Roleplay Rules
Roleplay Rules
Made for the roleplay server (sybil 2). If roleplaying isn't your style, every other server still abides by the standard rules.
1. These are extra rules.
The RP rules are an extension to the base rules, not a replacement for. Big difference. It should also be noted that a ban on the low roleplay servers is a ban on the medium roleplay server, and vice versa.
2. 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.
2.5. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Antagonism and murderboning.
You're an antag, great! Treat your role as an interesting challenge and not an excuse to destroy other people’s game experience. Your actions should make the game more fun, more exciting and more enjoyable for everyone; you can treat your objectives as suggestions on what you should attempt to achieve but you are also encouraged to ignore them if you've got a better idea. You do NOT have to act in a nefarious or evil way, but you are not allowed to just go on a silent rampage and eliminate all the players in a power trip. We're all here to have a good time, after all.
6. Be kind to the bad guys.
Because antagonists are often the the driving force for most rounds, some amount of goodwill should be extended to them. Basically, try to interact and communicate with antagonists and try to create an exciting narrative, rather than, say, immediately laser them to death when you see them. Communication and dialogue are expected on both ends (although not necessarily required.)
7. Don’t use OOC information or knowledge that your character would not reasonably be aware of just to give yourself an advantage.
In other words, don’t powergame or metagame. This mostly means things like rolling captain every round just so you can always do xenobio, or rushing into chemistry at the start of each round so you can make a suicide grenade just in case.
8. 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.
9. Stay in your lane.
While you're capable of doing anything within the game mechanics, just let those who have selected the relevant job to attempt the task first. For example, breaking into medical and treating the burns you got from hacking the medical airlock would be a very strange real-life event if there are doctors literally standing there, and while a janitor mixing up some extra space cleaner is very much believable, if there are chemists working in chemistry you should consider asking them to make you your space-cleaner grenades.
10. 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.