GoT Minecraft Server Terms of Service

Welcome to the Game of Tomes Minecraft server! Here's a few things you'll need to know to play.  

Purpose

There are three main purposes to the Minecraft server. It is:

A place for GoT players and fans to interact with each other in a mutually-enjoyed social activity

A place for GoT players to flesh out their ideas about settings and structures in Universe of the Game of Tomes "The GoTverse"

A place to roleplay within the GoTverse

All rules are intended to facilitate these three goals.  

Defaults

We are using Minecraft version 1.21.1 on NeoForge. Yes, this is an older version of the game. The reason we're using this version is that we have some pretty funky mods that are not compatible with the new version.   This server is heavily modded. We'll do our best to help, but we can't guarantee it's going to work on your system. We have no control over that. There isn't a perk to replace it with yet, either, if it doesn't work or if you don't play Minecraft. Sorry!   There is a standard mod pack that you will need to download. See the table in the Sidebar for a list of what's in it:   We can either send you the mod pack, with instructions on how to install it, or you can download the mods yourself with NeoForge/CurseForge. If you do not have the correct modpack, you will not be able to connect with the server, or you may have functionality issues.   Mods are subject to changes and updates, which may or may not be within our control. If it is something we can control, and we got rid of a mod you really liked, message us and we'll see what we can do — but we can't make any guarantees.   The server defaults to Survival mode, but you can request Creative mode from the Ops for big projects (or just if you're afraid of the mobs and we're not doing a server-wide RP of a November war, we don't mind. Everyone should play the game they want to play!)   Unless you tell us otherwise, we assume that everything you are building is intended as part of the GoTverse, which is a co-created shared universe. That means that your work might appear in official GoT Lore, such as in a video or on the website. Using the server means you give us permission to do that.   However, you CAN work on projects that are not intended for the GoTverse, and we will see that those do not make it into Lore! See Building Rules to find out how.  

Conduct Rules

NO GRIEFING. We are not kidding. Do not set out to make life difficult for other players. Leave their building projects alone. Don't steal things out of their chests and desks. Don't blow up their bases. Basically, don't be an a$$hole.

NO HARASSMENT OR BULLYING. Of any kind. Period.

DO NOT FILK WITH THE SERVER. No viruses, no hacking, no DDOS attacks, nothing that might potentially mess with the server and spoil anyone's gameplay.

DO NOT DO ANYTHING ILLEGAL ON THE SERVER. Do I have to actually say that? Please, just don't.

DO NOT GIVE OUT THE IP OF THE SERVER TO ANYONE ELSE. Not even your partner or best friend, please.

Mature content roleplay is allowed, but make sure that everyone involved has given consent. Keep that content out of server chat — do it in a Discord VC or something. Use SecurityCraft Exclusion Modules, or SecurityCraft Allow Modules, to keep players who are minors out of areas devoted to this content (ie. Maybe you're building sexy statues or something — don't do it outside, and lock the door)

Building Rules

How to Not Crash the Server

Mods can be buggy, and can be really hard on the server. Some of them don't play well together. If you find a problem, please report it to an Op immediately.   Here are some known issues and bugs:

DO NOT USE THE DIMMABLE ROSE QUARTS LIGHTS from Create More Features! They are unstable and the server WILL crash. Fixing it is a pain. Please just don't. The regular Rose Quartz Lights from Create (not Create More Features!) appear to work fine.

DO NOT USE THE "ANOMALY" BLOCK from Biomes O Plenty (it looks like static in your Inventory) - according to fans, it causes major server lag

As I talk about below, don't use too many SecurityCraft or Create mods in one location. I once crashed the server by having too many Security Cameras and Sentinels at the Warren :D And a morgue with 100 working drawers.

Heraldry

In the GoTverse, certain colours and symbols are associated with specific Great Houses and groups. We assume you're going to want to make your building projects look like they belong to your House, and there's so many fun mods to play with that you have plenty of options! You may have noticed a lot of pink and white in the construction of The Warren. Yes, that's intentional.   We're not saying you can't use other colours in your building projects. That would be limiting your creativity, not to mention impractical if you're playing in Survival.   However, colours are limited in Minecraft, so we're going to ask you to avoid using particular colours and woods in your official banners and signs. We want to be able to recognize official House buildings, security, etc. at a glance.   These banner designs are protected for use by particular Great Houses in the Game of Tomes server. Only members of that particular House or Organization may use that particular banner without the permission of the appropriate House Leader.   The following combinations of banner colours, and woods for use in signs and other "official House projects" are protected, and may only be used for identification purposes and official notices by the following groups. "Other" means they tend to work well in combination with official "protected" woods and colours to reflect GoTverse House Banners (they have a colour and appearance that might work well in your decorating scheme, in other words.).   There is a chest in front of the Warren with a number of banners that are available for player use. They have been named with Name Tags to reflect the appropriate House or Organization. If you clone these banners with a Crafting Table, they will still carry the appropriate name. If you decide to make the banners yourself, please name them with a Name Tag on an Anvil so that people know what they represent. This way, a player may hover their cursor over any banner you set, and know immediately which group is claiming the area or structure where it appears.  

Friendly Building Practices

There are likely to be a lot of big projects that may involve cooperative building. For instance, Sable is building The Warren, while other players have expressed interest in building The Swamp and Mesa Mitchell. If the build in question relates to a specific House, and the House Leader is playing on the server, please clear any additions or modifications with them first! Otherwise, the player who started it is assumed to be the Project Head - clear your ideas with them instead.   Don't build too close to other players. The world is huge and we have the Waystones mod, which allows us to make teleporters. There's no need for things to be too close to each other. The space that people will need is likely to vary with the project, so please ask! (ie. The Warren is surrounded by a City, so if you're in eyesight of the Warren, you're probably building too close. On the other hand, if you both want to individually build your homes in Penwall, just make sure your walls aren't going to overlap.)   Sable and Erin (primary Server Ops) reserve the right to disallow any project if they feel it's necessary. This might be for a variety of reasons, but it's most likely to be because it's causing too much strain on the server to load it (pro tip - don't add too many SecurityCraft or Create features in one place! Guess who found that out the hard way?)   Put a sign on your in-universe structures somewhere logical, so they can be found, that indicates who the project head is for your build (player name, so you're easily found) and, if possible, a brief description of what is entailed in the build. Again, front entrances tend to work. There's an option for a Clipboard in Create that should work well for this, and you can put those on walls for others to read. That way, others know who to talk to if they want to help!     As a personal request, if you are building a "canon location" in the GoTverse that has appeared in videos, please try to make it make sense in the context of the videos, and please try to make the location at least sort of look like the way it, or part of it, appeared in the video. (ie. There are four main backdrops that were used to represent different parts of the Great Library. I am building all four within its structure with the intent to make those sections look like those backdrops, within reason. The same has been done at the Warren. A spot has also been picked out near Zafforza City for the Generator Warehouse from Fall of Mollusca 2023, in such a way that the tunnels that exit it actually do go to the locations and directions described.)  

Beacons

Fully constructed beacons are a really useful tool in a world this size! That said, we don't want the whole landscape to be a forest of glowing lasers into the sky. Here are some general guidelines (not rules, because there's some wiggle room; if you're unsure, ask!) for the use of Beacons:  

Beacon lights can be used anywhere (I often use them to simulate alarm warning lights and the like)

Fully working Beacons should be used in places where it makes sense only. In other words, your House Seat of Power, major landmarks, and significant magical sites that have Lore reasons for the glowy lights

Beacons should be radiating your "protected colour" for easy identification (you can accomplish this by sneaking and putting a piece of appropriately-coloured stained glass, pane or block, on the top of the Beacon)

The exception is Beacons belonging to the Voiders. That's because if you use Black stained glass, the light is almost invisible. This defeats the purpose, especially in the environments where the Beacon is most likely to be needed, such as the bedrock layer of the Nether and the End. Therefore, Void Beacons will be White.

Beacons for shared assets for all Tome Knights, such as the Great Library, will also be White.

Beacons must have an unobstructed view of the sky in order to function. Therefore, they are of less use underground or underwater. You will likely wish to mark the surface entrance, or a location close to it, with a Beacon instead.

Claiming Land and the Use of Sharestones

Several players have now begun scouting out places that suit canon locations associated with their Houses. If you choose to do the same, there are some general practices the players have developed to respect one another and avoid conflict.   If you find a location you want to build on, first check and make sure you're not within visual sight of another claimed location. Preferably if someone is already building in that biome, you should find a similar biome elsewhere if you can. However, some biomes, such as the Crystaline Chasm (Nether) and Auroral Forest (Overworld) are extremely rare, and may have to be shared. Work that out with the person who has already claimed it if possible.   When you have decided to claim a location, first, lay down a Sharestone that is the "protected colour" of your House. You can always move it later if it interferes with your build project. It will ask you to name the location when you do so. Name it something that describes what you're going to build there (ie. The Warren, Canadian North, Penwall, Mesa Mitchell, etc.)   Then make sure to put up at least one banner of the group you're claiming the location for. You really can't use too many, because the point is to make it clearly visible. In other words, plant your flag!   Sharestones of a particular colour will connect to all other Sharestones of that colour, so if you're looking to build a "secret" location, talk to one of the Ops about your best options.   In general, Sharestones and Waystones represent our in-universe Portals, and should be placed where your Portals would be. However, in many cases, the addition of a Sharestone is mostly to make particular biomes easier to reach from other locations, since the world generation does not follow Earthly relative locations or logic. To simulate that, you may conceal your Sharestone. Just make sure to leave the blocks immediately surrounding it free, and make sure any coverings are at least 3 blocks high, so that players have room to materialize when they get there.  

Thinking of Others

Often when players are scouting out locations for their own needs, they find locations along the way that make them think of other groups and Houses, or that they think might be useful to someone, if not them.   If you find such a location and you want to share with a particular House (ie. say you found a willow grove and thought of Meles), lay down a Sharestone of the appropriate House colour (in this case, green) and name it something with a question mark (ie. "The Willows?") That way, they know it's a suggestion and they don't have to take it if they don't want to. They can always smash out the Sharestone later, or a Server Op can.   If you find a location you want to share with everybody, or offer up to anyone (say you found a really cool glacier) lay down a Gray Sharestone. Name it something descriptive when you set it (ie. "Glacier"). Then people will know it's up for grabs.   World Spawn is near the Great Library and there is a teleporter station in the basement of the Guard Tower there, with teleporters of multiple colours, including a Gray Sharestone. There is a similar setup in front of the Warren, which used to be the World Spawn, representing House Lapin's first public Transcontinental Portal. If you would also like to have your House build a public Transcontinental Portal, you may place Sharestones of all House colours wherever you are setting the Portal.  

Waystones vs. Sharestones

Waystones differ from Sharestones in that you must interact with them before you can teleport to them (teleporting from them appears to count as interaction.) However, they occasionally generate naturally in the world, while Sharestones do not. Sharestones, on the other hand, automatically give you access to all other Sharestones of that colour whenever you interact with one.  

The Great Library

The Server Ops have started building the Great Library. It is marked with Sharestones of all colours, and a Waystone at the top of the mountain, and is open to everyone, and will remain so.   It is canon that the Library is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Anyone is welcome to build additions onto The Great Library, as long as you do not destroy anything that is already built, you build underground or into the mountain, and your creations are not visible from the outside. (It shouldn't be hard. I swear the hill is hollow!) I strongly encourage every House to participate so that the building really does become a place for everyone.  

Other Dimensions

For obvious reasons, the Nether and the End represent The Void in the Game of Tomes server. However, this is impractical in the process of playing the Minecraft Survival game, because only Voiders may safely travel to the Void in GoT canon, and you need to travel to the Nether and the End in order to complete the game.   A number of Nether and End biomes have been claimed to represent locations in the Void. Please avoid interacting with those locations (same rule - no building or mining within visual sight of the claimed location). However, some locations that have been claimed for the Void invite you to share with us, so please feel free to ask! Other Extradimensional biomes are up for grabs, and you may even find some connected to the Gray Sharestone network already. YES, it is possible to use Sharestones and Waystones between dimensions!   The End Dragon has already been defeated in this server, so the End biomes are also available. If you wish to fight the End Dragon, let the Ops know and we can summon it.   The End may also be used to simulate pocket dimensions if you wish to build one (although Overworld biomes can also be used for this purpose - for example, I have used a Deep Dark biome to simulate at least one Void location). If you wish to simulate a pocket dimension for Yeetspace storage, there is also a SecurityCraft feature that allows you to create a pocket dimensional room, and Sophisticated Backpacks essentially lets you make Backpacks of Holding.  

Building Things That Are Not in the GoTverse

YES, you can build projects that are not intended to be part of the GoTverse, just for their own sake! And YES, you can experiment with builds! Just LABEL THEM CLEARLY if they're not intended to be part of the shared universe. Put up a big sign in a clearly visible location, like near the front door of a structure, or the gate of a city (I find the Create signs can work well for this).  

Roleplay Rules

See note in the Conduct Rules re: Mature Content

No one is required to participate in anyone's roleplay. Don't force other players to interact with your roleplay unless they have given specific consent (that is, a clear "yes.")

If your roleplay is private, keep it in a private location. For instance, if Queen Sable Aradia wants to talk to James Woodwright in private, she should do that in her office or the Owsla office, not the main hall of the Bunnycomb. If a roleplay is taking place in a main, public area, other players who happen by have the assumed right to get involved.

From time to time, we may choose to roleplay server wide events (ie. A Tourney of Tales or a War). If we do, the Server Ops will make a public announcement through the Patreon with a start and end date. If you don't wish to participate, you don't have to, just let us know. We'll also try to find a place in universe to post a list of players who aren't playing in that roleplay event, but you may have to explain it gently to the other players when they try to interact with you.

Other Rules

These rules and Terms of Service are subject to updates at any time, and it is your responsibility to make sure you are aware of them.   Failure to observe these rules may result in suspension of access, or banning from the server, as the Ops see fit, regardless of your Patreon Tier.   Above all, have fun, and make sure everyone else is having fun too!