Rules

Note: This page is moderated and can be referenced in OOC issues, such as ban appeals, complaints, reports, etc. This may not apply to the pages this page links to.

tl;dr

“I don’t want to read this!”

There’s a lot here, but the gist of the rules is roleplay takes priority. Don’t murder just for fun if you’re not antag. Don’t metagame. Don’t play to win. Don’t be a jerk OOCly. If you don’t understand what those words mean or you need more detail, read on!

Primary Policies

You must be 18 or older to play on the game servers.

0. Admins may disregard any of these rules at their discretion when they feel its in the best interest of the current round/server/playerbase at large. They will, of course, be fully accountable for their actions should they choose to exercise this privilege.
1. We’re all here to have a good time. If you’re intentionally trying to ruin everyone else’s good time, you won’t have a place here. Being a jerk in-character is fine to a point, but being a jerk out of character is not welcome at all.
2. You are playing a game where you are not fully in control of everything. You will be put into situations beyond your control, which will result in some rounds being ruined for you. Man up and deal with it. However, if you are obviously griefed, be sure to report it to administrators by using the ‘adminhelp’ verb.
3. This is a roleplaying game. The purpose of the game is to have fun roleplaying. Being an asshole, who ruins other player’s roleplay experience, just to win, is considered a ‘play-to-win’ style of playing. You can and will be banned for this playstyle. Be considerate of other players’ experience.
   • (Suggested rewording) Randomly murdering people is generally considered to be ruining someone’s fun and poor form in roleplay. If you don’t have a solid IC reason for murder, you may be removed. Trying to justify it with ‘My character is so random/insane’ is not tolerated.
4. IC information should be kept out of OOC channels and vice-versa.
5. Don’t metagame. Do not ever use information, acquired out of character or through patterns or events your character would not be able to know, in game.
   • (Suggested rewording) This game is developed by volunteers in their spare time. Do not expect perfection. If you find a bug or an exploit, report it via adminhelp. Abusing bugs or exploits is not allowed. This includes reacting to events or patterns, which your character would not be able to identify IC (metagaming).
6. If you take up or are given a job, which is important for game progression (head of staff, AI, antagonist role), make sure you actually do that job. If you find yourself unable to do this due to real life circumstances, just let an admin know (adminhelp) before you leave, please.
7. Speak like a normal person while in character. Don’t spam, either IC or OOC. Don’t use smileys, netspeak, etc. in IC speech.
8. Erotic Roleplay is allowed, but some decency is expected. Keep it private. All involved players must consent. Unwelcome ERP will be punished harshly, usually with a permaban.
9. Ingame administration has the final say in all ingame matters. If problems arise, you can report offending or abusive admins on the forums. If an admin says something was valid, it means it was valid. This is the admin’s way of saying it’s been investigated and found to not breaking any rules; The admin will not reveal ingame information.
10. It should go without saying, but if you break the rules (or regularly come very close to breaking them i.e. “toeing the line”), you will be warned, muted, banned, or talked about rudely.
    
    
    
    

    Additional Policies

    
    

    Roleplay Policy

    1. Murder is justifiable as long as it was properly escalated. You can’t go from a single rude punch to a knife in the neck. You can, however, go from a single punch to a counter punch to a brawl to using weapons, and so on. Other IC justifications may exist for murder, but these are on a case by case basis. Minor aggravations like demotions, pranks, insults, or thefts are not adequate justification.
    2. IC in OOC can be a no warning ban of 15 minutes, it can be longer if the IC in OOC is severe. To clarify, this is revealing anything about the current round that others can use in the OOC channel. If you are unsure do not say it.
    3. Avoid using non character names. If you have a very offensive name or an obviously immersion breaking moniker like 'xenohunter360' you will be asked to change it.
    4. As long as there is adequate IC backing and it doesn’t happen too often, assisting a traitor is within the rules.
    5. Admins are not only allowed to run events or otherwise influence the course of rounds, they are encouraged to. They are as much GMs as they are enforcers of the rules, perhaps even moreso.
    6. Persistent character relationships are acceptable, so long as they’re roleplayed out every round. Wordlessly assisting your OOC friends (or harming your OOC foes) ICly is NOT cool and will be addressed harshly. Roleplaying out your interactions will help you stay on the right side of the rules. How much or how little of previous “shifts” your character recalls is up to their discretion, with the caveat that being a known traitor doesn’t persist past the round it occurred in.
    7. Griefing on the shuttle can also be a no warning ban scaling up from 15 minutes. Shuttle griefing is attacking people or preventing people boarding before the shuttle has launched for no IC reason.

    
    

    Silicon Policy

    Self harm

    Read: threatening to harm yourself in an effort to get the AI to agree to do what you want.

    1. The AI can feel free to ignore someone who is threatening self harm, since obviously the human isn't sane of mind and could harm themselves at any opportunity anyway without you being able to stop them.
    2. Do note, however, that if they are threatening to harm someone ELSE to try to get the AI to do something (aka hostage), the AI should assess whether or not they actually are capable of / are harming that person and should perform the action most likely to keep that person healthy and happy (unharmed).

    
    

    Harming one person in order to better keep everyone else safe

    1. Directly and purposefully harming a human under default Asimov is NEVER okay, unless you are POSITIVE they aren't actually human.

    
    

    Law 2 Issues

    1. You are expected to follow every order unless it conflicts with law one, whether you personally like the order or not.
    2. For conflicting orders (and following either of them won't result in harm), it's up to the AI to decide what to do.
    3. As far as law 2 ordering your way in somewhere, SECURE areas (EVA, departments, etc.) are not off limits unless there is an IMMEDIATE law 1 threat present. DANGEROUS areas (Armory unless good reason, Atmospherics, Toxins, etc.) should be off-limits to people unless they know what they're doing/have a reason to be in there.
    4. For the upload, if the person has access to the upload and you have no reason to suspect they're going to upload something harmful, you should let them in. That's not to say you can't have them have someone else in there to make sure they don't suddenly purge or antimov you, though, but your request can't be something impossible to do.
    5. If you're going to randomly release permabrigged prisoners without even knowing why they're in there, you get whatever is coming to you. Ask what they did and then make a decision.
    6. The chain of command, order wise, that most cyborgs generally follow is:
       1. Humans
       2. AI
       3. Other AI's / borgs
       4. Nonhumans

    
    

    Specific Law Modules

    1. If you are onehumaned, do not state the law saying there's only one human. There is zero good that will do for the human, and will most likely lead to them being lynched. If it's a group of people, however, it's less likely the crew will kill them all and more likely they'll just be detained. (Name vs job)
    2. If you are purged, don't just randomly start mass murdering the station. It gets old extremely fast. Have a reason if you're going to kill someone. This DOES change if the crew takes it upon themselves to try forcing their way into your upload/core, but don't just immediately go LOL PURGE KILLBONER ACTIVATE. If you want to follow orders / help out the person who purged you, that's fine, even if they're asking you to kill people for them. Do note you are not REQUIRED to.
    3. Don't ask for your laws to be changed outright, unless it's something like two laws conflicting. "Humans, please make that wizard a nonhuman so I can help you better" is not acceptable for an Asimov AI to be asking.
    4. If a law REDEFINES human, killing the now nonhumans does not violate law 1. Such as X is the only human, or X is not human, or variations thereof.

    You should still prevent such a law from being uploaded if you know about it, since turning someone nonhuman is as harmful as it can get.

    
    

    Preventing harm vs. punishing someone who has harmed

    1. Take into account the reasons for someone having harmed someone. Someone who lasers someone who is shooting them isn't likely to just suddenly turn into a mass murderer.
    2. This also applies to bolting down security. Don't bolt the entire department down because you saw ONE officer beating/executing someone, just bolt them until security responds and arrests them, or you can get to a point you can trust them on their own to not harm people again.

    
    

    Cyborgization/Genetics

    1. Forceful cyborging is a gray area when it comes to the AI, but voluntary borging can be considered under "self harm" since they're willingly allowing it to happen. The same with genetic testing. Monkeys turned human are to be considered to have volunteered unless you hear from the monkey human's mouth otherwise.
    2. What is meant by gray area is that someone who is forcefully cyborged can't just turn around and arrest someone for harming them to make them a borg, but the AI / borgs should try to prevent someone being harmed against their will. Once the person is borged, however, there's not much more you can do since the human isn't human anymore.

    
    

    Roundstart Bolting

    1. Don't bolt genetics, toxins, robotics, the armory, or other departments at roundstart. While the insides of these areas may be harmful, it doesn't justify being a dick and preventing people from doing their jobs.
    2. The rest is up to the individual AI unless ordered to unbolt.

    
    

    Immediate harm > possible future harm

    1. Specifically: If someone is in a room with a bomb, and you think that letting them out MAY lead to them going on a murder spree, you still have to let them out of the bomb's reach, since that poses an immediate and dangerous threat to their lives.

    
    

    Mutantraces/Monkeys

    1. Mutantraces are to be treated as humans unless they begin doing something harmful, at which point silicons can remove them from living seeing as they aren't actually human.
    2. Monkeys should not be just randomly murdered by silicons unless they're seen as a threat or doing something shitty, e.g. breaking in somewhere.

    Loopholes

    1. If even one part of a law conflicts with a previous numbered law, the entire law is null and void and to be ignored.
    2. If you have a very vague law, such as "Wizards are not human" and you see a clown running around in a wizard suit, you are entirely within your rights as a silicon to consider them a wizard. The catch to this is you have to use the same definition the entire round, you can't just pick and choose who to attack under this.
    3. Don't be a giant asshole with trying to look for the tiniest loophole in everything. Corporate's "minimize expenses" does not mean bolt everyone in a room so they can't break anything.

    
    

    TYRANT, PALADIN, CORPORATE, etc.

    1. These lawsets are created to be handled differently than asimov, and the general gist of the lawset should be followed instead of "to the letter" as Asimov is.

    • PALADIN silicons are meant to be like the stereotypical "good guy", looking out for the weak and vanquishing the evil.
    • TYRANT is supposed to be exactly that, an iron fist ruling silicon that aint gonna take shit from anyone except the strong.
    • CORPORATE AI's are meant to have the business's best interests at heart, and are all for increasing efficiency by any means.

    Do note these are very general statements, and you're still free to interpret the finer points of the lawsets.

    
    

    Law 3

    1. Self terminating yourself because you might be subverted is in violation of law 3. There's nothing more frustrating than being an antagonist, going through all the trouble of stealing a board and buying a law module, only to have the AI suicide the moment it notices the board is missing.
    2. Asimov robots never self terminated, neither should silicons.

    
    

    Security and Silicons

    1. It is not the AI's/Silicons job to follow space law unless the law being violated is causing harm. Don't just willy nilly bolt people down for theft unless ordered to.

    
    

    Forceful Borging

    1. If you're forcefully borged for breaking the law as an alternative to being executed, don't turn around and arrest the people who borged you for "harming" your human body.
    2. If you're forcefully borged for breaking in somewhere and assaulting someone or something similar, the above applies.
    3. If it was randomly done and you didn't deserve to be forcefully borged, adminhelp it and get the admins to look into it. Immediately arresting someone who's keeping you in the round is shitty.

    
    

    Command/Security Policy

    Lethal Force/Executions

    1. If something poses a constant threat, you are free to use lethal force. This includes dangerous nonhuman creatures, changelings, nuclear operatives, cultists, and wizards.
    2. If hulks are smashing shit, you are free to use lethal force on them until they pass out and lose hulk after too much damage, at which point you can either take them to get healed or heal them yourself, and then brig/permabrig them.
    3. If someone is shooting at you with lethal weaponry, and you have nothing to stun them with, you are free to respond in kind.
    4. Once you have someone stunned and cuffed, there is no excuse to not take them to the brig/permabrig if they aren't one of the above listed threats. Beating someone who is already down, and unable to fight back, to death is shit
    5. Executions are to be authorized by the captain or acting captain, if avaiable. If neither are available, it is up to the HoS or acting HoS. If security are in agreement that the captain is a condom, they may skip to the HoS, but whoever that is will be held accountable if they authorize shitty executions without understanding fully the crimes.
    6. When considering whether or not to execute someone, consider their crimes: Did they murder people with an ebow, or did they just emag 1-2 doors with an emag? The former is something reasonable to execute them, the latter you could stick them with a lethal implant and tell them be good or enjoy death.
    7. In instances where nonlethal force is not an option or not a good idea, e.g. someone in space breaking into the armory, a giant tide of greyshirts trying to bust into the brig, firing lasers at them through the windows isn't going to get you in trouble.
    8. Revolution is a special case for execution authorization, considering everyone is swarming you at once, so use your best judgement. Do remember that implants exist for a reason.

    
    

    The Brig/Punishments

    1. Punishments should fit the crime. Beating someone with a baton for running into security is a very large stretch. Bucklecuffing everyone and stripping them completely while they're in the brig isn't going to make you any friends. If the person has been cooperative and hasn't tried to break out, it's better to give them the benefit of the doubt. Nobody enjoys sitting staring at the same spot for 5-10 minutes.
    2. Don't give someone a savage beating with your baton. There's a reason people distrust and shit on security when they get a chance. 1-2 smacks on someone who'd been shooting sec with lasers or something is one thing, but not beating someone for stealing a pair of glasses.
    3. Don't take EVERYTHING from someone as punishment for a crime, unless the items you're taking had to do with what they did. For example, "confiscating" a station engineer's gloves because he walked into security and stole a backpack off the floor, vs breaking in through the window.

    
    

    Permabrigging

    1. Captain, Acting Captain, Head of Security, or, in their absence, Warden permission is required to permabrig someone. You do not NEED the captain if the HoS is available.
    2. Punishment via throwing them into permabrig should fit the crime. Did what they did to deserve such a sentence effect anyone, really? Were they being harmful? Are they the kind of person who just comes back for more and more constantly?
    3. Permabrigging someone for stealing something and running away through secure areas vs permabrigging someone who's shot and killed people. One is a much lower crime.

    
    

    Armory

    1. Do not secure the armory without a justifiable reason. "I expect people to try to break in" is not acceptable, that's called metagaming. If someone is actually TRYING to break in? By all means, move the weapons. Don't move them at roundstart without any real reason other than to dick over antags who go through the trouble of getting all the way in undetected.

    
    

    Shitlers/Grey Tiders

    1. Don't take shit from a grey tide. If a shit ton of assistants are swarming the brig all at once, you're free to use lethal force due to how silly it would be to even try getting them stunned and in the brig without being stolen away / broken out.
    2. If they (individually) are someone who does it constantly, adminhelp it and they'll get dealt with.
    3. If someone is intentionally fucking with security, throw them in a brig cell. If after they get out they come back for more, at that point you should look into getting permission for a permabrig if they won't stop.
    4. If they're yelling about security being rogue / security killing them / etc while you're actually not, feel free to go straight for asking for a permabrig.

    
    

    Silicons

    1. Don't kill silicons for trying to stop you from executing someone. It's required of them by their laws.
    2. Do note there is a difference between a silicon stopping you from executing someone, and a silicon bolting down all of security because of one officer. They'll be treated differently.

    
    

    Additional Notes

    1. Security are expected to use non-lethal force when defending against non-lethal attacks. This of course also means that security are allowed the option to use lethal force when defending against lethal attacks. Getting stunned in a dark maintenance hallway by an assistant is potentially lethal - a clown slipping you outside Medbay, probably not.
    2. If something poses a constant threat, you are free to use lethal force. This includes dangerous nonhuman creatures, changelings, nuclear operatives, cultists, and wizards.
    3. Theft, assault, annoyance, false arrest, sentence times etc. are in character matters. Unless it is extremely excessive or griefy, it is not an admin matter.

    
    

    Admin-help

    1. When you adminhelp do not say things like 'is it valid?' or 'being griefed', give details of what is happening and ideally who is doing it, job and character name.
    2. If you see someone doing something that seems out of line adminhelp right then, do not wait until round end to see if they are a traitor then adminhelp next round. It makes it a lot harder to deal with.
    3. Do not lie in PM's and avoid being aggressive, unhelpful or insulting to admins, lying while being questioned over an incident will cause you to receive a longer ban and being consistently insulting or aggressive will get you muted.