A Crash Course in Roleplaying

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Roleplaying in Sojourn is a very important factor, more so than the other Space Station 13 versions out there (remember, different servers have different play styles! This is ours). This guide will go some way in helping you learn about roleplaying. The main rule for roleplaying is to not metagame.

General Tips

First thing's first, you are your character. You know absolutely NOTHING that they do not know. If you are a Colonist, you aren't going to know all the things the Soteria Doctors do, how to start an engine, or what have you. If you, personally, don't know something (like a complicated medical procedure), but your character should, it is safe to assume that you will be able to perform it.

On the flipside, if a situation calls for you character to do something they aren't familiar with (e.g. performing first aid, or working a piece of equipment out of their knowledge), but you do, your character should NOT suddenly gain the appropriate knowledge. However, mechanically speaking this isn't exactly followed through very well, but roleplaying that you're doing something you aren't sure on, or potentially messing something up on purpose are good roleplay avenues to take this, as you can start with high enough bio to do surgery rather well in some roles that only start with low levels of bio, and so on.

You should also try to act according to your position, e.g. be subservient to your superiors. You have no right to ignore the premier, unless, of course, you are the traitor (or he is and the entire colony knows). This is especially true of your direct superiors; you need to try and listen to your section head: the research overseer for the science team, the warrant officer for the security officers, the guild master for the engineering crew, the biolab overseer for medical, and the chief executive officer for civilian roles.

Try using emotions in Roleplay, it helps to bring out your character. Being a completely emotionless, unafraid, Rambo-like character, is a bad thing to do.

This goes for the same in serious situations. Do NOT run into an area where a hostage(s) is being kept captive, and try to take out the hostage takers. That is a very good way to get banned.

Make sure to set your background information! This determines what skill levels you spawn with. Everything is essentially used through several skills. Mechanical, Bio, Cognition, Toughness, Robustness, and Vigilance. Mechanical is for engineering, Bio is for medical, Cognition is for science-related things, Toughness is how tough you are, Robustness is how robust in melee you are, and Vigilance is how good with a gun you are. (Robotics uses Mechanical and Cognition, so make sure to have some for both for example!

In terms of metagaming, there are some very bad examples. For example, calling someone a 'Traitor' or [Insert name of whatever criminal organisation] if you happen to see someone committing a crime is very bad RP. Excelsior is the big-bad in our lore, and is a giant organization full of space-commies, in essence. Their equipment is MAJOR contraband, and has some mind altering effects if implanted interesting things that can happen in relation to it.

Unless you're a Warrant Officer or a Blackshield Commander, you probably won't have much of an idea about the finer details of Excelsior, or what equipment they have access to (for example, your character would really have no idea what an emag is in most circumstances unless they have a heavy technical background). Crying traitor all over the ship just because you found a mysterious package (which to your character is simply that, a 'mysterious package' and NOT C4) is a big no no too. For further information, see Identifying Antagonists.

Using words like 'cultists', 'revs', 'revolutionaries', etc. is a very good way to have people label you as a metagamer. Don't do it.

Getting In Character

Getting 'In Character' can be hard, but the below should give you an outline as to how to do it.

The first challenge of understanding your character is to get an idea of what they're like. Experienced roleplayers will notice that the personality of your character changes and evolves over time, but it's still useful to start out with a general idea. A few questions that you should be able to answer include:

• To strangers, is my character shy/extroverted/friendly/arrogant?
• How much does my character value his job / How obedient is she towards her higher-ups?
• How would my character react to stress / a combat situation / blood and gore?
• How much pain can my character take? / Is my character afraid of death?
• What skills does my character have outside her department?

Ask yourself these questions one by one and answer them. If you can't answer them right away, look at the way your character behaved so far, and use that as answer.

Now, there's a bit of a special case here. Is your character a person who can stay calm in any situation, regularly ignores orders, doesn't have a problem with bashing in someone's skull with a toolbox if needed, never even feels slightly sick at the sight of gore, can take crazy amounts of pain without going crazy, and is only mildly afraid of death? If most of these points apply to your character, chances are, you haven't been playing your character. You've been playing with your own personal goals in mind, while neglecting the feelings of the virtual entity on the screen.

Sure, you may be playing a character who can take a lot of pain, who isn't afraid of death and who doesn't raise an eyebrow at the sight of someone's exposed intestines. But quite frankly, these types aren't just rare, a lot of the time they're also pretty boring to play. If you have a character like this, I have a few suggestions for you to try out. And don't worry, if they don't fit your favorite character, you can always make a new one with different character traits.

• Try being shy. Use emotes like "blushes", or "can't hold eye-contact and looks to the ground"
• Try reacting to pain. When airflow smashes you against a wall, scream and shout your pain out for a minute. When someone takes blood from you, clench your teeth.
• Similarly, react to hunger. Why not ask your colleagues out for a meal?
• You're in space with a strict hierarchy. If you want to carry out a research project, maintain engine, etc., ask your higher-ups first. People who act on their own and mess up also will take all the blame, and you really don't want to be fired.
• As a Head, keep your crew in check. Invent working shifts (with unrealistically generous breaks), give out orders, ask people who missed a deadline to come to your office. Punish disobedience with measures such as docking their pay or suspending them from work.
• Talk with your colleagues about things. This is difficult in-game because you can't talk and do stuff at the same time like in real-life, but really, take the time. Talk about topics like your opinion of people on the ship, the quality of food, that hole in the window near arrivals. Also feel free to make facts up that happened outside of the scope of the ship.
• If you need help with something that your character is inexperienced with, ask an in-game friend, the responsible department, or a head.
• When someone is killed in front of you, scream, run away, cry, or otherwise show that this causes extreme emotions with you. Don't just continue on as usual as if nothing happened.

These are just a few small suggestions, and some of them don't fit all characters, but some of these things are simply not done enough. If you haven't played our your character to this extent yet, really, try it out. Talking with someone else's character about fictional topics for half an hour and enjoying a virtual beer, before puking because the roboticist decided to bring his latest extracted brain with him to the bar, can be way more rewarding than winning a traitor round.

Antagonists

This is important. THE TRAITORS ARE MOSTLY UNKNOWN. HARDLY ANY KNOWLEDGE IS KNOWN ABOUT THEM OR THE EQUIPMENT THEY USE. Yelling 'traitors' is going to get you reprimanded in very short order. Again, see Identifying Antagonists for knowledge on what you character can, and cannot, identify.

As above, shouting 'revs', 'cultists', 'mercenaries', or the like is a hallmark of a bad roleplayer. Try your hardest not to do it. There are some situations where there is a logical reason to do it (revolutionaries outing themselves and calling themselves revolutionaries would give a valid reason for example), though in general it's a bad idea.

As an antagonist, you should also try to roleplay. Killing your targets or converting people without saying anything is a bad way to go about it. Try to make it interesting for the other party. The general rule here is to not annoy the other person. If they believe they had an 'enjoyable' experience (from out of character point of view), you are much less likely to get reprimanded.

Admittedly, not everything can be fully played out, but if you're going to make a hasty kill/convert, you should adminhelp (before or after the fact) to make sure you're not going to get shouted at.

Not Being Suspicious

Not reading this may result in you throwing a tantrum in a brig cell, because you were accused of doing something you "are not responsible for" or is "not that bad".

Remember that whenever a marshal stands besides you and asks "What are you doing?", or tries to perform a random search, not complying is suspicious, and it's his job to arrest suspicious individuals, so don't behave like one.

Do your job, and go only where you are supposed to go, unless given an order from one of your heads. Beware what you carry with you, because a barman is not supposed to carry a taser, and that will look suspicious.

ALWAYS COMMUNICATE! This might seem obvious, but you should know that, in a heavy roleplay game, you talk with people around you a lot. And tell them what you are doing, or want to do, since that's how people behave in the real life.

Do not be an idiot and start making art in the ground with the wires while taking off floor tiles and expect security to cheer your artwork, when you are apparently vandalizing the station.

If you aren't doing anything wrong, stop where you are, don't run away. Criminals run away, and you're not a criminal, right? Explain what you were doing. Don't assume people won't understand, don't start calling names, and generally speaking, don't be an idiot.

Command Tips

You're at the top. The highest of the of those around you. The elite of elites. You were elected to this position because you are superior in your career to everyone else, and also because you have the leadership ability that only a few people have.

What the colony needs is what you need, and what you command is what happens. The simple tasks that require someone to actually work are not to be handled by you, but instead by your underlings. However, it's not because those are menial tasks not fit for a leader, but because if you lose time with those simple tasks, other parts of the station may end up being ignored and disasters will happen. As a Head, you oversee your part of the station, you don't step in unless absolutely necessary. If something goes wrong, you don't blame the guild adepts, you blame the guild master for not supervising them. You take responsibility for everything your team does. Be it great advancements or terrible mistakes.

• Premier

The Premier is an interesting Head of Staff, as they hold no official power over the colony in any meaningful way. They serve as an advisor, with the Steward to act as their guard. Someone who is a Premier isn't a Premier by hire, it's an entirely volunteer role, and any member of the colony above age 35 may be a Premier should they accept the training that's to come with it. Be careful, because you are the legal advisor to the upper level, and a general advisor to the other members of the council.

• Steward

The Steward is an interesting role, but one that holds little importance to the standard day to day of the colony. Barely considered command staff, you have the same access as the Premier does and are expected to be their loyal bodyguard. Not only this, you are expected to assist them in keeping their public image, and making sure they don't make a fool of themself. In this you are guardian and advisor to the Premier.

• Warrant Officer

The top in the security chain, you coordinate your team in any crisis. Remember that if there are two situations happening at the same time, you must decide how many officers head to each, and you're the one who makes the plans in a hostage situation. You give tactics and battle experience, and you decide everything that has to do with security of the colony. You can role play a battle hardened veteran or a paper pusher with little field experience but that is a brilliant technician and knows a lot of law and SoP, for example.

• Blackshield Commander

When it comes to dealing with external threats you're the boss. Pirate attacks, mega fauna, station threats that the regular security team can't handle? You and your team are the first and last line of defense for the colony. You can be and should be a capable soldier and have a good knowledge of leadership and tactics with field experience. When shit hits the fan people look to you for protection and help.

• Prospector Foreman

You're an independent rough neck who can handle surviving out in the wilds with nothing but your grit and two hands. You're the boss of those who want to wander, fight, and explore. You lead your team, sending the rough necks at the creatures, the techies to loot, and you leading from the front or back bellowing orders. Unlike the other heads, you're expected to lead by example and do as your team does, survive.

• Guild Master

The engine, atmospherics, EVA, the AI, Telecomms, and a lot of repairs to make can be a huge responsibility, but you can take it. You are the MASTER because you can hold the dam while your team fixes it. You are the master beaver, the one that finds the holes in the dam and knows how to fix them. But you don't do it yourself. If you were fixing a hole, you wouldn't notice the other four that just opened. Instead you have a whole team of "beavers", your adepts, that will fix all holes you point to, change the light bulbs in any room you tell them too. You have a simple job. Prevent colony damage. And that's both serious and hard. That's why you are the MASTER. Everyone can close a hole. But only you can find them all.

• Chief Research Overseer

You supervise the team that gives a purpose to the colony. The science team is a weird bunch, all quite different and with the tendency to not communicate much, since they have more important stuff to do. Which is fine with you since that's what you want most of the time, a productive and working science team. You could role play as the typical paper pusher, since you don't need to get in the labs;. You just need to tell them what you believe is more important right now. You can role play as a rigid director with a limited budget and time schedule, or you can be an eager scientist and a dreamer, hoping to see science changing the world around you, as your team discovers more and more ways to amaze the whole crew.

• Chief Biolab Overseer

The medbay is your domain. You're the one who knows all the answers when people walk through that door. You know people and how they work. You keep people sane and keep them healthy. Considering the crew you have to work with, this can be an almost impossible task. In times of medical crisis, it's your job to command, control and quarantine. You're an expert in your field, and you need to show it. For some reason or another, you're not seen as important by the other Heads. Next time there's a virus outbreak and everyone is in medbay yelling for someone to help them, you might be able to make them think otherwise.

Marshal Tips

Marshal personnel should not take this job as a joke. At all. Unlike many other jobs, you'll be handling something much more dangerous than bombs, or singularities. Criminals. Human minds hellbent on making the whole colony go kaput. And why are they more dangerous then bombs and singularities mixed together? Because it tends to be them who mix them. You're a trained para-military professional. Act like it. Don't abuse your power, and keep the station safe.

• Marshal Officer

You're well trained, well armed and ready for everything. Most of the time. You may actually be quite the opposite. The only thing you have to remember is that your job may be a bit dangerous, and the most important thing to role play is how you cope with it. Do you show patience with the crew, or do you brig everyone that steals a nickel from you? Do you ask and investigate the crimes or do you threaten and coerce a confession? Are you the good or the bad cop? Regardless, keep the station safe, don't abuse your power, and keep on going.

• Supply Specialist

The Supply Specialist is a specialized Marshal, who is the defacto right hand of the Warrant Officer. You don't have to be a good leader, and in fact can be quite the opposite. You are the overlord of the armory, and everyone, including your superior the Warrant Officer, must listen to you in terms of it's oversight. Don't let that power go to your head! Or do, and of course, remember to follow your departmental SOP regarding the armory! Otherwise, you may just lose your job...

• Ranger

You are the prime investigator. You're part of the marshals, but not the running around catching pickpockets type of security. You're there for bigger fish. The high risk theft, the silent dead bodies, the locked room mysteries. Life and crime is one big puzzle, and you're there to put the pieces together. That's the big difference between you and the average officer. You go into a crime scene and you get the proof. You go to the trial and you make sure the guilty party is locked up.

Blackshield Tips

The blackshield are the first line of defense for external threats on the station, your job is easy and relaxing until something dangerous happens and the call goes out.

• Sergeant

Unlike your troopers you look out for the armory and keep track of all the loaded guns, weapons, armor, and ordinance. You handle training the militia, making sure they're properly equipped for whatever threats may come and slam into the gates of hell that are the front of the colony. Make sure SOP is properly followed (or don't), and as the right hand of the Commander you're the defacto leader in the field without one.

• Corpsman

A stressful job. You're constantly dealing with patient hovering on the brink of death, and it's your job to tip the balance. With the help of the Roboticist you can operate the Odysseus and be able to transport critical patient back to medbay. You're not there to deal with general crew but to aid your fellow blackshield in active combat. In a pinch, however, you have authority to act as a doctor if none are available, before even other members of Soteria. Don't let them stand in your way if you want to keep people alive! Or don't care about anyone but blackshield and the Marshals, the choice is entirely up to you.

• Trooper

You have either the easiest or most dangerous job on the station. Most shifts will be spent doing drills, training, helping out the prospectors from time to time, and getting drunk at the bar. But when the alarm is raised you need to be right there right then to stand in defense of the colony.

Prospector Tips

The prospectors are a combination of explorers and scavengers.

• Prospector

Your the general rank and file thug the prospectors send at animals, haywire robots, and the occasional mercenary to loot everything not nailed to the ground and even then steal the nails if they're not properly secure. You're tough, a good shot, and can swing a machete like nobodies business. You can handle stress and are just looking to get paid for your scrap haul.

• Salvager

Unlike the roughnecks your skills are the opposite, you function as a paramedic and an engineer. You take apart tech, build forward operating bases, mark good scrap for salvage, and patch up your rough necks when they get hurt in a fight. You need to be one smart cookie to handle all that and still be able to fire a gun properly. Good luck.

Guild Tips

The guild is the technical and repair team of the colony. You do the hard labor, and without you, the colony would fall apart. You give air, power, and stability to everyone else. They need you, and they know it, even if they don't like to admit it.

• Guild Adepts

You care about the station. The station is your home. And a man's home is his castle. Adepts and the like know to use their brawn for unarmed combat, and they aren't defenseless. Being frequently exposed to life threatening situations tends to make you bold and as such you don't tend to fear death as much as Chemists for instance. Be wary of attacking engineers. They're pretty tough and fairly close. Taking one out may give you more trouble than it's worth. In the end, it's all about keep the station alive, and you can do that spectacularly.

Soteria Tips

With the exception of some Med/Sci jobs, the pure medical department is rather small. Regardless, your job is to keep the crew alive and healthy. That dealing with anything or anyone that comes into medbay and treating whatever ailment they have. This is a tough job that attracts a wide variety of people, with a single goal, keeping people alive.

• Soteria Doctor

You can role play a doctor tired with all mountains of whiners that complaining, no matter how bad they are, but you still stick with them to help. Or you could role play a helpful fella with a smile in his face, ready to be kind and courteous to anyone and everyone. You're a bit of a general medic, dealing with anyone that comes into medbay and making sure they leave fully healthy. You basically know how to use and abuse everything and anything in medbay.

• Lifeline Technician

A stressful job. You're not only constantly dealing with patients hovering on the brink of death, you're also the brawn of the medical and science wing. It's your job to make sure the doctors can tip the balance, or you have to do it yourself. With the help of the Roboticist you can operate the Odysseus and be able to transport critical patients back to medbay. You're also Soteria's internal security in a way. So all combined, you will have to remove idiots from the bays who don't need to be there, you'll have to be on the lookout for patients showing up on the sensors and you might need to pull triple duty as a doctor here and there due to your advanced medical training as someone to fill in as a nurse.

• Roboticist

You're the invisible helping hand of the colony. Whenever a bot helps someone, it's because you made it, therefore, you are responsible for another life being saved. (Well, it's hard to imagine a clean bot having that much importance, but you get the point...) However, don't expect people to recognize you for that, since they saw the bot and not you. You main skill is your ability to make cyborgs and exosuits. These can change the colony into a more durable and serious state, since cyborgs are all metal and no emotions, and exosuits increase productivity dramatically. You are not expected to be very emotional or social, much like the robots you make. Corpses don't bother you as much either, since you do some lobotomies from time to time. Performing live lobotomies is iffy. Try to get a Medical Doctor to do it for you. If you wish to undertake it yourself, always, always, use sleeping gas.

• Scientist

You have many jobs, such as crafting plasma-based weaponry (especially bombs), dealing with lethal aliens, and creating highly experimental weaponry. You have a dangerous job that can potentially put all the crew in danger. Keep that in mind. It may make you a bit wacky, or more serious, but no matter what, you like what you do (probably, or you're one depressed scientist...). You know the power and responsibility in your hands and you're sane enough to keep yourself in check. Usually.

Lonestar Tips

Civilians have an easy life. Generally, if you role play this, you get to make any type of character, with no restriction whatsoever, but a common characteristic is that you want a simple life. You don't have the brain for a science position, the brawn for security or the know-how for engineering, but you always wanted to go to space. So you ended up as a one of those rather simple roles.

That doesn't mean you are not valuable. It just means you have an easier job, and people don't expect as much of you, so less stress for you. However, that also means that violence, death, and any other strange stuff like aliens and what not tend to make you freak out. Unless you are roleplaying a really bold individual (which is usually bad), or someone with no emotions...

• Colonist

This is a completely free role. Roleplay however you want! Just remember, you must have done something to get here.

• Bartender and Chef

Essentially the same in terms of function, since they are supposed to provide food/drink to the colonist that wishes so. The only difference however is the fact that booze makes you "happy" while food just fills your stomach, making food a more healthy option. Play that card well and you can use it for good effects on role play.

• Janitor

Quite a messy job. Since you only tend to have work when someone messes up. Usually the cause of the mess is long gone when you arrive, so this is quite a laid back job, and you can get quite a lazy life with almost no one complaining. You can role play just about everyone, from a clean-freak that must every spot in the colony clean to a lazy fat dude, that walks slowly and cleans even more slowly, since cleaning for him is a distraction of his lunch.

• Chief Executive Officer

You are the one that supplies. You get stuff. You give people what they need. They also know you can't give everything to everyone, and as such, you can get a lot of people being nice to you just to get on your good side. Enjoy it as much as you want, and even turn to corruption if you wish, but remember there will be repercussions if the medical supplies ordered by the Chief Biolab Overseer don't arrive, if they get Ryan on your ass...

• Cargo Technician

Really nothing more than a bunch of crate pushers and mail men. You do what the CEO says, but apart from that, you're about as free as a colonist to do as you like.

• Shaft Miner

A bunch of real laborers. They tend to be strong burly types, and generally think of the general population as a bunch of wusses. They risk life on the fringes of a massive cave network all day with almost no interaction with anyone but each other. That can inspire some rather deep connections, or just a bunch of weird loners. Most people don't care as long as their materials arrive on time. It's a tough job.

• Hydroponicist

You love plants. That's fairly obvious. Maybe you like cooking with them or talking to them. Either way, you wouldn't have taken this job if you didn't like them. Right? Maybe you like them more than other people and are a rather introverted person. Or maybe you're just a friend to all living things. Just don't expect the living things to be friends back.

Church Tips

• Prime

While technically a head of staff, the Prime is the head of the Church first and foremost. The Prime is much like a priest for the Church of the Absolute, with the ability to induct people into the ranks of the Vectors, or convert people to the status of Fractal, and much more. Given an armory to hand out to your Vectors during times of crisis, and even trusted with higher authority during hivemind incursions code red and higher situations sometimes, you're a leader and a preacher first. Operate the biogenerator, assist the colony in matters of the faith and matters of mental health (if they're willing), and maintain the presence of the Church above ground.

• Vector

Your job as a Vector is many. Followers of the Church are called Fractals, but you are one of the chosen few who have chosen to dedicate themself to the Absolute entirely, and become a Vector. While anyone with a cruciform is called a Vector, you serve directly in the Church instead of elsewhere, you're trusted to operate the biogenerator at all times, and make sure the areas the Church owns are properly taken care of. The Prime, however, is not a soldier, and you should always be armed to defend them in the event of an attack on the Church. After all, who will lead the flock once the Prime falls?