Rules

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The Basics	General Help
Commands	Server Rules
A Crash Course in Roleplaying
Character Creation	More Guides
Job Strikes and You

These are the rules for the server and are subject to change without notice. For further clarification, use common sense. If you did get banned, there's probably a good reason for it, but if you disagree, you can always make an appeal on the discord. Although these are rules, but they are not infallible, complete, or concrete, and probably never will be despite our best efforts. If ever something feels wrong, either don't do it, or admin-help it first. Above all, use your common sense, listen to the game staff, and try to keep the game fun for everyone; not just yourself.

If you disagree with the rules as they currently stand, talk about it on the discord or with admins and maybe we can improve them through some healthy criticism and debate.

These rules are designed to be written in such a way that you can usually understand them just by reading the headers, because reading all of this would be insanity for most people. If you cannot understand a rule just by looking at it, or wish to know about possible exceptions or examples, click the rule to learn more.

If you find yourself spending too much time reading this page, or are confused about any rules, please contact an admin on Discord to make suggestions on how these rules could be better worded.

You must be 18 or older to play on this server

There are no exceptions. If the staff suspects that you are underage for any reason, you will be banned from playing on the server until you are able to prove to the satisfaction of the staff that you are at least 18 years old.

• Use of real world slurs, ‘lolspeak’, and other indications of immaturity may be taken as signs that you are underage.

• Knowing another user is underaged but not reporting it is considered grounds for an immediate, permanent ban.

• The age of consent in your country is irrelevant. Your opinion about this rule is irrelevant.

• You may also not play a character who is under 18 years of age.

Obey the community's global rules

These rules apply everywhere, including Discord, the server, and even private discussions with non-admins. However, not all of the global rules are even possible to break in the server, so this wiki page only covers what's relevant to the game server. The overlap from the global rules are:

• No spam.
• No OOCly illegal discussions or content (such as child porn, drugs, piracy, real world threats, etc).
• Respect other users, don't use real-world slurs, and don't intentionally drag private conflicts or in-game conflicts into public OOC (such as on the Discord server, the in-game global OOC channel, or anywhere else).
• Don't intentionally abuse server functions to upset (grief) people, or derail discussions. You know what this means, don't play stupid.
• No complaining about bans unless done properly via an appeal on our forums/discord or in an ahelp or otherwise private means as an inquiry to administration staff.

Don't be an asshole

It's fine to say stuff and whatnot but being a outright dick isn't alright, and there's a fine line with that. Also, spamming racist words is still not okay.

Do not inconvenience AFK or disconnected characters

Under normal circumstances, do not harm or otherwise inconvenience characters whose player is idle, ghosted, or disconnected entirely. There are some exceptions to this rule, as follows:

• Circumstance that warrant the interactions of AFK/SSD players are few and far between if there is ever a case were you are REQUIRED for to take any ID/Bag/Gear from someone that is SSD, Ahelp before hand and with your reason why. Not ahelping before may result in HARSH OOC punishment if you are found to be manipulating them while away, or causing any sort of general tampering with the player. (IE. Don't be an asshole who steals shit from afk players unless its required)

Note: If your moving someone to the elevator after the time, this is ok, as long as you do not remove their items unless it's faction important and you have the means to return them properly

• If they've disconnected/idle for more than 15 minutes, you can put them in the elevator to log them out. If you do that, take away all of their belongings except for their clothes, shoes, ID, etc; and return everything else to its rightful department.
• If they've committed a crime, jail them as you normally would and conduct their sentence even if they aren't connected. 20 minutes in the brig is still 20 minutes in the brig.
• Emergencies bypass this rule. If it's an emergency and you need something an idle player has to fix it, you may take it. If a fire starts in a room and the AFK player is the only one who can open the door then it's an emergency. Needing to get a snack from the kitchen and robbing the chef does not count as an emergency.

ERP preferences must be respected

Players should have their ERP prefs listed in their “OOC Meta info” or “OOC Notes” on their characters. You are required to respect these preferences so long as they pertain to ERP. If you are unsure about the meaning of some of their preferences, then use LOOC to discuss it with them. If you accidentally go against someone’s preferences, or someone else goes against yours, work to correct it as quickly as possible, even if that means just deciding in LOOC amongst yourselves that ‘this didn’t happen’ and going your separate ways.

• If you do not like someone's erp preferences you won't be punished for saying so, but do not harass someone just because they like something you don't. It's far easier to simply avoid someone and causing drama will get you into trouble.

• If you are uncomfortable with an ERP theme that you hadn't thought to add (or didn't know existed) to a list of dislikes in your OOC notes, speak up in LOOC as normal. Conversely, those of you foolish enough to put 'anything goes' into your preferences, or anything else vague like this, do so at your own risk. You forfeit your right to complain about preference breaking if you do not put some indication of your dislikes into OOC preferences.

• • Do not OOCly consent to an non-consensual scene and attempt to report it ICly or OOCly. This is effectively forcing players to engage in your fetish scene. Topics like this may make players incredibly uncomfortable or distressed. Do not do this. If you have not consented to the scene - A-help IMMEDIATELY.
  • Do not do scenes such as this in public. Ever. You will not only be player killed (PK) but also have further punishments put upon you. If you want to opt-in for a scene as such, take it to dorms or a area defined properly as a private area.
  • Do not make false allegations of non-consensual scenes in game. Falsely accusing someone of rape or other non-consensual material will result in an immediate ban. This is incredibly bad faith and petty.
  • Being found in violation of NON-CON rule(s) will be met with an automatic player kill (PK) and Perma Ban with no appeal given investigation. You've been warned as this is not tolerated here.

• Do not attempt to force yourself into ERP scenes where the other party (or parties) involved are not comfortable with it, or not even actually participating. This includes (but is not limited to) repeatedly trying to do ERP that a player has blatantly stated they are uncomfortable with, trying to guilt players into having a pity RP with you, etc. You get the idea. Don't do it.

• AFK/SSD/Disconnected players are not valid targets for any ERP.

The private areas are protected

The ‘dorms’ area on the map are reserved for ERP and are ‘protected’ from interruption. It is a violation of this rule to break into occupied dorms or harass players in dorms. Dorm areas are any personal apartments generally restricted to a specific person such as a head of staffs private bedroom or a dorm area claimed by a specific person, usually through a labeled door.

• The only exception is for law enforcers to arrest those who have committed crimes. Law enforcers are not allowed to indiscriminately inspect dorms for crimes, but a known criminal hiding in a dorm is not protected by this rule.
• Conversely, it is not permissible to attempt to use dorms to hide from breakers, or to make their job of finding you harder. The dorms are for people who want to ERP in privacy. Don’t involve them in your shenanigans.

Do not disrupt non-public ERP scenes

TL;DR is you should avoid screwing with scenes that are not in public areas. The problem is, not everyone knows what is considered public or private. This is especially important for Security players to know.

• Dorms are considered private obviously. Don't mess with those under any circumstances unless someone inside actively invites you. (Calling for help is considered an invite.)
• If a person is ERPing in a public location they should be asked to vacate to a private dorm room. If they refuse they may be arrested immediately.

Speak English

We are an English server. All OOC communications are expected to be done in English. It's alright if your English is rough and imperfect, just as long as we can reasonably understand it.

• This also extends into IC communications, but is more flexible as some characters have heavy accents.
• Having a character sometime speak smatterings of other languages is acceptable, but speaking exclusively in these languages for entire sentences is not.

Roleplay as long as it's feasible

• This is an HRP (Heavy RolePlay) server. You are expected to roleplay your actions with other players as long as it's feasible. If someone engages you in purely ‘robust’ (aka game-mechanics driven) combat while you were attempting to roleplay with them, with no reasonable provocation, please use the admin-help feature to inform an admin.
  • Reasonable provocation would be things that deem you too dangerous to be given even a chance to talk. For example, openly wielding a gun while threatening people, charging someone with a knife, trying to create a hazard, or being the target of a manhunt.

• If a fight does begin, you're not expected to type out every gunshot and dodge and attack. That would be absurd. Generally, you roleplay up until the point that it makes sense to start attacking, and then use game mechanics from there. You are allowed to respond to ‘robust’ violence with your own, if you desire, though you should attempt to return to roleplaying as soon as feasible. The environment is not designed for a focus on action, but rather for character-building and roleplaying. When a fight is over, resume roleplaying.

• Movement is considered a game mechanic for the purpose of this rule. Wordlessly running at an enforcer who is attempting to arrest you, or wordlessly fleeing from them, is considered engaging in game-mechanic combat. The enforcer has valid cause to stop trying to roleplay and stunlock you into the ground.

• Death is not uncommon, even in the safe zone, but it is still impactful. When a character dies, or your own character dies and is revived, death should be considered an immensely painful and graphic experience. One should stay in character during said experiences, statements of ‘oh well’ or mutilating a corpse for ‘fun’ would not be reasonable responses.

• You are to have fleshed out character records. These are used not only for roleplay but are to be utilized, if specified by staff, for long-term consequences for actions. Players are supported to use these as roleplay documents and treat others with these seriously. Our expectations for what should be in these can be found in Example Paperwork.

Do not join with an inappropriate ckey

Ckeys, better known as BYOND user names, must be appropriate. If any are deemed inappropriate, the ckey will be banned and you will be unable to play on our server until you make an account with an appropriate name.

• Ckeys that mock certain players or groups are an example of inappropriate.
• Ckeys that violate BYOND's terms of service may also be reported.

Do not misuse Global OOC

Global OOC begins muted, it being turned on is not a chance to abuse it.

• Global OOC is used, for instance, to contact someone you were typing a reply to had walked out of the room before you were done, and you're trying to ask them to come back. It's also useful if you're a new player, or an old player exploring new mechanics, who asks something like, "How do I make Tricord again?" or something short and similar. Short, sweet, and relevant OOC messages are generally okay. Welcoming old players returning, or new players joining, is also generally okay.

• Global OOC is not for idle banter, ranting, things pertaining to incidents in the current round (see previous rule), in-depth explanations (an explanation that takes more than a few lines), shitposting memes, or discussing topics not relating directly to the game. If you want to chatter OOCly, go to our Discord channel, which is linked from the home page or use LOOC so as to not disturb the rest of the server.

• Also, if someone does misuse OOC, do not complain in global OOC about their misusing of global OOC. Not only are you just making the problem worse, that is considered being a backseat admin, which is prohibited by other rules.

Keep IC and OOC separate

• Don't complain in OOC or LOOC when your actions IC get you in trouble. If its a rules violation then Ahelp or open a ticket on the discord.
• IC (In-character) and OOC (Out-of-Character) actions and knowledge should be separated as much as possible. Don't use OOC channels to discuss what's going on IC until after the round is finished, don't use OOC knowledge to do things your character wouldn't know, such as operating the weaving machines as a custodian. You are not playing yourself in the game, you are controlling a character with their own wants and knowledge and the IC/OOC boundary is to help reflect that.
  • Note that these same rules apply to LOOC as well.
• Disconnecting or using other OOC means to avoid IC consequences is against the rules. If you do urgently need to leave the server even though you're being punished, your options are either to surrender and get it over with, or use admin help to inform the admins, "I know enforcers are after me, but I have to go because (some emergency)." Failure to take ten seconds to tell an admin before disconnecting may result in harsher punishment.

Metacomms, metagaming, multi-keying, (etc) are not allowed

• Metacomms: Using third-party programs, such as Discord, IRC, Skype, or even the BYOND pager, to discuss and share information of the ongoing round. This excludes other players, can contribute to toxicity among the playerbase, and is often a tactic used by griefers and thus is a no-go.

• Metagaming: Using information obtained from elsewhere to influence IC decisions and actions. Your opinions or knowledge of other players or characters obtained via OOC methods should not direct your IC actions. If you have an OOC grudge against someone, you may not try to antagonize them IC, for example.
  • Metagaming sometimes happens by accident due to game mechanics behaving undesirably due to intentional features or unintentional bugs and oversights. If it happens, ask an admin to help straighten things out if you can't do so among yourselves.

• Multi-keying: Logging in with multiple BYOND accounts on our game server. There is never any legitimate reason for you to do this and thus is not allowed.

Create and play server-appropriate characters

Although this is a roleplaying server based around 2D spess mans, that doesn't mean anything goes because that is possible. Suspension of disbelief is still important to a good experience, and breaking that suspension of disbelief is bad for roleplaying. Characters who break that suspension of disbelief are not allowed. Saying "it's what my character would do" isn't an automatic protection against this rule if what your character is doing breaks that immersion.

• Play a reasonably sane and mature character, give them a non-immersion breaking first and last name, do not play obvious reference characters, or characters from published works.

• Keep in mind that people do not like pain or dying and usually try to avoid it without good reason. Give your character a reasonable set of strengths, fears, and weaknesses. When writing things for IC, write things out that sound like speech, not emoticons or lolspeak.

• Just because the setting has magic does not mean that is carte blanche to view the sky as the limit. Magic is heavily defined and has hard rules that are difficult, if not outright impossible, to violate. Do not claim to be special or have special powers or the gods themselves will intervene to make your life harder and put you in your place.
  • The exception to this is purely private roleplay. For example: If your character and another character are in a dorm by themselves, and the other is OOCly fine with it, your character can display anything they wish. Keep in mind if it ever ceases to be private, this exemption disappears entirely.

• Obscenely oversized or undersized characters are forbidden. Minimum height is at least three feet. Maximum height is about nine feet. Anything more or less really pushes the already shaky believably of lore and in-game visuals.

• You are expected to play to your race and character lore, even if you are chimeric, if you are from the empire you are expected to act, think, and believe what one would reasonably expect from an empire citizen. Same goes for the federation and legion.

• OOC Notes and Flavor Text are required. Your OOC notes must detail your ERP preferences, and your flavor text should not include non-physical attributes (do not include feelings your character has, or how they act). Character records are something that should be filled out, if you have an issue or don't know how to do it properly, contact a member of staff for help.

• To be a resident your character must have at least a basic understanding of the common language.

• If your character is suspended, permanently killed off, or otherwise removed from the safe zone as a consequence for something horrible they did in-character, you are expected to not play that character anymore. If found playing the character again, or a 'copy' to circumvent this result, OOC punishment will be issued.

• Do not play vibrantly colored or "sparkle dog" type characters. This basically means you should mainly have natural fur coloration and a relatively normal appearance. Yes, our character editor has a ton of color options, including neon colors and many design sprites to do strange things. Creativity is fun, making your appearance incredibly unrealistic or as obnoxious as possible will result in admin intervention. Some leeway is given to races with canonically vibrant colors such as salamanders, kobolds, or chimerics but try to keep them muted instead of neon. Following the custom species guide does not make you immune from this rule. If an admin asks you to change your color, do so, we have this rule to maintain HRP.

Do not kill or attack things (including yourself) for no good reason

• This includes yourself. Even in self-defense your goal is to fight off your attacker and survive, killing in a fight should only be done as a last-ditch effort when it's clear it's a you or them situation.

• Suicide or self-mutilation is not allowed without prior allowance by an admin. The reason for this is to maintain an atmosphere of reasonable and, at least mostly, mentally sound workers. The subject can be a poor attention grab, be used for guilt, or remove any immersion or story from someone. If you believe you have a reason, ask an admin.

• Excessive force responses are not allowed by our rules. Excessive force responses would be, for example, crushing someone’s skull for cutting you in line, stabbing someone’s eyes with a screwdriver for boredom, killing someone over a single punch, etc. Use proper reasoning for when you act in such a manner.

• Hiding player corpses as a self-antag / antag is not allowed. Staff may give an exemption in the case of an event but the body should still be possible to be found.
  • Similarly, do not destroy bodies purposefully. Accidents happen regarding gibbing of a skull, destruction of someone’s body due to a bomb, etc. But whacking a target that is dead until it starts gibbing its limbs is not.
  • Antags have some exemption to this; such as Blitzshells or Carrions. However admins are to specify if an antag may use these abilities or not as they can possibly end up being round-ending for a player.

• Make it clear through actions or words if you are moving into combat against someone. Even something as simple as “I’m killing you” will suffice - or even placing paper at the entrance to a cave saying ‘KEEP OUT’. Wordlessly shooting people without any clear intent or reasoning may result in administrative action depending on the context. We are a roleplay server.
  • Players are, by no means, required to emote. They may choose to do so if they please. Drawing a gun when in a heated situation, such as when a gun is already drawn on them, or even being visibly armed during a fight is clear intent enough to meet this requirement. Use proper reasoning and judgment.
  • If a player makes their intent known (I.e ‘get on the ground, now’, ‘give me your shit’) - you, as the person receiving said demand, are not required to say anything further. You may retaliate with force at this point if you deem fit. Sometimes ICly is preferable to try and talk, but you are not required to. Just know that actions have consequences ICly and they may apply to you depending on the legality of the order or reasoning of it.

• You are not allowed to act rounds later on someone legally. This goes for both Breakers/Agents and non-enforcer members. Admins may permit actions to take place regarding previous round charges if seen reasonable (such as a trial), but unless you are given direct permission this is not allowed.
  • You may, however, use previous conflicts as a justification for hostility with a person. This however falls under the act of Self-Antaging if you pick a fight on your own. This is allowed, but by doing so, you accept consequences for this action. This action will not be considered legal icly.
  • Fax-complaints about character's behavior may be faxed inter-round. These faxes should clarify when the event took place and if it is relevant to a current ongoing situation in-round. When in doubt if you can act on an inter-round issue, fax or A-help.

Do not powergame

• Better known as 'playing to win'. As an enforcer this can be seen as going out of your way and needlessly endangering others to ‘win against’ criminals.

• While this shares several things in common with other rules, it still is it's own entity. Play to have fun, allow yourself to lose now and again and roll with the blows as it can make things potentially even more interesting.

• Having way too many skills for one character is another example of this. Just because you're the premier and have access to everywhere doesn't mean you should (or can) know how to do all the different jobs. (See Character Creation regarding skills for more information.)

• Identifying Antagonists when you shouldn't be able to is also a violation of this rule.

Do not godmode

• Often confused with powergaming, godmoding is to create abilities out of nowhere, or do impossible things. If the action cannot be reasonably emulated in the confines of the game's mechanics, and it gives you some kind of advantage or is exceptionally weird, it's probably not allowed. For example, if you don't have access to a mechanic for turning invisible, you can't turn invisible. Saying you're invisible doesn't mean squat.

• Creating a character who is immune to injuries or pain also falls under this. The game won't let you ignore getting shot, why would any player allow it either?

• Accidental injuries are still in-character injuries unless an admin heals you. Admin heals are generally out of character to void the injury.

• Admins who are caught abusing admin powers to godmod will be immediately dealt with.

Do not abuse whispers

Any actions that would obviously be visible should not be hidden using whispers, this includes ERP, whispers longer than a sentence, or actions that would obviously be visible to anyone glancing you way. If you need to speak something longer than a sentence but want to keep it quiet use the whisper command. Anyone caught using whispers to hide obviously visible actions of paragraphs of texts will get slapped for it.

Rules of ‘Self-Antag’

To start with, here are some of the bare bone basic rules when self-antagging.

• Your goal should be to provide fun for players in the round. Not just for yourself. Create scenarios others can enjoy and interact or involve other players who are receptive to your antics.
• Don’t Self-Antag without proper IC reasoning. Reasoning along the lines of "I'm bored" or "Giving Security something to do" is NOT a valid reason to be an asshole. Make sure your reason(s) are believable and why your actions make logical IC sense to any Admin.
• Your main goal should be to get away with something and live to fight another day. Not to aim to murder everyone in your sight.
• Don’t break machines or items when you are self-antaging, steal them instead. If the item has no worth to you nor any credit worth, don’t take it. If it does or would sell for a pretty penny, you may steal it and use or pawn it off.
  • Similarly, don’t destroy or otherwise effectively grief Ascendant medical or other faction machines that are needed for life-saving or are not replaceable. I.e - alchemy station, medkits, etc.
  • This includes infrastructure.
• Think about how a normal person would behave under similar circumstances. A well established character who has been around awhile may be given a bit of wiggle room to keep rounds interesting.
• By Self-Antaging, you are consenting to consequences to your actions. Be it from a normal player, or any result that may come from command or security personnel.
  • Do not complain about the consequences you face upon doing such actions. Being fired, brigged, or killed - depending on the severity of your actions - are all possible outcomes. If you value your character and their reputation, don’t do it.

Due to the importance of certain items or objects, to get permission to break into certain high security places or steal specific rare or strong objects requires staff permission first. These include:

• Breaking into any of the safe zone armories.
• Heads of Staff rooms to steal unreplaceable gear/artifacts.

The key goal to self antagging is to create roleplay that is enjoyable or otherwise fun for players to interact with to differ from the norm. Below are a list of examples but you should always consider "are other people having fun or am I just being a dick?"

• Buying and selling contraband.
• Starting a drug production operation in a secluded spot in the safe zone.
• Disguising yourself as a specific department and gaining access to it while pretending to be a member of that department until someone notices.
• Extorting people for cash with a good old fashioned mugging.
• Stealing money, cutting profits, etc.

Now that the guidelines are out of the way, this rule set are examples of what self-antagonists are NOT to do without admin permission.

• Large explosives are NOT allowed without admin permission.
  • Grenades in casings and the like are, however, free to use as you see fit.
• Being a self-antag does not mean a license to murder. Doing so may result not only in perma-brig or a PK depending on your actions outcome, but staff involvement as well.
  • Shooting at enfocers while on the run for example is fully fine and acceptable rules-wise, but you are not to purposefully kill people at random.

Do not self antag more than once per day. This is generous as is, you shouldn’t be running around multiple rounds in a row breaking stuff, stealing stuff, etc. There is a fine line between a self-antagonist and a shitter.

• Do not use self-antagonism as an excuse to ruin a player's experience. This includes targeting players you know you do not like, providing purposefully no enjoyment to the situation for them, etc. It’s just dickish behavior.
• Do not start hostile actions within the first 15-30 minutes of the rounds start. You may use this as prep time, or A-help asking to start early if it’s something you feel you need to do to get the proper prep time to begin with.
  • Similarly, you are to cease escalation of antagonism once a round end vote passes. Security may hunt for you, and you may retaliate in that case - but you are NOT to start self-antaging in the last 15 minutes of a round nor continue actions of self antaging.

Remember - we play on what most servers consider an “Extended round type” and pride ourselves, as a server, with offering a persistent atmosphere where previous actions are considered ‘canon’ versus the normal SS13 experience of Groundhog Day. We do not have normal full blown antagonists, such as a murderous traitor, a serial killer, a wizard, or Steve from accounting having a bad day and deciding it’s hijack time. We are a PvE server that wishes to allow some players driven conflict and meaningful stories from said conflict.

IC consequences that occur from being caught range. Demotion may result in a job strike against playing a faction (these wipe every 3 months), the ‘permanent killing’ of your character in the case of heinous crimes, or other possibilities that players may decide within reason. It is for that reason that, by self-antaging, you are CONSENTING to these consequences for the action you have taken.

You are expected to perform the job you signed up for

When your character joins the round, you are accepting the responsibilities that the job you have chosen brings with it. Remember: if you are playing in a slot, you are likely preventing other players from performing that role. It is important that you fulfill the tasks that you have signed up for!

• Breakers should protect the safe zone from danger, the Ascendant should ensure that power is up and should provide treatment to injuries and other services, the Ashwood should bring in needed supplies on request.

• A player must take into account the qualifications (both physical and mental) of their character’s role before placing them into it. If staff find your character to be unsatisfactory in fulfilling the requirements of the role, we may instruct you to revise your character.
  • This includes majorly disabled characters — quadruple amputees, deaf, or blind characters, and so on — which are only permitted in the safe zone in the resident (and associated alt-titles) job slot.

• Repeatedly failing to perform to an acceptable standard can result in a ban until appealed.

• Job Strikes are a counter of 0/3 which is noted on your character, after 3 job strikes, which can be earned by bad faxes or legitimate demotions from a head of staff, your character is permanently removed from that faction until an appeal is made. Job strikes last 3 months, with the timer resetting with each strike.

• If you are going AFK for an extended period of time (more than 15 minutes), and are occupying a limited-number job slot (any slot other than resident), you must remove your character from the round using an elevator (or other similar means) to free the slot. Repeated failure to do this may result in being banned from that job.

• Do not do other people’s jobs. If you joined as a rosaria, do not attempt to hunt down criminals. If you joined as a rune master, do not attempt to perform medical treatment on your coworkers. If you are a head position, allow your underlings to do work before you do the work yourself; you are a supervisor and manager first and foremost as a head position.

• Do not hijack other people's jobs. For example, breakers are for making arrests, agents are for investigating crimes. While you might be able to do both, you likely are not suited for it, let others help you if their available.

• Playing jobs that can be called upon at any time to assist other crew members in emergencies waives your right to have interruption-free (E)RP sessions in private, including the dorms. If you join as a rosaria, expect to be interrupted out of private scenes. If you’re a rune master, you are expected to set up power systems and repair any large-scale damage that hampers the rest of the residents, regardless of your intent to have sex with the whatever hole is nearby.

• Dungeon diving is not a valid reason to be busy from your assigned job. If your job has multiple positions or is intended to dungeon dive, inform others and ensure someone is there to cover for you until you get back.

You are expected to obey the chain of command (within reason)

• Each head of staff is the de facto leader of their faction, so listen to them. Likewise, you should obey decisions from faction owners (if a fax arrives) or council decisions unless directly overridden by an admin. If you consistently do not follow reasonable orders, you will be job banned.

You are expected to forget events that are deemed non-canon

• Though most rounds are canon, if one is considered non-canon you are expected to forget it ICly.

• The round ending does not make you immune to a character perma-kill. Just because you evaded capture or was not killed by the time it restarted does not mean everyone forgets what your character did. If you get caught and the evidence is ironclad enough, you will be PK'd.

• This rule also applies to events that cause catastrophic damage to the safe zone, such as a Code Ruby/Onyx scenario. As a general rule event coordinators should say before or after an event if it is non-canon or not.

• If you are killed in a round and then revived in the same round, your memory is entirely intact and may act accordingly.

The intent of the rules is more important than the letter

The purpose of the rules is to preserve a fun and enjoyable environment for all players. If everyone is enjoying themselves even while the ‘letter’ of a rule is not being followed, it’s likely that no staff intervention will be required. On the other hand, just because something isn't in the rules doesn't mean it's okay or allowed if it's upsetting a large number of players.

• It is within admin staff's discretion to decide that certain actions violate one or more rules, even if the specific action is not listed as part of the rule. This is simply the job of the staff to interpret the rules. You can appeal decisions to other admins if you believe one has a bias against you, but doing so after a ruling is passed will get you in trouble.

• Plenty of rules are left vague enough to cover as much as possible without being too oppressing. Attempting to rules-lawyer saying that "this rule doesn't specifically say I can't do X", even if what you are doing is disrupting the server, will generally be ignored. We assume most of you have enough common sense to recognize what a sane and stable individual would and wouldn't do within this fictional setting.

Listen to admin staff

• One admin's word is usually as good as any other. Though, just because one admin says something is okay in that moment does not mean it will always be okay under another admin or even the same admin.
  • If this causes a contradiction, you can (and should) inform the new admin of what you were told previously. For example, a Head Admin says you can do something, but that admin has left the server. A lower ranked admin shows up and asks you to stop doing that thing. You can explain that the Head Admin previously said you could do this, but if the lower ranked admin still wants you to stop, then you should stop. (This obviously works vise-versa as well.)
  • Intentionally not telling a new admin about a contradiction is considered lying. It's like asking your mom for ice cream, but she says no, so you go ask dad because you think he'll be less strict.
• Sojourn is not a straight democracy; our rules and guidelines exist for a reason and we have staff dedicated to enforcing them and help set further guidelines if necessary. However, these rules are always going to be incomplete, and as such, just because something isn't written doesn't mean it's allowed. If a staff member tells you to do something, do it. They tell you to stop, then stop. If you disagree with a ruling, don't try to argue it then and there, especially if things are hectic. Once things have calmed down, or preferably after the round has ended, you can try to contact the staff member privately to discuss the ruling, or talk to another admin if you cannot talk to or cannot convince the offending admin.

• If you have a question over something unclear or questionable, never be afraid to adminhelp. The staff on hand should discuss it among themselves and give you a ruling, from there on if the ruling is in bad judgement, it's on the admin who cleared it, not you. The staff should also NEVER ban you purely for a complaint against them. Even if you're a complete asshole about it, as long as the argument stays private, you cannot be banned just for arguing. Although being an asshole usually won't win an argument, so you probably shouldn't do that anyway.
  • Don't confuse this for "complaining grants you immunity to bans", because that's not how it works. If you are told to not break windows and you complain how that isn't fair, you're still getting banned for breaking windows if we disagree with your complaint. What this means is we won't ban you or make an existing ban worse just because you tell us we're being excessively mean, confusing, or unfair to you or someone else.