The GM Guidelines

The purpose of the GM position is to assist players in matters which the players cannot assist themselves: Being stuck in artwork, locked inside a house, dead on a boat, unable to login due to high item-count where they are logged-out, and other such "game stopping" issues take top priority.

GMs should not, otherwise, interfere in the normal progress of the game. Granting players stats, skills, loot, etc. is right out. Even helping players more subtly - altering the skills of monsters, creating loot for players to happily "discover", helping players recover gear that mobs have looted from them, etc. is unacceptable (unless the PC in question died unfairly due to a bug). Conversely, a GM shouldn't make the game more difficult for players by creating, moving or altering npcs that the players are fighting.

GMs also assist in the sale of static housing - placing house signs on the house in exchange for a house deed of roughly the same size (or an amount of gold equal to the value of a deed) and can assist in the placement of decor - such as corrals, multi-part items like looms and large forges, etc. In these cases the Gms should charge the player for the decor. Likewise GMs can assist players with name-changes, re-deeding homes, etc.

The spirit of the law is this: Help players, don't help characters, but don't even help the players if the players can help themselves.

A GM should remain concealed most of the time so as to be unobtrusive. When it is necessary to manifest in order to interact with a player, the GM should change his or her name to some suitable NPC type. For example, when selling a house, you might change your name to "Boffo the Realtor", or to fix stats that aren't right due to a bug, you might make your name "Guido the Trainer".

This is not to say that GMs cannot chat with players, but it should be understood that such interactions are "out of character", and should therefore be discreet (i.e. away from where any other player might stumble upon you). We don't have a designated "OOC Area", so if you're going to break fiction in the middle of the game-world, at least be somewhere only the person you're talking to will see.

GMs may be asked to resolve disputes between players. In those cases, appear concealed, monitor the situation, and if necessary, jail the offender(s). The incident should then be reported to Player Relations and resolved from there. Reference: Player Code of Conduct.

From time to time a GM may need to watch players without the player's knowledge - while investigating an issue, answering a help-page, monitoring a player suspected of exploiting, etc. Other than in those specific cases, however, GMs should not eavesdrop or follow players while concealed without the player's consent. Although we cannot guarantee players privacy (they're quite able to stealth and eavesdrop on one another, for example), GMs should at least attempt to keep breaches of privacy to a minimum, and necessary, frequency.

This is important, read it twice:

You must keep your own characters (that you play) totally seperate from your GM persona. You must not ever for any reason use your GM-powers to aid your characters in any way. Doing so is grounds for the immediate ban of your GM account as well as your normal player account. You will not be welcome on WoD ever again, for even an instant.