Goonhub
06-09-2021, 12:05 PM
Captain being an antagonist is A-okay to me. I think they get a little short-changed on the RP server as they are limited only to Conspirator antags, so have a slight bias there (namely in that if I think they should be allowed to be one on the RP server, I by extension probably think the same on Classic).
They get more gear and access, sure, but you could logically extend this all of the way down to Staff Assistants. A captain messing around in Chemistry gets a bit of a weird look - and definitely a Captain messing around in Toxins - whereas an antagonist Scientist doesn't get a second glance in there while they mix up their arguably much more destructive things. You may claim this is a slippery slope fallacy, or whatever, but extending this to department heads in general (they meet most of the points mentioned) is easy.
A Captain is memorable, seeing as there's only one, so you notice them when they're around (and, conversely, their sudden absence). This makes being a sneaky Captain antagonist much harder.
Note that the Captain being unable to be an antagonist would make the times that they are one so much more deadly (changeling, thrall, mindslave, someone killing them and using their blood and stable mutagen to take on their identity). The baseline suspicion of Captains right now is a balancing factor. If we go on to make it so that they can't be mindslaved, I would argue that takes away a good chunk of fun for the sake of "balance". Not every antagonist has to be perfectly balanced if applied to different roles - there being a Captain antagonist does not invalidate there being an Engineer antagonist, for example.
They get more gear and access, sure, but you could logically extend this all of the way down to Staff Assistants. A captain messing around in Chemistry gets a bit of a weird look - and definitely a Captain messing around in Toxins - whereas an antagonist Scientist doesn't get a second glance in there while they mix up their arguably much more destructive things. You may claim this is a slippery slope fallacy, or whatever, but extending this to department heads in general (they meet most of the points mentioned) is easy.
A Captain is memorable, seeing as there's only one, so you notice them when they're around (and, conversely, their sudden absence). This makes being a sneaky Captain antagonist much harder.
Note that the Captain being unable to be an antagonist would make the times that they are one so much more deadly (changeling, thrall, mindslave, someone killing them and using their blood and stable mutagen to take on their identity). The baseline suspicion of Captains right now is a balancing factor. If we go on to make it so that they can't be mindslaved, I would argue that takes away a good chunk of fun for the sake of "balance". Not every antagonist has to be perfectly balanced if applied to different roles - there being a Captain antagonist does not invalidate there being an Engineer antagonist, for example.