---
# System prepended metadata

title: Main Rules
tags: [Admin]

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###### tags: `Admin`

# Main Rules

## NOTICE
**This is a WIP draft and subject to change.**

### Changelog

11/23/20
- erp ooc notes clarification
- catatonic players
- clarification on SSD acronym
- metacomms exception clause for teaching newbies
- clarification on netspeak and text channels
- removal of "no titles" clause from naming policy
- "comedic character" clause on naming policy
- clause on CC characters
- adjustments to 6. Validhunting
- added clause on waiting the entire round to adminhelp
- added clause on head of staff departmental knowledge
- added metafriending clause, helping antagonists clause, clarifies character creation
- Added clause for handing out powergaming gear
- modified metaknowledge clause to only include traitor gear with everything else being valid
- modified clause for validhunting: 'solo' conversion antagonists from the eldritch affairs update who are just traitors with magic are not considered conversion antagonists

## Important

**These rules are enforced in addition to [Global Rules/Community Guidelines](/afcZL-eoTFmz0W_DtvZs1w). Read both.**
These rules apply to the Citadel Main SS13 server.

## Summary/tl;dr
**Read the actual rules - There's many definitions and clarifications that doesn't fit in this summary. This is to give a general idea.**

0. **Elastic Clause** - Citadel Main strives for a gameplay-focused experience in an environment with a moderate level of roleplay. Admins are free to intervene as they see fit if someone is ruining it for everyone else.
1. **Griefing** - Do not go out of your way to make the **player** at the other end of the screen miserable.
    - **Metagrudging** - Do not overly pursue previous round issues you take with another player to the point of ruining their experience in future rounds.
    - **Don't randomly kill people with no rhyme or reason** - shouldn't have to be said
    - **Don't be a dick to AFK players** - Whether by stripping their things outside of an emergency or by attacking them. Special guidelines in rule.
2. **Immersion Clause** - Keep IC and OOC behaviors and **per round knowledge separate**. Make an effort to keep immersion intact.
    - **Metacomms (communicating in-round information outside of the game with other players) is strictly forbidden.** If you need to do it to help a new player, **ahelp first.**
    - **Keep IC out of OOC until the round ends.**
    - **Netspeak** - Avoid text acronyms and emoticons in character, other than via text channels like PDAs/in game computer IRC
    - This rule covers baseline immersion expectations and metagaming/metakonwledge. Broader roleplay concepts are covered by rule 3.
3. **Staying in character** - Keep your character and their actions/tendencies semi realistic for the setting. Realism is not policed to the letter, but have a mild bit of sense.
    - **Escalation** - Make a best faith effort to escalate conflicts reasonably. Don't go from a single hit to killing someone, don't permanently remove people from the round or hide bodies, **talk first and make a best faith effort where possible.**
    - **Naming policy** - realistic name for species, don't copy popular culture names. Information in rule. **Comedic characters/gimmicks in good taste exempt.**
    - Take heed of antagonist knowledge policy, detailed in the rule.
    - Outside of exceptions in said policy, we do not specifically police IC knowledge of game mechanics.
    - **Characters must be obviously over 18.**
    - **Character relationships** - don't go out of your way to give too many IC advantages to your friends, whether IC or OOC. Don't grudge other characters cross round too hard. Character relationships and dynamics are absolutely allowed but this is a round based game, keep it tasteful and reasonable!
    - **Helping antagonists** - Have IC reason to help antagonists. The more violent an act the more reason you need. Players are not required to hunt down antagonists unless it's their job, but are expected otherwise to assist the crew in the context of their job.
4. **Fulfill your role** - A mild effort is required for anyone playing a job role in a round. Perfection is not required, but ditching your role without an attempt to fulfill it is unacceptable.
    - If you don't know how, make an effort to learn.
    - **Heads of staff are held to a high standard - information in rule.** If you are one, be a good example and leader, and do not overdo it with the shennanigans. Don't abuse your power to make others miserable. **You are important to the round**, if you need to leave, adminhelp and tell the crew.
    - Stay in your lane - do not steal other people's job(s) without a good reason. Clarification in rules - this is also connected to Rules 6 and 7.
5. **Powergaming** - Do not play to "win" the game or otherwise attempt to unnecessarily and unreasonably prepare for conflict to ensure you always come out on top.
    - Do not unnecessarily prepare for conflict/prepare powerful items and abilities to win conflicts
    - Do not attempt to make yourself the center of every round that transpires by eliminating conflict before it begins
    - **Losing is part of the game - if you never lose, you are likely trying too hard.**
    - Have a reason for handing out powerful items, don't aim to give everyone powerful equipment or abilities for no reason.
6. **Validhunting** - Do not go out of your way to hunt down antagonists/troublemakers without an IC reason to do so.
    - **What the person/threat is doing is more important than if they are or are not an antagonist.**
    - **Conversely, if you make yourself dangerous to the station, not being an antagonist will not protect you from crew retaliation.**
    - Have IC reasoning for throwing your own life on the line to hunt someone down
    - If there is no security/crew around able to stop a threat, you are allowed to intervene. If there is a reasonable amount of crew dedicated to containing a threat, consider putting your job first and letting them do theirs, rather than attempting to do theirs for them.
    - **Serious threats to individual crew life or station integrity as a whole you directly witness, as well as threats that will impact the entire station/be life threatening for all crew can be interfered with at will by crew regardless of role.** See detailed descriptions in this rule!
7. **Shenanigans Clause / "Greytiding"** - People are allowed and sometimes encouraged to cause shenannigans to keep things interesting.
    - **Keep things fresh** - Don't always make yourself a consistent nuisence, don't always harass the same person/role/department, don't always do the same thing. Switch it up and people will have fun rather than just being ticked off.
    - **Read the round** - If this rule applies to you, you aren't an antagonist. Therefore, if the round is hellish, don't make it worse. If the crew is already occupied wtih a severe threat, don't become a major problem. If the round goes to hell while you're causing issues, stop causing issues and start helping - you're a crewmember, not an antagonist.
    - **Heads of staff/Security/Authority** - Show the minimum courtesy towards IC authority, give them the time of day and respect decisions where reasonable. You are not required to comply with everything, no one signed up for a game to follow orders at all times. Don't make their lives a living hell purely for your own enjoyment.
    - **Mutinies** - Have a good reason to mutiny - not because you don't like them but because they are a threat or detriment to everyone else. Valid demotions by the captain and arrests by security are not mutiny. If in doubt, adminhelp.
8. **ERP** - The game comes before ERP. However, do not interrupt ERP unnecessarily. Do not involve unwilling players in your erotic scenes - recognize that not everyone wants to partake/spectate.
    - **Do not use sexual mechanics, *especially vore*, for a gameplay advantage.**
    - **No means no, don't be a creep.** Respect OOC notes if the character has them.
    - Public ERP is not protected - see rules for details. **Be reasonable.**
9. **When issues arise** - Adminhelp if you have a problem. Do not wait until the end of the round or, even worse, until after the round. If no one responds in a few minutes, open a discord support ticket. Admins are not obligated to give you the exact outcome of a ticket, especially in-round.

## 0. Elastic Clause
**Citadel Main is aimed towards a balance between gameplay and roleplay.** While we lean towards organic gameplay, a moderate level of roleplaying is expected for the server's environment.
Administrators may intervene as they see fit with rounds as well as with sanctions towards problematic individuals in general for the best interests of this environment.
Staffmembers, of course, will be held responsible for their actions under this.

## 1. Griefing

**Do not go out of your way to make the player on the other side of the screen miserable.** We are all here to have a nice time on a video game. Expect admin intervention if you're going out of your way to harass or ruin another player's enjoyment.
**Do not go out of your way to ruin peoples' enjoyment of the server as a whole.** This will be invoked if someone is specifically making everyone miserable for little to no reason - this can include randomly killing people, randomly exploding the station, etc etc. **This rule is focused on actions that can not feasibly be explained to be IC, at all.**
- There is context to this - we are not here to police feeilngs. However, if it is clear that what you are doing would make the average person uncomfortable/be enough to harass an average person out of the server/community, it will be consituted as griefing.
- Obviously, in game/character conflicts stay in game/character in most cases. **Killing someone with flimsy IC reasoning is a breach of escalation (RULE 4), NOT GRIEFING.** Killing people for no reason at all, however, **is**.
- Causing trouble IC in general is not griefing. See "Antagonist Actions" (Rule 7) and "Staying in character" (Rule 3)

### Metagrudging

Do not overly grudge other players for grievances from previous rounds, especially in ways that would seriously/mechanically impact their round experience.
- Bringing things up from previous rounds in general is not part of this - unless it's done **constantly** just to harass another player
- Cases of this is hard to police - we do not wish to force people to pretend to get along with people they don't like. **The spirit of this rule is to put in a best faith to not negatively impact peoples' rounds too much.** Round-based gameplay comes first here.

Some examples of unacceptable metagudging:
- Punishing people for previous round grievances
- Going after people and inciting conflict with them, **especially as a position of authority/power** (read: sec/command), over previous round grievances.
- Refusing to assist someone entirely because you don't like them when it'd make IC sense for you to (medical refusing revivals, refusing to obey a head of staff because you don't like them with NO current round reasoning, etc).

Act in best faith and you will not fall astray of this. Personal conflicts are very much allowed - and even in the above, people who hate each other are allowed to fight in reasonable circumstances. Just do not go out of your way to ruin anyone's day, **or to drag uninvolved players into your conflict repeatedly.**

### On AFK players

**Avoid inconveniencing AFK players in general.**
This may include attacking, forcefully injecting them with chemicals, stealing their stuff outside of an emergency, and similar inconveniencing in general.

**It is acceptable to strip AFK players for some of their gear in an emergency/pressing IC need**

**If they disconnect in combat**, you may finish the fight to its conclusion, especially if you are security attempting to arrest someone. It sucks but, combat logging isn't to be a thing.

**If you weren't already in combat, avoid initiating combat until they are back. If you are security attempting to arrest someone, however, you are allowed to do that,** as disappointing as it may be for them - however, keep in mind that it might be more fun to turn a blind eye.

**As an antagonist, it is considered good courtesy to avoid killing people who are disconnected, but it is allowed if you were otherwise intending to kill them.** Stealing from AFK players is also allowed if you are an antagonist.

- While in many cases catatonic players can be assumed to be gone forever, **don't just kill someone if they're catatonic.** Stripping for equipment is generally okay, though. Try to make a best faith effort to see if they're actually gone - the game is different these days and sometimes they're still around.

### On "gay baby jails" or otherwise inescapable prisons

Trapping other players in inescapable prisons where they can not feasibly break out, call for help or communicate to other players is considered griefing. **In certain situations, doing this is worse than just killing them.**
Examples: Trapping a player in a N2O knockout-gas room with no way to escape ad-infinitum. Keeping other players knocked out forever. Fully stripping someone and entombing them in walls so that they can never escape.

- Players are here to play the game, not stare at a blank screen. If they're so dangerous you need to do this, **kill them**. The amount of escalation you'd need to justify this kind of action would be enough to justify murder anyways.
- **Temporary entrapment using tactics like these is not part of this policy.** Try not to forget about people, and don't remove radios other than in extreme emergencies if you are doing this.
- **The spirit of this policy is more important than its exact wording.**. The point is to not force people to stare at a blank screen without interaction, not to prevent players from confining each others' characters.
- Admins are recommended to rectify this with round intervention rather than punishing the offender if the intention behind infractions is not malicious.

## 2. IC and OOC separation / Immersion Clause

**Keep IC and OOC knowledge separate.** This rule **mainly** pertains to per-round information, and forms the basis for IC immersion. Broader policy on roleplay is detailed in rule 3.
- This means you can not act on information your character does not know.
- The game usually tells you if you should forget past lives, but use some common sense if it's obvious you shouldn't know information.
- In general, you are allowed to remember all information that you have while playing the same **mind** - minds are usually transferred with brain swaps/procedures like being turned into a cyborg with your brain in a MMI, etc etc.
- **Deadchat information is OOC knowledge.**

### Clone/Revival Memory Disorder
**SPECIAL NOTE** - This is outlined in game and you will know it when you see it. It is shown to players who are revived. **Obey the text.**

### Metacommunications

**Metacommunications** is defined as sharing in game information private to a player's character(e.g. what you see, what you know of the other players in round, etc), to another player outside of in-character communications channels.
- This includes any information gained from deadchat/similar. Although the rule 
- Outside of IC communications may include but are not limited to voice chat, discord channels, private messaging, etc etc
- This rule is in place to prevent anyone from having an unfair advantage by using information their character should not know. Do not skirt around it - the spirit of the rule is what counts here. If it is proven that you are breaching this to provide an unfair advantage harmful to other players, all players involved will be removed from the server, dependent on severity.

**An exception may be made for someone teaching a new player - ADMINHELP TO INFORM US!**

### Netspeak

**Netspeak** pertains to certain kinds of out of game typing that is generally viewed to be immersion breaking
Brief list of examples (not limited to these):
- **Text messaging abbreviations**: wtf, lol, brb, afk
- **Emoticons**: :), OwO, ^_^

**Abbreviations of head of staff/job titles/names/etc are okay**. Examples: HoS, RD, CMO, Capt, Secoff, etc. It's up to you whether or not you want your character to speak these proper or using their abbreviations.

**Netspeak is okay over in-game text communication channels.** Things like PDAs, computer/tablet IRC, etc.
**Binary channel and EAL/binary language is not considered text.**

### OOC concepts

**OOC Concepts** are things like lag, network ping, the game's code, and other fourth-wall breaking concepts that your character would not know in universe.

**We do not disallow referencing them, but we do require an effort to make them more compatible with the universe.**
Examples:
"Time dilation", instead of lag/ping/latency
A lazy one, but "My brain crashed", or better, "Woops, sudden SSD" (SSD = sudden/space sleep disorder, lore thing in some HRP servers for someone disconnected), rather than "client crashed", "computer crashed", and similar.
"Physics/reality is broken today" rather than "coders bugged the game".

## 3. Staying in character

The Main server does not enforce severe manners of realism on character antics. We want shenanigans to be possible and funny/interesting character setups to be possible, but **we also want people to be *marginally* believable as a member of Nanotrasen's crew**.

- **CHARACTERS MUST BE *OBVIOUSLY* OVER 18. Don't even go near the line of making a character seem underage - this is zero tolerance.**

### On character personalities

We do not have a hard limit on what personality a character may act like, with some exceptions.
- **My character is crazy** is not an excuse to break the rules. If your character is so crazy they can't last a day at a wacky futuristic research station without killing their coworkers/blowing up the workplace/going completely nuts they don't belong on the station.
- **Characters with mental quirks that fall into being volatile/otherwise unstable** are allowed - but, if this starts to impact gameplay, we may intervene and tell you to tone it down/change it up.
    - This is doubly so for security/command/roles of authority and power. While having a depressive/slightly maniacal head of security might be fun once in a blue moon, we really do not want people using this as an excuse to mess with others repeatedly.
- **Characters that tend to be hostile/abrasive** are allowed. However, keep it in good faith - do not grief and have some discretion. **See Rule 1.**

#### On in-game suicide
**No sane character is going to commit suicide at random.** Have very good IC reasons for doing so - if you just want to leave the round, **cryo out**.

### Naming Policy / Copied Characters

- Characters may not be named after real-life celebrities or politicians, **or** characters from popular culture and/or video games.
    - This is only applicable to a direct copy, as well as low effort near-complete replicas (Tronald Dump vs Donald Trump, etc).
    - Naming your character **like** someone but not as someone is acceptable. (Gronkowski Zilet vs Rob Gronkowski, where the latter is a football player)
    - Acting **like** someone is acceptable (Marisa Kirie vs Kirisame, where the character also acts characteristic to the one from fiction). **Keep things reasonably believable for the setting of the game, however.**
- Character names **may** contain titles, like Dr. Mr. Capt., etc. Try to keep it in good taste for the character - don't be surprised if people make fun of you for signing on as Officer \<name\>
- Character names **may not** contain nicknames. E.g. Jason "Jay" Brooks
- Character names **may** contain middle names. E.G. Carly M. Snyder
- Otherwise, character names only need to make a fragment of sense for the character's species. We recognize we're a server with allowances for many unique characters, from full humans to anthromorphs to robots/synthetics to anything in between. We do not enforce "Firstname Lastname" naming - far from it. Just have it make a figment of sense.

#### On comedic characters, theatrical roles, one-off gimmicks, antagonists, etc.
One-off super gimmicky roles like wizard, as well as the theatrical Clown/Mime roles are **generally exempt** from naming policy. If you somehow make a name too offensive admins may ask you to change it or change it for you, but you should generally be fine.

**We will not get upset at gimmicky/comedic character naming** like "Mr Bones" the skeleton bartender, "The Fuzz" moth-security, etc.

### Escalation - "On beating up your coworkers"

Characters should respond to and escalate conflicts in a reasonable manner.
We do not require realistic ettiquite - this is a game. Regardless, have some tact, it is impossible to write a policy that covers every situation without being too lax or too restrictive, but if you make yourself to be such a problem in that you **seek out escalation for the purpose of inconveniencing everyone as much as you can**, you will be considered the problem rather than everyone else.

Some general guidelines and examples:
- Killing people other than in self defense should be a last resort. Things **need** to escalate to that point.
- Small-time scuffles are generally fine - however, wordless violence with zero roleplay or IC reasoning is strictly prohibited.
- Fists/weapons --> crit --> actually aiming to kill after repeated/sustained conflict is a good guesstimation for how things should go.
- If you're reading this section you're probably not an antagonist - you should probably not want your coworkers to rot, dead. Don't ever hide bodies or dispose of other players permanently without **an extremely good and pressing IC reason.**
- Someone broke into your workplace? Tell them to get out - if they don't listen, make them listen with increasing force. **Don't wordlessly kill people for breaking and entry.**
- The person who starts a conflict should generally err on the side of caution when it comes to being overly violent. In the above example, **if you were the person breaking in, probably don't maim/kill someone for trying to get you out of their workplace - you're in the wrong.**
- Above all else, **valid IC reasoning can alleviate circumstances. Make a good, conscious effort, and you'll be fine. We all screw up at times, this policy is aimed towards people who go out of their way to be a prick.**

### On characters with antagonist/special backgrounds

Characters with links to hostile factions are allowed **with caveats**.

- They may not be currently employed by them in a way that would put them at a detriment to the station. No "I'm a double agent" type things.
- **Your background may never be used as an excuse to impact important gameplay decisions you take** - No helping the antagonists/self-antagging because you want to be associated with them. This kind of thing will not be tolerated **at all**.

**Characters may never have ties to Central Command in a way that allows for them to imply having authority over other players.** No 'my dad works for Nintendo' memes.

### On how much respect is needed regarding IC authority

**See Rule 7 - On Mutiny/Authority**

### On character relationships

- **Character relationships are allowed.** However, you should not go out of your way to give your friends mechanical/tangible in game benefits, or go out of your way to harass/discriminate against people you don't like.
- While character continuity is nice, **this is a round based game.** It's unfair to other players for the same cliques to be giving each other benefits. It's also unfair to someone if someone else they slighted continuously ruins their experience just because said someone doesn't like them.
- **This rule will never be able to be enforced down to the letter.** Enforcing it to the letter would suck all the fun and enjoyment out of roleplay interactions, and result in just about every single player being bwoinked, because we all have friends and enemies, people we like and dislike. What's important is someone doesn't go out of their way to make the experience wildly different **round after round**. No one will care if you hand something fun out to a friend one time or another - we **will** take notice if you're constantly providing the same people powerful items or otherwise benefits just because they're your friend, as that ruins it for everyone else.
- **Conversely** - (See Rule 1 - Metagrudging for detailed explanation) - in the reverse case, we will not be upset for slights or annoyances between people who just cannot get along. Just do not railroad someone who is unwilling to participate in such petty fights into having their entire round be dealing with you. Some slights are fine, harassing someone the entire round isn't.

### On helping antagonists
**This says antagonists but this applies to all kinds of troublemakers and criminals**

Have IC reason to assist someone with things that could constitute crime. Doubly so if it's dangerous to life, limb, or the station.
The more dangerous/serious the infraction would be the more reason you need. Someone asking nicely for a plasma tank is fine on all regards if you want to give them one, someone asking you to kill someone, sabotage the station in a serious manner, or something similarly harmful should not be entertained unless you have an extremely pressing reason or are under reasonable duress.

That said, **crew are not required to validhunt antagonists if it is not their job to.** However, they must do their job in terms of helping the crew as a whole - while you aren't expected to validhunt a traitor killing people as a doctor, you definitely are expected to provide medical assistance to injured crew during the crisis.

### On IC knowledge regarding antagonists and antagonistic items

This is a trial policy - we do **not** want to write an "Identifying Antagonists" page. No one should have to cross reference a massive policy list while playing the game.
Instead, we will attempt to go at this in a more broad-spectrum way.
The rule is aimed towards allowing crew retaliation to antagonistic/illegal devices and implements, without allowing the crew to act on extremely specific knowledge like what roles can buy what syndicate items, OR immediately marking someone off as 100% a hostile antagonist because they have a syndicate item.

**Antagonists may know *full* details regarding powers, abilities, items, or otherwise things they have access to.**

**Crewmembers:** 
- Traitors: **Crewmembers may know upon witnessing or upon finding Syndicate items or abilities that it is contraband.** Whether or not it is dangerous depends on what it is. **You are allowed to know what it does and how it works.**
    - People with them should be dealt with by security and regulations as necessary. Contraband doesn't mean someone's on the station hell-bent on destroying it and killing people. Example: Person has an emag. It is illegal. Have security confiscate it, search them, and brig them if necessary.
    - You are **not** allowed to know internal details of the methods of acquiring an item outside of it being known to be smuggled in by hostile entities, unless someone tells you in-character during the round. Example: "hot potatoes are these 4 jobs", "fake clockwork cults are the chaplain's doing", "Give me your PDA uplink".
    - Judge on actions and what they have, not the fact that they have some form of contraband. Someone with a bomb/gun is far more dangerous than if they had an emag or some EMP grenades.
    - **You may not search for stealth items without a reason to suspect someone has them.**
        - This is mostly enforced in code using identification components - which means don't run items through the deconstructive analyzer *just in case*.
        - **Otherwise**, the following applies:
        - Anything disguised as another item shouldn't be checked for disguises without a good reason to suspect someone has it, like microlasers and EMP flashlights
        - You may not check for illegal implants/organs without a reason to suspect someone has it, like them emitting EMPs, magically having their cuffs drop, or magically acquiring hardware after being thoroughly searched.
        - You may not check for martial arts by randomly shooting people unless you have reason to suspect they have it.
- **All other antagonists at the moment are considered free game in terms of metaknowledge.** There is no coherent way to write policy regarding other antagonists *right now* that still allows the crew to respond in a meaningful way, so they are not regulated
    - **Validhunting rules still apply.** Just because you are allowed to immediately know what they are doesn't mean they are automatically valid regardless of **what** they are.

## 4. Fulfill your role

**If you sign up for a role, you must make a best faith effort to do it.**
We don't expect you to be on the beat all round - everyone needs a break and **no** job requires full time participation for the entirety of the 2-4 hour round outside of the most chaotic of times.
However, minimum participation is **required** if you sign up as anything but an assistant.
Examples:
- Chemists are not doing their job if they make no medicine with a decent staffing. If there's no one or almost no one around but you, it's less required to be prepared for the worst, but if you signed up for it, do it. This is **one** example but applies to a lot of jobs, whether it's engineering, science, etc etc.
- The **minimum of every job must be done**. Engi - setting up power. Security - responding to distress calls or obvious emergencies. Science - doing nodes/upgrades as needed when asked to.
- Be **proactive when the situation calls for it**. If you're on in a populated round, minimum effort will not cut it. If you didn't want to do the job don't sign up for it, slack off as an assistant.

### On inexperience/lack of knowledge

Players will **not** be punished for lacking knowledge about game mechanics in a department **as long as they make an effort to learn.**
**Players aren't required to be the utmost efficient that is possible. Do your job to a decent degree if you can, though.**
Examples:
- Science is a convulated system at times, you aren't required to stick to a best path, but consistently doing things that hamper the station is also bad.
- Blowing up the engine as an engineer when you are new **and no one is around willing to teach you** - mistakes happen, but learn from it.
- **Being bad at combat as head of staff/security - make an effort where required, but remember that the role isn't all about combat.** This applies to most roles. Plenty of people who are downright awful at combat are better at making the game enjoyable than the people who tend to be the ones who can click others horizontal.

### On heads of staff

**Heads of staff are expected to take a high amount of responsibility for the station - YOUR JOB COMES FIRST AT ALL TIMES, and you should be *proactive* about it!** Don't spend large amounts of the roudn AFKing or doing nothing.

- **In the event you need to vacate the round**, whether leaving via cryo or AFKing for more than a few minutes, **adminhelp** and **inform the crew** or at least your direct underlings.

Heads of staff should generally err on the side of caution when it comes to shennanigans and causing trouble - you're a leader, not a troublemaker.

**Be a good example for other players. The tolerance for heads of staff causing problems is far lower than everyone else, especially if repeated. See rule 7.**

**Lead your department** - provide guidance. **However**, you also have a responsibility to the station - if there is no one effectively leading the station, the remaining heads of staff (if any) should make an effort to direct things to go smoothly as possible within the IC context of the round.

- Heads of staff are not required to know every nuance of their department, **but must know to a good degree how *most* of their department works.** Someone who has no idea how to revive people has as much of a place in medbay as a Chief Engineer who can't setup the engine.
- **With power comes responsibility** - **Do not** abuse your power as a head of staff to be a dick to other players. People who do this will be quickly removed from said roles.

### On ERP

**Your role always comes first. Do not abandon your duty to ERP - this is especially true if you are in a department that tends to be constantly needed.**
If you want to scene, play assistant or play a role that isn't generally needed - OR, **make an effort to have yourself replaced by command staff by someone else.**
We will not be extraordinarily harsh if you made a serious, best faith effort to stay in line, but in a time of crisis remember your role's job.

### "Stay in your lane" - On doing multiple jobs

**We do not restrict IC knowledge of game mechanics other than antagonist abilities/items/etc, featured in rule 3.**
That said, **stay in your lane** if it's not your job outside of pressing IC need. It's outright a dick move to entirely steal people's jobs. They signed on (supposedly) to do that job - you shouldn't take it from them unless they are wholly incapable of doing it, or there's otherwise a pressing **need** for you to.

- Station wide threats are generally immune from this clause, see: vendor uprisings, meteor storms, etc.
- Someone hurt/dead in med? Don't barge in if there's medics who can fix them.
- Want a science node? **Ask, don't break in to do it yourself** if there's people who can do them.
- **If there is insufficient staffing for a certain role, you are allowed to get involved.** The game goes on regardless of who's playing what - this rule is only here to make sure everyone's fun isn't siphoned by someone who knows the entire game.
- **Immediate threats and otherwise emergencies** are generally immune from this clause - if there's a breach no one will get upset if you fix it.
- **What constitutes as someone's job is pretty flexible in certain cases here** - Security's job is maintaining order but conflict drives the game, you don't have to be security to intervene. Engineering's job is repairing, maintaining, and constructing, but admins won't generally care if you fix what you come by.

## 5. Powergaming

**Do not out of your way to ensure that you win every fight possible. Avoid the same, boring methods to bring conflicts to a close as lethally and quickly as possible.**
Conflict drives a game - it is unfun for all involved if one or a few person(s) are always eliminating the capacity for conflict whereever they can by running powerful mechanics to the ground, **or otherwise preparing for every possible situation.**
**This *will* be a vague rule by definition - we can't possibly cover all bases here, only general guidelines and examples.**

- **Do not unnecessarily prepare for scenarios in a way that will result in you immediately eliminating a potential threat before it can take hold.**
    - **This is mostly applicable if it is outside of your job, but some discretion is required.** Security walking around with a ton of lethals at all times to be able to down anyone at a whim in Code Green - bad. Engineering carrying around extra materials to fix things - fine.
- With the above being an example, **powergaming is especially bad if you are doing it to hamper other players attempting to create an interesting scenario.** Some examples include:
    - Being unreasonably armed before a threat arises that necessitates it. See: Validhunting. A single traitor being spotted isn't a reason for everyone to grab stunprods and spears. An antag on a rampage, team of nukeops, or an incursion of round-ending team antagonists is a far better reason.
    - Unnecessarily modifying the game environment to prevent any danger before it begins, securing important items from their roundstart positions, just in case, etc. **This can include locking up high-value items and steal objectives, locking up all the armory guns in lockers, putting turrets up in places or making a place far more secure than it usually is, before there is reasonable IC suspicion that someone will actually attempt to break in/steal it.** Again, *the mere existance of threats* is not a reason for everything to be put under lock and key.
    - **Creating extremely powerful weapons, like combat mechs, outside of a tangible need.**
        - Shennanigans like mech arenas are fine once in a while.
- Overall, **do not make yourself the center of every round that transpires** - sometimes people do funny things that might be considered powergaming but will be brushed off as an one-time thing. We do not wish to clamp down on fun, but if you consistently find yourself breaching this you will be talked to regarding breaking this rule.

### Regarding handing out powerful gear
This clause is mostly applicable towards job roles that tend to get powerful equipment as a part of them, including but not limited to almost everyone in the science department.
- Do not hand out powerful gear round after round willy nilly. Handing out something you find interesting to keep the game dynamic is fine. Handing the same powerful gear out **round after round** and making the round unplayable for troublemakers is not acceptable.
- Have a reason to hand things out otherwise if said thing is generally going to be considered powerful **and strictly necessary for someone to have at all times.**
- As some examples:
    - Insulated gloves, toolbelts, random tools in general, random beakers, gimmicky genetics powers like geladikinesis, random department gear that isn't highly specialized or restricted, random *things*, especially gimmicky and fun rather than useful in combat/to neutralize threats - generally okay
    - Weapons/powerful genes like tk/xray/highly specialized equipment like jackhammers/etc - probably have a reason to do so, like them having a good excuse or an active threat, etc etc.
- This section will be more of an IC thing on in the Standard Operating Procedures for departments and jobs, for specific exceptions, rather than hard rulings of yes/no.

### Overall

**Understand that losing is part of the game. Do not expect to win at all times - you *SHOULD* lose once in a while. If you never lose, you are very likely trying too hard.**

## 6. Validhunting

**The spirit of this rule goes hand in hand with powergaming, but this rule applies more to crew interactions with players causing trouble, whether they are an antagonist or not.**
This is also necessarily vague and contains examples rather than a textbook of every possible scenario.

### General

- Do not go out of your way to hunt down someone causing trouble if it is not your job to. Antagonists and troublemakers alike are expected to be a good sport, so this is also required from the crew side of the equation.
- **This is exempted if someone is a major & immediate threat to the station, you, those around you, or your department *in general*.**
- **Think about it in-character when it comes to this - weigh how dire the situation would have to be for your character to want to put themselves on the line going after someone.** If there's no security team, it falls to the crew to stop threats themselves when necessary, but if there is, why would you put yourself in danger hunting for someone the security team is already handling?

Examples of reasonable responses to scenarios:
- **Indirect information regarding hostile crew** - You heard there's a traitor/changeling/similar on radio doing malicious things, killed someone, broke into something, etc - **don't** go after them if they don't just happen to be **near you and a threat to you/your role.** If you do, try not to kill someone unless they show lethal intent towards you - don't spear someone to death on the spot for emagging in, but critting them if they refuse to leave is obviously an option, considering they have dangerous contraband.
- **Chasing dangerous personnel after the initial conflict** - In the above case, you manage to successfully drive them off - **don't then chase them around the station** with harmful intent if there's already a security team who's capable of investigating.
- **Directly witnessing lethality towards your life/crewmates' life** - You witness a highly dangerous act, whether murder or sabotage of something critical like the engine, near you - **You are allowed to intervene.** Just don't chase them across the station, see above.
- **Directly witnessing crimes** - You just happened to see someone break in **and/or** emag into a department you're not in - **call security**, maybe stick around to see what they're doing if you're a daredevil, **don't race for the spears.**
- **Station-ending threats & Conversion antagonist endgame** - There are nuclear operatives on station, a wizard blowing things/people up, cults attempting to summon their god, someone's trying to tesla-delaminate the Supermatter - **Go wild, these and similar are considered stationwide threats.**
- **Conversion antagonists** - There's reports of a cult **and there is security already responding to it** - If the security team is still reasonably capable of stopping them, **consider** focusing on your job. Obviously, you are encouraged to practice precautions to ensure you aren't inducted into said cult, and assist the command/security teams where necessary, but if a chemist is running out of their department with a syringe gun of morphine the moment cult is called with an active security team they are in breach of this rule.
    - **Fake 'Eldritch Affairs' cult-type antagonists are not able to convert in general and should be treated as a solo antagonist.**
- **If someone is a dangerous threat to the station and there is no one else able or willing to stop them**, you are allowed to attempt to neutralize them, whether by arresting or by killing them.
    - **The security team not immediately taking someone down is not reason for you to join in.** If that someone just happens to be killing everyone or performing mass/station-threatening sabotage, that would be different, but if security is simply manhunting someone, even if they are lethal, you should not be joining in the dogpile unless you have very good IC reason to.
    - **The security team being severely understaffed is a valid excuse. Heads of staff/security are recommended to deputize people where *needed* to boost numbers, however.**
    - If you grab security gear to 'play cop', you're expected to attempt to detain where safe to, rather than resort to lethality just because you can. If you can't - well, understandable.

### On antagonist status
- **Antagonist status should not be the end all to how far you escalate a conflict.**
- Obviously, if there's an alien killing people (changeling, vampires, etc), and you have reason per above to fight them, you won't be blamed for killing it. 
- Same goes for immediate and extreme threats to the station like nuclear operatives, hostile wizards, cults trying to take over the station, etc
- **Otherwise**, treat people based on what they did rather than if they're red or blue (syndicate vs nanotrasen). A nonantag that is murderous for reasons other than self defense or attempting to coup for a bad reason is *likely* more dangerous than an agent who you saw flash an emag. **Act in character where possible - think about what reasons you have to go after someone outside of the game meta of factional affiliation.**
    - **If you act like an antagonist as a non-antagonist, do not be surprised if you are treated as such - people are expected to not give someone special treatment just because they're breaking everything but just happens to not be a traitor.**

## 7. "Greytiding" / Antagonistic Actions

**Players are allowed to and encouraged to spark reasonable in-character conflict *within reason*.**

- **The most important guideline here:** Do not **always** make yourself the center of attention. Even if everyone else is 'boring', **you should not be breaking the law/inciting conflict with everyone on the station every single round.** This is mostly applicable if it seems like you are being the chief problem more than once in a while
- It's fine if you aren't agreeable with people, but if we see you getting hunted for breaking and entry round after round you're the issue. If you're breaking into Engineering round after round for a toolbelt you're the issue. **If you are antagonizing security round after round without end, you are the issue.**
- **Regarding greytiding, the traditional definitions**:
    - Breaking into places randomly for the sake of acquiring powerful items is not allowed - this is powergaming.
    - Breaking into places to acquire something for a gimmick you are running is.
    - **Randomly attacking security/heads of staff, and inciting rebellions/similar against authority figures - see "On Mutinies/Authority"**
    - Randomly attacking people is not allowed, starting small-time conflicts and occasionally escalating it is.
- **See: Escalation. If you are the one starting a conflict, do not go out of your way to push it to an extreme degree to get the excuse to kill or maim someone.**
- **IC scenarios and immersion is important.** Not *realism*, but having a reasonable goal for things you do. 
    - This can be anything from "I want to annoy security a bit (SEE BELOW)" to "this guy is rude as hell, let's toss a glitter grenade at him!" to "It'll be funny if I built 25 arcades infront of the science department during a CC inspection!" Do something funny, but don't infinitely stack trouble to the point where you are seriously destructive to the station.
- **Regarding causing trouble in a way that would likely get other players, security or not, to intervene/chase you:** **READ THE ROUND**. If the round is already extremely chaotic, maybe **assist** with helping authority restore some semblence of safety for the crew instead of adding to it. If the round is boring with nothing happening, that would be a far better time for you to start some shenannigans.
- More on the above: **If the situation changes, change what you're doing.** If you're causing security a headache and the round begins to take a turn for chaos, **reduce what you are doing or become passive entirely.** You're not required to suddenly allow security to arrest you but **don't do anything that'll make it worse.** We want conflict on the server but overdoing it overwhelms the best of security players - if you aren't an antagonist, don't turn the round into living hell, especially when it already is.

### On Mutiny/Authority - READ THIS CAREFULLY

**Players are required to give the minimum "time of day" to IC authority figures, like security/command, within reason.**

What this means:
- If your head of staff says to not do something related to your job, perhaps don't unless you have a good reason to not listen.
- If security asks you nicely to stop, *entertain the idea* of not **always** resorting to requiring them to taser and cuff you.
- Don't go out of your way to antagonize security/command **simply because they're security/command.** If they give you a tangible reason to, you are allowed to start conflict - whether verbal or slightly more intense.
    - Examples: Don't spraycan the front of security every round, **don't make command/security players' rounds living hell just because they took the role**, or similar forms of targetted harassment
- If someone of a role of authority politely asks you to do something, you should probably do it, within reason, especially if you're in their department.

What this does **not** mean:
- That you have to obey command/security at all times - **We want reasonable, organic IC conflict. You are not required to be law abiding at all times, or even a majority of times, and we do NOT want to take the fun out of the game. No one signed up to follow orders by other players the whole round, we simply want heads to not feel like they are fighting their own crew as well as any threats to the station they already have to deal with.**
- That you even have to obey your own head of staff - **Disagreements happen, fights happen. Just don't make your entire character focused around causing a pain for everyone you meet.**

**Mutinies:**
Mutiny in the sense of the rules is loosely defined as attempting to forcefully remove someone or a group of people in authority from their position, whether it's a head of staff, the captain, or the security team.
- **Disobeying orders by command staff/security by yourself IS NOT MUTINY - again, we do not expect full obedience, no one plays the game solely to follow orders!**
- **Valid demotions are not mutinies. Mutiny usually implies you'll be fighting a good chunk of the station to do it - usually security, but can be the team of heads of staff.** Furthermore, if just about everyone is in agreement that the person needs to be removed from their position, even if it's a mutiny, that person will likely have deserved it.
- **Security arresting heads of staff for a valid reason is not mutiny.**
- **You must have a good, valid IC reason to mutiny.**
    - **"I don't like them" is not a reason.** Hell, "they were mean to me" isn't a reason. "They went out of their way to **ruin** my round when I didn't deserve it" is.
    - **"They did something differently from what I'd do"** is not a reason - **even if your method is optimal.** We don't want every head of staff to be able to perform optimally, we want them to be a good example of how people should be taking the game, and being IC leadership. Mutiny is valid if they fail that entirely
    - **"They did something in a way that will result in catastrophe"** is a valid reason, as well as if they do something so horribly they more or less neutralize their department's ability to function, or is considered harmful to everyone's enjoyment: see CE's that have no idea what they're doing with the engine, HoSes going full Gestapo, RDs blowing all the points on nanites and fucking off into space, captains going space exploring.
    - **If you don't have enough reason to mutiny, try talking to them more, or getting someone else to ICly deal with them - whether it's security chatting with them, or having the captain intervene.**
    - **If you aren't sure, adminhelp.**
- **If you are starting a coup/mutiny, you must aim to disable and detain/demote the people in question instead of lethal.** If it gets to that point through escalation (like security/them jumping to lethals), you are allowed to respond in kind **to a degree where you can neutralize the people fighting against you.** If you can crit and cuff someone don't beat them to a bloody pulp and then continue beating them 'till you cut their head off!
- **It is courtesy to request a person step down peacefully before proceeding to violence, but it is NOT required** - sometimes, you need the jump on someone. Again, make sure you have good reason to do so.

## 8. Sexual Content

**This rule mostly refers to things that are considered too indecent to do in public in an urban area of the United States.** If it isn't - it's really just regular roleplay for the purposes of these rules, and therefore exempt.

### On ERP/Sexual mechanics

**This is an adult server with adult content.** Understand that you'll be exposed to this. **HOWEVER**, it isn't the point of the server, and it will definitely not be shoved down your throat.

**These mechanics are never to be used for mechanical gameplay/conflict purposes.** Gameplay mechanics are strictly separate from ERP mechanics.

**Never harass people with unwanted ERP, whether it is verbatim ERP or sexual-related mechanics. No means no.** We take these things very seriously - if someone says to stop, stop. **Gain OOC consent before initiating an erotic scene - do not assume someone would be okay with it.**
For completeness sake, as it is very important to cover edge cases in this rule - Someone **clearly** going along in-character with a scene that is becoming erotic will not be able to get the other party in trouble by ahelping **unless the other party refuses to stop when asked.**
- **Respect OOC notes if someone has them - you should generally assume it's accurate to their wants unless they specify otherwise in LOOC.**

### On ERP protections

**Do not unnecessarily interrupt ERP without a pressing reason to.**
This may include but **is not limited to**:
- Someone participating is your target as an antagonist
- Someone participating is clearly using it to shield themselves from conflict. **Be reasonable here** - don't use something from 20 minutes ago as an excuse to break into someone's room to attack them
- You have reasonable suspicion and need to arrest/search someone in a room
- **There is an emergency and someone inside is shirking their duties and they are needed *now*** (otherwise, consider ahelping them for abandoning their job all the time to ERP if that is the case)

**Public ERP - see next section**

### On public ERP

**Public ERP is considered any lewd/lascivious roleplay that is clearly visible to the public.**
Examples:
- One of the parties involved is clearly naked (within context of their character) or otherwise has genitals visible in public, on their sprite in a way that you can easily see at a glance.
- Someone is not using **subtle emotes** and is therefore visible to everyone
- **Someone using subtle emotes in a public-enough place in a way that makes it impossible for passer-bys to avoid said emotes.** (corner of bar/public room vs literally splat in the middle of the hallway/at the bar counter with people who don't want to be involved in them)

**Public ERP is not protected and can be ICly interrupted within reason and escalation. Furthermore, you must bring ERP to a private area if asked - not everyone wants to read your scene, especially if it contains elements some consider unacceeptable.**

- Be reasonable still - if a majority of a room is partaking in something and you are uncomfortable with it, **where said room is semi-private e.g. library game room**, consider avoidance rather than seeking conflict. **This is obviously not applicable for clearly public crew grounds like main hallways/primary departmental hubs.**

### Vore

Vore is considered sexual content for the purposes of this rule.

## 9. On Adminhelps

**When issues arise, and you think someone is in breach of an OOC rule in a manner negative for the server's enjoyment, adminhelp.** Do not wait until the end of the round, or, even worse, multiple rounds after that. If it isn't an in game issue, make a discord support ticket.

- **If you wait to the end of the round or even further** to adminhelp something you perfectly should have within round, there is a chance administration will refuse to take the ticket. This is obviously not applicable if there's a good reason you waited. This is simply because **holding up the entire server for one ticket** is dickish to every other player on the server.

**If no admins respond, adminhelp anyways and ping staff to come on in Discord.** If still no one responds and says they are taking the ticket, you are allowed and encouraged to make a discord support ticket to have it addressed there.

**Admins are not required to give you the exact outcome of a ticket** - This is sometimes for the information privacy of the other party. **It is up to the individual admin to determine if it is right to say exactly what happened in each situation.**

## Security Policy

[Security Policy](/Bab0NfWJRmGPhwhJXS0gEw)

## Command Policy

[Command Policy](/pUh9YxfwQhmxQ-q6gCvaVw)

## Silicon Policy

[Silicon Policy](/A61xrTpER1qxP4A2TPUFrQ)

## Standard Operating Procedures

[Standard Operating Procedures](/jOO03ng9RiOkBXZn5ltksA)

## Antagonists and Ghost Roles

[Antagonist/Ghost Role Policy](/loQwe3HHRRWw0s7bp7_Erg?both)
