Struggling with Escalation rules with Antag

[Skotcher]

I'm struggling with Antag escalation rules and looking for some advice.

Im finding it really difficult to play as an antag without immediately giving away who am, but maybe I'm looking at it wrong.

Today I spawned as a archfiend and since I've never really messed around with the Law Rack I decided to work on getting in there and changing some laws to cause some chaos in the server, after the round I got banned for not escalating and I was wondering how exactly I can escalate that without just giving away that it was me. (Not complaining btw, I clearly broke the rules so I'm fine with the ban)

I'm mostly just looking for better ways to RP situations like that, or awkward moments where I am caught somewhere I shouldn't be without giving whoever I'm talking to time to call sec or stun me etc?

My advice is: One, be willing to get caught or die. This game is the kind of game where you can just explode for a reason outside your control because of a total accident. As an antag, let go of the desire to live to the end of the round. By abandoning that desire, you are far more likely to naturally escalate in your encounters because you will be less focused on surviving, and more focused on delivering an antagonistic experience. You'll also be more likely to act sooner and more decisively, and that will give time for things to escalate.

Two, give yourself a reason for your actions If you're an arcfiend and you want to rogue the AI, ask yourself why? What reasoning do you have for that? If it's because you're an antag, then you've only got half the answer. Why does your arcfiend want to do it? Is it because theyre not human and you'd rather not have someone order the AI to kill you, then sure, go ahead and rogue the AI, but make it fit inside your reasoning. If you say that only YOU are human, that fits within your reasoning. If you say "kill everyone as fast as possible", then it doesn't fall within your reasoning. 

Third, try to match outcome severity to escalation effort. Starting a one on one fight and being a jerk to someone doesn't require much more than "You're ugly, bozo". Blowing up the station with a canbomb requires notice and preparation for both you and the crew. You don't have to announce you're going to make a bomb, but make it abundantly clear that you are going to do something; and remember, a failure to respond to your escalation is not a failure of your escalation. If you spend all round on radio talking about how people are going to pay, that you've been pushed around for too long, and that everyone will rue the day they crossed you, and no one responds, you did your part and they failed to do theirs. Play into it. Mock the crew if suddenly they are mad about the spontaneous threat. Point out that you said you would do something. 

All that to say, try to make it somewhat obvious that you are a ne'er-do-well. Be ominous. Commit crime openly and deflect. Try to act in a way that when you do a bigger crime, folks paying attention to you go, "yeah, should have seen that coming". 

I suggest watching some folks who have been playing the game for a long time. One of the people I consider to be the best at escalation is Telerati (who plays Ranni Stella). She monologues, she's evil, she lures people into traps and gives them opportunities to escape. Watching her play a single round is a great crash course on escalation.