Rules & laws

Rules & Laws

Last reviewed 12 September 2026

Five documents, one set of expectations. The rulebook is between players and staff enforce it. The Bill of Rights is the town's promise to your character. The Book of Laws is what the court sentences from.

RP Glossary

The vocabulary that keeps a scene readable to everyone in it.

Core concepts, the behaviour that gets you struck, and the terms law enforcement and EMS work with daily. This is a living reference, and terms are added as the server's systems grow.

Core concepts

The words a scene is built out of.

RP Roleplay: Acting as your character within Cold Creek's world, their goals, their voice and their stakes, rather than as yourself.
IC In character: Anything your character says, does or knows inside the game. If your character has not learned it in game, they do not know it.
OOC Out of character: The real you, talking as a player rather than as an in-game character. It is kept to dedicated out-of-character chat or clearly bracketed text, never blended into a scene.
FearRP Fear roleplay: The requirement to respond to a lethal threat the way a real person would: comply, panic, negotiate. A gun at your back is not an invitation to be a hero.
NLR New Life Rule: Once your character is revived from a near-death state, they lose the memory of what put them there and cannot chase revenge for it.
Initiation: The in-character move, a demand, a drawn weapon, a threat, that has to happen before a hostile scene can start.
Compliant Non-compliant: Whether a character chooses to go along with the demands made during a scene. The fork every standoff eventually reaches.
CK Character Kill: The permanent death of a character. Their story ends here, by the player's own choice or by a scene that calls for it.

Rule breaking

What each one is called, and what it costs.

RDM Random deathmatch Bannable: Killing another player with no in-character justification or buildup. Skipping straight to the shot a scene never earned.
VDM Vehicle deathmatch Bannable: The same thing as random deathmatch, done with a car. Running somebody down with no roleplay reason to be in a car chase at all.
Revenge killing Strike: Killing a player over a grudge carried from a past scene, or from a previous character's death, instead of what the current scene actually calls for.
Metagaming Strike: Using information your character has no in-world way of knowing, something seen on stream, in Discord, or from a life that already ended, to make an in-character decision.
Powergaming Strike: Forcing an outcome onto another player's character without giving them a real chance to roleplay a response.
FailRP Bannable: Playing a scenario in a way that breaks its own realism. Shrugging off a gunshot wound, or treating a hostage situation like a shooter match.
Combat logging Strike: Disconnecting mid-scene specifically to dodge the consequences of a fight, chase or arrest already in progress.
Cop baiting Strike: Provoking a police response for no in-character reason, purely to manufacture a chase.
Downtiming Strike: Deliberately staying idle or unreachable to dodge a scene, an obligation, or scheduled roleplay you would otherwise owe.
Exploiting Bannable: Using a bug, glitch or troll menu outside its intended purpose, to gain an advantage no legitimate player has access to.

Police and emergency

What the radio is saying.

LEO Law enforcement officer: Any player filling a police or department role on shift.
EMS Emergency medical services: Players who respond to injuries, medical calls, and scenes once they are declared safe for entry.
CAD Computer-aided dispatch: The in-game system logging calls, vehicle registrations and character records.
GME Game Master Event: A scripted scenario run live by staff, distinct from the roleplay players generate on their own.
Priority: An active, high-stakes scene, a robbery, a hostage call or a pursuit, that takes precedence over lower-stakes roleplay happening at the same time. Capped at 45 to 60 minutes so it does not swallow the server.
Pursuit: A police chase following a fleeing vehicle or suspect, governed by its own evasion policy.
Hostage RP: A scene where a civilian is held to negotiate terms with responding police. One of the highest-stakes scene types on the server.