Rules

These are the rules for the server. For further clarification, also see the guide to Not Getting Banned. If you did get banned, there's probably a good reason for it, but if you disagree, you can always appeal your ban. (placeholder link)

You must be 18 or older to play.

No exceptions. Even normal Space Station 13, you're supposed to be at least 18 to play many servers. No one else really enforces that, but we do.

Be respectful of everyone.

Keep any BS out of the main skype chatroom for V.O.R.E. and keep it out of global OOC. If you're pissed off, don't ruin everyone else's time by whining about it. (Whining is the act of complaining without offering any solution.) Be mature about it, keep it among the people who are directly involved, and get it solved. Or, don't, because it's not worth being upset over. Otherwise, worst case scenario, ask an admin for help. This community thrives on the good behavior of its members. People who are generally assholes or confrontational will eventually get removed. I'm not saying you can't criticize, but there's a difference between saying "I disagree, and here's why..." and "You're an idiot, and here's why..."

Basic common sense stuff that shouldn't need to be written. Don't be an asshole.

Don't grief. Don't randomly kill people for no good reason (vore is a notable exception if you can ICly get away with it). Don't force people to RP in vore or sexual scenes they aren't OOCly okay with. Don't vore or attack someone without RP unless both parties agree to battle (or at least imply it, like a suspect running from security or resisting arrest). Don't metagame (using OOCly obtained knowledge ICly, or telling in OOC things that happened IC during that shift). Don't try to make shitty magical powergaming characters with all the skills in space who also happen to be a psychopath who belongs in a mental asylum. That sorta thing. Basic "don't make shitty characters" stuff and don't be an asshole. There's probably more, but that's all I can think of for now. If you don't already know what bad behavior looks like, you'll get a fair warning, but make a note to remember for the future. The guide to Not Getting Banned expands on a lot of these.

Stay in your own department.

It's viewed as powergaming if you're doing extra jobs that you weren't asked to do. You can be arrested ICly for suspicious conduct or downright breaking an entry. This applies to assistants especially. If you knew how to do surgery or start the supermatter or build robots, you wouldn't be an assistant. This includes breaking into places out of boredom. If you don't have access to an area, it's obviously not something you're supposed to be in. In particular, don't go rushing to do someone else's job if the department in question has active staff - it's not fair to them if you deprive them of the job they signed up to do, even if you do have access. (an example of this would be the captain barging into medical with a patient, even when there's a medical doctor right there at the front desk)

If you can't do the time, don't do the crime, and definitely don't whine in OOC.

In-character actions have in-character consequences, and going out of your way to get a reaction from other crew or security means you will get a reaction out of them. Naturally, vore-related crimes are excluded from this rule - you should be granted OOC leniency if you get brigged for a vore crime (for instance, OOCly timeskipping and pretending the predator served a full sentence ICly - if the pred isn't okay with it, we certainly don't want to see executions being handed out for, say, a single meal) For non-vore crimes, if you think you have been excessively or unfairly punished, use adminhelp, or preferably, play it off ICly and contact a lawyer, the Captain, or CentCom.

Try not to interrupt private scenes.

If unwilling vore or other illegal things are happening in public, security is completely allowed to arrest them. If you come across it in a private location, such as in maintenance or a dorm, please first LOOC with the participants to see if they'd be okay with you calling security or trying to intervene ICly, and respect their wishes. If you want to do unwilling vore, please try to keep it secret to prevent issues from arising. If you're prey, ensure OOCly that calling for security won't be a moodkiller before you get into such a scene. This is elaborated upon in the Guide to Vore.

Don't vore, rob, hurt, or otherwise inconvenience AFK/Disconnected players without consent from the player.

If they logged out and are in the way of stuff, move them somewhere safe like the crew bedrooms. A notable exceptions to this rule is if strong evidence is found against the AFK player for a severe crime. Security can still put them in the brig though even if they are AFK. Serious emergencies in-game may also bypass this rule. Adminhelp if you aren't sure. Some players like to put notes in their flavortext to indicate that they're okay with waking up to find themselves in a belly.

Experience is required for any head positions, or the AI.

If you demonstrate you do not have this experience, you will be job banned from the position until you gain that experience. Even if you have experience in other SS13 servers, you probably shouldn't be a Head on day one, since we run things a little differently here. The captain job in particular is one that it's best to ask the admins before playing for the first time, just to make sure you know the ropes.

Don't OOCly avoid RP.

Although you can OOCly speak up if an RP makes you uncomfortable, don't abuse this privilege (eg: disconnecting or going 'ghost' at the first sign of any trouble, or when the reaction you get when you provoke someone isn't what you wanted). The privilege to say "NO" is only meant to prevent forcing you to participate in vore or sexual scenes you don't like. (If you fail to speak up until after the scene is done, complaints of this nature are invalid to administrators. You need to speak up during the incident. You can't decide after the scene is over and go "That RP made me feel dirty, I'm gonna complain to an admin now" No.) If you aren't into vore at all, this server is not the place for you. For everything else, try your best to power through the bad times because you can use those bad times for good character development.

Flavor text is obligatory.

When in the character setup menu, click flavor text about your character. At least include whatever you dislike and will never play. We assume everyone in V.O.R.E. has generally open preferences but respect any particular dislikes someone might have. It is strongly advised that you write your character records for employment, security, and medical, but this is not required.

Admins are at will to interpret rules and policy at will and make actions based on their judgement, even if it's not explicitly in the rules.

Admins are also at liberty to judge what is an "overpowered" character, violating rule 1. Just because something isn't written down doesn't mean "it's allowed" or "it's okay" if it ends up disrupting RP for other people on the station. As a general rule, don't cause disruptions that make things not fun for other people. If you don't like an admin's orders, comply for the time being and contact another admin as soon as possible for a second opinion.

If you feel like admins are breaking any of the rules above, or abusing powers to protect themselves/their pals, they aren't above the law.

Tell another admin in private if you don't feel comfortable telling the offending admin directly. For example, if it's Ace you have a problem with, and you're not comfortable speaking to him directly about what you're upset about, you can contact another administrator like Joan or Ultimated or whoever else to get your point across... Although if three or more admins have the same consensus, you're not going to win. So cut your losses if it gets to that point and accept that you probably screwed up.

Suicidal/psycho/self-loathing characters will get you banned!

If vore isn't involved, and you're just making suicidal/psycho/depressive characters for the sake of starting shit, you're getting banned. Pure and simple. There are some cases of RP when this rule is overlooked, because sometimes it's well done and interesting, but usually it just upsets players and pisses off the admins. Essentially, if you're pissing off other players, the phrase "It's what my character would do!" isn't a viable excuse.

Legible English is required.

If your English while out-of-character is so bad that we can't even understand what you are typing, it's pretty much an automatic ban. Sorry, but if you can't write, you can't read, and if you can't read, you can't read the rules.