Getting in
ZedOnline is a roleplay server first and a survival game second. The zombies are the setting. The story is the people, and that is why nobody simply joins and starts playing.
Four steps stand between you and the game server.
- Read #rules and press I Agree. That unlocks the rest of the Discord.
- Pick your notification roles, so you only get pinged about the things you actually care about.
- Apply for a character in #open-a-ticket. Approval usually comes back within 24 hours.
- Approval gives you the 🧟 Survivor role, which is what lets you into the game server.
The application asks who your character is and what they want. Nobody is marking your writing, and it does not need to be long. We are checking that there is a person behind the character rather than a set of skills. You play one character at a time, and they need to be your own invention rather than someone taken from a film, a game or a show.
This server is 16+, and agreeing to the rules confirms that you are. Your agreement is recorded with your name and the time, which is why "I didn't know the rules" is not something staff can accept.
Events
Staff run events through the season, and joining in is encouraged - they are where a lot of the story actually happens, and where you will meet people you would not otherwise cross paths with.
Use event resources for what they are meant for. Disrupting an event, exploiting event spawns, or griefing one is treated seriously, because it ruins something a lot of people turned up for rather than just one person's evening.
Green zones and red zones
Roleplay is the default across the entire map. A handful of marked places are the exception. Knowing which is which decides what other players are allowed to do to you, so this is the most important thing on this page.
If somewhere is not marked red, it is green. Towns, roads, wilderness, the overwhelming majority of the map. Violence here has to be roleplayed first: no killing on sight and no attacking people at random. If you rob somebody and they cooperate, you have to let them leave alive.
Certain towns and areas - high-loot towns, military checkpoints and the like. Every one is marked on the map in advance, so you will know where they are before you go near one. Killing on sight is allowed there and nobody owes you a reason, so being killed in a red zone is never something staff will reverse.
You will hear two bits of shorthand. KOS means kill on sight. RDM means random deathmatch: killing somebody with no roleplay and no reason. Green zones forbid both. Red zones are kill on sight by design, so RDM does not exist there and there is nothing to report.
Look at the in-game map. The red zones are marked on it, and the same maps are posted in #zones-and-map. Anywhere not marked is green. You are not expected to work a town out by walking in and seeing whether anyone shoots you.
The red zones change every season. If you played last season, check the list again before you travel. A town that was safe in the spring may not be now.
What "roleplay it first" actually means
In a green zone, the person you are robbing has to realise they are in a scene. Somebody who cannot tell whether you are serious has not been given a chance to react, and that is the difference between a robbery and an ambush. Tell them what you want, and give them a moment to answer. If they cooperate, they walk away alive.
This works both ways. If somebody has a gun on you and you are outnumbered, play your character as though they are frightened, because they would be. Refusing to react at all, so that the robber has no option but to kill you, is treated as your mistake rather than theirs.
Killing somebody in a green zone
A green zone is not a place where you cannot be killed. You are allowed to kill somebody there, but only for a reason your character already had, such as a betrayal, a robbery that went wrong, or a long-running feud. Being annoyed with somebody has never counted as a reason.
You do not have to ask staff first. What you do have to do is write up what happened afterwards, which is covered further down this section.
Fights that cross from one zone into the other
Whichever zone a scene starts in is the zone whose rules apply until that scene finishes. Running into a green-zone town does not end a fight that started in a red zone.
The after-action post
After any killing on sight, and any killing inside a green zone, post a short summary in #conflict-reports: who was involved, where it happened, and why. Two lines is enough, and nobody is judging the writing.
Those posts are the record staff use when two players disagree about what happened. If somebody disputes a fight and you never posted about it, staff will rule against you. That is not because the other player is more trustworthy. It is because their version is the only one written down.
Dying
Dying does not delete your character. You respawn at your safehouse and carry on playing the same person.
What your character loses is the memory of how they died. They do not remember the fight, the ambush, or who killed them. They still know their own life, the people they trust and where they live. What they cannot do is go and take revenge for something they have no memory of.
Anyone who saw you die is allowed to tell your character about it afterwards, and then you can act on it. That is ordinary word of mouth. What you cannot do is use knowledge that nobody in the game actually passed on to you.
Explaining how your character comes back
How your character makes sense of the gap is up to you, and it is one of the more enjoyable bits of roleplay on the server. Waking from a bad dream is the usual approach and nobody will think less of you for using it. Other players have their character wake from a fever, or treat it as a night they cannot remember, or settle on a version of events that is not quite true, and any of those are equally fine.
Ending a character permanently
You can decide that a death is permanent, and it is a genuine ending when you do. Your next character starts with nothing carried over: no memories, no contacts and none of the old grudges. Some of the best stories on this server have come from someone choosing to end a character rather than being forced to.
The one thing you cannot do is fake a death to escape the consequences of something.
Groups and bases
Groups make the map feel lived in. They also concentrate power, which is why both factions and bases have limits on them.
Starting a faction
Apply in #open-a-ticket. A faction can have seven members at most. A good application explains what the group believes, what it wants and what it needs from new members, rather than just giving a name and a colour. Approved factions get a private thread to organise in and a recruitment post in #faction-hall.
Faction wars belong in red zones, or between groups who have agreed to fight. The seven-member limit is a real limit: three allied factions attacking together as a group of twenty-one is treated as a loophole.
Claiming a base
You get one claim each, or you can live in one group base with other players. Keep it sensible in size, since a single survivor does not need a two-storey shopping centre.
- Gun stores
- Pharmacies and doctor's offices
- Grocery stores
- Pawn shops
- Hardware stores
- Auto parts stores
- Convenience stores
The reason is practical rather than fussy. Claiming a building stops its supplies respawning, so one player claiming the gun store would permanently remove guns from everybody else's game. Those seven types stay unclaimed so that supplies keep coming back for everyone.
If you want a custom base, meaning anything that does not fit the rules above, open a general support ticket in #open-a-ticket and ask before you start building. Staff can approve unusual locations and builds on a case-by-case basis, and it is far easier to agree something in advance than to undo it once the walls are up.
Your base cannot be looted
Claimed safehouses are protected by the server itself. Players who are not members of a safehouse cannot take items out of it, so you will not log in to find your base emptied while you were asleep.
That protection is a server setting rather than a rule, which means it is not something another player can argue their way around, and it is not something staff have to police.
Vehicles
You can claim five vehicles, and that is five in total rather than five on top of whatever you already have parked. Keep them off the main roads and out of the way of major routes, because a car abandoned across a junction is everybody's problem.
You cannot claim a vehicle from a distance, and you are expected to retrieve what you claim yourself.
The behaviour this exists to stop: spotting a rare car in a town blocked off by wrecks, tagging it early, and then waiting for somebody else to do the work of clearing the wrecks before you stroll in and drive it away. If you cannot reach it today, do not claim it today.
If you genuinely need something unclaimed, staff will do it once per wipe. Open a ticket.
If you are going to be away
Tell staff if you will be gone for 21 days or more and your base and vehicles are held for you. Factions with no activity for three weeks may be archived, so that the map reflects the groups who are actually playing.
Trading
Approved 🪙 Traders run shops in #trader-shack. Becoming one means applying and having your prices reviewed by staff.
Each trader is approved to sell one category of goods. That is not bureaucracy for its own sake. It stops a single shop taking over the entire economy and leaves room for other players to set up their own. Anything outside your category is sold privately rather than listed on your shopfront, and displaying it there does not make it allowed.
Scamming other players
Conning somebody in character is allowed and can make for very good roleplay, but it has to be an actual con: a story, a build-up, and a victim who had a reason to trust you. Talking somebody out of their equipment with a lie told out of character is not roleplay, it is just taking their belongings from them.
Buying or selling anything from this server for real money, and bringing items in from another server.
Taking more than you need
Take what your character would take. Emptying every building of supplies you have no use for, so that nobody else can have them, is hoarding, and staff will step in when it starts affecting other people's game.
This is not a rule about being tidy. Supplies are finite, and one player clearing out every pharmacy in the county quietly decides how everybody else's season goes.
If something breaks
Bugs and crashes happen. If one of them cost you something, open a ticket and staff will put it right where they can.
Bring evidence with you. A video clip is best, a screenshot is next best, and a written description on its own is difficult to act on, though still worth sending. Getting into the habit of recording while you play costs you nothing and is often the difference between getting your things back and not.
Editing or staging evidence will get you banned, and it is far easier to spot than people expect.
If a bug killed your character
A character killed by a genuine bug can be brought back, but that one needs video. A screenshot cannot show what killed you, and a written description certainly cannot.
This is the single best reason to run recording software while you play. Project Zomboid has its share of bugs, and the difference between losing a character for good and getting them back is usually whether you had the last thirty seconds on tape.
One thing worth saying clearly: losing something is not the same as being treated unfairly. Being robbed or killed within the rules is the server working as intended, even on the nights when that is annoying.
Warnings and appeals
Formal warnings build up in stages, and they expire after 60 days. Every stage applies to the game server as well as Discord - a timeout is not just being unable to talk while you carry on playing.
| Warning | What happens |
|---|---|
| First | Recorded. No timeout either side. |
| Second | 24 hours - timed out in Discord, and banned from the game server for the same period. |
| Third | 7 days - both again, and staff review the pattern behind it. |
| Fourth | Removed from both the Discord and the game server. |
Some things skip the stages entirely and go straight to removal: slurs, sharing someone's personal information, abusing an exploit, and coming back on a second account after being banned.
Appealing a decision
Every ban is appealed in the same place - a separate ZedOnline Appeals server: discord.gg/D3x4agBzza
It works for a Discord ban, a game-server ban, or both, and you can get in even if you have been removed from the main server. The bot also sends you that invite the moment a ban lands, so keep your direct messages open.
The appeal is a set of questions to work through rather than a form letter, and it goes to staff with the server's own record attached.
Appeals go through that process rather than through an argument in chat. Arguing publicly has never changed a decision here, and it usually makes things harder to come back from.
What you can expect from staff
No staff member rules on a situation they were personally involved in. They hand it to somebody else instead. If you think that has not happened, say so in a ticket and it will be looked into.
Getting help
#open-a-ticket is where everything starts: applications, reports about other players, appeals, refunds, and anything you are unsure about.
Tickets get recorded, get picked up by whoever is available, and stop the same person having to handle everything. The people running this server are volunteers with jobs and families, and direct messages tend to land on whoever is most visible rather than whoever is on duty.
If a situation is not covered anywhere in the rules, ask before you act rather than afterwards. Using a gap in the rules still counts as breaking them, and "it wasn't written down" has never worked as a defence. If something feels like it is probably not allowed, it usually is not.
This is not Project Zomboid tech support
If something is broken with ZedOnline specifically, such as our mods, our server or your whitelist, open a ticket and staff will help as best they can. For general Project Zomboid problems, crashes and bugs in the base game, the developers' own Discord will always have better answers than we will: discord.gg/theindiestone
The rules in full
The exact text from #rules, repeated here.
📜 ZedOnline Rules
Welcome to ZedOnline, a Project Zomboid Build 42 roleplay community. These rules exist so everyone gets a fair, immersive apocalypse.
Age requirement: 16+. By clicking I Agree below you confirm your age and accept every section that follows. "I didn't know" is never an excuse - your agreement is logged.
1 · General Conduct
1.1 Respect. Treat every player with respect. Harassment, bullying, or discrimination of any kind is not tolerated - including real-life threats, doxxing, or anything illegal. Keep it civil in-game and on Discord.
1.2 No OOC authority games. Don't impersonate staff or claim out-of-character authority in-character. Using OOC threats or blackmail to force IC outcomes is forbidden.
1.3 English only. All communication (text, voice, RP) is in English - staff support is provided in English and rules misunderstandings due to language are not excused.
1.4 Politics & religion stay outside. We're here for the apocalypse, not ideology.
1.5 No griefing. Wrecking someone's experience on purpose is not roleplay - destroying property for no IC reason, walling people out of their own base, building on another player's claim, trolling for a reaction.
2 · Roleplay Standards
2.1 Stay in character. IC channels and the game world are for your character's voice. Keep OOC chatter in #general - the bot will nudge you if it slips.
2.2 No metagaming. Information your character didn't learn in-game doesn't exist for them. Discord knowledge is not character knowledge. If you play more than one character they never interact, never pass items between each other, and never share what the other one knows.
2.3 No powergaming. Don't force outcomes on other players, godmod, or play an invincible character. Give people room to respond.
2.4 No dating RP and no ERP. Romance plots, in-character relationships played out as dating, and anything sexual are not allowed here - not in channels, not in DMs arranged through this server, not in-game. This is a survival horror server and it is 16+, which means adults and minors share these channels. There is no tasteful version of this and no fade-to-black exception. Take it elsewhere or don't play it.
2.5 Character death matters. Play injuries and losses honestly. Death is part of the story.
2.6 Play the scene. Refusing to engage is its own rule break. Going silent, wandering off mid-scene, or "my character wouldn't care" to dodge a situation is no intention to roleplay.
2.7 No voice ID'ing. You recognise people by their character's face and actions, not the voice of the player behind them. Knowing someone OOC doesn't mean your character knows them.
2.8 Roleplay limits. Racism and controversial real-world subjects stay out of roleplay entirely. Respect other people's boundaries - if someone asks you to stop a scene, stop.
3 · Combat, Death & Consequences
The map is split into zones - this replaces the old ticket-to-plan-conflict system.
3.1 🟢 Green zone - the default, everywhere
- If a place is not marked red, it is green. Towns, roads, wilderness - the overwhelming majority of the map.
- RP required for all conflict - no KOS (killing on sight) and no RDM (killing someone with no roleplay and no reason).
- Robbery and hostility need roleplay build-up, and victims who comply must be given a way out alive.
- Initiations must be clear: your target must know they're in a scene.
3.2 🔴 Red zones - specific marked places
- Certain towns and areas - high-loot towns, military checkpoints and the like. Every one is marked on the map in advance, so you will know where they are long before you walk into one.
- KOS is legal, and no roleplay is needed. There is no such thing as RDM in a red zone - nobody owes you a reason, so there is nothing to report. Walking in is consenting to that.
- Faction warfare is allowed here.
- RP is still encouraged - the best fights have a story.
- Parking on a spawn point to farm whoever appears isn't KOS, it's griefing (1.5).
The red zones are marked on the in-game map, and the same maps are posted in #zones-and-map. Anywhere not marked is green. The red list changes every season - if you played last season, check it again before you travel.
3.3 Killing in a green zone. Green is not an invincibility shield. You can kill there, but only with a real, established IC reason - a betrayal, a robbery gone wrong, a grudge already on record. Minor annoyance has never justified murder.
No approval needed first. What's needed is the after-action post afterwards, naming your reason. 🎭 Antagonists have standing approval and still post.
3.4 The zone a scene starts in governs it. Crossing a zone line doesn't end a scene or change its rules. A fight that starts in red stays red until it's finished. Rob someone in green and you can't flee to red and call it fair.
3.5 Fear RP. Value your character's life. Gun to your head, outnumbered, outmatched - act like it. "My character is fearless" is not a defence, and forcing someone to kill you by refusing to react is a break on your side.
3.6 No combat logging. Don't log out during a hostile interaction until the scene is over. Judged on what happened, not what you meant. A genuine crash is fine - report it the moment you're back, not when you're asked.
3.7 Death and memory (NLR). Dying doesn't end your character. You respawn at your safehouse and keep playing them - but they don't remember the events leading up to their death. Not the fight, not the ambush, not who did it. You still know your life, your people and your base. You don't get to walk back and settle the score.
Survivors who watched it happen do remember, and they can tell you. That's normal IC information and it's fair game - what isn't is acting on something nobody actually told you.
How you explain waking up is yours - waking from a bad dream is the classic, and the more creative the better.
Permadeathing your character is always your choice and it's a real ending: the next character starts fresh, with none of their memories, contacts or grudges. Either way, no faking a death to dodge consequences.
3.8 After-action posts. After any KOS kill or green-zone kill, drop a short post in #conflict-reports. It's the evidence trail that settles disputes, so it decides them: dispute a scene you never posted and the ruling goes against you.
4 · Factions & Safehouses
4.1 Founding. Factions are applied for via #open-a-ticket, max 7 members. Approved factions get a private hall thread and a recruitment post.
4.2 Faction conflict. Wars happen in red zones or by mutual IC agreement. Green-zone faction violence follows green-zone rules. Stacking alliances into a fighting group far bigger than one faction is treated as a loophole.
4.3 Safehouses. One claim per player, or residence in one group safehouse. Claimed safehouses are protected by server settings: only members can take items from one. Loot-critical buildings can never be claimed - gun stores, pharmacies, grocery, hardware, auto parts, pawn, convenience. They stay open so the map keeps breathing. Anything outside these rules - a custom build, an unusual location - needs staff approval via a support ticket before you start building.
4.4 Inactivity. Factions quiet for 3+ weeks may be archived. Tell staff if you'll be away 21+ days so you don't lose a safehouse or vehicle.
4.5 Vehicles. Park off the main roads and don't block major routes. Five per player, claimed and unclaimed combined. You cannot claim from a distance, and you are expected to retrieve what you claim yourself - tagging a rare car and waiting for somebody else to clear the wrecks or secure the area is not on. One unclaim request per wipe, through a ticket.
5 · Economy & Items
5.1 Fair play. All trades must be honest and agreed by both sides. IC scamming requires actual roleplay - OOC exploitation, duping, or exploiting the economy is bannable. Buying or selling in-game items, characters, or services for real money is an instant ban, and so is importing gear from another server.
5.2 Traders. Verified 🪙 Traders run shops via #trader-shack, approved by application and a staff price review. Traders sell inside their approved category only.
5.3 Bugs & refunds. Report bugs in #bug-reports. Lost items to a bug or a crash? Open a ticket with evidence and we'll make it right. Clips beat screenshots, screenshots beat descriptions, and doctored evidence is a ban. A character killed by a genuine bug can be restored too, but that one needs video - a screenshot can't show what killed you. Record while you play.
5.4 Hoarding. Take what your character would take. Stripping every location of supplies you have no use for, so nobody else can have them, is hoarding and staff will act on it.
6 · Characters & Access
6.1 Whitelist. Playing on the game server needs an approved character application - the 🧟 Survivor role is your key.
6.2 One character at a time. New character = new application, fast-tracked for players in good standing.
7 · Discord & Enforcement
7.1 Channels have jobs. Post in the right place - the sidebar is organized so everything has exactly one home.
7.2 No foreign server invites outside staff-approved partnerships. The Project Zomboid Discord linked at the bottom of this channel is the one standing exception.
7.3 Strikes. Formal warnings escalate, and every step applies to the game server as well as Discord:
- 1st - on record. No timeout.
- 2nd - 24 hours: timed out in Discord, banned from the game server.
- 3rd - 7 days, both again, plus a staff review.
- 4th - removed from both.
Warnings expire after 60 days. Severe violations - slurs, doxxing, exploits, ban evasion - skip the ladder entirely.
7.4 Appeals. Appeal any ban - Discord, the game server, or both - at the ZedOnline Appeals server: https://discord.gg/D3x4agBzza
It's a guided set of questions rather than a form letter, and the bot DMs you the same invite the moment a ban lands, so keep your DMs open.
7.5 Discord ToS applies at all times.
7.6 Tickets, not DMs. Take issues to a ticket, not a staff member's DMs - so decisions get logged, get handled by whoever's on, and don't land on the same person every time. Staff are volunteers with lives.
7.7 Staff don't rule on their own scenes. Nobody moderates a situation they're involved in - they hand it over. If that's been broken, say so in a ticket.
7.8 Ban evasion. Coming back on another account after a removal makes the ban permanent.
7.9 Loopholes and common sense. Using a gap in these rules is still breaking them. Technically allowed but obviously unfair isn't allowed. If something feels shady and isn't written here, ask first - "it wasn't in the rules" won't save you.
7.10 These rules can change. They may be updated at any time. Check back now and then so you don't break a new one by accident.
ℹ️ One last thing - we're not Project Zomboid tech support.
This is a roleplay community, not a support desk. If something's broken with ZedOnline - our mods, our server, your whitelist - open a ticket and we'll help to the best of our knowledge.
But for general Project Zomboid problems, crashes and vanilla bugs, The Indie Stone's own Discord will always have better answers: