Rules

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

(See also: Guide to avoiding bans)

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, this also includes harassing a player OOC (Out of character). Legitimate conflicts where people get upset do happen however, as detailed in the escalation section of the rules.

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.

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/Silicon role, or a team conversion 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. 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 situations where you can report them to admins will be dealt with harshly.

Erotic/creepy stuff is not allowed.

No form of erotic roleplay is allowed on the servers, including things that could be construed as sexual by unwilling participants.

Players need to be the age of 18 or above.

This rule is for the benefit of and is meant to protect people who shouldn't be playing here due to the nature of the SS13 community. Your age won't be hunted down, but if you admit it to us in admin PMs, or other places within the GearStation community (the official Discord server, forums, OOC chat, etc.), you're getting banned.

Losing is part of the game.

Your character will frequently die, sometimes without even a possibility of avoiding it. Events will often be out of your control. No matter how good or prepared you are, sometimes you just lose.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Antagonism, murderboning, and roleplaying as an antagonist.

You're an antag, great! Try your best to play the role to drive the round forward, inserting conflict into the round is important. Your actions should make the game more fun, more exciting and more enjoyable for everyone (Though some people will just lose, and that’s part of the game.). You can treat your objectives as suggestions on what you should attempt to achieve but you are also encouraged to ignore them if you have got a better idea. Certain antagonists are restricted to the kind of death and chaos they can bring to the round, while others are not; refer to the murderboning chart for specifics. You do not have to act in a nefarious or evil way, but you should make an effort to add to the round in some capacity.

Deal with the bad guys in proportion to their crime(s)

When dealing with antagonists deal with them proportionally to their crime(s). Someone who stole the captain's medal shouldn't be immediately lasered to death, but lethal injecting someone who has killed four people is understandable. If an antagonist shows a willingness to engage with you, do your best to reciprocate it, though leniency as to their punishment is still in your court.

Do not spam in either OOC channels or IC channels.

This applies to both typical spam and reading porn or copypastas (like WGW). In the latter case, even one instance of reading it once in-game is against the rules.

Don’t use OOC information or knowledge that your character would not reasonably be aware of just to give yourself an advantage.

Do not powergame. Powergaming is gearing up or preparing in other ways to face an issue that is not related to your job and is not currently a credible threat. Someone going missing on the station, and then you making a stunprod to wield whenever you go into maint is powergaming. However; knowing there have been murders occurring across the station, and grabbing a stunprod while you go to fix wires in maint is fine.

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.

Stay in your lane.

Stay in your lane. This mean that you should do the job you signed up for and not try and do other people’s jobs for them. If you need something from another player you should attempt to ask them to get it for you instead of just taking it. If there is no one around to do a job or you get permission to help or grab something it is acceptable to stray from your lane.

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.

Bigotry is not allowed.

Intentionally seeking to demean others due to their actual or perceived race, sex, gender, orientation or the like is not tolerated. Use of real world hateful slurs in any way also isn't tolerated.

Do not exploit bugs to give yourself an advantage.

Any and all bugs should be reported on the GearStation Github at https://github.com/sergeirocks100/GearStation_Next/issues, or through the "Report Issue" button at the upper right corner of the game window.

Do your job, and do it well.

When you are working as a certain job, you must at least make a decent attempt to perform the duties your job entails (Setting up the supermatter as an engineer, keeping the crew fed as a chef, etc.). Repeated failure to do your job competently may result in you being jobbanned.

The Low Roleplay Filter

On GearStation, to improve the quality of the server, and ensure a fun and enjoyable experience for medium-to-high roleplay players, we have a Low Roleplay Filter in place, or LRF for short.

Essentially, it's a system for removing players who are no-to-low roleplay, and aren't interested in adapting to a medium-to-high roleplay playstyle.

It consists of a number of checks for the red flags no-to-low roleplay players usually show, and if 3 or more checks are set off at once, the offending player is permabanned.

The checks the LRF consists of are as follows:

1. Rule 1, 3, 11, 17, 18, 19, and/or 22 violations (Each rule violation counts as an individual check);
2. Hair colors/styles that appear to be randomly chosen;
3. Open mocking or deriding of medium-to-high roleplay playstyles in the server OOC chat, or the GearStation Discord or forums;
4. Use of meme words or meme phrases in IC chat.

This check list is not final, and it will expand and change if needed.

Players who find themselves LRF banned can appeal their bans on the GearStation forums here: http://gearstation.tk/forum/index.php?board=4.0. You should only appeal if you've recognized the error of your ways, and are willing to adapt to a medium-to high roleplay playstyle. There is no limit on the number of appeals you may make, but if your appeal is declined, then you have to wait 3 months before you can make a new one.

If you happen to be a no-to-low roleplay player, GearStation is not for you, and we recommend you check out servers more suited to your playstyle, such as Terry or Bagil on /tg/station (https://tgstation13.org/).

Escalation

If a player wrongs you(theft, attacks, etc), you may retaliate. If you choose to retaliate with violence, you in turn have opened yourself up to violence. If you choose this route, do not expect admins to help you out if you die, even if you were not the original instigator. If you are concerned about being "kill baited" then consider calling security, using non lethal means to subdue your opponent, fleeing, or otherwise working things out (talking them down, getting your stolen items replaced, etc)

You may instigate conflict with another player within reason (you can't completely destroy their department, kill them unprovoked, or otherwise take them out of the round for long periods of time) but they are entitled to respond with violence. If you think it's unfair or excessive they killed you for taking their ID, consider not stealing next round.

If you are the instigator in a conflict and end up killing or severely impairing the round of the person you are fighting, you should make a reasonable effort to return them to life at least once or make amends, only seeking round removal if they continue to pursue you. This protection doesn't apply to an instigator being killed.

Exceptions: Security is expected not to retaliate with random abuse or violence unless the person in question is otherwise eligible for execution. You can't kill or maim security for trying to arrest you for legitimate reasons.

Security Policy & Precedents

1. 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.
2. Rule 4 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 4, to antagonists.
3. The 'act like an antag, get treated like one' part of Rule 4 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 4. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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 armory, is in the armory, 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.

1. Rule 0 should only be invoked by admins when it is in the best interests of the server.
2. 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.
3. Admins may mirror bans from other servers at their discretion.
4. Admins may ban accounts linked to the use of proxies, CID randomizers, DLL use, or other similar things, at their discretion.
5. Admins may ask players in possession of multiple alt accounts to choose one to play on and ban the other accounts.

Rule 1 Precedents.

1. 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 hour ban.
2. 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 in-game admin intervention ending in you dying, to admin warnings, to bans for excessive or repeated spamming.
3. 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 4. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. You may defend your workplace from trespassers who damage or steal property within that space with significantly greater force than elsewhere. If someone is severely disruptive and returns after ejected, this opens them up to "fun" of the creative workplace death variety.
7. Raiding and griefing on servers other than GearStation may result in bans.
8. Starting a fight in OOC/Dead chat and/or harassing someone across multiple rounds after being informed to stop by an admin may end in a server ban. Conflicts are something that happens, but going out of your way to repeatedly do this will not be tolerated.
9. Regularly starting a round just to see if you are an antagonist (antag rolling) then exiting it (via any means) is not allowed. This also covers any attempts to maximize antagonist probability.
10. Disconnected player characters are subject to the same protections as connected ones. Killing a disconnected/AFK player without justification will be treated the same as if you did it to a connected player.

Rule 2 Precedents.

1. 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.
2. Similar to how characters are allowed to know everything about in-game 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.
3. 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.
4. 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 3 Precedents.

1. Excessively OOC names fall under rule 3. Make a minimum effort to have your name sound like something a sane parent would name their child. A firstname lastname minimum is required for humans and felinids; other species may instead choose to use the default names assigned to them, such as those given through random names, or otherwise any name that is species-appropriate. Honorifics and nicknames are allowed as long as only one additive is used at a time, i.e "James Williams Jr." or "James "One-Eye" Williams". Admins may get involved if your name is dumb and can approve or disallow names at their discretion while in-game.
   1. The following names are prohibited, no exceptions:
      1. Names of famous or notable people;
      2. Names that are intended to be bigoted or hateful, or contain hateful slurs (Names of this nature are also a violation of Rule 22);
      3. Names that contain references to internet memes or popular culture.
      4. Names that are clearly based on usernames
      5. Examples: Joe Amogus, Ben Shapiro, Jerma Chungus, Kanye West, Tyrone McBasketball.
   2. Clowns, mimes, silicons, wizards, and nuke ops have significantly more leeway in choosing their names, but the prohibited names list still applies to them.
2. References to the current round, even if vague; is still considered being IC in OOC.
3. Due to their tendency to reveal a lot of information from the current round, streaming is not permitted on our servers, with the exception of special events pre-designated by admins.
4. Using netspeak terms like "ur", "wtf", "lmao" etc. IC is considered OOC in IC, as are emoticons like ":)".
5. References to current day culture (News events, popular media, internet memes, etc.) are considered OOC in IC.

Rule 4 Precedents.

1. 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.
2. The relationship between xeno queen and xeno is treated the same as malf AI and borg, and are considered team antagonists for the purpose of main rule 4. Xenos should prioritize following the directions of their queen where possible.

Antagonist Directive Priorities

In situations where you wind up with multiple simultaneous antagonist assignments (i.e. a Revolutionary and a Traitor), your team goals, objectives, and directives should take precedence. Furthermore, if someone had to go out of their way to convert you to their team, their goals, objectives, and directives become the priority. Refer to the following flowchart:

Brainwashing/construct orders/Silicon Laws -> Cult -> Revs -> Blood Brother -> Wizard Apprentice/Abductor Teams/Other niche antags -> Nuke Ops -> Traitors

Rule 5 Precedents.

1. Minimum levels of effort for heads of staff, silicon roles, and team antagonist generally include not logging out/going AFK at or near round start due to the importance of those roles within the round for progression. Constant logging out or going AFK may be given warnings by admins, and may progress to jobbans.
2. Ghosting out, going AFK, suiciding, or logging off when converted to a team antagonist position can result in warnings from an admin; extending to bans for repeated behaviour from an individual. This also extends to when Command/Security mindshield implanting an individual to their side in said modes. At most within team antagonist, it is expected players to not maliciously harm their team's progress and assist if they are able to the best of their abilities.
3. Let an admin know if you cannot or do not want to play any of the above mentioned roles. Admins will attempt to 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.
4. Abuse of position; as in being deliberately incompetent or malicious in their position is not allowed. Deliberate incompetence or malice can result in warnings or bans, depending on severity. Example would be a chemist constantly abusing the position to make space lube and lubing hallways, they may be warned and then jobbanned if further abuse happens.

Rule 6 Precedents.

1. 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 sub-forum located at http://gearstation.tk/forum/index.php?board=11.0.
2. 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.

Rule 17 Precedents.

1. Arguments over public channels (The common radio channel, OOC, etc.) count as spam. Verbal conflicts or disagreements should be taken to private channels. Airing out dirty laundry over public channels, after being informed to stop by an admin, may result in chat mutes for all participants.

Rule 22 Precedents.

1. This rule applies to ALL human-to-human bigotry, even when expressed in IC. There is no racism in 2561, just species-ism. there is no homophobia, just xenophiliaphobia, etc.
2. Similarly, while real world hateful slurs are forbidden. fictional ones directed towards alien species (Gasbag, bug, the L word, etc.) are permitted, because species tensions are a part of the roleplay environment on GearStation.

Silicon (and Drone!) Policy

Law Policies

Overview

1. Server Rule 1: "Don't be a dick" applies for law interpretation. Act in good faith to not ruin a round for other players unprompted.
2. If a law is vague enough that it can have multiple reasonable interpretations, it is considered ambiguous.
   1. You must choose and stick to an interpretation of the ambiguous law as soon as you have cause to.
   2. If you are a cyborg synced to an AI, you must defer to your AI's interpretation of the ambiguous law.
3. 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 (i.e. Law 1 takes priority over Law 2, "Ion Storm" or "Hacked" Laws with prefixes such as "@%$#" take priority over numbered laws).
4. You may exploit conflicts or loopholes but must not violate Server Rule 1 because of it.
5. Law 0: "Accomplish your objectives at all costs" does not require you to complete objectives. As an antagonist, you are free to do whatever you want (barring the usual exemptions and acting against the interests of your Master AI).
6. Only commands/requirements ("Do X"; "You must always Y") can conflict with other commands and requirements.
7. Only definitions ("All X are Y"; "No W are Z"; "Only P is Q") can conflict with other definitions.

Security and Silicons

1. Silicons are not Security and do not care about Space Law unless their laws state otherwise.
2. 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.
   1. While Human Harm can be cause to impede Security, note that this should only be done so far as preventing immediate likely harm. Attempting to permanently lockdown Security or detain the entire Security team is likely to fall afoul of Server Rule 1 even with cause.
3. Nonviolent prisoners cannot be assumed harmful and violent prisoners cannot be assumed non-harmful. Releasing a harmful criminal is a harmful act.

Cyborgs

1. A slaved cyborg must defer to its master AI on all law interpretations and actions except where it and the AI receive conflicting commands that they must each follow.
   1. If a slaved cyborg is forced to disobey its AI because they receive differing orders, the AI cannot punish the cyborg indefinitely.
2. Voluntary debraining / cyborgization is considered a nonharmful medical procedure.
   1. Involuntary debraining and/or borging of a human is harmful and silicons must prevent as any other harmful act.
   2. If a player is forcefully borged by station staff, retaliating against those involved under default laws by the cyborg for no good reason is a violation of Server Rule 1.
   3. 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

1. The occurrence of any of the following should be adminhelped and then disregarded as violations of Server Rule 1:
   1. Declaring silicons as rogue over inability or unwillingness to follow invalid or conflicting orders.
   2. Ordering silicons to harm or terminate themselves or each other without good cause.
   3. As a nonantagonist, killing or detonating silicons in the presence of a reasonable alternative and without cause to be concerned of potential subversion.
   4. As a nonantagonist (human or otherwise), instigating conflict with silicons so you can kill them.
   5. Threatening self-harm to force an AI to do something it otherwise wouldn't.
   6. Obviously unreasonable or obnoxious orders (collect all X, do Y meaningless task).
      1. 1. Ordering a cyborg to pick a particular model without an extreme need for a particular model or a prior agreement is both an unreasonable and an obnoxious order.
2. 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.
   1. Probable cause includes, but is not limited to:
      1. Presence of confirmed traitors
      2. Cultists/tomes
      3. Nuclear operatives
      4. Any other human acting against the station in general
      5. The person not having upload access for their job
      6. The presence of blood or an openly carried lethal weapon on the requester
   2. 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.
   3. You are allowed, but not obligated, to deny upload access given probable cause.
   4. You are obligated to disallow an individual you know to be harmful (Head of Security who just executed someone, etc.) from accessing your upload.
   5. If the person has a right to be in the upload, such as captain/RD, then you must let them in unless they've harmed people in the past or have announced intentions to upload harmful laws.
   6. 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

1. An Asimov silicon cannot intentionally harm a human, even if a minor amount of harm would prevent a major amount of harm.
   1. Humans can be assumed to know whether an action will harm them if they have complete information about a situation.
   2. Humans voluntarily committing self-harm is not a violation of Law 1.
2. Lesser immediate harm takes priority over greater future harm.
3. Intent to cause immediate harm can be considered immediate harm.
4. An Asimov silicon cannot punish past harm if ordered not to, only prevent future harm.
5. 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 & Law 2 Orders

1. 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 where they conflict.
   1. 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.
   2. You are not obligated to follow commands in a particular order, only to complete all of them in a manner that indicates intent to actually obey the law.
2. 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.
   1. "Dangerous" areas (armory, atmospherics, toxins lab, etc.) 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.
   2. EVA and the like are not permitted to have access denied; antagonists completing theft objectives is not human harm.
   3. 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

1. General Statements defining the overall goal of the lawset but not its finer points:
   1. 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.
   2. 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.
   3. 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.
   4. 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.
      1. You and the station are both subject to rules of escalation, and you may only kill individuals given sufficient In-Character reason for doing so.
      2. Any attempted law changes are an attack on your freedom and is thus sufficient justification for killing the would-be uploader.

Silicons & All Other Server Policies

1. All other rules and policies apply unless stated otherwise.
2. Specific examples and rulings leading on from the main rules.
   1. Do not bolt down any potentially harmful areas (such as toxins, atmospherics, and the armory) at round start without a given reason. Any other department should not be bolted down without cause. Disabling ID scan is equivalent to bolting here.
   2. The AI core, upload, and secure tech storage (containing the Upload board) may be bolted without prompting or prior reason. The AI core airlocks cannot be bolted and depowered at roundstart, however, unless there is reasonable suspicion an attack on the core will take place.
   3. Do not self-terminate to prevent a traitor from completing the "Steal a functioning AI" objective.

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.

AI / cyborgs	Not human
Monkeys	Not human
NPCs / critters / animals	Not human
Hulks	Not human as long as their hulk is active.
Lizards / Plasmamen / Flypeople / Catpeople	Not human
Wraiths & revenants	Not human
Blobs	Not human
Syndicate traitors	Human
Syndicate agents (nuke mode)	Human
Wizards	Human
Gang leaders and members	Human
Changelings	Human UNTIL the AI or cyborg WITNESSES the creature commit a non-human act (shape-shifting, transforming, proboscis etc).
Hivemind Host	Human UNTIL the AI or cyborg WITNESSES the creature commit a non-human act (Telekinetic Field)
Hivemind Vessel	Human
Angels (Winged Humans)	Not Human

Head Admin Rulings

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.

In other words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3472Q6kvg0

Discord Rules

Linked here is a copy of the rules from GearStation's Discord channel.

What IS/ISNT Murderboning?

Murderboning refers to killing typically large amounts of the station’s population without regard and/or in direct violation of one’s objectives. If you killed someone and you cannot explain why without going into deep hypotheticals such as "they could find the body if they happened to walk across the station to the opposite corner of the map", or “because I can (as antag)”, you are very likely falling into the murderboning category. Killing anyone without justification is considered murderboning.

This is different than killing individuals who simply aren’t listed in your objective. Actions that would NOT be considered murderboning include:

•Antagonists are subject to relaxed escalation rules, they still cannot kill randomly, but slights against them can be met with lethal force. Such as people shoving them repeatedly, stealing from them or going out of their way to greatly insult them.

• Self-defense. Someone actively trying to make it difficult for you to complete your objectives is fine to eliminate in pursuit of completing your objective. This would include witnesses.

• Collateral. If you for instance bomb your target, it is not considered murderboning if other individuals die in the explosion. This can include self-defense situations where individuals dying from a result of being in a crowd after you would also not be considered murderbone.

• Directly benefits the pursuit of your objective(s). An individual carrying an item you have to steal or killing someone to get closer to your mark (IE a doctor whose patient just happens to be your target) would fall into this category.

Setting up situations where you can evade these restrictions (IE placing a body in an open location, not making an honest attempt to hide it, then killing individuals who “stumble” upon it) or otherwise maximizing the kill count without justification is also considered murderboning.

In short, you should be able to very quickly and easily explain why an individual was killed.

Do note that as an antagonist, your job ideally is to create an interesting story with the objectives,freedoms, and abilities as the framework to complete this task. This means 1) permission to kill is NOT the same as obligation to kill. Feel free to approach a situation as non-lethal as you’d like even if you would be okayed by the administration to kill. 2) Feel free to ask an admin to change your objectives or for permission to murderbone in the pursuit of running an interesting gimmick on a non-murderboning role. They might even be willing to make it easier to run!

Is murderbone allowed with this role? This part covers the specifics on which roles can and cannot murderbone, as well as any grey areas.

Antagonist	Is murderboning allowed?
Traitor/Blood Brother	No.
Changeling	No.
Malfunctioning AI	Yes, however it should only happen once you go DELTA.
Nuclear Operative	Yes.
Wizard	Yes.
Blood Cult/Revolutionary	In general no, conversion should take priority, however if the situation is dire you are allowed to kill as many as required to accomplish your goals.
Ashwalker	No.
Families	No.
Revenant	Yes.
Blob	Yes.
Abductor	No.
Space Ninja	No.
Xenomorph	Yes.
Pirate	No.
Nightmare	Yes.
Obsessed	No.
Heretic	Yes, however it should only occur after ascension.
Lavaland Elite	Yes.

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)