The "Code of Conduct" bonus

Heroes are supposed to have honor, and stuff. Anyone from a knight on up has taken some kind of vow of service and behavior. Other characters might have, too. Even villains have standards. Gods take such vows seriously.

If you have taken a vow, oath, geas, etc, the game God wil reward you with bonus experience points every time you have to go out of your way for it, or resist the teptation to break it. Since we know from experience that the other players cause the most trouble, these points are not necessarily just freebies from God.

If you do break an oath, or behave contrary to the spirit of the oath, the game God may gift thee with unpleasantness and derision. What kind depends on the transgression.

This is a free-form version of the Alignmet system, based on your specific vows rather than on some weird "good" and "evil" labels. If you uphold your vows, you are "good," even if your vow is to kill anyone you meet whose name starts with F.

The "Holy Vow" bonus

Speak not the name of the Lord. Unless you really want to.

On top of other vows you may have, you are generally free to vow something to whatever appropriate deity you wish, who will then give you a variable bonus to some relevant skill when you are in need and specifically in the pursuit of that vow.

1. the vow must be stated formally, with appropriate drama and gravity
2. the vow must be something appropriate and worth the deity's backing (no "I vow by God to eat all the fish and chips I can find")
3. you must actually attempt to fulfill the vow in some reasonable time frame (none of this Emperor Otto stuff)

If you don't do this properly, the deity will probably get pissed off and send you little hints, like setting your hair on fire. ;)