Eternal Campaign Code of Conduct (Draft)

Etiquette – The Eternal Campaign is not played for tangible prizes or awards. It is intended to be casual and friendly play and a community environment.

• Treat everyone with respect.
• Be clear in your communication and prompt in your replies,
• Discuss rules; don't fight about them,
• Do not swear in posts or during games – logfiles are intended for public, consumption including younger kids,
• Play bona fide matches, where each player is attempting to win,
• Have the integrity to notify an opponent of a rules error even when it is not in your favor to do so.
• Do not intentionally misrepresent your creatures, items, or any game rules, and
• Help new players become familiar with both the campaign and Vassal.

Player Responsibilities – As a campaign run by a community of volunteers, it relies highly on the cooperation of the players.  The following responsibilities are detailed in order to allow the campaign to run as smoothly and fairly as possible for everyone.

1. Only Sign up as many warlords as you can play:  Although you may be eligible to play up to 4 warlords, that does not mean you have to.  Be honest with yourself how much time you can dedicate to playing and only sign up as many warlords as you will reasonably be able to schedule into your week.  Remember that the total time required to play each warlord includes:
• Corresponding with your opponent;
• Posting your agreed upon game time;
• Playing your match;
• Reporting your match or reviewing the report of your match for errors; and
• Confirming your stats have been updated correctly.
2. Sign up Clearly:  With almost 50 different warlords in some weeks, it is very easy to miss a warlord, so it is important that players are clear in their post who they are signing up.  A proper sign up post should have the warlords to be signed up in bold including both the warlord's name/player and faction. For example:

The Oozemaster (LE) and Diva (CG) are in this week.

or

galneweinhaw (LE) and galnewienhaw (CG) are in this week.

3. Read the weekly notes: In the weekly post, directly above the schedule, is a Weekly Notes section containing rules updates, procedure changes, clarifications, scheduling notes, and other information that is useful and important for players.
4. Contact your opponent promptly:  Once you have determined who your opponent is, you are expected to promptly attempt to contact them and also to promptly reply to their attempts to contact you.  If you will be out of contact for a few days you must as a courtesy inform your opponents.  The preferred means of contact is email, however due to spam filters and email problems in general, you are highly recommended to post a copy of your email including the times you are available to play, or something similar, in the weekly thread.  As a minimum you should post that you have emailed your opponent as this will alert them in case the have failed to receive your email.  Although players may rely heavily on emails for arranging their games, each player is responsible for checking both the boards and their email while attempting to make initial contact with their opponent.
5. Provide a helpful schedule:  When you contact your opponent, provide a start for negotiating a schedule. DO NOT ask only "when are you available to play?"  Although you will establish you own method, for new players the most thorough method of offering a schedule is providing the days and times you are available to play, including your preference if you have one.  You should provide times in both your and your opponent's time zones to help minimize confusion.  For example:

Zippy, me and you are battling it out this week.  I see you are GMT -6, I'm GMT -8.  Here's my availability this week, let me know if any of these times are good for you! (your time in brackets)

M: 9pm+ (11pm+)
T: 11pm+ (1am+ just in case you're a night owl =)
W: 4pm-7pm (6pm-9pm)
Th: X
F: X
Sa: All day
Su: X

Monday would be my preference, then Saturday.  Wednesday as a last resort!

6. Post your agreed upon game times: Once you and your opponent have agreed upon a time to play, you should post that time in the weekly thread, in both your and your opponent's time.  This allows other players to come watch your game if they choose, it let's your opponent confirm that the agreed upon time is correct, and in case your opponent fails to show up for your match, it provides a record that you had indeed scheduled a game and will help your case when the admin must determine how to arbitrate on unfinished games.  If you cannot agree upon a time, then you must post that you will not be able to play your game due to scheduling problems.
7. Meet your opponent at your agreed upon time!  In the rare case that you for one reason or another will not be able to meet your opponent at the agreed upon time, YOU MUST take whatever measures you can to inform your opponent.  You must accept that your opponents time is at least as valuable as your own, and they are going to have to waste at least half an hour waiting for you when you cannot show, it is only reasonable that you take whatever reasonable steps you can to prevent this from happening.  If you must spend ½ an hour finding an internet café, then at least it is you and not your opponents time you are wasting. If your computer is not working or you are held up at work, you can use your phone to email, or call a friend or family member to post or email you will not be able to make it.  Most airports now have pay internet stations, if you are stuck in an airport.  It can not be stressed enough how important it is to respect your opponents time.  Not showing up for a scheduled match will almost always include at least a one week suspension.  There are some cases where there is no reasonable effort that you could have taken to inform your opponent – the consequences in these situations will be decided on a case by case basis.
8. Enjoy your game and log it! There are a number of reasons why logging your game is important.  Most importantly, so that other may enjoy your game as well!  Logs may also be used to help you with your match report, for admin to confirm magic items rolls and also to resolve a dispute if one arises.  Log files are an essential part of your match report, and failing to provide your logfile may result in the results of your game being forfeit (see links below the schedule for logfile uploading procedure)
9. Report or confirm the report of your match, or report the failure to schedule a match: it is the victorious player's responsibility to post the match report using the template provided (see links below the schedule for the template).  It is the defeated player's responsibility to review the report and post any mistakes or clarifications.  The defeated player must also ensure that they post that the game was completed and who one, if the report has not been posted by the weekly deadline.  If your match has not been played, both players must post that the match has not been played and for what reason.
10. Ensure your stats have been updated correctly: throughout the week the stats updating team will periodically post to which point they have updated the stats.  In order to prevent confusion in future weeks, players must ensure their stats have been updated correctly, and ensure they answer any questions posted by the stats updater.

Handling Disputes – While friendly debate and discussion will resolve the vast majority of rules disagreements, sometimes the players cannot come to agreement either on a rule, on how to correct an action that is not fitting with the rules, or some other issue.  The following procedure should be used when the dispute still cannot be resolved after friendly debate and discussion:

1. Ask another Eternal Campaign player for help, if there is one online.
2. Put the game on HOLD.  If you do not feel the advice of a fellow campaign player hasn't helped resolve the dispute, tell your opponent you are putting the game on HOLD. This should be done after discussing the situation, but before fighting about it.
1. Save the logfile and email the logfile to the EC Administrator.  In your email Describe the situation clearly and completely.  The player who put the game on HOLD must do this – the other player or third parties if involved may at their discretion email comments to the EC Administrator.
2. Post in the weekly campaign thread that there was a dispute during your game and it is on HOLD pending the admin's decision. DO NOT post details of the dispute or logfile, as this tends to turn the dispute into a much bigger issue than it needs to be.  Simply post:

There was a dispute during my game vs Player X and it  has been put on hold pending the admin's decision

3. RESOLUTION: The admin will make a final ruling and notifying both players via email of the results.  If the situation is complicated, expect a few clarification questions from the admin.  The administrator will take into account the etiquette displayed by both players in the dispute when determining the resolution.

Definition of Penalties:

• Warning: The warning will be either posted or emailed and the cause of the warning will be recorded.
• Game Result: The results of the game will be arbitrated by the campaign
• Game Nullified (as if it was never scheduled for your warlord)
• Imposed Win (gain all the normal benefits of winning, may assign 1/2 Lt XP to any existing or new Lt as if that Lt was eliminated during the battle)
• Imposed Loss (gain none of the benefits of losing)
• 1 Warlord Limit: The player is limited to a single warlord in the next week, and may add new warlords at a rate of 1 per week just as a new player may.
• 0 Warlord Limit: The player will not be scheduled in the next week.  Usually this penalty will be followed by a 1 warlord limit.
• Suspension: The player will be ineligible to play in the campaign until the issue causing the suspension has been resolved to the satisfaction of the campaign administrator.  This penalty is usually followed by a 1 warlord limit.
• The Boot: For extreme situations only.

Application of Penalties: - Anytime a player fails to abide by the campaign etiquette, fails to fulfill one of their responsibilities, or fails to properly handle a dispute, a penalty may be imposed on the player according to the following guidelines.  Most penalties will be posted in the administrators weekly tie up post at the end of the week, before the next weeks schedule is posted.