RP is actually more fun than classic

[Outie]

So this is sort of a reflection of my own experience playing RP lately. I used to poo-poo RP because I thought it was overly rules-heavy, thought RP in itself could never be fun, thought it meant not being able to really push the sandbox of ss13 to its limits. 







In actually, my experience has been the opposite of all of those.











Things i have really liked

• People actually allow you to threaten them as antag and will follow along with gimmicks, even sec
  This used to be sort of an unwritten 'honor system' rule on classic, but the fact is the moment someone realizes you stung them as changeling, or did anything remotely aggressive towards them, they'd usually start screaming for the AI and you were KOS at that point for the rest of the round. Not so in RP.
  
  
• Chef, bartender, civilian jobs etc. are much more engaging and fun to play and have more purpose now, its fun to just BS with other crew at the bar after some chaos and a good place to go AFK with a drink in your hand
  

• Nobody really RP's too seriously. It still has the humor of SS13 but the rules sort of encourage people to create those hilarious moments now vs. classic where it was just a kid in a sandbox going hog wild
  

• Players from other codebases are less intimidated to join, and they stick around! Pop is always 50-70 on average
  There's also a lot of newbies and that makes the game more fun in itself because more people are learning and experimenting and getting into all kinds of horrible accidents
  

The one thing i'm not too crazy about but can live with is that the need to escalate.

It can be fuzzy when playing antags like changeling, where you pretty much HAVE to kill crew and in a stealthy manner to start out. 
However, afterwards its easy to have them join the fun as limbspiders so its not that bad. I have yet to play wizard but admittedly i'm a little apprehensive about it due to the need to escalate and not just rampage, which is what i'm used to from classic, but im willing to change and explore new wizard gimmicks.




Now what im worried about is a future tightening of RP standards. I think its in a great place and should remain as-is. I've played with a few different admins on (certain admins can result in a wildly different atmosphere and interpretation of the rules when playing) but so far all admin gimmicks have been fun and in the spirit of ss13, so im happy.







I encourage any classic or RP poo-poo-ers to try it out. I'm converted.

[Lefinch]

The bar for escalation is, has been put to me: sometimes as simple as "I am going to kill you now" It's nice when people make a good show of it I think, but also sometimes you're pressed for time. Dying is very much part of the game, and most rounds are going to have bad guys. Always make an effort and always escalate, but at the end of the day the antagonist is just that: There to antagonise. So level that SPAS-12 at people and say "run" Invite people into your office for a "team building excercise" and then promptly eat them! Don't be afraid to be eaten or die too. There's usually ways to be brought back, or participate directly still in a hive mind, or just get some popcorn in the afterlife bar and watch the chaos. We have some regular people who literally just watch the round. It can be fun.

for changelings, I recommend on RP in particular remembering that you can indeed have those chats, you can also sting other things! maybe sting a mug of coffee, and give it to your good friend you're having a chat with and weirdly discussing about being "peckish" to.

I'm glad you're having fun on RP too! I like RP a lot and would agree, but I also think that it's great we have both servers as options. Sometimes, people want to just engage with the game mechanically, they might not enjoy having a character and want to be themselves, speak as themselves on the funny space station. You also get the advantage of a few antagonists that just don't quite -fit- RP for various reasons. So for a lot of people, classic's exactly the experience they're looking for and while I'm a bad advocate for that (because I'm a sucker for the RP) I'd be rude not to admit one of my top ten rounds was on classic, and classic's what drew me into the game. It has its charms.

So I agree, but also: Hey, you do you, and maybe in turn try a classic round time to time if you're in the opposite place and only play RP. The worst thing that happens if you try something you haven't before is you discover "Oh I don't like this" for either of them.
Or do what I do and accidentally log into Heisenbee occasionally, and be briefly very confused.

[Chasu]

It's a matter of taste, really. Classic drops ya right into the chaos; learn the mechanics or die trying. I'm not much of a classic player anymore, but my experiences are similar to Lefinches. Those first rounds on classic are very memorable.

Also, due to the pop shifting to , I feel like it's turned into a blend of Classic and RP, sort of. Population imbalance aside, I think it's a good compromise between the two, although it sometimes leans towards Classic behaviour-wise.

[klushy225]

I'd agree with most of this. I find the labels hrp, mrp, and lrp to be somewhat meaningless, so I won't tag goonstation RP as any of them. it's just RP, or at least, should be RP. RP is more or less all I've ever played here, and even though it can be a little more chaotic right now, RP in general is, in my opinion, ss13 at its finest. The entire setting was more or less crafted for RP. I would heavily recommend folks to try RP out if they haven't before.

(also use custom emotes, they're fun!)

edit: I would agree with the sentiments shared by Chasu and Lefinch that goon 3 in particular trends more to the classic side of the rp-classic hybrid at the moment, but that isn't how it always was, and likely won't always be. it's interesting to see how the tides change server culture. The most important part is that people are having fun, right?

[Kotlol]

I do agree that the rp-classic stuff has been ticking me off abit on goon3.

This especially is annoying when I was an antagonist clown doing very aggresive pranks (wich I know are self antagging), but never outright murder.
I tried to stuff someone into a washing machine aggresively as a clown.. and then someone pulled them away and I go my antagging ways to take em out. (Not killing them i am a vampire clown so I am using my powers to stun people into pranks)
But before you know it... screams of vampire and suddenly a staffy shows up and starts murdering me, the AI shows up and starts murdering me and my victims also get up and start murdering me.
Remember I haven't "Drank blood" or "harmed anyone" just stunned em and tried to prank em.
Security IRONICALLY saved my butt by dragging me away and telling everyone to back off, while some of them still push past security to try and kill me.

Rest of the round I was just doing revenge pranks aggresively while some of my former mob targets antagonized me wich allowed me to take heavy revenge and swirly their poor asses.

But I was like: "Why are you killing me for being an open antagonist doing a prank that clearly isn't murderous (painful though) because I used my antagonist skills to "not kill you." ?"
Anyway that's my take on the classic-rp thing. But when it's more pure RP.. my god am I having fun as antag or crewmate. Ooh this guy is an antag not killing me? I can be chill with them. And even do funny things with antags to build a story that might end in my demise or me helping them incidentally. (like why would I not trust the HoP when they give me some unknown brain to fry and they claim it's a monkey brain? (example ) )

[Cal]

"Classic" gameplay is generally seeing less players across many servers. Only so many mechanics you can learn, but roleplay doesn't really dry up.

[Kotlol]

"Classic" gameplay is generally seeing less players across many servers. Only so many mechanics you can learn,  but roleplay doesn't really dry up.

Exactly in classic if you run the gimmick once. It's done.
You did it. You did the silly and crazy.

In RP you can do the same gimmick over and over and get different outcomes.
One time you want to make crazy pizza's and people will come over to have a Pizza party.
Another time your crazy pizza's will get the health inspector to show up and ban them.
Another time you might get a pizza thief or a competitor.

With classic, being a pizza chef means not much. You did it...but 9/10 an antagonist is already running amuck.

[Lt487]

The main thing that keeps me playing on classic is just RP is missing a lot of things I enjoy. I love playing on Nukie rounds, Wizards and Revolutionaries! I also just feel RP is not eventful enough for my taste I enjoy RPing in the middle of Chaos! A lot of RP rounds just feel like not much is happening. Both Classic and RP are servers that cater to different kinds of players and I don't think one can be confidently said to be more 'fun' then the other.

[Lefinch]

The main thing that keeps me playing on classic is just RP is missing a lot of things I enjoy. I love playing on Nukie rounds, Wizards and Revolutionaries! I also just feel RP is not eventful enough for my taste I enjoy RPing in the middle of Chaos! A lot of RP rounds just feel like not much is happening. Both Classic and RP are servers that cater to different kinds of players and I don't think one can be confidently said to be more 'fun' then the other.

Yeah, this is a good way to put it for me. A lot like how there's so many ss13 iterations that wildly vary: It's not that there's a "Best" answer, just a lot of potential options to suit what you want to be doing in the game.

[Mouse]

I don't know where this idea of "you can't do gimmicks on classic" comes from.  People do gimmicks all the time.  Sometimes their gimmicks get interrupted by things beyond their control, but that's just part of playing a game with other people.

[JORJ949]

I don't know where this idea of "you can't do gimmicks on classic" comes from.  People do gimmicks all the time.  Sometimes their gimmicks get interrupted by things beyond their control, but that's just part of playing a game with other people.

You can also RP stuff on classic, its just not required. Most people will go along with gimmicks like you said about sometimes you get a health inspector to come shut you down. Sometimes you get interrupted by nukies or something but thats part of playing classic, something crazy can interrupt you at any moment, and that's what I like about it. 

For example one round recently I was playing a clown disbelief character as HoS and the clown decided to pretend to be a voice in my head telling me to fart on the captain and whatnot, other times ive been interrogated as to why I didn't arrest the clown (clowns aren't real!). Though this is my only example of gimmicks ive run multiple times I believe it still shows that this kind of gameplay does happen on classic, assuming it doesn't is only going to further discourage it.

Escalation and gimmick antags can also happen on classic, for example I recently spawned as ling and decided to spend the round just messing with sec without actually killing anyone, they knew i was a ling really early but still engaged in a fun back and forth with me. Until the MDir I dna stung into me (i had eaten a body in the morgue) nonhumaned me and the borgs crushed me, which was kind of boring both for me(the only antag) and the Hos, NTSC and experienced officer id been messing with and IMO is the only part of classic I dont enjoy, one round theres a rampager with a csaber killing everyone and nobody cares, another theres an antag just being silly and they get beat to death even when sec is perfectly capable of dealing with them (HoS, NTSC and veteran secoff V 1 ling)

[KikiMofo]

You can do gimmicks all you want on Classic. Just gotta be ready for something to mess up and roll with it because there are other people involved.
SS13 is a MULTIPLAYER GAME and that means each round is everyones round. Not just the round for the traitor trying to do a gimmick.
Some people will give leeway for those trying to do gimmicks just because it might be fun/funny but other people might not. Just part of the game.

[Megapaco]

I appreciate RP for the real social aspect and that people actually get into character and interact with gimmicks and rounds. Just hate how painfully slow it can be with nothing happening until the last 20 minutes or so.  I love the chaos and action on classic but do hate how some rounds can just be filled with complete apathy for events and gimmicks going around. Nothing sucks more than spending a lot of time setting up a gimmick and not having people even sparing 15 seconds to comment on it. Or a antag just clearly murdering their co-workers without a care in the world. But ya I would probably play RP more if players just generally just did a little bit more destruction and damage to spice up the round.

[NanoDano]

The RP server has gotten closer to a mid rp type of server and im all for it, perfect mix of roleplay and chaotic fun. Sometimes rounds can be slow because the antagonists are new, but i dont blame them. Making up a gimmick/scenario on the fly while trying to stay hidden can be difficult.