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These abbreviations come from role-play servers for other games, and in Night City they mean the same thing. They're used in the rules, in complaints and in conversations with the administration, so everyone needs to know them.
#Role-play basics
You play the role of your character: a resident of Night City in 2077 with their own story, personality, job and fears. Your character acts the way a real person in their position would, not the way that's most convenient for you as a player.
Example. A courier with a gun pointed in their face doesn't go at the gunman with bare fists: they hand over the parcel and go to the police afterwards.
IC: everything that happens to your character in the game world. OOC: everything about you as a player: the server, the administration, Discord, your real life.
Your character knows nothing OOC. They've never heard of “the server”, “admins”, “bugs” or a “wipe”. In voice chat you speak IC only; anything OOC goes to the text chat, short and to the point.
Example of a violation. In the middle of a chase, saying in voice: “Hang on, my game is lagging.”
Actions a real person in the world of Cyberpunk 2077 wouldn't take. This covers anything that breaks the feeling of a living city.
Examples of violations. Jumping on car roofs at a traffic light. Dancing in the middle of a shootout. Driving a sports car down stairs and through parks where no car could go. Answering a police officer with meme quotes.
#Knowledge and power you don't have
Using in the game what your character can't know: information from Discord, streams, private messages, the website or what others told you outside the game.
Examples of violations. Calling someone by name when they never introduced themselves to you. Showing up at a robbery because a friend told you about it in a messaging app, not because your character saw or heard something. Knowing where a gang's van is hidden from someone else's stream.
Using someone else's stream or video to gain an edge in the game: finding out where a person is and what they're planning, tracking them down or following them. It's a special case of MG and is punished the same way.
Examples of violations. Watching the stream of a player from a rival gang and driving to where they're standing by what you see on screen. Turning up at a meeting you heard about on someone else's stream.
Giving your character abilities that neither they nor the game have: invulnerability, superhuman strength, impossible actions. It also covers forcing on another player the outcome of an action they had no chance to respond to.
Examples of violations. Using /me to say you “knocked out three people with one punch”. Fighting on with a fatal wound as if nothing happened. Claiming your implants let you hear conversations through walls.
#Violence without a reason
Attacking or killing a player without a solid role-play reason. The reason must be clear to both sides and must come from the game, not from a grudge outside it.
Examples of violations. Walking up to a stranger outside a diner and shooting them “because I was bored”. Driving past players you don't know and shooting at them from the car window.
Not a violation. Returning fire at someone who opened fire on you first.
Killing or injuring with a vehicle without a role-play reason: deliberately running people over or ramming other people's cars. The server counts a car hitting a pedestrian as real damage, so it's as much an attack as a gunshot.
Examples of violations. Speeding along the sidewalk by the bank and mowing down the people waiting there. Ramming other cars at a traffic light for fun.
Not a violation. Accidentally clipping a pedestrian who ran out into the road, and stopping right away.
Attacking a player at the place where they've just appeared: by the Bank of Night City in Downtown, outside a clinic after discharge, at the door of a home as they come out. After discharge from the hospital the server already protects the player for 10 seconds, but the rule lasts longer than that protection.
Attacking members of your own faction or gang without a role-play reason agreed with the leader. Internal conflicts are settled through the leader and role-play, not with a shootout at the base.
Coming back after discharge from the hospital to take revenge on whoever took you down, or to carry on an interrupted conflict. Linked to the NLR rule.
#Life after a knockout
If your character was knocked out and woke up in the hospital (rather than being revived by a medic on the spot), they don't remember what led to it: who shot them, where or why. You can return to the scene of the conflict no sooner than 15 minutes later.
If a medic revived you on the spot, you remember everything, but your character is hurt and weak: play that out.
PK: the usual “death” on the server: your character is knocked out and later comes to in a clinic. NLR applies.
CK: a character's real death, after which they never appear in the game again. Only on request through a report to the administration, and with the consent of the character's owner.
Your character fears for their life. If a weapon is pointed at you, or you're outnumbered or in handcuffs, you comply instead of playing the hero. Life in 2077 is cheap, but it's yours.
Example of a violation. With three guns aimed at you, drawing a pistol and charging.
Not a violation. Stalling for time, trying to talk them down, calling for help on the radio when they can't see you.
#Order and fair play
Places where nobody fights: banks, clinics, shops, dealerships, police stations and others. The server doesn't count damage in a green zone, but the rules go further: there you may not provoke a fight, threaten anyone with a weapon or hide from a chase to escape responsibility. More on the Green zones page.
Leaving the game, switching characters or running to the administration to avoid the consequences: an arrest, losing a conflict, a fine. If you have to leave urgently, warn the others involved in the OOC chat and come back to the situation later.
Deliberately using game or server bugs for gain: duplicating items and money, walking through walls, getting stuck in textures so bullets can't reach you. If you find a bug, send a report with the “Bug” category.
Players selling to and buying from each other for real money or for valuables outside the game: eddies, items, cars, homes, businesses, characters and accounts. Both sides of the deal are punished. The only way to buy anything for real money is through the project's official donations.
Repeating the same messages, meaningless characters and text in capital letters. The server itself accepts no more than 1 message per second and disconnects players for persistent flooding.
Your character stands in the game with no player behind it. A short break is fine, but not in the road, in a doorway, in someone else's home or in the middle of a role-play situation.