Mission Statement
Mortal Voyage was founded on August 8th, 2007 with the following mission:
Maintain a large and active permadeath guild with rules inspired by classic paper and pencil campaigns. Create a challenging environment where character advancement is an accomplishment. Encourage strategy, tactics and teamwork. Ensure characters gain gear independently, so there are no large capability gaps between characters of similar level. Keep the rules simple.

Rules
Members agree to play by the letter and spirit of the following rule set. The rules are intended to support the mission of the guild. Officers are expected to understand and enforce the rules. If game mechanics or common strategy change we will consider changes to the rules. The spirit of the rules are more important than the rules themselves.  Players are encouraged to understand that spirit.  Players who understand the spirit of the rules need little guidance when that "what if" question arises.  They find their characters well accepted in Mortal Voyage groups, and understand why rules will change as the game does.

Entering the Guild
Your character must be level one to join the guild.
Pretty obvious here, but the idea is to grow your character within the guild from its start.

If you are new to the guild, register on our forums and send a private message to parvo.
The MV forums are where most of our communication happens. Manual addition of members is the only way to keep out spam. After you are added, you will have viewing and posting privileges to introduce yourself.

Character Death and Raises
If your character dies, delete it or leave the guild. Lag deaths count. City deaths count. We do not use raise shrines. Nor do we recall/raise out to taverns. You can only be raised if one of your living group-mates has the ability. You cannot invite others into the group to assist with raises. Nor can you invite others into your group to assist incapacitated characters.
Exception; PvP deaths do not count.
This rule is the foundation of the permadeath play style.  It creates an atmosphere distinguished from “normal” play by its strategy, tactics and teamwork.

If your character dies and surviving group members recover your soul gem group-mates may loot one item from your corpse.
Exception; you may designate one item as an heirloom. The one heirloom item can be passed to a new, level one character.
Similar to paper and pencil play, if you're dead, you don't have much say. Allowing the survivors to loot an item is an honorable way to show other players you care about their survival. To keep equipment at moderate levels, we limit corpse looting to one item.  The heirloom item is a popular permadeath and PnP rule.

If your character dies, any equipment not looted by survivors (and the one heirloom item) is either deleted, sold for guild funds or transferred out of the guild. Bank items and money included.
Exception; upon reaching level six, characters receive a free Medium Collectible Bag, (and later at level ten a Medium Gem Bag). Sometimes referred to as "Blood Bags" these bags are paid for out of the guild fund. Blood Bags have additional heirloom status. After emptying the bag of items, it too can be sent to a new character.
This helps keep gear at a moderate level and ensures players don't "gear up" their own alternate characters after a death. This rule helps maintain character parity and encourages economic strategy on an individual character level.

Do not use repeatable innate raise abilities below level nine. Consumable raise abilities are acceptable at any level.
We allow consumable raises due to the rarity of obtaining such items.  We do not allow raise via the clerical enhancement below level nine. This helps keep raises as rare events, as they should be in permadeath play.

In order to cast a Raise Dead spell the caster must be in possession of the dead character's Soul Stone. Resurrection does not have this requirement.
Possession of the Soul Stone, prior to Raise Dead, is a simple way of simulating requirement that the corpse be available and provides heroic opportunity. It also provides a PnP style distinction between Raise Dead and Resurrection.

If your character receives a legal Raise Dead, you must leave the instance immediately. You can not re-enter until the instance is reset. Resurrection requires the caster to leave the instance. No character can be brought back from death more times than 1/2 base constitution, rounded up. Base constitution includes initial + level increases + inherent bonuses (from permanent magic like Tomes). If your character is brought back from death, make a note on their in-game biography page.
In most classic campaigns, character death came with a heavy price.  Even if the character was raised, there could be significant cost, attributes permanently lost and a long rest period.  This rule provides a reasonable penalty for characters that are raised.  Caster rest after Resurrection provides a distinction between the abilities and is similar to classic paper and pencil requirements. The Raise limit legitimizes PnP style PD play in a game where raise-like abilities are common.

Items and Equipment
Do not accept gifts of any sort from characters outside the guild.
No twinking. Do not pass any item, gear or money to any other character. This includes your own characters within the guild.
Exception; you can trade collectibles and consumable items like potions, wands, scrolls and ammo within the guild including your own characters.
Exception; Group-mates can share items that are found in chests within an adventure. End rewards cannot be traded.
This rule helps maintain character and game balance. It also encourages members to value what their character gains. The first exception is designed to give us some leeway with consumables which will be in limited supply. It also allows us to assist more casual guildies. The second exception is a PnP throwback.

Do not purchase commodity magic items from vendors. Do not buy or sell items at brokers. Commodity magic is magic that is always available (wands, potions, scrolls, etc). Non-magic purchase is OK (including spell components, inscription materials, quivers and bags. Favor-related vendors are OK. You can sell items at taverns or normal vendors.
This rule is intended to balance play in the DDO world where magic is cheap, plentiful and unbalancing.  It particularly balances a game where melee characters are extremely powerful. It tends to slow play as players understand they have limited resources.  It also limits scrolls via UMD such as Raise Dead.

Do not use the auction house or brokers to buy or sell. Do not monitor auctions or brokers for non MV alternate characters.
This helps ensure equipment stays at a moderate level and increases the excitement of earning good loot.

Do not purchase hireling contracts or use hirelings.
Hirelings are exploitable in lots of ways.  Rather than create complicated rule on how not to use them, we simply don't.

Quest Selection and Grouping
No Pick Up Groups (PUGing). Do not group with others outside the guild.
We earn our own keep within the rule set.

No “tag-alongs”. If you’re getting an experience point penalty from power leveling, you are tagging along. Groupmates must be within three levels of one another. ie. a level 3 can group with a level 6 but not 7.
Tagging along is just another means of twinking.

Never quest below highest character level in the group. Series quest level is equal to finale. Explorer areas equal to maximum level.
Exception: You are allowed to clean up favor if your character is sufficient level to earn no XP from the quest.
Exception; A level one character can run the level one starter quests on normal, one time.
In Mortal Voyage, quest selection is not a matter of just choosing what is easiest XP or has the best loot. A lot of Mortal Voyage adventures will make you uncomfortable. There will be danger of character loss. You will have to play well to survive. We don't rack up easy slayer XP. We treat explorer zones like most quests. Find the explorer points and move on. Get whatever rare encounters appear along the way but don't keep zoning in to get them all or farm collectibles. We like XP and loot as much as anyone else, but those things are a measure of accomplishment. Our consistent choice of challenging quests sets Mortal Voyage apart.

Run quests at the highest level of difficulty available to the group. Always skip normal. Only repeat elite if a group member needs help with it. You are not required to reset quest chains if you fail and start over with members who have not started.
This helps keep play at a challenging level.  It is also intended as a deterrent to "loot runs" and encourages characters to progress at reasonable pace.

Adventuring
Use respectful language in guild and party chat.
We have players of diverse ages, backgrounds and cultures. Because some don't use headphones, their families may hear us.

No spoilers. Don’t talk about what is coming up in a quest.
This is the most misunderstood and broken rule in permadeath play.  But when it’s played correctly, it creates the most exciting environment.  The MV interpretation means don’t give away secrets (things your character would not know) of a quest in advance.  You don't have to pretend you've never done a quest, but respect that others may not have or may have forgotten details.  Don’t call traps if your character can’t spot them.  Don’t ask someone what is behind the next door.  Don’t ask what resists you need if you don’t know.  You can (and should) warn others if your character spots the trap.  You can scout ahead and report to others what lies ahead.  You can cast a resist spell on a group-mate prior to an encounter or watch what resists they used.  It’s acceptable to ask the caster to put a resist on you when you know what’s coming.  Just don’t spoil surprises for others.  If they’ve forgotten what elite Kobold Shamans throw, they’ll be reminded soon enough.  If you see a group-mate running into certain death, ask them to stop a moment, slow down or let a scout go first.  Feel free to discuss details after an encounter as that's how we learn.

Do not exit and re-enter a quest. You may not re-enter to complete objectives or loot until the instance re-sets.
Exception; you may re-enter a quest to save a fellow group-mate who needs help but only if you were part of the quest group.
It makes sense that if you can exit the Kobold lair and recoup, so can the Kobolds. If you have to recall from a quest before completion, let the instance reset.

Do not re-use rest shrines. Each rest shrine can only be used once per character per instance.
Multiple shrine allows players to easily quest higher than their level.  One use per shrine is balanced and challenging.

Guidelines for Good Permadeath Group Play
Don't run ahead of the main group. Generally, permadeath players are a patient lot. Zerging ahead of the group doesn't typically win their adoration. What you may feel is efficient play, others may see as boring or hoggish.

Wait for everyone currently in the group before entering a quest. Besides being courteous and allowing everyone to experience the dungeon, it serves other purposes. It allows everyone to pick up the quest, and thus open on highest difficulty available. It is safer for some quests that have a fight right at the entrance. It prevents XP penalty for late entry. And, it allows everyone to benefit from group buffs.

Group with new members and encourage them to lead and explore. An old permadeath saying goes "friends don't let friends solo".

Assist casual players or those with only one character. We allow sharing of consumables between your own characters, but don't forget other people. If you are well off and know someone needs consumables, help them out.

Consider a naming convention for alternate characters within the guild. The better others get to know you as a player, the more effective your groups will be. Naming conventions help us get to know each others strengths.

To join the Mortal Voyage, log on to the Argonnessen server. Go to the social tab and sort players by guild. Look for Mortal Voyage Permadeath Guild. Send a tell to any member. If you have questions, you can visit the forum page or ask one of our officers.