any further debate on the point must be brought to an administrator. Also, when one GM says no, a player cannot ask the same thing from another GM. Any player proven to ask multiple GM’s on a case or request will be punished, ranging from jail to ban depending on the gravity of the entire case.

———->Reporting a GM
If you think that a GM has abused his or her authority, power or any other action unfit for a GM, report it directly to an administrator. The admintrator guarantess the reporter’s anonymity, so they can feel at ease when reporting a GM. Do not however, start a flame war publicly ingame, iRC, Teamspeak or at the forums about the GM. This makes you look unprofessional and more of an attention-getter more than a reporter. Starting unneeded controversy will only cause the administrators to further doubt your report’s credibility.

———->GM/Administrator
A GM is a Game Moderator. They have different jobs than Administrators and are there to help players at best they can. An Administrator is a highly experienced GM with mostly behind the scenes work and will not be seen around players as often. Refrain from pestering or messaging an administrator especially if a Game Moderator is online. The only exception to this rule is the case of an administrator who also handles events and player relations. A GM/Admin will NEVER ask you for your password.

VI. GM rights and responsibilities

---

- GM helping

GM’s cannot help players physically with quests, hunting, levelling or any other activity. They can only put out minor clues about quests or advice on where to level. Therefore, please don’t ask them to come with you to level or hunt, as they are bound by their job not to do that. Repeated asking will be seen as pestering, and can result you in getting jailed.

- GM punishment
GM’s have their own sense of punishing offenses, but they all adhere to a general way of punishing when a particular rule is broken. Any suspicion on an unfair punishment on an offense must be brought directly to an adminstrator. Anonymity is respected, but players may not start publicly assaulting a GM’s credibility.

- GM bug checking
GM’s have the responsibility to check and report possible bugs on skills or quests. They can check out a quest if a player feels that it doesn’t work, but they cannot help the player finish the quest.

- GM right to remain silent
GM’s do not have to answer any question outside of his or her job. For example, a PR GM can opt not to give any input or information on an event, especially if its private information. Constantly bugging GM’s about things outside their field is not allowed.

- GM right to remain anonymous
GM’s have the right to keep their ingame, non-GM characters (commonly known as legit characters) secret. They are allowed to ignore or not answer any questions about their ingame identity.