Our Rules

On this page, we have a comprehensive list of **Our Rules** for all our servers, among other things. All rules listed here are subject to change.

## Contestant Rules

* Rule 1: This game works on a three-strike system. The basic punishment for breaking the rules is you will receive a strike, however all punishments can vary depending on the situation. If you garner three strikes you will be pulled from the game.
	+ If you are removed during the jury stage of the game then your status as a jury member may or may not be taken away depending on the offenses and circumstances surrounding it. Strikes cannot be taken away during your time in-game.

### Challenges

* Rule 2: All challenges will last a 24 hour period unless otherwise stated. Contestants have 24 hours to submit a score, screenshot, etc. before the deadline hits. Players who do not submit before the deadline will receive a strike for inactivity.
* Rule 3: Attempting to cheat in challenges is forbidden.
	+ Cheating in challenges is defined as sharing answers in challenges where answers are secret, sharing questions on timed challenges, creating or using fake scores for games, or using exploits to further advance yourself in a challenge. (Some exploits are allowed however none that go beyond reasonable expectations)
* Rule 4: Players may choose to abstain from competitions if they wish. They must notify the hosting team beforehand.
* Rule 5: For live challenges a time will be scheduled so that everyone participating can feel comfortable making the challenge. If a player is not active for a live challenge we will continue on without them; however, no one will be struck for live challenges if they cannot make them.
	+ Note that PS tries to avoid live challenges as much as we can
* Rule 6: Challenge deadlines, along with tribal council deadlines, are always given in CST, Central Standard Time. (or CDT depending on Daylight Savings Time)
* Rule 7: For any challenges that require a scored submission from a game, we do not take the "best" or high score from the app. You must submit your score the moment you get it.

### Tribal Council

* Rule 8: Players will be given 24 hours to submit a vote during tribal council. If a contestant does not vote by the deadline we will count it as a self-vote and they will earn a strike against them.
* Rule 9: Votes can be changed up until either all votes are in or the deadline for tribal occurs. Exceptions can be made for this rule depending on circumstances
	+ Placeholder votes are allowed, a vote will not be locked until the deadline hits if chosen to be made a placeholder. Let the hosts know if you want to put in a placeholder vote or hold tribal until deadline.
* Rule 10: While players receive self-votes from not voting, players cannot outright refuse to vote or vote for themselves. If they are caught attempting to do so, reasonable action will be taken.
* Rule 11: If a player wishes to play an advantage during tribal council, they must notify the hosts beforehand. They can either let the hosts play the item for them or you play it live at tribal. They can also give conditional plays, i.e. "If Bob plays his Legacy Advantage play my idol on me."
* Rule 12: If a player is voted out with an advantage in their pocket it is considered null and void except in certain circumstances
	+ If the player's advantage needs to be bequeathed or willed (Legacy Advantage, Fire Tokens), then the advantage stays in-game until use or expiration.
* Rule 13: Please don't ask other players to show you their parchment. Also, if someone does ask this do not show off your parchment, If you need to claim a parchment as your own, just say which one is yours. If your parchment wasn't shown during tribal, tough luck.
	+ This is ok: "Hey, which parchment is yours?" "Mines the one in green text!"
	+ This is not ok: "Show me your parchment." "Sure! (posts the image)"
* Rule 14: In the event of a tie, a revote will occur. During the revote, alliance chats and DMs will be closed. If a player is caught DMing someone during a revote they will receive a strike. If the revote results in a deadlock we will look for a consensus vote. If everyone cannot agree to send 1 person home we will go to rocks where everyone not immune or involved with the tie will draw a rock.
	+ Vote counts for live tribals will not be given out; however, revote counts will be shown to hasten the process.
	+ Advantages and idols cannot be played during a revote.

### General Gameplay

* Rule 15: Use of an alt to either gain an edge in-game or play illegally for another time in the series will result in an immediate ban of both parties.
	+ Creating any type of alternate account for use in this ORG, whether malicious or not, is not allowed.
	+ On this note, do not cheat in general.
* Rule 16: Sending screenshots to other players of private channels/conversations will result in a strike. This also applies to copy-and-pasting. If you need to talk about conversations with others, simply paraphrase.
	+ If you'd like to share screenshots in your confessional channel, feel free to do so.
	+ Our definition of private is any of the following: DMs, Confessionals, Submissions channels, Alliance chats, or old tribe chats. (other channels may also be private depending on circumstances)
* Rule 17: No harassment of any players in-game. There's a point where confrontations become rude and unnecessary, so hosts will take every situation's context into consideration during these times. Any behavior that is hurtful and unwarranted will result in host intervention.
	+ We will call you out if you are being rude, toxic, or disrespectful.
* Rule 18: All in-game talk must be that, in-game. Do not talk about in-game events outside of that season's server, especially not in places where no hosts have access to.
* Rule 19: To prevent any type of "VC Meta", private VCs are not allowed. You can only voice call other players in your Tribe's VC channel. You cannot 1-on-1 VC with someone in DMs, nor can you make voice channel to call as a group.
* Rule 20: Keep cross tribal talk to a bare minimum. The only place where you can talk to a rival tribe is certain challenge chats, no DMing the other tribe at all.
* Rule 21: For jurors, we expect civility in any and all discussion about the players left in the game. If things become too harsh or get out of hand, action will be taken.
* Rule 22: Don't mess around with bots. The only uses for the bots are for idol hunting, challenges, and hosting purposes. This means no messing around with commands on bots like Carl-bot.
* Rule 23: All alliance chats must be made in the server. All Group DMs are forbidden unless they are there for VC purposes.
* Rule 24: Individual Immunity can be given up until 12 hours have passed since tribal council was opened.
* Rule 25: You cannot try to "blow up the game" in your final words. You cannot share big game information meant to hurt someone else once you're voted out.
* Rule 26: If you know that someone is breaking the rules it's your job to report them to hosts. If you know about their behavior and go along with it, you encourage breaking the rules, or you try to trick people into breaking a rule that you know of, all of these can result in a strike.

### Other Rules

* Rule 27: Absolutely no discrimination towards anyone based on race, sex, orientation, or cultural identity in any PS server.
* Rule 28: Try not talk about controversial topics. While these are discussions worth having, our servers are not the place for it.

## Server/Spectator Rules

All rules outlined in this section apply for both players and spectators

* Rule 1: Keep things respectful. Many times in the past it gets easy to dog-pile on certain players and to aggressively root for others. Things can go to far and we rely on you to make sure that discussions remain civil. If things get out of hand hosts will intervene.
* Rule 2: Do not interact with contestants about the game and vice versa. Talking to the players about in-game events is forbidden. This rule goes for both players and spectators.
* Rule 3: We have two roles; spectator and trusted spectators. Spectators can only view tribe chats and spectator chats, while trusted spectators can view confessionals and everything else. To become a trusted spectator you must either request it from a host, have a preconceived relationship with the hosts, or just become an active spec in general.
	+ Trusted spectators have a dedicated channel to talk about the game. Do not share any details about the game outside of this channel.
* Rule 4: Do not post anything NSFW, gore-related, or just plain illegal.
	+ On this note, please try to not act inappropriately. While some jokes here and there are fine, please try to refrain from being too inappropriate in this ORG. There are several minors in the server, so some jokes will make people uncomfortable. As a general rule of thumb, think about who you're joking about before making any jokes or comments that have a sexual nature.
* Rule 5: Don't abuse reacts. Keep reactions to things like confessionals.

## Clarifications

* What the hosts say goes. All final judgements are ours to make. However, if you ever feel like we've done something wrong, please contact Eric, Vince, or Volume.
* Treat every host with respect. Hosts make mistakes and sometimes we'll make judgements you don't agree with, but please refrain from being rude to hosts.
* Hosts will always prioritize not intervening in the game first. Hosts try not to pick and choose sides during arguments or fights and only intervene when things get out of hand.
* The punishment for breaking a rule is flexible by host discretion given context. Depending on the circumstances we can alter what we do to that which is most fair for everyone in the game. Not every rule violation will result in a strike.

## Amendments

This section is for rules added during current seasons. All amendments eventually become part of the official rules.