General Rules

Rule of thumb

Be friendly to everyone! Isn't this what RO is about?

Loopholes

Any attempt to use loopholes to your advantage, despite the application of common sense, will be met with an application of the "Catch All" rule. Do not attempt to play games with us. If you are unsure if something is illegal or not, ASK before doing so.

Names

All names, whether they belong to guilds, characters, or pets, need to be appropriate for the game. At most, they should be suitable for a pg-13 rating. If you are unsure whether or not your name is okay, then it is best not to use it.
First offense for character name - Permanent jail until either the character name is changed, or the character is deleted.
First offense for guild name - Permanent jail of Guild Leader until guild is disbanded.
Second offense for guild name - Temporary ban (up to 3 days)
Third offense for guild name - Temporary ban (up to 14 days)
First offense for pet name - Permanent jail until pet name is changed.

Account Sharing

Although not technically illegal, account sharing is heavily frowned upon. Not only does it put your account at risk, but it also puts you in danger of not getting helped. If there is any evidence of sharing, actual or circumstantial, the GM Team reserves the right to refuse to help you in various situations. The account holder is responsible for any and all things that take place when logged in, so "my brother uses my account" will not be a sufficient defense. The entire account will suffer any and all consequences, regardless of how many people use it.

Spamming

Excessive talking in chat and/or repeating lines consecutively is punishable. People can read what you say, so there's no need to repeat it over nine thousand times. This includes but is not limited to using over 3 lines of chat at a time, or repeating your chat more often than 30 seconds AFTER it's left your screen.
Do not spam skills or spells (heals and buffs aside) in town - it may cause lag to other players. This includes and is not limited to dueling in the middle of town.
Refining is OK if you're only going to do it 2 or 3 times, but if you're going to do more than that, please step away from the crowd where people cant see you refining.
Buffing is OK if you're actually buffing before going to battle or something. Don't just randomly and rapidly cast Bless, Increase Agi, Soul Links or any other type of buff every 30 seconds.

Botting / Macros / Scripts

Do not use ANY bot and/or third party program* under ANY circumstance.
This Includes, but is not limited to, using scripts that can operate for an extended amount of time without any additional input. If one button makes you skip steps on clicking, then you shouldn't do it.
Even if it is not in your computer or attached to your computer, using a ducking-bird to hit a key will enduce the same effect as any bot or script so don't complain when you get banned. GMs can't remote-access your webcam, so to us you are just like the rest of them.

First offense - Permanent Ban

Spawning Monsters In Towns

Spawning in towns is fine as long as it doesn't bug anyone. It would be preferred if you'd spawn somewhere that isn't the center of population in town. If someone complains, kindly move away from the crowd.
In addition to the above rule, using any items to turn a regular monster into an aggressive monster used to kill other players (or grief in any way, shape, or form) is not tolerated. This specific rule about griefing is not limited to strictly town.

AFK Farming / Leveling / etc

Do not train yourself while away from your computer. In the event you are max level, this extends to farming items while away from your computer. In the event you are max level or the Anti-AFK measure kicks in to prevent you from earning levels or loots, this extends to a general rule in which you should NOT be killing monsters while afk. By killing monsters while away from the computer, you are causing issues to other players who wish to kill those same monsters. This includes by homunculus, reflect, autocasting, or any combination of the three. Doing so under this method will earn you either jail time, item removal, base level removal, or a combination of the 3. If requested to respond you are expected to do so, either by GM or otherwise. Punishment can extend to a temp ban or a permanent ban based on previous infractions.

1st offense - Strip and force disconnect from server by GM
2nd offense - 4 hour jail time
3rd offense - 8 hour jail time
4th offense - temporary ban (up to 5 days)

Bug Abuse

Exploiting and doing other things deemed against the rules by a GM will result in an insta-ban. Report all bugs/exploits to the GM team via PM Immediately. (Exploiting: Abusing a bug in the game for self gain.)
Examples are but not limited to: Using a Ninja character to Shadow Jump to a place that is normally not accessible, making you harder (if not impossible) to attack.
Bug exploit not involving economy change or self gain - Temporary ban (up to 7 days.)
Bug exploit involving changes to the economy or for self gain - Temporary ban (minimum 2 weeks, maximum up to permanent ban, done by a case by case basis.)

General Abuse

Exploiting anything that requires multiple accounts in order to gain things that are put in place by the GM team in order to help players. This includes, but is not limited to creating multiple accounts to farm the 1st class job quests.
There is a maximum amount of 5 alts that may be used by a single person/source at any given moment. This includes, but is not limited to, owning 10 accounts and having a friend/family member/pet use 5 of those accounts while you use the other 5. In that scenario, the 10 accounts all belong to you and having more than 5 of them open at any time would be against the rules regardless of who is using them.
You are allowed to use more alt clients to support you if you need them for creating potions, bombs, etc. on your creator.
Vending is limited to 5 alts. However, we the staff will always mail and kick your characters if it is in violation of this rule. If you do it a second time, however, a heavy punishment will be administered.
You also cannot use any number of alts if it would provide you a 100% chance of victory, such as with the Hugel Minigames.
Any rules related to alt abuse in regards to events, contests, etc whether clearly posted or not still apply. Event rules change over time, so what may be acceptable at one time, may not be another. Check with any event topic/page for a list of rules. If you are unsure about what is acceptable, ASK before assuming you can do it.

Hacking

Hacking via a brute force method, is illegal. If you were dumb enough to share your information or trust someone's program that gives you unlimited items/credits, that’s your own fault.

Account Lockdown

If for any reason you feel your account is threatened or you need something investigated on your account you can ask for an official account lockdown. In order to do that you'll need to come to helpdesk and request a lockdown, a GM will then email you, and you will be required to respond to the email, so as such lockdowns are only granted to those that own the email associated to the account.

Email Ownership

Whatever you do, do not give up the email attached to your account, it is your account LIFELINE. We will offer email changes if you are the sole person logging into the account going back for some time, that judgement will be made by the person handling the email change. All email changes MUST go through Support, please keep in mind these are handled manually and you must be patient.

Client Editing

All client editing/hex editing/grf editing/etc. etc. is not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to, changing sprites, modding your act files or changing the camera's view.
First offense - Permanent Ban

Battlegrounds

The use of alts in battlegrounds is strictly prohibited. No matter how good you think you are, or how many arms you can not physically play multiple clients, with your full attention, at the same time.
Badge farming, via the above method, or by being AFK the whole round is not allowed. This also includes purposely sitting in a corner and providing no support for your team. Being caught will issue you jail time, badge removal, or possibly a temporary ban.
Your ultimate goal should be to win. Do not stall rounds to draw out battlegrounds by forgoing the objectives in order to spawn camp the other team and harass them. As a general rule of thumb, don't be an asshole and try to grief other players. If you or someone on your team is not fulfilling the primary objective of destroying the enemy crystal, you will be punished.
Do not interrupt an existing party - BG is a team event, as such, people will band together to join BG as a team. Don't try and break up a team just because you want to, or don't like them, or think it's unfair that they're teaming together. You are more than welcome to ask to join, but if that group has enough people for a side and asks you to leave, be respectful and bow out.
Be respectful of all players, and don't antagonize one another. Friendly competition is okay, but let's all avoid being assholes.

Guild Emblems

Copying another guild’s emblem without permission is not allowed.
In relation to WoE, as stated below, the use of no emblem, or a transparent emblem is not allowed. A highly transparent emblem, even if it not completely invisible, can still be grounds for punishment under this rule.
As well, the emblem must be discernible as an emblem. If your name was "Player" and your emblem was using the ingame font to spell out the word "I am" so that when people see your character it would look like your name was "I am Player", that is not discernible as an emblem. Your emblem must be clearly represented as it should be.

Punishment Evasion

Punishment evasion is when you evade a punishment to either continue what you did originally to get punished for, or to do something else against the rules while you still should be subjected to the original punishment.

Mutes

First evasion is generally an increase in time. Second evasion is a mute of every character on the account. Third evasion is a ban. Any additional evasions fall under ban evasion.

Bans

First evasion is a permaban of all accounts Second evasion is a permaban of the IP address.

Interaction with Others

Monster Disguises

Being disguised while in a Player vs Player area gives you an unfair advantage when it comes to killing and being killed. Thus, we have the following rule:
- If you are disguised as a Monster, NPC, or any other unnatural being, aside from a 3rd job sprite or baby sprite, it is against the rules for you to enter a Player killing area which includes, but is not limited to, PvP, Woe, Battlegrounds. If you are found entering these areas, your punishment can include the disguise being removed, you being strictly warned, possible jail time, or even escalate to a temp ban.

Events

No buying/selling/trading during events.
No selling items from holiday events that are given out as a gift to others via an NPC.
Any prize that is not claimed one month after the winners are announced are considered null and void.

MvP Room

While most rooms offer enough space to fit multiple players, do not use a multitude of alts or friends to fill the room with non-playing characters. Controlling the room in this way makes it unfair for other people who want an equal chance at killing the MvPs and can get you punished.

Kill Stealing

If someone steals your kill, use the @noks feature instead of reporting to a GM.
If he/she keeps following wherever you go and attempting to steal your kills, PM NPC:Report.
MVP's on the MVP rooms are considered Free for All. There is no kill stealing in these areas, unless another player is purposely following another player, then this falls under harassment.

Interaction with the Staff

Kindly respect and be courteous to the GMs/ Staff members and listen to them.
Do not ask to be a GM/Staff member.
Try not to bother the GMs unless you are absolutely sure you cannot solve your problem on your own.
Do not beg for any items, zeny, events, or to have commands used on you.
If you're planning on accusing a current GM of being corrupt, SHOW HIGHER UPS PROOF. If you just call on any specific Staff member corrupt without any solid proof, you WILL BE PUNISHED. Even if you claim you have proof, you must contact a higher up. Making public spectacles of your claims, regardless of if it is the forums or ingame, will be grounds for punishment of both.
Server sensitive information is not public information. If you make claims a staff member is breaking the rules, a higher up with access will check. Any evidence found for / against your claims will not be given to you. If, in some way, you do get access to these records, you are not allowed to publicize them as per the above rule.

Offensive Language / Excessive Swearing

Constant and or repetitive swearing is illegal. There are children who play.
The use of racial slurs will not be tolerated. No matter what ethnicity you may be, or how the person you are talking to doesn't mind it, some people can and most likely will be offended in some way. If you want to talk to your friend using that sort of language, take it off of RRO, or use PM's.

Harassment

Insulting via public chat, or private messages is not allowed. Depending on the severity, punishment can be given without a warning.
Publicly defaming someone's name by saying "Beware of ____, they are a scammer!" or anything similar to it will result in you getting muted. If you have conclusive evidence, make a report about the person through the appropriate channels. This is considered harassment and will not be tolerated.
Unless it is severe harassment, use /ex or right click the player and hit "Reject Whispering" to block them first. If you block a person, and that person (or associate) continue to harass you through @mail, main, or on a new character, that will not be tolerated.
MVP harassment, (before anyone complains), MVPs are FREE FOR ALL (Except for those summoned by a quest which belongs to the summoning player/party), however, if you try to obstruct someone else from obtaining the MVP aside from damaging the MVP yourself. (such as buffing the MVP, debuffing other players (Removing Assumpio with KE for example), or dragging/summoning monsters on top of the party) then it's considered harassment.
All general rules must be followed in terms of general interactions.
Begging for items/zeny/levels/etc, any form of begging is considered harassment and is not allowed.
Ultimately it's up to the GM to decide what is/isn't harassment.
Any action specifically done to maliciously impede a player from fighting a monster, outside of standard competition, is illegal. This is any monster, not just MVPs, and we'll be considering it a subset of harassment, so make sure to get screenshots.
Revealing real life information without permission is considered a form of harassment. If accompanied by encouragement to call/contact the person it is an immediate permaban. Real life information includes but is not limited to: first/last name, address, and telephone number.

GM Impersonation

Do NOT for any reason claim to be a GM. Unless they can prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt, don't believe anyone who claims to be a GM. Regardless of whether or not they are giving out free items or anything of the sort.
Do not use of a name similar to an existing GM's name. The use of a name deemed too similar allows the staff to force you to change it, at your expense, or delete the character entirely.
Even if a name was used by a GM at one point, but that person is no longer a GM, the name may be reserved and similar names are not allowed.
If the name you have is similar to a GM's name, but your name was chosen PRIOR to the GM's existence, you may be allowed to keep it. Similar names created AFTER the GM's existence are strictly prohibited.

Scamming

Twisting the truth or otherwise deceiving or misrepresenting something in order to get money, items, or accounts. (not holding up your end of the bargain)
Disclaimer: buying something at a high price and discovering some one else was selling it much lower is not scamming. You are responsible for knowing a current item's worth prior to buying/selling it.
Accidentally vending for too low is not scamming.
By dropping an item on the ground (whether purposely or accidentally), failure to use @autoloot, having a full inventory or overweight capacity, you relinquish possession of said item(s). If someone comes by and picks it up, they have the right to keep it.
Addendum: In cases of account sharing, the GM team takes no responsibility for items lost or not returned. Account sharing is heavily discouraged, and we warn you to be extremely cautious with lending. As a rule of thumb, lend out only what you would not mind losing, and lend only to people you trust.
Selling or Buying anything that is based off of trust (Leech, Cedi Loots or similar where the chest lot system is used, etc) is the player's risk. Depending on what sort of evidence you have to support your claim, the GM's reserve the right to deny helping in this sort of report.

Lending

In cases of lending, where the person you lent to does not return your items, specific evidence is very important and required for assistance.
- 1 screenshot, including "I am lending you ____ , ____ and ____. I want it back by ___ day." In the same screenshot "I agree to borrow your stuff and have it back by ___ day" all in the background of the trade showing that stuff being lent. It's highly recommended that both parties take this screenshot, as it will back both sides up when it comes to the actual deal and prevents one person from trying to screw over the other.
- It is also HIGHLY recommended that the borrower take a screenshot of returning the items and stating "I am returning you ____ , ____ and ____." and keeping both the original borrowing screenshot, and the returning screenshot somewhere, even if it just sits in your screenshot folder.
- Lending cases will NOT be handled without this evidence. It is recommended that you take the few extra seconds of effort to protect your items.
The act of lending an account to someone, whether due to your leaving the game or friendship is highly discouraged and the GMs reserve the right to not offer assistance if the lender decides to take their account back.

Revealing GM Legit Characters

If you find out the name of a GMs Legitimate character and reveal it, this is punishable.
The act of trying to reveal a GMs legitimate character is not allowed. This can be caused by asking the GM personal questions or other sensitive information that might reveal them.
If it's a character that's already out in the open then there is no issue addressing that character as their GM name if that's how you usually call someone. But unless you are specifically TOLD by that character, or they are speaking about it in the open, do NOT reveal who they are. Allow GMs some form of privacy and fun in playing the game, or we get over worked and grumpy.
Revealing a GM's legit character is punished by a PERMANENT BAN. No exceptions to this rule.

Intentional Erroring of Other Players

Any means by which a player intentionally causes other players to error is against the rules.

Main Chat Rules

English only! We do this so it can be moderated properly as all the staff can moderate English.
No suggestions directed at the GMs.
No begging for events.
No spamming (we don't want to have to put a chat delay on main).
Take note to keep adult themed conversations off of main chat. Please remain mindful of younger players.
No Buying/Selling/Trading/Asking for or if anyone has items, or price checking.
No using Main to get leeched, buy leeches, or sell leeches.
No using Main for guild recruiting.
No asking for floating rates.
Mentioning that you are trying to start a round of BG is okay, multiple mentions are not. The same applies to Cedi, RDC or any type of party recruiting.
Try to keep the topics clean, and be respectful, harassment won't be tolerated on main just like anywhere else.
Addendum: If you are trying to contact someone, like so many people do, and use a phrase similar to "<player name> pm me please!", make sure the person's name doesn't break the English on main chat rule or buying/selling in main chat rule. For example: Saying "selling poring card pm me" will get you muted, even if you are trying to contact the player named "selling poring card". In that situation, you need to use a non-confusing structure such as "Would the player with the name 'selling poring card' please PM me?". Even if you use that structure, we will check to see if the player exists. If no such player exists, we reserve the right to mute you, or give a harsher punishment if you are abusing that structure as an attempt to hide yourself from breaking a different rule. The safest option would be to simply NOT SAY ANYTHING on main chat if it would break those two rules (English / Buying&Selling on main chat).

Selling

Real Money Trading

Do not sell any in game item for real money, ATTEMPT to do so will result in the seller being banned, and possibly the buyer as well.
This includes buying or selling credits to or from other players for real money or anything that involves real money and other players, for that matter.
While the name suggests money, it is not limited to currency. Buying, selling, or trading any RRO item for something outside of RRO (Another game item, a physical object in the real world, etc) is not allowed except for with Credits. Trading Zeny or items would be against the rules, but trading credits is legal as long as it is not for money or gift cards.
Selling of real life goods/services (including items in other games, but NOT other RO servers) is allowed in a special section of the forum.
Selling characters is allowed, through Account Services, however characters may only be sold for ingame objects (Zeny, Credits, Items, other characters, etc). Do NOT sell anything for real life objects or currency. Suspicion / Evidence of this will warrant punishment on both ends.

Account Selling

Do not sell your accounts for anything, it's against the rules and both Seller and in most cases Buyer will be punished.
This server isn’t also the place to sell other accounts from other MMO’s, so don’t sell any other account as well.

Selling Illegal Items

There are certain items that have absolutely no use, and are worth nothing. Don't sell them.
This includes items that players aren't supposed to have, such as items that are not officially released yet. If you find any mysterious item, report to a GM via NPC:Report immediately. This includes, but is not limited to, selling "Unknown Items".
As well, various quest items that can be easily purchased at the npc should not be vended for more than the NPC sells them. This includes items like Silk Ribbon, being purchased for 20z, and Animal Skin purchased for 27z. It is ultimately up to the GM whether something is acceptable or not.
The sale or purchase of Guaranteed Refine Tickets (As in services to refine someone else's item with the ticket, or prearrangement to get the Ticket for a cost via Cedi Loot) is prohibited. (Note: Guaranteed Refine Ticket has been removed from Cedi Tier A and castle treasure chests.)
Selling items sold by NPCs for more than the NPC sells it for is against the rules, unless the NPC is behind a quest wall.

Catch All

The GM Team reserves the right to administer any form of punishment with just cause. This is generally done through a majority consensus on the GM team, so just obey the rule of thumb and you'll be fine.

Server Rules