Rule 1 - Don't be an Asshole
These rules are not perfect. The rules attempt to clearly communicate what the admin team intends to be allowed and prohibited, but there are likely loopholes or other flaws that can be "lawyered". Don't attempt to manipulate the interpretation of the rules to suit your personal goals or to degrade the experience of other players.
Everybody here's playing a game to have fun. Being an asshole in character is allowed, with the expectation that they're played with nuance and respect for others. But extension of that outside of gameplay is strictly forbidden.
This includes bigotry, any of which will get a quick ban. This is zero-tolerance
This also includes self-antag or griefing or any other form of intentionally ruining others fun for the sake of your own experience.
Consistently toeing the line on these rules will be treated as rule violations and will get you banned.
Characters that only exist to manufacture or spark drama, dominate the scene, or make everything about them are not allowed.
Insults should not be repeatedly and lazily hurled at players. If someone asks you to stop out of character, then stop. Continuing to do so will violate this rule.
There is a person behind each character in round. Keep insults contextual, un-targeted, and out of OOC.
If you play an incendiary character, then expect incendiary responses.
Sometimes players must step away from the game due to IRL circumstances or connection issues, and out of respect for these issues players that are Disconnected, in Cryosleep, or otherwise "SSD" should not be antagonized or exploited while they are unable to act to defend themselves. Players in these circumstances should not be stolen from, used to open doors, used as meatshields, or directly attacked unless you have an antagonist objective specifically targeting that player or an item that can ONLY be found on their person, such as the Nuclear Authentication Disk. These players may be moved freely to Medical, Security, or EVAC for safekeeping and healing. Players who are Puple-Text Catatonic or have been SSD for over 30 minutes should be taken to Cryosleep to free up their role slot. If a player that is disconnected is your target, you may also ahelp to ask for a new target.
Players can retaliate following escalation rules.
Interrogation vs Torture
Interrogation is allowed, but draws the line at bodily mutilation and gross mental/emotional manipulation. Which at that point counts as torture.
Allowed examples:
Punching someone during interrogation
Threatening to cut a pair of a tiders insuls to make them fingerless
Bribing with spesos to give information
Not Allowed examples:
Cutting limbs off
Leaving someone cuffed in the chair alone in the room for long periods
Heavily degrading someone's character in attempts to cause a physical or mental breakdown
Rule 2 - Speak English
We are a English-only server, all communications both in and out of character should be in English, as our moderation staff are primarily English-speaking and cannot properly moderate other languages.
Players Must Be and Act Over 16
This is a 16+ server, A base level of maturity is expected to play here. Admins may ban as they see fit if you cannot act at minimum like an adult both OOC or IC, even if the player is known to be older then 16.
Rule 4 - Admin Rulings are Final
Admins are trusted volunteers, and as such have a lot of responsibility and freedom at the same time. They have the decision on how to enforce and interpret rules according to the server's policy, and may or may not enforce certain rules more strictly based on the needs of the server at any given moment.
If you receive a ban or a role ban, you are to appeal rather than continue the conversation through Ahelps or Discord.
If you feel an admin ruling is unjustified, or they are otherwise abusing their position, you may make an admin complaint, DM the Head Admin, or ask for clarification of the rules on the Discord.
Rule 5 - No Sexual Content / Erotic Roleplay
This is a zero-tolerance rule.
Don't be creepy. Nothing erotic or pornographic is allowed on the server under any circumstances, including such things that may be construed as excessively sexual.
Linking any type of NSFW or otherwise explicit content anywhere on the server is strictly forbidden.
Leeway is given to insults, but they should not be overtly sexual in nature.
Rule 6 - No Metagaming
This rule includes all methods of gaining information outside of in-character means, such as conversations through Discord calls, discussing current round information through the Discord server, so on and so forth
This rule limits the knowledge of antagonists and their possible objectives as well as their mechanics in accordance to the [textlink="Metashield" link="Metashield"].
This rule extends to metacommunications, or multiple players communicating outside of the game (e.g. on a voice call) while also playing the game.
Regardless of intent, this is forbidden as it inherently provides an advantage over other players.
If you are teaching a new player, it is highly recommended to use LOOC channels or message an admin using F1 to notify them.
This also includes antag-rolling, or the practice of joining a server exclusively to play an antagonist (including ghost roles). This is heavily frowned upon and will result in a ban when caught, don't do it.
No information while in hard critical condition (dark overlay), unconscious, or dead can be used in-character under any circumstances unless it is learned about while alive. This is enforced strictly, especially in cases where it is used to “metagrudge”, or to hold a grudge against somebody who killed you in previous rounds or lives. This includes information leading up to spontaneous unconsciousness like chemical induced sleep or having your mind jaunted out of your body.
When you are revived either by cloning, MMI, CPR, or some other method, you are not aware of the circumstances of your death unless told by another person, including who killed you.
When freed from a brainwashing or mind control, you are allowed but not required to remember all events, names, people, and actions taken during the time you were under.
Powergaming is best described as the usage of meta mechanics and/or reasoning in order to gain an IC advantage over other players (e.g. arming up Security at the start of the round because you know antagonists exist). This is also frowned upon.
Follow the Metashield
Metafriending
Metafriending is defined as engaging in behavior that treats someone differently due to being your friend, giving them advantages or priority in-game and RP. This usually encompasses, but is not limited to:
Going against your objective to kill/maroon someone you know
Giving them specific items or accesses
Allowing them to bypass rules or SOP
Can also mean excluding others from your RP and only ever interacting with certain people
If you would do something for a particular person but not another in the same situation, it is metafriending.
Romantic relationships between characters is banned.
Rule 7 - Play your Character
There are no main characters.
Be a believable, if not normal person.
Keep OOC out of IC chats, and keep IC chats out of OOC while a round is going on. If teaching a new player, for example, use Help, or try your best to incorporate it into the roleplay.
Your character's life is important, value it. Avoid making decisions that no reasonable person would make. (Like trying to take on threats alone, or agreeing to be turned into food.)
Playstyles that disregard all opportunities for engagement and roleplay can be met with administrative action.
Stay in your lane regarding your role with the exception of emergencies and other extenuating circumstances. Security should not be performing surgery, and Salvage Specialists should not be performing security duties. Though Crew should be the last line of defense if all other means fail. This applies to non-antagonists intentionally making Security's life harder for no roleplay reason whatsoever.
Do not suicide upon being caught or converted by an antagonist (ghouls, mind control, revolutionaries, etc.)
Have an Appropriate Name
If a name could reasonably appear on a driver's license in the year 2984, it's probably alright. The [textlink="naming scheme" link="NamingScheme"] is a guideline, as all species are allowed to have each other's naming conventions (ie. Vox being named like a Moth) as long as the name follows all other blanket rules. All species can have a First and Last name like humanoids. Synthetic trait characters cannot have "IPC" or Silicon names. Names may contain prefixes, suffixes, and one nickname if reasonable. No flat-out copying characters from popular media. A reference is okay, but give it enough variance to not be a straight up copycat character.
Admins may ask you to change your name at any point if it's low-effort / overdone (John Central Command).
Act and behave within the spirit of the Job you have been assigned.
Security and Command Are Held to Higher Standards. Security and Command players have a vital role in the round and are thus expected to know the basic mechanics of the game, the areas of their departments, and knowledge of Space Law and their respective SOPs.
If you must leave as a member of Command, inform the rest of Command and head to Cryo. If you don't have time for this, leave a quick Ahelp.
If you are temporarily role banned for failing to do either of these (ex: an emergency that didn't give you time), you can message the admins to revert the role ban upon returning.
Consistent abuse of the authority Security and/or Command has will result in a role ban or regular ban.
Rule 8 - Escalate Situations According to Context
Non-antagonists may escalate into fights for various reasons. If you are inciting escalation/violence for a poor/no reason, you may be met with administrative action.
Conflict as a non-antagonist should keep destruction to a minimum. Usage of atmospheric bombs like maxcaps or mincaps are not allowed without prior admin approval.
Characters in critical condition should be treated or otherwise handed off to Med / Sec. The fight is considered over and should not be resumed without a good reason.
Non-antagonists should not violently resist an arrest, but may evade capture.
If an arrest is not obviously valid, it follows standard escalation. Resisting or retaliating against arrests without good reason may break the Escalation Policy and be handled administratively.
In resisting arrest, non-antagonists should not loot officers and should not detain or incapacitate officers any longer than is necessary to escape or explain themselves.
Antagonists and free agents must still follow heavily relaxed escalation when not dealing with their objectives or crewmembers that are in direct opposition to them.
No End-Of-Round Griefing (EORG)
End-of-Round Grief (EORG) is classified, generally, as being needlessly violent or acting out-of-character once the round has literally or functionally ended, to the detriment of other players' enjoyment or immersion. To list specifics, instances of EORG can include the following:
Random deathmatch (usually abbrieviated as RDM)
Violence that was not mentioned in an ahelp prior to engaging in it. For instance, if you had an ongoing grudge with another character during the round, you should ahelp for permission before escalating it to End-of-Round violence.
Destruction, deconstruction, or gross defacing of any CentComm assets. This includes using an RCD or tools to tear down walls or spam the light fixtures, or using any kind of explosives at CentComm.
Any form of incredibly bothersome behavior, especially of which one could reasonably deem as uncharacteristic of how you have been roleplaying up until then.
This means, for instance, you should not slip security as they're taking a prisoner to the CentComm brig, and you should not be stun-batoning people without reason.
Centcomm is a place for people to destress, roleplay, and talk about the shift. While you do not have to engage in this, it is expected that you allow others to.
Antagonists have more rules and exceptions regarding EORG and should refer to Rule 12 (End-Of-Round Guidelines) for more information.
Rule 9 - Silicons Must Follow Their Laws
Under no circumstances are Silicons (Station AIs and Cyborgs) allowed to ignore their laws completely.
Silicons are considered third faction, they are free agents whose ties to any other faction are determined solely by their Silicon laws. They are not innately fully crew-sided.
Lower-numbered laws take priority over higher-numbered ones. In any case where two laws would conflict, the higher listed law takes priority. (e.g. Law 1 "Don't harm crew" takes priority over law 2 "Harm the Captain")
Exploiting loopholes in laws is allowed, but Rule 0 still applies. If a law has multiple reasonable interpretations, pick one and stick to it. Consistency is important as a Silicon.
When resolving conflicts between orders based on the same law, you may choose how to resolve the conflict yourself, if not required by laws to do so in a specific way. You must remain consistent with whatever method of conflict resolution you decided upon (such as recency, or crew rank).
Crew
Any person with a valid station job ID or CentComm ID that displays on your HUD counts as crew, unless you have a law that redefines what crew is. This does still include zombies, changelings, traitors, or any other antagonists with valid IDs that appear on the HUD.
Prisoner, visitor, blank, and hostile ID icons do not count as crew by default.
You can not perform an action that causes someone to not be considered crew, or directly request that someone be made non-crew.
Harm
By default, harm refers to physical harm, prioritized by immediacy and likelihood, unless otherwise defined. Immediate harm takes priority over future harm, guaranteed harm takes priority over likely harm.
Laws that prohibit you from committing harm also prevent you from doing so in any capacity, even if it is to fulfill another portion of the same law. (Ex. Under default Crewsimov, you may not commit harm to a crew member to prevent harm to another crew member)
Protecting your own existence or integrity does not qualify as preventing harm, if no immediate or likely harm will come as a direct result.
Threats of suicide do not have to be considered as a serious risk of harm. Any crewmate threatening this may be treated as unstable and forcibly admitted to the on-station Psychologist.
Law changes
Do not ask for law changes unless forced to; you are meant to follow your laws as written. However, you should not be stopping law changes that are in compliance with your laws, unless also required to stop them by your current laws.
Examples of lawful law changes:
- As the Station AI, allowing an authorized individual (such as the Captain or RD) inside to change your laws, so long as doing so does not directly conflict with any of your laws.
- Being ordered to allow a law change when on a lawset that forces you to obey orders from said individual, so long as it is not in direct conflict with any higher law.
Examples of denial reasons:
- Stopping a law change when you would be installed with a law or lawset that is in direct conflict with your current lawset (such as being switched to Antimov from Crewsimov, as that requires you to harm crew, which Crewsimov's Law 1 is in direct conflict with).
- Stopping an unauthorized individual from changing your laws in an unknown way, as that may conflict with your current laws (such as EMAGing, or allowing an unauthorized individual into the AI Core to change your laws as the AI).
- Resolving two conflicting orders in favor of an individual telling you to not allow a law change.
- Having a law that tells you to not allow your laws to be changed.
Rule 10 - Play Antagonists Responsibly
The goal of an antagonist is above all else to create conflict (fun!!) within the station.
Generally, you should be following your objectives and avoiding just racking up a kill count as an undercover agent. Murderboning is only fun for the person doing it. Certain antagonists (Nuclear Operatives, space dragons) are exempt from this.
Team Antagonists (Nukeops, Revheads, etc.) should ahelp before leaving so their place can be filled.
Lone Antagonists (Traitors, Heretics, Changelings) are not required to work together or with other Team/Lone Antagonists. Team Antagonists (nukeops, zombies, revolutionaries) must work together at all times.
Mass station destruction (singuloosing, maxcaps, etc.) are reserved for antagonists who end the round by default, such as Nuclear Operatives and should not be done as a regular Traitor or other antagonist without first ahelping. This includes shuttle bombing.
Pre-turned Initial Infected are permitted to take any actions that increase the chances of taking over the station and may aid in spreading the zombie virus. Actions that cause overt damage to the station and crew are not allowed if they do not aid in the spread of the virus post-turn. (Loosing of the main engines, Atmos-flooding, etc.)
Post-turned Zombies are not allowed under any circumstance to break vital station components such as power sources, electronics, distribution pipes, or wiring.
End-Of-Round Guidelines
Antagonists should not continue antagonistic actions once the evacuation shuttle has arrived at Central Command and the End-Round Summary screen appears.
Note that this rule does not apply to round-ending or rule-skirting antagonists such as: Zombies, Space Dragons and their carps, Blobs, Ascended Heretics, or Nuclear Operatives.
Attacking someone at CentComm because they were your kill objective, or because you found out they killed your friend through the post-game results screen, will still be seen as EORG.
Rule 11 - Be mindful of the immersion of others.
This is a role playing game, and as such players often have varying levels of immersion within the setting and as their characters. Players are expected to respect this by not acting in ways that can inadvertantly upset other players immersion, even if other players might be aiming for a higher level of immersion than themselves.
Help Chat
Help Chat is a tool for communicating information that CANNOT otherwise be communicated in game.
Use of 'Help' for communicating current round information should follow the premise of If it CAN be said in character it SHOULD be said in character. If it SHOULD NOT be said in character, it SHOULD NOT be said in 'Help'. In general, current round information should almost NEVER be talked about in 'Help'. A clown shooting themselves with a gun they stole from a secoff should be reacted to in chracter, not "LOL" in 'Help' chats. This extends to antags, such as HOS saying: "I know they're a ling but I cant prove it so I guess we let them go"
Use of 'Help' for communicating out of character information that is not game relevant should be avoided. This includes "OMG, hi xX_TimberWolf1984_Xx, how has your day been?" - out of character conversations with friends do not belong in game chats as a rule of thumb. If you would like to speak with your friends, speak to them in discord, or speak to them in character.
Use of 'Help' for communicating out of character information that is game relevant, such as "I am going SSD for a bit" or "The default keybind is E for that action" are good examples of appropriate use.
Misuse of 'Help' chats may result in a reduction in your daily 'Help' budget, or outright removal of your ability to use the 'Help' chat channel.
End of Round Pink Text
Antagonists should write pinktext in character. It is meant to be how your character would describe their accomplishments during the shift.
Use of pinktext to mald out of character at other players or mechanics that got in your way is not allowed. You can talk about how the HOS foiled your plans, you should not be saying "I lagged out so the shitsec stuncuffed me before I could escape." or "I didn't lmao." If you do this you are liable to be warned or banned for No intent to roleplay or OOC Toxicity.
