Server Rules

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Nova Sector Rules

Nova Sector Policy
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Nova Sector Rules

You must be 18 or older to play here.

Nova Sector is a US based Community. We follow US laws.

By playing on Nova Sector, you consent to incidental or passing exposure to Sexual Content.

On Good Faith and Bad Faith

The distinction between "good faith" and "bad faith" behavior revolves around a Player's intent to engage with our Community’s rules and roleplay in a way that is fun and fair for everyone, as opposed to intentionally trying to ruin the experience or Narratives of others (commonly known as Grief/Griefing). Playing in good faith means your actions are driven by a genuine attempt to participate in the Shift’s Story and your Character's role within it, even if those actions cause conflict. In contrast, Bad faith (often synonymous with griefing or ‘shitter’ behavior) covers actions that have no benefit to the perpetrator or victims other than upsetting others, disrupting the Shift or a scene or a Story for poor in-character reasons.

Good faith behavior in gaming involves playing within the spirit of the Rules with the shared goal of an enjoyable experience for everyone, while bad faith behavior is intellectual dishonesty aimed at personal gain, disrupting the server and its environment, or "winning" at the expense of others' enjoyment.

A Security Officer brigging a crew member for a legitimate, properly escalated crime is good faith roleplay, even if it inconveniences the other player. An Officer that fabricates evidence, applies corporate regulations to their maximum allowance, throws the victim in Perma, and then ignores them, is behaving in bad faith. Staff will attempt to investigate the player's motivation to determine whether a rule was broken in good or bad faith.

Core Rules

CR 1: The Social Contract

Conduct yourself with the maturity expected of an 18+ server. Take the environment seriously. Follow Staff instructions and rulings. Seek permission, not forgiveness. Self-report to Staff if you feel you made a mistake. You are responsible for knowing the rules. Ignorance is not an excuse.

  • Do not lie, omit context, or misrepresent facts in official channels. Provide all relevant information immediately. Report rule-breaks as they occur. While you may finish an active scene or moment before providing full details, you must not use this delay to escalate or seek retribution. Once a ticket is pending, all conflict with the accused parties must cease immediately. If you disagree with a ruling, remain civil and make a Staff Report ticket on Discord.
  • Narrative Blackout: Shifts are loosely canon. You may remember interactions and events, but should you not recall any specific names or faces tied to antagonistic actions or roles. This can only be waived per shift by the accused.
  • Keep personal struggles out of roleplay. We recognize that life can be difficult and we genuinely care about our players' wellbeing, but your characters should not be a vehicle for real-life distress. We take this seriously not to punish people who are struggling, but to make sure the game doesn't become a substitute for real support, putting unfair emotional weight on other players. If you're going through something hard, please reach out to a trusted person or support resource.
  • If you wish to explore your characters mental health as a subject for roleplay such as through psychology, mental breakdowns, or ongoing story arcs, it must be done with immersion in mind and escalated in a realistic way. Mental health topics should be used to elevate roleplay for all players, not used to excuse characters' bad behavior. Treat your character's mental health journey seriously to the best of your ability.
  • Do not refer to real world modern politics, wars, or any political figures in any capacity.

CR 2: The Vibe Check

Carry yourself in good faith. Play and behave altruistically for the benefit of everyone. You don't have to respect the character, but you must respect the writer and the larger game environment.

  • The Interlink and Ghost Café are Peace / Safe Zones. Conflict should not be instigated or brought there. It is not a dangerous mechanical testing area. Respect the space.
  • Combat must end at the round-end Title Card. The Shuttle is a Safe Zone; Security and Command may use force only to maintain peace, not to instigate. Blowing up the station or Interlink at round-end can result in a permanent ban.
  • Characters not reacting to their environment are considered to have Space Sleeping Disorder. Do not touch or interfere with SSD players except to move them from immediate danger. Report SSD Command and Security to Staff, you may move other crew to cryogenics after 30 minutes, by yourself if you wish.
  • Unwelcome harassment, targeted rumor-spreading, and fear-mongering is strictly prohibited.
  • Avoid "Anti-Roleplay" (ARP) behaviors. Do not cryogenics or disconnect to evade IC consequences. Do not destroy or hide items essential to an ongoing narrative for your own benefit; this includes excessive measures to cover your tracks. Once your antagonist action begins, you may not leave the station Z-level without Staff approval.
  • Real-world slurs and hate speech are prohibited. While "In-Universe" derogatory terms (e.g. against specific fictional species) are permitted for flavor, they must never cross into real world bigotry. The person on the receiving end determines if the verbiage is acceptable. If asked to stop, stop.
  • Outright telling someone to kill themselves, in any IC or OOC channel, results in an immediate ban. This is the difference between 'walk yourself out an airlock' and 'kill yourself'.

CR 3: Setting Immersion and Safety

Play an immersive adult Original Character with personality and knowledge that respects our Lore, Narrative Setting, and your current Role. Set limitations for what your Character knows and can accomplish. Be prepared to justify your Character’s actions and knowledge. No one is perfect and all knowing, and your Character shouldn't be either.

  • Keep primarily to English and only in the Latin alphabet. You may use transliterated or loan words from other languages as additive spice and character gimmick. If confronted or misunderstood, clarify yourself ICly. Do not circumvent our rules with this allowance.
  • No netspeak (lol, kek, chudling, 67, etc.) in IC speech, though it is permitted by PDA.
    • Bitrunners and TTS Device users are excluded from this, assuming they remain high effort about it. ‘1337sp33k’ is always prohibited.
  • Intentional suicide is prohibited. Discussion of suicide or self-harm must be kept strictly to SUBTLER and requires LOOC consent from those involved.
    • Antagonists with the Die a Glorious Death objective are exempt from this
  • No "Meme" or "Joke" characters in IC spaces outside of Staff-sanctioned events.
    • You cannot play or recreate a character which resembles real life people, even for fun, except yourself.
  • Play the job that you have. We have limited tolerance for characters that departmentally job-hop across shifts. Be prepared to explain to the Crew and Staff why your Chief Engineer understands advanced surgery and organic chemistry enough to be a Chief Medical Officer too.
  • Respawning as the same character, as the same job or as an assistant, is permitted if you left the round by cryo and would like to rejoin. Do not rejoin as the same or as a similar or related character if you died.
  • You may not copy characters from pre-existing media. Adapted concepts are okay.

Department Policies

Below you can find specific department policies. These policies apply to anyone in said department, or if they are acting as a member of the department. Any additional standards laid out by a head of staff/command is primarily an IC issue unless otherwise breaking server rules.

Department Policy
Central Command Crew These rules apply to the Central Command members stationed with the crew (Blueshield and NTC).
  1. Central Command Members should be in very good standing with NT.
  2. While the NTC is in charge of crew resources. They do not have absolute authority over the station.
  3. The NTC has ultimate say if corporate regulations are properly being enforced.
Command The Captain can lay out additional IC standards for command, within reason.
  1. Command should be in good or better standing with NT. They do not need to be perfect, but they should be someone reasonably qualified and hirable. Quartermasters should be in good standing with the FTU.
  2. You should be competent with your department and aware of its relevant policies.
  3. Command equipment and clothing is to only be given as necessitated e.g. a dire emergency.
  4. Access should not be given out for frivolous reasons.
  5. Do not change your job title outside of the titles provided in the job menu.
  6. Command characters should have filled out general, medical, and security records. See here for examples.
  7. For information regarding the "Acting Captain" position, check the Captain job page.
Security The Head of Security can lay out additional IC standards for security, within reason.
  1. You are expected to function as a counter to criminals, antagonists, and all kinds of ne'er do wells.
  2. You are expected to follow Corporate Regulations when feasible, though alternative punishments can be applied within reason.
  3. Hardcore torture, MMI, or borging require explicit OOC consent.
  4. The head of your department is the “Head of Security”. If the captain demotes them, you are to remember that you work for the department, not the Head of Security.
  5. You can roleplay as a corrupt security member, however, do not use it to shut down roleplay or create a toxic environment.
  6. You are not to ignore antagonistic behavior that is a threat to the station.
  7. Understand Permanent Mechanical State and the Combat Indicator.
  8. You should not leave the station unless the threat is out in space or lavaland.
  9. Regarding Contraband: Barring picking it up mid-fight, security shouldn't be using contraband, unless the alert level is DELTA.
Medical The CMO can lay out additional IC standards for medical, within reason.
  1. Revival should only take place outside of medical under emergency conditions where transport to medical or a medical site is infeasible. Revivals should take place in sites designated by the CMO or Station Blueprints.
  2. Except with admin permission, only beneficial viruses may be produced and intentionally released. Viruses should be clearly-labeled (ex. with symptoms, cures, and slime-safeness). Airborne/touch-spread viruses may only be released with the Chief Medical Officer, Captain, or Acting Captain approval. The virus must not cause harm to specific races or groups if self-spreading.
Engineering The CE can lay out additional IC standards for Engineering, within reason.
  1. Experimentation is welcome, but you are responsible for if it goes wrong.
Cargo The Quartermaster can lay out additional IC standards for cargo, within reason.
  1. Orders, legal or illegal are an IC issue, unless breaking another rule. (see: cargo setting up their own SM.)
  2. The Cargo/Supply department are not formal employees of NT, they are temporary-contractors from the FTU, filling in for the Cargo Department.
  3. As cargo, you shouldn't be refusing orders without a justifying IC reason.
  4. Cargo is still under Corporate Regulations while on NT Property.
Nova Sector policies
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