The Hall Monitor: Gimmick job Discussion

[Lefinch]

This one isn't my idea as much as a throwaway comment rapidly developed on by far better and more creative souls and it may end up being directly PR'd but I said I'd codify it into some kind of thread here so the idea isn't lost to discord and to open it to other opinions! I am paraphrasing other players sentiments so it's not a 1:1 representation of the discussion. 

That disclaimer said: A few of us seemed excited by the idea of having a gimmick job of great and undeniable importance to the station: A hall monitor. The Unholy union job spawn between a HoP, A traffic warden, and the Inspector.

General sentiments/brainstorms (again paraphrased from discord) about this idea:

• A general theme of thoroughly impotent power: A cheap, tacky hallmonitor sash (that they see as a demonstration of power, others inspect and see a deflated airtube or something), a badge 
  
• (courtesy of Klushy and put into this thread as a bit of a liberty)
  
• Cheap, somehow lesser version of the ticketwriter? Perhaps a stolen thermal printer for receipts. 
  
• very important: Short shorts, denim on denim. 
  
• a general provision of keeping hallways clean, free of obstruction and behavior unfitting of a station's halls. No actual authority whatsoever. You don't need authority, you are authority incarnate.
  
• limited access. Hallways are your kingdom, maybe some hallway-like lobbies and the bar (life's hallway)
  

Why? The general sentiment is that as gimmick jobs go the hallways themselves are relatively unclaimed. They may be cleaned by janitors (who also work elsewhere) and modified by engineers, but the very essence of hallwayness has no custodian. Also it seemed like the idea has a lot of room around different gimmicks and interactions: Tolls, no running with scissors, running with scissors. The clown's turned the hallways into a rainbow road? The hall monitor cometh. Syndicate pod has parked itself in front of security and is trying to break through? You can't park that there mate.

Discuss, or await a PR.

EDIT: That badge (MyBB being my MyBB)

[LeahTheTech]

I like this more than I thought I was going to, sounds like a funny gimmick role.

[klushy225]

I do have a slightly more updated version of the badge sprite, and I would be very happy to make the PR for this. Sounds like a fun idea, and maybe it'll have some effect on the hallway chaos in a good, fun way

[klushy225]

https://github.com/goonstation/goonstation/pull/21052
pull request for this created here. I didn't include the sash, as you can only wear one external piece at a time, and I find the ripped up paper to be extremely important

[Lefinch]

Fair, thank you!

[Kotlol]

I AM THE DAWG! THE BIG BAD DAWG! THE HALLLL MONITORRR!

Yea I am for this lil gimmick job. Cause it's one of those flavor jobs that come and go!

[Guv Guvington]

https://github.com/goonstation/goonstation/pull/21052
pull request for this created here. I didn't include the sash, as you can only wear one external piece at a time, and I find the ripped up paper to be extremely important

Bad outfit, no stupid cargo shorts (those are required)

[Mouse]

https://github.com/goonstation/goonstation/pull/21052
pull request for this created here. I didn't include the sash, as you can only wear one external piece at a time, and I find the ripped up paper to be extremely important

this could be solved by allowing badges to function as IDs

[Isane]

Been meaning to give feedback on this for a while. While I generally like the idea, I can't say I've had the best experiences or observed good practices with the role on RP. Sure I'll occasionally have a nice interaction with a hall monitor, but even then it usually turns into someone with technically zero actual authority defaulting to being abrasive and trying to assert power over something inconsequential.

More often than not though I see the role being played as just another member of security, using their access (on the same level as an actual Security Assistant) to grab any gear they can. Sometimes it's a newbee enticed by the red security role that doesn't have a rounds played requirement who might not know better, but most of the time I'll end up seeing regular security players treating it as being just another security officer/assistant, but with the bonus of not having any responsibility (or expected uniform, minor issue but still) until they hear about a crimer. I've had a fairly disheartening round joining up as security assistant, wondering who these people with civilian icons were on our comms, only for them to proudly declare they were here to do everything a security assistant usually does. This also fairly often resulted in compounding the usual issue of too many cooks in the kitchen where the entire security team responds to a single thing and stands around waiting to escalate, since now there's 1-2 more "security" there. Conversely I've seen plenty of friction between security and hall monitors as the unseen boundaries for how much an actual part of security the hall monitor can be varies and depends entirely on the security players. Anecdotal but I imagine it can be pretty frustrating to be forcibly demoted for overstepping when just another round security was all too happy to give the hall monitor the run of the armory.

The recent pull request of removing their ability to talk on the security channel but still listen to it is great, but I honestly think it should go a bit further and the role should be entirely disconnected from security. The nearly complete security access is too much (it will take very little for them to keep gearing up and even acquiring a proper security headset), and listening to security comms is still going to result in the role being played as just another security officer/assistant.

[Lefinch]

I was concerned about the same when the idea was still being worked out to be honest, feeling that the security headset might be too much of a guide into being sec.
I think unfortunately that's happening a little too often still and agree with Isane. The PR personally raises my eyebrows though.

We do not have any other role in the game with that "listen but don't talk" philosophy. What is the role's purpose here? To do hall-based gimmick low-intensity stuff or to be sec assistant assistant, or "Sec but needs a bit of a break and wants to just listen in while having a potter about"?

[klushy225]

My intention was never to make this part of security or have people treat it as such; my intention was simply to create a goofy role with no actual authority. To this end, why not just remove their security access altogether? The paper badge is meant to show that they're just goofy wannabes with no actual power, save for some crusty hand-me-down ticket writer. They're supposed to only be jokingly associated with security, and no more than that.

[Nerkson]

I've interacted with a few different hall monitors already and my feedback is a bit simpler, I suppose.

Most of the ones I've played with in game were very serious about the whole "The halls are mine, all who walk them shall not run" theme which I appreciate.

Problem is, there's not always a HoP but there's always a security team, someone for them to bounce off or be part of department wise. In that way they're like Staff Assistants except no one actually cares about Staffies and their whims. I think making them part of security kind of helps with keeping them *in line* and making them more responsible? Could always just knock their access down to be the same as Lawyers, who are also coded security.

Whether or not they should be able to talk to Security is another entirely different debate. Lawyers can't hear sec either and rely on security remembering they exist for things like clients. (As an aside, is it possible to create emergency alerts for hall monitors or lawyers? Might be a great way to still communicate with them.)

[Carton]

My intention was never to make this part of security or have people treat it as such; my intention was simply to create a goofy role with no actual authority. To this end, why not just remove their security access altogether? The paper badge is meant to show that they're just goofy wannabes with no actual power, save for some crusty hand-me-down ticket writer. They're supposed to only be jokingly associated with security, and no more than that.

TBH I think this is the best idea for it, I don't think it makes sense gameplay wise or theme wise for someone who just appointed themselves hall monitor to have access to the security department, it gives them too much credibility.

[klushy225]

yuh- as I said in the discord, which I'll just paste here for those interested in the discussion:
would the middle school hall monitor ever go into the teachers' lounge?

[Lefinch]

I think the idea and its implementation in round has been at its best (there's been some pretty funny hall monitors. Tweaking this or not I think their inclusion has been a positive) when it's been someone thoroughly without power exercising what little power they have, or being dragged into something well over their head.

I apologise to whoever I didn't get the name of for this, but I'll cite your amazing round as one, where you found a husked corpse, ticketed it for "littering" and then spent the round complaining and investigating the changeling threat not because it was a changeling, but because -someone- was cluttering the halls. A highlight was seeing you custom emote and I paraphrase from poor memory "mutters nearly under their breath about how difficult it is to get bloodstains out of maintenance halls"

So I think the role's working when people have what I'd call "School hall monitor" mindset very well. I think it even plays well when a hall monitor pretends to have authority they simply don't. I think that gets muddied significantly when they have a security hotline. The metaphor for the teacher's lounge is a good one: It's a role you give a good student with a pretense of power much like the school council, and much like the council it doesn't actually -get- to pass through the veil of actual authority, it's a toy copy of it.