Getting Started

Welcome to Space Station 14! You and your crewmates have just started your shift aboard a Nanotrasen space station. Each of you has a job to do, hopefully having fun in the process.

Please make sure you understand the Server Rules, which you can see at any time by pressing F1.

If you have any questions:

1. Consult this guide.
2. Consult your colleagues on shift in person or over radio.
3. Ask in the help channel on Discord (Careful not to show screenshots or talk in detail about the current round).
4. Ask Administrators for in-game help (or ahelp) by hitting Escape, selecting Admin Help. This lets you send a message to all online administrators.

You are all a crew of people who work together (even the Clown). You should not be harming each other unless you have an extremely good reason. Before resorting to violence, call Security over the Radio, and attempt to stun and detain the assistant your assailants. Do not commit murder unless it's your job to.

Gameplay

SS14 is a role-playing game at its core — you play as a member of the station crew, which you can customize from the lobby prior to joining the game. From there, you can select the jobs your character performs, what they look like, how people are expected to refer to them, etc. If you're new, try out the Passenger, Botanist, or Janitor.

Note about the priority system: The game goes through the jobs one by one, starting with command roles, and checks if anyone has the role set to high, picking randomly between anyone that does. If no one has it set to high, it repeats for medium, then low. Only after a command is picked does the game fill other roles. Even if you set a command role to low, there is a fair possibility you will have that responsibility.

As soon as you spawn, you’re expected to act as your character, or "in character" (IC) using the Standard Operating Procedure and follow Alert Procedure. When you’re in character, you forget any knowledge of previous rounds or the world outside; and play as if you're actually a member of the station's crew. This means you treat other players as you would for your respected in real life work colleagues and the station as your workplace. i.e., no rampant killing, harming, stealing, hacking without good reason. Remember that other players are involved, so try to refrain from bad language, harassment, and other poor-roleplay acts.

"Out of Character" (OOC) is the opposite of IC. This includes any conversations you have outside the game world, e.g., in the designated OOC chat, in a private message, or a chat with your friends. You shouldn’t discuss the current round or anything that’s IC in OOC channels. Likewise, anything you see or read in OOC must not be used by your character in the game. If one of your friends identifies a traitor or tells you they’re dying in a certain location, you must ignore it and go about your business as if you don't know. Going to help them is known as metagaming, and will get you banned.

If you suspect a player in game is metagaming (for example, if you're a Traitor and someone kills you before you've done anything to them), you should report them via Ahelp or the project's Discord.

When playing, you use talk to other crewmembers, interact with your surroundings, and walk around in areas that you have access. If you get lost, there are Maps online that you can reference.

To summarize, when you’re in game:

DO	DON'T
Keep in character Act like your character would in the situation Ask for help if you need it. Communicate in-game politely	Discuss the round elsewhere (until the round is over) Share information about the round in OOC Kill / harm without first reading the Server Rules Harass other players (ruin their gameplay)

Antagonists

To give the game a bit of excitement, some players are selected to work against the crew by acting as Antagonist, or antag. There are various types of antags, like traitors and cultists. You can volunteer to play as an antag through the character editor at the start of a game.

Even if you volunteered to be an antag, it is not guaranteed that you will be picked. When a round starts, players will be automatically and randomly selected to fill the antagonist roles. The game will notify them of their assignment in chat. If you're not sure if you've been selected, press C. If you're an antag, you'll have a list of objectives. If not, you're a normal employee.

Being an antagonist is not an excuse to go on a murder spree. Your job is to complete your objectives. On occasion, that will include the assassination of a target. Sometimes it will include escaping alive or dying a glorious death. How you complete your objectives is up to you, but keep in mind that there are other Syndicate agents on the station that have their own objectives. While your objectives take priority and might not always align with theirs, you generally shouldn't recklessly endanger their missions by destroying the station or going on a blind murder spree. If you can manage to identify them, working with them can actually be mutually beneficial!

As always, try to have fun with it! (Ideally, not at everyone's expense... but that’s up to you.)

Responding to Antagonists

If you suspect someone is an antagonist, report them to security as fast as possible and do what you can to protect yourself. Remember, antagonists are legally people too, so they must be arrested and prosecuted if at all possible.

Self-Antag

Self-Antagonizing (self-antag) is when you are NOT an antagonist, yet you go out of your way to break the law, damage the station, or commit murder. Breaking the law is not inherently self-antagonizing, but attacking your crewmates, attempting to break into high-security areas, and hoarding items your job doesn't need is. Self-antagonizing can and will get you banned.

Unless the game tells you that you are an antagonist, you are a normal member of the crew, and your only objective is to complete the shift in your designated role.

RDM

Random Death Match (RDM) is the act of attempting to kill someone for no reason. The other person is likely an Antagonist if you are being attacked. If you're unsure, ask the admins.

Slang

Here you can find a list of commonly used terms and abbrieviations that the community uses.