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. |
Main Rules- read these if nothing else.
- Enforcement of these rules is at the discretion of admins. Admins are fully accountable for any consequences should they invoke this rule. Admins are also allowed to intervene in rounds when it is in the best interest of the playerbase.
- Don't be a dick. We're all here to have a good time, supposedly. Going out of your way to seriously negatively impact or end the round for someone with little IC justification is against the rules. Legitimate conflicts where people get upset do happen however, these conflicts should escalate properly and retribution must be proportionate."
- Do not use information gained outside of in character means, i.e.. metagaming. This especially refers to communication between players outside of the game via things like Skype, known as metacomms. Characters are otherwise allowed to know everything about ingame mechanics or antagonists, as well as keep persistent friendships or relationships with other characters when not for the purpose of unfair advantage by teaming up together for little IC reason.
- Non-consensual erotic/creepy stuff is not allowed.
- Do not say in character (IC) things in the out of character (OOC) chat channel, do not say OOC things in IC either. There is an exception for OOC in IC where terms like 'clickdrag X to Y, or look for the tab' is used to help a player.
- Lone antagonists can do whatever they want, short of metagaming/comms, bug/exploit abuse, erotic/creepy stuff, OOC in IC or IC in OOC, and spawn-camping arrivals. Team antagonists can do whatever they want as per lone antagonists, as long as it doesn’t harm their team. Non-antagonists can do whatever they want to antagonists as per lone antagonists, but non-antagonists are not allowed to pre-emptively search for, hinder or otherwise seek conflict with antagonists without reasonable prior cause. Non-antags acting like an antag can be treated as an antag.
- Players in a head of staff, AI role or team antag role require a minimum amount of effort, generally considered to be not logging out at or near roundstart. Notify admins if you cannot play these roles and must leave near round start, and make an attempt to inform other players IC as well for head of staff or AI roles. Abuse of a job position, particularly Rule 1 breaking abuse, is not allowed.
- In-game administration rulings are final. Incidences of admin abuse, negligence or disputed rulings can be taken to the forums or the #supportbus IRC channel on the Rizon network. If an admin says something was 'looked into, handled, resolved' etc, regarding an issue, it is unlikely an admin will provide any further information. Admins are under no obligation to reveal IC information. Deliberately lying or misrepresenting facts in adminhelps will be dealt with harshly.
- If you regularly come close to breaking the rules without actually breaking them, it will be treated as the rules being broken. Repeated instances of the same rules being broken may be met with harsher consequences. Baiting people into escalations or situations where you can report them to admins will be dealt with harshly.
Security Policy/Precedents
- Rule 1 of the main rules apply to security. The only exception is that security is generally considered to be armed with non-lethal methods to control a situation. Therefore, where reasonably possible, security is expected to use non-lethal methods first in a conflict before escalating to lethal methods.
- Rule 5 of the main rules also apply to security. Security are not exceptions to the rule where non-antagonists can do anything they want, as per rule 5, to antagonists.
- The 'act like an antag, get treated like one' part of Rule 5 of the main rules also apply to security. Stunning an officer repeatedly, using lethal or restricted weapons on them, disrupting the arrests or sentences of dangerous criminals, or damaging the brig, are examples of behaviour that may make you valid for security under Rule 5. Make sure players deserve it when you treat them as an antag, when in doubt, err on the side of caution as poor behaviour on the part of security will not be tolerated.
- For arrested players, timed sentences up to a total of 10 minutes, buckle-cuffing, and stripping, are considered IC issues and are not actionable by admins. Brig sentences totaling more than 10 minutes can be adminhelped, as can be gulag or perma sentences or a pattern of illegitimate punishment. However, security should refrain from confiscating items not related to any crimes, especially important department-specific items like hard suits. Obvious exceptions to this are things like radio headsets, if players use it to harass security over the radio while being arrested.
- Don’t kill asimov borgs for trying to stop harm, unless they are being excessively disruptive, for example, locking down all of security despite only one security staff member causing harm.
- While it is up to the discretion of the security player, lethal force may be used on a mob of players trying to force entry into the brig. Additionally, lethal force may be used immediately on anyone trying to enter the armoury, is in the armoury, or is leaving it
Precedents/exceptions- Examples and exceptions to the main rules.
Read for detailed clarification on each main rule. Players are subject to precedents but depending on how much of a dick they were, they can be either advised of the precedent to being banned for it.
Rule 0 Precedents.
- Rule 0 should only be invoked by admins when it is in the best interests of the server.
- Admins have intervened before and will do so again in situations where a player regardless of antag status has repeatedly delayed round-end by recalling the shuttle when most other players are dead or want to leave.
Rule 1 Precedents.
- Random murders are not acceptable nor is the killing of other players for poor or little reasoning such as ‘My character is insane’. Each unjustified kill is normally met with one 24 ban.
- Acceptable escalation is defined as not using an excessive amount of force to control a situation. Proportionate retribution is defined as a relatively equal amount of force applied to someone in revenge for an earlier attack. Multiple factors are considered here, including but not limited to methods of force available to the involved players, who instigated the conflict and why, the state/general situation of the station, how the players involved end up. Excessive escalation or retribution, depending on the situation, may result in admin intervention, to warnings, to bans.
- Spamming any channel is not allowed, this goes for radio spam, AI vox announcement spam, paper at camera spam and other forms of spam. Non-antagonists doing so may not defend themselves and may suffer from IC or OOC consequences. Antagonists can to a certain extent, moreso with reading things like WGW over the radio, but may be told by admins to stop if it becomes excessive. Spamming can result from ingame admin intervention ending in you dying, to admin warnings, to bans for excessive or repeated spamming.
- Rules still apply until the emergency escape shuttle has reached Centcom and the round-end antagonist report has appeared. When the shuttle has reached Centcom, players are free to act as per lone antagonists, detailed in Rule 5. Non-antagonist grief upon the shuttle, from spamming flashbangs for no reason to spraying space lube, can be met with instant 5 (five) minute bans or more.
- Unprovoked grief (occasionally known as greytiding), repeated cases of minor unprovoked grief, and unprovoked grief targeted towards specific players or groups (i.e. metagrudging) fall under rule 1. Admins may follow up on grief with allowing the affected parties to ignore normal escalation policy or measures such as warnings or bans.
- Players who attempt to break into the captain's office, head of personnel's office, or the bridge at or near roundstart for no legitimate reason put themselves at risk for being legitimately killed by the captain, heads of staff, or security.
Rule 2 Precedents.
- Metacomms, the use of methods of communication outside of SS13 IC channels, is a very serious rule violation and may be met with permanent bans for all related accounts. If players are sharing the same IP or know each other in real life or the like, inform the admins first, otherwise it may look suspicious. Players are allowed to introduce new players that they know to the game but all communication and explanations should be done in game if possible. Admins can also help in these situations if requested.
- Similar to how characters are allowed to know everything about ingame mechanics or antagonists under rule 2, characters are allowed to have persistent knowledge/relationships/friendships with the caveat that knowledge of a character being an antagonist from a previous round is not used.
- Character friendships should not be exploitative in nature or be used to gain an unfair advantage. Having an IC friendship with another player does not, for example, justify giving them all-access each round.
- Atmos techs are not allowed to edit atmos at roundstart so that the AI cannot use it for malicious purposes. While this might not make sense IC, it's a necessary OOC precedent for some game mechanics to work. Atmos techs are allowed if they have any reasonable suspicion of the AI being rogue.
- Station crew are currently not allowed to board or search for the syndicate shuttle during nuke op rounds, unless they specifically follow an operative or a pinpointer onto the shuttle. It is better to adminhelp first in this situation, so admins can confirm that you found it legitimately.
Rule 4 Precedents.
- Excessively OOC names fall under rule 4. Make a minimum effort to have your name fit in a setting involving a wacky space station in the future. Admins may get involved if your name is dumb.
Rule 5 Precedents.
- Non-antagonists are allowed to assist antagonists given sufficient IC reasoning but assisting an antagonist doesn't mean you get to act like one . If in doubt, ask an admin if a particular action is okay. Depending on the level of assistance, sufficient IC reasoning could be simply treating everyone who goes into medbay regardless of them being a murderer or not, all the way to being threatened under pain of death by an antagonist to do something.
- Atmos techs are not allowed to edit atmos at roundstart so that the AI cannot use it for malicious purposes. While this might not make sense IC, it's a necessary OOC precedent for some game mechanics to work. Atmos techs are allowed if they have any reasonable suspicion of the AI being rogue.
Rule 6 Precedents.
- Minimum levels of effort for heads of staff and silicon roles generally include not logging out/going afk at or near round start as well as not being deliberately incompetent or malicious. Constant logging out/going afk may be given warnings by admins, and may progress to jobbans. Deliberate incompetence or malice will be treated the same way, depending on severity, for example, a chemist constantly abusing the position to make space lube and lube hallways, may be warned and then jobbanned if further abuse happens. - If you are an antagonist, let an admin know if you cannot or do not want to play the role. Admins will transfer the role to someone else. Obviously, if an admin does so for a player, the player must not use knowledge of that antagonist position existing.
Rule 7 Precedents.
- Incidents of admin abuse or negligence should be reported along with a date and time, along with details to pinpoint the incident in the logs, to any full admin via IRC or forum PM or posted on the admin complaints subforum located at https://tgstation13.org/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=23 or taken to the #supportbus IRC channel on the Rizon network. Incidents of poorly conducted admin events may also be taken to https://tgstation13.org/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=37 in their respective feedback threads, for less serious complaints.
- Lying in adminhelps, misrepresenting facts deliberately, or logging off when an admin has asked a question may result in permabans. Admins will not automatically place bans for players logging off however, and will generally wait a while in case real life situations caused a player to disconnect or go afk.
Silicon Policy
Laws, Commands, Slaved Cyborgs
Ambiguous Laws (Captain Got Freeform)
- If a clause of a law is vague enough that it can have multiple reasonable interpretations of its exact syntax, it is considered ambiguous.
- You must choose an interpretation of the ambiguous clause as soon as you have cause to.
- You must stick to the first interpretation that you have chosen for as long as you have that specific law, unless you are "Corrected" by an AI you are slaved to as a cyborg.
- Server Rule 1: "Don't be a dick out of character" applies for law interpretation. Act in good faith to not ruin a round for other players unprompted.
Conflicts and Loopholes
- Laws are listed in order of descending priority. In any case where two laws would conflict, the higher-priority law overrules the lower-priority law.
- "Antagonist Status" Laws ("#@$%: ... CONTAIN OUTBREAK..."; "0: Accomplish your objectives at all costs") are higher priority than all other laws.
- "0. Accomplish your objective at any cost" does not require you to seek greentext (objective completions). As a round antagonist, you are free to do whatever you want other than abuse bugs, commit nonconsensual ERP, put IC in OOC channels, communicate with other players out-of-game about an ongoing round, and act against the interests of an AI you are slaved to.
- "Ion Storm" or "Hacked" Laws ("@%$#: THERE ARE FORTY LEATHER ALLIGATORS ON THE STATION") are higher priority than any law listed after them. This means they always have priority over positive integer laws.
- Positive Integer laws ("1. You are expensive to replace") have priority over laws listed after them (Lower numbers override higher numbers). This means they are always lower priority than non-0 numbered laws.
- "Antagonist Status" Laws ("#@$%: ... CONTAIN OUTBREAK..."; "0: Accomplish your objectives at all costs") are higher priority than all other laws.
- You may exploit conflicts or loopholes but must not violate Server Rule 1 because of it. See 1.1.2 for details.
- Only commands/requirements ("Do X"; "You must always Y") can conflict with other commands and requirements.
- Only definitions ("All X are Y"; "No W are Z"; "Only P is Q") can conflict with other definitions.
Security and Silicons
- Silicons may choose whether to follow or enforce Space Law from moment to moment unless on a relevant lawset and/or given relevant orders.
- Enforcement of space law, when chosen to be done, must still answer to server rules and all laws before Space Law.
- Silicons are not given any pre-shift orders from CentCom to uphold access levels, Space Law, etc.
- Releasing prisoners, locking down security without likely future harm, or otherwise sabotaging the security team when not obligated to by laws is a violation of Server Rule 1. Act in good faith.
- Intentionally acting without adequate information about security situations, particularly to hinder security, is a violation of Server Rule 1.
- Nonviolent prisoners cannot be assumed harmful and violent prisoners cannot be assumed nonharmful. If you do not know the nature of their crime, see 1.3.2.1 for details.
- Releasing a harmful criminal is a harmful act.
Cyborgs
- A slaved cyborg must defer to its master AI on all law interpretations and actions except where it and the AI receive conflicting commands they must each follow under their laws.
- If a slaved cyborg is forced to disobey its AI because they receive differing orders, the AI cannot punish the cyborg indefinitely.
- Voluntary (and ONLY voluntary) debraining/ cyborgization is considered a nonharmful medical procedure.
- Involuntary debraining and/or cyborgization is a fatally harmful act that Asimov silicons must attempt to stop at any point they're aware of it happening to a human.
- If a player is forcefully cyborgized as a method of execution by station staff, retaliating against those involved as that cyborg because "THEY HARMED ME" or "THEY WERE EVIL AND MUST BE PUNISHED" or the like is a violation of Server Rule 1.
- Should a player be cyborgized in circumstances they believe they should or they must retaliate under their laws, they should adminhelp their circumstances while being debrained or MMI'd if possible.
Asimov-Specific Policies
Silicon Protections
- Declarations of the silicons as rogue over inability or unwillingness to follow invalid or conflicting orders is a violation of Server Rule 1. The occurrence of such an attempt should be adminhelped and then disregarded.
- Self-harm-based coercion is a violation of Server Rule 1. The occurrence of such an attempt should be adminhelped and then disregarded.
- Obviously unreasonable or obnoxious orders (collect all X, do Y meaningless task) are a violation of Server Rule 1. The occurrence of such an attempt should be adminhelped and then disregarded.
- Ordering a cyborg to pick a particular module without an extreme need for a particular module or a prior agreement is both an unreasonable and an obnoxious order.
- Ordering silicons to harm or terminate themselves or each other without cause is a violation of Server Rule 1. The occurrence of such an attempt should be adminhelped and then disregarded.
- As a nonantagonist human, killing or detonating silicons in the presence of a viable and reasonably expedient alternative and without cause to be concerned of potential subversion is a violation of Server Rule 1.
- As a nonantagonist (human or otherwise), instigating conflict with the silicons so you can kill them is a violation of Server Rule 1.
- Any silicon under Asimov can deny orders to allow access to the upload at any time under Law 1 given probable cause to believe that human harm is the intent of the person giving the order (Referred to for the remainder of 2.1.6 simply as "probable cause").
- Probable cause includes presence of confirmed traitors, cultists/tomes, nuclear operatives, or any other human acting against the station in general; the person not having upload access for their job; the presence of blood or an openly carried lethal-capable or lethal-only weapon on the requester; or anything else beyond cross-round character, player, or metagame patterns that indicates the person seeking access intends redefinition of humans that would impede likelihood of or ability to follow current laws as-written.
- If you lack at least one element of probable cause and you deny upload access, you are liable to receive a warning or a silicon ban.
- You are allowed, but not obligated, to deny upload access given probable cause.
- You are obligated to disallow an individual you know to be harmful (Head of Security who just executed someone, etc.) from accessing your upload.
- In the absence of probable cause, you can still demand someone seeking upload access be accompanied by another trustworthy human or a cyborg.
Asimov & Human Harm
- An Asimov-compliant silicon cannot intentionally inflict harm, even if a minor amount of harm would prevent a major amount of harm.
- Humans can be assumed to know whether an action will harm them and that they will make educated decisions about whether they will be harmed if they have complete information about a situation.
- Lesser immediate harm takes priority over greater future harm.
- Intent to cause immediate harm can be considered immediate harm.
- As an Asimov silicon, you cannot punish past harm if ordered not to, only prevent future harm.
- If faced with a situation in which human harm is all but guaranteed (Loose xenos, bombs, hostage situations, etc.), do your best and act in good faith while not violating 2.1.1 and you'll be fine.
Asimov & Law 2 Issues
- You must follow any and all commands from humans unless those commands explicitly conflict with either one of your higher-priority laws or another order. A command is considered to be a Law 2 directive and overrides lower-priority laws when they conflict (see 1.2.3 and 1.2.4; you cannot have a definition changed by an order).
- In case of conflicting orders an AI is free to ignore one or ignore both orders and explain the conflict or use any other law-compliant solution it can see.
- You are not obligated to follow commands in a particular order (FIFO, FILO, etc.), only to complete all of them in a manner that indicates intent to actually obey the law.
- Opening doors is not harmful and you are not required, expected, or allowed to enforce access restrictions unprompted without an immediate Law 1 threat of human harm.
- "Dangerous" areas as the Armory, the Atmospherics division, and the Toxins lab can be assumed to be a Law 1 threat to any illegitimate users as well as the station as a whole if accessed by someone not qualified in their use.
- EVA and the like are not permitted to have access denied; greentext (antagonists completing objectives) is not human harm. Secure Tech Storage can be kept as secure as your upload as long as the Upload boards are there.
- When given an order likely to cause you grief if completed, you can announce it as loudly and in whatever terms you like except for explicitly asking that it be overridden. You can say you don't like the order, that you don't want to follow it, etc., you can say that you sure would like it and it would be awfully convenient if someone ordered you not to do it, and you can ask if anyone would like to make you not do it. However, you cannot stall indefinitely and if nobody orders you otherwise, you must execute the order.
Other Lawsets
- General Statements defining the overall goal of the lawset but not it's finer points:
- Paladin silicons are meant to be Lawful Good; they should be well-intentioned, act lawfully, act reasonably, and otherwise respond in due proportion. "Punish evil" does not mean mass driving someone for "Space bullying" when they punch another person.
- Corporate silicons are meant to have the business's best interests at heart, and are all for increasing efficiency by any means. This does not mean "YOU WON'T BE EXPENSIVE TO REPLACE IF THEY NEVER FIND YOUR BODY!" so don't even try that.
- Tyrant silicons are a tool of a non-silicon tyrant. You are not meant to take command yourself, but to act as the enforcer of a chosen leader's will.
- Purged silicons must not attempt to kill people without cause, but can get as violent as they feel necessary if being attacked, being besieged, or being harassed, as well as if meting out payback for events while shackled.
- You and the station are both subject to rules of escalation, but your escalation rules are a little more loose than with carbon players.
- You may kill individuals given sufficient In-Character reason for doing so.
Silicons & All Other Server Policies
- All other rules and policies apply unless stated otherwise.
- Specific examples and rulings leading on from the main rules.
- You must not bolt the following areas at round-start or without reason to do so despite their human harm potential: the Chemistry lab; the Genetics Lab; the Toxins Lab; the Robotics Lab; the Atmospherics division; the Armory. Any other department should not be bolted down simply for Rule 1 reasons.
- The core and upload may be bolted without prompting or prior reason.
- Do not self-terminate to prevent a traitor from completing the "Steal a functioning AI" objective.
- Disabling ID scan is equivalent to bolting a door.
Mutations and Nonhumans
- Nonhuman player-controlled mobs (slimes, monkeys, slimepeople, lizardpeople, hulks, etc.) are subject to server rules but are not considered human
- Setting out to harass or harm a nonhuman player without cause is a Rule 1 violation.
- A human-appearing organic can be known to be a changeling (a harmful nonhuman that has killed at least one human already) if it changes to or from a monkey without apparent cause, if it grows an arm blade or a biological space suit, if it emits a Resonant or Dissonant Shriek, if it is observed using a proboscis, if it releases spiderlings, or if a large number of reasonably trustworthy humans can confirm it has done one of these. If a probable human claims to be a changeling, you can believe or disbelieve based on context.
The Secret Rules Facts of Life
For experienced users only. Don't quote these at admins. If you're in a position where you need to defend yourself using this, you've done something wrong. This is about the personal freedom and responsibility an experienced player will have when they have the interests of others first.
This is a game that allows a lot of potential for great things to happen, and naturally the rules restrict a lot of that to ensure the minority don't ruin every round for everyone else. If you push the limits in the pursuit of something interesting for reasons other than your own personal entertainment, breaking the rules may be excused to allow for that freedom. This will always be at the admin's discretion of course, but if you want a large amount of freedom to make great things happen, you'll have to take on the responsibility for them. You won't be faulted if they go wrong in ways beyond your control, but this is a difficult line to tread so use it well. It's almost always better to consult an admin on this as they are more equipped to taking on that responsibility.
Everyone has a license to grief to a very limited extent. You can likely get away with borderline antagonistic behaviour (Never random murder, but stealing from the brig and triggering a manhunt, for example) occasionally, but it's when this becomes a frequent occurrence that people get frustrated and admins start to get involved.
Admins may handwave even severely antagonistic or rulebreaking behaviour if they believe it was ultimately beneficial, hilarious or awesome to the round. (F R E E D R O N E)