House rules
Stonetavern is a small, free, non-commercial house with two realms: Elwynn preserves Vanilla, and Barrens progresses from Classic through Wrath. This page is the shared agreement between us — what we owe you, and what we ask of you. Nothing is hidden, nothing is sold.
What we owe you
The promises.
Free to play. No shop, nothing for sale — no Patreon, no “supporter” perks. That is how the house runs, and if it ever changed you would read it in the changelog, like every other change.
No pay-to-anything. No money touches the game — no advantage is for sale, at any price. Same as above: that is today’s arrangement, and any change to it is written in the changelog.
Realm rules are explicit. Elwynn preserves 1.12; Barrens progresses through era-specific clients. Both keep the same fair-play house rules, and on both, Horde and Alliance share chat, groups, guilds, trade, the auction house and mail, because a small community is one table, not two.
No silent changes. Every operational change is written down publicly in the changelog.
No staff advantage. No GM gear, no GM gold, no insider economy. We play by the same rules you do.
What we ask of you
The rules.
One person, one character in the world at a time. Several accounts are fine: bank alts, crafting alts, a second account parked in a city to trade. What is banned is multiboxing: while one of your characters quests, gathers, fights, or is in a dungeon, raid or battleground, every other character you have online stays in a city and does nothing. No following, no assisting, no second character healing or tanking for the first, and no software that sends your keystrokes to more than one game window. Sharing a home or an internet connection is fine: two people are two people, and we judge how characters play, not only where they connect from. One person playing two characters at once: 48 hours off the first time, 7 days the second, and all of that person’s accounts closed the third.
No bots, no automation. Anything that plays for you is a permanent ban. AI gnomes flag it; a human confirms and acts, every week.
No real-money trade. Buying or selling gold, items, accounts or services for real money ends your account. No second chance.
No GDKP. Gold-for-loot raids are banned outright — they are the front door for real-money trading.
English in world and global chat. Speak your own language freely in parties, guilds and the right Discord channels.
Don’t abuse what’s broken. Found a bug or an exploit? Report it. Using it knowingly is treated like cheating.
Be a decent regular. No harassment, no slurs, no spam — and no deliberate griefing: don't corpse-camp someone off the realm, train mobs onto players, or ninja-loot a group. This is an adult house — act like a guest you’d want to drink next to.
The realm itself
Plain facts, no spin.
- Elwynn
- A preserved Vanilla 1.12 realm. Only raid and dungeon entrances are staged; the ruleset is finished 1.12.1 from day one. Molten Core + Onyxia → Dire Maul → Blackwing Lair → Zul’Gurub → Ahn’Qiraj → Naxxramas, opened by hand. The first raids open 2 weeks after 80 accounts reach level 60 — that head-count gate applies to the first raids only. From there the chapters follow a roughly fifteen-month roadmap counted from the day Molten Core opens. Naxxramas is the last unlock; after it Elwynn stays fully open Vanilla, permanently.
- Barrens
- x1 Classic → The Burning Crusade → Wrath. Level gates follow published dates; the Council does not vote on progression dates.
- Ruleset
- Elwynn is PvE with opt-in /pvp. Barrens follows its published PvE/PvP world rotation.
- World buffs
- Switched off for a zone four weeks after its raid opens.
- Debuff cap
- 16, from launch and permanently. It is a property of the fixed 1.12 ruleset, not a step on the roadmap — it never rises and never falls.
- Honor
- Ranks 1–14 with full weekly decay.
- Comfort
- Quality-of-life is limited to invisible bug-fixes and small account convenience — nothing that changes how the game plays.
The fine print
Rare, but it matters.
A fan project. Stonetavern is run by fans and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Blizzard Entertainment. World of Warcraft and all related marks belong to Blizzard; we claim no ownership.
Your account, your responsibility. You're responsible for everything that happens on it. Share your login and we won't untangle who did what — or referee the fallout.
Names. We do not rename characters because someone dislikes a name. Posing as a GM or as staff is different: that is an instant, permanent ban.
Fixing exploit damage. If a bug or a dupe slips through, we may remove the items, roll back characters, or repair the economy — and we'll say so when we do.
Nothing in the game is property. Characters, items and gold have no money value and give no claim to anything. We may roll back, reset or close a realm; when we can say so in advance, it is in the changelog first.
Sixteen and over. You need to be at least 16 to create an account.
When a rule is broken
Bans are issued by hand, not by a script, and they can be appealed. If you think we got it wrong, say so — quietly, like an adult — and we'll look again. Appeals go to [email protected].
These house rules are part of our Terms of Service. Together with the Privacy Policy, that is the whole agreement — there is nothing else behind it.