So the Guidebook finally got approval from Dave. The public section has already been posted in the Mutant forum section, as instructed. Here is the private section: everything you need to know to behave properly, OOCly.
To avoid exploitation, this should remain private. If anybody has a Baldry but did not receive this PM, refer them to me directly. Do your part and ask your Baldry comrades when you see them! "Hey, did you get Wilson's PM about the OFFICIAL BALDRY GUIDEBOOK, PRIVATE SECTION? No? PM him!" Or if you're feeling extra proactive, PM me their Baldry character name and OOC name and forum name.
This message shall be sent to all players with newly-acquired Baldry characters by myself at my earliest convenience.
PM me back with any questions. If I don't have an answer, I'll twist Dave's titties until he gives me one.
How are Baldries expected to act, IC and OOC?
People with Baldry characters should remember at all times that their characters are meant to be primitive. When communicating amongst eachother, one should have their character speak with a language similar to the Orcs of Warhammer 40K/Fantasy;
IE: "Me go shoot stoopid oomans, they invade lands. Grruargh!"
But please note, Baldries do NOT speak nor understand any civilized language. Communication with and understanding Stalkers is impossible.
When Baldries engage S2K, they are expected to politely S2M until the defending party is aware they are being shot at and can retaliate. In heated firefights, Baldries should focus on targets who are carelessly out in the open, and seek to suppress those in cover. The object is not to kill everyone and come out on top--remember, they're living corpses. Recoil and aim, as well as sight, is all an issue for them. A Baldry should never engage in a S2K fight when the odds are against him, and should flee if engaged in such a case, unless (s)he is defending a spot of some sort of religious or territorial importance. The complexity of combat maneuvers, such as flanking, baiting, etc. is left to the personal discretion of the player behind the Baldry. If you have to think for more than a moment to come up with a plan, you probably should not enact it IC.
Baldries are never to be play-to-win (unless specified by the parameters of an event), but they should not go easy on people who play stupid. Rookies are the exception to this rule, as they may not yet be accustomed to proper S2K etiquette and the fundamentals of self-preservation in a virtual Role-Play environment. How hard you fight should be proportional to the organization and equipment tier of the attackers/defenders, for the sake of ensuring the conflict is a challenge, but not impossibly overwhelming for either side.
Under no circumstances is an engaged Baldry to holster an equipped weapon. This is also illegal for normal characters, and the punishment will be equally severe.
I've died, can I return to the fight?
Once killed, it is assumed that a Baldry is under the constraints of the New Life Rule (NLR). In some events, NLR will not apply. In these cases, the Baldry, upon respawning, will be taking the place of an IC character. Most events of this nature impose a life limit upon the Baldries involved. Under no circumstances is a Baldry to ignore the demands of NLR when outside of an event setting, and IC character replacement should strictly follow the parameters set by the overseeing administrator.
Okay, what about items, specifically looting/being looted, or gifting?
Under no circumstances is a Baldry character to provide a Stalker with any items or artifacts, the only exceptions being the above-mentioned case of a robbery or some other quality Role-Play.
IE: If a Baldry has just picked up an object, or has found something of interest and is holding it in hand when suddenly confronted by an armed Stalker, the first reaction would likely be to throw it at their opponent's head and bolt.
(Provided the language barrier, though, any attempted robberies of Baldries will likely result in death, and though server rules prohibit the looting of an NLR-bound character, the rule was enacted to prevent characters from shooting people instantly and looting the corpse to feed their sick script-playish banditry. The surrendering of weapons should be decided before the NLR takes effect to prevent conflicts. Weapons dropped during a melee fight or chase are also fair-game for looting.)
Baldries who loot weaponry from corpses should wait until the fight is completely over before taking the items, or in a desperate situation, until there is a safe pause. In the case of a pause, the item in question should be picked up with an RP line of adequate length. (/me picks up the ____. is not acceptable. Instead, aim for /me places a hand around the dropped rifle, prying it from the cold, dead grasp of the downed Stalker and slipping the sling over his/her neck before returning to the fight). Never should a Baldry physgun or gravgun a weapon or other item and run away mid-fight to pick it up later.
