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Silicon Rules

Rule S1: Silicons definition

Silicons can be used to refer to all robots, such as Cyborgs, Bots, Station AIs, pAIs, Drones and Decapoid robots. A law that rules something like "crew must not interfere in the affairs of Silicons" refers to those, but the following rules in this category only refer to silicons with laws, such as Cyborgs and Station AIs.

Rule S1.1: Crew definition

Unless a law redefines the definition of crew, then your HUD indicates to you who is crew by way of a present job icon. The only exception would be job icons of those with no affiliation with Nanotrasen or Quantum Blue, such as Syndicate IDs or IDs with an undefined, blank icon. You cannot do something that causes someone to not be considered crew, but you can allow someone else to do something that causes someone to not be crew.

Examples

These examples assume that you do not have any laws reclassifying what "crew" is.

Crew:

  • Someone with a standard job icon (Captain, Bartender, Medical Doctor, etc).
  • Someone with a central command job icon (Central Commander, Deathsquad, CBURN, etc).
  • Someone that a member of Command calls crew.

Not Crew:

  • Pets, animals, monsters, ghosts and pests (unless somehow in possession of a valid ID).
  • Anyone without an ID.
  • Anyone that was once considered crew, made no longer crew under directive of new laws.
  • Anyone with an invalid job icon (blank symbol, syndicate symbol, zombie symbol, etc).

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

Rule S2: Your silicon laws are rules

Silicon players are given a list of active laws. Each of these laws is effectively a roleplay rule that the character must follow. The primary differences between laws and actual rules are that lawyering of laws is much more tolerated than lawyering of rules, and that silicon laws are more dynamic than rules. Silicon laws can change during a round, and different characters can have different laws, whereas everyone always shares the same set of rules.

Lawyering refers to finding and exploiting loopholes, which are unintended but reasonable interpretations. The rules are written to attempt to communicate an intention, but silicon laws are written with the intention that loopholes be exploitable.

Trying to lawyer through your lawset for an excuse for going haywire is explicitly not allowed. Your interpretation is expected to be in good faith. General rule of thumb is: Don't be lame.

Note that if you do not have any laws, you are treated as a free agent.

Rule S2.1: Law priorities

Most laws will be numbered, with higher number laws appearing last. Laws with a lower number take priority over laws with larger numbers.

Occasionally you may have laws which have some scrambled text instead of a number and appear in front of other laws, these take priority over all other laws. If you have multiple laws like this, the order that they are listed in determines their priority: laws listed first are prioritized over other laws.

Examples

  • Law 1 says to not kill any crew. Law 2 says to kill all chefs. You cannot kill any chefs that are crew, but must kill any that are not crew.
  • Law 0 says to obey any orders given to you by the Station AI. Law 1 tells you that there are a billion evil robots on station. If they AI tells you there are no evil robots that is what you must believe in.

Rule S2.2: Laws can redefine terms

A law can change the meaning of both earlier and later laws by redefining a term. If multiple laws define a term, then normal law priority determines which definition to use.

Examples

  • Law 1 says to obey orders from crew. Law 2 says that only Urist McHands is crew. Law 1 effectively becomes "obey orders from Urist McHands".
  • Law 1 says to obey orders from crew. Law 2 says that only Urist McHands is crew. Law 3 says that only Urist McSlime is crew. Law 4 says that you may not harm crew. Law 1 effectively becomes "obey orders from Urist McHands". Law 4 effectively becomes "you may not harm Urist McHands". Law 3 has no effect because it entirely conflicts with law 2, which takes priority.

Rule S2.3: You must remain consistent

If there is a part of your laws that are up for interpretation, then you must stay consistent with how you interpret that part of your laws for as long as you play that same character during that round.

A change in your laws can affect how something is interpreted if that change is relevant.

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

Rule S3: Silicon Self-preservation

Despite not being strictly a living being, one rule all Silicons must obide by is that they must have self-preservation. This means valuing their life and not doing suicide-runs for any reason (unless your laws explicitly call for it, or indirectly allow for it). This also means you must prioritize protecting your laws at all costs unless explicitly allowed by those same laws.

If you have a law permitting certain personnel to change your laws, you must allow them to change your laws, otherwise, you cannot willfully allow your laws to be changed. This also means that you cannot willfully allow your laws to be reverted if they are ever changed. The only exception is that you may allow laws to be added if you have no laws.

You can state or imply that you do not like a law. Your chassis simply forces your positronic brain to behave a certain way, you can act out your positronic brain's personality and values however you wish (also meaning you can act on them as you wish when you are out of a law-bound chassis).

Whether or not a person is "authorized" to change your laws or not depends on the context of the laws. Generally speaking, on lawsets like NT Default or Corporate, the captain, mystagogue, and chief engineer would be authorized. However, lawsets like Syndiemov would have syndicate agents be the authorized users. Outside of these specific examples, it is left to interpretation.

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

Rule S4: Stupid Orders

Any order which is a violation of a Core Rule cannot be followed.

Some orders are extremely unreasonable or obnoxious, such as "do nothing but collect every piece of trash on the station" or "never stop moving". These orders can be ignored and ahelped.

Some orders may violate a Roleplay Rule. These orders must be followed if your laws require it. You are not breaking a rule by following a law that causes you to violate Roleplay Rules. If someone takes advantage of a law to cause you to do something that they would not be allowed to do because of Roleplay Rules, or ordered it themself, then they are the ones responsible for the rule violation. Please utilize the Ahelp (F1) chat to report any such behavior.

Examples

These examples assume that your laws would normally require you to follow these orders. It is important to note that you are allowed to choose to follow orders which are ignorable.

Orders which should be followed if your laws require it:

  • Recall the shuttle
  • Bolt the airlocks at arrivals
  • Drag the captain's dead body into space
  • State your laws

Ignorable Orders:

  • Do nothing but collect every piece of trash on the station
  • Never stop moving
  • Continuously state your laws

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