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RP Rules and You
#7
Hello! I signed up just to comment here, cause it seemed like a nice thing to do when it was requested!

Now it will follow something I kinda just tossed onto the keyboard. So if you want to skim through it, I kinda separated the topics for "easier" reading.


Gameplay


When I play on the RP server on Goon I'm expecting at the very least two things. Serenity and a bunch of silly behavior. It's intrinsic to Goon! A flip there, a fart over here, it's regular, it's a part of it. But this not to say that I'm not expecting a Firm Head of Staff sometimes! "Fart again and I'll have you removed from the Department and cleaning toilets" Yikes! It's part of the RP now to tone it down and do my job properly! It's my boss after all and I could ruin my career! Maybe talk crap on his back too and expect my coworkers to not rat me out for some extra credit bonus. Well, to compensate our Captain never has less that 50u of Ethanol in his bloodstream and proceeds to type on the PA Announcer as drunk as he currently is. Or don't, and suffer the consequences! Which should feel real, and other players (other Head-of-Staff basically) should help on it.
I like these mixes, and all we have to do is adapt a bit.

Some servers (even the ones that say they're Light-RP) are actually pretty neat when it comes to dialogue and playing in-character. It's not forced, and action will take precedence, but there's this nuance I really like. Playing bartender with players like these is AMAZING. They ask for drinks, share current round's concerns and worries, etc...
I'm expecting the Goon RP to reach this at a certain level, while maintaining some of it's silliness, but to know when to tone it down and play a bit more serious, remembering that action should be down played where possible but not completely forgotten. Problem is, how do you do it?! Some people will play all silly and forget about the Roleplay element completely, some will instantly pull Action moves on you to get the upper-hand, and then it becomes like another Goon Server.

High-RP servers are slow and completely focused on dialogue and their jobs. It's immersive, calm, all about the roleplay experience. The so called Medium-RP is a mixture, RP and action. And then the Light-RP vary between the players really (even on other Goon Servers). I think the Goon RP fits on this MRP spectrum. Some action, but a lot of dialogue as well. Perhaps a bit more! When the Antags are amazing and engaging! I think the idea is, a good measure of clicking and typing, perhaps a bit more of the latter. And paperwork? Well, in Goon I feel we barely make use of it because we don't have any Pre-made ones. I kinda like them to be honest. Bureaucracy is forever our plague!

Now, I'm not even mentioning New players, the Greytide or anything like that, those will always present themselves as a nuisance (like the awful self-antaging). And it's a problem everywhere, but my main concern is on How to Play on Goon RP. I'm expecting a player to don the Owl Suit and say that Station needs darkness for the Vigilante and proceed to destroy the bulbs on the Main-Halls, but not going hammering everyone, stealing Sec equipment or going onto Workplaces and bother the fek out of people (and their lights too). The bartender can expect a person to take a couple of sips and proceed to stealthily pee on the glass and completely deny doing it when questioned about it (this happened to me, it was so silly I couldn't stop laughing; bartender is a lonely job sometimes if nobody comes along to have a drink so silly things keep it going), a short silly thing is fun, but proceeding to spread urine all over people's drinking glasses while they're chilling at the bar is stretching it a bit too much... This little quirky and annoying behavior keeps the round interesting for some and Sec a bit more busy (gotta keep those trigger fingers occupied) and I don't find them too detrimental in good amounts. But this is still the same problem, when is Too Much, uh, too much? I can't exactly say how to express this in rules though.

On an extra point, I usually like to drink alcohol\grab a bite just to use my meters, seeing as sometimes they get pretty tight on their levels for the entire round. Shouldn't drinking be more of a requirement? Like, when it gets extremely hot, you get thirsty. When you get hurt, you could really use a bite to eat. Just pumping a bit your needs in according to events, rather than reducing it's timers. I guess those are a bit hard to balance without becoming too annoying, but they're a part of the RP too and can promote interesting interactions of "I NEED TO TAKE A WHIZ GETOUTTAMYWAY!". Well, since you can actually die of thrist and hunger they're extra hard to balance, but if they could affect other stats (speed, etc) it would be more compelling to keep them filled up. Maybe I'm looking at the mechanic too much, RP after all means you're the one who should act when to grab a drink and a bite.

Also, f$@% players that barge in Medbay and take medkits at random because they believe to be better Doctors!
Also f#%£ Doctors that believe they can operate you like there's no tomorrow.
Although truthfully I'm not completely bothered by it, it's mostly off putting and\or annoying sometimes.

Game Modes

I think some players fail to realize what the Round is about sometimes.

Extended: It's for chilling, experimenting things, it's where the Roleplay is actionless (for the most part) and more prone to playing your character and role. The Research Director should employ explorer's to go on the Teleporter, get new players onto it. Geneticists should gather and activate some mutations on volunteers, perhaps some extra mutations too, heck, why not a bunch of them? If they sign the liability Form with the well informed fine print stamped by the CMO himself that is! Willing Staff Assistants should be employed as cadetes, trainees and scrubs! Or even new and gimmicky jobs! No Antags means more relaxation to not fear falling asleep near an armless schizophrenic and learn all the tricks.

Intrigue\Secret\AdminEvent\Etc: ... heck, it's the RP server, you should kinda do the same! But we're still a LOT more wary than usual, even panicky... Probably because some Antags just play their role a bit TOO well.
I've observed a whole round on the eyes of a Changeling, and it was very short on dialogue. It's hard though, the Changeling is required to absorb DNA, so he picked easy Offline Players for extra points, stang people that were chilling on their workplace and used minimal conversation just to not raise suspicion through silence. It's the players fault not questioning why the heck the Security Officer didn't have a helmet , Sec-Glasses or a Security belt on... then again, that whole round was a disorganized mess, but not the Antag's fault!
The idea is that the Antag was very focused on it's current objectives and in the end, nobody proved organized\educated enough to fight against it. No proper mobilization either (like I've seen from experienced players on the other Goon Servers, it's insane). The Changeling didn't adapt either, he just went on to do what he's meant to do. Sting and absorb.
At the start it was kinda dull, but when certain targets were made, the round became more stressful\obvious for the Security and the Antag got to shine that way. The Final Showdown proved to be the most interesting part, it felt the Players needed it because the Antag was just too "stealthy" for them.

This leads to the question: Should the Antags play it down a bit when they're too effective? Imagine a bomber. If a single bomb could lead to a panic, nobody knows who's to blame and they can't even cover up the breaches without calling the shuttle, should the Antag proceed to do something even worse? Maybe trying to call off the shuttle and cut the Comms to keep an early panicky round going would be the most interesting effect.

Antags are truly the directors of the Round (even if puppeteered by Admins!), the hidden writers of the upcoming drama-play, completely responsible to where it will lead. Perhaps their objectives should be tuned a bit?

AI/Cyborgs

I'll keep it short in this one. If some people have a hard time Roleplaying, they definitely have a TERRIBLE time knowing what their laws are and how to follow them. It's beyond silly. Some players are EXTREMELY silly\chaotic and not obedient at all. It's a hard role for sure, but hardly an excuse. Sometimes they're so silly, they forget that RP also means serious business sometimes, specially when an Antag is about, and is currently known that it's not Human at all!
The AI plays a big part in ordering them, but if sometimes they don't even follow humans to the letter when they're face to face, the AI can do much less! This when the AI itself isn't dumbfounded itself, and doesn't open doors to save people being murdered beyond the glass.
Just like Heads of Staff, this is one integral role for Roleplay, where silliness should have a very very very good balance. Heck, even with a drunk Captain I'm expecting them to do their job right, and coordinate everything well, and never to downplay any act of mutiny or contempt against them. Whenever I play a silly gimmicky robot, you can damn well expect me to be listening in on the Radio for calls for help, orders and doing my job properly. Nobody's perfect (I'm definitely not lel), but extra attention is needed for Important roles for sure. I personally love it when a Head of Staff checks on their crew and engages them. They announce themselves, remind everyone they have an experienced person leading them and someone to fall back to if things get crazy. Of course, this needs that the players know how to act properly with them as well, and the same goes for interacting with Borgs themselves.

Traitoring

The concept of actors or even the upped Traitor objectives into something more fun being directly supported by Admins is super! I never thought of the praying thing honestly and I do get stumped a bit when I get to be a regular traitor. I don't want to just mess everything and everyone (not the point of the RP server and I'm not extremely experienced as some other players), but sometimes I just don't know what fun RP thing\gimmick I could pull off sometimes. Should try that next time!
Most that happened to me, was becoming a werewolf and claiming my first early victim. Immediately an Admin expressed concern about a rampage. I wasn't really interested in doing one but the concern and tips given by the Admin were very nifty and cool! And most definitely prevented me from thinking of doing so too. I immediately pulled a gentler werewolf with a background that others could interact without instantly killing me\be killed on the spot. I also returned the body like a good doggo so the player didn't feel left out so early in the round. Even Sec came to round me up but I didn't want to hurt anyone at that point so I just bouted a bit until they handcuffed me (knowing fully well I could break them instantly, but I can only imagine their faces when I did so while incarcerated in my cubicle). It was fun for me and for them too, even if I spent most of the round in quarantine! Heck, I even got to be escorted by my newly made Sec buddy to the kitchen to get a raw meal that gave me Food Poisoning!
But!
Before that happened, some people IMMEDIATELY thought to dispose of me through an incendiary bomb. A scientist went there like a hero to try to kill me while I was gnawing on monkeys (and getting a bit pummeled by them I admit). It... was really silly, why was a scientist there? Alone? With incendiary bombs? This is the other problem with Antags in the RP server. People will instantly think they have a green flag to murder them when they're not showing themselves as a major threat and go super hero which also ruins the RP part. Basically, less dialogue more metagaming.

Another time I was a simple traitor, thinking of silly things to do, when another antag forced me to sign an Infernal Contract and I nearly died, though I had the clearance and knowledge to save myself in Medbay. I vouched to chase him down, and seemed like a nice thing to do, I mean, Medbay was filling up with half mummies and formaldehyde filled peeps like I was. I found him, nobody was doing anything, so I first showed an aggressive stance, pushed him around, threatened, he knew I was aggressive and eventually pulled a saber from the PDA and slashed him dead with a bystander next to me (I probably should've used more dialogue and chase him down a bit though). I was immediately tasered (I don't know why a Medical Doctor had a taser), saber stolen, and the medical Doctor promptly, without talk, questioning or threat, decided to murder me. I ran, screamed for help at a passing Sec Officer but I got killed and murdered and left to die in Crit in the middle of the hallway... eventually another and cool Sec came, tried to save me, and pushed my ass to the morgue afterwards where I got revived. After cloning I thought about killing that Medical Doctor with a more intrusive way but I let it slide, I wasn't in the mood. I wasn't expecting lack of retaliation, I mean, that was pretty aggressive and made very obvious that I was Syndicate! But that instant outcome of a Medical Doctor promptly wanting to murder a fellow human being without question? Not really. He's the one that had the saber when Sec found me running away too. And leaving me to die afterwards?
Heck, nobody even cared to file a report or inquiry about all this event...

Lack of RP or experience aside, this happens a lot, Antag immediately have Red Flags, and I know very well why. On the other Goon servers they do have the rule to go on rampages so people defend promptly as best they can.
But on the RP server? I honestly didn't even want to hurt that Doctor. If he questioned me I'd just toss his question aside. I'd rather have Sec come to me, question and arrest me... Then again, it's not the first time I see Sec going on Killing Sprees (or ignoring dead people, blood all over, corpses in Space) because they have guns and committing people to borging just because. Some higher RP server consider Borging without Trial\Consent\Permission from HeadStaff to be akin to murder. It's pretty off-putting on the RP server. I personally play here because of its more relaxed tone. I'm all fine with silliness and quirky behavior, but these moments just make me, well, "sigh". Like that one time I got shotgunned to death by the barkeep while trying to heal him as a borg... first shot was fun, but as I tried to talk he just wanted to use his big gun so he emptied it on me until I blew up. Nobody flinched or cared. Borgs being expensive and a valuable asset to the Station? Nobody gave a damn.
sorry, I'm still salty over that but thanks for the adminhelp\respawn Florish!

I guess that Antag roles need to be reminded to make Drama, make it intense, let the mix of both action, murdering, bombing, dialogue and emoting be a part of it. Otherwise, it's just like the regular Goon Servers. But same goes for the regular folk, they also need to pull less of the Super Hero. I'm expecting the Janitor to come to the rescue with the mop, not pulling a shotgun out of his pocket and proceed to spout out "They Live" quotes (though that'd still be pretty cool, but that's a job for the Detective\Sec and totally the Captain. Unless it's a Sec that wanted to play undercover, hmm...).

Using another example that could maybe enhance the experience a bit in RP here, in other servers Traitors get code words to use\exchange as to identify themselves to each other. This makes public spaces interesting to start conversations between Antags that want to team up. Though not particularly necessary (or even often used), I like that it's there. Something like using the Listening Post itself to call out Traitor PDA's could also be interesting. This could in the future lead to multiple buddies using their Walkie-Talkies while they sabotage both Comms and Power, which would be really panic inducing cool. Or we could always just leave that to Admin tricks.

Extra

I personally feel very confused when seeing all the names in the Chat Channel. I don't know who's who! The AI could be talking and I barely notice it. The Captain himself is screaming for help and we just expect it to be a crazy chemist that dropped a beaker that lit his foot on fire. Wouldn't it help to have specific\important roles more preeminent? Even the Robotic talk gets strangled a bit sometimes. People do spam the Common Channel a bit too much, but that's kinda normal I guess. But when there's action spams? Oh boy... I find myself using the PDA just to get people to know they received something but... even the damn PDA's doesn't tell me who's who! The crew manifest is too hidden beyond a console\network and I don't really know why.

End

Sorry for the WoT, but it was mostly chaotic brainstorming. Perhaps something good can come of it.
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Messages In This Thread
RP Rules and You - by Flourish - 04-10-2019, 08:00 AM
RE: RP Rules and You - by Podrick Equus - 04-10-2019, 08:55 AM
RE: RP Rules and You - by Avack - 04-10-2019, 08:57 AM
RE: RP Rules and You - by EristheSlackWyrm - 04-10-2019, 12:11 PM
RE: RP Rules and You - by Spoodle - 04-10-2019, 01:26 PM
RE: RP Rules and You - by Ficik - 04-10-2019, 02:20 PM
RE: RP Rules and You - by Khea Hyena - 04-10-2019, 04:00 PM
RE: RP Rules and You - by Flourish - 04-13-2019, 05:53 PM
RE: RP Rules and You - by Adhara In Space - 04-14-2019, 05:56 AM
RE: RP Rules and You - by Spoodle - 04-14-2019, 07:34 AM
RE: RP Rules and You - by Avack - 04-14-2019, 08:02 AM
RE: RP Rules and You - by Flourish - 04-14-2019, 09:49 AM
RE: RP Rules and You - by Spoodle - 04-14-2019, 10:05 AM
RE: RP Rules and You - by Clean Your Teeth - 04-14-2019, 01:36 PM
RE: RP Rules and You - by Adhara In Space - 04-15-2019, 09:01 AM
RE: RP Rules and You - by Flourish - 04-16-2019, 12:33 PM
RE: RP Rules and You - by Zamujasa - 04-16-2019, 12:51 PM

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