Life in the Bay

Frenfall is Daggerfall with other people in it, and one world that keeps going whether you are there or not. These are the rules that world runs by.

Saving

The server keeps one save of each character. Every 15 minutes it saves everyone at the same moment, and it saves you when you quit.
Chests, corpses and dropped piles follow your saves. If your game closes before the next save, whatever you took from them or put into them since your last save goes back where it was, so nothing is lost or doubled.
Frenfall plays online only. A character that is not on the server cannot be played, and a character on the server cannot be played offline.
The server keeps its own record of every character, checked against each save. The Bank of the Empire's books are the server's, and quest rewards are checked against each quest's own script.

The world's clock is shared and nobody can move it: a game day passes every real hour. The sky, the seasons, holidays, moons, shop hours and townspeople all follow it.
Quest deadlines, bank loans, rented rooms, guild promotions, banishment and prison sentences run on that clock, and keep running while you are logged out. Quest time limits are three times as long as in Daggerfall.
Your character's own needs run on real time, and only while you play: spells and other effects tick every 5 seconds, each stage of a disease takes an hour of play, and hunger and thirst grow as you play.
Menus do not pause the game. Find a safe spot before you check your inventory.

Rest at a bed, a fire or your bedroll: press the rest key and hold still. Resting never moves the clock.
A full rest, waking fully healed, comes once every ten minutes of play; otherwise you rest a while.
Your skills are checked for advancement every half hour of play and when you wake from a full rest. A trainer teaches you once every half hour.
A rest is your own: nobody rests for you, and you rest nobody else.

Your character gets hungry and thirsty as you play. A sack of Rations is eaten by itself when you turn hungry, and a Waterskin is drunk from when you get thirsty. Starving or parched, you lose stamina until you eat or drink.
General stores and pawn shops sell Rations, general stores sell Waterskins, and town fountains and wells refill them.
A new character starts with five sacks of Rations, a full Waterskin, a Campfire and a Bedroll. General stores sell camping gear: Campfires, Bedrolls, Firewood and Ember Jars. Use one from your pack to set it down. Other players can rest at your campfire; your bedroll is yours alone. Your campfires and bedrolls outdoors stay yours when you log out, and wait where you left them for up to 7 days; in a dungeon or a building they last as long as the place keeps its state.

Cross the land on WanderFall's overland map (Keypad Enter, outdoors). The journey takes no time on the world's clock, but it tires you and uses your food and water, and the map stops when you run out. Riding fast and careless invites ambushes.
Other players nearby stand on the map with their names, on foot, mounted, or with their cart, boat or camp.
Fast travel takes no time.
Boats from Come Sail Away are shared: everyone nearby sees a boat sail, and its hold keeps its cargo on the server.
Warm Ashes' wilderness events are shared: the camps, merchants and travelers one player meets appear for everyone nearby.

A dungeon stays as it was left for 24 hours: the monsters killed stay dead and the loot stays taken. A player with a quest there resets it on his first visit for that quest, unless someone is inside.
Buildings keep their state like dungeons: a looted chest stays looted for a day. House furniture is shared like chests and shelves.
The server rolls the loot in every corpse and treasure pile from Daggerfall Unity's own tables, the same for everyone. What one player takes is gone for everyone, and one player loots a container at a time.
Shops are shared: each shelf holds one stock for everyone, rolled by the server from the shop's type and quality and restocked each day. The server prices every trade and every paid service (training, spells, temples, inns, travel) with Daggerfall Unity's own formulas.
The world has one tavern and one bank. Every tavern, inn and bar door opens on the same tavern in Daggerfall city, and every bank door on the same bank, so players from any town meet there. You leave by the door you came in. Both are places of peace: weapons stay sheathed, spells at others and stealing are refused, and no guard ever comes.
Banks are the Bank of the Empire: any branch holds all your gold, and you have one loan at a time, up to 10,000 gold per level, repaid within a year of the world's calendar (about 15 real days). A default costs legal reputation, closes every bank's loans to you, and takes your later deposits until the debt is paid.

The server rolls every hit with Daggerfall Unity's own formulas: monsters' blows, arrows and spells against players, and your blows, arrows and spells against monsters. That covers the chance to hit, the damage, resistances, saving throws and paralysis.
Enemies carry the weapons and armor they drop.
Who you meet depends on where you are, not on your level: see the danger of the land.

You wake at your bind point, or on the steps of the nearest temple in the region (the nearest graveyard where you are wanted).
Everything you carried lies on your corpse where you fell, for 7 days, and the corpse is gone once its last item is taken. Only you, and players you /consent, can open it.
A temple's priests offer to bring your corpses to you, for the gold on them.
Bind Affinity, a Mysticism spell, sets where you wake: the spot where you cast it, or the entrance of the dungeon or building you are in.
A new character who dies in Privateer's Hold before ever going outdoors wakes back at the start inside it, and still has to fight his way out. Each new character finds Privateer's Hold fresh on its first entry, unless a player is already inside.

Crime is your own: the city watch your crime calls hunts only you. Striking another player's watchman is a crime of your own: assault, or murder if he dies.
From the surrender question to the end of your sentence, nothing can hurt you. Surrender is always accepted unless you killed a watchman.
A first minor offense in a region earns a warning. Only murder and treason can get you banished, for 30 days of the world's calendar, and a guilty verdict takes back what you stole.
A sentence is served in a cell of the shared jail: one real minute for each day, counted on the world's clock, so it runs on while you are logged out. Nothing gets you out of the cell early. When it ends you walk out at the gate of the town that sentenced you, healed, fed and rested.