Roleplay Rules

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

Roleplay Rules

Made for the roleplay server (manuel). If roleplaying isn't your style, every other server still abides by the standard rules.

Please note that a ban on the low roleplay servers is a ban on the medium roleplay server, and vice versa.

These are extra rules.

The RP rules are an extension to the base rules, not a replacement for. Big difference.

Escalation and roleplay.

Going out of your way to seriously negatively impact or end the round for someone with little to no justification is against the rules. Legitimate conflicts where people get upset do happen; however, these conflicts should escalate properly, and retribution must be proportionate. For example, this means you shouldn’t immediately escalate to murder when someone refuses to leave a certain area or give back something they stole.

Self-defense is allowed to the extent of saving your own life.

Putting someone into critical condition is considered self-defense only if they attempted to severely harm or kill you. Preemptively disabling someone, responding with disproportionate force, or hitting someone while they are already downed is not self-defense. Fistfights and the like are acceptable, assuming that both players have a reasonable justification as to why the fight started. Assault without any warning is almost always unacceptable in most circumstances.

Chain of command and security are important.

The head of your department is your boss and they can fire you; security officers can arrest you for stealing or breaking into places. The preference would be that unless they're doing something unreasonable, such as spacing you for spraying graffiti on the walls, you shouldn't freak out over being punished for doing something that would get you fired or arrested in real life. This also means that if you're in the chain of command, and especially if you're in Security, you're expected to put in some effort and do your job.

Validhunting and security.

If you are not part of the security team (HoS, Sec officer, Warden, or Detective, sorry lawyers) you should not go out of your way to hunt for potential antagonists. You can defend yourself and others from violent antagonists, but you should not act like a vigilante if a security force is present. The exception to this rule is when game modes such as blob or nuke ops appear on the server - you are free to fully engage with these antagonists, after all, they're a pretty massive threat to everyone onboard.

Antagonism, murderboning, and roleplaying as an antagonist.

You're an antag, great! Try your best to play the role to drive the round forward, inserting conflict into the round is important. Your actions should make the game more fun, more exciting and more enjoyable for everyone (Though some people will just lose, and that’s part of the game.). You can treat your objectives as suggestions on what you should attempt to achieve but you are also encouraged to ignore them if you have got a better idea. Certain antagonists are restricted to the kind of death and chaos they can bring to the round, while others are not; refer to the murderboning chart for specifics. You do not have to act in a nefarious or evil way, but you should make an effort to add to the round in some capacity.

Deal with the bad guys in proportion to their crime(s)

When dealing with antagonists deal with them proportionally to their crime(s). Someone who stole the captain's medal shouldn't be immediately lasered to death, but lethal injecting someone who has killed four people is understandable. If an antagonist shows a willingness to engage with you, do your best to reciprocate it, though leniency as to their punishment is still in your court.

Do not spam in either OOC channels or IC channels.

This applies to both typical spam and reading porn or copypastas (like WGW). In the latter case, even one instance of reading it once in-game is against the rules.

Don’t use OOC information or knowledge that your character would not reasonably be aware of just to give yourself an advantage.

Do not powergame. Powergaming is gearing up or preparing in other ways to face an issue that is not related to your job and is not currently a credible threat. Someone going missing on the station, and then you making a stunprod to wield whenever you go into maint is powergaming. However; knowing there have been murders occurring across the station, and grabbing a stunprod while you go to fix wires in maint is fine.

Play as a coherent, believable character.

Real life realism is not required, and you are encouraged to be a little silly within the context of the SS13 game world. (Clowning around, people spontaneously exploding and creating ridiculously elaborate machinery are all non-serious things but yet a vital part of the game world.) There's a good chance your character still wants to have a job at the end of the day, so you should probably act like it.

Stay in your lane.

Stay in your lane. This mean that you should do the job you signed up for and not try and do other people’s jobs for them. If you need something from another player you should attempt to ask them to get it for you instead of just taking it. If there is no one around to do a job or you get permission to help or grab something it is acceptable to stray from your lane.

The not-so-secret rule of sticky situations and mayhem.

Please be considerate of other players, as their experiences are just as important as your own. If you aren’t an antagonist and yet you really want to play out a hostage situation, or turn someone into a living cake-cat abomination, or just dick around a little, confirm with the involved and affected players ICly first. If everyone agrees to being subjected to whatever terrible atrocities you have in store, then you’re good to go. Please keep in mind that this rule does not protect you from IC consequences, such as getting arrested by security. If you are going to RP as a rude dude, given that your victims have given you the okay, you still have to own the responsibility that comes with your decision. This means, no, you can’t kill a security officer because they tried to arrest you for murdering the clown, even if the clown agreed to being murdered.

Security Policy & Precedents

1. Security and Punishments: When dealing with the crew and antagonists, make sure their punishments are in proportion to their crime(s). Minor crimes such as departmental break-ins, stolen equipment should be met with short, but increasing sentences depending on recurring visits by the apprehended. Stealing critical station equipment and items such as the hand teleporter, Chief Engineer's hardsuit, or AI upload boards are more severe crimes and should be met with longer prison times, or potentially permabrigging if the crime is deemed severe enough. Murder and Major Sabotage rank amongst the most severe of crimes and can generally be met with permanent imprisonment or death, though leniency can still be offered. These are all general guidelines, and the particular context of a situation can vary greatly, so you are given some leeway as to how harsh or lenient you can be. You should also make an effort, if the situation permits, to contact a superior as to their thoughts when a situation arises in which a prisoner may be executed or permanently imprisoned.
2. Rule 3 and Security: The chain of command within your department is roughly the same as the regular servers, HoS -->Warden-->Officers/Detective. You are expected to follow the orders of your superiors, especially when determining the punishment of those you apprehend. When determining severe punishments such as perma, and execution, make an effort to contact a superior if the situation permits it. You are allowed to disobey a superior's order but make sure you have a very good reason to do so, as complete disregard for the chain of command is not tolerated.

Precedents & exceptions: Examples and exceptions to the main rules.

Rule 5 Precedents.

1. In general, make an effort to roleplay as the antagonist role you've been assigned. If you want to break with what is expected of your role then you can but it should make sense for your character to do this and should create some form of conflict. A traitor immediately outing themselves to security and acting as a regular crewmember for the rest of the round is boring and is a waste of the role.

However one who pretends to do so in order to get security gear, falsely imprison their target, and kill them while they are isolated in prison contributes to the round.

Rule 6 Precedents.

When murder/major sabotage is involved in the crime, execution is likely justified, stealing of high security items such as hand tele, or advanced armor is more in the realm of a long prison time, or the permabrig. Its important to remember these are guidelines and context should be taken into account with any situation.

What IS/ISNT Murderboning?

Murderboning refers to killing typically large amounts of the station’s population without regard and/or in direct violation of one’s objectives. If you killed someone and you cannot explain why without going into deep hypotheticals such as "they could find the body if they happened to walk across the station to the opposite corner of the map", or “because I can (as antag)”, you are very likely falling into the murderboning category. Killing anyone without justification is considered murderboning.

This is different than killing individuals who simply aren’t listed in your objective. Actions that would NOT be considered murderboning include:

•Antagonists are subject to relaxed escalation rules, they still cannot kill randomly, but slights against them can be met with lethal force. Such as people shoving them repeatedly, stealing from them or going out of their way to greatly insult them.

• Self-defense. Someone actively trying to make it difficult for you to complete your objectives is fine to eliminate in pursuit of completing your objective. This would include witnesses.

• Collateral. If you for instance bomb your target, it is not considered murderboning if other individuals die in the explosion. This can include self-defense situations where individuals dying from a result of being in a crowd after you would also not be considered murderbone.

• Directly benefits the pursuit of your objective(s). An individual carrying an item you have to steal or killing someone to get closer to your mark (IE a doctor whose patient just happens to be your target) would fall into this category.

Setting up situations where you can evade these restrictions (IE placing a body in an open location, not making an honest attempt to hide it, then killing individuals who “stumble” upon it) or otherwise maximizing the kill count without justification is also considered murderboning.

In short, you should be able to very quickly and easily explain why an individual was killed.

Do note that as an antagonist, your job ideally is to create an interesting story with the objectives,freedoms, and abilities as the framework to complete this task. This means 1) permission to kill is NOT the same as obligation to kill. Feel free to approach a situation as non-lethal as you’d like even if you would be okayed by the administration to kill. 2) Feel free to ask an admin to change your objectives or for permission to murderbone in the pursuit of running an interesting gimmick on a non-murderboning role. They might even be willing to make it easier to run!

Is murderbone allowed with this role? This part covers the specifics on which roles can and cannot murderbone, as well as any grey areas.

Antagonist	Is murderboning allowed?
Traitor/Blood Brother	No.
Changeling	No.
Malfunctioning AI	Yes, however it should only happen once you go DELTA.
Nuclear Operative	Yes.
Wizard	Yes.
Blood Cult/Revolutionary	In general no, conversion should take priority, however if the situation is dire you are allowed to kill as many as required to accomplish your goals.
Ashwalker	Yes, however the nest should remain defended.
Families	No.
Revenant	Yes.
Blob	Yes.
Abductor	No.
Space Ninja	No.
Xenomorph	Yes.
Pirate	No.
Nightmare	Yes.
Obsessed	No.
Heretic	Yes, however it should only occur after ascension.