Goonhub
06-10-2025, 12:00 AM
resurrecting this thread because I felt like writing, lo and behold the last post was also me but three years ago. here's some new stuff i came up with. maybe some of this veers into writing advice but hey, im not a writer so who knows really.
either way, here's some tips if you want to really start taking this game too seriously.
Give them a thing. Have a thing that functions like an in-joke, except everyone is in on it. Bonus points if you can find a way to pack it into their examine text. (Examples- currently, I play a captain who's used the same station name his whole career, A woman who wants to test her clairvoyance on everyone, and a dude with a very unusual look to him. There's a lot of examples played by other people in the community that come to mind as well.) The key point though is that it has to be simple and obvious enough that someone could pick up on it just by being in the same room as them. Aside from just making the character easy to recall from the 30 others in the round, it also serves as a very accessible way for someone to skip ahead in regard to how well they know them- it makes it easier to act like they've been working together for months already, if they wanted to, because there's already at least one surface-level talking point to fall back on. "I heard you're into pod racing"; "I bet they never showed you this in medical school"; "Of course you'd know that, you're from Sol" etc. etc. etc.
Make a purgatory. Or a limbo. I have a google doc where I keep names that have a lot of personality, character traits I think would be interesting together, idiosyncrasies, and examine texts from character's I've scrapped. (I do that too, by the way. A character's served their purpose? I scrap em for parts. As of writing this, I've played three people with the word Mulch somewhere in their name and two secoff's perpetually experiencing their first day on the job.) I pull from my vault whenever I'm making a new character and need some personality parts to smush around, and I also use it in place of randomnameing because I think there's a lot of fun in a very noncommittal, "this guy will stop existing in 100 minutes", bare-bones-start-and-make-the-rest-up-as-you-go round. Having a receptacle full of starting points for a personality makes it easier to do those on a whim.
The perfect examine text is three sentences or less- for the same reason the examine text of most objects are no longer than a few words. It's whatever a person's first thought is when they see the character. Alt+Click should answer "what is this thing", not "what is the unabridged lore of this thing". The other character notes that appear in-game make more sense to write an epic for, if you're inclined to do so, because they all appear after someone's decided they have time to skim a paragraph. (i.e. looking it up in employee records).
Read other player's stuff. If they took the time to write a security note, it's probably because they had something fun to put in there. A lot of the medical notes I see while I'm abusing my captain privileges revolve around some crazy incident at a previous job. A lot of security notes I see clarify what that job was. Syndie notes still exist and I think we should reanimate the surreptitious use of them in game that was alive when they were first added.
Several months ago, I took inventory of flavor texts I'd written that I was happiest with and came up with a shortcut for reaching something I'd personally be satisfied slapping on my characters. In no specific order, pick one thing about their appearance that was likely decided by fate (i.e. balding), one thing about their appearance that was likely a choice (i.e. wireframe glasses), and one thing about the way they talk or carry themself- something you'd notice within the first minute of talking to them. (i.e. insecure). Now combine it all together in a way that's easy to read, taking the liberty of cramming in bonus details wherever they fit without adding bulk. i.e. "A balding man in smudged wireframe glasses. He speaks as if he's demanding to be heard, despite being quite clumsy." and there you have it, George Costanza is ready to join space station 13.
We were just talking about this in the discord earlier today, a lot of characters don't have a syndie note because it's hard to decide what's worthy of going there. I personally use mine to suggest if the character has their traits stacked against them, does their job imply they're carrying a weapon (i.e. botanists have chainsaws; bartender has a shotgun), and on my captain character specifically, some allusions to easy ways to assassinate the guy. I've also seen a lot of people use theirs to store obscure character lore, like something that would make them easier to manipulate or something that would make them a target for traitors. So long as you don't make your note the bee movie script or "lol u paid 2 tc for this", you've probably got something that won't disappoint.
either way, here's some tips if you want to really start taking this game too seriously.
Give them a thing. Have a thing that functions like an in-joke, except everyone is in on it. Bonus points if you can find a way to pack it into their examine text. (Examples- currently, I play a captain who's used the same station name his whole career, A woman who wants to test her clairvoyance on everyone, and a dude with a very unusual look to him. There's a lot of examples played by other people in the community that come to mind as well.) The key point though is that it has to be simple and obvious enough that someone could pick up on it just by being in the same room as them. Aside from just making the character easy to recall from the 30 others in the round, it also serves as a very accessible way for someone to skip ahead in regard to how well they know them- it makes it easier to act like they've been working together for months already, if they wanted to, because there's already at least one surface-level talking point to fall back on. "I heard you're into pod racing"; "I bet they never showed you this in medical school"; "Of course you'd know that, you're from Sol" etc. etc. etc.
Make a purgatory. Or a limbo. I have a google doc where I keep names that have a lot of personality, character traits I think would be interesting together, idiosyncrasies, and examine texts from character's I've scrapped. (I do that too, by the way. A character's served their purpose? I scrap em for parts. As of writing this, I've played three people with the word Mulch somewhere in their name and two secoff's perpetually experiencing their first day on the job.) I pull from my vault whenever I'm making a new character and need some personality parts to smush around, and I also use it in place of randomnameing because I think there's a lot of fun in a very noncommittal, "this guy will stop existing in 100 minutes", bare-bones-start-and-make-the-rest-up-as-you-go round. Having a receptacle full of starting points for a personality makes it easier to do those on a whim.
The perfect examine text is three sentences or less- for the same reason the examine text of most objects are no longer than a few words. It's whatever a person's first thought is when they see the character. Alt+Click should answer "what is this thing", not "what is the unabridged lore of this thing". The other character notes that appear in-game make more sense to write an epic for, if you're inclined to do so, because they all appear after someone's decided they have time to skim a paragraph. (i.e. looking it up in employee records).
Read other player's stuff. If they took the time to write a security note, it's probably because they had something fun to put in there. A lot of the medical notes I see while I'm abusing my captain privileges revolve around some crazy incident at a previous job. A lot of security notes I see clarify what that job was. Syndie notes still exist and I think we should reanimate the surreptitious use of them in game that was alive when they were first added.
Several months ago, I took inventory of flavor texts I'd written that I was happiest with and came up with a shortcut for reaching something I'd personally be satisfied slapping on my characters. In no specific order, pick one thing about their appearance that was likely decided by fate (i.e. balding), one thing about their appearance that was likely a choice (i.e. wireframe glasses), and one thing about the way they talk or carry themself- something you'd notice within the first minute of talking to them. (i.e. insecure). Now combine it all together in a way that's easy to read, taking the liberty of cramming in bonus details wherever they fit without adding bulk. i.e. "A balding man in smudged wireframe glasses. He speaks as if he's demanding to be heard, despite being quite clumsy." and there you have it, George Costanza is ready to join space station 13.
We were just talking about this in the discord earlier today, a lot of characters don't have a syndie note because it's hard to decide what's worthy of going there. I personally use mine to suggest if the character has their traits stacked against them, does their job imply they're carrying a weapon (i.e. botanists have chainsaws; bartender has a shotgun), and on my captain character specifically, some allusions to easy ways to assassinate the guy. I've also seen a lot of people use theirs to store obscure character lore, like something that would make them easier to manipulate or something that would make them a target for traitors. So long as you don't make your note the bee movie script or "lol u paid 2 tc for this", you've probably got something that won't disappoint.