Rules Revamp

**Divey**

Greetings Fearless,

I am pleased to announce that we have updated the server rules.

This was a team effort that has spanned over a very long time and we are overjoyed to finally have this released.

I cannot thank everyone enough, they all pulled their weight and made this happen. They have listened to your suggestions and voted on the changes, bringing to light ones that they thought were fair for all.

The rules have not only been added to, but contradictions have been removed and the rules have been compiled drastically in hopes to make it easier to read for newer players, as well as being easier to reference in any situations players find themselves in (this means certain rules have changed position also).

The changes to the rules take place immediately and so please go through them as a lot has been changed.

The additions have been highlighted in red.

Feel free to discuss the rules amongst yourselves!

Spoiler :

Disclaimer

The following rules define clearly what is and what is not allowed; this is required to maintain a semi-serious and realistic roleplay environment. We expect you to read all of the rules before playing. It may take a few minutes to read all of the rules, but the average ban is a lot longer than that. It's impossible to cover every single detail within the rules, so we expect you to use your common sense and not do questionable things or search for loopholes. If you aren't sure whether something is allowed or not, ask a staff member to clarify (@ command). All members of administrative staff are referred to throughout as simply 'admin'.

Remember, our roleplay (RP) is about recreating a lifelike civilization - your character is by default a functional member of society, so make your character behave realistically.

Rules may be altered to suit an event by administrators during special events hosted on the event server, or if an event is being held on the normal server (v5p).

General Rules

1.1 Using cheats, hacks or abusing glitches will not be tolerated.

1.2 Double-accounting (using another account to circumvent a punishment) is not allowed.

1.3 Do not do anything to avoid a roleplay situation or punishment.

1.4 Respect the staff’s decisions. You may discuss about it privately and if you feel like your punishment is unfair, you can make an appeal on the forums.

1.5 Scamming is not allowed. Also, do not steal items which other players have dropped to carry out a transaction.

1.6 When requesting an admin only use @. You must provide relevant information and actual rule breakage, do not be aggressive or use caps-locked messages.

1.7 If you see someone breaking the rules, try to warn them or contact an admin. Do not take the situation into your own hands, as that counts as Backseat Administrating.

1.8 Do not reveal the presence of undercover admins to others on the server.

1.9 Do not purposefully attempt to find loopholes in the rules.

1.10 You are only required to provide a reason for your RP actions if a staff members asks.

1.11 You cannot be discriminatory out of character in any form. You can do this in character with a intricate roleplay reason, in moderation.

Basic Roleplay Rules

2.1 Extremist and Bomb roleplays are only allowed when they do not reference real-life extremism and you have admin permission.

2.2 Do not Metagame, meaning you can't use OOC-obtained information IC.

2.3 Rape is not allowed, unless you get admin permission for an intricate roleplay (you must also have consent from all players involved and it takes place in a private area).

2.4 Do not do unrealistic things out of context (FailRP). This includes things such as floating bathtubs and unrealistic car colours, unless there is a RP reason.

2.5 Powergaming is not allowed, meaning you can’t force people into situations, always try to do something, such as ‘/me tries to snap his arm’ instead of ‘/me snaps his arm’.

Also do not abuse something that gives you an advantage, such as changing jobs to buy something for yourself or switching jobs with the sole purpose of joining a raid.

2.6 In character names should follow standard name types, such as forename, surname or a code name your character goes by. Names like ‘I love chocolate’ are not permitted.

2.7 Your job does not mean you can break the rules. For instance, you can’t create KOS laws as a President, abuse your spawn protection, or murder people just because you’re in an underground job.

2.8 Custom job titles must be realistic (don’t roleplay something that isn’t human), specific and accurately state what character you intend to roleplay (do not set your job as ‘criminal’ or ‘classified’ for example).

Combat Rules

3.1 Do not harm/kill people randomly (RDM); you must have a valid roleplay reason (a person's job or being a criminal is not a valid reason), for example protecting your property during a raid.

3.1a Violence should always be the last option.

3.1b Do not jump or stand on anyone when they are in ragdoll mode.

3.1c As an officer do not shoot vehicles unless lives are at risk, hot pursuit should be the first option.

3.1d If you make a bounty/hitman contract, this also requires a valid reason. You’re not allowed to kill a government member when you were arrested by them, unless you are a part of an underground group that can hire a hitman.

3.2 You may only raid as the following jobs: Police, S.R.U, Corleone, Rebels and any custom jobs as a citizen that fits the roleplay situation for example, "Freedom Fighter".

3.3 Do not use any form of weaponry without a valid roleplay reason.

3.4 Do not shoot up/down elevator shafts. However, ladders are perfectly fine to attack people on, as it is an exposed area.

3.5 You must follow FearRP by acting afraid of threatening situations that affect your own or accomplices’ lives. To initiate FearRP have a weapon out and give out orders (text or voice).

3.5a You cannot attack or draw a weapon on a person who has a gun pointed at you (as well as a stun gun or melee weapon at striking distance).

3.5b You cannot run away from someone when they have you at gunpoint. However, if it is a taser and you are in a vehicle, then you may drive away.

3.5c If someone switches from a gun to any kind of restraint in order to detain you, FearRP still applies.

3.5d Do not run into or loiter around extremely dangerous or life-threatening situations (even to get to the weapons locker), such as a fire or raid, as a citizen or someone without the appropriate job.

3.5e If you are a clan and are being interrogated by your rivals in war time, you may break FearRP by not answering questions. However, you may be killed and you must leave the clan (you may join after the war if they are still running, as a new character).

3.6 Follow NLR (New Life Rule). If you die, you forget how you died.

3.6a Even if you are informed about the situation in your new life, NLR still applies and you must follow the 10 minute NLR timer, unless given explicit permission from an administrator.

3.6b You can’t return to your death location, even if you want to get to another area (or retrieve your weapons from the locker).

3.6c If you spawn in an area in which you died, you must leave it immediately and stay a good distance away.

OOC and IC chat rules

4.1 In OOC chats, adverts, requests, job radios (not private radios) and broadcasts you must only speak in English; all other chats are international.

4.2 Do not swear excessively, argue, insult, write caps-locked messages in OOC and when having a private OOC conversation, use the /pm command.

4.3 You may only advertise in character services and they must be through IC communication (selling donator through OOC is the only exception), as well as being sent out only once per minute.

Tools and prop rules

5.1 Props should be used for roleplay, using them otherwise could be considered abuse (examples of abuse are: using props to kill, spawning props in combat, prop spam, forgetting to delete your props, prop push, prop surf and prop block - there must be at least one entrance and all areas you are using should be accessible via keypads or buttons and blocking a spawnpoint).

5.2 Do not build in areas you do not own unless given permission from the owner (the President being the owner of the Nexus and to build in public contact a member of staff).

5.3 Do not try to get on to rooftops; do not build on them either (an exception being the Northview Studio - Rooftop, if it’s a billboard or if it’s a passive RP dupe with admin permission).

5.4 Do not abuse your physgun, toolgun, props or any of the tools. This includes:

using your physgun as a laser pointer; Camera spamming; Mic spamming (you must have a set up and make sure your volume isn’t loud); Sleeping in areas you would not be able to otherwise; Using vehicle seats to reach places (you can however use your physgun to prop-push a stuck car if no admins are available and should be done carefully).

5.5 All of your constructions must be realistically supported. This means no floating constructions (cameras included).

5.6 Cameras should not be invisible or visually confusing.

5.7 Picture frames/billboards cannot contain pornographic/gore images and they should be treated in-character.

5.8 Do not build more than 2 lockable custom doors leading to a single location. Your friends' doors are also counted, there should also be space between them of at least 2 metres (2 PHX units). Fading doors must have keypads and/or buttons on both sides, that are visible and easily accessible and should be open for a minimum of 5 seconds (doors from the door tool do not have to use keypads/buttons, as long as it can be breached with something).

5.9 When basing, no-collided doors may only be actual door props. Otherwise, you must use a keypad or button in order to open it.

5.10 Do not build custom doors behind an unownable door.

Government rules

6.1 Do not ban things from the city without a proper roleplay reason or unrealistic things, such as breathing (you may only ban races from the Nexus, unless they are a government worker).

6.2 You may only order an execution as a Dictator and you must have a valid roleplay reason (i.e. murder, you shouldn’t order executions for small petty crimes).

6.3 As a President, you are a very important person and therefore your life is of high priority, so stay out of dangerous situations (i.e, inspecting a crime scene or going outside without security).

6.4 Do not randomly search a property; you must have probable cause. Some examples include: Gunfire heard or seen coming from within the property (i.e. contraband); Criminal activity visible on the property; A suspect on the property.

6.5 You must have a search warrant from the President to search the property, unless the lives of officers or hostages are at immediate risk or you have seen a dangerous suspect retreating into a property.

6.6 Do not abuse your tools.

6.6a As a President, don’t warrant players without a roleplay reason. Do not issue a lockdown without a reason and ensure you have ended it when appropriate.

6.6b As a Fireman, do not use your fire axe to break into homes without a reason.

6.6c As a Paramedic, only heal people if they request medical attention.

6.6d As an Officer, do not steal cars when you are working for the government. You may impound a car when appropriate to be later given back in return for a fine or warning. Do not use the keypad cracker or lockpick when you are working for the government, follow the search warrant rules and use the arrest baton. An exception to this is in rule 6.5.

Only use your stun gun with a valid roleplay reason (do not spam the stun and wakeup functions).

6.7 You may build a roadblock while playing as a government member, with permission from the President. But, players must be able to break through the barricade with a vehicle.

6.8 Police/S.R.U. may be corrupt, however the Police Sergeant and entirety of SRU cannot go undercover and you may only wear any other clothing or use non-government vehicles if you are undercover (do not actually ally with the underground jobs).

6.9 Do not kill or injure any other government member.

6.10 The Police Sergeant commands Police forces, and the S.R.U. Sergeant commands S.R.U., unless the President states otherwise.

6.11 Do not kill unconscious bodies unless they pose a serious threat to your life and cannot be safely detained.

6.12 As an SRU, do not perform any regular police duties. Your job is to respond to emergency calls where the police need backup, as well as protecting the Nexus and therefore the President’s life.

6.13 Custom groups may work with the government, but do not necessarily have to follow government restrictions and rules. An admin can force a custom group to abide by the government rules, if it is necessary for proper roleplay.

6.14 As a Paramedic or Fireman do not go within a dangerous proximity to a raid in progress and do not destroy contraband, you must inform the police force.

Rebels/Mafia rules

7.1 Do not kill or steal from your team members. However, as the leader, you may take the life of a member with a valid roleplay reason and you must actively take charge of your group.

7.2 Different teams are created for a reason, so do not ally with other teams. For example, Rebels do not ally with Corleones.

7.3 You must roleplay as your defined group in a realistic manner (i.e. the rebels may only use cheap items).

Crime rules

8.1 You can’t commit crimes in public and you must have a valid roleplay reason (you can rob a store in public, if deemed safe to do so). Public locations are the city, Metro stations and Connectivity road.

8.2 When mugging you can only steal up to $500 and you may not mug the same person twice within 15 minutes.

8.2a If you are roleplaying that you are lying about having no money and the person searches you using roleplay communication, they must find money and so not handing over money is a FearRP violation.

8.2b You may roleplay genuinely not having any cash if you actually do not have the cash they are asking for or if you’re actively roleplaying as a poor person (i.e. homeless).

8.3 You may steal vehicles (you can’t steal someone’s car when it’s getting unlocked) to sell them back to the owners or other parties. When selling a stolen car, you must ensure that your buyer is aware that it's stolen and that this vehicle won't be theirs to unlock or store in their inventory. Car thieves need chop-shops, and burglars need places to store their stolen goods. Proper background RP draws the line between crime and rule-breaking.

8.4 Roleplay burglary properly, don’t use molotovs, assault rifles and don’t use shotguns, you want to be as quiet as possible (keypad crackers are the only exception to this).

Also, in general do not provoke the government into raiding you on purpose. As a criminal, you want to keep a low profile.

8.5 You need a valid reason to raid, i.e contraband and burglary. You cannot raid the President solely to earn money, because of high taxes, because you don’t like certain laws (unless they drastically impact your character, cars being banned from the city is not a valid reason), because you were arrested or warned for your own actions, for being demoted or because their job is Dictator (this is Metagaming).

8.6 Do not contra-base as any of the jobs listed: Government members, Citizen, Chauffeur, Delivery Driver, Chef, Security Guard, Doctor or Mechanic (an exception being a Citizen with a custom job that fits the roleplay situation).

8.6a Do not contra-base together with different jobs (an exception being a citizen with a custom job, such as Rebel associate).

8.7 You hostage players for a maximum of $2000, however it can’t be without a valid roleplay reason or in public, you need a good reason and your character style needs to fit the roleplay situation.

8.7a You can’t call for a paramedic, fireman or chauffeur for help and hostage them.

8.7b You must also look after them until they are released.

8.8 Using restraints is only for taking a player hostage. For example, do not use restraints as a way to disarm somebody (as it is not realistic and counts as FailRP).

Vehicle rules

9.1 Do not run people over on purpose (CDM), and always try to brake/avoid people on the roads. Call a paramedic (if available) when you've hit someone. The only exception to this being when you are in an active car chase, but you must call at your nearest convenience.

9.2 Do not create, modify or add to vehicles without prior admin approval.

9.3 Drive sensibly, do not spam your horn or drive recklessly by crashing into everything, this includes driving or spawning vehicles inside buildings, where they do not belong.

Base rules

10.1 The following buildings are reserved for passive roleplay and so you are not allowed to base or use contraband in the following locations:

Main Street buildings, Burger King, Midas, Broadway buildings, Big Bells Hells, Syndicate tower, Minnesota building, metro stations & bank, Sinclair gas station, Fire station, MTL crane & Control room, J&M Glass Co and free standing bases in any area within the city.

10.2 Doomforts are not allowed, there must be a fair chance of victory for the attackers (keypads must have cover provided, corridors must fit two people - slums corridor cannot be made smaller).

10.2a Props should only be used as a realistic way to search cover. Do not give yourself an unfair advantage by using optical tricks (materials/colors that remove depth perception and angled props - one-sided textures are only allowed for windows and must not be used for a base to make it easier to shoot attackers and others).

10.3 Walls used to surround a base can't be more than 4 metres tall (4 PHX units).

10.4 Nexus defences are only permitted on the inside of the building and there must be an area to allow for the Nexus Desk Secretary to do their job.

10.5 Bases must fit the roleplay of the situation. For example, poor characters cannot afford high-tech bases.

10.6 Do not use the fading door tool to fade a prop away in order to shoot.

Copyright

Explanations

Doomforting

Doomforts are overpowered defences that are almost impossible for a raiding party to overcome, even if they are realistic. For the most part, it should be pretty clear what comprises a doomfort, however, if you are unsure, ask a staff member; they always have the final say on what is and what isn't doomforting. In this section we'll run through the most common features that comprise a doomfort.

You cannot build complex mazes, tiny firing holes, toggled cover using the fading door tool, you cannot force people to crouch, and you cannot use materials that dazzle, blind or visually confuse the raiding party.

Tight corridors are generally allowed, even if they are staggered or force you to change angle and direction frequently, similar to a WW1 trench. However, you cannot combine this with firing holes and similar. You also cannot use these corridors as a sneaky maze from which you look down upon from a raised platform.

A corridor is tight if it cannot fit 2 people side-by-side. It does not matter if a base is a natural doomfort, it still counts as one (using the world/map to your advantage, i.e. Apartment corridors). Sloped props, most notably triangular props, may not be used in a defensive structure.

Chest-high cover is generally allowed, but there are limits. Do not spam chest-high cover or use them constantly in combination with features such as tight corridors; this also often looks unrealistic. If you're unsure, ask an admin.

Combining one prop as cover on the ground and one on the ceiling is allowed, the gap shouldn't be smaller than the size of that in the bunker prop. If combined with other measures, the gap may have to be larger to be fair. The ceiling prop should be above the top of your head. If in doubt, ask an admin.

One-way windows/props are ok, even in a defensive structure (i.e. as part of a security checkpoint), but you cannot use them as part of, or directly adjacent to, a firing position to give you an immediate advantage in combat.

Walkways and sniper/guard towers are allowed, both with and without defensive walls to guard you from bullets. However, be cautious, because it's tempting to combine this with features such as fading firing positions, or over-powered use of one-way glass in a guard tower. If you use one-way glass in one of these structures, you must not be able to fire from such a position or near it.

If in doubt, ask an admin. They always have the final say on what is or isn't a doomfort. Just because one admin says it's OK doesn't mean that another will agree; often these issues are contextual, so the admin currently online is always the one most suited to make that decision. Super-admin decisions do not overrule the decisions of the admin online with you, so don't ignore what the admins say just because another admin or a super-admin gave you permission earlier.

Powergaming

Powergaming is when you misuse roleplay actions in an attempt to force a RP to take a certain direction, or when you attempt to force another action on a player or dictate their actions or if you do something that gives you an unfair advantage such as changing your job for the sole reason of buying yourself items or to join a raid. This is banned because it's detrimental to RP, and makes the server a lot less fun for people who have to suffer the actions of a powergamer. Some examples over powergaming are below:

'/me punches the cop in his throat, killing him.'

This is powergaming because you're forcing the officer into situation where he dies, without his input. It would be better to say:

'/me tries to punch the cop in the throat.'

This lets the cop play along, and he can decide whether or not the punch lands and what effect is has on him. Obviously, he can't powergame himself here.

'/me breaks the handcuffs and escapes.'

This is powergaming because it forces the RP to take a different direction as to what is obviously happening, and it is also impossible for a normal human to break handcuffs he's restrained with. If you really want to RP this, say something like:

'/me struggles in his handcuffs, attempting to break free.'

This gives the cop a chance to RP with you. Chances are you'll just be struggling in vain (and improving the RP), but the cop may decide to play along and the RP could take a different direction depending on what he does.

Metagaming

Metagaming is when you use Out-Of-Character (OOC) information In-Character (IC). What happens IC should stay IC, and anything OOC is not relevant to IC roleplay. You also cannot use IC information obtained from OOC sources, such as the scoreboard, which displays IC information such as jobs and character names.

For example, if you're playing as a cop and someone is trying to enter the Nexus, but his job title on the scoreboard is 'Undercover spy', you can't immediately know that he is undercover. You should act as if you have no idea he could potentially be an undercover spy. Whether or not you deduce that IC depends on how the RP progresses, but your character currently has no knowledge that he could be a spy.

You cannot use the OOC chat for IC advertisements or RP. For example, don't attempt to ask for a lift in the OOC chat; you should instead try and call for a taxi or lift using /advert or other IC chat methods. Don't try and sell or buy items on OOC chats either, though we do have a sub-forum specifically for this purpose. PM is generally considered to be both OOC and IC, but keep it in context, and don't start PMing people you wouldn't know IC to ask for lifts, etc.

If you believe that something is against the rules, you should still RP along, and just call an admin using @. Don't try and stop the RP by saying that this is breaking the rules. You can inform them using local OOC, but unless the rule-breaking is blatant (i.e. someone is running around killing everybody or prop-pushing) you should continue to RP; you may be in the wrong, and then you would've stopped a valid RP for no reason.

The same applies to clan matters. Clans are strictly IC, and should stay that way. Don't attempt to mix OOC and IC with clan matters. Just because a clan broke an IC law doesn't mean that they're breaking the rules. If a clan breaks a real-world (OOC) law, this doesn't necessarily mean that they're breaking an IC law, so keep things IC. This has actually been an issue a few times in the past.

New Life Rule

Some players, both new and old, have difficulty with this rule. After you have died, you may not return to the place where you died for 10 minutes. There are no exceptions to this rule. For example, if you're called back to a raid over radio before your 10 minutes are up, you may not go. In this case, it's generally best to write in the radio '.// NLR' or something, just to inform people why you're not turning up. Once the 10 minutes have expired, you may return to the place of death.

After death, you also forget everything from your past life, such as current situations, the person who killed you, people you've killed, passwords, and so on. However, it's OK to remember long-term details of the character you play, such as your job, clan, long-term RP friends, and so on.

Reasons for raid/criminal activity

The rules go over in some detail what you're not allowed to raid the President for. However, there are still many reasons that you may raid, such as: they banned your underground group from the city, their laws are very restrictive, or if the current RP has certain special conditions that would allow you to raid (i.e. the current government RP is highly political or they're introducing anti-terror laws, in which case you could do a terrorism, or assassination RP, so long as you RP it properly. You can also do a bombRP, but only with admin permission). Generally, so long as you aren't raiding solely for reasons explicitly banned in the rules, and you attempt to RP rather than just gun everyone down, you'll be ok and are allowed to raid.

The restrictions for raiding the President are fairly heavy, as constant raids disrupts the entire server's RP. However, you can raid/mug/commit crimes against others much more freely, so long as you RP and don't simply gun people down. You can burgle shops for money, mug people in the streets, steal cars, raid rival businesses or criminal groups, break into a household to take hostages to make demands, and so on. Just make sure you follow all of the crime rules (section 16).

Rivalries between criminal organizations are expected, especially when it comes to contraband. Raiding to try and steal/destroy contraband is a perfectly acceptable reason. Likewise, the police may raid you to try and confiscate/destroy your contraband and arrest you. They do, however, need a search warrant for this.

Government affiliate groups

Custom jobs, groups or clans that are not using the official government jobs may team up with and work with the government.

As you're not officially government, you can choose whether or not you follow the government rules. You should decide this based on what your custom job/group is. If you're a shady PMC, it's expected that you wouldn't follow the government's rules, and the consequences of this (raiding without warrants) would be dealt with IC; in fact, this is a great reason for others to raid the government, because they're working with potentially illegal forces. However, if you're RPing as the DEA, or a job/group that is supposed to be legal or similar, you should follow the government rules to the letter, and raid only with a search warrant. An admin can force you to abide by the government rules if he feels that you're not RPing properly (FailRP); his/her decision is final.

The blatant advertisement of products, websites or other servers, whether in chat, mic or on your steam name, is forbidden. However, you can wear the tags of other clans or servers in your steam name. You can also feel free to talk about games, movies, products and so on; just don't blatantly try and advertise them. Generally this isn't a problem, and if you're treading the line an admin will normally warn you to stop.

Corrupt Cop

Sometimes you may want to role play as a corrupt cop, unlike other custom job specific jobs, such as being undercover, you don't have to make a request from the President to become corrupt. Being corrupt means that you can do certain things a normal cop does not have access to, unlike serving the city for a good cause you have your own selfish self-interest. To become one you first have to put corrupt either in your job or character description (which can be done by doing /job Corrupt Police Officer or go to 'F1', 'Character', 'Personalization' and enter it in your description).

Due to your greedy nature being a corrupt cop means that you can accept bribes to get criminals who have committed petty crimes out of prison sentences, you can be rude to criminals/prisoners and you can ignore petty crimes to characters you know and have interacted with in-character and are actively role playing with (Ignoring crimes of your OOC friends is not permitted if you have not established a friendship IC beforehand).

Petty crimes are small law infringements (such as jaywalking or doing drugs) and that aren't in the public eye. if you see a IC friend mugging someone you may turn a blind eye, but having a friend rob a store which has been reported to the police is something that you can't ignore.

What you can't do is be rude to people for no reason, although you are corrupt you still don't want to lose your job by being reported. You also have to actively do your job, this means you can't stop going on patrol just because you're corrupt, even if you don't have the best interests you may want to patrol to see if you can accept bribes for small crimes to make your wallet bigger. Planting items on people to have a reason to arrest someone also comes under powergaming and is not permitted. You also cannot believe you are some god-like figure who is beyond repercussion, this means that you can't go around breaking FailRP and constantly screaming at people or purposefully breaking peoples cars.

Credits:

Compiling & integrating rules: Divey

Organising team: Awestruck, Infernaw and Floodify

Team help: Avgar, Lesanka, Tomo, Random, Hitman, Skummet, Pear, Ludo, Reebs, MasterNoda, Generation, TheSiphon, Yonno, NJPerry, Sparx, DVN, Eeee394, Exotic, Forgee, Janzo, Joe Joe, Holdem, Kevin Ramsey, ShadowPurple, Falc, Brikaas, Ivan Tempski, Jonas, Ghost, Jan, Agorith, Raccoon, Spear and Snowredwolf

Approval: Soulripper

Notable suggestions:

Bomsusik - https://www.fearlessrp.net/showthread.php?tid=31190

Richtea - https://www.fearlessrp.net/showthread.php?tid=84033

Create - https://www.fearlessrp.net/showthread.php?tid=83296

GHOSTK1LL3R - https://www.fearlessrp.net/showthread.php?tid=84404 & https://www.fearlessrp.net/showthread.php?tid=84247

General Rickets