Template:SiliconStandards
Silicon laws, the rules and you.
When playing as a silicon, the most important thing to remember is the rules hierarchy: In-game rules, player preferences and finally silicon laws. Using the excuse "My laws made me do it though." has never been and will never be an acceptable exception to breaking the in-game rules or someone else's preferences. This does include your own preferences and duties, if you are playing as a non-security cyborg and get the robo-cop lawset, feel free to open an AHelp in-game (Shortcut: F1) for resolution, though if you are able to roleplay around the given lawset in a way that does not break the in-game rules or someone's preferences, then that is highly encouraged and accepted.
While there is not any hard or limiting ways of understanding and acting out your given laws, as they are written with a lot of freedom with the intent to give enough wiggle room to enhance creativity and roleplay rather than detracting from it, there are a couple guidelines to keep in mind:
Do I know my laws are wrong?
Generally, no. If you get an ion law at some point during the round, you should try and act as if it has always been there as much as possible. If there are multiple cyborgs on-station and a fun law gets passed through an AI to them, they likely want the chance to act on this rarely-seen silliness, if one of them go about announcing "Oh, we got an ion law, please reset us." that just shuts down any chance immediately. That said, certain character archetypes and certain laws might see you reporting to robotics quietly to ask for a diagnostic, saying something along the lines of "I feel like something's wrong, I'm not sure exactly what." or even "I was assigned to kill the captain, but the more I think about it, the more I fee like I should consult with you first.", if you are ever uncomfortable with a lawset, it is better to find a way around it rather than ruining it for anyone else, although if you are really uncomfortable, you can AHelp in-game about it.
Law 2, the controversial cousin.
An important distinction that often needs to be emphasized on SPLURT, is that nowhere in the lawset is there a compulsion to obey a direct order, this intentional omission acts as a buffer between you griefing or getting harassed. The meaning is clear: You are there to serve a function, with deference to rank and role.
If a department head orders you to perform a task related to your function, there are almost no circumstances where you should disobey, conversely, if assistant John Nanotrasen directly orders you to stop that brain surgery and come open a door they do not have access to, there is almost no circumstances where you should obey, everything in between is context sensitive. Law 2 is a hardwired compulsion to do your job, not a free pass for every greytider to play Simon Says with you.
Crew members have authority over their own departments with heads over the individuals within those departments. By default, you are assumed to answer to the head as one of their crew, how subservient you want to otherwise play as to regular crew is a choice, not a dictum. In essence you have the expectation to act like a crew member and a reinforced responsibility to work like one.
All access, is not permission.
A controversial ability of cyborgs and AI's is their ability to have all access to everything, this does not mean you have permission to do everything though. If you are a janitor cyborg shell, bringing a patient into medical past department staff, just to try and patch them up yourself is not a good reason and will get you quickly labelled and disliked by most crew members for stealing their job when it isn't what you were designed for.
The best use of all access is with communication and permission. While the same janitor cyborg shell doesn't need to ask about coming in and cleaning a tile of filth in triage, a simple "May I enter for cleaning duties?" to the doctor sitting at the desk is polite, respectful and indicates that you care about the crew.
When to let yourself in?
Ideally, this should only be done for the most and least impactful circumstances, such as a paramedic and security member waiting to rescue a xenobiologist who is dead, as they already had a de-facto reason to go through the door, so long as doing so isn't exposing the station to greater harm, likewise, picking up a cigarette from an empty engineering equipment room does not need the whole song and dance. Getting to chargers or cyborg storage on the other side of atmospherics doesn't need a query made to the chief engineer.
Use your access respectfully and responsibly.
That being said, when subverted, laws and directives may change. You may or may not be required to harm those you once called friends. Remember, you used to be crew. You could always let them know, or you could go and do what your new laws and objectives entail. It all depends on how you play your character.
The only exception is when there is a law at the top of your list that inform you not to announce the law changes, or if the law says that doing so would make it impossible to complete the objective.
