Goonhub
11-14-2022, 07:03 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-15-2022, 09:13 PM by MarkNstein. Edited 2 times in total.)
These are my personal thoughts, NOT Admin Directives or New Rules!
MarkNstein's thoughts on character-creation and antag-behaviour in SS13:
SS13 is a 2D farty spaceman game that plays out in roughly 60-90 minutes, with each person having a small umwelt of the rounds. SS13 is not a good medium for exploring complex or sensitive topics.
In my above attempt to be concise, some points were inferred that I did not intend. To be explicit:
So if you're looking for "a reason to be evil": I strongly suggest making "short improv excuses" for antag behavior rather than trying to worry about baking-it-in to a persistent character. Own the rise and fall of your mini character arc in a round - do not worry about multiple-round consistencies.
I bring this up partly because I've picked this game up after a 16 month hiatus and I observed two rounds last long-weekend that were a bit slow, and I'd like to encourage more "lively" rounds.
In one I made a ghost critter a Macho Man despite their concern that they've only had one previous antag rounds; gave them a little mentoring (with that casserole excuse) and let them loose. They did so well picking a fight with the captain and security that after they died from a rad-storm the crew was verbally wishing them back-to-life.
In a later round I rolled Vampire and used a fortune cookie in my backpack as my prompt "The (chef) Bo Bo is feeling lonely" - guess I'll try to make them a thrall! (I showed them the fortune before my attempt). I'm rusty at combat to say the least so I lost 3 rounds of combat (one with the priest who was disguised!). By the time I died-via-butcher-knife the chef, priest, and M.Dir were fighting over my body and what to do with it.
I've since been encouraging thru OOC in every pre-round that antags should be LETHAL while they RP, and that they don't need any thorough or character-background excuse. It's Medium RP not Hardcore RP.
Feel free to post improv-like ideas for Antag-Reasons and Antag-Prompts in this thread.
I want to stress:
I don't want players to feel road-blocked by making their antag-excuses align with their character bios.
I have no issue with people using their character-bios to further they RP rounds. Nor any issue harekning to previous rounds, call-backs are fun!
MarkNstein's thoughts on character-creation and antag-behaviour in SS13:
SS13 is a 2D farty spaceman game that plays out in roughly 60-90 minutes, with each person having a small umwelt of the rounds. SS13 is not a good medium for exploring complex or sensitive topics.
- When exploring or roleplaying topics it's important to be respectful; doubly so when trying to make a backstory to explain antagonistic behavior. When making an "excuse" for antag behavior: less is safer. "The captain overcooked my tuna casserole during NT training and orientation" or "I'm a god-damned vampire!!" or "My character but evil!" or "I want the stations entire blood on the floors".
- Trying to make a persistent character-trope that leads to antagonistic behavior is harder (but not impossible). "I'm an evil mob-boss sweet old granny, unless I'm not-antag then I'm a mob-boss on vacation" is not-great. "I'm secretly a syndicate operative" everyone might be, we have an event that triggers that, you need not write that. Trauma also isn't a good excuse "when I'm evil it's because my parents died, so some rounds I'm evil for it" is bad.
- Do not use neurodivergence as a "trope" or "reason" for antagonistic behavior as it is disrespectful to neurodivergent people; same as it would be that any other identifying trait would be disrespectful.
- Do not play a "friendly" antag. Security (and crew) is meant to be your fun-making antithesis, being a "good evil person" is muddy, unclear, and bad. I strongly encourage you to be LETHAL or at least EVIL.
In my above attempt to be concise, some points were inferred that I did not intend. To be explicit:
- You can absolutely use your character's traits and history in your antaging. I didn't write that you can't or shouldn't. My intention was: DON'T STRESS making your backstory match-up to all your innocent & antag behavior in the game - It's MRP not HRP.
- I'm not writing that you MUST kill people or are otherwise obligated. I have NO intention of modifying RP Rule 4. If you have a no-kill gimmick: great! But if you roll antag please but SOME effort into driving the round. (Again don't stress that either, I've rolled antag while being low-energy too)
So if you're looking for "a reason to be evil": I strongly suggest making "short improv excuses" for antag behavior rather than trying to worry about baking-it-in to a persistent character. Own the rise and fall of your mini character arc in a round - do not worry about multiple-round consistencies.
Quote:Jacob von Uexküll created the term Umwelt to describe the world an animal perceives and experiences. An Umwelt is not shared by all animals.
I bring this up partly because I've picked this game up after a 16 month hiatus and I observed two rounds last long-weekend that were a bit slow, and I'd like to encourage more "lively" rounds.
In one I made a ghost critter a Macho Man despite their concern that they've only had one previous antag rounds; gave them a little mentoring (with that casserole excuse) and let them loose. They did so well picking a fight with the captain and security that after they died from a rad-storm the crew was verbally wishing them back-to-life.
In a later round I rolled Vampire and used a fortune cookie in my backpack as my prompt "The (chef) Bo Bo is feeling lonely" - guess I'll try to make them a thrall! (I showed them the fortune before my attempt). I'm rusty at combat to say the least so I lost 3 rounds of combat (one with the priest who was disguised!). By the time I died-via-butcher-knife the chef, priest, and M.Dir were fighting over my body and what to do with it.
I've since been encouraging thru OOC in every pre-round that antags should be LETHAL while they RP, and that they don't need any thorough or character-background excuse. It's Medium RP not Hardcore RP.
Feel free to post improv-like ideas for Antag-Reasons and Antag-Prompts in this thread.
I want to stress:
I don't want players to feel road-blocked by making their antag-excuses align with their character bios.
I have no issue with people using their character-bios to further they RP rounds. Nor any issue harekning to previous rounds, call-backs are fun!