Headmin Rulings

Note: This page is moderated and can be referenced in OOC issues, such as ban appeals, complaints, reports, etc. This may not apply to the pages this page links to.

This is a compilation of headmin rulings on various policy questions asked by players. This page does not replace the rules and whenever possible the rules should be referred to instead of this page. The rulings listed here can be referenced in ban appeals and admin complaints.

Please note: Some of these questions are for very niche/specific situations. Some of them cannot be applied the same way to every situation.

General Rulings

Adminshopping	Admin shopping is defined as going to different admins until you get a favorable ruling. It's highly frowned upon, don't do it.	Feemjmeem/Agreed with by other headmins
Admin intervention without anyone ahelping	It's allowed.	Ausops
Killing nonhostile admin spawned entities	Against the rules, don't do it.	PKPenguin321
Are spiders bound to the mother?	Unless there's a message saying you are, the answer is no.	Armhulenn
Using OOC to promote yourself for headmin elections	One or two lines of text is fine, spamming is not.	PKPenguin321
Deathmatch if round-end is bugged	If the round fails to restart, but the end round text plays, then everyone is free to act as per solo antagonists unless otherwise told by an admin.	MrStonedOne
Weapons of Mass Destruction to counter antagonists	An example of this is suicide bombing a wizard or BoH bombing the cult base. If use of the weapon does not win the round for your side immediately after, then it is grief and will be treated as such by admins.	Armhulenn
Conflict between team antagonists	If two people are on the same team and have an argument, it must follow escalation rules/rule 1. It cannot be detrimental to your team.	PKPenguin321/Ausops
Lynching for erotica on comms	Lynching for reading smut, WGW, and spamming, especially on comms, is always okay. It also makes the reader nonhuman in silicon eyes.	PKPenguin321
Roundstart suicide	Don't do it as an important role, and if it happens too often, you can be banned.	KorPhaeron
Naming Policy	Click here for the policy. Generally enforced at admin discretion.	Ausops
Naming Policy - Updated	Click here for the policy. Generally enforced at admin discretion.	Nervere
Overthrowing security/mutinies	Any situation where you can overthrow the security force in, they'll probably already be banned. It's okay if you have sufficient IC reason.	KorPhaeron
Forcing team antags to betray their team	Can't do it.	Ausops
Buying terrible shuttles as captain	Allowed, but the crew is also allowed to mutiny/lynch the captain.	KorPhaeron/PKPenguin321
Playing under the influence	Being drunk is not an excuse for grief/other banworthy things.	Ausops/PKPenguin321
Hunting the nuclear operative shuttle	Do not attack the nuclear operative shuttle unless you follow an operative there or are led there by the pinpointer. Ruling struck down due to changes to the nuclear operative shuttle.	Arianya
Suiciding at round start as a Wizard to end the round	Any instances of wizards killing themselves roundstart will be met with a permanent jobban from the role.	Nervere
Fake Revolutions	Faking a revolution always causes grief, without fail. If someone is pretending to be a revolutionary, feel free to murder them. If I find someone faking a revolution as a non-antag, they can prepare to catch a rule 1 ban for being a griefing shitter.	Nervere
Antag Rolling	If you're antag rolling consistently, AKA only seeing if you get antag or not, then leaving the round in one way or another when you don't, you are breaking the rules.	Hulkamania
Early Launching	This is already enforced, unless there's no one around, or they haven't noticed. We encourage you to ahelp it if you see it, because yes, it's extremely in bad faith to early launch because unga my antag roll faster.	Wubli
Streaming	We've talked it over and we've decided that we will be disallowing streaming in its entirety from our server. It creates too many administrative headaches and potential for abuse to be allowed, while providing little benefit in return. If we add special restrictions and rules to streaming we'd need admins to check in and make sure those restrictions are being followed (such as a delay) when they're already busy trying to administrate on the server in the first place. The exception to all of this is that during certain special events such as the charity toolbox event or the balls we may lift this restriction.	Hulkamania
Using any language other than English in-game	While we warmly welcome and eagerly invite players from all around the world to participate in the /tg/ community, we require everyone to communicate exclusively in English when playing on our servers. This restriction applies to both IC and OOC methods of communication. Replaced with the below.	Phuzzylodgik
Using any language other than English in-game	Using non-english to communicate sentences or obscure information is not allowed, admins are invited to use their discretion for minor usage of non-english words/phrases, especially where its usage causes confusion amongst other players.	NamelessFairy
Prisoner Policies	Prisoners are not antagonists. Attempting to break out is something they can do, but should not be an every round thing. When breaking out they are free to disable or restrain security but should not murder them. However, if security responds with lethal force, such as lethal shotgun rounds, they can murder in the spirit of preserving their own life. If a prisoner is caught after an attempted breakout, they've opened themselves up to any form of forced experimentation	Coconutwarrior97
Curse of Madness	Meant to be taken as fluff, not a command.	Coconutwarrior97
Supermatter suicide	Suicide into an SM that is not set up, or that results in a delam is bannable. If you suicide into it, and it continues operations as normal without harmful side effects there is no issue.	Coconutwarrior97
Blood Contracts	Shouldn't be used by non-antags to kill at random.	Coconutwarrior97
Macros	https://tgstation13.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=579563#p579563 Do not use them to gain an IC advantage over other players. Other macros are allowed (i.e. killing yourself in Orion Trail), but are context-dependent.]	Coconutwarrior97
Using 10-codes	The use of short-hand codes for communication in any department, specifically 10-10 codes, are not allowed. Our servers are English only which makes this style of codified speak subversive and makes the applicable channels too unfriendly to new or fair-weather players.	Domitius

Antagonist Rulings

Vampire Policy	Vampires are not antagonists just by being a vampire.	KorPhaeron
Are miners using the gluttony syringe antags?	Yes, they can act as a morph.	KorPhaeron
Solo antagonists and metagrudging	Solo antagonists can metagrudge as long as they are not rolling for it specifically to do so, and killing someone who killed you in a previous life as a ghost role antag is bad.	Ausops
Trying to get converted to team antags	It's bannable, don't do it.	PKPenguin321
Families Betrayal/Grief	If you choose to betray your family, the actual betrayal can only happen once you've joined another family. This avoids the issue of having team antags killing each other and justifying it as betrayal. Families are expected to operate similarly to revs in regards to the more widespread damage they cause, so blowing up the SM for no reason is likely not going to be alright because it could kill some of your own family members or interfere with their work, if however you bomb a rival family's headquarters that is probably alright.	Coconutwarrior97
Wand of Polymorph and Antag Status	Polymorphing yourself, or being willingly polymorphed, does not grant antag status. You are only an antagonist if you are unwillingly polymorphed. (This is a topic that has come up many times but never actually be codified)	MortoSasye
Obsessed Antag Status	Obsessed are not full antags and should generally stick to their objectives.	Coconutwarrior97
Abductors and Mindcontrolling	Abductor brainwashing cannot be used for murderbone.	Coconutwarrior97
Dynamic: Solo Antags willingly joining Team Antags	[https://tgstation13.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=27874 Solo antagonists are restricted from willingly joining Team Antags

Escalation Rulings

IC Torture	Don't complain if you get retaliated against for it.	KorPhaeron
Map-Spawned Ghost Roles	Such as roles spawned from ruins, including ash walkers, free golems, ancient station crew, etc. Escalation is massively relaxed with them. They must follow their roleplay guidelines found in the flavour text.	KorPhaeron/PKPenguin321
Are miners turned into a lesser ash drake allowed to defend themselves?	Yes, however, they are not antags by default.	KorPhaeron
Talking mimes	Talking mimes are subject to punishment by the crew, excluding gibbing/spacing of their corpse.	Arianya
Make Shoe-less Clowns Valid	Shoeless clowns have been specifically encouraged via code changes to allow them to wear appropriate clothing for dress up shenanigans. No longer do they have a negative moodlet for being without their shoes. A clown is supposed to dress up to their hearts content, limiting that by making them valid without the shoes is rather punishing.	Hulkamania
Demotion metaprotections	You can't do anything to resist a valid demotion that you couldn't do to resist a valid arrest.	Jimmius

Rule 1 Related Rulings

Mass identity duplication	Changing many people into one person via genetics/other methods as a nonantagonist. It can happen every once in a while, just don't do it every single round.	Armhulenn
Deleting security records as a nonantag	Don't do it every round. Don't use a sec/head position to do it. Don't use it to metagrudge.	Ausops
Validity when killing pets	If you perform an action which has zero benefit to you other than making others upset (like killing Ian) I will ban you if you adminhelp when someone kills you.	KorPhaeron
Cutting down christmas trees/general asshole behavior for no reason	If you perform an action which has zero benefit to you other than making others upset (like chopping down the Christmas trees while they’re enabled) I will ban you if you adminhelp when someone kills you.	Nervere

Security Rulings

Organizing mass grief as security or a head	Do not organize mass grief when you are in control of the security force. For context: The original question was when it was okay to remove cat ears or tails. Click the link to read the full ruling on that subject.	KorPhaeron
Bribes as security	You can assist antags with sufficient IC reasoning, but you can't do antagonist things yourself.	Ausops
Arresting nonantagonists on station vs team antagonist game modes	By station vs team antagonist game modes, the author of the thread meant nuke ops, blob, wizard, malf, etc. Security is still allowed to arrest nonantagonists for crimes on these game modes. That's part of their job.	Ikkarus
Planting/forging evidence as security	No official ruling was given. If you do it and it causes someone to get wrongfully punished, it's on you.	BeeSting12
Fortifying security roundstart	Barriers roundstart are not allowed, flashers are allowed, giving out guns/armor roundstart is allowed.	HornyGranny
Gulagging should not be equivalent to a regular brig sentence.	We have agreed that gulagging is fine as it is, and anything you can complain about is probably an issue with them as a security player rather than something we can act on. You are free to ahelp if you think the punishment is harsher than it should be, but it's difficult to pinpoint whether or not it's fair without an actual case, which should probably be handled by admins in-game instead of policy.	Wubli

IC/OOC Related Rulings

Referencing the gamemode ICly	It's OOC in IC if you say something similar to "It's revs" but it's okay if you say "There is a revolution." Basically make it sound like you're not referencing the fact that you're in a round.	PKPenguin321
Pile on ick ock	Pile on ick ock is defined as a bunch of people teasing someone for IC in OOCing. It's okay until it crosses the line into being spam. Admins can mute OOC/individual players if it gets to that point.	Ausops
IC reactions to OOC in IC	It's okay as long as you're not crossing the line into OOC in IC.	Ausops

Silicon and Drone Related Rulings

Do wizards mindswapped into a silicon have to follow laws?	Yes, they do. If you have laws then you must follow them unless you have a law zero. (When in doubt, adminhelp it.)	Ikarrus
Do silicons count as a being under drone laws?	Yes, treat them as any other crew member.	QuartzCrystal
Can you order force-borged cyborgs to pick a certain module?	Yes.	Scaredy/An0n3
Detonating cyborgs with little reason/alternatives	Don't do it.	Ikarrus
Security Cyborg Policies	Just a few random questions related to security cyborgs. If a cyborg is acting as security/releasing prisoners then this is probably relevant as well. Link to answers.	Pandarsenic
Silicons and harm in situations where you can't tell if they're being harmed or not.	Use common sense to decide if harm is going on.
AIs asking for law changes	An Asimov silicon cannot ask their laws to be changed.	HotelBravoLima
Drone Policy Guidelines	Guide to drone policy.	Stickymayhem
Are augmented humans still human?	Yes, they are. There's a helpful chart in silicon policy to help explain this, reference that and adminhelp if there's still a question.	Scones
Drones and atmospherics	Improving atmos is okay. Cutting pipes/turning off plasma is not okay. Fighting the symptoms of plasma in the distro is fine though.	Shadowlight213
Spacing brains, MMIs, and intellicards	You can always do it as an antagonist, you should have a very good reason as a nonantagonist.	Dorsidwarf/Ausops
Cyborgs alerting the crew they're about to be emagged	You can tell the crew you are about to be emagged, but once you have traitor laws, you must follow them.
AIs shutting security down because of law one (discussion)	This is already covered in silicon policy. Here's the discussion thread on it.
Is mindswap considered harm?	No, but if an Asimov silicon has mindswap and is ordered not to use it by a human, it can't use it. This is kind of an edge case.	Jordie0608
Holoparasites and Asimov	Holoparasites aren't human- a cyborg can attack the holoparasite but not the human. If the parasite recalls and the human is in critical, the borg must give him medical attention.	KorPhaeron and Shadowlight213
Is slipping human harm?	Only if the object they're holding falls on them and causes brute damage.	Ausops
Silicons and Fight Clubs	It's considered self harm if they're willingly fighting. Silicons shouldn't interfere if it's self harm. If they're being forced to fight, it's human harm and silicons should intervene.	Thunder12345/Agreed with by headmins
Roboticists making unslaved borgs for no reason	Link to relevant thread. The discussion derailed into code discussion but the ruling is that roboticists cannot make unslaved borgs for no reason.
Asimov and gang dominators	This can probably be applied to other nonharmful antagonist objectives. If a human orders you not to destroy it, don't destroy it. Other than that, Asimov does not forbid you from destroying it.	Ausops
Drones and permabrig	You can go in to fix damage. You might still get dronebanned if you let people out, it will likely be handled case-by-case.
Asimov and Corpses	Corpses aren't human. You can't space them for no reason though.	Shaps/Lzimann
Do caks remember past lives?	Yes. Not really silicon policy but it's related to MMIs/borging.	KorPhaeron
Calling silicons rogue for little/no reason	Against the rules, don't do it.	TehSteveo/KorPhaeron
AI suiciding to prevent subversion	Context: If an AI knows it will be subverted and cause human harm, can it suicide? Example, clock cultists breaking into core, desword traitor in upload about to subvert, etc. It's allowed. He says it should be bannable not to, but you won't get banned for not doing so, it's up to the player. You're free to depower yourself as an AI to put the subverter/traitor on a timer but you shouldn't use the OOC verb to suicide.	KorPhaeron
Asking to be deconstructed and then outing person who emagged you as an emagged borg	Don't do it.	PKPenguin321
Silicons and Prisoners	If a nonharmful prisoner asks to be released, it can be released. If a harmful one asks to be released, don't release him unless security is harming him. In all cases release prisoners being harmed by security. (assuming all prisoners are human and you are asimov)	PKPenguin321
Letting people in to upload laws	If the person has a right to be there, such as captain/RD, then you must let them in unless they've harmed people in the past or have announced intentions to upload harmful laws.	Armhulenn
Are drones valid?	Only if they do something to annoy you. Mass killing drones for no reason is not okay.	KorPhaeron
Drones building autocloners	Fine unless done to interfere with other players.	Ausops
Drones and Powersinks	Drones cannot destroy powersinks under the same logic of them not being able to defuse bombs or stop plasma floods.	Ausops
Laws ordering silicons to kill themselves	Whether silicons have to follow it depends on wording of law. You must have a good reason as a nonantagonist and you're free to do it as an antagonist.	Ausops
Silicons using leet speak	Silicons are not allowed to leet speak (e.g. l33t sp34k), but typing in a 'glitchy' manner is allowed on roleplay grounds	Hulkamania
Is chaplain with dark blessing human?	Chaplain with a dark blade is human. It's a fancy arm add on. We don't make people silicon for having augments, even full ones.	Hulkamania

Law Interpretation Rulings

Law interpretation and do not state this law clauses	There is room for interpretation in some cases. Be consistent in your interpretation of the laws.	Ausops
Do AIs need a definition of Syndicate agent?	No, they know by default what a Syndicate agent is. This also applies to other antagonists.	Hornygranny
Do purged silicons have to act like a crewmember?	Purged silicons are subject to rule one and standard escalation.	Stickymayhem
Discussion on paladin lawset: Part 2, the electric boogaloo	Most relevant post is by HotelBravoLima, which applies to law interpretation in general. "Even doing something consistent with an interpretation of laws isn't good if you're being an OOC dick about it to such an extreme, that's the policy."	HotelBravoLima
Tyrant module discussion	Just general discussion on the tyrant lawset.
AI's law zero	The law zero that a traitor AI gets means that it is an antagonist and it can ignore all other laws.	KorPhaeron
Are AI laws applied retroactively?	No. You'll have to read this thread to understand it, the question doesn't really provide enough context.	Hornygranny
If a borg linked to a rogue AI is emagged then does the emagged laws or AI law zero take priority?	Very niche case and is probably impossible since emags should sever the connection to the AI. Starmute made a good post on AI law priority if you are confused.
Potential Law One Violations	"Prioritizing "potential future law violations" is a fucking terrible idea, since it makes silicons able to handwave basically any law two request with "yeah but if i let you in there you might potentially attack somebody inside, law 1 violation!!!""	PKPenguin321
Make "Do not state this law" a valid silicon policy law	No, for the variety of reasons that have been said in this thread.	Wubli

MRP Rulings

Murderboning Specifics on MRP Servers	Some roles can do it, some cant, and there are grey areas.	Coconutwarrior97
Promotions of prisoners to security	If you have a decent enough reason for it such as needing people to fight a blob sure, otherwise no.	Coconutwarrior97
"Gun Cargo" on MRP	Needs a good IC reason, can't just be because "We're bored". Good faith gimmicks are still allowed, but you can't murder sec for trying to take your guns away.	Coconutwarrior97