CS:S Jail Server Rule Book

[Mostly Harmless]

The CS:S Jail Server is a role playing server where you can elect to play one of two roles: Prisoner (T) or Guard (CT). Playing on maps specifically designed for this game type, the prisoners will participate in a number of games and competitions as ordered by the guards; attempting to either become the last surviving prisoner or rebel against the guards with extreme violence and contempt. This rulebook will serve as a guide to participating in the Jail Server, and will serve to acquaint players with the structure of the game and acceptable behaviors.

Per the maps' design, prisoners will spawn in cells and are held there until the guards have organized and armed themselves. Guards spawn in the armory, and at round start equip themselves with weapons to maintain order. The guards will elect a warden who will organize round activities--directing prisoners and guards alike to play out activities of their choosing. Throughout the game, guards--primarily the warden, have use of their mic to issue valid orders to the prisoners, while the prisoners are restricted to text communication to ensure everyone can hear the orders given.

Once the guards have organized themselves, the prisoners are released from their cells (either automatically or manually-map dependent) and receive instructions from the warden on where and how to assemble. Having successfully emptied the cells, the warden will instruct the prisoners to complete a variety of tasks designed to eliminate all but one prisoner as the round progresses--all the while maintaining order and preventing rebellion. Prisoners who fail to complete tasks assigned by the warden are executed, as are those who attack guards or fall short of mini-game benchmarks.

Once the guards have eliminated all but one prisoner, the surviving prisoner is given the ability to make a last request. In their last request, the prisoner turns the table on the guards, and assumes the responsibilities and powers of the warden--forcing the remaining guards to participate in a single game of their choosing. The round ends when the last request is played out, and the prisoner is killed by the final guard.

With such a complicated and unique game type, it is inevitable there will be confusion and disagreement from time to time. Please respect the best judgment of the admins in the server, and they will, with reference to the specific server rules, work to preserve a fun and fair gaming experience for the server.​

The prisoners' role is the simpler of the two, and is ideal for new players. If you are having trouble abiding by the rules set out by this guide as a guard the admins may, at their discretion, restrict you to playing on the prisoners' team to help you better understand how the game is played. What follows are the general guidelines and expectations of the prisoners.​

Prisoner Objectives

As a prisoner, you may attempt to achieve one of two objectives--to be the final survivor on your team and earn a last request, or to rebel against the warden's authority and use your wits to kill off the guards. As long as you follow the warden's orders and meet their demanded performance, you will not be killed by a guard. Only once you become a wanted individual are you to be killed outside of the games, and the requirements to become wanted are explicit. Once you are wanted, you are wanted for the remainder of the round and may be executed without warning. To become wanted, you have committed one or more of the following crimes:​

1. Killed a Guard:
   • Once you have killed a guard, you become wanted for the entire round and may be shot on site. Exception made if kill was by warden's order related to a game.
2. Disobeyed a Wardens' Order
   • You must comply with all lawful orders issued by the warden in the manner directed.
3. Disobeyed a Guards' Command to Ensure Officer Safety
   • Guards may order you to perform actions to preserve their life and maintain order. The orders are only given in direct response to a threat - to drop weapons or back away from a guards' proximity.
4. Entered a Restricted Area
   • Certain areas are always restricted to the prisoners. These areas serve no reasonable use to prisoners except to facilitate rebellion or escape, and entering these areas will get you killed. These areas include:
     • Armory
     • Ventilation shafts
     • Elevated positions (guard towers and catwalks)
     • Areas directly outside of weapon caches
5. Bomb is planted
   • If the bomb is planted, all terrorists are instantly wanted.

Accidental Deaths

There are instances where you will find yourself killed without having committed a crime to make yourself wanted. It is inevitable that a guard will make a mistake, such accidental killings are unavoidable. If this happens to you--remain calm and understand that you are playing a video game and will have an opportunity to play again next round. There are always admins playing on the Jail Server, and they will carefully monitor kills to ensure that unjust slayings are kept to a minimum. Do not complain if you are accidentally killed, you exacerbate the situation beyond its triviality and such poor sportsmanship can lead to disciplinary action. If you feel that a guard has deliberately and blatantly eliminated you without reason, you can bring this to the attention of the admins by mentioning it once in admin chat. Further complaining or public griping will be treated as spam. The admins are trained to differentiate between griefing and accidents, trust their judgment.​

Last Requests

If you successfully outlast all your peers and are the final surviving prisoner--you are entitled to a last request. Once you have assembled all of the remaining guards in a location of your designation, you may command them to perform a single game or task of your choosing. You can have the guards participate in any activity that the warden may order during a typical round. There are some expectations of the last request, detailed below.​

1. Only One Last Request
   • There are many players waiting to respawn, and for the sake of time you are allowed only one last request. Once the guards have completed the activity, you will be killed. An example would being shot for shot, you cannot run off to the medical facility to heal first. If you do run off the act of healing is considered the last request and once healed you will be shot.
2. Use Common Sense
   • Use your best judgement when choosing a last request. You may do games that are normally restricted for guards since last requests are meant to be fun. Use common sense here. Do not delay the round excessively.
3. Guards Must Have a Chance
   • You cannot create a situation that endangers all of the guards at once. If the last request requires guards to enter areas that would encumber self defense (climbs, races, and mazes) or would remove you from all guards' line of site then you must designate a single guard to sit out and watch you to ensure fair play.
4. Activities Must be Expedient
   • The last request may not proceed for an unreasonable length of time. While certain maps do enforce an artificial round endpoint (lockdown), on maps that do not your last request must be designed to quickly and systematically eliminate guards until the last guard attempts to eliminate you. If the game proceeds for too long or does not include a structured plan to eliminate guards quickly, an admin may intervene.

Once the last request is completed, the prisoner is eliminated. The round is completed once all members of either team are killed.​

As a guard, you attempt to maintain order in the prison by forcing prisoners to participate in activities designed to whittle their numbers down as the round progresses. From your ranks you select a warden who will provide order and direction.​

General Guard Expectations

1. Remain With the Prisoners
   • At no time should you leave the prisoners to explore the map or do your own thing. You are required to maintain line of site to the prisoners at all times unless you are actively hunting down rebelling prisoners and have reasonable suspicion that they are hiding in other parts of the map.
2. Follow the Warden's Orders
   • Comply with all lawful orders from the warden. Work as a team under the warden's direction to facilitate the prisoners' activities and ensure the safety of you and your teammates.
3. Do Not Aid and Abet
   • Maintain control of your weapons at all times, you may not provide a weapon to a prisoner or leave one where a prisoner can be reasonably expected to obtain it (gunplanting). Do not assist any prisoners in escaping, rebelling, or disobeying the warden's orders. Exception to the gunplanting restriction is outlined in Section 4.
4. Do Not Put Yourself in Harm's Way
   • Do not be in any locations where you would make an easy and quick kill (baiting). If you are in a spot that the prisoners must travel through to reach a destination you are exposing you and your team to unnecessary risk. Do not approach or entice a prisoner, maintain a respectable distance - far enough away that you could kill or call for help if attacked.
5. Do Not Harm or Kill the Innocent
   • Under no circumstances should you damage or kill a prisoner who is not wanted or has failed to complete a warden's objective.
6. Use the Mic Effectively.
   • Only orders provided over the mic are valid and must be obeyed. The mic is for issuing commands and communicating valuable information to your team, not for idle chatter. If you wish to be social speak to one another via text.

The Warden

At the start of every round, the guards will decide amongst themselves who will play the role of warden. As a courtesy, guards will try to have a consensus on the warden quickly and politely. Mic spamming is not encouraged, and warden will not go to the loudest or the fastest to express interest. As soon as the round starts, each guard interested in being the warden will state their intentions in team text or voice chat (text chat is preferred to prevent mic spamming). As a group, you will decide who should warden with an attempt to ensure that everyone has a chance to do so throughout the game. Once everyone who has interest in being warden has stated so, use your mic at a reasonable volume to select one. When a warden is selected, the round may progress normally. There are certain expectations of the warden and their orders.

Due to many complaints about confusing orders, the default orders upon cell opening are as follows:

1. Round start orders must be the following: Prisoners must be knifing distance from their own cells or against the nearest railing/fence.
2. You may not give orders for terrorists to turn a certain number of degrees to the right or left. These orders simply cause confusion and often end in many prisoners having to wait another 10 minutes to spawn.
3. You may still give them instructions to have a freeday, go directly to climb or something similar.

Other Expectations:

1. Keep the Game Moving
   • Always be actively providing directions to the prisoners in an effort to eliminate all but one while maintaining control of the prison. After the round timer starts, you have one minute to remove the prisoners from their cells.
2. Be Explicit in Your Orders
   • You must be explicit in your orders. Failure to be explicit will lead to quick rebellion. Prisoners are creative and will actively seek loopholes in your orders to exploit. The following orders are implied:
     • No cheating
     • No detouring
     • No delaying
     When moving the prisoners, always provide a speed of travel (shift-walking, etc.), and provide a round time by which they must carry out your orders. Be very specific as to who will die in each game.
3. Ensure Guard Safety
   • Control your troops. Make sure they stay out of harm's way and within line of site to the prisoners. You may not issue an order to a guard that puts them in harm's way without their consent.
4. Orders Must Be Fair
   • Games you order the prisoners to participate in must provide everyone a chance to compete and win. Games must have fair rules to determine winners and losers, and must not be hindered by discrepancies in prisoners' systems (games such as last reaction which will be unfair if some experience mic lag are not permitted). If a game depends on a synchronized start (such as a race), you can either start the game by typing "go" (or any similar direction or typo) or designate a round time at which to start.
     
     You should not be killing any more than 65% of the terrorists in a single game.
5. Communication
   • Always communicate your orders to your guards clearly to avoid accidental killings. Clearly communicate secret objectives (such as couch numbers) and timing of games to your guards in team chat. Try to designate marksmen to eliminate the losers to avoid mass shootings.

When Things Don't Go As Planned

Controlling the prisoners and preventing rebelling are difficult at best, and you will not always be successful. If everything falls apart on your team, keep the following in mind.​

1. Quickly Replace the Warden
   • If the warden is killed, quickly elect a successor to continue the round.
2. Stick With Your Team
   • You cannot run off and camp in strategic portions of the map. Either stay with the non-rebelling prisoners or actively hunt down the rebels.
3. Last Guard Kills All
   • If you find yourself as the last guard alive, you must hunt down and try to eliminate all remaining prisoners. There are many players waiting in spectator, try to bring as many prisoners with you to an early demise as you can.

This final section is a catchall. Any important rules or directions that did not fit in any other section of the guide are here for your review. Please remember that this rulebook is a guide for playing on the CS:S Jail Server, but it is not a suicide pact. All behavior that damages the playing experience of others on the server but are not explicitly forbidden in this guide are still subject to admin intervention and discipline. All eGO rules apply, so be sure to familiarize yourself with the eGO Code of Conduct.​

Important Rules

1. No Trivia
   • Trivia in all forms is restricted from the Jail Server. The warden must provide other methods to eliminate prisoners, and these games must involve active participation from all prisoners.
2. Special Treatment Restrictions
   • A player is restricted to one ST per map rotation. ST may not be reissued to the same player twice in one map, unless the ST is cut short by an accidental shooting prior to the 3:00 minute mark.
3. Couch Game is Restricted
   • Warden may kill off no more than 40% of the couches, and play the game once per round. The warden must explicitly name couches to die in team chat, and specify a round time for execution over the mic.
4. Freedays are Restricted
   • Ba maps are not to be mistaken for dm or de maps. To prevent the erosion of this principle, freedays may not be granted more than once every four rounds and when granted must terminate by 2:00 at the latest. Freedays are specified any rounds that will allow the terrorists to freely roam the jail map (zombie freedays, hide and seek, scavenger hunt, etc).
5. Exceptions to Gunplanting Rules
   • If you are playing a game that requires a terrorist to utilize a gun to participate (such as gun toss, gun race, hot potato, etc.), then the warden may provide the prisoners with a gun. The gun must be completely emptied of ammunition, and once the game is over, all terrorists must drop any weapons used.

In closing, please remember that this is a video game, and we are here to have fun. Follow the rules in this guide, listen to instructions from admins, and don't take things personally. Do not try to police others or enforce these rules, admins will handle all issues and you are not to interfere. If things do not go your way or you die unintentionally, let it go and try again next round.

Questions and concerns may be directed to a relevant member of CS:S Leadership, namely bigredking, Cryptex, and Ill Legend.​

- Guide Written By:
Bigredking, Cryptex



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[Legend]

Additional Reading:

• How To Get Something Added Here
• Jail Games Clarifications
• Jail Game Ideas
• Jail Strategy Compendium #1
• Jail Strategy Compendium #2 - Wardening

Change Log:

• [12/28/2011] LR section amended because players were reading into it too much. Remember: The last request is meant to be fun. Don't over admin.
  
  
• [8/25/2011] Addition under Section 3 Orders Must Be Fair to include the 65% rule: You should not be killing any more than 65% of the terrorists in a single game.
  
  
• [8/25/2011] Addition under Section 4 Important Rules to include a better description of freeday rounds: "Freedays are specified any rounds that will allow the terrorists to freely roam the jail map (zombie freedays, hide and seek, scavenger hunt, etc)."
  
  
• [8/19/2010] Rewording of "As soon as the round starts, each guard interested in being the warden will state their intention in team text chat" and changed to "As soon as the round starts, each guard interested in being the warden will state their intentions in team text or voice chat (text chat is preferred to prevent mic spamming)"
  
• [1/14/2012] Clarifies that terrorists are wanted when the bomb is planted
  

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