Server & Forum Rules

Forum Rules
1. Harassment of other members will not be tolerated.
-Argumentative, off-topic exchanges
-Multiple messages targeting any member(s) for insults, attacks, or personal comments
-Hardcore trolling (Sarcastic and snide comments aside)
-Deliberate acts to cause annoyance or arguments within the community
2. If you’re upset about someone trolling or harassing you, please contact an AO or BD, please have proof ready for us to take action, we will then do an investigation, if you don’t, don’t come moaning to us when more issues arise.
3. We ask all our members to respect the privacy of others and refrain from exposing the real names, home addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of other members.
4. Advertisements, solicitation, and SPAM are strictly prohibited; We’d never walk into your house and start posting ads on your computer, so please don’t do the same to us. Any advertisements, solicitation or spam will not be tolerated.
5. The following will be removed or closed:
-Multiple messages containing identical or nearly identical text. This is considered spam and when we discover it, we will remove all copies.
-Harassment threads
-Racist threads
6. Every person is limited to one screen name/account.

Half-Life 2 Roleplay Rules
1. Do not metagame
Metagaming is using out-of-character information for in-character role-play.
Anything said in out-of-character chat was never heard by your character in-character.
All in-game private messages are out-of-character.
Seeing somebodies name floating above them in-game does not mean you know their name IC'ly, you need to get their name through RP purposes.
You cannot see the in-game scoreboard ICly. Using scoreboard information for IC purposes is also metagaming. This includes switching characters to hide/avoid roleplay with some character(s).

2. Do not powergame
Powergaming is forcing your actions upon other players who do not wish it.
“/me punches the man till he dies” is not correct role-play and will be ignored/dealt with.
You must allow any person you are role-playing with to react back in-character through another /me action.
Be careful who you attack, specifically CCA units or those under their protection as they are normally less malnourished and stronger than you. CCA units also wear kevlar which lessens the effect of punches/kicks.
You must properly react to every /me action that is directed at you realistically (/me is not hurt by the cps etc is not allowed)
Just because someone performs an action like "/me hits the man" does not mean you do not get to react to that action. Using the word attempts is really nice, but doesn't always have to be there
 
3. Do not use in-character chat for an out-of-character message
/ooc (//) and /looc ([[) are both commands implemented so players can speak freely about something that does not have anything to do with the in-game story.
Local out-of-character is to be used when speaking OOCly to someone who is close to you without disturbing the other players with your messages. OOC is to be used to ask and answer questions across the whole server.
Try to keep one on one conversations within private messages (/pm).
Any questions for administrators should be asked using the /admin command.

4. Do not spam the chat box
Spamming the same message in any form of chat, whether it be in-character, out-of-character, /admin, and even private messages is strictly prohibited.
Administrators have full access to all chats in the console and therefore can see private message spam - it is still not allowed.

5. Do not abuse props
Spamming props (constantly spawning the same prop over and over again for no real reason) is not allowed.
Prop blocking (preventing characters from accessing any part of the map by blocking it with a prop) is not allowed.
Prop surfing (standing on props and using them to move yourself to places you usually wouldn’t be able to get to) is not allowed.
Attempting to kill other players by hitting them with props is not allowed (propkilling).
All of these will result in removal of your PET flags without warning.

6. Always shoot to miss in firefights
When in a firefight, S2M is to be always used.
Do not shoot directly at your target, but rather shoot around them to create better and longer role-play.
When shooting around them, ensure that it is somewhere they cannot move to so that stray bullets do not hit them by accident.
If the target is point blank, you may shoot to kill; however, it must be properly role-played and the target must be given a chance to react to your actions.
Keep in mind that injuring people always leads to better role-play than just straight up killing people.

7. Do not kill characters without a good in-character reason
This rule is generally referred to as RDM (Random Death Match).
Not liking someone is not a reason to kill their character(s) and can be treated as flaming.
Killing is frowned upon - injury leads to better roleplay for both sides.
RDM is forbidden and will result in punishment.
Mass RDM will result in punishment without prior warning.

8. Do not exploit
Exploiting is using an in-game feature to do something that was not intended to be possible by the creators of the game/mod/script to give yourself unfair advantages or things you shouldn't have.

9. All character names must be realistic and cannot be famous names
You must have a first and last name.
No nicknames in your character name is allowed.
Any celebrity names are not to be used for your in-game characters.
Any names such as “Mike Hawk”, “Ben Dover”, “Jack Mehoff” are not allowed.
Use common sense when you are creating a name; if you think it will not be allowed, don't create it.
Administrators may ask/force you to change your name at any time whether you want to or not, if you believe there is no reason for it then speak to the administrator first, if that doesn't go anywhere speak to a HL2RP SA or post a complaint.
 

10. All citizens are expected to have either their hands, keys, or any other in-character items out while role-playing
Do not have your physics or tool gun out while participating in role-play unless you are using them to manipulate props.


11. Do not randomly pull out a weapon while being held at gunpoint
If you have a gun to the back of your head, simply switching to one of your weapons and turning around and shooting the person is not allowed.
You must properly role-play attempting to grab your weapon and allow the person(s) holding you at gunpoint to react.
This rule is often referred to as “fear-RP” or “fear-roleplay”.
This also counts with running away when a weapon is pointed at you, whether it is a weapon or another object (knives, blunt objects).

12. Do not take matters into your own hands
A common example of this is shooting someone who is attempting to prop-kill players – Do not do it, just report them with the /admin command.
If there are no administrators online, units may deal with the rule breaker by detaining them or killing them if completely necessary – The only time this should happen is if the player is doing something that can greatly affect everyone in the server such as mass RDM or not complying with proper RP.
In addition to the above rule, recording players breaking rules will help the administration team deal with problems while they are not on the server to be posted in a ban request. (demos and screenshots)
Asking an administrator in steam chat politely is a quick and easy way to see if they can quickly come on the server, though continually spamming them will not help them get to you quicker.

13. Disconnecting to avoid any role-play or punishments is prohibited
If you disconnect to avoid being banned, administrators will triple the original ban time.
Disconnecting to avoid in-character detainment will result in a ban or warning from an administrator.
Changing characters to avoid being punished by the CCA or administrators is treated exactly the same as disconnecting to avoid punishments.
Changing characters to avoid RP is treated the same as disconnecting to avoid punishments. Simply leaving during role-play that involves your character losing anything to avoid the actual loss will result in a character ban and a global warning.
It is understandable that in certain situations you have no choice but to leave during role-play, but you must give anyone who is participating a warning and plan for continuing the role-play at a later date.

14. Do not act as if you have in-character knowledge about something that would require a supporting back-story or administrator approval
This can include acting as if your character has medical or military knowledge, 99% citizens in the HL2RP universe do not have military or medical backgrounds unless you have a near perfect supporting back-story.
All characters begin as average citizens in the Half-Life universe, you do not have any special knowledge or attributes until you develop your character or get specific authorizations approved by HL2RP Super-Administrators or above.

15. To have special abilites the average citizen would not be able to do require an authorization application.
See the application rules in the application board for more information on what you can and cannot apply for.
Bombs will require two HL2RP SA's authorizations.
Use common sense for abilities, for example you may know a few basic things on wiring plugs and DIY-style electrics but you won't be an electrician without an authorization application.

16. Do not give sarcastic replies to serious questions
If it is clear you are joking and provide a serious response after the sarcasm, then you are in the clear.
Rude responses such as “Why are you asking that question, are you retarded?” or “You must have autism if you don’t know that” will result in a warning and/or ban.

17. Role-play situations may not be voided (ignored) without administrator approval
Doing role-play that makes no sense or is not allowed by the server rules then simply saying “void” in out-of-character chat is not allowed and will result in a warning and a ban if you do it repeatedly.
It is understandable that sometimes you can say the wrong thing or misunderstand previous role-play during any situation, and in cases where it is completely clear that it was a misunderstanding and the other players involved in the role-play are okay with it, you may void your previous /me action(s).
Only administrators are able to void full RP situations within reason.
Only super administrators can void non-passive events.

18. Your own characters cannot interact with each other in any way
You cannot claim in-character that one of your characters is “friends” or “knows” another one.
You may not move items from one character to another and any attempts at this will result in both characters being banned.
An authorization application can be made to be within a family, but again they can have no knowledge of each other.
You may not use one of your CCA units as a way of providing in-character CCA knowledge to your resistance character(s).

19. Jumping off cliffs and landing in water to get to places faster will result in an immediate permanent-kill (PK)
Your character will be perma-killed(PK) and no longer be playable when you join the servers if you break this rule.
If you do it multiple times on different characters it will result in a server ban.


20. Abusing the /charfallover command to drop from high places without dying will result in an immediate permanent-kill (PK)
A common example is falling out of windows or off cliffs/down elevator shafts.
Using this to 'minge' around or to not do things you can as a normal player will result in a warning and a ban.

21. When mugging a character, you may only take up to 500 tokens in total
This applies to your entire group if it is a group mugging, you may not take 500 tokens for each character, you will have to deal with splitting a maximum of 500 between each member of the group
This does not mean you have to take 500 tokens when mugging a character, it is preferred to take a lower amount.


22. Do not impersonate, flame or reveal private/personal information of other players/users.
Impersonating other players is against rules and will be punished with bans in minimal lengths of days, especially impersonating important members within the community.
Coming to our server to flame people is discouraged and will result in a lengthy server and forum ban. If you come to the server to chat to somebody you will be warned, kicked and banned. Keep it to steam chats.
Do not leak any sensitive, private or personal information of other users without their direct consent. If they're keeping the information for themselves, it's their decision and you do not have right to act against it. This is a serious offence and will be punished appropriately.

23. Consuming inventory items without valid IC reasoning and roleplay is considered FailRP and therefore bannable.
Manipulating your inventory items without valid IC reason to do so, especially without the action(s) being properly roleplayed with /me's.
An example of breaking this rule would be eating/using/dropping valuable inventory items while being held at a gunpoint or in a similar situation, just to prevent the other player(s) from looting those items. (such as drinking bleach to get out of being mugged)

24. You may not 'asspull' items.
Proper roleplay must be done in the lead-up to a character being injured using fists and/or weapons (such as but not limited to: pulling out stunsticks during a beating, unholstering a weapon and flicking off any active safety measures) or the injury/permanent kill/other is not valid.
You cannot raise your itemized weapon (physical USP in your inventory/equip slots including other weapons) without proper roleplay or your actions from that point are invalid and are considered fail RP. You must allow an adequate and fair amount of time for other parties in the RP situation to respond
Spawning item shipments in public is also counted as asspulling.  Food/books/ammo/etc does not simply appear out of thin air, so do that somewhere private.

25. You may not exploit a low server population to create unfair situations.
If there are less than 4 units online, you are not permitted to instigate assaults/muggings/kidnappings/other assorted damaging activities against them. This is in place to prevent imbalance with citizens acquiring weapons when there is no way for the units to fight back.