Rules

Rule 0. Admins (not Mentors or Mods) retain the authority to ignore the enforcement of specific rules at their discretion when they feel it is in the best interest of the current round, the server, or the player base at large. However, they are fully accountable for their actions when they exercise this privilege.

Rule 0.1 Rules are enforced as intended. Every example of a rule break cannot be defined as written, therefore, enforcement of the rules is subject to staff interpretation of the rule's intention.

1. Rule 1. No Erotic Role Play (ERP), erotic content, or 18+ sexual content - Roleplay intended to elicit a sexual response from the receiver(s), including but not limited to writing stories (WGW) or posting links to adult content. Doing so will almost always result in an instant permaban from our server. However, these actions could still be susceptible to Marine Law. A good rule of thumb for whether an interaction crosses this line would be to consider if the action would be allowed in a PG-13 rated movie in the USA. A few basic guidelines are as follows:
   • No character should ever engage in any form of sexual intercourse in the game, whether alone or with another player.
   • No sexual act or genetalia should ever be given explicit description. If a sexual act must be referenced, there should never be a description of how particular body parts made contact or interacted in any way, nor should any particular act be named. Distasteful but non-sexual bravado do not apply to this. A marine scratching their nuts, for example, is fine.
   • Euphemisms that also have a sexual meaning are allowed in non-sexual contexts. Common terms of phrase like "Suck my dick" are fine, as long as saying such is not a literal invitation or solicitation to do so.
   • If you are not sure whether something you wish to say or do is okay, AHelp first. We would rather you ask and be told no, than have it happen and a ban become necessary.
   • Disgust Clause: Staff reserve the right to make judgement calls on situations to determine if they constitute a breach of 18+ or erotic conduct. If something is overly disgusting or crosses a line in a way that becomes an 18+ situation, it may be punished for regardless of nature. The above are guidelines for reference, and it is highly not recommended to straddle the line along what is and is not allowed when dealing with erotic/18+ content.
2. Rule 2. Roleplay - CM-SS13 is intended to be a Medium Roleplay server. Play a reasonably realistic character. Treat your character as a separate entity from you, the player. Your character's actions, feelings, and knowledge in-game should be based solely on the character's experiences and not your own as the player. Each round is a fresh start with no knowledge of the previous one carrying over. This rule may be ignored in some game modes such as Whiskey Outpost and other “Survival”-type maps that pit escaping marines against waves of enemies. Follow the Roleplay Standards.
3. Rule 3. Don’t be a dick - Harassment, racism, bigotry, homophobia, exploiting bugs, cheating, hacking, and just plain being an asshole. Giving out plot spoilers to any media with malicious intent is not allowed, but the general discussion of plot that contains spoilers about media released 1 year ago or longer is fine.
4. Rule 4. No griefing - Griefing is the intent of one player wanting to cause grief or annoyance to other players or the server without a valid roleplay reason. If Staff believes that the player’s intent is to grief, then action will be taken whether or not it was the player’s intent. Any damage to the station or players caused by griefing can be repaired at an Admin's discretion. If you are being griefed, don’t retaliate - Adminhelp it and you’ll get healed. Shooting a griefer can cause you to get in trouble as well, and the combat logs you’re generating make it harder for Staff to prove who the real griefer is.
   • End of Round Grief (EORG) is fighting and generating any combat logs with friendly players after the round ends and is an immediate 3-hour ban without warning. Exceptions are between normal enemies, such as Marines and Aliens, Marines and UPP, etc.
   • Major shenanigans that may disrupt the normal flow of the round are not allowed at roundstart. This includes big or lethal fights, briefing brawls, riots, and massive equipment restrictions.
5. Rule 5. No powergaming - Powergaming includes performing actions outside your assigned job or chosen character’s abilities. Your skills or RP background before the round do not matter - a standard marine with "a brother in Engineering" does not know how to hack an airlock.
   • NOT Powergaming:
     • The Acting Commander/Executive Officer setting up the ship's engines if there are no Maintenance Techs and no Chief Engineer to do it. The CO/XO would realistically have at least some knowledge of the engine that runs their ship. Also, it is crucial to the success of the marine team, so gameplay trumps realism here.
6. Rule 6. No Metagaming or Metacommunication - Acting upon knowledge your character does not have or communicating information about the current round, including but not limited to private discussions, chat rooms, and voice chats during the game. If you want to talk to other CM players about CM or just in general, we have an official Discord, but keep the discussion about past rounds and never about the current one.
   • Examples:
     • Welding vents before seeing the aliens use them or before they've boarded the ship.
     • Building defenses on the ship before a hostile force is en route.
     • "Ramboing" - Chasing down aliens immediately after the first contact, directly to their hive.
   • Examples that are NOT Metagaming:
     • Aliens slashing powered devices such as APCs, cameras, and lights.
7. Rule 7. English only - All communications within the server should be done in English only. Phrases from other languages are fine but should not make up the majority of your conversations.
8. Rule 8. No Advertising - Don’t post byond://, Discord, Twitch, etc, links to other servers purely for the sake of advertising. If you wish to share links to these kinds of places, either ahelp for permission or do so off the server (IE: over Byond messages).
9. Rule 9. No Ban Evading / Multi-Keying - Logging in with different accounts at different times, logging in with another account because you died (or were banned), or logging into two separate accounts at the same time. If you have multiple accounts tied to CM-SS13, please ahelp regarding them. Players caught breaking this rule may receive permabans from the server.
10. Rule 10. No IC in OOC or Vice-Versa - Keep In Character (IC) communication in character and Out Of Character (OOC) communication out of character. Don't use (( or )) to communicate OOC. Vice versa, you should not use LOOC to share IC information to bypass IC restrictions. You may use LOOC to talk someone through something if they ask for help.
11. Rule 11. Suicide, Rage-Quitting, and Logging off - If you are a marine and need to leave the game, go to Cryo on the ship and put yourself in a cryotube. This will release your job slot and allow another player to join with your job. If you are unable to get to cryo, send an Adminhelp to staff. If you are the Queen, Adminhelp to let staff know. If you leave without cryo’ing yourself or informing staff, you risk a job ban, especially if your job is an important one.
12. Rule 12. Character names - Use a reasonable, unique, lore-friendly character name. Short nicknames are allowed inside the name (e.g. Derek 'Double-D' Donahue, Jane 'Crusher' Sanchez, Dan 'The Man' Thompson). Ranked, titled, honorific, offensive, famous and pop-culture names are not allowed (e.g. Dr John Smith, Barack Obama, Lt John Doe, Adolf Hitler). Also, avoid lore-based names like Weyland, Bishop, Ripley, etc.
13. Rule 13. ID Cards - These should only be taken for a roleplay reason, such as from a dead XO to call for help on a computer in the ship’s bridge. If you take an ID or find one from a living player (or a dead player that has since been revived), you should make every attempt to return it unless your character has a good reason not to.
14. Rule 14. Lethal Force - Do not attack another player without a legitimate, explainable roleplay reason that could be applied in a similar, real-life scenario. A fist fight does not suddenly escalate into a gun fight. Even if you are justified, you are still susceptible to Marine Law.
15. Rule 15. Military Police - All Military Police jobs must follow Marine Law. They may ignore Minor Crimes unless ordered to enforce them, but they may not ignore Major Crimes nor commit any crimes themselves, Minor or Major.
16. Rule 16. Battlefield Execution - Whitelisted Commanders are allowed to instantly kill any player at any time if the player fulfills the conditions found in Marine Law. Excessive or poorly-reasoned battlefield executions (such as BEing MPs over a valid arrest) may end with the Commander being removed from the whitelist.
17. Rule 17. Mutinies -
    • Mutinies must be Adminhelped by a chosen leader stating the reasoning and the players directly involved. There must be at least 5 members with MPs not eligible to mutiny.
    • If the mutiny does not have a valid reason, it can't happen.
    • Only the Acting Commander can be mutinied against for their actions, decisions, or inactions. They must be given a chance to stand down peacefully.
    • During the mutiny, attacking any uninvolved, medical, or surrendered personnel is strictly forbidden, as is perma-killing anyone involved. If you have surrendered during a mutiny, you must remain as such.
    • Once concluded, all sides must be given medical treatment. Only a Captain or higher is able to deny treatment or battlefield execute specific mutineers.

Roleplay Standards

• Marines: All personnel employed by the USCM are mentally stable and physically fit for duty. They would not desert their post or go against the USCM without a good reason. Marriages are forbidden, no two people employed by the USCM on the same ship may be married. The USCM only know about things that are human in origin.
• Survivors: Survivors have more leeway than marines with their mental stability due to the trauma they may have experienced during the xenomorph attack. They may be suffering PTSD, paranoia or similar conditions. Survivors may be hostile but must be overtly so and from the beginning. Turncoating is not allowed, if you go up to the Almayer willingly or act friendly, you waive your right to be hostile. Survivors may know the basics of xenos from observation.
• Xenos: Aliens have no free will. They are a hivemind, and their purpose is to enforce the will of the Queen and expand the Hive. They are not friendly and will not negotiate. Due to the Hivemind, xenos know everything every xeno learns and know the basics of human equipment. They do not know where the humans are going to be attacking from. Xeno hivemind is an English translation of their thoughts, so words such as “hydro” or “shuttle” are acceptable.
• Predators: Predators are honourable hunters. They must follow the Code of Honor and act like a serious predator, not a prankster.
• Synthetics: Synthetics are cold and do not feel emotions as strongly as humans, though they may fake them. They serve the USCM and may not turn against them. Synthetics must adhere to the Synthetic Programming and Guidelines.