DayZRP Rules

LAST UPDATE
2022-04-11

1 Behavior and content

DayZRP is a community created by mature people, for mature players. We are adults who want to enjoy high level role play in a controlled setting without having to interact with immature individuals who could destroy our experience. Similarly, we do not want to participate in or host any kind of Internet drama or bullying. These rules apply everywhere, not just things you do, say or send through DayZRP services.

• 1.1 We demand all our members to be polite, behave maturely and with respect towards one another at all times. Do not insult, bully, harass, troll or provoke other DayZRP members.
• 1.2 Listen to what others have to say before expressing your opinion. Never put down people or their ideas, nit-pick, constantly criticize over little things, belittle, judge, demean or patronize. A series of seemingly trivial actions, added up over time, constitutes bullying. Treat people the same no matter their race, religion, gender, size, age, or country of origin.
• 1.3 Do not spam, advertise, promote funding sites, share referral links, search for vulnerabilities, exploit bugs or otherwise disrupt functionality of any services related to DayZRP.
• 1.4 All content shared through DayZRP services should be Safe For Work. To prevent heated discussions and conflicts we do not allow discussion of following topics within the community: politics, religion and sexual orientations. For the same reason you are not allowed to promote religion, political parties, propaganda, ideologies, hash tags, movements, organizations or companies through your posts or other profile page customization like avatars, signatures or backgrounds.
• 1.5 Do not reply to old threads with no new relevant information (also known as "necro"). The general rule is that all threads with last reply older than 3 months should not be replied to unless one responds with new, relevant information. Forum posts must keep a high standard and add a constructive and meaningful opinion that contributes to the thread at hand. Examples of non-constructive and non-contributing replies are simple and meaningless expressions like "lol", jokes, memes, banter or replies containing only pictures, gifs or other unrelated media. Off topic forums and status updates are the only areas on the website exempt from this rule.
• 1.6 User titles, avatars, signatures or forum posts may not imitate or try to replicate official staff warnings/statements, awards, badges or Premium perks.
• 1.7 You are not allowed to use animated gifs, videos, sound or other interactive content in profile fields like avatars, signatures, profile background, character pictures or other profile fields, unless it is provided by a Premium perk.
• 1.8 You may not promote or glorify players that have been banned from DayZRP. If you recognize or come into contact with banned players on any DayZRP related services, you are required to report them to a staff member. Failing to do so may lead to you being punished for harboring or assisting a banned player.

2 Fair Play

We have zero tolerance policy for any kind of use of cheats or exploits. We demand our players to play the game with spirit of fair play in mind. The game should be enjoyed for its own sake, with proper consideration for fairness, ethics, respect, and a sense of fellowship with other players.

• 2.1 Cheating in any games that share DayZ BattlEye anti-cheat system, including receiving a BattlEye Global Ban results in an instant and permanent ban. Cheating in other multiplayer games or getting VAC bans on your Steam account will mark you as a "known cheater" and will result in your DayZRP account being blacklisted for 1 year from the ban date.
• 2.2 Exploiting or abuse of game mechanics (AOGM) is gaining an unfair advantage by using game bugs or mechanics in a way that the developer did not intend them to work. Example of exploiting is loot cycling, placing objects inside walls or other places where the object would normally not fit in, driving vehicles underwater, creating impenetrable tent walls, or intentionally using indestructible objects as shields that effectively give you invulnerability.
• 2.3 Be a good sport. Do not focus on PvP aspect of the game and attack everything that moves just because you can or are good at it. Remember that not many players will enjoy being constantly attacked, therefore you should not dominate other groups or players into submission to a point where they can no longer accomplish their regular role play or enjoy the game.
• 2.4 Don't be a sore loser. Items in game can be replaced, there is no need to be angry and hold grudge against someone just because someone was better. Keep in mind that it is just a game. Take regular breaks from the game if you have trouble separating In Character events from Out of Character real world.
• 2.5 Ghosting is the act of abusing the mechanics of logging in or out of a server to gain an advantage over other players. For example, sneaking into an enemy base and logging out with the intention of logging in later when they are offline to get past base defenses, logging out near a location where your allies later initiate hostilities to log in behind enemy lines or switching to an alternate character to avoid repercussions for your actions or use anonymity to your advantage. This rule does not apply to players logging in inside their own home base.

3 Role Play

Role play is assuming a role of a fictional character that you create for yourself and through that character collaboratively creating stories together with other players and their characters. We use terms "In Character (IC)" to describe content and information that is perceived from the characters point of view, while "Out Of Character (OOC)" is all real life information and content outside of the game.

Upholding good quality of role play and making sure that everyone enjoys it should always be a priority. The objective is for everyone to have fun, regardless of their preferred type of role play or nature of their character. Do not discriminate other players based on their preferred way to play, previous characters that they have played or their OOC reputation.

• 3.1 Roleplay done on DayZRP servers needs to be done in a manner that does not in any shape or form engage in slurs or derogatory language/actions surrounding the following categories: ethnicity, race, religious beliefs, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Strictly prohibited roleplay categories as a whole include: rape, sexual roleplay, sexual harassment, and extremist groups/activities.
• 3.2 You are required to role play your character at all times while in game. No OOC events or communication may take priority over your role play. You are not allowed to ignore other players attempts to role play with you.
• 3.3 Your character must behave realistically and appropriately to the different situations you participate in, keeping the current world situation and context of post-apocalyptic world in mind. Do not act in a way that indicates no value for your characters life and survival. For example, attempting to kill people when heavily outnumbered, excessively talking back or insulting someone when taken hostage, or knowingly running into an area of active hostile engagement when not involved in the fight. Characters found guilty of breaking this rule will be permanently marked as dead.
• 3.4 You may not focus on out of character gains to the detriment of RP. For example, "rule play" is prioritizing things like kill rights or OOC information above more appropriate IC actions or behavior. Always prioritize role play over rule play.
• 3.5 When your character dies you lose all memories from the situation that lead to your death. You may not return to the general location (approximately 250 meters) where you died for at least 1 hour after your death, no matter the circumstances. You also cannot get involved in the same situation that lead to your death, even if it has moved to a different location or 1 hour has passed. Situation is considered the same as long as any side has active kill rights. Server restarts, crashes, game glitches, dying without any other players around or any other circumstances do not affect these restrictions or time limit. This is known as "New Life Rule" (NLR).
• 3.6 Metagaming is transferring information between Out of Character (OOC) and In Character (IC), despite there being no realistic way of characters or players gaining this information. This includes, but is not limited to:
  • Your character knowing someones name because you saw it in the game chat or met them before on a different character
  • Using player live streams to find out where people are in game or gaining other information that is found in the stream
  • Using forum OOC content like media threads to gain information about groups or bases
  • Sharing or gaining information through OOC communications when not permitted as per rule 3.6 below
• 3.7 Using OOC communications like Discord, TeamSpeak or others to transmit or receive information related to in game situations is only allowed when you have a personal radio item in your inventory. As soon as your character loses the ability to speak or use the radio - for example has died, is unconscious, has been gagged, is surrendering (F1 or F2 animation), is handcuffed or had your radio item or clothing containing it removed from your inventory - you may not receive or transmit any in game information through OOC communications. While in presence of other players all such communication should also be transmitted in game using "double mic" mechanic. This means transmitting both through in game VOIP and external software simultaneously.
• 3.8 You are not allowed to force an action, condition or belief through role play upon another players character unless the action is specifically consented to by the other player using OOC text. This is called power gaming. Certain extreme role play like rape is not allowed at all and is considered power gaming regardless of consent.
• 3.9 OOC communication should only be done through text chat and only when absolutely necessary. You may not use OOC chat to casually chat with other players in game. Use the "//" prefix to indicate OOC text communication.
• 3.10 Do not impersonate another individual or group in a way that would bring harm to them, their group or their reputation.
• 3.11 Events can be organized by both staff and players. Events may either be dynamic or official. Dynamic events are spontaneous events organized entirely in game, often advertised through radio (RCON admin chat in game) without any special rules or preparations. Official events are the ones announced on the website, with a thread in the event forums. Official events may not be disrupted, sabotaged, attacked or interrupted without a consent from event organizer. Official events may sometimes have other special, temporary rules applied to them that last for the duration of the event.

4 Hostilities

Hostile actions are player interactions where you or your group members lives are threatened by other players, you are forced to do something against your will under threat of violence, someone is stealing from you, etc. For example, if someone is telling you to drop your weapon and put your hands up or else you will die, he is committing a hostile action against you. Hostile actions can often be very complicated involving multiple people and groups, which makes newcomers especially vulnerable to punishments for rule breaks in this category.

Depending on a whether a player is attacking or being attacked, players can defend themselves and their friends and kill other players during hostile situations.

• 4.1 All initiations and hostile actions as well as their demands and conditions must be made clear and unambiguous to all involved players. Hostile actions or initations must be done personally and on specific targets who must be aware who the attacker is, for example they cannot be done remotely through radio or PA system. Choosing to disobey or ignoring an initiation after a reasonable amount of time has passed grants the initiator Kill Rights against you.
• 4.2 When your life is at risk or you are subjected to a hostile action by other players, you are allowed to defend yourself. This is granted by two different "kill rights" that you can gain based on circumstances of the situation, like which side caused the hostile situation and which side you are on.
  • If you are a defender - the one being initiated on or subjected to other hostile actions that threaten your life which you did not start or provoke - you are allowed to defend yourself by gaining DEFENDER RIGHTS on the attackers. Defender rights allow you to kill attackers for 2 hours or until your character dies. Defender rights can be shared with anyone who you recently role-played with, as well as all your online group members, if you are a part of an approved group.
  • If you are an attacker - the one who first did the initiation or started, caused or provoked the hostile situation - you are allowed to defend yourself by gaining ATTACKER RIGHTS on the defenders. Attacker rights allow you to kill defenders for 1 hour or until your character dies. Attacker rights can be only be shared with your online approved group members. If you are not a part of an approved group, attacker rights can not be shared and apply only for your character.
• 4.3 You shouldn't use kill rights in situations where it doesn't make in-character sense as it can be seen as rule play. In other words, obtaining kill rights alone does not give you explicit permission to use them any time you want and in all situations. Think about if using them to kill another character is viable in the current situation considering role play and In Character information. Kill rights gained from any rule breaks (including but not limited to baiting, invalid initiation) are considered invalid and their use will be punished in the same way as if they were not obtained at all.
• 4.4 Hostile situations must focus on the role play experience of both attackers and victims. Both sides should actively participate and contribute to role play in all situations, any disputes or issues can be discussed and resolved afterwards.

  As an attacker you may NOT:

  • Attack other players just for the sake of gear by doing a quick robbery that involves little to no role play.
  • Ignore your victims. You must provide an engaging role play to keep things interesting for the victims at all times.

  As a victim you may NOT:

  • Pretend to be fearless, emotionless, not feel pain, or otherwise be unaffected by the situation where your life is at risk in a hostile situation.
  • Be passive during the hostile role play and refuse to actively participate in it. Just sitting there and not contributing to role play can make the situation very boring for the attackers.
• 4.5 Combat logging is leaving the server during or shortly after a hostile situation or when your character is still involved in active role play. If any players have kill rights on you or your group, you may not log out from the game until 30 minutes passed since you broke the line of sight with any of those players. This rule can be ignored if the players involved give you OK to log out earlier.
• 4.6 If you successfully capture a player through a hostile action and then take him into your custody, he is now considered your hostage. You must do everything in your power to keep your hostages alive and in a relatively good health. That includes protecting them from external threats like zombies and leaving them with a realistic chance of survival when they are released. A character that is taken hostage may be executed once for a hostile incident that happened in the past where the hostage was personally responsible for a death of a member of your approved group. In any other circumstances, hostages may only be executed in the following scenarios:
  • Hostages do not comply with your demands after repeated requests or try to escape.
  • Hostages pose a direct threat to you or your group, for example by picking up a weapon when not allowed to.
  • Hostages do not value their life, for example they repeatedly talk back or insult you despite being told to stop.
  • Approved group of the hostage refuse to negotiate or open fire on hostage takers.
  • Demands from negotiations with the involved parties have not been met after a reasonable time has elapsed.
• 4.7 You are not allowed to bait other players. Baiting is the act of provoking, insulting or acting in an offensive manner unsuitable to the roleplay situation at hand, with the aim of getting the other party to initiate on you.
• 4.8 Griefing is act of damaging, destroying or otherwise despawning a player built structure, vehicle, storage container or their contents with ill intent or without valid IC reasoning. Blocking of player objects or dismantling them solely for resources is disallowed regardless of IC reasoning.
• 4.9 If you are searched for items by other players you must give away all items that are available on your character - you may not make items "imaginary", hidden in body cavities or have concealed weapons.
• 4.10 Deployable weapons such as land mines, bear traps and similar items work in two different ways:
  1. When deployed by the base owners inside a walled off and closed base, these weapons will be treated as defensive measures and thus any kills done by them will be considered valid even without any kill rights
  2. When deployed anywhere or by anyone else they will be treated the same as any other weapon, so for example:
  • If someone gets injured or killed by your mine or trap which you placed in the middle of a town or a forest, it will be treated the same way as if you shot/killed them on sight with a gun
  • If an enemy you have valid kill rights on steps on your mine, the kill will be considered valid
• 4.11 Characters that get repeatedly captured and executed for their actions or display a trend of lacking care for their life are subject to be marked for PK by administrators. Once marked for PK other players are allowed to permanently kill that character using a valid hostage execution.