Welcome to the Frayed Knot Auction System and Loot Policy

Section 1 – Auction Channels and Chat Etiquette

The Loot Council (LC) conducts the bidding for items in their auction channels, fkauction:fkauction and fknonarmor:FKNonArmor (case is significant on the passwords). Failure to join these channels means you will be unable to bid for and win loot while raiding with us. These channels are NOT for chatting; they are only to be used for the placing of bids and other business as required by the LC. If you have questions that need to be addressed by the LC, you should either send a /tell to an LC member AFTER the auctions or post on the guild boards under the “Loot Stuff” topic. If your question is urgent enough that it requires an immediate answer please use the raid chat channel (/rs).

Section 2 – Principal Auction Rules

These are the main auction rules. There are others listed below in section 4, but those address more unusual situations/bids.  If you only want to know the most important rules this is where to look.

1. The “Dannis Rule” - No player (note player, not character…) may win more than one item in an auction channel per event, until this rule has been lifted. This can be restated as “one item per player per channel per chest.” Unless otherwise announced, lifting the Dannis Rule applies to that specific item only. The Dannis Rule means that Bob Smith can win one item (whether for his main or any of his seventy-three alts doesn’t matter) in each of the auction channels for a single event, and any further bids by Bob Smith in a channel after winning an item in that channel are not allowed until the next event unless the Dannis Rule is lifted.
2. Stay out of the chest unless you have a valid reason to be in it.  Valid reasons are being awarded an item by the LC or if an FFA phase has been declared. All loot will be linked to the entire raid before auctions start, so there is no reason to be in the chest until you have to be.
3. Bids for alts will automatically lose to bids for mains, regardless of the amount bid; for example, a “Max” bid for an alt will lose to a “Min” bid for a main. The intent is to equip our raiding mains before equipping alts.
4. Raid guests may only bid for their main character (not their alts or personas) until six (6) months after the expansion is released. Raid guests are limited to a maximum bid of 400 DKP on any one item.
5. The minimum bid for spells (if auctioned) is 5 DKP, the maximum is 405. The minimum bid for all other items is 50 DKP, the maximum is 2000.  Guests and inactive members (see section 4) are limited to a maximum bid of 400 on any item. Further information on minimum/maximum bids can be found in section 3’s “Auction notes,” below.
6. You must be present for 80% of the event to receive DKP or to be eligible to bid on items.
7. For purposes of bidding, personas are treated the same as mains.  Bids for mains and personas “compete” at the same level, but must be identified as being for main (“m”) or persona (“p”) for transparency.  Explanation for this can be found on the forums, and is out of scope for these rules.

Section 3 – The Auction

Frayed Knot utilizes an open Dragon Kill Point (DKP) and loot award system, and current DKP amounts may be found at https://dkp.frayedknot.us. Once the Big Bad Boss is defeated and the chest has been opened all loot will be announced in the raid (/rs) channel, then bidding occurs in the following phases for each item being auctioned:

• Primary phase: The LC announces the item in the appropriate channel, and raiders bid their DKP on the item specifying whether their bid is for a main character, an alt, or a persona. Players may win only one item per chest/channel in this phase.
• Dannis phase: If no other bids were made then the “Dannis Rule” is waived and bids may be made from anybody, including players that already won an item. Items may be bid on for resale to the raid vendor in this phase.

Items that have not been won or claimed after these phases are complete will be looted for guild tribute, destroyed, or gifted, at the LC’s discretion.

Auction and bidding notes:

1. An LC member (the auctioneer) starts and closes the bidding. While effort will be made to allow sufficient time for follow-on bids the auctioneers are not responsible for chat lag, and bidding will be re-opened only at the auctioneer’s discretion. Bid like you mean it, and pay attention to the auction channels.
2. Multiple people can place a bid of “Max” (maximum). Whoever has the highest current DKP total will be awarded the item, at the cost of the maximum bid for that item (see section 2 for those values).
3. If multiple people place the same bid, the first person to place that bid will win.  EQ’s chat service doesn’t guarantee messages go out in the order they were received, so if you have any doubt about whether your bid was first you should quickly check (in /rs or in Discord) what others see.  What the auctioneer sees on their computer is what will determine the order the bids arrived. The second bidder must increase their bid in order to continue the auction.
4. Typos happen, but they need to be corrected immediately. For example:
   Member A tells (auction channel), ‘4450 main’
   Member A tells (auction channel), ‘typo 450 main’
   Typos that aren’t corrected will be understood to be intentional bids and recorded accordingly (or questioned in the auction channel at the auctioneer’s discretion).
5. Any member of the LC may suspend bids at any time for any reason. The auctioneer will announce the reopening of bids after the issue that caused the suspension is resolved.
6. If you win an auction for your alt you must be able to get your alt to the loot in a timely fashion. If you are unable to loot the item for any reason other than a game bug then the lost DKP will not be refunded.

Section 4 – Loot Rules

1. No one may bid on an item that he or she cannot use because of level, class, race, or deity restrictions. Erroneous bids could result in a penalty.
2. Each member is responsible for earning and spending their own DKP. There is NO deficit spending; bidding what you don’t have will result in a penalty. In order for your attendance to be properly recorded, be at the raid on time. Totals can be checked at any time on the DKP site (https://dkp.frayedknot.us) and any errors that may be found should be noted in a post in the “Loot Issues” forum topic (https://eq.frayedknot.us/boards).
3. All raiders must attend at least 11 events in a 30-day period to remain active. If a raider does not maintain the prescribed number of events they will go inactive.  This isn’t as onerous as it may seem, as we frequently do multiple events per raid night.
4. Items do not have a fixed cost. It is entirely possible that an item that sells for minimum on one date will go for maximum on the next. Bids represent what the item means to you, not necessarily to the guild as a whole.
5. Zone wide augments/items may be either handled as ordinary loot, or set up as a random roll depending on the rarity of the item. You may only receive one of these items per night.
6. An auctioneer may bid in their own auction, but a period of at least 30 seconds must elapse before the auction is closed and their bid is declared the winning bid.
7. You are expected to bring your main on raids unless you are specifically requested to bring an alt. This usually happens when we are short of healers or tanks. If you’re not requested to bring your alt you will not earn DKP if your main is not present for a raid.
8. If you are allowed to bring an alt on a raid and the need arises to give the spot to a main, you may be asked to drop the alt to make room for the incoming main character. Removal of alts is purely at the discretion of the raid leader, and will be handled in the most expedient and fair manner possible.
9. A very small number of items will not be distributed via DKP bidding.  This will be a very rare occurrence for items like raid flag keys, quest items required for gaining access to raids, AE blockers, and on very rare occasions special loot exemptions. These items are handled by officers and are usually given out based on attendance, current progress on a quest, or items so rare that the guild leadership deems them too important to permit completely open bidding.
10. You may not bid on an item for resale to another entity (for example, the raid vendor) until the loot council has opened bidding for said purchases. Usually lifting the Dannis Rule is sufficient notification; announcement will be made if this isn’t the case.
11. (The Ever Powerful Nufan Rule) One shall not link old gear of less than half the caliber of the new item awarded. To do so may result in bleeding eyes, mass hysteria and prolonged entertainment by the members of Frayed Knot. Instead, please excitedly and politely link your newly-acquired items in appreciation.

Section 5 - Spells and Ornaments

Depending on how much time has elapsed since an expansion was released, the rules for spells and ornamentations will change.  All timings in this section are approximate; which of these scenarios is in effect will be made obvious from the announcements made to the raid at loot time.

Ornamentations:

Ornamentation “suits” will always be distributed by random roll (/rand), by all raiders who are eligible for loot and can actually use the item.  Individual ornamentation items will be distributed as follows:

• For “a while” (probably 3-4 months) after expansion release: Ornamentations will be awarded by random. If nobody rolls then the item will be made available via FFA at the time that other items are also made FFA.
• After that, ornamentations will be FFA, limited to one item per person per chest unless otherwise announced..

In all scenarios unlooted ornamentations will be left to rot in the chest. They will not be stored in the guild bank.

Spells:

The method used to distribute spells will go through several stages after an expansion’s release.  There isn’t a hard-and-fast timing on these stages; the timing will mostly be based on demand. The ordering of those stages will be as follows:

• While demand is strong for mains:  Spells will be auctioned just like other items, with minimum and maximum bids as outlined in Section 2.
• As demand for “lesser” spells declines: Glowing and Greater spells will continue to be auctioned, while Median, Lesser, and Minor spells will be Limited FFA as outlined below.
• As demand for “greater” spells declines::  All spells will be Limited FFA as outlined below.
• After that, all spells are Open FFA for all characters.  This will always be the case for events in past expansions.

Which period we’re in will be obvious from the announcements made by the LC at the event.  As always, FFA looting is to take place only after it is announced; no players should be in the chest until they’ve been awarded loot or until FFA has been announced.

Limited FFA for spells is done in two announced phases.  The first phase will last for 2 minutes, is for Mains ONLY, and is limited to one spell per player (not character…) per night (not event…).  The second phase is for all characters, and is an open FFA.

In all cases where spells are FFA’d there is a limit of one spell per visit to the chest.  Scooping up a bunch of spells at once is not allowed.  Others need them, too, so don’t be piggy.

Section 6 – Earning DKP

DKP is awarded per raid target. The amount per target is typically 25 DKP, although this value may change for particularly difficult/important targets.

To earn DKP:

1. Raid, Raid, RAID, then raid some more.
2. As a recruit, when you are voted into the guild as a probationary member you will receive a DKP bonus based on your attendance.
   1. For passing the vote, you get a bonus of 100 DKP.
   2. If your attendance exceeds 60%, you will receive an additional 100 DKP, or 200 DKP total.
   3. If your attendance exceeds 80%, you will receive an additional 100 DKP (to the 60% attendance level) or 300 DKP total.
3. When an expansion featuring a level increase comes out a bonus may be offered for reaching the maximum level within a set time period.
4. “First wins” (beating a specific raid target for the first time) will add a DKP bonus (usually 100 DKP).

Section 7 – Penalties

While penalties aren't the nicest of subjects, they are required in case of unacceptable actions taken by an individual to protect the rights of others and to correct inappropriate behavior. No penalty should ever be taken lightly. While we understand and accept innocent mistakes, we do not tolerate habitual misconduct, or malicious, greedy, or abusive use of the system. Innocent mistakes are dealt with quickly, and generally do not involve any kind of penalty. Infractions are usually dealt with DKP deductions. Continued misconduct may result in guild removal.

Penalty List (this list is not exhaustive and is subject to change without notice):

1. Looting of items that were not awarded.
2. Interfering with a raid event.
3. Continuous raid errors.
4. Spamming or playing around in the auction channel.
5. Accepting Raid Invites and going AFK for the raid's duration (unless approved by a raid leader).
6. Bidding more DKP than available.
7. If you guild remove for any reason you will be given a 5 day grace period to return. After 5 days your DKP will be reset to 0.

We reserve the right to update/change this list as required.

Penalties are as follows:

• First offense: Written warning,
• Second offense: negative 200 DKP
• Third offense: negative 400 DKP

Subsequent offenses may result in removal from the raid or from the guild.

(Last updated 9/22/2024)