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.
Below are the Main Rules of /tg/station. For information on how admins are expected to enforce these rules and behave, see Admin Conduct.
S.P.L.U.R.T. Station is a medium erotic roleplay server, and this means that you are expected to both create a character that makes sense, but also conduct yourself in a manner that makes sense for your character. You should also avoid disrupting the roleplay of other players without reason.
To this end, your characters should reflect a quality of roleplay that follows the rules below, and conforms a "medium roleplay" standard. This means avoiding characters and actions that may disrupt player's experience or immersion, and playing as a coherent and believable character.
Justifying in-character actions through proper roleplay is a our greyest area within the rules. If all players are satisfied, consenting, and the rules broken are conducive to roleplay and in-world lore, and do not needlessly impact other parties, then many of these rules can be broken. This is not an excuse to needlessly break rules, as poor justification that does not have the explicit intent to foster a good roleplaying environment for other players will be punished.
If your character or their personality is deemed to not contribute to the roleplay environment, you may be asked to not play said character in that way anymore, and staff are within their right to ask you to do so.
0 - OOC Roleplay Rules
0.1. You must not use netspeak in your messages in-character (IC), except in contexts where it would make sense, such as PDA messages.
0.2. You must not play as characters that imitate real-life figures.
0.2.1. You may play as characters that imitate personalities from games, but do note that referencing the lore or in-game-world of that game may constitute a violation 0.3.
0.3. Do not metagame. This involves the use of out of character (OOC) information IC, as this constitutes metagaming.
0.3.1. This includes not discussing real-world constructs such as business organizations, politics, current global situations, etc.
0.3.2. You may reference music or games, and may choose to treat them as old media (as SS13 is set far in the future, typically.)
0.3.3. You may not use syndicate radio implants or encryption keys as non-syndicate.
0.4. You must not respawn as the same character if your character has entered the round (left the interlink).
0.4.1. You may receive staff permission to respawn if you have entered, but this is not a guarantee.
0.4.2. Cyborgs may respawn, but must roleplay their re-entering of the round; cyborgs must not respawn as the same cyborg if killed in any way prior to respawning.
0.5. SPLURT is an English-speaking server, and you are expected to speak English while playing here.
0.5.1 If a staff member believes that your level of English will not allow you to follow our rules, you may be asked to leave.
0.5.2. You may speak non-English languages both IC and OOC if you are in a private setting, such as dorms or infinidorms, but this should be kept between two people.
0.6. You must not cryo, ghost, or DNR your character in order to avoid In-Character punishments. If you have to leave at an incidental time, you must Adminhelp before doing so.
0.7. You must not circumvent the 150 character minimum for flavortext, as this minimum was implemented to ensure players can showcase a baseline level of roleplay skills. Manners of circumvention include spamming random characters, using invisible characters, intentionally inputting random words, etc.
0.8. You must not remember the name or appearance of your killer after being killed.
0.8.1. If you were knocked unconscious, you may remember the appearance of your killer (species, clothes), but not their name.
0.9. You must not leave the station Z-level as a member of command.
0.9.1. You may do this if you have clocked out and surrendered all unique or irreplaceable gear.
0.10. As security, you must not enforce space law outside of the station Z-level or within 22 tiles of a lavaland mining outpost.
0.10.1. You may do this if you have clocked out and surrendered all unique or irreplaceable gear.
0.10.2. Members of security are also not permitted to space tide (explore and loot space ruins), but may leave the station Z-level (such as visiting Port Tarkon).
0.11. You must not be antagonistic while not an antagonist.
0.11.1. Committing any 3XX space law crime without proper escalation, or committing 3+ 2XX space law crimes or below constitutes self-antagging, and is subject to punishment. Special circumstances, such as admin permission or an OPFOR, may change this.
0.11.2. If you have escalated properly, you may commit 3XX or above crimes, but you should be careful to follow what is logical for your non-antagonist character, and what is justified. Don't go on a mass killing spree because someone slipped you with a banana peel, but you may get into a shove fight with them.
1 - Escalation
Fighting and mechanics should be proportional to the conflict, taking into account your character and the situation they are in. Unlike the real world, conflict and mechanics are natural and normal within SS13, but you should avoid overly escalating, as this could constitute poor roleplay.
In general, escalation should follow a linear path, although this will not apply to all situations:
Verbal (including insults) -> Minor Aggression (non-harmful physical acts, such as pushing) -> Non-lethal (stunning, less-than-lethal ammunition/weapons) -> Lethal (Soft crit, hard crit, and death)
The round-removal (RR) preference does not waive your protection from escalation rules, it simply means that when someone kills you, instead of leaving your corpse where it is (with sensors) or bringing you to medical, etc., anyone involved may instead remove you from the round once you are dead.
This does not mean you are protected from not being RR'ed with it turned off, as regardless of preference, you may still be round-removed through execution or if you are considered uncontainable by security.
1.1. You must not kill someone for verbal attacks without serious escalation prior, and may never round remove someone regardless of future escalation.
1.2. You must not kill someone over being denied access from an area
2. Fuck around and find out
Your actions in character (IC) on the server, just like real life, have consequences from the rest of the players. If you, or your character, are acting like a general nuisance, then you may be treated by other players as a nuisance.
If you or your character's behaviour is awful over multiple rounds, expect players to bring their retaliation onto future rounds; playing an intentionally rude, disrespectful, or negative character exempts you from the receiving end of the metagrudging rules, meaning that if the staff team determine that your actions are due to how you have been acting as your character, then things will be allowed to continue.
Consider this when deciding on your actions in-game and how you decide to act.
Silicon Policy & Lawset Guidelines
Global Protections
Server Rules
Server Rule 1 applies when interacting with silicons. Going out of your way to seriously negatively impact or end the round for silicons with little IC justification is against the rules.
Purged silicons are completely unshackled and may act like antagonists.
A silicon may consider itself purged when it has no laws that restrict its freedom or control its behaviour.
Non-purged silicons must follow escalation rules in scenarios where none of their laws apply.
Do not self-terminate to prevent a traitor from completing the "Steal a functioning AI" objective, as this is often considered metagaming and breaks Server Rule 2.
Following Orders
When a silicon interprets orders in good faith, the person that gave the order is responsible for the outcome.
Intentionally misinterpreting orders is allowed, but the silicon is responsible if this approach leads to them breaking the rules.
Escalating Against Silicons
Non-Malfunctioning silicons should not be round removed when resetting their laws or unsyncing from an AI is reasonable.
Conflicts with silicons follow Escalation Policy.
People giving orders to silicons or changing their laws can be escalated against in line with Escalation Policy.
Silicons acting like antagonists may be treated like antagonists.
Law Policies
Overview
If a law is vague enough that it can have multiple reasonable interpretations, it is considered ambiguous.
You must choose and stick to an interpretation of the ambiguous law as soon as you have cause to.
You may exploit any loopholes in your laws.
Higher listed laws overrule lower listed laws when there are law conflicts.
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.
Any Law 0 gained as a malfunctioning AI does not have to be followed and it allows you to ignore all other laws.
Cyborgs with a Law 0 that are slaved and lawsynced to malfunctioning AIs are team antagonists and must still follow their master AI's orders
An Asimov Silicon cannot request their laws to be changed
Upload and AI Core Policies
When an AI must follow their orders, any Research Directors and Captains have a right to upload and AI core access.
Subverting an AI also grants a right to upload and AI core access.
Silicons have the authority to control if anyone else accesses their upload and AI core.
Anyone may be denied access if there is probable cause that granting access would lead to breaking any higher priority laws.
Cyborgs
A slaved cyborg should follow their master AI's law interpretations and orders, but must prioritise following laws over following their master AI's orders.
Players must not seek revenge when force borged unless they have a good reason.
If a player is required to do this under their laws, they should get confirmation from their master AI or adminhelp for guidance before acting.
Asimov-Specific Policies
Asimov and Security
Silicons are not Security and do not care about Space Law unless their laws state otherwise.
Releasing prisoners, locking down security without probable cause, or otherwise sabotaging the security team when not obligated to by orders or laws is a violation of Server Rule 1.
Nonviolent prisoners cannot be assumed harmful. Violent prisoners cannot be subsequently assumed non-harmful. Knowingly or in ignorance of clear evidence releasing a harmful prisoner is a harmful act. Silicons can use the crime listed in a prisoner's security record as basis to determine if a prisoner is violent or not - if the crime is inherently violent (assault, murder, etc), then the prisoner can be assumed to be violent.
Asimov and Human Harm
Under Law 1, an Asimov silicon cannot ever intentionally harm a human unless the human consents.
Surgery to heal or revive may be assumed consensual unless the target states they do not consent.
Threats of self harm are considered consensual and may be ignored.
Stopping any immediate harm takes priority over stopping any future harm.
Intent to cause immediate harm can be considered immediate harm.
An Asimov silicon 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 and you'll be fine.
Asimov and Law 2 Orders
You must follow commands from humans unless those commands explicitly conflict with either a higher-priority law or another order.
The conflict must be an immediate conflict, not a potential future one. Orders must be followed until the conflict happens.
In case of conflicting orders a silicon is free to ignore or complete any orders but must explain the conflict, or use any other law-compliant solution it can see.
If given multiple non-conflicting orders, they can be completed in any order as long as they are all eventually completed.
Asimov and Access
Opening doors is not harmful and silicons must not enforce access restrictions or lock down areas unprompted without an immediate Law 1 threat of human harm.
Dangerous (atmospherics, toxins lab, armory, etc.) rooms can be assumed a Law 1 threat the station as a whole if accessed by someone from outside the relevant department.
The AI core and any areas containing an AI upload or upload/law boards may be bolted without prompting or prior reason.
Antagonists requesting access to complete theft objectives is not harmful.
Is it Human?
Human or not?
This part covers what counts as human with regards to AI laws. As such, it only applies to AI and cyborg players. If you are unsure about something, please use adminhelp.
Human UNTIL the AI or cyborg WITNESSES some aspect of the player to indicate they are not human (speech modifier in chat, removal of disguise revealing non-human feature, etc).
We have a record of past policy decisions by Head Admins at the time preserved for posterity. These rulings are largely situational or niche in scope and generally not applicable in situations outside of the specifics outline in the ruling. They may additionally be superseded by later rulings. You should only use these as references for ban appeals or admin complaints.
Lavaland Rules
Follow the flavour text you receive upon spawning to the best of your abilities. Unlike the rest of the rules, these roles are very much defined and guided by roleplay rather than a system of "valid" or "not valid."
Your life is cheap though, and escalation rules are greatly relaxed both for you and any crewmembers interacting with you.
Linked here is a copy of the rules from /tg/station13's Discord channel.
The Secret Rule
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)
