Server Rules

Last updated September 5, 2026

1. The rule under the rules

Play to tell a story, not to win one. Every other rule here is a specific case of that. When something isn’t covered, ask yourself whether your choice makes the scene better for everyone in it, including the person on the other side of a conflict, and act accordingly.

2. Who can play

You must be 18 or older, a member of the Knox Accord Discord, and playing an approved character. You join with the private login key on your account page, not an out-of-character username. One active character per player unless staff grant an extra slot.

3. Out-of-character conduct

Harassment, hate speech, bigotry, threats, and sexual content involving minors are never allowed, in-game or in Discord. Roleplayed conflict is never a license for real hostility. Do not share anyone’s real-life information. Keep out-of-character chat in the channels marked for it, and keep it civil. If a scene is making you genuinely uncomfortable, you may pause or fade it, and say so out of character; staff will back you.

4. Stay in character, stay in the world

• No metagaming. Knowledge your character didn’t earn in the fiction (Discord chatter, stream sniping, who’s behind a character, a death you heard about out of character) cannot drive their actions.
• No powergaming. Don’t narrate outcomes for other people’s characters, force actions on them, or play your own as tireless, fearless, or unkillable. Give others room to respond.
• Fear the dead. The outbreak is deadly and your character knows it. Treat the infected, injury, weather, and starvation as real threats.
• Value your life, and everyone else’s. Act the way a person who wants to survive would act, including surrendering, running, or complying when the situation calls for it.

5. Consent

Roleplay that meaningfully affects another player’s character (their body, their mind, their story, their belongings) needs that player’s agreement. Ordinary give-and-take within an established scene is fine; escalation is not assumed.

The following always need explicit out-of-character buy-in from every player involved before they happen: permanent injury or disfigurement, torture, sexual content of any kind, captivity that removes someone from play for an extended time, and anything that ends or permanently changes a character. Fading to black is always an option for any participant, but it isn’t required; consenting players may play a scene out in more detail if everyone involved agrees. If someone declines, you find a different beat. “My character would do it” is not an override.

Sexual roleplay of any kind must happen in private messages between only the players involved. It never belongs in-game, in a public or shared Discord channel, or anywhere else someone who hasn’t agreed to see it might.

6. Death, injury, and infection

Base Build 41 has no consent-led infection switch, so a bite is not an automatic character death here. A character-ending outcome, whether that’s death or playing out a fatal infection, happens by agreement between the players involved, or by staff ruling when a situation clearly earns it (for example, dying mid-scene with no reasonable escape).

When a character dies, that story is over. A new character does not remember the old one’s knowledge, relationships, stashes, or grudges. Don’t return to the site of your death to recover gear on a new character.

7. Conflict and PvP

• Hostile action against another player’s character starts with roleplay: a demand, a threat, an ambush that gives them a chance to react, not an opening shot.
• The server’s safety system is on. Turning PvP on with another player is a deliberate, in-fiction choice; don’t flip it to grief.
• No spawn-camping, no third-partying a scene you have no connection to, and no immediately hunting down someone who just robbed or spared you. Let a resolved conflict breathe.
• If you initiate lethal conflict, you accept that your own character is now equally at risk.

8. Building and property

Don’t wall off town-center buildings, resources, or map chokepoints that the wider community relies on. Don’t destroy or loot another group’s established base without a roleplay reason and, for anything permanent, their consent. Safehouses left untouched for a long stretch may be opened up again by staff.

9. Named places and charters

An approved charter is a public promise to run a place for the county: a clinic, a market, a waystation. It is not a private claim to loot, territory, or people, and it doesn’t give you mechanical advantage. Unchartered, you’re welcome to hold a home; you just can’t advertise it as an institution.

10. Cheating, exploits, and mods

No third-party tools, no exploiting bugs (item duplication, wall-clipping, safehouse exploits), no alt characters used to feed one another intel or gear. Run only the server’s mod list. Report exploits to staff instead of using them.

11. Streaming and screenshots

You may stream or post from the server. Use a delay if you’re in active conflict, don’t use your stream to gain in-character information, and respect anyone who asks not to be featured.

12. Reporting and moderation

File a report on the site with as much detail as you can: the reported character’s name, when and where it happened, the rule broken, and what you’re asking staff to do. Don’t retaliate in-game and don’t argue it out in open chat. If you’re named in a report, you’ll be notified on the site and in-game and asked to acknowledge it; a staff member reviews the thread and decides.

Staff may issue a warning, a kick, a temporary ban, or a permanent ban, and may edit or remove published content. A ban recorded on the site also suspends game-server access, and lifting it restores that access immediately. Active punishments and their stated reasons are shown to you on your account page, where you can also appeal a standing ban. See the Terms of Service for the full moderation and appeals policy.

13. Changes

These rules will change as the alpha teaches us things. Material changes are announced in the Discord; the date above tracks the current version.