Server Rules

Nova Sector policies

	Server Rules
	Nova Roleplay Expectations
	Antagonist Policy
	Silicon policy
	Ghost Role policy
	Corporate Regulations
	Security Policy
	Jobs
	Nova Sector lore
	Staff Operations Policy

Return to policies page

Nova Sector 13 Rules

These rules are the framework for everyone on the server This server is for people who are 18 years of age or older. No exceptions. Our servers are based in the United States, and because of that we adhere to both US-Federal Law, and it's moral guidelines.
Rule 0: Be Mature Don’t be a dick OOCly. Being needlessly antagonistic to other community members, generally toxic, or any other variation you could imagine won't be tolerated. English literacy is a must. We do not expect grammatical perfection; you should be able to speak comprehensibly out of character. Don’t “ride the line” with regards to the rules. Follow through on the spirit of rules, and not just their exact wording. If an admin has told you not to do something; do not do it. Don't attempt to argue in wordgames with the staff, it's their job to enforce the rules, not argue for them. Do not target players in bad faith. Do not ban-bait people. This includes misrepresenting a situation.
Rule 1: Do Not Grief Griefing is the act of deliberately annoying or angering another player maliciously. This includes EORG (End of Round Griefing) Players need to use the opfor system to request permission for large-scale bombing, plasmaflooding, acid-flooding, or anything else that can and likely will damage a large swathe of the station. 1. Do not spam. This includes in-character conversation, the global out-of-character channel, or any other text channel used in-game. 2. Do not attack others randomly without a valid IC reason. see: Server Rules#10.5 Non-Antagonist Criminal Addendum 3. Do not exploit bugs or errors in the code to your benefit in-game. Report issues to the wider community in the main-dev chat channel, and on the github. 4. Unless you have an approved OPFOR, you shouldn't excessively sabotage the station, or departments, this includes messing with the engine. This can make the round effectively unplayable if enough vital functions are destroyed. 5. Do not harass a player ICly if it is unwelcome. 6. Don't touch SSD/AFK players unless you are moving them to safety/cryo (after the 30 minutes have passed). 7. The interlink isn't the place for conflict, or instigating stuff; you shouldn't be starting or trying to drag trouble there. 8. No force-borging or transforming another person's character without getting LOOC consent first!
Rule 2: Listen to the staff team The staff is responsible for upholding the enforcement of rules on the server. As such, they have a final say on related matters. Take feedback about staff to a staff-report, or staff-feedback. If you are ever considering doing something particularly drastic in terms of escalation - for example, mutinies - request permission via Admin-Help. Be polite, honest, and to the point when sending an admin PM. Time, place, the act itself, who did it, who might have seen it are all things that help staff in the moment with figuring out the situation overall. Do not instigate someone you are admin-helping about. This also means, you shouldn't start taunting them in LOOC after opening the ticket. An admin's word is final. If they say not to do it, do not do it. If you suspect an admin is in the wrong, calmly take the incident to an Staff-Report. Lying to the staff is a punishable offense. Lying in adminhelps, misrepresenting facts deliberately, or logging off when an admin has asked a question may result in a permaban, if you don't return. Avoid talking about rule breaks in the global OOC channel. If an admin tells you that something is IC, valid, and so forth, that is the final answer. Admins are not obligated to give you more information than they think is necessary during an ongoing round. If the situation you are admin-helping about is immediately happening to you, continue with the situation where possible, and ahelp immediately. (THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO PREFBREAK.)
Rule 3: Stay In-Character and Meet Character Standards Your character must fit into the lore and setting, this includes their current situation. Speak in a believable manner. Knowledge must be consistent with the character; that means they shouldn't suddenly know how to do complex surgeries when convenient, when they previously couldn't. Do not act silly in a way that disrupts others RP, this includes stuff like: 'saying rofl,' 'spraypainting this months meme on the floor,' etc. Follow the character standards: General Player Policy and Standards Do not impersonate other player's characters. If you are playing someone else's character( I.E, changeling, genetics, etc.), you are not allowed to ERP as that character without OOC permission. Do not copy and paste real-world people and pre-existing fictional characters. (This does not mean you cannot play 'Deathclaws' or 'Xenomorphs' just that you cannot literally be John-117) Do not commit suicide for little reason. For Ex: Do not kill yourself to escape in-character punishments, do not commit suicide to spite someone for something mildly rude they said, etc. Underaged characters are strictly prohibited. Your character must look like an adult. Short species like goblins, kobolds, and so forth are allowed, however, they must still be an adult. The hard-coded limit for character age is 18 for a reason. Do not attempt to work around this by describing your character as looking “younger than 18” in your flavor text in any form, as it will be treated as a violation of the rules. Equally, do not try to imply they could be anything but above age.
Rule 4: Meet Minimum Roleplaying Standards - No LRP, Be Immersive Nova Sector Main should be treated as a roleplay oriented server. This means, you should aim to be focused on the best possible roleplay you can, even at your lowest point. Anti-roleplay behavior is not tolerated. This means, despite your wants as a player, you shouldn't be acting in a manner which causes other's roleplay to be negatively impacted, for your own amusement. You must be able to function in a roleplaying environment. You must be part of immersion and ideally add to it, not detract. This also means you shouldn't be doing anti-immersion room designs aswell (like, making the floor to be whichever meme is popular at the time). The more power your character has IC, the higher our expectation is for the quality of your roleplay. This goes especially true for Antagonist, Command, and security roles. Like in the case of practical memes or jokes, do not overuse sexually implicit structures, be it strip-poles, or milking machines.
Rule 5: Act in Moderation Act in moderation, i.e. ensure that you do not do anything excessively. As a rule of thumb, if you think you're borderline, you are being excessive. Moderation of Excessive Means. Lethal weaponry should generally be used in a situation that aligns with IC circumstances. This should only come up if the difference in escalation is excessive. (ex: someone tells you to fuck off, so you immediately start stabbing them.) Use proper and convincing escalation. Build up to your actions, don't jump right out the gate shooting! Important: You should moderate how your character behaves and make sure it does not detract from the experience nor is a nuisance towards others. You need to be extra careful, as you need to know when to stop or when to ease things off. LOOC communication is your best friend when it comes to being sure you're not pushing things to far. Here are the three rules you should use to gauge if you're being excessive: Are you affecting the round in any significant way? Are you seriously annoying a person or group of people? Are you doing this crime consistently enough that it becomes repetitive and annoying?
Rule 6: Play the job you have Do your primary job first. Keep to your department, and do not perform other peoples' jobs unless needed too, for the overall story. As an antagonist, your goal is to create conflict but ultimately entertainment and story for the crew. this means you shouldn't be going around starting pointless fights with security, or randomly destroying parts of the station for the sake of it. Don’t do the job of occupied departments (this includes acting/normal Captains). For Reference: This means you should be trying your best to fulfill the role of your job atleast to a bare minimum, like setting up the SM as engineering; this doesn't mean you're required to know how on your first round, but you should try to seek help on how to do it right.
Rule 7: Do not metagame or metagrudge Metagaming is using information gotten out-of-character for in-character purposes. Including (but not limited to) direct message conversations, voice calls, streams, the global out-of-character, and other forms of out-of-game communication. Meta-grudging is the act of targeting a player while IC for OOC reasons. Attacking another player for something that happened in a previous round without mutual consent will be called meta-grudging. Rounds are canon, but escalation isn't, you have to build up too it. Regarding the continuity with antagonists, these rounds will count as canon, with the antag being anonymized, while the victim can pick if they themselves are, unless it violates meta-protections. You may remember what happened to you, but not who in particular did it. They are replaced by a functionally faceless individual. Do not attempt to make an in-character issue out of previous shifts’ antagonism, unless you have the OOC consent of the involved party. Ever.
Rule 8: Do not powergame Powergaming is when you step outside your character's normal abilities just to guarantee you come out on top in every situation. It’s especially a problem when it messes with the roleplaying environment for everyone else. The more you lean into powergaming, the more you should focus on keeping the roleplay at the forefront before and after any fights. At some point, though, it will become staff discretion based on the overall impact. As a general rule, there’s a safe zone for what you can carry: Tools Emergency medical stuff A small number of weapons (like 1-3) Maybe some armor Separately from the above there are additional items that can push you into higher tiers of power just on their presence alone, for ex: TTV's, Teleporters, anything-that-makes-you-mostly-transparent, and martial arts just to name a few, try to use these sparingly!
Rule 9: Do not valid-hunt Valid-hunting is defined as; going out of your way to target a player, based on or else-wise dependent on perceived antag status alone. Justifiable reasons exclude you from this, such as: Valid IC escalation, A valid IC reason to go after them, (self-defense, being a threat to the station at large, otherwise escalated issues (breaking into ones department, etc) Risk of life to someone involved, which can be easily prevented. However, if you go out of your way to place yourself into situations for the sake of jumping in when they escalate; it could equally be considered powergaming, intent matters! If an Antagonist is not currently a station threat, or PMS, do not go out of your way to chase them down without valid IC reason. Forcibly mind-shielding crew, brainwashing crew, or otherwise attempting to root out Antagonists without any confirmation of a related threat is valid-hunting.
Rule 10: No Self-Antagging Self-antagging is the act of acting like an general antagonist, when you are not. Self antagging, generally leads to a worse experience for everyone else involved. If you are not an antag, do not do the following: Roleplay as a terrorist. Murder someone without a justifiable IC reason. Pretend to be an established antagonist (Throwing on a black and red spacesuit and sabotaging solars.) Sabotage important station facilities (flooding Security with plasma, blowing up Engineering, unleashing viruses from Virology). 10.5 Non-Antagonist Criminal Addendum For non-antagonist criminals, please read the below: Crime is allowed, however, self-antagging is not. To be a non-antag criminal ICly, you must be able to read the round and station, and you must be focused on roleplay and creating fun for others. It is not an excuse to be LRP. In conclusion, to be a non-antag criminal, You must be low maintenance for security. You shouldn't be a constant hindrance just for the sake of starting a fight with them. You should try to dial it back if the round heats up; or elsewise, keep the impact minimal. You should try to create RP around your crimes; it shouldn't be self-serving, or entirely self-focused. You actions must be within 4xx crimes in corp regs with a special exception for allowing murder. Grand theft, Grand Sabotage, and Inciting a Riot require an OPFOR.
Rule 11: 'Misc RP' / ERP Respect people's prefs. OOC prefs are absolutes, if it says ask, you should ask, if it says no, it means No. This expands to include people you expose by second hand, that means in no uncertain terms, you shouldn't be proudly talking about how bad you want to dick someone down over the radio, unless you know everyone on that channel has consented. Try to limit other's unintended exposure to sexual objects in relation to their prefs. Don’t be a dick Do not be toxic to others. Be respectful. Do not grief players who are ERPing. Do not grief players about their ERP in IC or OOC channels. Repeat violations of this policy will be categorized as bad faith actions, and bans taken against this can result in no appeal permabans. Keep extreme kink activities out of public view (Noncon, hyper, bloodplay, gore, etc.) Do not call out ERP over any sort of IC or OOC channels. Do not ERP as someone else’s character without their consent. This includes any intimate interactions such as kissing/groping. Don’t make drama out of ERP Do not ERP Bait, or use ERP to bait a player into a situation with the intention to trick them. Calling security on players who are ERPing will be considered making drama. Ahelp instead if they are being disruptive and refuse to cooperate. Do not levy accusations of sexual assault or non-consensual against other players over public channels of any kind (this includes PDA messages as they are viewable by all ghosts). Do not call security for players who are ERPing, this also goes for department radio channels and command channels. If command staff is urgently needed, ask them to do their job. Do not do this in bad faith. Do not interrupt if they do not comply, instead make an admin-help. You must have OOC consent from the erping parties to interrupt ERP in a private area. If they are in a enclosed room, use LOOC Wallpierce. If people are publicly ERPing, you may ask them to stop or go somewhere else in LOOC, if they do not cooperate, ahelp. If you are reading this and applying to the server, please type BANANA EGG, in the chat after you create your ticket to confirm you've read this document. Non Consensual ERP should only ever be exposed to LOOC consenting parties. Non-Con must be kept to subtler. Do not broadcast or draw attention to said actions. Implications of non-consensual ERP against parties without prior consent is not allowed. If the other player repeals their consent or says they would wish to discontinue the RP, disengage immediately.
Rule 12: Situational Rulings These are rulings made to address a specific circumstance, or act, that don't necessarily fit within the rest of the rules, but equally go against the goals of the server. Ruling Description Reason Rolling Antagonist as a 'Unintended roles' Departmental Guards/Security/Command/Prisoner/GhostRoles are expected to notify staff if they have rolled traitor, changeling or heretic as it is not intended for them to do so. They may choose to either respawn as another job or to pass on the antag status. Occasional bug/code hiccups that allows them to roll antags type that they are not intended to. Item requests Item requests unless it was an item that failed to spawn as you joined should be done through prayers and not AHELPs. Due to a constant flood of tickets related to it, players should only ask for items to be spawned if they are an essential part of their kit and did not receive them due to a bug. Any other requests should be done via a pray. OPFOR requests for gear not on the list should be done in the chat. Ghost Cafe Conduct: The ghost cafe is not an arena and should not be used in selfish manners. You shouldn't be griefing it, as it's meant to be a place for private-or-quiet RP. Repeated poor conduct in the cafe Blackout Policy: Upon death you do not remember anything that has lead up to it, the person who killed you or where it happened. You still remember what happened throughout the rest of the round but anything close to your death is faint at best and unreliable. Blackout applies to cyborgs as well, you will not remember the above mentioned if you are killed or your chassis destroyed. To note, being deconstructed while functional does not trigger the blackout and you will still keep the memories. Copypasta of the in-game text Ruling on Prisoners Prisoners(the job, roundstart or latejoin) must OPFOR to be a significant nuisance or escape. Too many Prisoners escaping or causing chaos without an OPFOR. Protection for Suicide, Mental Health, and Trauma RP Players have no obligation to participate in Suicide, Mental Health, or Self-Harm roleplay regardless of role. Not all players are comfortable engaging with these topics on a OOC level.

Nova Sector policies

Server Rules • Nova Roleplay Expectations • Antagonist Policy • Silicon policy • Ghost Role policy • Corporate Regulations • Security Policy

---

Return to policies page