If you are looking to add a new accent (e.g. Spanish, German, or something more silly like Pirate), please follow these guidelines.
Accent Definitions
Accents in the game come in two types: Tonal Accents, and Dialects.
Tonal Accents aim to emulate the sound of someone speaking the words typed into the chatbox, without any changes to the contents of what is being said. An example would be a Southerner accent changing something to somethin'.
Dialects aim to emulate how someone from a certain area, genre or other source would speak in conversation. This includes accent changes, but also word substitutions and changes to sentence structures. An example would be a Cowboy accent changing friend to partner.
Accents are generally applied in two different ways: Programmatically, and Word Replacement.
Programmatically applying an accent is done by following some sort of hard ruleset as defined in code. This is mostly achieved via Regex, and can produce results such as replacing all -ing word endings with -in' (e.g. something to somethin'). Programmatically is the preferred way to achieve Tonal Accents.
Word Replacement uses a pre-defined list of source words linked to replacement words. This can be used both for Tonal Accents and Dialects, depending on if the word being replaced is applying a tonal rule that is hard to do programmatically (e.g. Scottish’s shit to shite) or if it’s a word substitution (e.g. friend to partner).
Note that accents do not have be strictly grammatical; emulating someone asking a question with a Spanish accent can be done by adding a ¿-prefix (e.g. ¿What?), and a Pirate accent can be enhanced by adding a “Yarr!” to the start of a sentence. Care should be taken to ensure that this does not reduce the legibility of the speech however.
SS14 Accent Rules
SS14 aims to have accents that enable players to roleplay as being from different areas and cultures. These accents must not rely on offensive stereotypes, regardless of how they are achieved in the game.
Trait accents are selectable during character creation. These are only allowed to be Tonal Accents, i.e. no word typed in the chatbox should be distinctively different to what comes out of the character’s mouth.
Conditional accents are unavailable during character creation, but may be applied to characters through in-round means such as via clothing, reagents or ghost roles. These may be either Tonal Accents or Dialects and may be more humorous in nature, such as a Cowboy or Pirate accent. Last modified on June 20, 2026