Server Rules

'Read all of the rules carefully. Claiming ignorance of these rules is not allowed and will result in a ban.'

1. COMMUNITY RULES

 * 1) Be respectful of others in the community; personal insults or verbal attacks outside of role-play (RP) are strictly prohibited!
 * 2) RP that violates the Hat Films Discord and Twitch community rules is not allowed.
 * 3) Any player caught harassing or bullying another player on the server, or outside of the server but in relation to their presence on the server, will be permanently removed and barred from the current and any future whitelists.
 * 4) Your first action in any disagreement should always be to try to RP it out. If that doesn’t work and you have a problem with another player, handle it privately, rather than having an open argument in chat in the game or in a public forum like Discord or Twitch. If the player has broken a rule, file a report.
 * 5) Do not message admins directly for general questions. Use documentation found in the Discord server to help you. If you can not find an answer, ask for help in the Discord for help from other users. If you have a problem report it in the Problems section of the Discord.
 * 6) When you applied to HatRP you gave your Discord name alongside your in game character name. Please keep your Discord name the same in the Hat Films Server so that it’s easier for admins to find you quickly in the event a report is filed against you.
 * 7) You must stay in character at all times on the HatRP server. This means no going out-of-character (OOC) on the radio/in-game chats, as well. Message people on Steam, Discord, or other methods if you need to, but keep it all in-character (IC) when playing on HatRP.
 * 8) DO NOT broadcast music to the server using the internal VOIP unless agreed upon by all present parties.

2. IN GAME RULES

 * 1) Respect others at all times. Racism, hate speech, rape, and sexual harassment are not allowed.
 * 2) No ERP (Erotic Roleplay) on the server.
 * 3) Do not grief others. Griefing is the act of intentionally angering or irritating another player with malicious intent. Example: Consistently stalking a player to force RP.
 * 4) For GTA, you must be 18 years old and as such you MUST be 18+ years old to play on the HatRP server.
 * 5) No Police baiting. Value for your life/freedom and strive to not get caught in a crime. Jail/ Fines are not to be treated lightly.
 * 6) Do not glitch any elements of the game or use exploits.
 * 7) Vehicle repairs are not to be used from inside a car during any chase by either party, criminal or PD. You must be clear of any situation before starting repairs unless standing outside the vehicle.
 * 8) You must never go into an apartment to avoid consequences.
 * 9) There is zero tolerance for wasting server slots and looking to circumvent server rules.
 * 10) Your clothing must be changed at realistic locations (A closet, from the back of a car, clothing store) and must not be done to avoid immediate consequences. IE. Changing in the middle of a chase or when you haven’t gotten away fully is against the server rules.
 * 11) You may not use a server restart or crash to gain advantage:


 * An example of using a restart to your advantage would be robbing a store straight after a restart.
 * You must wait 20 minutes after a restart to begin any heist/robbery on the server.
 * You may not use a server restart or crash to escape an RP situation you were in before the restart/crash. You must wait for the other players to reconnect, and then continue the RP. This includes if you disconnect, you must find your way back to the RP situation (IE. In cuffs with the cops, being transported to a police station, if you were in a cell or if someone kidnapped you and the DC made you fall out of the car). You must make an effort to return to the RP (Even if it means sending someone a discord DM to do so).

3. COMMUNICATION

 * 1) A microphone is required to play on HatRP. If your mic breaks, find a reason your character is suddenly mute (example: a sore throat) and exit the situation as gracefully as you can.
 * 2) External communication – The moment you begin active RP you MUST mute or close your external VOIP connection.

4. METAGAMING
Metagaming ''is the use of out-of-character (OOC) knowledge someone would have no in-character (IC) knowledge of. Stream sniping occurs when you have a player’s stream open and use the information you see there (whether to find, harass, spy on them, or otherwise interact).''


 * 1) Stream sniping/stalking and metagaming IS NOT TOLERATED. Do not act on information obtained through any means other than direct RP:
 * 2) You must keep the information you have learned via watching streams and reading discussions in discord separate from your character’s knowledge.
 * 3) You may not use in-game automated notifications for your character’s knowledge (death messages and admin messages etc.).
 * 4) RULESPLAINING –  Do not explain the rules in character. “You’re not really valuing your life right now”, “I have a gun to your head, ahahahaha. This guy.”. There are better ways to handle this. Do not ruin your RP experience for people who break the rules – admins will sort them out.

TERMINOLOGY: You may not skirt the OOC rule by saying things like:


 * you have a bodycam (your stream), that you will go to City Hall or the FiB, as in “I will report this to the FiB/City Hall,” or “I’ve talked to someone at City Hall and they said I can do this,” etc.
 * referring to “the land of Discordia” or any other names for Discord, referring to the gods constantly, as in “the gods made him to go sleep permanently” when referring to a banned player, or “the gods can hear us,” etc.

If you need to say something to someone OOC, DM the person – don’t interrupt the RP. If someone else goes OOC, do not further compound the immersion break by going OOC yourself to tell them off or try to help them out. Just report the rule break and move on.

5. VALUE OF LIFE
''You must value your life and the lives of others. For example, do not attempt to draw a weapon while being held at gunpoint or carelessly injure NPCs. You may not run at someone with a melee weapon if at gunpoint – you may only defend yourself at a realistic distance.''


 * 1) You must value your life and the lives of others (not at the detriment of your own).
 * 2) If you have a gun out and someone attempts to hold you up from the FRONT, you do not have to surrender.
 * 3) If someone has a gun to your blind spot (to your back as an example) it doesn’t matter if you have a weapon or not you must surrender within a realistic distance.
 * 4) If you have a gun to your head and you run away – this is a serious violation of this rule.
 * 5) You must comply to reasonable demands if your life is under threat – by weapons or numbers.
 * 6) There is a value of freedom – once physically attacked you have the right to defend yourself or run for safety.
 * 7) Furthermore, value of freedom should be considered when fleeing from robberies, however there is a reasonable point where value of life trumps value of freedom. IE. Multiple officers with guns pointed on you and positioned around a car you are trying to steal, if you drive away and don’t surrender. You are not valuing your life.

6. POWERGAMING
''Powergaming is the process of gaining an advantage in a RP scenario, either by using in-game mechanics or RP, to give the other players involved no opportunity to interact or defend themselves. It gives the other people involved in RP no option but to lose.''

Powergaming of any form is prohibited.

Examples include but are not limited to:


 * 1) Force Mutilation/Dismemberment – You must handshake any action that ends in dismemberment or grotesque mutilation. This can be done through /me attempts to sever their finger slowly or through a DM to the individual (Which is preferred). The individual must respond with an objection – it is their choice whether or not they consent or RP the consequences at a later date.
 * 2) Calling Shots – Do not call shots on a player, if you say you shot someone in the head that is attempted murder and the consequences are extremely severe even if in self defense. It shows intent to kill.
 * 3) Constantly speaking over players and not allowing them to speak or defend themselves.
 * 4) Robbing Players without giving them an opportunity to speak or defend themselves.
 * 5) Putting someone in a position and not allowing them to have a way out.
 * 6) Using a hostage to power game through game content.
 * 7) Supernatural RP – You must give people plausible deniability to your supernatural RP, doing things that would break someone’s immersion without them being able to pivot is against the rules. IE. If you say you’re a Vampire – someone can just say you’re hallucinating or that you’re in town for a cosplay convention. As opposed to, putting scenes down that there are interdimensional portals – people cannot easily pivot and pass this off.

7. PVP
''RDM (Random Death Match) is never allowed. Conflict must be initiated either verbally, through texts, or ads.''


 * 1) Gunfire that does not injure or down a player is not considered RDM. Example: Shooting at the ground in front of a Player’s feet to get their attention.
 * 2) Teleports (Enter/Exits) – cannot be camped. You must let people grab the nearest cover and have time to respond to any threat. You cannot mow someone down or kidnap someone at a load in point.

8. COMBAT / ROBBERY RULES
These must be followed for any robberies, as the culprit or responding officer.


 * 1) You cannot use a supercar in a heist/robbery. Alternatively, you cannot run into the water as a means of getaway either.
 * 2) PD must immediately identify themselves when arriving on scene and attempt verbal communication before firing their weapon.
 * 3) Criminals MUST be in the immediate area for this to apply to them.
 * 4) PD will assume that suppressive shots will be fired at them without verbal communication from Criminals.
 * 5) PD and Criminals are allowed to return fire with the intent to injure/put down once they receive suppressive fire from each other.Criminals and PD must be given an opportunity to take cover if loading in an entry point before firing. Example: Police take the elevator in FIB – the criminals must not camp the load in point. They may not fire suppressive rounds until they’ve been given the chance to get cover.
 * 6) Criminals are NOT required to use verbal communication before firing at PD, however this does not exempt criminals from negotiating with the police.
 * 7) *However, they must use suppressive fire if they choose not to verbally communicate first. Suppressive fire means firing shots at PD with the intent to push them back into cover without injuring them. Give PD the opportunity to take cover, react, and fire back before shooting with the intent to down the PD Player. Suppressive Fire Examples:
 * 8) ** Shooting near the feet of PD
 * 9) ** Shooting the car doors and hood of a PD car
 * 10) ** Shooting at the side and tail of a PD chopper.
 * 11) DO NOT log out in the middle of combat, i.e. combat logging.
 * 12) Do not go to the barbershop with the intent to drastically change your appearance if wanted by PD. Examples of what is NOT allowed: Changing your face, eyebrows, hairstyle, age, etc. Examples of what IS allowed: Dyeing hair, putting on a painted mask, shaving beard off, etc.
 * 13) You cannot knowingly coordinate multiple robberies/heists to start at the same time. Give at least 10 minutes between completion. (This meta is terribly unfair to police)
 * 14) Do not park vehicles inside of a heist building with the intent of escaping through the doors – this is unrealistic. (IE. Motorcycle in a store robbery.)

9. NEW LIFE RULE

 * 1) If you are downed and respawn at the hospital your character must forget the immediate events leading up to being downed in the current scenario. You may not respawn if you’ve been advised that police or EMS is on the way to your scene.
 * 2) You must try and contact medical help when incapacitated.
 * 3) If you are incapacitated you MUST NOT KNOW the names of anyone that was involved in your incapacitation in the situations directly preceding that.
 * 4) This applies to PD, but they are NOT required to RP a limp or severe trauma that causes them to go off duty unless they choose to. This means higher-ranked PD officers cannot force others to go off duty due to injury.
 * 5) The LSPD can charge/arrest Players for crimes committed before they respawned.


 * CRIMINALS This means you cannot respawn and claim memory loss to keep PD from charging you with crimes. Get creative: Use masks, different voices, different outfits, different vehicles, change your license plates, etc. if you want to conceal your identity and not have a paper trail lead back to you.
 * CRIMINALS You must wait 1 hour before re-engaging in the conflict that caused you to be downed/respawn.

''We ask you use common sense: If you are shot multiple times, fall off of a building, or go down in an explosion then do not re-engage even if it’s been 1 hour. RP serious injuries.''

Examples of what is NOT allowed:


 * Respawn and then immediately drive a car to pick up your wanted friend who you just attempted to rob the bank with
 * EMS revives PD Officer who then immediately starts chasing the Criminal(s) who escaped a Robbery.

10. HOSTAGES

 * 1) You may take hostages at the scene for robberies but only other players. No NPCs.
 * 2) You are strictly forbidden from using friends or fake hostages. This is a minimum 72 hour ban. Also it is worth noting – if you are unreasonable with hostages the police WILL BREACH AND SHOOT YOU. They have an obligation at a certain point to save the hostages life when it feels like criminals are being unreasonable and that their life is in danger – if you try to leave with a hostage from a scene you are likely to be met with force due to this.

11. INJURIES

 * 1) Do not speak If your injuries would cause you to be unconscious. Wait until EMS arrives to emote (/me) your injuries.
 * 2) Logging out while down and waiting for EMS is prohibited.
 * 3) Do not call “headshots” or say what another character’s injuries are.
 * 4) Use discretion with accidental death or knockouts.
 * 5) PD can say they were hit in their Body Armor when downed in gunfights (regardless of where shot or how many times shot), so that they can stay on duty to keep all server content open.
 * 6) You must RP out your injuries appropriately. If you have been downed (Needed resuscitation by PD/EMS) in a situation where you were attempting to inflict harm on another – you must RP out your injuries and not re-engage in conflict for at least an hour. This is especially important in gangland style executions – you must take the consequences of your actions

11. Permadeath
You must not reverse a permadeath where Los Santos Medical writes a death certificate and/or autopsy. If you wish to bring back a permadeath’d character (One which is recorded), you must have admin approval and properly fix the paper trail so that there a no other adverse consequences to other parties. You must also not continue former conflicts from before the death – you must start fresh.


 * Medical Professionals: You must determine in an OOC DM that someone is choosing the route of a permadeath and understands that this rule exists before writing a death certificate or autopsy.
 * Law Enforcement: You may investigate an attempted or potential murder, however to charge someone with murder without a confession, plea or death certificate would be considered power gaming.

'The admins have the final say in any situation, and all rules are subject to change. Additionally, admins may decide to take action over something not listed here. When the admins review a situation, more than one opinion is used.'