Know the city

No racial, homophobic or derogatory language is permitted anywhere in Down Draft, in city, in Discord or in any community space. This includes hateful conduct aimed at a person's age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, or physical and mental health. Sexual harassment of any kind is treated the same way. There is no in-character excuse for any of this: 'my character would say it' is not a defence. Anyone found doing this is permanently removed from the community.

Providing false information about your age to gain access will result in removal. Adult themes still have hard limits — see the prohibited roleplay rule.

These themes are prohibited outright: suicide and self-harm roleplay, terroristic activity, sexual assault or rape roleplay, torture beyond reasonable scene limits, and any sexual roleplay involving characters presented as minors. They breach the FiveM Terms of Service and are genuinely harmful to real people reading them. Anyone acting within these roles is removed from the server immediately.

Intense scenes are part of roleplay, but nobody is required to sit through content they are not comfortable with. A short, quiet limit request should be honoured without debate. Deliberately pushing someone past a stated limit is treated as harassment.

Doxxing, threats made against real people, or sharing private conversations results in a permanent ban.

Talking about other communities is fine. Direct advertising, mass DMs or organised recruitment is not.

This rulebook cannot cover every situation. Management reserves the right to act on behaviour that damages the community, the city or its players even where no specific rule is named.

Two minutes gives staff the context leading into an incident, not just the moment it went wrong. Clips must be unedited, include your own voice and audio from the scene, and be uploaded somewhere staff can view without an account. Reports submitted after 24 hours will not normally be actioned. If you believe you were falsely banned by our anti-cheat, a clip is required — no exceptions. We strongly recommend keeping a clipping tool running whenever you are in the city.

Stopping a scene to argue ruins it for everyone present, including people who did nothing wrong. Carry on, survive it in character, then take it to a ticket.

Our staff are trained to handle these situations and will call on you if your input is needed. This includes quoting rules at other players mid-scene, telling people what their punishment should be, or piling into someone else's ticket.

Being untruthful in a ticket, editing a clip to mislead, or abusing a staff member will be treated more seriously than the original rule break. Decisions can be appealed — arguing in the moment is not an appeal.

Do not refer to rules as 'City Rules' or anything else mid-scene, and do not mention out-of-character topics such as admins, tickets, VDM, RDM, your PC, keyboard, monitor, frame rate or Discord. Do not ask streamers whether they 'have eyes on'. Treat every scene as though it is being watched live. If you genuinely need help, finish the scene and open a ticket.

Passing city information to another player outside the city is also metagaming, as is receiving it. If you learn something from watching someone's stream, your character does not know it until they legitimately find it out in the city. Third-party voice apps must not be used to talk to other people currently in the city.

Every action another player would need to respond to must leave them room to respond. Do not narrate their reaction, their injuries or their defeat for them.

Examples include abusing game mechanics such as using the seat-vehicle option to pull someone from a car without a /me, tying someone up while they are on your shoulders, and forcing a player to use an ATM. Having friends inside or outside the city is never a reason to break a rule. If a mechanic does something your character physically could not, use /me and /do to roleplay it properly.

Before a weapon appears there should be dialogue, motive and a chance for the scene to go another way. A good scene leaves everyone able to carry it forward next week.

Background noise, music and household conversation breaking into a scene damages it for everyone. Soundboards and voice changers used to disrupt scenes are also prohibited.

Unless roleplay clearly dictates otherwise, that story ends there for your character. You may not seek revenge for a death you do not remember, return to recover your belongings, or send a friend to act on your behalf. Others must not tell you what happened in order to work around this.

If you are kidnapped you must follow your kidnappers' reasonable requests wherever possible to protect your character's health and life. Do not force yourself into dangerous situations that do not already involve you. This is roleplay, not team deathmatch.

Your characters must not knowingly interact to benefit one another, share property or funds, or use information one of them learned. Switching characters to escape an active scene is a serious rule break.

While a face covering is in place, voice alone is never identification. You may identify someone through distinctive tattoos, hair or clothing already linked to them from previous calls or cases.

You cannot roll up on someone and open fire without a word. Every act of violence needs build-up you can explain in character afterwards: a demand, a dispute, a history.

You cannot rob a player and then flatback them: rob or kill, never both. Executing a compliant, downed player without strong roleplay behind it is a rule break.

Quitting through F8, task manager or by pulling your connection is treated as combat logging and carries consequences. If you genuinely crash, rejoin immediately and return to your last location.

Faction colours or clothing — a body vest, bandanna or chain representing a faction — can be a valid reason, as can an established dispute or something your character saw. Cleaning someone out of everything they own with three words of dialogue is not roleplay.

You must wait at least 5 minutes for Police to arrive on scene before leaving. Stacking extra players nearby 'just in case' counts towards your numbers.

Dismount to trade. Drug sales still require roleplay — pulling up, exchanging and leaving in silence is not a scene.

Current green zones: the hospital, and government events unless stated otherwise. A green zone is not a shield — you cannot commit a crime and run into one to end the scene, and staff will treat that as Fail RP.

This includes selling drugs directly outside the station and repeatedly speeding past patrol cars for no reason. Police and EMS should be called when you need their help, not to set up a kidnap or robbery.

Police work equipment cannot be taken from an officer. Bodycams, radios and phones may be taken where roleplay clearly dictates it.

You cannot simply ask someone whether they want to be a hostage, and you cannot call a friend for a favour. Police officers and EMS may be taken hostage for shop and store robberies or Vangelico.

Asking EMS to perform medical treatment on you or others is not allowed unless it is one of your demands.

A kidnap needs a build-up, a purpose and an ending. Holding someone indefinitely with nothing happening is Fail RP for both sides.

Officers are held to the same standard: excessive force, unrealistic tactics or corruption without approval are all reportable.

Blocking, robbing or attacking EMS while they are treating someone is a serious rule break.

Refusing treatment to skip a hospital scene, or walking away from major trauma unaffected, is Fail RP.

PD are NOT automatically participants in a KOS supply drop. The KOS rule applies between players actively contesting the drop. Officers may respond to the area based on shots fired, reports, observed criminal activity or an active police response, but players cannot open fire on them simply because they enter or approach the marked zone. Normal police interaction and initiation rules still apply. Officers entering an active supply-drop KOS zone should treat it as an extremely hostile scene and respond accordingly, not casually walk into an active firefight. The KOS zone does NOT automatically remove initiation requirements between criminals and police. If officers attempt to detain, arrest, seize the drop or otherwise directly involve themselves in the conflict, players may respond to that intervention in accordance with the server's normal rules for hostile police interactions. PD should not use the supply drop as an excuse to immediately open fire on everyone inside the zone: their objective is law enforcement, not winning the drop. Downed officers follow the same scene restrictions as everyone else and cannot use /medic to immediately return to the engagement. Once an officer has been downed and revived, they cannot return to that same supply-drop engagement.

This includes running people down without reason, excessive ramming, and using weapons or kicking while riding a motorcycle or bike.

Realistic stunt jumps are allowed, provided they could be performed in real life without injuring yourself or others.

Do not flip a vehicle back over yourself to keep a pursuit going.

Vehicle damage should be roleplayed. Repeatedly storing and pulling out a vehicle to reset damage mid-scene is exploiting.

Any change to approved numbers must be discussed with management first.

Robbing everyone, or every faction, every ten minutes is abuse of this rule. There must be a plan, a motive and a story behind it.

Wars are stories, not scoreboards. Faction leadership is responsible for the conduct of their members during a conflict.

Management may revoke ownership for prolonged inactivity, rule breaks, or where a business is not being operated as intended.

A business is not a money printer. Treating it purely as income is grounds for removal.

Any abuse may result in disciplinary action or removal from the business.

Owners are responsible for making sure their staff follow both server rules and internal business policies.

Any crime involving a business needs meaningful roleplay behind it.

Stealing, duplicating, exploiting or misusing business assets for personal benefit is strictly prohibited.

Purchasing a business grants you the right to manage and roleplay it, not to own it. If you step down, become inactive, or have the business removed for any reason, it returns to the Government immediately. All future owners must go through the official business application process so every business is run by players who can provide quality roleplay and maintain Down Draft standards.

This includes investigating complaints, auditing activity, adjusting business systems, or removing ownership where deemed appropriate.

Never place cameras at another player's business, property or territory.

If a location cannot be covered without an unreasonable number of cameras, staff may remove some or all of them.

Cameras judged excessive, unrealistic, exploitative or unnecessarily placed may be removed at staff discretion without reimbursement or replacement. Simple rule: use cameras strategically, not excessively.

If you find an exploit you must report it rather than abuse it — abuse has the potential to ruin the city economy and the roleplay of every member. Anyone caught using emotes to get through locked doors will be permanently banned with no appeal. Reporting is always rewarded over abusing.

Visual-only mods such as graphics packs are permitted, provided they do not reveal information other players cannot see.

If you are mid-scene before a restart or you crash, return to your last location and pick up where you left off. Using a restart or crash to escape a scene is treated as combat logging.