Cantr - free, browser-based role-playing society simulator

Welcome to Cantr! Before creating your account, please read the following text carefully. Cantr is unlike most other online games.

The fundamental idea is to simulate the development of societies.

Each character you create will awaken in a unique environment, created entirely by other players. There are no pre-determined goals, and no backstory. Roleplay is immersive. Societies may develop very differently in different regions.

The Cantr world is somewhat realistic, though technology levels are unusual. There are few limitations for character development.

Since all characters are played by real people, Cantr can be a very slow-paced game.

Though fighting is possible in Cantr, it is limited. Character death is permanent.

PLEASE NOTE: If your idea of a good time is to leave a trail of corpses behind you, Cantr is not the game for you.

The game world is ongoing. There are no levels, quests, or Out of Character achievements for you as a player. It’s not a game to win. Your characters take part in and contribute to a living history.

The Capital Rule

Cantr’s mission is to foster creativity, learning, and communication in a world simulating the challenges of real life.

To accomplish this mission, the game of Cantr has one rule, the Capital Rule, which applies to all players of Cantr and is monitored by the Players Department, which consists of volunteer players.

The Capital Rule is that each character must be played subject to the limitations of its own perspective and the world in which it resides.

The following exceptions apply:

Characters are affected by the core or implicit knowledge of the player, including, to a limited extent, the language, philosophy, and personality of the player.
The Capital Rule doesn’t apply to the Intro or Tutorial World of Cantr (https://intro.cantr.net).

The following describes each part of the Capital Rule:

A Character’s Perspective

Knowledge is power, and obtaining knowledge is one challenge a character must overcome through its own experiences in the game. One character does not automatically know anything that another character knows, including previous characters.
A character’s perspective also includes its motives, desires, and even emotions. For example, a character’s goals and decisions should not be affected by what happens to other characters of the same player.

The World of Cantr

While a character can believe, think, or say things that are not true about the world, roleplayed actions or events (often within *asterisks*) should reflect what is possible or reality in the world of Cantr.
Cantr, or the world in which characters live, is intended to represent real life. The mechanics of Cantr, including materials, construction, and travel, were implemented with this in mind, but do not necessarily reflect real life, due to technical limitations or for Cantr to be a persistent and slow-paced game (not requiring quick responses by players). Limits on the frequency in which one can attack other characters is an example of this.
The mechanics of Cantr continue to evolve as additions and improvements are made (see the Discord chat channels to participate in changes to the game).
The implemented mechanics of the game are the authority in terms of what is reality, and where not specified or implemented, one can assume reality or nature is the same as on Earth.
There is no magic in Cantr, but characters can think there is magic.
The form of a character’s body is chosen by the player and can be anything that is possible in real life without any events outside of the character’s experience (a new character can’t spawn with battle scars). The same applies to describing animals, within reason. Note that a character’s public description may be used to describe anything that another person would easily notice upon seeing the character. See examples for “Character Description” at the table below.

Exception: Core Knowledge of the Player

The diversity of perspectives and talents that different players bring from around the world is one aspect that makes Cantr appealing. Players’ perspectives manifest themselves in their characters. We encourage players to play character as different from themselves (the player) and especially different from their other characters, but we acknowledge that a character is dependent on their player as much as a car is dependent on the driving skills of the driver. See examples for Language, Philosophy, and Skilled Knowledge in the table below (“Capital Rule Examples”).

Exception: Intro World (Tutorial)

The Intro World of Cantr (https://intro.cantr.net) is a place for new players to become accustomed to the game and ask questions. As such, the Capital Rule is not enforced on the Intro World and characters may speak from a player’s complete perspective. However, we strongly encourage the use of roleplay and following the Capital Rule here in most cases in order to help new players learn and for an engaging roleplay experience on the Intro World.

Capital Rule Examples

Here are some examples, with “Acceptable” use of a player’s knowledge on the left, “Debatable” in the middle, and “Not Allowed” on the right. Items in “Debatable” are not restricted but some could later be changed to “Not Allowed” or be requested by the Players Department in specific circumstances (without this being counted against you as a warning).

Category	Acceptable	Debatable	Not Allowed
Language	General language	Idioms that don't make sense in Cantr.	Specific references to named persons, places, animals, or objects that a character has not seen or heard of.
	Speaking with a dialect or accent based on real life.	References to things that don't exist in Cantr but that a character would reasonably be aware of on Earth (e.g. bugs).	Lyrics or quotes from real life or that the character has not heard or read.
Philosophy	Philosophies on life or society, such as that killing is bad and the concept of elections.	Using a near-exact copy of a real life constitution, document, or religion as basis for an organization in Cantr.	Direct references to religion or government outside of Cantr.
	Understanding of family relationships, including marriage.	References to general political movements such as democracy and communism.	References to specific political parties except as general terms.
Skilled knowledge	Basic math skills, such as addition, fractions, and degrees (e.g. to navigate ships).	Acting as an expert on a mechanic of Cantr (like sailing ships or domesticating animals) without the character having any experience doing it.	Using very specialized real-world knowledge without justification (e.g. automatically knowing advanced chemistry or details about outer space).
	The ability to read and write.
	A player using a calculator or spreadsheet for what the character does by hand (characters have more time on their hands than their players).
	A character learning a language much faster than the player.	Becoming fluent in a language after 2 Cantr years (40 days) have passed but with little to no effort practicing the language (through roleplay).	Near instantly becoming fluent in another language or speaking words one has not seen or heard before.(before reasonable exposure to the language and at least 2 Cantr years).
Collaboration	Planning within the game through roleplay when or how to carry out an action, including attacks or stealing.	Using OOC messages within the game to plan actions or explain your schedule.	Planning outside of Cantr with another player to do something with their characters, or planning when to do something (including on the forum, Discord, email, or a phone conversation).
Pre-knowledge	Having a character spawn with a predetermined name or personality.	Spawning with a specific goal unlikely of someone who doesn't have knowledge about Cantr history or towns (e.g. start a multi-town organization, be a pirate).	Using specific information about history, towns, or other characters that the character did not learn themselves.
			Attempting to spawn a character in a specific location, or go to a specific town or character right after spawning. This includes having characters intentionally die right after spawning (to spawn another character).
Character Description	Unusual body height, color, or disability that has existed in real life.	An extreme or rare deformity that exists in real life.	Different body form than is possible (e.g. wings, 6 limbs, tail).

Safety Precautions

In order to avoid problems with the Capital Rule and to make it reasonable to enforce (it can be difficult to know the motivations of players), Cantr staff (the Players Department) enforce restrictions on some actions that do not necessarily break the Capital Rule. These restrictions are motivated by the following:

To avoid situations where the Capital Rule would likely be broken.
To avoid inevitable or subconscious player bias due to knowing information that their character doesn’t, and to not impose such extra information on players.
To make enforcing the Capital Rule reasonable (it can be difficult to know the motivations of players).
To make the game as fair as possible for all players.

Note that players who live in the same household or who have the same IP address are treated as the same player in all of the following restrictions and for any other aspects of the Capital Rule (this does not apply to the total number of characters allowed).

The following restrictions apply regardless of the situation (doing these merit official warnings, and the code of the game may prevent some of these actions):

Attacking a character with two or more characters of the same player.
Dragging a character with two or more characters of the same player.
Passing items or notes between characters of the same player, including dropping and picking up (there must be the character of another player involved).
Unlocking a door or lock for another character of the same player.
Working on the same project as another character of the same player.
Voluntarily traveling in the same vehicle as another character of the same player.
Whispering to another character of the same player.
Having three or more characters in the same town (regardless of the building, etc.).
Revealing events to another player (or publicly) less than 4 days after the event passed.
Having more than one character in both the same town and the same organization (e.g. both are town officials).
Creating a character in a language in which one only knows a few words (practice elsewhere first and learn basic grammar and conversation).
Creating another Cantr account when one already has an active account.
Publicly or privately sharing information about the Cantr world (as opposed to old events) that Cantr staff has not made publicly available (for example, on the wiki). This includes maps, resource locations, locations of organizations, or locations of characters other than your own (exception: information from Cantr may be shared with someone who is one of the following: a Player Advocate, a member of the Players Department, a member of the Game Administration Board. See Staff list.).
Revealing who the players of specific characters are, without permission by the player See examples for Language, Philosophy, and Skilled Knowledge in the table below (“Capital Rule Examples”).
Engaging in ERP (erotic roleplay), submitting sexual, graphic, or obscene content with more than one other character present in the same location (even if whispering) or without permission from the player of the other character (they and you must be 18 years or older). Consent may be stated through one’s character in parenthesis or prefaced by “OOC:” (out of character).
Breaking Cantr’s Terms of Use in any other way.

The following actions always break the Capital Rule (and merit a warning):

Planning the future actions of characters outside of the game with other players who will be involved in any way.
Anything in the “Not allowed” category of provided examples.

Capital Rule Cheat Sheet

The following are the types of infractions for which a player may receive a warning (players will be informed of the type they committed):

Collaborating or planning outside of Cantr with other players.
Attempting to use a second or additional account to play Cantr.
Speaking or submitting sexual content, ERP, or graphic violence or other obscene content without proper consent or with more than one other character present.
Trying to persuade players inside the game to stop playing the game.
Breaking a “Safety Precaution”.
Not following requests by the Players Department (received as messages on one’s Player Page after logging in).
Using Cantr to send spam messages or advertisements.
Harassing a player or a member of Cantr staff.
Speaking to someone after being requested to stop (not through roleplay).
Personal attacks towards an individual player or staff member either privately or publicly (on Cantr, Cantr communities, or elsewhere).
Threatening a player or a member of Cantr staff.
Using Cantr or Cantr events or relationships to blackmail someone.
4-day rule.
Unrealistic character or item description.
Inappropriate information in description.
Creating a character in a language you don’t know.
A character speaking a language they did not properly learn in-game (with a minimum of 2 Cantr years for fluency).
Unrealistic roleplay.
Unreasonable advanced or specialized knowledge from the real world.
Named reference to something from the real world or outside the character’s experience.
Quotes or lyrics from the real world or outside the character’s experience.
Speaking out of character excessively or without a valid reason.
Direct reference (even if not explicitly named) to religions, organizations, or documents outside of the character’s experience.

Valid reasons for a character to speak out of character (OOC):

Requesting or giving consent for sexual or graphic roleplay.
Asking or answering a question about how the game works, in relation to what one of the characters present is trying to do. Such OOC conversation should be limited to a few sentences or statements; if more clarification is needed, please use the staff contact form on cantr.net, ask at #peer_support on Discord, or ask a member of Cantr staff.

You can find a link to these game rules and related policies for the Players Department at the bottom of every page.

Enjoy the game!