Starship Roleplay - Rules

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Starship Roleplay Rules

The community rules and guidelines for Starship Roleplay. Violation of these actions will result in administrative action being taken unless explicitly stated otherwise.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
0. Foreword
I. Terminology
II. Core Rules
III. Staff Provisions
IV. Mechanic Rules
V. Roleplay Rules
VI. Staff Rulings
Escalation Procedure

0. Foreword

The rules are primarily to finally convey, on paper, the rules and regulations that staff are, and have been, enforcing for the duration of SSRP’s existence. We have been feeding off of vague, indiscriminate rules for quite some time and it’s about the right moment to make them documented for all to see.

These rules are not meant to be restrictive; Section IV (Roleplay Rules) explicitly states that breaking this section of rules does not warrant moderation immediately.

When referring to these rules in-game, use the numeral of the section first followed by the rule, e.g. Section III, Rule 2: “Rule 3-2”.

Users banned from the game will NOT be refunded any of their purchases. Saying you paid for certain passes does not give you a free pass to break the rules.

I. Terminology

  • SSRP: Starship Roleplay.
  • Staff: People responsible for the administration and development of the game.
  • Mod/Moderator: A member of staff responsible for rule enforcement and quality control.
  • Admin/Administrator: A member of staff responsible for both management and moderation. Can be used interchangeably with a ‘moderator’ within certain contexts.
  • Dev/Developer: A member of staff responsible for creating and maintaining the game.
  • In-game: Actions performed or users currently playing the game.
  • Block: The act of blocking a user from your point of view. Blocked users cannot interact with you in any way, and if enough users block a singular person, they are kicked from the game.
  • Spam: Repeated usage of a single item or phrase. ‘Spamming chat’ refers to someone repeatedly sending a message within a short timespan.
  • Account: A ROBLOX account. Not to be confused with ‘user’.
  • User: A human who plays the game using an account.
  • Alt/Alternate Account: An account created as an alternative means of accessing or playing a game, different from the user’s main account.
  • Bot: An account created or used by a computer and not a user.
  • Role: A role in-game such as Captain, Security, or Crewman.
  • Limited role: A role whose available slots are limited to less than 5.
    • Officer: A purchasable one/two-slot role generally used for high-ranking characters.
  • Roleplay: The act of playing as a character different from yourself.
  • Character: A fictional person or entity created in roleplay by a user.
  • IC/In-Character: Speech or actions performed while playing as a character in roleplay.
  • OOC/Out-of-Character: Speech or actions performed out-of-character, as the user themselves.

II. Core Rules

  1. Obey the ROBLOX Terms of Use and Community Rules.

Do not perform acts that violate the ToU and Community Rules such as exploiting, scamming, other or other illegal behavior. Violations of these rules will result in a permanent ban.
The Roblox Terms of Use can be found HERE.
Roblox Community Rules can be found HERE.

  1. The harassment of another player for any reason is prohibited.
  • Do not attempt to block-rally, demean or otherwise instigate behavior against a person.
  • Block rallying is defined as campaigning or instigating other players to block a singular person, often with the intent of kicking them from the server.
  • Do not instigate or provoke long, heated arguments about roleplay issues, especially if they begin to disrupt the roleplay or the server as a whole.
  • If you have a serious disagreement with another player, you are both encouraged to use the in-game block function to block one another and move on.
    Block rallying is defined as campaigning or instigating other players to block a singular person, often with the intent of kicking them from the server.
  1. The usage of alternate accounts or bots in simultaneous usage in-game is prohibited.

Do not use alternate accounts or bots, especially if used for the purposes of blocking someone, occupying limited roles/officers, or if used to physically clog up space or play as multiple people.

  1. Do not instigate long arguments and attempt de-escalation whenever possible.

Avoid getting into long, heated arguments about roleplay issues especially if they begin to disrupt the roleplay or the server.

III. Staff Provisions

  1. All rules are subject to change.
    Staff may add or change any of these rules at any given time upon their discretion.

  2. Staff members have the final say in moderation.

Moderators are allowed to enforce any content or user that they personally deem rulebreaking or obtrusive to the server, and their decision is final unless appealed or stated otherwise.

  1. Rule enforcement is up to staff discretion.

Staff members retain the authority to ignore the enforcement of specific rules at their discretion, however, they are held fully accountable for any consequences that may result from their actions.

  1. Do not impersonate staff or staff roles. Do not claim to have personal ties to a staff member if you do not have evidence to prove it.

Do not attempt to pretend to be a member of staff, or pretend to be a role that only staff can normally occupy (such as Admiral).

  1. Call moderators for good reasons only.

In-game issues that can be resolved between two people such as arguments should not have a moderator required to come on to solve them. You as a player are expected to resolve arguments unless it gets extremely heated or begins to break rules.

  1. Do not ask to or attempt to apply to become a staff member using informal channels.

If staff applications or hiring is not explicitly open (such as a link being posted to a hiring form), do not attempt to self-advertise yourself or ask to apply to become staff through DMing a staff member or through other informal channels.

IV. Gameplay Mechanic Rules

  1. Do not abuse noise-making props.
  • Noise-making props include firearms and the PDA and radio. The noise produced using these props should be restricted to certain appropriate scenarios and should not be used or spammed unnecessarily.
  • This means no randomly shooting, but also no spamming the usage of the PDA’s or radio’s noise functionality. Also applies to the repeated opening and closing of doors or button presses.
  1. Use the intercom for important in-character speech only. Do not argue over the intercom.
  • The intercom is defined as the method of announcing important messages to the crew via a text box at the top of the screen.
  • Avoid using the intercom for out-of-character speech or actions. Out-of-character actions include casual speech or discussion or using the intercom for arguments.
  • Keep arguments to chat channels only.
  1. Do not occupy roles if you are not doing any notable work in them (unnecessary occupation).

This is colloquially known as ‘role-hogging’. If you are occupying a limited role such as an officer role without actively roleplaying or contributing to the roleplay as said role, you are considered unnecessarily occupying it.

V. Roleplay Guidelines

Roleplay guidelines should not be strictly enforced; however, these practices are frowned upon by the staff. Action should only be taken if a user begins to disrupt the server or breaks other mentioned rules.

Staff are allowed to take punitive action on Roleplay Guideline violations if such violations are done in spite, are highly disruptive to RP, or otherwise are repeated even after told to cease by staff.

  1. Any user can block another user for any reason.

Blocking is Starship Roleplay’s form of self-moderation – if you do not like someone’s behavior, block them. If you have an issue with being blocked, contact that person externally or via a second person. You cannot report someone for blocking you for illegitimate or false reasons (false blocking), and staff will take no action for such.

  1. Do not powerplay, godmod, or otherwise elevate your character’s health or abilities to unnatural lengths.

This is defined as using ludicrous statistics or items, such as impenetrable armor, to your character’s advantage to give them an unparalleled edge, usually in combat. Saying your character can instantly take down an opponent is powerplay, and saying your character is invincible is godmodding.

  1. PTK is encouraged, but not enforced.
  • Permissions relating to the maiming, injury, or death of a character, such as PTK, are not universally enforced by staff, but are encouraged.
  • Characters displaying clear hostile intentions who have actively instigated combat, such as antagonists and hostile characters, do not have PTK/PTI/PTC provisions apply to them.
  1. Give other users a chance to react to your actions.
  • Speedtyping is discouraged.
  • Speed typing is defined as typing out actions in rapid succession in order to give your character an unfair advantage over your opponent, such as performing several quick moves in succession before your character has a chance to react.
  1. Do not disrupt roleplay while out-of-character.

While you are out-of-character, do not disrupt roleplay nor instigate in-character actions through out-of-character means.

  1. Use appropriate rankings for roles.

A character cannot play as roles they do not occupy, for example, a crewman or security officer cannot play as the Captain.

  1. All external information and lore is completely optional to follow.

You are not required to follow all lore and/or guidelines available, and you are allowed and given the right to disregard it and create your own lore. The information found on the wiki and in the lore tab in-game both serve to provide a ‘baseline’ for the universe that the game is set in. It is not intended to railroad nor restrict your roleplay.

  1. No characters from preexisting works of fiction. No real-world people.

Characters should be original. Copying a character or group of characters from an existing work of fiction is not allowed. Historical or current figures such as the President or other figures are not allowed either.

VI. Staff Rulings

1. Prohibited characters/roleplays:
This list will expand based on staff rulings on what has been explicitly prohibited by the moderation staff or by management. Any role/character on this list explicitly can no longer be played/portrayed and violations WILL be subject to moderation action.

  • A. SEAs/CMCs, if you are not explicitly whitelisted AND in the role
  • B. Admirals (exception is staff). GENERALS ARE CATEGORIZED AS ADMIRALS IN RULINGS.

2. Marine Prohibition:

With the removal of Marine roles, Marines are STRICTLY PROHIBITED from being roleplayed as.

3. Maximum Ranks for Personnel:

Officers other than the First Officer or Captain are NOT allowed to outrank the captain via paygrade; the FO and Captain must remain the highest-ranking authorities onboard the ship (except with visiting legitimate Admirals). The maximum paygrade below the First Officer is O-4 (Lieutenant Commander). Paygrades above O-6 (Captain/Colonel) are prohibited and Marine ranks above O-4 (Major) are also prohibited. Enlisted personnel also cannot occupy E-8C (Command Senior Chief) or E-9C (Command Master Chief) UNLESS they are a whitelisted Senior Enlisted Advisor .

Escalation Procedure

Users who violate rules above will be subject to Moderation action at staff discretion, following the order of escalation (effective from 9/2021 onwards):

  • Roleplay violations (ex. Section 5): Verbal or informal notice or warning / no action. This will not be logged unless poor behavior continues or other rules are broken.

  • Minor violations (ex. 6.1, Section 3 (excluding 3.4) and Section 4): Verbal warning and/or admin PM. If behavior continues, may escalate.

  • Moderate violations (ex. Repeated violations of minor offenses & Section 1 (excluding TOS violations)): Kick or serverban. A serverban is a ban that prevents you from joining the server and lasts until it shuts down.

  • Major violations (ex. 3.4, TOS violations (exploiting, etc), escalation of moderate): Permanent ban. Violations of these rules may result in bans without any prior warning.
    Staff reserve the ability to choose to bypass the escalation procedure in exceptional circumstances.

Staff members may escalate to a permanent ban if the user continues to violate rules, attacks the staff team, or demonstrates poor behavior. All permanent bans last for 30 days minimum and are PERMANENT until APPEALED at the appeals server.

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