[Destiny]: Whitelisted dungeon masters.

[ZeWaka]

drsingh actually came up with this exact same idea back in 2014

[Sundance]

^^
So it's plausible. I would imagine from a coding perspective, it would bascially chop out some of the admin panel, and have a new panel for DM dudes.
From a laymans perspective, it's seems easy enough, although I'm in danger  of talking completely out of my ass.

In relation to the telesci, a process of implementing something like invisable ghost walls so that DM's can make special missions without interfering with telesci secrets as a whole is something I reckon is also possible (see: shuttle walls teleporting ghosts back to station proper)

This idea requires players and dungeon masters to cooperate

Some dungeon masters would attempt to railroad the story and make things generally unfun

Thinking up stories is difficult

Some dungeon masters would just throw a bunch of antags into the mix and call it a day without really thinking up much in the way of a story

Relevent criticism.

The first point is a good one. What if you make someone an antagonist, give them weird specific objectives, and/or ask them to behave in certain way .. and they simply don't? At worse, they might rampage? There's several things you can do to prevent this scenario:
1. Talk to them first.  "Psst hey do you want to be antagonist, but you gotta aim to fulfill this role?" "Sure, bring it on" - Probably the best way of doing it.
2. Make it a reward based scenario "Psst hey if you do this whacky thing, you'll get X" "Sweet"
3. Laugh, twiddle your moustache, and then make another player an antagonist with the aim to kill that player for betraying whatever order they belong to. Chaotic Neutral.
4. Adminhelp. This is an RP server and doing shit like this isn't good, especially in this scenario.

Any other scenarios, like non-antags or players outside your control, it's important to aim for things to play out organically. That's what made day of destiny so good, while it was the admin that made the story, it was the crew that steered it.

Your last three points is down to criticism of DM's themselves. But that's ok! Sometimes stories fuck up, and it's up to the DM to realize it's back to the drawing board if they make a round that's terrible for everyone. Like I said, the DM is not an admin, this roundtype would be subject to criticism. Share your feelings after the round, but it's important to be subjective, and not "I died at 30 minutes, I am salt".

I would agree with Frank Stein's idea of having a megathread so that people can pool their ideas. A wikipage of DM general things would be good. Collective knowledge here would be important so that everyone is on the same page. Another offshoot of the megathread could be a collaboration between coders and spriters for things like mobs and turf that otherwise doesn't have a place in SS13, but might have a place in some world or story you created.

[Burrito Justice]

Thinking up stories is difficult

Some dungeon masters would just throw a bunch of antags into the mix and call it a day without really thinking up much in the way of a story

Going along with the idea that the DM is selected as a job, if people can't think up a story then they shouldn't select the job. DMs should make a story way before the round and give it thought instead of thinking one up during round start and hoping the crew can expound on it..
As for throwing antags in and doing nothing else, then the DM probably shouldn't be a DM since they didn't bother conjuring a story.
I'm not saying none of this will happen, I just think that all this will hopefully be covered in the DM application.

[Vitatroll]

I honestly don't think there needs to be a grand story attached to every dm round. It's not like a tabletop where everything hinges on the ability of the DM. It could just be a few things here or there to spice things up. Even if it's just feeding into a player's interesting gimmick or playing music to narrate the mood.

[Sundance]

^^
That's actually a fair point. It's entirely up to the discretion of the DM what he should do (obviously following the "Will it be fun for all involved" logic)

You may want a round where you spawn a full enemy ship beside Destiny and have the crew engage in a serious battle.

Or you might instead spawn an artifact that has no function coded in some asteroid, name it something ominious so that scientists will fiddle with it, observe them, give them hints or queues when they fiddle with it, and whoever activates it gets a prize. And that could simply be the round. There may be no antagonists at all.

[atamusvaleo]

Part of the process could be DMs submitting ideas to the admins first and getting a yes/no on their rough ideas. Heck, it might even inspire later admin gimmicks.

[Wraithcraft]

I think that I'd be a lot happier being a DM than playing ss13 itself, as evidenced by my preferred role in most other games in groups with a dungeon and mastering to do.

That being said, I love this idea. I feel that it could use some tweaking, but looks like it would add some very interesting possibilities to rounds. It gives people the chance to flex story writing muscles that don't often get worked out during a normal round.

[Ed Venture]

If this becomes a thing I'll start playing on the RP server.

[Arborinus]

I feel the application process would have to be at such a high level of scrutiny so admins don't have to worry about DM's doing wrong (defeating the whole purpose of relieving responsibility) that it would be better to have admins recruit rather than have people apply, and even then why not just admin them.

[ZeWaka]

I'll import some of the ideas of discussion that was had.

Shit we would need for the actual thing:
simplified spawn panels - CRITICAL WILL FAIL W/O
simplified build mode - CRITICAL WILL FAIL W/O
players vote fun or not fun at round end or on the forums

An admin would have to commit to supervising the DM and making sure they don't do anything bad.
The admin would have to flag them as 'ok' that round, as another precaution.

Subforum with ideas for different gimmicks:
submit idea for gimmick in planning forum, only you and admins can see
when accepted, gimmick goes on ss13 goon calendar on forums (app would have a rough time slot)
some kind of reminder other than in irc, perhaps twitter or who knows what, notification here, something
if you a cool DM more people will want to be in your gimmick rounds

perhaps different DMs could team up under one application

[Zafhset]

I really like this idea - it would certainly be an attraction for people to play more on the RP servers.

[Sundance]

simplified spawn panels - CRITICAL WILL FAIL W/O
simplified build mode - CRITICAL WILL FAIL W/O
players vote fun or not fun at round end or on the forums

This is something I had in mind. The DM may want other things from the admin panel, like make antagonist, call shuttle, create noises, create events, general doohicky buttons. Basically anything they would need to build quickly, and interact with the crew so it seems natural.

An admin would have to commit to supervising the DM and making sure they don't do anything bad.
The admin would have to flag them as 'ok' that round, as another precaution.

I feel that eventually, DM's would not require admin supervision, but certainly early on, it'd be for the best. Perhaps would be good to link in with IRC?

Subforum with ideas for different gimmicks:
submit idea for gimmick in planning forum, only you and admins can see
when accepted, gimmick goes on ss13 goon calendar on forums (app would have a rough time slot)
some kind of reminder other than in irc, perhaps twitter or who knows what, notification here, something
if you a cool DM more people will want to be in your gimmick rounds

And this is the other side of things which really motivated me to make this post; it's not just about the DM rounds, it's about also collaboration. Anything that encourages the community to get together, sprite, code, bounce ideas off each other and get the creative juices flowing; incentivises people to come to Goon and breathes fresh life into it is worth pursueing... even if it might create the odd bit of drama or headaches.

[Cirrial]

I am all in favour of this idea, and this would probably get me more interested in the RP server, both as player and as potential GM. Granted, I feel I ought to spend much, much more time on the RP server as a player first to get a feel for the style.

Immediate edit: Also, I guess it didn't come up as prominent but the idea of a team of GMs is also pretty rad and would help with the situation I've found as a GM in online RPGs before where trying to deal with a bunch of players with virtual representations all over the place (Roll20) can get, well, frazzling by oneself.

[aft2001]

Could there be both try-outs and applications, applications, or just try-outs?

Applications are straightforward and have been discussed and you can (hopefully) imagine them.

Try-outs would likely involve people who are competent and creative (as to not waste peoples' time) They'd be on a private server with a couple of people who are simply reviewing the potential GM's abilities to make a good round. The GM would basically make a very short game that'd be only about 30 minutes to an hour, and have some people playing. Anyone can volunteer to play on the try-out server (The server would probably be non-dedicated and thus not actually require money to run. If possible) under anyone trying out GM, so that the GM can have feedback. There'd be a few people (likely mentors/admins) who are actually reviewing the GM's abilities to make a fun round.

I'd imagine that this try-out would be implemented if applications don't quite weed out the shitty GM's.

[ferriswheel1]

Could there be both try-outs and applications, applications, or just try-outs?

Applications are straightforward and have been discussed and you can (hopefully) imagine them.

Try-outs would likely involve people who are competent and creative (as to not waste peoples' time) They'd be on a private server with a couple of people who are simply reviewing the potential GM's abilities to make a good round. The GM would basically make a very short game that'd be only about 30 minutes to an hour, and have some people playing. Anyone can volunteer to play on the try-out server (The server would probably be non-dedicated and thus not actually require money to run. If possible) under anyone trying out GM, so that the GM can have feedback. There'd be a few people (likely mentors/admins) who are actually reviewing the GM's abilities to make a fun round.

I'd imagine that this try-out would be implemented if applications don't quite weed out the shitty GM's.

I agree on the tryouts, but why a private server? The mark of a good DM should be to adapt to their players, which you probably won't get with a volunteer RP group. Anyone should be able to randomly join and get in on the action.