Server Rules
0 Admin Discretion
Admins retain the authority to ignore the rules at their discretion when they feel it's in the best interest of the current round or playerbase at large. However, they will be fully accountable for their actions should they choose to exercise this privilege. If an admin says something is a rule, and you disagree, follow what they say and make a complaint on the forums after the round.
Just because you bend the wording of a rule into a pretzel and don't break the specific RAW (Rule As Written) does not mean you didn't break the RAI (Rule As Intended). Rules are subject to interpretation and if an admin believes you broke a rule as it is intended to function, you can expect the same consequences. Rules as intended always trump the rules as written, and "Toeing the line" is not permitted.
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- Admins can do whatever they feel is necessary, regardless of the rules.
- An admin's word is final. Always listen to them.
- Don't reopen a closed ticket.
- You can file a complaint about an admin on our forums.
- Rules-lawyering is not allowed.
- Praying makes you a target for admin abuse; Be careful what you wish for!
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1 You Must Roleplay
The goal of our server is to immerse players in a fictional universe, enabling them to roleplay with each other. Your character is a grown adult working on a research station for a major company. You are a professional; act like it. Have a sensible name, construct a character for yourself and behave as the character would, and avoid breaking the immersion. More details can be found in the Key Information section below. Declaring independence from NT or the rest of the station is grounds for a server ban unless it is done in response to character-driven events in the current round (with admin approval). Even if excused as valid roleplay, declaring independence is still treason and will be treated as such IC, either by CentCom or Security. Expect to be executed.
If you dont know how, or need some pointers, there's a guide to help out.
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- You must roleplay. You're a professional working for a major corporation. Act like you want to keep your job.
- Roleplaying insanity or any other mental illness as an excuse to bypass this is not allowed. Nanotrasen would not have hired you in the first place.
- Antagonists exist for the purpose of inciting conflict and roleplay, not for the purpose of greentexting.
- Antagonists with no objectives must act in ways suiting their nature. The goal of a Morph is to eat everything, the goal of a Nightmare is to snuff out all lights- and those who keep the station lit. Even Xenomorphs must act for their objective. Their primary goal is to breed and protect their hive.
- Follow Space Law and the Standard Operating Procedure.
- Heads of Staff are expected to enforce SOP within their department.
- Good roleplay (emphasis on good) can be used to justify violating SOP or Space Law to an extent, but may still have IC consequences.
- Declaring independence from NT or the station results in a ban in most cases.
- See the longform version of this rule above for more details and exceptions.
- Discussing out-of-round information in-game (OCK-ICK) is not tolerated. Do not break the immersion of other players. Examples include (but are not limited to):
- Mentioning admins, tickets, the server rules, etc.
- The fact that you are playing a game, or the round-based cyclical nature of your existence.
- Any references to information acquired outside of your character's scope of knowledge.
- Netspeak is not permitted (lol, wtf, brb and the like).
- Use a lore-friendly name, and follow Naming Guidelines for your species.
- Do not use the names of famous real/fictional people/characters.
- Obvious or heavy references are also not allowed.
- Clowns, mimes, and wizards are permitted to have meme/unusual names, but admin discretion still applies.
- Most shifts (aka "rounds" out-of-character) are "normal" for your character. Rounds are typically non-canon, and only the current shift is abnormal/crazy/etc.
- Basically, don't act like it's normal for cultists/nukies/wizard/etc to happen to the station, or for things to generally devolve into chaos.
- Pretend your shifts normally go smoothly and without major incidents, and that the current round/shift is an anomaly.
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2 No Powergaming
Antagonists are exempt from this rule at all times. "Powergaming" is considered to be the act of prioritizing "winning" rather than sensible roleplaying. Good roleplaying means that you have to embrace the possibility of "losing" for the sake of roleplay and/or preserving immersion. You should not be seeking gear you have no roleplay justification for having, nor should you ever generally be rushing into danger unless it is part of your job. For example, it makes sense for an Atmos Tech to don a hardsuit and enter a breached room to repair it. It makes sense for a Security Officer to acquire a gun from the armory and go fight to repel traitors. It does not make sense if the jobs are switched, and either case would be considered powergaming. Preemptively donning a hardsuit or acquiring a gun "just in case" is also considered powergaming.
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- Whether or not you do something should be based on whether or not it makes sense for your character to do it.
- Do not seek/acquire items that have no relevance to your job without an appropriate IC reason.
- This includes preemptively seeking self-defense items "just in case". Or acquiring insulated gloves or tools without a valid IC reason as someone not employed by Engineering.
- Blue Alert is not an excuse to ignore this rule.
- Red or Delta Alert or a direct threat/attack to yourself or your department is justification for arming/preparing yourself.
- Tech Storage is to be used for replacement parts, not for you to have your own personal machines.
- Normal crewmembers are not experienced soldiers. You should generally call for help, rather than intervening directly.
- This means no valid-hunting.
- You should generally attempt to flee from combat or dangerous situations.
- You can be involved in minor physical altercations between crewmembers that result from roleplay
- Security are always permitted to charge into danger, but should not be carrying items outside of the scope of their job the same as other crew.
- Heads of staff are permitted to defend their own department and subordinates, but should not be patrolling the station for threats unless there is no security.
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3 Do Your Job
Antagonists are exempt from this rule at all times. You are generally expected to know the basics of your job by reading the wiki page. Some leeway is granted to new players, but you should seek out instruction in character from your peers. You should also do your job and not ignore your responsibilities. Rather than stealing or being solely self-reliant, you are expected to engage with other players for things you need (just ask). Assistants are expected to assist, and Gimmick roles are expected to facilitate roleplay via their gimmick.
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- Know how to do your job. Read its wiki page, and the Standard Operating Procedure for your department.
- Non-antagonists are generally supposed to be doing their jobs. Breaks are fine, but do not completely ignore your department/obligations.
- Let people do their own jobs. If something is within the purview of another department, you are expected to engage with them rather than doing it yourself.
- If someone has something you want, just ask them.
- An example of violating this would be a Medical Doctor making medicine themself rather than asking the Chemist.
- If the department is unmanned/unwilling to assist you, you may attempt to do it yourself at the risk of IC consequences.
- Assistants are expected to be useful.
- You do not have a free pass to do your own thing. This includes wandering maintenance for no reason or in search of gear/loot.
- You are the lowest in the chain of command, and are expected to answer any request when something is asked of you.
- If you do want to do your own thing, request a custom job title from the Head of Personnel. They are not obligated to approve your request.
- Gimmick roles exist to enable roleplaying opportunities and are expected to act out their assigned roles in good faith. Examples for various Gimmick roles follow:
- The Barber should advertise their services and provide haircuts to the crew.
- The Stage Magician should "entertain" the crew with their abilities similar to a Clown or Mime.
- Psychiatrists should seek patients, or obnoxiously flout their useless degree in the bar.
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4 Ticket Conduct
If you have had an issue within the current round that requires an admin's assistance to resolve, you may request such by using the "adminhelp" verb in your game window. When typing out your ticket, be as descriptive as possible and try to include character names, character jobs and a detailed description of whatever incident you need help with. Just as admins are expected to remain respectful during tickets, so are players - do not take out your frustrations on the admins and understand we can't always share full details of why something occurred as the round is going on. If an admin sends you a PM (BWOINK), you should respond as soon as you are capable of doing so and answer whatever questions they have to the best of your ability. If you are busy or in danger, try to send a short message such as "hang on" while you get somewhere else.
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- Ignoring an admin PM or quitting the game after receiving one may result in a ban. You can explain yourself on the forums afterwards.
- Give the admin a quick "Just a min" or something if you're unable to immediately respond to a bwoink.
- Do not harass or insult admins in a ticket.
- Do not spam tickets or attempt to get a different result from a different admin.
- Lying or being intentionally misleading in tickets may result in a ban.
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5 Players Must Be 18 Years of Age or Older
This rule is for the benefit of and is meant to protect people who shouldn't be playing here due to the nature of the game and the community. While we do not require age-verification to join the community, persons found or believed to be under 18 will be banned from the game and community until they are old enough to rejoin. An admin may ask for a player's age for the purposes of verification under this rule. However, we will never ask for directly identifiable information (such as a picture of an ID) as per our Legal and Operations Policy.
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- If an admin suspects that a player is under 18, they may ban them accordingly.
- If asked about their age, players are permitted to decline to answer. This will not clear them of potential suspicion, however.
- Admitting to being under our minimum age threshold will result in an immediate ban. This includes making "jokes" that you are X-years old.
- A player may be banned if we receive confirmation that they are underaged from a trusted source
- Trusted sources are primarily limited to the player themselves or another trusted SS13 server that requires age verification
- Bans under this rule are not appealable.
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6 No ERP or Pornographic content
While we are an 18+ server, pornographic content and 'ERP' as defined by this rule is still prohibited. ERP, or Erotic Roleplay, is defined as roleplay that has a strong erotic element intended to elicit a sexual response from the receiver(s). It may involve two or more people or be done in front of spectators. This includes reading stories about ERP but not participating directly (WGW), or posting links to adult websites and images. Both consensual and nonconsensual ERP will be met with a PERMABAN.
7 Be Excellent to Each Other
Do not try and intentionally ruin other people's fun. While dying is a normal part of the game and IC conflicts will arise, dickish behavior and harassment is not allowed toward other players outside of the scope of such IC conflicts. Be patient with other players who may not know what they're doing and assist them when you can; remember this is a newbie-friendly server before anything else and toxicity toward players for not understanding something will not be tolerated. In the spirit of this rule, no racial/homophobic slurs or generally intolerant behavior is permitted in or outside of the game. In-character speciesism between different species is permitted, but keep real-world slurs (including allusions to real slurs) and references out of it.
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- Content that is not explicitly erotic as defined under rule 6 but still makes people uncomfortable is prohibited.
- No bigotry, slurs, or general intolerance is permitted. See above for more details.
- Don’t damage the arrivals shuttle, and do not attack anyone until they have left the shuttle at least once.
- Do not spam call or recall the emergency shuttle.
- Don't be a dick.
- Use common sense.
- Don't spam.
- Copypastas are considered spam.
- Do not threaten other players with ahelps or admin involvement, including thinly veiled IC terms.
- Disconnected players (SSD players) may not be stripped of items or searched for evidence of being an antagonist; move them somewhere safe if possible. You can identify a player as disconnected by examining them; "They may snap out of it soon" means they are simply disconnected. "Any recovery is unlikely" means the player is gone for good and their body may be treated as if it were dead.
- Players disconnecting during an active arrest may still be searched.
- A disconnected player may be referred to as succumbing to SSD, or Space-Sleep Disorder
- Disconnected players should generally be moved to a cryosleep pod, as this opens their job slot for a new player to take their place.
- If the player does not reconnect while in cryosleep, their items will be stripped and "moved" to the nearby cryosleep console. You may then claim the player's items from there.
- No cheating: This includes any form of macros, exploits, modified clients or anything else that gives an unfair advantage over other users playing normally.
- English is the primary language of the server. You are expected to keep your communications within the server and the discord in English, so that other players may understand you.
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8 Do Not Grief
Defined as the perceived intent of one player wanting to cause grief or annoyance to other players or to the server without any roleplay/IC reason. The emphasis is on "intent". If a member of staff believes that the player's intent is to grief then action will be taken. You can appeal these actions on the Ban Appeals forum. Any damage to the station or players caused by griefing can be repaired at an Admin's discretion.
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Examples of Possible Griefing
- A security officer using their weapons to kill crew members for low level crimes
- A player attempting to damage or destroy station equipment without good IC reasoning (Gimping the engine for no reason, throwing away valuable weapons or materials, etc.)
- Assaulting security officers just for the sake of grabbing their attention. There is some leeway for clowns, but slipping security officers during Red/Delta Alert or during any dangerous situations will result in a ban.
- Blowing yourself up as a form of, "self-defense," unless you're an antagonist with a microbomb implant
- Creating or ordering an additional major source of power (Tesla, Singularity, Supermatter shard, etc.) outside of engineering will be considered griefing if the containment fails due to incompetence.
- "Roleplaying" insanity/psychopathy/etc as an excuse to murder people.
Examples that are NOT Griefing
- Two crew members getting into a fight about something and throwing a few punches at each other.
- A clown slipping a security officer in a low danger situation (While the alert level is Green and there aren't any active antagonists, for example).
- Exercise moderation, this is NOT a pass to spam-slip or make it your goal to slip every single officer. Slipping security may still have IC consequences.
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9 Do Not Self-Antag
If you are not currently in an antagonist role, do not act like you are an antagonist. As a crew member on the space station, you are allied with Nanotrasen and the station as a whole from the start of the round. This means, for example, if you commit crimes that may result in you receiving capital punishment as non-antagonist, you are breaking this rule. If an IC conflict arises, be sure to follow Escalation Policy while defending yourself or your workplace. Do not cause excessive chaos as a non-antagonist. Do not act violently when being arrested or removed from an area you are not supposed to be in; using force to defend yourself in cases like that is not considered self-defense. Naturally, this rule may be ignored by antagonists since it is their job to act like one. If you are confused about whether you are an antagonist or not, ask an admin. If you do not get a response, assume you are not an antagonist until an admin tells you otherwise.
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- Access to a department does not imply authorization. Just because you managed to gain access to a room or department does not mean you have permission to be inside of it nor steal its equipment. Low-level trespassing or theft is an IC crime, excessive theft or stealing important equipment is self-antagging.
- Willfully assisting known antagonists is self-antag. Your loyalty is to Nanotrasen, your co-workers, and the station. There are no friendly antagonists.
- Actively seeking conversion or transformation into an antagonist is considered self-antag. This includes actions that are blatantly careless such as bolting your upload open as an AI in the hopes of being subverted, or wandering through maintenance for no reason when cult is confirmed.
- Granting mass sentience will be treated as self-antag if more creatures are given sentience than you can maintain reasonable command over. Direct disobedience to orders will still be at the fault of the sentient creature, but vague instructions such as "Do whatever you want" or "You're free" will be at the fault of the player in charge of issuing orders.
- Giving sentience to a spider that can reproduce is always to be considered self-antag.
- Planting Kudzu is considered self-antag.
- Uploading laws to silicons that make them significantly more dangerous to regular crew or jeopardize a silicon's well-being is self-antag.
- Taking High Risk or Head of Staff items that are intended for use by a specific job other than your own is considered self-antag without a valid in-character reason.
- Powergaming, or taking an item "just because" is not a valid in-character reason.
- Receiving permission to take a unique item directly from its rightful owner is not a violation of this rule.
- The Captain is not entitled to items that belong to other heads of staff.
- Clowns, Mimes, and Stage Magicians are expected to "entertain" the crew and have some allowance to skirt the above rules in order to suit gimmicks. It is always safest to ask an available admin before carrying out a gimmick that pushes or crosses a line to make sure you have their approval.
- Other Gimmick roles ("Gimmick" is a job that gives you a random gimmick position such as VIP) typically do not get a pass beyond what is sensible for roleplaying as the Gimmick role. Use common sense.
- Giving out all-access, or access close to all access without a valid IC reason is self-antag.
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10 No Advertising/Recruiting
Do not post links to other servers with the intention of luring players to a different server. People are more than welcome to play elsewhere, you're just being rude. Obviously there are other servers out there and discussion may pop up now and then - advertising another server isn't the same as having a discussion about them. If you dislike it here and choose to stick around just to talk about how much better other servers are, we are likely to boot you back over to those other servers instead of allowing you to continue. If you attempt to poach/recruit our staff members, we reserve the right to laugh nervously while we tighten the leashes and silence your heresy.
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- You may discuss other servers, but do not try to lure players there or recruit players to it. That's just being rude.
- Do not try to recruit/poach our staffmembers.
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11 No Multikeying
In order to correctly track players and ensure they are not cheating our notes and warning systems, choose one CKEY (byond account) to play on and stick with it. If your CKEY is offensive, you will be directed to create a new account and the old will be banned. If you are in a household with more than one person playing, it would be best to notify admins as soon as possible; if one of the accounts is banned, the other may be considered ban evasion if we don't already know about it ahead of time.
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- If you are found to be using an alternate account to ban evade, you will be permanently banned from the server. Existing permanent bans are far less likely to be considered for appeal if you have been caught evading.
- If you are found to have more than one account logged into the same round, all accounts will be banned permanently as this is considered cheating.
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12 Head of Staff conduct
Heads of Staff are held to higher standards than regular crewmembers. You are expected to be a competent person and competent at all the jobs that work under you. You will be expected to lead your department as a professional and to enforce Standard Operating Procedure upon your underlings. Heads of staff are liable to be jobbanned from all Head roles if they are found to be incompetent at the role. Heads of staff are not beginner-friendly roles on this server, nor roles to take just for cool gear.
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- Your underlings are much more expendable to NT than you are. Heads of Staff generally should not abandon their post unless there is a pressing need to do so. For example, the Captain should almost never be on Lavaland.
- Heads of Staff have jurisdiction over their department, but not others. They are encouraged to work together to achieve common goals.
- The Head of Personnel is responsible for managing access to the station, but is only directly in charge of service and supply jobs. The HoP has no authority over Security; the HoP may not act as a Security Officer. Access to a department should only be given after joint communication with the relevant department head, unless there is no head of staff present within it.
- The captain or acting captain has final say over every department head, and is responsible for every department that has not yet been assigned a head of staff.
- The Captain's goal is to ensure the safety of their crew and the success of the station as a whole, not to abuse your position and power-trip over the station. The captain is not required to be totally proficient at all departments, but they should have at least a surface understanding of how each department and role functions.
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13 Antagonist Conduct
While antagonists are supposed to be the enemies of the station, above all you should seek to make the round more engaging and fun as the star of the show. Succeeding as an antagonist is not the "goal" of SS13, the goal is for all players to have fun. While there are no friendly antags, don't seek to intentionally ruin the round for others just because you're an antagonist, and always remember to be excellent to each other.
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- Antagonists are generally exempt from rules 2, 3 and 9.
- If you are part of a team, you must work with your partners toward completing whatever objectives you share. This means you do not have the option to refuse to assist your team when converted.
- Antagonists are free to complete their objective by any means available, within reason.
- For example, destroying large amounts of the station is reasonable if your objective is to hijack the shuttle; it is not acceptable as a distraction if your objective is to steal the station's blueprints.
- If an antagonist would like to trade out their objectives for a custom gimmick, they can do so by opening an ahelp and requesting it. Note: Requests are not guaranteed to be accepted. All requests fall under admin discretion.
- Murderboning is not permitted unless approved by an admin directly (Murderboning is defined as the indiscriminate killing of multiple parties who are not a threat)
- Intentionally creating additional witnesses as an excuse to kill them will be considered murderboning.
- Isolated killings and kills that reasonably assist with your objectives are not murderboning.
- Security may be considered a threat and may be pre-emptively eliminated without provocation, but low-collateral methods must be used to eliminate them. Bombing the security wing is not considered low-collateral.
- Crew of a department in which you must complete an objective may be considered a threat and pre-emptively eliminated without provocation.
- Some roles are granted an exception to this rule, please consult the Species and Faction Escalation table on the escalations page for more information.
- Check the individual game mode pages for specific rules relating to that mode. You can see a full list of active modes on the Game Mode page.
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14 Metagaming and Meta-communications
Players are not allowed to use information gained in any way other than from their living character's point of view during an ongoing round, except for information pertaining to their specific job found on the wiki. You may not use information gained through voice communications with other players, while dead as a ghost, or any information stated in any OOC chat. This is considered cheating and violations may result in a lengthy or permanent ban from the server or OOC. Note: If you wish to use meta-comms to help assist/teach new players, contact an admin first and we will likely allow it.
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- Revealing in-character information in out-of-character channels, such as OOC or Discord, is not allowed while rounds are ongoing (referred to as ICK OCK).
- Streaming is allowed, but you must have a minimum of 15-second delay for broadcasting. If you have a substantial following, feel free to reach out to server staff about special accommodations we may be able to offer or work around.
- You are also responsible for any meta-comms taking place in your chat feed - obviously you can't control your viewers, but acting on meta-knowledge from your feed will result in a ban.
- You cannot attack players over events that occurred in a previous life. This includes ghost respawns and new rounds. When you are cloned, you cannot remember the last 5 minutes leading up to your death.
- Taking action against another player based on events your current character couldn't know about, or that occurred in a different round, is called meta-grudging and is against the rules as well.
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15 Leaving the Game
If you wish to leave the game, please use the cryopods located in/near the dorms when possible. This will free up your character's job to be filled by a new player.
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- Heads of Staff and AIs that leave the game (Cryo or not) without notifying admins may find themselves banned from Command/AI roles. As command, you may be playing an integral role in the round and shouldn't leave without notice, barring an emergency.
- It is encouraged to leave any unique items within your locker, when possible, before entering cryo.
- Committing suicide or logging off simply because you did not become an antagonist is not allowed. If you queue up for the round and then immediately leave the game you may be antag-banned. This also covers any attempts to maximize antagonist probability.
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Index of Policies
Policies serve as extensions of the rules, and exist to prevent bloating the rules page. Ignorance of a policy is not an excuse to ignore/break it.
Conduct we expect from admins acting in an official capacity both in and out of the servers. If you have concerns with an admin violating any of this, make a complaint on the forums.
This policy lays out how conflicts are expected to be resolved, and any breaches of this policy will be classified as either over-escalation or self-antag depending on the severity of the breach.
This page provides the naming conventions that are enforced as part of the rules.
Refer here for all your needs about silicons.
How the crew should conduct themselves during different alert levels and situations. The guidelines on this page are part of our Server Rules.