Skip to main content

Section B: Roleplay Rules

These rules only apply during a round. A round ends only when the results screen appears, and OOC chat is enabled. All of these rules apply fully whenever the game is not at the lobby.

Roleplay rules do not apply to observers (“ghosts” or “spectators”) while they are observers. Dead chat is considered to be an in-game but out-of-character chat channel.

1. Roleplay a normal character.

Your character's actions, feelings, and knowledge in-game should be based solely on the character's experience of the round. Act in character throughout the round, and collaborate with other players to tell a story.

  • Actions that have no regard for your character or setting are not acceptable. Attributing erratic character actions as 'insanity' is not acceptable. Act as though Nanotrasen hired you, and that you do not want to be fired.
  • Being an antagonist does not allow you to stop playing a character. Determine how your character would react to being given these objectives, and work through it appropriately.
  • As a non-sentient or partially-sentient character (such as an animal, vent creature, or zombie), you are expected to have only a limited understanding of space stations and their mechanics. Do not attempt to sabotage station infrastructure if your character would not have the knowledge of its function.

2. Use realistic character names.

In-character names must not make obvious references, not use random characters, and must not be obscene.

  • Theatrical roles such as clown, boxer and mime are allowed stage names with more freedom. Grays using names that reference pop culture are also given more leeway.
  • Avoid excessive numerals in names. Synthetic or otherwise artificial characters are not exempt from this rule.
  • If you seek to have a name that could trespass onto these rules, contact an Administrator through AHelp or Discord regarding why this name is important to your character. Administrators reserve the right to approve or deny character names at their discretion, and may change their minds at any time.

Examples:

  • Good: Tail-Xilia
  • Good: Beafstro Ganiff
  • Good: A gray named 'Ford Mustang'
  • Good: A thaven named 'Touching Grass'
  • Bad: Skibidi Toilet
  • Bad: Kanye West
  • Bad: Isuggest Forcefem
  • Bad: Banned-By-Admins
  • Bad: Penis Pete
  • Bad: Benry

3. Communicate in-character and in-game.

  • Do not use the Emote channel to bypass an inability to speak. Use the Emote channel for things that could reasonably be displayed by your character’s physical motions.
  • Do not use replacement characters ('0' in place of 'o', '1' in place of 'l', etc.) to bypass accents.
  • Do not discuss Out Of Character (OOC) matters In Character (IC). This can include mentioning admins, the fact that one is playing a game, or anything that breaks the immersion of other players.
  • Do not use In-Character channels (such as local and radio channels) to bypass a lack of ability to use LOOC or OOC chats (e.g. "Huh, wonder where the captain went? OOC He probably left to get dinner lol").
  • Do not use external channels to communicate with other players in the same game.

4. Play the role you are given.

Do not join the round as a role you don't intend to play, or abandon your role midway through a round. This includes not completing tasks that a role is expected to do, leaving the game because you did not get assigned a role you were hoping for, or requesting that admins change your role.

  • If you are not playing a specific role, do not seek to take on the responsibilities of that role. If you wish to be reallocated to a different role, speak to the Head of Personnel or a member of command. This rule is loosened if the station is understaffed.
  • Roleplay should be done in tandem with the role you are assigned. Use the responsibilities assigned to you as the means to tell a story, rather than telling a story at the expense of the mechanics of SS14. Consistently spending large portions of the round talking to other characters without engaging with the rest of the game is not acceptable, and will be met with admin intervention.
  • Ghosting, suiciding, or leaving at the start of a round because you did not get a particular role is strictly prohibited.
  • Antagonists are always permitted to neglect the responsibilities of their department in order to engage in antagonistic activities.
  • The Lowpop Clause: In the absence of Command or Security departments, crew members are encouraged to organize in such a way to ensure compliance with space law.

Examples:

  • Good: As an engineer, building a bar in maintenance while there is nothing important for engineering to do.
  • Good: As the captain, having the chef teach you how to cook while there is nothing important needing your attention.
  • Good: Taking a short break from your job at the bar.
  • Good: Getting an antagonist role and intentionally not doing any of your objectives, but agreeing to complete another antagonist's objectives if they complete yours.
  • Good: Fighting or preparing to defend yourself from someone who has been trying to kill you, while not being a member of Security.
  • Good: Attempting to apprehend an antagonist while there are no members of Command or Security on the station.
  • Bad: As an engineer, building a bar in maintenance while the station has no power.
  • Bad: As the captain, leaving the station to go on an expedition with the salvage team.
  • Bad: Spending your entire shift talking to someone, even when there is work that needs to be done by your role.
  • Bad: Getting an antagonist role and not doing any antagonist activities.
  • Bad: "Validhunting" or engaging in "selfsec": hunting for antagonists or lawbreakers, or preparing to defend someone else from someone who has been trying to kill a random crewmember, without being a member of Security in a round where there are players in the Security department.

5. Do not prioritise "winning" over roleplaying.

We are here to tell a story. Being vulnerable and accepting the loss of your character in the advancement of the narrative of the round is important. SS14 is not Among Us, nor is it Call of Duty.

  • Engage with players if they are attempting to roleplay an antagonistic scene. For instance, if nuclear operatives are attempting to negotiate, do not immediately shoot them mid sentence.

  • Do not "typebait", or coerce players into typing in order to gain an advantage in combat by interrupting them.

  • Do not seek out secure or restricted items that have no relevance to your character in the round (such as the CMO's hypospray, or the CE's magboots).

  • Do not hide the nuclear fission explosive, or other sensitive items, in an impossible to see/access location.

  • If the presence of nuclear operatives on the station is known, crew members may take steps to protect or otherwise secure the nuke. However, the nuke should remain on-station at all times.

  • Non-security personnel should not seek to kill or detain threats. You should generally attempt to flee from combat or dangerous situations. Remember that your character likely fears injury or death. This rule is loosened when there are no members of Security or Command on the station.

  • In certain severe emergencies, normal crew are encouraged to defend themselves and their station. Such emergencies include an attack by nuclear operatives, a zombie outbreak, space dragon attack, a hostile swarm of replicators, or other critical situations.

  • Do not seek to make antagonists "redtext", or use OOC knowledge to deny antagonists the opportunity to complete specific objectives. Interact with antagonists based only on the information you have in an individual round.

6. Follow reasonable escalation.

Conflicts should typically follow a scale starting at verbal and moving through stages of non-harmful, non-lethal, and lethal as necessary, with "round removal" as a final stage that should almost never be reached.

For more information, see the Escalation Table.

  • A player should not escalate a conflict without some escalation from the other party involved in the conflict. Players who attempt to de-escalate conflicts will always be given more leniency. Generally, players should not be seeking to escalate conflicts.
  • If a party in the conflict goes into critical condition or dies, the responsible party must take them to receive treatment or to security. This is considered deescalation.

Exemptions:

  • Antagonists are fully exempt from escalation rules. Non-antagonists who are in a conflict with antagonists are not exempt.
  • Free agents who choose to act like antagonists are not exempt from escalation rules, but may be given leniency when escalating.
  • Security can immediately escalate to non-lethal force only if it is necessary for an arrest.
  • Anyone using or brandishing obviously lethal weaponry (such as Syndicate equipment, a changeling armblade, or a heretic eldritch blade) can be assumed to have lethal intent, and can be immediately escalated against at a lethal level, unless there are the available tools to safely detain them.
  • Players are not obligated to follow escalation rules for non-pet animals, such as mice, monkeys, and vent creatures. Escalation rules must always be applied to conflicts with station pets (an animal that is named at the beginning of the round, such as Remilia, Ian, or Hamlet) or Cyborgs.

Examples:

  • Good: Being punched, punching your attacker into crit, then bringing them to medical.
  • Good: Stealing from someone who stole from you.
  • Good: As a security officer, asking someone to stop for questioning, seeing them run away, then using a disabler to stun and cuff them.
  • Good: As a security officer, shooting someone wearing syndicate equipment into crit, cuffing them, then bringing them to medical.
  • Good: Attacking an unauthorised person who enters a high-security area until they leave.
  • Good: Minorly inconveniencing someone for your own benefit.
  • Good: As an antagonist, killing someone who got in your way.
  • Good: Trying to crit someone who, in a previous conflict, put you into crit and did not take you to medical.
  • Bad: Round removing someone who punched you.
  • Bad: Wordlessly beating someone who stole from you into crit.
  • Bad: Wordlessly attacking someone who is cloaked.
  • Bad: As a security officer, asking someone to stop for questioning, seeing them run away, then shooting them into crit.
  • Bad: Attacking an unauthorised person who enters a low-security area with no other escalation.
  • Bad: Hiding someone's body because they punched you earlier in the round.
  • Bad: Randomly picking fights with people.
  • Bad: Trying to crit someone who, in a previous conflict, put you into crit and took you to medical.

7. You cannot use knowledge gained while dead or in critical condition.

If a player dies, they forget the specific details of their death. Having completely clear knowledge as to how a player died often makes it impossible for antagonists to get away with murder, and makes the round less fun for all players involved. A borg being removed from its chassis is not a death, and there is no memory loss.

While a player is in critical condition, they are considered unconscious and unaware of their surroundings. If a player is resuscitated from critical condition, they may recall how they entered critical condition. However, if the player dies, they should not recall these details.

  • If they are revived by using a defibrillator, they can only recall vague information such as “Someone shot me” or “I was set ablaze”.
  • If they are revived by any other method, they forget the last five minutes leading up to their death, and cannot describe their death in any capacity.

8. Do not metafriend or metagrudge.

Character relationships may form between rounds. However, these relationships should not enable characters to give preferential treatment to characters they have a friendly relationship with (metafriending), or deny service to characters they are antagonistic towards (metagrudging). Please use the AHelp menu to report players who break this rule.

  • You may choose to give preferential treatment to characters based ONLY on information from the current round.
  • Each round of SS14 happens independently from one another. You are free to personally 'canonize' events that happen during shifts, but these events should be considered to have happened in a more mundane setting. You can never remember a time where another player was an antagonist.
  • If you are in doubt as to whether a specific action qualifies as metafriending or metagrudging, consider whether you would do the same thing for your character's best friend, or worst enemy. Unless the current round has justified it, strive to treat all characters equally regardless of your own relationship to them.

Metafriending Examples:

  • Giving a character additional access or a job because you are friends with the player who is playing that character.
  • Giving a character additional access or a job because you know that the player has a lot of hours in that job.
  • Not fighting a character because you are friends with the player who is playing that character.
  • Ignoring your objective to kill a character because your character and theirs became friends in a previous round.
  • Ignoring characters who you do not have established relationships with in order to interact with characters who you do.

Metagrudging Examples

  • Not giving a character additional access or a job because you are mad at or don't like the player who is playing that character.
  • Starting a fight with a character because of something that they did last round.
  • Starting a fight with a character because they killed you while you were playing a different character.
  • Targeting or harassing a character based on anything which that character did outside the current round.
  • Targeting or harassing a character based on anything which the character's player did while not playing the character.

9. Do not behave like an antagonist unless the game tells you that you are one.

As a crew member on the space station, you are allied with Nanotrasen and the station as a whole from the start of the round. Acting like an antagonist as a non-antagonist role is known as 'self-antagonism'.

  • Willfully assisting known antagonists is self-antagonism. Leeway is given in the case of bribes, coercion, or other forms of duress.
  • Actively seeking conversion or transformation into an antagonist is considered self-antag.
  • Behave as if the role you are given is your character's career. Don't exploit the impermanence of the rounds to justify committing excessive crimes, or to excuse antagonism (for example, bringing a changeling on the evacuation shuttle so it can be 'cured').