Ever witness crimes against spesspeople, occurring right before your eyes, only to see the perpetrator scot-free the next round, and think to yourself, damn, how could I get away with that? I want to GRIEF like that and not get banned!
This is not the guide for you. I dunno read Crime and Punishment or sumthin
This guide is for players new to Space Station 13, new to Fulpstation, or even more experienced players who find themselves getting lots of notes and occasional bans that it appears other members of the community avoid. This guide will not help you ban evade, please Joyce I’m innocent I swear.
STEP ONE: READ THE FUCKING RULES
Ok but seriously, it will take you 30 minutes to an hour to thoroughly read the rules, and save you a massive headache later on. Right here ya goon: ===> Server Rules | Fulpstation Wiki
STEP TWO: ASK QUESTIONS FIRST
Honestly, reading the rules properly should answer over 95% of your questions and problems. But 5% of like a thousand fucking hours is still a lot of questionable content, so let’s discuss.
If, after reading the rules, it is not clear to you if an action is acceptable or not, ASK! Admins/mods, are generally very amicable about this sort of thing. If what you are asking is in blatant violation of the rules, they might get annoyed, like me, because you DIDN’T FOLLOW STEP ONE YOU DEGENERATE. But otherwise they are quite chill about it. Often simply asking makes them more open to rule bending, because you are making it clear that you care about the enjoyment and safety etc. of other players. On that note:
STEP THREE: ARE YOU BEING AN ASSHOLE
A good rule of thumb, both in Space Station 13 and in life, is to ask yourself, “Am I being an asshole?”. If the answer is yes, stop what you are doing. Also, don’t worry, it doesn’t mean you are a terrible person; a terrible person would never think to ask that question. A terrible person wouldn’t follow step one. But I digress. As much as Reddit Why is fulp getting shit on reddit? likes to believe Fulp admins get sick, sadistic enjoyment from banning innocent players simply trying to have fun, the rules exist and admins ban to remove toxic players and griefers from the server. The rules are a framework that allows to do this in as fair and objective manner as possible. Are bans always completely objective? Of course not. And they shouldn’t be. Otherwise, anyone could get away with anything not EXPLICITLY stated in the rules. In fact, that’s a core problem with most modern legal systems, but that’s a discussion for another time. At the end of the day, ask yourself: even if I am technically allowed to do this, how will this impact the experience of other players? Is there a way I can do it that provides a net positive experience to the playerbase? Also, now that we’re on the topic of admins…
STEP FOUR: DON’T SHIT TALK THE ADMINS
This one is not a joke, nor is it a remark about the egos or demeanor of the admins. It’s simply good practice. The admins are in charge of your ban appeals, your notes, and while you are a spessperson on the station, you. They have absolute power over you. Do you think publicly insulting them will help you in any way? Let me be clear: I think there is a time and a place to offer valid, well intentioned criticism or feedback to staff. Here Staff Report is the staff report form. But when it comes to your own ban appeal, don’t be likes these dudes. Horatio is a biiiiiitch Perma banned for having a new account by incompetent mod Sliggist Let’s talk about a certain admin
A note here: despite having quite a few notes and a couple bans on my record, I think the admins do a good job on Fulp. I read a fuck ton of ban appeals, as they admins are forced to, and it quickly becomes pretty easy to tell the difference between a shitter and a person who made a mistake. There are a few exceptions, and admins, like ourselves, are humans who make mistakes, but by and large they do a great job of weeding out people who just make shit worse for everyone. 7 Tips for writing a good ban appeal
STEP FIVE: PROFIT
old meme I know shut up dad
SPECIFICS
Okay The 5 Golden Rules should cover most of your stuff, but reality is, a general set of rules is harder to follow in a moment of stress or anger than specific examples of how to be a Good Boy. So allow me to formally present the
~GOOD BOY LIST OF NO-NOs and best practices~
Please note that this is gonna be fukkin long
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STEALING: It doesn’t matter if it’s the captain’s lazgun or a random pair of gloves, nobody likes being stolen from. Sometimes it’s because they have a stick up their ass, but often hate for thieves is justified by a long history of dirty powergamers grabbing whatever they think they need to “win” a spess roleplaying game from wherever it is available, legal or not. It’s human nature to make blanket judgments based on single actions. Don’t take that action. If you need something, ask. Most people will give it to you, unless you shouldn’t have it. Just like with HoP and access, giving a reason you need that thing will generally improve your chances. Most people aren’t dicks for the sake of it, but because they perceive themselves to be upholding some good thing, like not giving assistants tools they could use to break things. Also, if you ever do steal something, and someone assaults you to get it back, that assault is almost always going to be regarded as IC, and additionally, ignored by Sec because you are a dirty thief.
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COMBAT: This is a big one. The rules on escalation are pretty clear, but there is a lot of nuance that simply can’t be addressed by rules, but rather ban precedent (this is something admins do in fact use for tricky decisions). I’m too lazy to find you dozens of ban appeals where this is relevant, so just trust me. Or fact check me and post the results, that’s cool too. Anyway, since this is such a big topic, I’m going to divide it into sections.
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APPARENT RDM: If you are attacked for no reason, feel free to defend yourself. Even if you die after attempting to defend yourself, feel free to ahelp, because RDM is a big no-no. That said, there is very little RDM on Fulp, so your ticket will probably be marked as an IC issue, meaning the person who killed you was allowed to. If this is the case, don’t argue, and don’t ask why, because that’s metagaming. It can be frustrating, but sometimes you really are the target of the traitor, and that’s that. If that’s not the case, it will be a pretty cut and dry case for admins to figure out, meaning you will probably be admin revived and can continue with your round. This is the easy one.
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IN CHARACTER, BUT NOT ROLE-BASED CONFLICT: This is a tough one. Let’s say you are the bartender, and your fellow bartender keeps being a dick and messing with your stuff. It’s annoying and you’ve asked them to stop, but they keep doing it. You can’t really report it to security, because it’s not illegal, and it’s not something you can ahelp over, because it’s not against server rules (though it’s against step three, so feel free to pm me personally). You end up getting into a minor scuffle that involves shoving. This is OK, and IC, and probably not going to get either of you arrested, unless it’s causing you to neglect making someone’s quadsec. Now let’s say the other bartender actually uses harmful force: tabling you, striking you, throwing something, or using a weapon. Had this character had a legitimate IC reason to do so, responding in kind would be appropriate. But they really don’t. Since assault is over-escalation for not getting along with someone, you should not reciprocate. Now, if throughout the entire round, this person had been the sole instigator, and you played the saint, you can defend yourself IC. But let’s be real, that probably didn’t happen. They might’ve been a dick first, for no reason, to you, but at some point you probably started responding in kind, cuz fuck them. That’s OK, as long as play within rules. But the moment rule breaking starts happening, you cannot join in. Run away. Attempt to get security to help first, as resolving issues IC is always desirable. It’s a roleplaying game after all, and you don’t want to cry to admins every time someone makes you upset. If security fails to intervene successfully, and no other IC method of resolution presents itself, now is the time to ahelp.If they punch you once and leave you alone, don’t ahelp. If they throw one bottle of beer at you, don’t ahelp. If they appear to being trying to crit or kill you, go for it. If they insult you with general language, tough luck. If they say racial slurs, report their ass. Like I mentioned earlier, rules are a framework. A single punch can also be viewed as an IC extension of the hostility, without creating unnecessary disruption to the round. Don’t waste admins’ time; they will take you less seriously. At no point during a RULE breaking (not necessarily law-breaking) conflict should you engage. If you are being attacked unjustly, and you refuse to fight back, you are a clear victim in the logs. If you defend yourself, particularly if you do so successfully, it becomes harder for admins to determine the instigator. There are many individuals who will combat-bait by annoying other players until that player makes a single violent action against them, and then uses that as an excuse to beat the shit out of them. Don’t be that person, duh, but also make it clear that you COULDN’T be that person because you refuse to fight. But Wait, There’s More! What’s that you say? Chickenjock, you’re detailing step-by-step how to ban-bait? Wait Slig wait WAIT NO-
Jokes aside, yes, what I just described could in fact be ban-baiting. Don’t fucking do that. There will be situations where this (the situation, not ban-baiting) happens naturally, cuz someone is a dick. In these cases you want to follow the rules. You also want to encourage the other player to follow the rules with IC means. That means what I mentioned about sec, running away, calling for help, etc. Get players, as characters, involved before admins. Ultimately, logs are a fucking thing, and if it looks like you pissed someone off on purpose to provoke them into breaking server rules, that’s your fault, cuz you’re breaking STEP THREE. As you can see, there is a lot of nuance here. -
MINOR RULE/LAWBREAKING, EXTREME RESPONSE: This is another tough one. Sometimes, you fuck up. Sometimes, you break laws when you don’t have a good enough IC reason, or break server rules. Let’s go back to and old classic: stealing. Let’s say you’re a clown, and you want to prank some dudes with milk. You know that milk is in the kitchen, so you go ask the chef for milk, but he’s a prick and wants to make cake or something dumb like that. So naturally, you wait till he’s in the back room, and then slide on top of that table. Just as you are grabbing that sweet bone juice from the fridge, the chef comes back, spots you immediately, and without comment begins to fuck your shit in. I mean, he’s got QCQ in there. After hes had his fun with you, he chucks you back out into the mess hall unceremoniously and begins making a cake. You are close to crit, but not quite there. In this situation, your ONLY RECOURSE IS TO WALK AWAY. This sort of stuff happens all the time, and whether it’s IC or OOC, the chef is not going to be held responsible for teaching you your place non-lethally. This is partly due to IC laws and partly due to the OOC assumption that you are a shitter for doing anything illegal as a non-antag. Ok, change up the scenario a bit. The Chef crits you, then takes you to medbay. Pretty much same as last time. It’s easy enough for him to justify accidentally critting, and you didn’t even die, so its a quick fix for the doctors. New scenario: the chef kills you, then leaves your body lying on the floor outside the kitchen. You will (probably) get taken to medbay, and (probably) healed up pretty quickly, but killing you was definitely over-escalation, and a little harder to justify. If the chef calls medbay about you, it’s close enough to the last scenario, but if you are left with no effort on their part to notify someone who can bring you back into the round, you have justification to ahelp this. New scenario: the chef kills you and gibs you. That’s round removal folks, and not very cash-money. ahelp that shit. New scenario: the chef kills you and beats your corpse to pulp, before then bringing you to medical. This will cause your revival to take a lot longer than it needs to, and is a dick move. ahelp that too, since you’re dead and you cant call sec. New scenario: The chef crits you and brings you to medical like originally. Later in the round, you shove him, an he beats the shit out of you again and brings you to medical. Again, following the rules exactly, the chef is over-escalating here, but in general this will be interpreted as you being a shitter and the issue will be marked IC. The lesson here is don’t antagonize people you have already had conflict with, particularly if you initiated (attempting to steal the milk counts). If instead, you ignore him and he beats the shit out of you, call sec, and if that fails, ahelp. See how these tiny differences make a big difference? Crazy stuff man.
OKAY, Ive been writing this since like 4pm, and I’m taking a break for a while, but I have a lot more useful examples to put down. I am writing this guide because I think that there are few misinformed people mixed in with a lot of genuine shitters, and this will make it easier for them to distinguish themselves. This guide ultimately won’t help you if you are a shitter, because you aren’t following step three, and probably not even step two or one, you ingrate.