Not Getting Banned

The Rules are there for everyone to have fun, but still leave some room for interpretation. If you want to play it safe, here are some pointers.

LISTEN TO THE ADMINS
This is by far the most important pointer here. If you are playing and an admin contacts you questioning you on your behaviour, or asking you to change something, listen to them and do as they say. Of course, admins aren’t omniscient nor perfect, so if you think they are wrong, feel free to explain how things got to where they are and your reasoning, but if they are still not convinced, then just do as they say. DON’T try to discuss it until a settlement is reached there and now. You are in the middle of the game and the game won’t stop for you to discuss it over.

Instead, even if you think the admin is wrong, if they insist that you cease or change the behaviour, do it. Later, when you have the opportunity, discuss it with them again, preferably involving other admins and players. The skype group is good for this (though make sure it isn’t the same round, as that would be IC in OOC). Another good alternative is making a forum post about it.

And, whatever happens, don’t hate the admins. They are just doing their job, a job they do for free, by the way. Keep in mind that essentially every griefer thinks what they are doing is fine, and the admin is wrong. If the admins let anyone who though they were right do what they wanted, we would all be screwed.

That is why admins need to enforce their opinion. Sadly, this means that their opinion will be enforced even when it is wrong, but this is not something that can be helped. Just accept the unfortunate event and try to prevent it from happening again by bringing the "wrongful" judgment to the light of the community. Don’t hate the admins; it won’t achieve anything other than make they want to ban you more and for longer.

Most importantly of all, If an admin PMs you about something, absolutely do not ignore them. If you won't respond when the admins try to speak with you, then you leave them with little choice but to ban you. To reply to an admin-PM, just click on the admin's name - if you're busy with something in-game, such as being actively chased, or attempting to perform first-aid or some other time-critical task, a simple quick note to let us know you got the message and will respond when you get a chance is fine.

When in doubt, ASK THE ADMINS
This is the second most important pointer here. When you are unsure of whether something is allowable or not, or how bad it would be, just adminhelp it. If you adminhelp it and act according to the reply you receive, you could kill everyone and destroy the entire ship and still not get banned, because you were doing it under the OK of an admin. Even if what you did was terrible, it was the admin that gave the "yes" that will have to do the explaining, not you.

What if there are no admins, or they don’t reply? Well, if you have time, you could take a quick look on the wiki and it may be able to clear things up for you. If you are able to make it cryptic enough as to not be IC on OOC, you can also try asking the other players.

If you are still unsure, just use your common sense, think of what would be fun for others, and hope you aren’t doing something terrible. If you do, and an admin comes and questions you on it, tell him that you were unable to get a clarification and that will probably save your ass if you didn’t break common sense to the extreme, or have a really bad history.

Write in a way that feels like speech
Another thing that breaks immersion is when we see someone writing in a way that doesn’t feel like speech, like writing with terrible grammar, using smileys and other internets slang/codes, using all-caps too frequently (in fact its probably better to not use it at all, unless you really, REALLY need to convey it’s a very big and nasty scream), and so on.

Understandably, not everyone is a native English speaker, and keeping to grammar isn’t always easy, but please try. As long as you are trying nobody will ban you for this. Though some community members are somewhat of grammar Nazis, so try to not let them push you around too much either. (Unless they’re an admin. Remember 1!)

No metagaming or IC in OOC
It doesn’t matter how unfair or awesome what just happened was, you shouldn't write in OOC about what happened IC, unless it’s from another round or vague/old enough to not matter, nor break character to manifest your OOC will ICly.

If it was awesome, comment on it later. If it was something aggravating, resolve it privately with an admin or, again, leave it for later. And, for god's sake, DON’T use your current in-game character as means of getting revenge against someone you hate or grudge personally in an OOC, no matter how terrible the things they did to you in previous times.

Likewise, if you do stumble across information gained OOCly that your character doesn't know ICly, make an effort not to act upon it - if you join the game after spectating, or someone comments of copypastes radio-chatter into skype or something, don't immediately make a beeline towards something you know about OOCly but have no way to know in-character. This applies especially to vore scenes - if someone has dragged an ICly unwilling meal off into a secluded maintenance tunnel or something similar, it's going to be heavily frowned upon if you join as a security officer and charge in to save the day. Security officers in particular are held to a high standard when it comes to metagaming - going out of your way to "ICly find" evidence that you only know to look for because you found out OOCly is also verboten. An example of this would be deciding to conduct "random" searches when no crimes have been reported, so you can "catch" someone you found out about OOCly.

In particular, the end-round reveal and other information are not in-character knowledge, and you should not act upon seeing someone's name popping up as a "successful traitor" one time. When we even have them, half the time the traitors are given silly objectives like "stuff Kisuke up your ass" anyway.

It should be noted that we're not as strict on IC-in-OOC as some servers - In particular, local OOC (the LOOC command in-game) should be considered your first port of call for discussing your intentions with other players on an OOC level - especially when it comes to things like setting up a scene, asking whether other players would be okay with your character joining in or interrupting a scene-in-progress that they just walked in on, how people would OOCly prefer a scene to progress, and so forth. Remember, you're not here to "win", you're here to have fun!

Don't be a turnip.
Turnips (or "despies) is a catch-all term for aggressively pushy RP-partners, particularly ICly submissive/preyish ones. Essentially, the rules about not forcing people to participate in scenes they don't want to are just as applicable to prey as they are to predators - following someone around and pestering or otherwise attempting to coerce or manipulate other players so they'll eat you when they don't OOCly want to will only result in you being told to knock it off. This comic just about sums it up. Naturally, if the other players are up for it, go ahead and give them an excuse. LOOC and flavortext are your friends as always.

Don't be obstructive of other players' RP
Everyone's here to have a fun time and enjoy themselves, so don't go out of your way to interrupt or otherwise interfere with another player's scene. The "go out of your way" part is the important detail there - if you're a security officer and you walk in on someone in the bar (or a hallway, or some other public area) cramming someone down their throat while they scream for help, then it's not considered going out of your way to stage a rescue - really, the predator should have been smarter. If it's not a public area, though, consider leaving them to it. If you spot an unwilling vore scene in a hidden area by using xray, thermals, cameras or the like, it's usually OOCly polite to just pretend you didn't see anything. This protection doesn't apply to non-vore crimes - if someone's spotted breaking into the bridge or sabotaging the station in some way, feel free to call sec immediately.

If you're in a head role, try not to be a busybody to the point where it stifles the ability of other players to enjoy themselves. For instance, if two players joined as cargo techs in order to play with each other, the HoP or QM should think twice before ordering one of them to go mining - after all, if they wanted to mine, they'd have joined as a shaft miner. Likewise, ordering a lockdown on an area for no good reason, instructing someone to stand in a corner, or otherwise flexing your authority in a way that renders other players unable to enjoy the game is frowned upon. Again, it's going out of your way to interfere that's the important part.

As always, LOOC is your best friend. If you accidentally stumble across two people halfway through an unwilling scene somewhere relatively secluded like maintenance, it's good to LOOC and ask if they'd be okay with you calling security and reporting it, whether they'd rather you wait until they finished, and so on and so forth. Remember - people who are roleplaying are at a disadvantage time-wise. Thirty seconds IC-time of swallowing someone up, depending on how verbose the players are, can take upwards of ten minutes real-time, by which time security have had time to finish their coffee, stroll to security, arm up, leisurely walk to maintenance, find someone to open the doors, and set up tactical positions for a takedown. Naturally, some players might consider this to be pulling the rug from under their scene. Other players like the risk of being caught, but it's best to determine whether or not this is the case before involving other players in a way that's hard to undo.

Take care when playing crazy, feral, murderous, or otherwise troublesome characters.
While this is a role playing game and it should be understood that actions are character against character, and not player against player, if you play an insane, evil, predatory, antagonistic or otherwise unpleasant character, it is advisable to make sure your fellow players are "on board." You might try using the LOOC command to communicate your RP intentions with other players, particularly if you have not played with the other character before. (Likewise, if you feel that a player is becoming too aggressive, you can also try using the LOOC command to ask them to stop.)

Do note that when it comes to ERP/fetish/vore content, if another player OOCly says to stop, you stop. ICly raping another character then stuffing them down your gullet is an IC trip to the brig (if you get caught). Forcing another player to participate in a scene that makes them OOCly uncomfortable after they speak up about it will likely net you a ban.

Being predatory, murderous or animalistic isn’t always going to be a bad thing, but you need to know how to do it in order to not spoil the fun or immersion of others. Even simply being an annoying troublemaker in order to provoke other players into eating you can be frowned upon if the other players aren't up for that sort of play - if you decide to commit a rash of petty crimes, flip tables, or otherwise get up to annoying or "greytiding" behaviour in an effort to deliberately get yourself into trouble, don't be too surprised if that trouble takes the form of simply beating the crap out of you or arresting you without any eating involved.

Feral characters are common theme, and can be either very fun to play with, or very frustrating - if you're going on a feral rampage that just ends up disrupting the rest of the station, that's no fun for anyone. If you do want to play a character that exhibits feral behaviour, plan it out - give them a trigger, give them some actual behaviours besides "ruin everything", give them some means of snapping them out of it that doesn't require people to go outside their prefs (for instance - if your character goes into heat and becomes extremely violent until they get laid, and there aren't any players on that want to RP out a sex scene, then now wouldn't be a good time to go feral) and above all, make it enjoyable, not just for you, but for the people who have to interact with you.

Above all, if you ARE going to go feral and ICly try to eat anyone you come across, bear in mind that the rules on powergaming, godmoding and so on trump any "what my character would do" concerns - if nothing else, give anyone who doesn't want to be a part of your RP a chance to leave.

No self-antagging.
In short - don't act like an antagonist if you're not an antagonist. This ties in closely with the previous point. While petty crimes and theft are acceptable to a degree if it fits your character, if you are not an antagonist, actions such as subverting the AI, stealing high value items such as the Captain's ID, mutiny, and other actions that could lead others to believe you are antagonists are not to be done. Unfortunately, we can't give you written confirmation that specific crimes are fair game. We can't make that kind of judgement in the absence of context, and there are people who capitalize on that kind of ruling. (Let's face it, if we said "Yeah running up to people and pickpocketing them isn't bannable" it'd cue a spree of everyone fishing in each other's pockets like it's a handjob convention to the tune of THE ADMINS SAID IT WAS OKAAAAAAAY.)

Naturally, given the nature of the server, doing things with a predatory goal in mind are permissible. This isn't carte blanche to raid the armory or bomb the brig so security can't stop you, but it means we won't care so much if you, say, "borrow" the syringe gun in order to subdue yourself a snack. (and again, ensure your target is on board with it)

If you want to play on the safe side, don't do anything that will make someone's round worse, and if in doubt, adminhelp.

Think twice before killing someone (vore excluded, obviously)
This sort of goes hand-in-hand with the last point. Even if you have a good enough reason to kill someone, your personality allows it, the situation calls for it, etc... Keep in mind that killing someone means taking someone out of the game, and they may not enjoy that. (Of course, if you clone them afterwards, this can be mitigated - and is a common way of getting eaten people back in the game)

So, ask yourself two great questions before killing someone: First, will the victim find this enjoyable? Can I make this enjoyable for them? And, second, can I, through this murder, create an interesting situation or scenario for the remaining players?

Also, its worthy noting that putting someone in a situation where they are essentially paralyzed forever or almost forever can be as bad as murder, if not worse, as it leaves then unable to play the game and at the same time unable to observe it since they haven’t died and ghosted yet.

Examples would be leaving someone cuffed indefinitely in the brig (when not having commited a captial crime), sealed inside a locker without a way to communicate with anyone, abandoned with anaesthetic internals, etc. The vore tab has an "OOC escape" button for prey to get out of a predator in the event that they disconnect or similar, but be advised that this is an out-of-character button, it does alert the admins when used, and should really only be used when a scene has to be abandoned for OOC reasons and the prey don't want to be stuck in the do-nothing corner.

Obviously, vore is an exception to this - but do note that if your prey isn't OOCly up for digestion, then you're expected to respect that.

Don’t stop RP just because you are under attack
Admittedly, the click-spam combat of this game does make it hard to maintain RP during it, since generally whoever clicks more and talks less wins, but still, if your attacker is maintaining the RP, try to maintain it as well. Wait until they have finished talking, if they are, don’t rush them if they have a gun, that sort of thing. Attacking someone who's giving you the courtesy of a roleplay scene, especially when they're in the middle of typing a post, is a good way to get the admins on your case.

Keep in mind that most people in real life are afraid from dying, afraid of fighting and afraid of GUNS, and most people in real life wouldn’t try to fight their way out of a hostage situation unless they had lost all hope of survival otherwise, or the kidnapper had made a truly massive opportunity-giving blunder, like falling unconscious a meter away.

Do note, however, that the hostage-taking "aim" mode of guns is not considered a no-RP attack. You're given plenty of warning, an audible alert, and a bold red notice in the text window alerting you that you'll be shot if you move. If you get shot at by an attacker using targeting mode, then it's your movement/action that prompted it. Notably, roleplaying posts using Me or Say won't set it off.

Also note that the occasional click on someone as part of an RP post can be acceptable - posting that you take a swing at someone then giving them a quick harm-intent click to let the RNG decide whether it connects or not is perfectly okay. Likewise, if you do get struck in such a way, react as such. If you get tased by security and they roleplay things out instead of robusting you into the dirt right then and there, it's pretty poor form to yakketysax off or disarmspam them the instant the stun wears off.

If admins catch you abusing the fact that the other player is trying to roleplay for a mechanical advantage in combat, there's a reasonable chance that we'll take steps to even the odds in some way.

Think twice before destroying something
Destroying objects or parts of the ship can be a serious thing and it’s generally not something you should do if you don’t have decent reasons for. Before doing so, ask yourself: Will this endanger the crew? (Potentially depressurizing a place, for example) Will this potentially make someone unable to do their jobs, such as the destruction of an important computer? Do I have a good, sensible reason to be destroying or modifying this thing? (This applies for hacking doors and other objects.)

That said, engineers and other... Mechanical jobs are generally allowed to have some fun modifying or building and changing machinery, just as long as it makes some sense, doesn’t endanger anyone else, and doesn’t consume massive amounts of resources that should be getting spent elsewhere. Getting permission from your superiors first is a good idea.

Before playing as an AI/cyborg, accept you will have to follow your laws
Do you hate humans? Too bad, your laws say you have to help them. Are you a pacifist? Well, also too bad. If your laws get changed to "Destroy all humans", you would have to go and destroy all humans. That's how being a cyborg/AI is, you need to be ready to do all sorts of things, even things you would never do if you had choice.

And, if you are a cyborg, then accept that the AI's interpretation of the laws, as well as anything else, always overrides your own: The AI is your supreme, irrefutable boss and you need to obey it (Unless you are a disconnected cyborg, that is).

Note that your laws are not listed in order of preference. If you find yourself in a catch-22 situation where no course of action or inaction will allow you to avoid breaking at least one law, it's best to choose the route of least noncompliance.

Despite what I said above, don’t blindly follow all your laws
Sometimes it happens that a griefy player manages to upload a law. Or, if you are a cyborg, a griefy AI decides to interpret laws in a nasty manner, and suddenly the laws/your AI are forcing you to do things that normally would be the worst of griefing, such as slaughtering the entire crew.

Should you just go ahead and do it? No! Adminhelp it and confirm on whenever to do it or not with an admin first. This can save the round from descending into turmoil.

Following the above and the spirit behind them will go a long way to keeping the round fun for everyone and you ban free!