Underspire is a collaborative roleplaying game and community. Its world, its stories, and its community exist because members write them together, and that only works when members respect each other's consent, act in good faith, and answer for their own conduct.
Most play takes place in Deshret, a dangerous city where characters can face permanent consequences. The setting's hostility toward characters does not extend to the people who play them. The game's competitive systems draw the same line: players can master them, but there is no OOC victory condition, and success in the game creates no status in the community.
The rules below follow from that distinction. Players must treat one another with respect, keep IC events separate from OOC relationships, do their own creative work, and give others a fair chance to participate and enjoy the game.
The central standard is simple:
Be kind to the writer, even when your characters are tearing each other apart.
This Code of Conduct ("this Code") defines the rules for participation in the Underspire community.
The words must and must not state a rule. The word may states something that is permitted. The word should states a recommendation: follow it unless there is a good reason not to. Not following a recommendation is not by itself a violation.
Examples clarify rules. They do not cover every situation.
Section 1 -- Playing Together
1.1 -- A shared world
Players are co-authors of Deshret. Staff provide the setting, systems, NPCs, and the parts of the world that require GM control. Players create the history of the game through play.
Text is imperfect. Two players can read the same room, NPC, event, or piece of lore differently. A player who misunderstands part of the setting is not automatically playing badly. Experienced players must not use greater game knowledge to shame, ridicule, or exclude newer players.
When a difference in interpretation affects play, players should clarify it with each other. Players may ask staff for an official ruling.
1.2 -- Collaboration and agency
Roleplay is a shared activity. Players must give one another enough time to respond, make meaningful choices, and affect what happens in a scene.
Character agency does not guarantee success. A plan can fail, an NPC can refuse a request, and a faction can retaliate. A character can lose status, property, freedom, health, relationships, or life when the rules and events of play support that result.
1.2.1 -- Players control their own characters. A player must not decide another character's thoughts, emotions, actions, injuries, or final outcome unless the rules or that character's player permit it.
1.2.2 -- A player must not play their character as exempt from normal risk, opposition, consequences, or game systems. A character can claim to be untouchable or above the law; the player must still accept the outcomes of play.
1.2.3 -- Conflict exists to create more roleplay. A player must not use conflict to make another player feel unwelcome or to drive them from the community.
1.3 -- Participation
1.3.1 -- Players must roleplay, take the setting seriously, and participate directly in their own scenes.
1.3.2 -- Players must pay enough attention to understand what is happening and to respond to the other people involved. A player who has to leave a scene must tell the other participants when they can.
1.3.3 -- Players must write their own creative material. Rules for external tools and generative AI appear in Section 3.
1.4 -- Consent
Consent governs participation in sensitive or explicitly portrayed content.
1.4.1 -- Sexual content always requires OOC consent.
1.4.2 -- Extreme depictions of torture, gore, and similarly intense content require OOC consent from the players involved.
Ordinary IC conflict and PvP do not require the target player's explicit OOC consent. By playing Underspire, a player accepts that their character can be threatened, attacked, robbed, injured, captured, opposed, or killed when those outcomes arise through the rules and normal course of play. Consent does not give a player a veto over an otherwise valid IC action or consequence.
1.4.3 -- Players must have a fair opportunity to participate in serious or permanent actions involving their characters.
1.4.4 -- When a scene moves into content that requires consent, a player must ask OOC unless the other player's boundaries are already known. IC dialogue can establish what a character wants, fears, or accepts. It does not replace OOC consent.
Any player may ask to pause a scene or fade-to-black when it contains graphic or sensitive material. Fade-to-black removes the detailed portrayal of the event. It does not prevent the event or remove its IC consequences. The players should agree on the minimum description needed to continue, or use the game systems and staff adjudication to determine the result.
1.4.5 -- Players must respect stated boundaries around sensitive content. A player must not mock, pressure, punish, or retaliate against another person for setting a boundary.
1.4.6 -- Players must use consent tools in good faith. A player must not use them to avoid ordinary PvP, erase an established fair consequence, or gain an IC advantage.
1.4.7 -- A player who steps away must use the AFK command or a similar tool to leave the in-character game world. A character left in the game world remains in-character.
1.4.8 -- The protections for absent players exist for genuine absence. A player must not log off, disconnect, go idle, or use the AFK command to escape an active scene, avoid an imminent or established fair consequence, or keep a character out of reach of a conflict that character is part of.
Leaving does not end an unresolved scene. The remaining participants may pause the scene and resume it when the player returns, or ask staff to adjudicate the result. A genuine disconnection or emergency is not a violation. Staff decide from the pattern and the timing whether an absence was used in bad faith.
1.5 -- The IC and OOC line
IC actions stay IC. OOC communication stays OOC.
1.5.1 -- Metagaming is using information that a character could not know to guide that character's IC decisions. Players must not metagame. OOC information can come from Discord, forums, private messages, shared logs, streams, another person's screen, staff access, or any other source outside the character's experience.
1.5.2 -- Players may discuss IC events OOC privately among consenting players. A player must not turn that discussion into an IC advantage.
1.5.3 -- OOC friendships are welcome, but they carry no IC weight. A player must not shield a character from fair consequences or influence an IC result because of an OOC relationship. A player must not target a character because of an OOC dispute. An IC conflict must not become OOC hostility toward the other player, and a character's power gives its player no OOC authority over another player.
1.6 -- OOC bleed and conflict escalation
Intense roleplay can create real emotional reactions. A player can understand that something happened in fiction and still feel angry, embarrassed, stressed, sad, or upset about it.
A strong reaction does not by itself mean another player broke a rule, and it is not something to mock or dismiss. Players may check in with each other OOC, take a break, use safety tools, or ask staff for help when communication breaks down.
1.6.1 -- When an OOC disagreement begins to affect play, players must not escalate it through IC punishment, group pressure, gossip, or retaliation.
A player may report harassment, threats, or other serious conduct without raising it privately first.
1.7 -- Community stewardship
Everyone who plays Underspire helps shape its community.
Veteran status, mechanical knowledge, faction influence, staff friendships, and social connections do not create a higher class of player. A new player gets the same chance to become part of the world as anyone else.
1.7.1 -- Players do not have to include every person in every friendship, private group, plot, or scene. A player must not organize OOC exclusion to isolate, punish, or drive another person from the community.
1.8 -- Staff requests and game support
Players may ask staff for IC adjudication, NPC involvement, plot support, technical assistance, or other game support through the request system.
Staff should acknowledge each request and either handle it or tell the player when it will be handled. When a request stays open, staff should update the player rather than leave them without information.
A request does not guarantee approval, a particular NPC or plot outcome, or priority over other game needs. Staff may decline, modify, defer, or redirect a request for the sake of the setting, staff resources, fairness, or ongoing play.
Section 2 -- Community Conduct
2.1 -- Respect and personal safety
2.1.1 -- Players and staff must treat one another with respect.
2.1.2 -- A player must not engage in any of the following OOC conduct:
- hate speech, slurs, dehumanizing language, or discrimination;
- threats, stalking, intimidation, or encouragement of self-harm;
- unwanted sexual attention;
- doxxing or publishing private identifying information;
- harassment or retaliation.
2.1.3 -- A player must stop direct contact when another person asks them to stop. A player must not bypass a block, relay contact through another player, or move the unwanted contact to another platform. Staff may require limited staff-managed communication for a report or another required process.
2.1.4 -- Dark and disturbing themes belong in the IC setting. A player must not post real-world gore, violence, or other shock content in shared OOC spaces, even to a willing audience. A player who wants to discuss a distressing subject in a shared OOC space must follow 2.3.1.
2.2 -- Privacy and confidential information
This section protects players, not characters. A character's secrets, messages, letters, and reputation are part of play: characters can spy on, rob, expose, and blackmail one another through IC action, under the normal rules of play. The rules below cover the real person behind the character.
2.2.1 -- Players must respect information that another person shares privately. A player must not use private OOC information for IC advantage, spread it as gossip, use it to embarrass another person, or use it as leverage in an IC or OOC conflict. Private information includes private conversations, personal history, contact information, relationships, private logs, intimate information, and any material not shared for public distribution.
2.2.2 -- A player must not publish or circulate another player's private OOC messages without consent, except for a valid reporting or safety reason. A player may give private material to staff when it is relevant to a report.
2.2.3 -- A player must not threaten to publish private OOC information to control another person's behavior.
2.2.4 -- Each person controls what is known about their identities. A player must not reveal or speculate about which characters another player plays, and must not reveal or connect another person's identities in other communities, without that person's consent.
2.3 -- OOC spaces
Official OOC spaces include the forums, Discord, and in-game OOC channels. These are shared community spaces. Discussion about Underspire, creative work, shared interests, ordinary daily life, respectful disagreement, and personal support are welcome.
2.3.1 -- A player must ask before bringing heavy personal material into a shared space, and must let other people leave or stop the conversation.
2.3.2 -- Public OOC spaces reach players whose characters were not there. A player must not reveal the details of an IC event there without the consent of every player involved, and must not spread IC information that other characters could act on. Talking about play in general terms is welcome. Private discussion follows 1.5.2, and the metagaming rules in 1.5 apply everywhere.
2.3.3 -- Underspire OOC spaces must not become a venue for sustained attacks, gossip, speculation, or imported disputes concerning other players or communities. A player must not use them to:
- replay or continue a dispute from another community;
- recruit people to take sides in a personal or outside conflict;
- publish logs, screenshots, or private messages to encourage group criticism;
- shame, speculate about, or invite judgment of an individual player;
- maintain a pattern of complaints or hostility that damages the community.
Players may discuss moderation, game design, other communities, and staff policy, and may criticize them. A discussion becomes a conduct problem when it becomes harassment, retaliation, targeted shaming, disclosure of protected information, or deliberate disruption.
2.3.4 -- Staff may redirect or end a shared OOC discussion that becomes hostile, invasive, disruptive, or harmful. Players must follow a clear staff direction to change the subject or end the discussion.
2.4 -- Interacting with staff
2.4.1 -- Players must communicate with staff in good faith.
Players may:
- ask staff to explain a rule;
- question or disagree with a staff decision;
- criticize staff policy;
- report staff misconduct;
- use the appeal process.
These actions are not misconduct by themselves.
2.4.2 -- A player must not knowingly give staff false information, fabricate evidence, or hide material facts to mislead a review. A player must not use a request, report, or appeal to intimidate another person or to gain an IC advantage.
2.4.3 -- A player must not repeatedly reopen a resolved issue without new information or a valid appeal. After an official ruling, a player must not privately press other staff members to get a different answer.
2.4.4 -- When staff give a clear official direction, the player must follow it while any review or appeal is pending.
Staff authority does not require personal deference. Players do not have to flatter staff, agree with staff, or avoid criticism.
2.5 -- Patterns of bad faith
Some conduct becomes harmful through repetition even when a single act appears minor. Harassment includes conduct intended to distress, intimidate, isolate, or drive another person away. A repeated pattern of targeted conduct can also be harassment when it has that effect.
Harassment can occur IC or OOC, in public or in private. Conduct does not become acceptable because a player calls it roleplay.
2.5.1 -- A player must not:
- repeatedly test stated boundaries;
- use a technical loophole in the rules to excuse conduct;
- deliberately misrepresent events;
- manipulate reports or moderation processes;
- deliberately disrupt the community;
- treat this Code as something to defeat rather than follow in good faith.
Being mistaken, upset, critical, difficult, or in disagreement with staff is not by itself bad faith.
2.6 -- Conduct outside Underspire
Underspire does not treat a person's reputation, a dispute in another community, or an enforcement action by another community as proof of misconduct.
Conduct outside Underspire can still be relevant when it shows a serious risk to the safety, integrity, or operation of this community. This includes serious harassment, stalking, threats, doxxing, coercion, deliberate ban evasion, or comparable conduct. The conduct does not need to have occurred in Underspire or to have targeted an Underspire player.
Ordinary disagreements, criticism, personality conflicts, unpopular opinions, or another community's decision to remove a person are not sufficient on their own. Underspire does not enforce the disputes, reputations, or blacklists of other communities.
Section 3 -- Game Rules
3.1 -- Player and account requirements
3.1.1 -- Every player must be at least 18 years old.
3.1.2 -- Every player character must be at least 18 years old and must be portrayed as an adult in all contexts.
3.1.3 -- Each player character must be an original creation. A backstory does not grant resources, status, influential relationships, privileged information, special abilities, or other gameplay advantages unless the game systems or staff approve them.
3.1.4 -- A player must get staff approval before creating a character whose backstory connects to another player character.
3.1.5 -- Each player may have only one game account. A player must not create another account to avoid a restriction, gain information, or get another advantage. A player must not let another person use their account.
3.1.6 -- A player who loses access to their account must contact staff, not create a replacement.
3.2 -- Adult and difficult content
Underspire is a dark and violent setting. The game can include crime, exploitation, political oppression, moral ambiguity, injury, death, social inequality, substance use, and other difficult themes. Players will encounter these subjects.
3.2.1 -- Adult content and erotic roleplay are permitted. Every player and player character involved must be at least 18 years old. There are no exceptions.
3.2.2 -- Adult content must follow the same consent, conduct, and participation rules as other roleplay.
Sexual scenes should take place in locations suited to them, such as a private room or an adult venue. The location is the warning: other players can choose whether to enter. Explicit sexual activity in a location where other characters would not expect it, such as an open street, can have IC and OOC consequences.
3.2.3 -- Players may create adult IC material, such as books, art, and flyers, where it fits the setting. Another player must make a choice before they see explicit content. The choice can be entering a location where the content is expected, as in 3.2.2, or a deliberate action such as reading, opening, or examining the item. Whatever other players see without that choice, such as the item's name and surface description, must signal the nature of the material rather than display it.
3.2.4 -- Players must not create or play the following content in any circumstances:
- content that sexualizes a minor;
- sexual or predatory acts involving a minor;
- nonconsensual sex or rape;
- consensual nonconsent (CNC).
CNC is prohibited even when every player gives OOC consent. The text of a CNC scene reads the same whether or not the players truly consented, so staff cannot moderate it fairly.
3.2.5 -- The setting can include minors and can acknowledge that a minor was harmed. A player must not make a minor the subject of sexual or predatory content.
3.2.6 -- A player who is not sure whether content is permitted should ask staff before playing it.
3.3 -- Exploits, automation, and external tools
3.3.1 -- Players must not exploit or deliberately misuse the game, its code, or its systems.
3.3.2 -- A player must not:
- knowingly use a bug or unintended behavior to gain an advantage;
- hide a known exploit, or share it so that it can be abused;
- deliberately cause lag, service disruption, or another technical problem;
- use an external tool to extract hidden information or learn information the player could not otherwise have;
- probe non-public mechanics through the game's code, client, network traffic, or data files;
- use triggers, macros, scripts, or another external tool to bypass a game system or gain an unfair advantage;
- automate character actions or game decisions.
Learning how the game works by playing it, observing outcomes, and comparing notes with other players is normal play, not a violation.
3.3.3 -- A player who finds a bug or unintended behavior must stop using it and report it.
Staff may remove or reverse an advantage gained from a bug when keeping it would be unfair. This correction is not by itself a punishment.
3.4 -- Generative AI and creative work
3.4.1 -- Players must do their own roleplay and creative work.
3.4.2 -- A player must not use generative AI or another external tool to roleplay for them, perform game actions, make character decisions, or complete work the game requires the player to do.
3.4.3 -- Players may use generative AI to discuss or get feedback on a concept they created. They may use it to brainstorm supporting details or to research themes. The central concept and the substantive creative decisions must come from the player.
3.4.4 -- Players must write all final IC material themselves, including roleplay, descriptions, performances, flyers, books, and IC job work. A player must not copy, lightly edit, or closely paraphrase AI-generated text into final IC material.
3.4.5 -- A player may use AI to correct clear spelling, grammar, and syntax errors. The corrections must not change the player's voice, wording, or creative choices.
3.4.6 -- A player may use AI-generated character art for personal visual reference, provided the image otherwise follows our content rules. Players should not falsely present generated artwork as hand-drawn, and should not use AI to imitate a specific living artist or another community member's work. Where artwork is shared in a context where its origin matters, players should identify AI-generated work as such.
3.4.7 -- A player may not feed another player's creative work (including but not limited to drawn and written media) into an AI engine without explicit consent of the author of the work.
3.5 -- Accessibility
3.5.1 -- A player who needs an external automation or scripting tool as an accessibility accommodation must contact staff before using it.
3.5.2 -- Accommodation details are private. Players must not shame, question, or speculate about another person's accommodation. Players must not reveal the accommodation details of another player without consent.
Section 4 -- Reports, Enforcement, and Appeals
4.1 -- Reporting concerns
Players should report serious conduct concerns through the in-game xassist command or another private staff contact method. Players may report concerns about staff conduct the same way.
A report should say what happened, when and where it happened, and who was involved. A report should include any logs, screenshots, or other information the player already has.
4.1.1 -- A player must not provoke more contact to collect evidence, access another person's account, or spread private material through the community because they intend to report it.
4.1.2 -- Players must report honestly and as accurately as they can; 2.4.2 applies to reports. A report is not false because staff do not find a violation.
4.2 -- Timely review and communication
Staff must handle reports and formal conduct matters without unreasonable delay.
Staff should acknowledge each report and keep the affected players informed while a review stays open. When a decision is delayed, staff should confirm that the review is still active and share updates when there is meaningful information.
An update does not require staff to disclose private evidence, identify a protected reporter, reveal active investigative work, or provide information that could cause retaliation or interfere with the review.
When staff reach a decision or close a report, they should tell the affected players that the review has ended and share the outcome as described in 4.7.
4.3 -- Public accusations and retaliation
4.3.1 -- A report must not become a public accusation campaign. A player must not organize the community against a person who has been reported, pressure others to take sides, or use a report to encourage exclusion or harassment. This does not prohibit discussion of staff policy or public enforcement decisions.
4.3.2 -- Players and staff must not retaliate against a person because they made a good-faith report, participated in a review, set a boundary, requested an accommodation, or submitted an appeal. Retaliation can include threats, rumors, social pressure, organized exclusion, targeted OOC hostility, indirect action through friends, or IC punishment motivated by the OOC process.
4.4 -- Temporary measures
Staff may use temporary measures while a serious concern is under review. A temporary measure can end a scene, create a no-contact direction, restrict access to a feature or area, or temporarily remove access to the game.
A temporary measure is not a finding that a rule was violated. It exists to address an immediate concern while staff review the matter.
4.4.1 -- Staff should keep a temporary measure no broader than needed. A temporary measure must not become an undeclared permanent punishment.
4.5 -- Enforcement
Staff may take action when a player violates this Code. Actions can include:
- clarification or a direction to stop;
- a formal warning;
- a no-contact direction or targeted restriction;
- temporary removal or suspension;
- a permanent ban.
Consequences do not have to follow a fixed sequence. A minor first mistake can require only correction, while repeated misconduct can bring stronger action. A single serious act can result in immediate suspension or permanent removal.
Staff may treat the following as separate violations: refusing a clear moderation direction, bypassing a restriction, using another account or another person to avoid enforcement, interfering with a review, or retaliating over an enforcement action.
The Staff Handbook defines the detailed review and decision process.
4.6 -- Findings
A formal review can have three outcomes:
- No violation means the conduct did not violate this Code.
- Violation not established means the available information does not support a violation finding. This does not mean the report was false or made in bad faith.
- Violation found means the available information supports a finding that one or more rules were violated.
A report can contain several concerns, and each concern can receive a different finding.
4.7 -- Notice and transparency
Staff should give formal restrictions, temporary bans, and permanent bans to the affected player in writing.
A temporary action should state its duration or the condition that will trigger its review. A permanent ban does not expire automatically.
Major enforcement actions are normally public. A public notice may name the affected character or established Underspire identity, the rule violated, the general nature of the conduct, and the action taken.
A public notice must not disclose private reports, private evidence, or sensitive personal information. The purpose of a public notice is accountability, not humiliation.
A public notice does not authorize harassment of the person named in it or attempts to identify a protected reporter.
4.8 -- Appeals
A player may appeal a formal restriction, suspension, permanent ban, or another major enforcement action.
An appeal may challenge:
- an important factual error;
- the rule that staff applied;
- a serious problem with the review process;
- a conflict of interest;
- new information;
- the severity of the action.
Submitting an appeal does not suspend the enforcement action unless staff state otherwise. The Staff Handbook defines the detailed appeal process.
4.8.1 -- If an appeal changes a public enforcement decision, staff must also correct the public record.
4.9 -- Return after a temporary action
When a temporary restriction or ban ends, the returning player is subject to the same rules as everyone else.
4.9.1 -- Staff may set clear return conditions when those conditions are connected to the conduct that caused the action. Return conditions must not become an undeclared permanent punishment.
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