Rules

Not knowing the rules isn't an excuse for breaking 'em!

The rules - more like guidelines, really - are intended to support an enjoyable experience for all, player and admin alike. We try to keep limitations on personal playstyle choices as minimal as possible while still allowing for a fair and entertaining game for the players. They're not intended to gate certain people out of the community, but to keep the community a place people want to be.

General Game Rules

1. Don't grief. This isn't limited to just killing people: dismembering, stripping, crippling, force-feeding, force-borging, uploading murder laws to the AI, setting up death traps, wrecking or depowering parts of the station, anything that explodes, lube smokes, placing radioactive flooring, etc. are all griefy. As a rule of thumb, if it's bad and takes more than 10 minutes for a normal player to fix, or you're intentionally creating an indiscriminate hazard (especially in a high-traffic area), it is covered by this rule. If someone is confirmed (via game mechanics) to be an antagonist, is a cluwne, has agreed to whatever you're planning to do to them, or you've seen them griefing people this round, you can go after them. This means that you shouldn't kill people for annoying you mildly or inconveniencing you, but only if they are actual threats/a cluwne. Feel free to adminhelp for clarification anyways. Antagonists and emagged cyborgs may ignore this rule whenever they want to. Mindhacks and thralls may ignore this rule when their orders contradict it- see Mindhack Rules. Silicons must ignore this rule if their orders/laws require it of them, but aren't allowed to grief otherwise. Note: braindead people still count as people. They might be coming back. A longer discussion of grief and what does and doesn't constitute it is available here. Do not harm anyone in arrivals unless they have purposefully retreated there after previously roaming the station, and even then, only if you or they are an antagonist.
2. Listen to the admins. We will try to treat you with basic respect, please return the favor: If an admin has to grump at you, take the time to talk to them about it and answer their questions HONESTLY. We have multiple ways of telling if you are lying about stuff, and if we can't trust what you're saying, there's no point to talking so we're probably going to have to reach for the banhammer. Also, although nobody expects you to take a talking-to with a smile and a nod, please try to keep a civil tone. We're just people too, folks.
3. No metagaming. Look, we all know that gamers like talking to other gamers, and doing so while gaming - all we ask is that if you are playing SS13, you do not use any out-of-game means to communicate with another player on the same server. This effectively gives you more eyes and ears on a round than other players, and that's not fair. Conversely, acting on any information obtained using solely in-game mechanics (yes, deadchat counts) is explicitly NOT metagaming with very few exceptions - going to areas you shouldn't be is the meat of it, check the page for a fuller explanation. There's a more in-depth discussion of this rule at the Metagaming page.
4. Bigotry and sexual content is a non-negotiable hard 'no'. If you are unsure what sexual content includes: do not refer to sex acts, genitalia, or anything sexual in nature. This includes erotic roleplay, which encompasses all situations which are erotic or suggestive in nature (e.g. 'spooning', making out, etc.), and not only those which are sexually explicit. Rape 'jokes' are considered sexual content. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to use the word 'rape' in this game. Yes, you can call people dicks and insult them with terms that are used normally, but don't use bigoted language or slurs. Common examples of bigoted language include calling people 'retards', 'cunts' or 'traps', using 'gay' in a derogatory manner, or using gendered slurs like "pussy" and "bitch." If an admin tells you to knock something off because it breaks the no bigotry or sexual content rule, that is not an invitation for debate. Knock it off or go elsewhere. Bigoted language (for example, slurs) is also not allowed in your BYOND key, character name, flavor text, or anything else with which you interact with the server, whether as a joke, or masked with misspellings or spoonerisms. This rule also extends to cover bigotry and discrimination based around a player's in-game race, species, or gender identity.
5. Do not name your character after political or controversial figures. If you're unsure what might constitute as controversial: avoid naming your character after murderers, abusers, religious figures, or any name you've heard of in the news. Naming yourself Lise Meitner is fine, but naming yourself OJ Simpson is not. If an admin tells you to change your name because it's based on a political or controversial figure, it is not an invitation for debate. Change it or go elsewhere.
6. Do not modify your BYOND client (dreamseeker) in any way, shape or form. This is the other automatic 'no' and is not open to discussion or explanation. If you get a message on connect that implies that the server thinks you're using a modified client, and you're really sure you're not, catch us on Discord and we'll talk about what might have gone wrong - but don't try and pull a fast one. We have ways of knowing if you're telling the truth, and we will not talk about how.
7. Don't carry grudges from round to round. If someone was a tremendous jerk in one round, and you didn't get to enact your revenge before the round ended, kiss it goodbye. If you try to get back at them in a later round, that is griefing, and see rule number one.
8. Don't use multiple accounts. This means if you get killed in a round, you shouldn't login to a new account and rejoin the same server and start playing again. This also means that throughout your time here on Goon, you should stick to a single BYOND account. If you want to switch accounts for whatever reason, please let an admin know. You are not obligated to disclose your reason(s) for switching accounts, but you are required to share your old ckey (account name) and your new ckey. This also allows us transfer your medals and spacebux. If there are other people in your household playing or otherwise sharing an IP address for some reason, please ahelp to let us know (you only have to do this once, not every time you play). All we'll ask is that you not communicate with each other out-of-game about what's happening in the game.
9. No spoilers. Many secrets are designed with the fun of the hunt in mind. Please don't rob other players of the joy of discovery - spoiling a secret for someone without their explicit consent is a No-No. You may share secrets with other players, provided that you do not use larger public channels of communication (like the in-game chat or forums) and make clear that you are sharing spoilers. For the Discord specifically, refer to Discord Rule #8: "Obey Secret Content rules", in the section below. If you are not sure what belongs on the wiki, you can ask for permission from an administrator first.
10. Do not impersonate admins under any circumstances. Do not threaten to get other people banned. This will not end well for you!
11. End of Round Grief. You are welcome to bomb the shuttle, beat other players or generally cause problems once the shuttle has arrived at Centcom - but only AFTER the line saying "Further actions will have no impact on round results. Go hog wild!" has appeared.
12. Communication must primarily be in English. Because this is fundamentally a game based around social interaction, players who do not speak a common language are isolated from the round and cannot understand communications from administrators. Players who share a language other than English should avoid excessive use so as not to exclude other players from their communication.
13. Don't clog up the chat with low effort memes. Memes are allowed, but avoid just spouting out meme phrases with no context. Saying "lol" on the Classic server is fine, saying "Skibidi Ohio Rizz" is not. Note that the RP server has a higher expectation than classic with regards to this, but you should put in some effort in both.
14. No Powergaming. "Powergaming" is defined as displaying a consistent pattern of antisocial and unsporting behavior in which a player prioritizes their game experience at the expense of others through routine optimization and abuse of game mechanics/knowledge.
15. This is not an exhaustive list. Rules-lawyering is STRONGLY discouraged. If an admin asks you to knock something off, 'well it's not in the rules' is not really an argument. If you feel this rule is being abused, please feel absolutely free to make use of the Admin Complaints forum - we won't punish you for posting a complaint.

Roleplay Server Rules

The roleplay server operates very differently rulewise to our other servers and players are held to a higher standard of effort during their play there. Therefore, make very sure that you follow these rules when on our roleplay server. If you are unsure if something is allowed or not, first consult the base rules of Goonstation; if you are still unsure after doing so, feel free to adminhelp for clarification. If you disagree with any of the below rules, please do not play on the roleplay server, and instead spend your time on one of our other, non-roleplay servers.

1. Make an effort to roleplay. Play a coherent, believable character. Playing a violent or racist character is not allowed. Play your character as though they wish to keep their job at Nanotrasen. This includes listening to security and the chain of command and, if you are a member of command, taking your job as a leader seriously in-character. Only minor crime is permitted for non-antagonists. Avoid memes (e.g. sus, pog, amogus), txt spk (e.g. lol, wtf), and out of game terminology when you are playing your character. LOOC is available if you need to communicate out of character. In addition, if you notice a character who is Afk/disconnected, please do not attack or mess with them beyond taking them to cryo.
2. Escalate through roleplay before attacking other players. The goal of the roleplay server is character interaction and interesting scenarios. Both crew and antagonists are expected to roleplay escalation before engaging in hostilities. As an antagonist, your goal is to increase, not decrease, roleplay opportunities. Give people a sense of dread, an obvious motive, or some means of roleplaying and reacting, before you harm them. As security, your priority is the crew’s safety and maintaining the peace. You should treat criminals fairly and determine appropriate consequences for their actions. Enemies to Nanotrasen such as confirmed non-human antagonists and open syndicate members may be treated harshly.
3. After you’ve selected a job, be sure to stay in your lane. While you are capable of doing anything within the game mechanics, allow those who have selected the relevant job to attempt the task first. As an example, breaking into medical and treating yourself when there are medical staff present is not okay. Choosing captain just to go and work the genetics machine all round is not acceptable.
4. As an antagonist you are free to kill and grief, provided you escalate per rule 2. You are not required to be evil, but you do have a broad toolset to push the round forward and make things exciting. Treat your role as an interesting challenge and not an excuse to destroy other people’s game experiences. Your objectives do not allow you to ignore any rule, RP or otherwise. As an antagonist, you are not protected against being murdered or griefed, but it is expected that the crew roleplays and does not kill you just for the sake of killing an antagonist.
5. Do not use out of game information in game. Only use in-game information; the things your character can perceive or could know. While we have no hard rule on what a character can and cannot know, be reasonable about your character’s knowledge and capabilities. Do not call out antagonists based on information that is only obvious as a player. For example, the drowsiness effects on your screen are not a good in-character basis to call out a changeling. The debris and adventure zones are for enhancing roleplay. Rushing through them for the sake of items alone is prohibited. It is reasonable for the crew to assume people with syndicate gear such as red space suits are antagonists. Anything learned as a ghost is considered OOC knowledge.
6. Be kind to other players. Be respectful and considerate of other players, as their experiences are just as important as your own. Do not use LOOC or other means of communication to put down other players or accuse them of rulebreaking. If your problem with another player extends to rulebreaking, press F1 to contact the admins. It is your responsibility to respect the boundaries of others when you RP. If you feel uncomfortable, or worry that people are uncomfortable, don’t be afraid to use LOOC to communicate. Furthermore, do not advantage your friends in game or exclude others from roleplaying opportunities without good cause.
7. These rules are extra rules for the roleplay server. The core rules still apply to the roleplay server. Do not argue with the administration about the RP rules or core rules.

Things to Keep In Mind (Ingame)

1. Warnings aren't necessarily required. Although in general the admins will do their best to have a discussion about any given conflict before enacting a punishment, there are some cases where communication is either impossible or nonproductive.
2. Different admins have different styles. Although we all follow the same general directives, some admins are more or less forgiving on certain issues than others. If you do a thing that gets you a dayban from one admin, and your buddy does the same thing later and gets away with just a talking-to, that is not a thing to complain about. If you DO feel that an admin's actions were inappropriate, please feel absolutely free to make use of the Admin Complaints forum - we won't punish you for posting a complaint.
3. There is a difference between grief and jerkery. Being a jerk to people is expected and almost necessary in this game - minor theft, facefarting, etc - basically stuff that either doesn't severely impact someone else's ability to enjoy the game, or is otherwise handleable with in-game resources like the security force. This is something of a moving target and probably the one where the 'different admins have different styles' bit will be the most relevant for. If it's a relatively calm round, the HoP hasn't vanished yet, and someone steals your ID, that's not so big a deal. If all hell is breaking loose, the round has been going on for more than 15 minutes so the HoP has vanished into the ether, and therefore you can't really replace your ID, then ID theft is a MASSIVE dick move and absolutely worth adminhelping for. Feel free to adminhelp if you really do think something isn't okay, but if we tell you 'this is something that should be handled ingame' then at least give it a try. Besides, bored sec officers rarely find ways to amuse themselves that the rest of the station would call 'useful'.
4. If you are a team based antagonist (Head Revolutionary, Nuclear Operative) or an AI, and you have to log out, please let us know via adminhelp before you leave. You don't have to stick around to wait for a reply, just let us know so we can replace you if it's necessary.
5. Mindhacks, thralls and other related roles have a couple of very important rules that must be followed. See Mindhack Rules for more information.
6. Sploded Clause - this should be ALMOST NEVER used, but we reserve the right to dispose of a consistently terrible player on a permanent basis even if the event the ban is in a direct response to would not normally involve a permaban. If your ban involves the word 'sploded', you should probably wait at least several months before even thinking about appealing it - it means you're really super not fitting in here, and literally the entire server population is better off without you. These cases are EXTREMELY rare.
7. When to use adminhelp vs. when to use mentorhelp vs. when to let it go: If you have a question about the rules, or are reporting another player who you believe has broken them, or you have discovered a bug/exploit, or you have been spawned as a special role (AI, antagonist) and are unable or unwilling to stick around and fulfill your role (help, i got AI and have to leave / help, i rolled traitor and really just want to play with botany / help, i rolled chief engineer and haven't got the first clue about how to run the engine) then use adminhelp. If your question is about game mechanics (help, how do i do genetics / help, where's the bar / help, what does a chaplain even do) then use mentorhelp. If you want to complain about a player who hasn't broken a rule but you think they're annoying, or you want access to an area or an object that you don't have, or you want to talk about some totally sweet music you just heard, or something else that doesn't involve the rules, game engine, or game mechanics, then please just let it go.
8. Addendum to the above regarding prayer: Use prayer when 97% of the time you want to be ignored, with the remaining 3% divided between being blown to smithereens and having your request answered in the most evil-genie / monkey's-paw way possible.
9. Although very few topics are expressly forbidden, there are several topics (politics, religion, several others) that really, really, REALLY don't result in productive or useful conversation. Not exactly a rule, but maybe keep your mouth shut about stuff that's gonna start arguments. Just a thought.
10. The RP server has a different ruleset - that's available here.
11. Borgs and the AI have a list of things that are and are not considered human for the purposes of their laws. That list is available here.
12. Recording and streaming are both a-okay! For streamers, we do not require a stream delay, but you may want to consider one to avoid stream-sniping. Metagaming rules still apply, and we request that streamers moderate their chat actively to make sure viewers are not sharing in-character information. Do not use information about the current round gleaned from stream chat, but advice and tips are OK. If you do plan on streaming or recording, it would be appreciated if you let admins know via adminhelp, as it allows us to intervene if someone is abusing the stream and also lets us avoid playing copyrighted musical tracks.
13. If you DO get banned, and you want to not be banned, please visit the ban appeals forum. Please read ALL the sticky threads before posting your appeal - they contain important information you will absolutely need! Do not private message or ping admins about your ban.
14. If you feel that an admin has acted inappropriately, please visit the admin complaint forum. Please read ALL the sticky threads before posting your appeal - they contain important information you will absolutely need!
15. If you're not sure about any of the terms used here, please check out the Terminology page.
16. Space Racism is still Racism. Just as we do not tolerate players engaging in bigotry around out of game concepts such as race and gender identity, we have a similar prohibition on the use of ingame characteristics to "invent" new forms of bigotry. Examples of this would be: declaring that only Lizard People could join a specific department, or yelling that a Security Officer arresting a Cockroach Person was "being racist against cockroaches".
17. Don't prolong the round unnecessarily. If it seems like most other people want the round to end and/or you have killed most other people as an antagonist you should not try to make the round go on forever. That means that repeated recalling of the shuttle, building automatic shuttle-recall machines and not calling the shuttle after you kill everyone else on the server are frowned upon.

Discord Rules

This is not an exhaustive list. These rules are to set up a framework of basic human decency in the Discord and NOT to censor speech. Most of the time, if you cross the line you will simply be told to knock it off, and maybe kicked with a note to stop pushing it if you keep going. Bans will be reserved for only the worst cases. Furthermore, these rules apply solely to the Goonstation Discord. Other Discord servers or services where ss13 folks hang out are beyond the scope of this rule set.

1. No IC in OOC. Do not talk about the current round in any way.
2. No explicit content. This includes avatars, images, or other messages that could be deemed pornographic, sexually charged, emotionally damaging, shocking, or repugnant.
3. Be welcoming and respectful of others. We do not allow any form of bigotry, racial or otherwise. Do not use slurs (such as 'retard', 'trap' when talking about a trans woman, 'nibba', or 'gay' when used in a derogatory manner), even if it's "ironic", or make jokes that are bigoted. Do not purposefully misuse pronouns - if you make a mistake, acknowledge it and move on. If someone asks to change a subject that makes them uncomfortable try to accommodate them, if reasonable. Do not repeatedly @ mention someone if they don't want to be, or @ mention people randomly.
4. Be respectful of others' privacy and boundaries. Do not ask others for personally identifying information. Do not repeatedly ask others for information they don't want to share. If someone is making you uncomfortable, you can contact us through DMing MedicalAssistant and starting your message with ]report or ]reportanon.
5. Be respectful to the admins. Do not impersonate an admin. If an admin asks you to knock something off, do it. This also covers "backseat moderating". Telling someone about rule 1, or another rule, would be fine, but aggressively enforcing the rules in place of the admins would not be.
6. Be respectful of the Discord server. Some conversation topics (including but not limited to current politics, racial tensions, religious freedom) are extremely volatile and controversial by their very nature, so if an admin requests that a conversation not take place in the channel, take it elsewhere.
7. Tread carefully with joking and devil's advocate stuff. Do not make jokes that advocate for violence or dehumanize others. There's a fine line between 'making the conversation interesting or hilarious' and 'being a thundering butthead.' If someone asks you to cool it, listen.
8. Obey Secret Content rules. Do not discuss secret content such as Adventure Zone puzzles, secret chemical recipes, or other aspects of the game which are considered secret in public channels, even if using spoiler tags. We have the #imspoiler channel for discussing secret content. You can opt in or out by reacting to the General Roles post in #opt-in-roles with a 🔇 (mute) emote. You can also share secret content over private messages, provided the person consents to you sharing the secret content.
9. Do not PM an admin regarding ban appeals. If you are appealing a game server ban, do not PM or @ an admin directly regarding your appeal. If you have posted an appeal, an admin will respond to it when possible. Pinging the admin who banned you or any other admin will not make the process go faster.
10. No soliciting selfies. Under no circumstances, indirect or otherwise, are you allowed to ask other discord members for photos of themselves.
11. Above all, respect Discord's Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. (https://discord.com/terms) (https://discord.com/guidelines) We reside pretty happily on this platform, don't ruin it for everyone!

If you would like to contact the admin team (for forum account activation, rule breaks, or other issues) but don't want to PM them or @ them in a public channel you can send reports to @MedicalAssistant by sending a PM with either ]report or ]reportanon and a message. Think of it as adminhelp but for Discord!

If you find yourself on the wrong end of these rules and earn a ban from the server, you can appeal the ban on our forums (http://forum.ss13.co/forumdisplay.php?fid=35). Read all the sticky threads before posting, otherwise your appeal may be denied!

You can also find a list of our current admins here: https://forum.ss13.co/showteam.php

When to Adminhelp and What to Send

Sending an adminhelp should be direct and to the point. Some key information we are looking for in adminhelps are:

• Who did it?
• What did they do?

Even if you think someone else may have already sent an adminhelp, you should still send an adminhelp over rule breaks. We would rather get four reports about the same issue than zero! You should also adminhelp if you aren't sure whether something is a rule break or not. Something may not be a rule break directly, but may indicate a pattern of near rule breaks.