Rule Suggestion Invisible Ruling Clarifications & Changes

Rule suggestions will be reviewed by Superadmins, this may take longer than standard content suggestions.
What does this suggestion add:
Clarifies, with the judgement of NL, whether the following unwritten or unclarified rulings are valid:
Unlikely Rulebreak
Needs Clarification
Verified Rulebreak
  1. FailRP: Trading items to teammates to provide an unfair advantage (weapons to siege D-Block, cyanide in a hostage situation)
  2. Bug Abuse: Use of the ECT mechanic to delay the decay of a TYPE-BLUE
  3. FailRP: The unprovoked killing of a defender of a base within the confines of their base constitutes the beginning of a raid
  4. Metagaming: The use of voice chat to suspect, confirm, or disprove the identity of personnel
  5. Metagaming: The use of class-specific weapons to suspect, confirm, or disprove the identity of personnel
  6. FailRP: The use of spawn loadout chemical grenades to combat raids
  7. FearRP: The consumption of chemicals or bleach under FearRP (2.06 stipulates pacifist chemicals only)
  8. Bug Abuse: Having more than 480 bullets or 96 pistol ammo holstered in one's pockets
  9. Body Blocking: The use of reality bending abilities that make the user effectively invincible to body block players or SCPs
  10. FailRP: The use of SCP-914 to aid in an infiltration mission
  11. Hitbox Abuse: Players may only jump once within each combative engagement.
  12. Hitbox Abuse: Players may not repeatedly crouch and uncrouch within a combative engagement, unless ducking behind cover. Without cover, players who crouch must remain crouched for the duration of the engagement.
  13. Metagaming: Raid defenders may not use the player list to determine which SCP containment chambers to respond to.
  14. FailRP: The use of "brain rot" in any roleplay capacity; documents, images, in-game communications.
  15. FailRP: The order, authorization, or use of remote mechanics (tactical tablet, SLAMs, raid authorizations) while in a sit room to influence gameplay outside of the sit room.
Credits go to @Bohemia for these:
  1. FailRP: Spawning vehicles during a raid by a defending group
  2. FailRP: Stationing defenders, surveillance devices, or traps inside the vent entrance on surface to inform of a raid
  3. Metagaming: Employing the use of Scranton Reality Anchors during raids without explicit knowledge of the presence of a reality bender based on past or common knowledge during the current players' life
  4. Powergaming: The use of differing PAC3 outfits to suspect, confirm, or disprove the identity of personnel
  5. 1.18 Spawn Camping: Elaboration on what roleplay interaction warrants combative action against personnel who have just left the confines of their base (being talked to, being aimed at with a weapon, being spotted and actively watched without apparent hostile intent)
And for every ruling on the list that is deemed valid to be added to either the SCP-RP Rules page or the SCP-RP Staff Rulings page.

With the objective of rule clarity for future situations, rules that are not written nor are intuitively discernible (i.e. may obviously classify under the umbrella of FailRP) may only be punished with a verbal warning, after which the participants or staff ruling over the situation may make an appeal for the perceived violation to be added to the SCP-RP Staff Rulings as intended.

Please suggest more as I know this is not an exhaustive list. I will add more to the list up until the suggestion is reviewed.

Has something similar been suggested before? If so, why is your suggestion different?:
There have been many suggestions advocating for singular rules to be added, including this one regarding on-the-spot clarifications, but this suggestion collates all esoteric rules, past and present, and seeks to determine their validity as official rules that can be cited for punishment.

Possible Positives of the suggestion:
  • Reduces frustration and perceived unjustness when being punished for an offense that is not explicitly stated nor intuitively determinable to be a rule violation
Possible Negatives of the suggestion:
  • Adds many new rulings which may overwhelm newer players
Based on the Positives & Negatives, why should this suggestion be accepted:
Invisible rulings are universally disliked and are an avenue for frustration, bias, and negativity towards staff members, particularly those responsible for rule determinations that may be quickly reverted. Flip-flopping rules lead to even more confusion and animosity against the player base, leading to a perception of poor communication and judgement among senior members of server staff. If these rules were to be written in stone, there be concrete reference for both players and staff to go off of, alleviating frustrations of differing rulings and the potential of rulings influenced by the interests of staff involved.
 

Merrick Travolta

Head Moderator
Head Moderator
SCP-RP Staff
Platform Team
Oct 18, 2023
383
82
61
The point of a lot of these is just a case of, We don't want the rules page to be 3x longer than it is, A lot of this is common sense for gameplay loops.
FailRP: The order, authorization, or use of remote mechanics (tactical tablet, SLAMs, raid authorizations) while in a sit room to influence gameplay outside of the sit room.
This should not be happening at all. Please write a complaint or contact a staff member about people doing this.

  1. Hitbox Abuse: Players may only jump once within each combative engagement.
  2. Hitbox Abuse: Players may not repeatedly crouch and uncrouch within a combative engagement, unless ducking behind cover. Without cover, players who crouch must remain crouched for the duration of the engagement.
These are already covered in the rule for hitbox abuse.

2.08 Hitbox Abuse & Body blocking - Spamming crouch, jump, crouch jump, or head glitching to manipulate hitboxes is prohibited. You may only body boost with (1) other person. In terms of body blocking, unarmed players or immortal SCPs may not Body Block. Riot Shields may be used to body block players, however not SCPs.
 
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These are already covered in the rule for hitbox abuse.
The issue is that the rules do not explicitly state (as petty as you might think this is, players do pursue it) how many times you may jump after entering combat. It just states that you may not "spam": as always, the frequency of "spam" is subjective here.

Additionally, I've seen people complain about ducking and unducking to shoot from behind cover as it often enables hitbox abuse when used in tandem with third person.

The point of a lot of these is just a case of, We don't want the rules page to be 3x longer than it is
I'm of the opinion that the main rulings page should be short and sweet, covering most situations that arise as a result of standard gameplay. On the other hand, the staff rulings page should be long and detailed, not necessarily friendly, serving as a secondary basis for staff decisions when the main rulings may not suffice.
 

Merrick Travolta

Head Moderator
Head Moderator
SCP-RP Staff
Platform Team
Oct 18, 2023
383
82
61
I'm of the opinion that the main rulings page should be short and sweet, covering most situations that arise as a result of standard gameplay. On the other hand, the staff rulings page should be long and detailed, not necessarily friendly, serving as a secondary basis for staff decisions when the main rulings may not suffice.

and we have that.
 
What does this suggestion add:
Clarifies, with the judgement of NL, whether the following unwritten or unclarified rulings are valid:
Unlikely Rulebreak
Needs Clarification
Verified Rulebreak
  1. FailRP: Trading items to teammates to provide an unfair advantage (weapons to siege D-Block, cyanide in a hostage situation)
  2. Bug Abuse: Use of the ECT mechanic to delay the decay of a TYPE-BLUE
  3. FailRP: The unprovoked killing of a defender of a base within the confines of their base constitutes the beginning of a raid
  4. Metagaming: The use of voice chat to suspect, confirm, or disprove the identity of personnel
  5. Metagaming: The use of class-specific weapons to suspect, confirm, or disprove the identity of personnel
  6. FailRP: The use of spawn loadout chemical grenades to combat raids
  7. FearRP: The consumption of chemicals or bleach under FearRP (2.06 stipulates pacifist chemicals only)
  8. Bug Abuse: Having more than 480 bullets or 96 pistol ammo holstered in one's pockets
  9. Body Blocking: The use of reality bending abilities that make the user effectively invincible to body block players or SCPs
  10. FailRP: The use of SCP-914 to aid in an infiltration mission
  11. Hitbox Abuse: Players may only jump once within each combative engagement.
  12. Hitbox Abuse: Players may not repeatedly crouch and uncrouch within a combative engagement, unless ducking behind cover. Without cover, players who crouch must remain crouched for the duration of the engagement.
  13. Metagaming: Raid defenders may not use the player list to determine which SCP containment chambers to respond to.
  14. FailRP: The use of "brain rot" in any roleplay capacity; documents, images, in-game communications.
  15. FailRP: The order, authorization, or use of remote mechanics (tactical tablet, SLAMs, raid authorizations) while in a sit room to influence gameplay outside of the sit room.
Credits go to @Bohemia for these:
  1. FailRP: Spawning vehicles during a raid by a defending group
  2. FailRP: Stationing defenders, surveillance devices, or traps inside the vent entrance on surface to inform of a raid
  3. Metagaming: Employing the use of Scranton Reality Anchors during raids without explicit knowledge of the presence of a reality bender based on past or common knowledge during the current players' life
  4. Powergaming: The use of differing PAC3 outfits to suspect, confirm, or disprove the identity of personnel
  5. 1.18 Spawn Camping: Elaboration on what roleplay interaction warrants combative action against personnel who have just left the confines of their base (being talked to, being aimed at with a weapon, being spotted and actively watched without apparent hostile intent)
And for every ruling on the list that is deemed valid to be added to either the SCP-RP Rules page or the SCP-RP Staff Rulings page.

With the objective of rule clarity for future situations, rules that are not written nor are intuitively discernible (i.e. may obviously classify under the umbrella of FailRP) may only be punished with a verbal warning, after which the participants or staff ruling over the situation may make an appeal for the perceived violation to be added to the SCP-RP Staff Rulings as intended.

Please suggest more as I know this is not an exhaustive list. I will add more to the list up until the suggestion is reviewed.

Has something similar been suggested before? If so, why is your suggestion different?:
There have been many suggestions advocating for singular rules to be added, including this one regarding on-the-spot clarifications, but this suggestion collates all esoteric rules, past and present, and seeks to determine their validity as official rules that can be cited for punishment.

Possible Positives of the suggestion:
  • Reduces frustration and perceived unjustness when being punished for an offense that is not explicitly stated nor intuitively determinable to be a rule violation
Possible Negatives of the suggestion:
  • Adds many new rulings which may overwhelm newer players
Based on the Positives & Negatives, why should this suggestion be accepted:
Invisible rulings are universally disliked and are an avenue for frustration, bias, and negativity towards staff members, particularly those responsible for rule determinations that may be quickly reverted. Flip-flopping rules lead to even more confusion and animosity against the player base, leading to a perception of poor communication and judgement among senior members of server staff. If these rules were to be written in stone, there be concrete reference for both players and staff to go off of, alleviating frustrations of differing rulings and the potential of rulings influenced by the interests of staff involved.
I like the idea of staff rulings getting updated but most of the examples you used are dumb or just common sense.
like holstered ammo and voice chat confirmation
 
Dec 25, 2023
277
53
61
The majority of these seem fairly simple to me, I'll go through the ones that fulfil that to me:

First List:
1. FailRP - You cannot teleport an item into someone elses pocket, it simply doesn't make sense in RP, so you cannot do that during an active RP scenario.
3. FailRP - As it is a raid to shoot a person who is inside their base, without auth it would be a Fail Raid, meaning FailRP
4. Meta - Using the voice to recognise someone is meta because you're using an OOC factor to recognise them
7. FailRP? - Using bleach under FearRP is not FailRP, there is no reason for it to be unless you're stripped (as long as the suicide is otherwise reasonable)
10. FailRP - I see no reason why this would be FailRP, you're breaking into a base and are planning to run hidden around there is no reason not to 914 as long as you know about it in-character and are aware of it.
13. Meta - The player list is OOC, OOC things cannot be used in-character
15. FailRP - Using an IC item during an OOC situation to gain an advantage

Second List:
3. Not Meta? - As long as the reasoning for using the scranton isn't "I see they have a TB online" then it is not meta, it is reasonable against someone like CI (and even GOC) that they would use a reality bender during a raid.

I haven't mentioned many of them, not because I find you wrong but simply because I'm not 1000% sure. Every one I have listed bar the few italic ones are obvious rule breaks for the reasons - and the italic ones are ones I don't see how they would be rule breaks unless something more specific occured?
 
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I like the idea of staff rulings getting updated but most of the examples you used are dumb or just common sense.
like holstered ammo and voice chat confirmation
When NL rules over SSL rules over SL rules over common staff members? Have you not seen enough to realize how much frustration could be avoided by adding rulings to a page, specifically separated from the main rulings, as to prevent flooding the main rulings page?