Rules and Guidelines

*As is the case with all other ORGs, there is a specific set of guidelines that all members of the TravelORGs community are expected to follow. If these rules are broken, punishments will vary in severity; this may include a simple verbal warning, a temporary mute, removal from the server, and complete blacklisting from the entire TravelORGs franchise.*

*The Hosts' word is final. If a Host calls you out for breaking a rule and punishes you accordingly, you are expected to comply with that punishment.*

## General Conduct

**1.1)** Harassment or toxicity of any kind is not allowed. This includes trolling with intent to annoy or discomfort other server members, any sort of direct/targeted harassment, or bullying.

**1.2)** The TravelORGs community has a zero-tolerance policy for bigotry or discrimination. You are strictly prohibited from mocking or talking down on or about a specific person or marginalized group of people on the basis of their race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, culture, sexual orientation, gender identity, body type, physical ability, age, social class, or appearance.

**1.3)** The TravelORGs community is not 18+, and members of the Hosting Team may be minors. As a result of this, NSFW content (inappropriate nicknames/profile pictures or inappropriate messages/images) are not allowed.

**1.4)** Respect pronouns. Everybody has pronouns that they want to be referred by, and it is your job as a member of the community to respect everybody's identity. You are not allowed to mock other people's pronouns, or create fake/joke pronouns to mock others. In addition, intentional misgendering is completely off-limits in our community. If you slip up a few times, that's okay, but please make an effort to refer to everybody by the pronouns they use.

**1.5)** Implicit racial bias is a very real and important issue that often surfaces in the ORG community. If you are seen acting out of what we as Hosts believe is racial bias, we will take immediate action. The severity of your punishment if seen utilizing or weaponizing racial bias in your words or actions will range from a verbal warning to being completely blacklisted from the series, depending on how serious the offenses were.

**1.6)** If you try to find a loophole to break a rule under the guise that "it's not officially stated in the rules," the Hosts will still have the right to punish you. The Hosts' word is final on all occasions.

**1.7)** If a permission is faulty (e.g. a channel open to the wrong people by accident), please inform a Host. Do not weaponize this slip-up and chat in a channel it's obvious you're not meant to chat in if you are accidentally enabled to.

## Viewer Rules

*These rules apply to both Viewers and Trusted Viewers, unless otherwise stated.*

**2.1)** You are not allowed to discuss or leak the events of the game or your opinions on them with jurors or castaways. You are also not allowed to leak the viewing lounge to jurors or castaways.

**2.2)** Although you are able to voice your opinion on whatever events and decisions happen in the game, please make sure to remember that all viewer-related channels will be open to all castaways post-season. They will be able to see if you say something incredibly harsh about them. Please refrain from using harsh language to describe players who are just trying to play the game to the best of their abilities.

**2.3)** If you are a Trusted Viewer, you are given access to everyone's confessionals. Because of this, the rules on leaking will be stricter if you are given this role, and anyone who is caught leaking the contents of another player's confessional will be immediately removed from the server and barred from joining future servers.

## Castaway Rules and Guidelines

*If anything listed in this section is broken by a castaway (given that it is a rule and not a guideline), you will likely be striked, and with more serious rules, removed from the game (or even blacklisted from the series).*

### General Castaway Conduct

**3.1.1)** Game-related screenshots are completely forbidden. If you are caught showing other players game-related screenshots (DMs, private channels, etc.), you will be punished and likely ejected if serious enough.

* If you open up to us about it first, it is likely that your punishment will be less severe with this specific rule. If you hide it and are caught later on, you could be blacklisted from the entire TravelORGs series.

**3.1.2)** Sockpuppetry is not allowed in any scenario. You are not allowed to create a second account to view the game while playing it, and if you are caught doing this, you will be removed from the game immediately. This also goes for making two or more separate accounts to fill up separate casting slots. If your account is deemed untrustworthy, we as Hosts have the right to ask you for proof of identity.

**3.1.3)** All rules regarding general conduct must be followed as a castaway. There are no exceptions.

**3.1.4)** Recording VCs is strictly forbidden, and especially posting them to your confessional or sharing your recordings with others. The only exception to this is if you are recording a contestant breaking a rule in a VC for evidence to show privately to the Hosts (e.g. if someone is making derogatory remarks in a VC).

* This rule mainly applies to private VCs, or any VC where sensitive information is shared.

**3.1.5)** The Host team and Series Staff team reserve the right to determine what actions do and do not warrant punishment, as well as the degree of punishment that is warranted by a misdemeanor.

### Alliances

**3.2.1)** To create an alliance, ping the Hosts in your submissions and tell us who you want the alliance to be with. Then, a channel will be made, and the channel topic will include what (game) day the alliance was on, who requested it, and all members of the alliance.

**3.2.2)** Alliance-specific VCs are allowed! All you have to do is ask a Host, and we'll set it up!

**3.2.3)** The usage of external Discord clients (e.g BetterDiscord) or plug-ins to view alliances you're not part of is strictly prohibited. This is considered to be a violation against Discord's Terms of Service and will result in an ejection from the game, a blacklist from the entire TravelORGs series, and getting your account reported to Discord's Trust and Safety team.

### Confessionals

**3.3.1)** You can choose whether you wish to have your confessional open to Trusted Viewers, or keep it closed to Hosts only. You are encouraged to utilize the VL system no matter what option you choose, and we also expect you to keep your confessionals updated so Hosts and Viewers can receive insight on your game.

* **3.3.1.1)** If you choose to open your confessional entirely, a submissions channel will be opened for you to submit challenge scores and votes, look for advantages or immunity idols, and discuss serious matters with Hosts.

**3.3.2)** Only Hosts and TravelORGs alumni will be able to verify new Trusted Viewers. This is to ensure that, although there is an open-confessional system, the leaking chances are as minimal as possible. This measure is taken in order to ensure that everyone can feel safe and comfortable in an open-confessional system.

### Challenges and Submissions

**3.4.1)** Cheating in challenges will result in either a strike or immediate ejection depending on the severity. This includes modifying pictures of submissions, getting somebody else to submit for you, or using an old challenge score.

**3.4.2)** In individual challenges, you are not allowed to share information with other contestants to get them ahead. You may exchange thoughts on the challenge as long as they are vague, such as "I found the challenge quite hard!" or "I think I probably lost that challenge."

**3.4.3)** Challenges where you have to submit a command as a final answer allow for only one submission. Challenges where you have to do something on a site (in most cases, this will be some sort of puzzle) will allow for multiple resubmissions if you choose, unless otherwise stated. Make sure to read challenge rules carefully so you're sure of what you have to do!

**3.4.4)** If a challenge submission is deemed invalid, you could face either a penalty or complete disqualification depending on how serious the invalidity of the submission is.

* **3.4.4.1)** **On a computer,** you must take a screenshot of your full screen, including your challenge score, the time and date, and your confessional (which must be up-to-date). Click here for an example of a valid challenge submission on a computer.
* **3.4.4.2) On a phone/other mobile device,** you can either take one screenshot that encompasses both your challenge score and Discord, or, if you cannot fit both in one picture, you are also free to submit two separate images, taken one after the other - the first containing your up-to-date confessional (as well as the time at the top of your device screen), and the second containing the challenge screen (including, of course, the score) in its entirety. Click here for examples of both of these instances (the left-most image being the first instance, and the other two images being the second instance).

**3.4.5)** Unless otherwise stated, you have 24 hours to complete a challenge. You are allowed to abstain from a challenge if you feel you cannot complete it before the deadline up to two times throughout the course of the season. If you fail to start/submit for a challenge without notifying us that you choose to abstain, you will receive a strike.

* **3.4.5.1)** If you would like to request an extension, ask the Hosts in your confessional or submissions channel. We recommend you ask us for an extension sooner rather than later, and we reserve the right to decline an extension if you wait until too close to the deadline to ask us for one.

**3.4.6)** Pre-merge abstentions will result in your time or score becoming double the worst finished time or half the worst legitimate score (depending on the criteria of the challenge - both is also possible if the challenge is judged on score and time). An additional 15% penalty will be added to your time or score if you fail to abstain and instead receive a strike.

* **3.4.6.1)** If you attempt but do not finish a pre-merge challenge, your time will also be double that of the worst finished time, or your score will be half that of the worst finished score. It will be known to everyone else that you did not finish.

**3.4.7)** If a tribe has a surplus in members, they must sit a member (or multiple members) out to equalize the amount of participants on both tribes. This must be done before the tribe starts the challenge.

* **3.4.7.1)** You cannot sit out in back-to-back challenges. If you sit out one challenge, you must compete in the next.

### Tribal Council and Voting

**3.5.1)** You are given 24 hours to vote. You cannot abstain from voting. If you fail to vote in time, you will receive a strike and a self-vote.

**3.5.2)** In order to cast a vote, use the parchment provided for you, and use an image-editing app (most devices have a default one) to write down the name of the person you want to vote against. If you can't do this, let the Hosts know who you are intending to vote against and we will make a parchment for you.

**3.5.3)** In the event of a tie, everybody (except for those in the tie) will be given an additional 24 hours to cast a vote between any of the members in the tie (and only between them). If this revote ends in a second tie, those who were in the tie will become immune, and everybody else (excluding anybody who played an immunity idol or won Individual Immunity) will draw rocks.

* **3.5.3.1)** In the obscure situation where a three-way tie is followed by a two-way deadlock, the person who was in the initial tie but not the deadlock will not draw rocks, as rocks are classified as punishment for not coming to a decision in the revote, and the third person would not have been able to make that choice as they were rendered ineligible to vote due to being in the tie.

**3.5.4)** A fire-making tie-breaker will occur in three scenarios: a 2-2 tie at the Final 4 tribal council, a pre-merge tribal council with only two members on the losing tribe, and any miscellaneous scenario where only two people can vote and only two people can receive votes.

**3.5.5)** Individual Immunity can only be transferred in the first 12 hours of tribal council, if somebody wishes to give up the necklace.

**3.5.6)** If you wish to play an idol, the typical protocol is that you play it live following when a Host says "If anybody has an immunity idol and would like to play it, now would be the time to do so." If you do not believe you will be available for this, you are free to play an idol in advance by letting us know in your private submissions channel. You are also allowed to play idols on specific conditions that can be determined before the votes are read.

* A valid conditional pre-played idol could be, "If SPKT plays their immunity idol, I would also like to play my own."
* An invalid conditional pre-played idol is, "If Andry receives any votes, I would like to play my idol on him."

**3.5.7)** Switching votes is always allowed as long as it's before the deadline; all you have to do is make a new parchment with the name of the new person you would like to vote against.

### Ponderosa

**3.6.1)** You are allowed to voice your disagreement with another juror in ponderosa, but you are not allowed to start an argument in ponderosa. If Hosts believe that ponderosa is too stressful or tense of an environment, we have the right to either temporarily or permanently shut down ponderosa.

**3.6.2)** Although you are no longer in the game, you may not share game-related screenshots in ponderosa, as you are still jurors.

**3.6.3)** Once you are on the jury, any communication with players still in the game must be ceased. If you are caught talking to someone still in the game as a juror, specifically sharing game information or insight about the jury dynamics, your spot on the jury will be revoked and the player may have their spot in the game removed.

### Immunity Idols and Advantages

**3.7.1)** Some seasons will feature idol hunts that are command-based. If you wish to start an idol hunt, commands look like **?this** for one-word commands, and **?like-this** for multiple-word commands. Hyphens must replace spaces! Accented letters will never be used in commands. Instead, just use the regular letter.

**3.7.2)** If you receive an immunity idol, you will be given an official message from a Host which will also contain a picture of your idol, as well as information regarding its functions and how long it lasts until.

**3.7.3)** You are not allowed to create fake advantages/idols. You may lie about having or not having an idol or advantage all you want, however, and you can also lie about somebody else having or not having an idol or advantage.

**3.7.4)** You cannot play advantages during revotes, and you cannot transfer advantages during revotes either.

* **3.7.4.1)** The only exception to this rule is with Light Pearls, as they play automatically. Light Pearls can trigger during a revote if somebody who is in the tie and receives revotes is in possession of one. This exact situation infamously occurred in "A Little Souvenir", when Andry received votes in a revote while in possession of a Light Pearl, negating one of his votes.

### Final Tribal Council

**3.8.1)** Each finalist will get a channel to post their jury speech, and will be given 24 hours to write and post it. Then, those speeches will be visible to the jurors (and the public), and from there, each juror will have their own channel to address the finalists. The finalists will be able to speak in each juror's questioning channel in order to address each juror.

**3.8.2)** Final Tribal Councils are very often a high-stress environment, as the finalists usually try their best to impress the jury and explain why they deserve to win. Please do not add to this stress by being a harsh and obnoxious juror. If you are too obnoxious to the finalists, you will be revoked from your ability to confront finalists, and if the offense is serious enough, you may be removed from the jury completely.

**3.8.3)** Please do not go off-topic in finalist or jury channels. These channels are meant to be for jurors to explain why their game is deserving of the title of Sole Survivor and each jurors' vote.

## Special Events in TravelORGs Seasons

This section highlights moments in TravelORGs history that were so specific, they earned their own rule and don't fit anywhere else.

* **"This Is Not Healthy For Me At All"**: At the Final 18 of *Black Hills*, the vote ended in a 3-3-2 tie between Life and Captain, forcing a revote between the two of them. Despite voting in the initial voting period, Madison did not vote in the revote period. As a result, she incurred a self-vote, causing a 5-1-0 revote. Madison was still given a strike and her vote was still counted against herself.

* **"I've Tried So Hard With Most Of You"**: At the Final 9 immunity challenge of *Canary Islands*, Tara won individual immunity with a time of -4:23, meaning she technically finished four and a half minutes before she started. This was due to an excessive amount of time reductions on the challenge which she landed on. Although challenges in the future will most likely never allow for this to happen again, an illegitimate time like this can happen.

* **"A Little Souvenir"**: At the Final 7, the vote ended in a null vote, and restarted between Andry, Nick, and Sean. Andry, possessing a Light Pearl at the time, incurred controversy after it was stated that advantages could not be played in revotes but Light Pearls can. This has resulted in a firm rule that automatic advantages, if applicable, will always play at revotes.
	+ It is worth noting that this scenario was only able to happen because Andry didn't lose the Light Pearl by receiving a vote in the initial vote, and was only eligible to receive votes in the revote due to everyone that received votes in the first vote no longer being eligible to receive votes.

* **"I Hate These People"**: At the Final 18 of *Iskanderkul*, Heater was given an immunity idol by Kris to play on himself. Kris gave Heater the image of the idol herself in DMs instead of transferring it officially through Hosts, and since Heater had the official file of the idol, the Hosts were forced on the spot to accept the idol transfer and count the play. However, this will not be allowed in future seasons, and all future idol transfers must be done through Hosts, or else they are not official.

* **"I Just Have This Fear"**: At the Final 10 Double Tribal Council of *Socotra*, Group B's tribal council saw Divine use two Extra Votes against Kaiden and vote against him three times. This is allowed, and there are no rules against playing multiple of the same advantage at the same tribal council towards the same person if applicable.
	+ This does not work with immunity idols or vote steals. With other miscellaneous advantages that you may have multiple of, ask the Hosts for clarification.

* **"I'm Your Enemy"**: At the Final 17 of *Okavango*, BT was slated to find out if he had won or lost an Extra Vote from his prior visit to The Sanctuary. However, his vote was taken away by virtue of receiving the Curse of Nyambi from Orange during her visit. As a result, since BT lost his vote before being able to find out if he had won an Extra Vote or not (which he had), he couldn't cast either his first vote or his second vote at that tribal council.