Game Rules¶

Rule B1: Roleplay a believable character¶

You must roleplay a character separate from yourself, the player. This is a roleplaying game and we're all playing fictional characters, try to keep your emotions and actions separate from your own as the player.

Try to act in-character and do as your character would in that situation.
Let others do their own jobs, only help if requested to or explicitly allowed. Remember that everyone queued up for the role they wish to play and roleplay, and by doing another role's job you are both breaking roleplay expectations and taking away that person's gameplay.
A notable exception to this is if a department has no staff. You will not get in trouble for trying to get into engineering to set up power if there is no engineering staff available, for example.
Being an antagonist does not allow you to stop roleplaying a character. Determine how your character would react to being given your objectives and work through it appropriately.
No matter the odds, you are not allowed to stop roleplaying your character to play like a "can-do-it-all" super soldier that only has their antagonistic objectives in mind.
- This does mean complying (or defying) security enforcement in a believable manner. Acting suicidal in a cell or trying to break out without any regards to your character's feelings or fears is explicitly forbidden.
Do keep in mind that there are a few exceptions to this; A nuclear operative, space ninja, ratking or syndicate agent with a DAGD (Die A Glorious Death) objective are not required to roleplay as civilly as a regular syndicate agent, thief or similar. Be sensible.

Rule B1.1: Follow naming convention rules¶

You're expected to play a character with a believable name.

A lot of leniency is given for this rule, afterall we want players to be as creative as they want with their characters.
In-character names must not make obvious references nor be too over the top of a play on words, and must not be obscene. Cheesy names are okay and encouraged, but others such as "Greyson Tidus" or "Quan Tumbloo" are explicitly forbidden. Use the AHelp (F1) chat if you're not sure about your character's name!
Be careful when creating a brand new character; When making a new character the game will give you a random name and it'll remain there even after you change species. If you are a human named something like "The Hill of Determination" (a very distinctive diona name) you must pick a new, species-appropriate name.
Leniency is also given if you have given them that name for a reason. For example, "My slime person has a thaven name because they were raised by thavens and got to pick their virtue as a name" is a perfectly valid reason to have an unusual name for your species.

Rule B1.2: Communicate in character¶

Most communications should be done in-character. Don't abuse out-of-character channels.

Do not use the Emote channel to bypass an inability to speak.
Do not use "Netspeak" in character (lol, brb, wtf, u, etc) unless if in an in-character text-form (Nanochat, letters, drawings or anything for the sort).
Do not discuss Out Of Character (OOC) matters In Character (IC).
Do not bypass this by clarifying an IC message is actually OOC (example: saying IC "Dude i gotta go i'll brb (ooc)" is not allowed).
Do not avoid communications with your fellow players. If someone is speaking to you then you should normally speak back to them.

Rule B1.3: If you die and return to life, follow the new life rules¶

You must not use information gained while spectating, or information leading to your death.

If a player dies (not to be mistaken with entering a critical state), they forget roughly up to 5 minutes up until their death. Please report players who break this rule.
Please note that a cyborg being removed from its chassis is not a death, and it's up to the player whether or not to roleplay a memory loss as consequence.
Similarly, an OSI being unplugged does not constitute death.
Dionas nymphing does however qualify as death.
A character entering critical state and recovered before death can still vaguely recall any events leading up to it, unlike if they died.
Important to note that you're still encouraged to roleplay it out to some capacity instead of preparing a very elaborate paragraph to send as soon as you're awake from crit. Abusing leniency about this rule will get you punished.
If you have any questions about whether your character should or shouldn't remember something, please ask an admin through the AHelp (F1) chat. As a rule of thumb however: if remembering something would ruin the round for someone, you're probably wrong.

If you have any questions or concerns, please ask an admin via the AHelp (F1) chat.

Rule B2: Respect the Metashield¶

The Metashield is basically defining what your character shouldn't know, even if you the player knows about it. This page isn't meant to be the be-all end-all of Metashield as you are expected to play for interesting situations and not just to win. At the end of the day these guidelines exist to ensure the game is fun for everybody,

Syndicate agents and syndicate equipment¶

Most crew should know of syndicate agents, but have no reason to suspect them unless officially announced.
Security and command know about syndicate agents and the kind of equipment they have access to, but similarly shouldn't be overly paranoid about their existence unless their presence is confirmed on station (for example, seeing a small evidence of syndicate equipment like a syndicate gas mask or piece of clothing shouldn't make security and command believe there are syndicate agents onboard the same way that seeing a blood-red hardsuit or syndicate weapon might).
Security should also be aware about syndicate uplinks and check them as standard procedure, but not paranoid enough to check for other equipment unless there is active suspicion of them (chameleon items, disguised weapons, headset keys, etc).
Other antagonists that have some syndicate items as part of their equipment (bounty hunter, thief, etc) also have full knowledge of syndicate agents and their equipment.

Nuclear operatives¶

Regardless of job or role, they are to be referred to in-character as redshells or simply nuclear operatives, never "nukies".
Players are encouraged not to take redshell call-outs seriously, but this isn't a hard enforced part of the metashield.
Most crew should have heard of nuclear operatives and know they target NT affiliated stations, but have no reason to be paranoid about them unless officially confirmed.
Security and command both know about nuclear operatives and that they want the station's nuclear authentication disk, and per standard operation the disk must never be left alone.
Taking additional measures to defend the disk without confirmation of nuclear operatives is considered a violation of this metashield.

Thieves¶

Thieves themselves are in-character considered to be generic and nobody (crew or otherwise) should expect them to have anything out of the ordinary.
This means that their stealthy hands and their kit are completely metashielded.

Zombies and initial infected¶

Zombie viruses are known about by most regardless of role or job and so is it's cure.
Security and command personnel know nuclear operatives have access to samples of the zombie virus and do sometimes employ it in their operations.
Initial infected are completely metashielded. The only thing that can break this metashield is if the initial infected admits to carrying the zombie virus, or once another initial infected turns.

Space ninjas¶

Most crew know about them and their targetting of NT stations.
Security and command knows what kind of equipment they use and their sort of capabilities, but their objectives are strictly metashielded.
This means that trying to "camp" criminal record computers, announcement consoles, the RND server and other objectives is strictly forbidden.

Changelings¶

Most crews know about changelings.
Security, command and medical personnel know about testing changeling blood in a centrifuge.

Replicators¶

Security knows about them, replicator tiers and how they generally operate. Including the fact that they're not inherently hostile.

Eeeps, ratkings and other vent mobs¶

Nothing about these antagonists is metashielded.

Wizards¶

Not metashielded, as they're slanted for removal eventually anyways.

Xenoborgs¶

Most crew only vaguely knows about their existence.
Security and command are aware of their existence, the mothership, the crew-to-borg conversion and the kind of borgs/weapons they have.

Conspirators¶

Not metashielded.

If you have any questions or concerns, please ask an admin via the AHelp (F1) chat.

Rule B3: Powergaming guidelines¶

"Powergaming" is the act of prioritizing winning over roleplaying or fun.

This is a roleplaying game first and foremost, and definitely not a competitive PvP game and you are expected to treat it as such. Acting a vulnerable character with flaws and playing along with other people's bits is part of the fun, and attempts to avoid them are a clear breach of this rule.

Try to engage with players if they are attempting to roleplay a scene, whether it's an innocent social interaction or a antag-crew interaction. For example: If someone walks up to you and tries talking to you, you should not respond by wordlessly gunning them down or otherwise ruining the scene.
Some leeway is granted depending on the context. When trying to roleplay with an active shooter, a rampaging ratking or anything of the sort you shouldn't expect them to stop only to start speaking to you.
Trying to hide antagonist objectives preemptively without good reason WILL get you in trouble
Non-security should not try to kill or detain threats under most situations.
Exceptions may still apply. For example if there is no security or if all of security is incapacitated you may be given some leeway.
Do note that security being busy still doesn't give you reason to do their job for them.
Some leeway may be given with VERY good escalation. Read rule B4 for more information on this.

If you have any questions or concerns, please ask an admin via the AHelp (F1) chat.

Rule B4: Escalation¶

Generally, per Server Rules, it's discouraged to hunt down or 'validhunt' people who you suspect may be antagonists based on IC or OOC knowledge. Escalation rules specifically exist to facilitate hostile interactions between antagonists and non-antagonists, while accounting for the disconnect between OOC and IC knowledge. However, escalation can also apply to interactions between non-antagonists. In addition, some antagonists inherently have lethal intent, and as such some escalation rules may be skipped when interacting with them. It can get confusing.

Escalation is graded on a basis of lethality. The general scale goes verbal - nonlethal (stun batons, unarmed shoves, etc.) - harmful (anything that does damage) - lethal (the distinction between punching someone once or twice versus attacking them into crit) - round removal. Depending on the situation, this scale might not be completely applicable, but it's the foundational guideline for these interactions.

When interacting with someone, consider what level of lethality they are engaging with you at. This might change over time - someone trying to approach you with lethal intent might fall into crit, at which point they are no longer a threat, and can be de-escalated against by getting them medical treatment. Similarly, a person firing off a single warning shot doesn't have the same intent as someone engaged in an active firefight. Take the other player's intentions into account, and work together to tell an engaging story.

As a note, non-antagonists should not be seeking to round remove anyone in any cases other than extreme circumstances.

If you have any questions or concerns, please ask an admin via the AHelp (F1) chat.

Rule B5: Self-antagging¶

"Self-antag" is the act of antagonizing when playing a crew-aligned role or job. For example, breaking into the captain's office as a non-antagonist passenger.

As a roundstart crew member of the station, you are allied with Nanotrasen and Quantum Blue.
Do not act like an antagonist if you are not an antagonist.
Willfully assisting known antagonists is self-antagonism.
Leeway is given in the case of bribes, coercion, blackmailing or other forms of applied duress.
Crew-aligned characters are expected to at the very least report crimes. Leeway is given to prioritize rule A0 (for example, not reporting something you were only able to find out about due to in-game jank, such as seeing a gun poking through a wall, is allowed and encouraged).
Actively seeking conversion or transformation into an antagonist is self-antagonism.
Clowns, mimes and theater roles are expected to entertain the crew, and should not be committing regular felonies in order to do so.
End-of-round grief (EORG) is not permitted. This means attacking, destroying, disrupting and severely injuring without reason after the shuttle has docked at Central Command. Remember that you are playing a character throughout the round, and our roleplay rules do not evaporate at Central Command.
Pay close attention to our definition of EORG and how it differs to other servers; Other servers will allow you to EORG at Central Command, while others won't let you commit any antagonistic acts in the evac shuttle. Neither applies here.

As crew you can still commit some degree of self-antagonism if you parse it through very believable and well-paced roleplay. Have an in-character reason for opposing others.

The required reason depends on the situation and while the rule of thumb is to follow rule A0.

If you have any questions or concerns, please ask an admin via the AHelp (F1) chat.