Welcome to the Crash Course In Roleplaying. Here explains what's expected from you in the local culture and why you're getting banned from having your character say “AYY LMAO XD” and “LE GRIFF :^)” at a rate of five chat windows per second, or getting muted for saying “;Hello guys” in OOC.

You will also be taught what “Metagaming” and “Powergaming” really is (it's not a way for antagonists to whine after being robusted) and why the rules preventing those are enforced. If you are still with us by the mid-point that we will move into how to immerse yourself in the Star Command 13 experience, because Star Command 13 is not Trouble in Terrorist Town (at least not most of the time) and playing it as such is a disservice to everyone including you.

The simplest way to describe roleplaying is that you're an actor telling a story. Unlike in most games where your character's personality and backstory are pre-written, Star Command 13 is a Role-Playing Game where you get to choose the look, personality, and history of your character. Want to play the hardboiled Detective or a slap-happy Clown? That decision is up to you, there's no plot decisions or quest lines ordering you around.

There are two sides to the coin of roleplaying.

IC chat; in character, or how you act when playing the role of your character. IC chat is derived into two categories. Speech (using the “Say” command) and Emotes (using the “Me” command). Both of those are actions that are performed by your player character (hence why they are referred to as in-character) and are directly affected by your current conditions (dead/alive, mute, deaf, paralyzed/stunned, no headset, in space, buckled, restrained, gagged, etc). For instance, being dead will impair your abilities to communicate with your fellow crewmen, as will losing your headset preventing you from using the in-game telecommunications system.

OOC chat; out of character, or how you (as a player) interact with other players outside of the game. If you're talking about the game itself, including game mechanics and events that happened in a round outside of your character's knowledge, you're acting out of character. This term is also used to describe the OOC channel in-game, used by typing, “OOC <message>” into the text entry field. OOC chat is unique in that it will be performed by you, the player, behind the screen using your internet handle (using the “OOC” command). You can use the OOC chat regardless of the current status of your player character, even if you are not technically playing or are long deceased.

There is also LOOC chat; local out of character, and as its name implies is a chat specifically designed to discuss OOC information with characters near you. This is almost always intended to have casual out of character chat with nearby ingame players, or inquiry mentoring or ask questions to nearby players without voicing it in-character or bothering the entire server with normal OOC chat. LOOC isn't for relaying in-character information or to bypass restrictions on IC and Emote chats. It is a local OOC chat, and that is about it. All active admins are always shown all LOOC chatter, so you're going to have to be smarter in using it to shitpost while your character is unconscious.

Now that both aspects of roleplaying have been clearly defined, there is one simple rule to them: IC and OOC do not mix. This separation must be acknowledged and failure to apply it will lead to you getting punished. This is a rule in pretty much every Space Station 13 community, and here, it's server rule 4.

IC in OOC: Information pertaining to the currently ongoing round, generally wherever it regards your player character and your status, anything you're having trouble with, anything the station is confronting or even that fagget trator George Melons who just Parapen C4'd you in robotics maintenance. Obvious cases of IC in OOC, even if harmless (accidentally broadcasting what is obviously IC speech using OOC) will almost certainly lead to a standard banning and people yelling ICK OOK BAN HE in OOC. Broadcasting information that specifically targets and threatens round antagonists or sufficiently spoils the round's events, intentionally or not, can and will very likely lead to a heavier punishment.

OOC in IC: The somewhat rarer opposite of the above, but still important to understand. While roleplay is very lightly enforced, it is expected that your player character behaves like an actual sapient being expressing themselves through vocal discourse during a work day. More to the point, no, you aren't allowed to say “Urist McGreyshit says, “I robusted the shit out of you go cry in OOC bitch”. If nothing short of absolutely devastating brain damage would make you vocalize what you are currently saying in real life, it doesn't belong in IC. Dank memes, smileys, parenthesis, 13375P34K and SMS messaging shorthands are prime examples of this. Out-of-character terminology such as “round”, “gamemode”, “admin”, “antag” and the like is also a bad idea. Consider using “shift” instead of round and “gods” instead of admins.

Although the separation of IC and OOC is the basis of all roleplay, there are certain details for specific situations that have to be considered for a fulfilling experience.

While it has already been stated that emotes are in-character, they function in a more specific way than simple vocal speech:

Emotes are defined as any gesture that can be performed by using any part of your body. Some emotes can be performed automatically depending on the situation (screaming, gasping, coughing, etc), but using the “Me” chat command (instead of “Say”, thus for example “Me “flips the bird””) allows you to make literally any emote possible and imaginable.

While no-one really cares if your emoting bears more information than anyone could hope to decipher from someone pointing at a maintenance airlock, it is important to understand that emoting is not your backup chat in case your character ends up mute in some fashion. More specifically, while it is obviously fine to gesture to try and save your hide if your vocal cords have been cut, literally using the Emote command as you would use the Say command and simply writing things like “Me “Help that faggot trater George Melons tried to kill me”” will not be tolerated and will likely lead to admin intervention. Try to act it up at the very least.

To add to the previous point, try to be at least considerate of what your character can actually do, if for anything but the enjoyment of other players. The Mime cannot flip you the bird if you disable his hand. While it is much less general, the Mime's entire existence derives on this. Since he is mute, he is expected to act and gesture to get things going his way (or cop out and write down/PDA message information). Note that Mimes can break their vow to talk, but doing so robs them of their powers and makes them extremely valid to kill. Talking Mimes are also highly suspicious if the roundstart Mime went missing at some point.

While Silicons can emote (even the AI, basically a big sentient computer cube with a display), they can also trigger some special emotes using the “Say “*emote”” template. The emote will only broadcast if a correct instruction is provided (You can use “*help” to find out what you can do). This command is usually praised for allowing Cyborgs and MoMMIs to beep, ping and buzz profusely.

The ingame telecommunication-relay-based intercom, headset and station-bounced radio systems (also known as the radio, the comms or “The thing you talk into”) can be accessed by wearing a headset on your ear and usage of the proper key when communicating vocally (“Say ”[key] [Message]”“). Traffic on the radio can go from frantic during serious and rapidly developing events to almost absent during graveyard shifts and when the Traitor destroys the Telecommunications.

While radio “abuses” are expected to be dealt with in-character (slander, lying, meaningless information), obvious and serious misuse of ingame speech that leads to OOC problems (which, outside of OOC in IC, generally means rapidly copy-pasting walls of text and completely flooding the chat window in the process) is not allowed. Copy-pasting information ten degrees above motor-mouth levels in general will lead to the admins taking action before any security officer would. This is even more likely to happen if you use the radio to that end.

Do note that if for any reason you decide to perform the very intelligent act of reading of pornographic literature over the radio, you will very likely end up becoming a victim of the Admins. This goes double for any memetic pornography.

If you're playing with a low population or want to encourage more roleplay, one of the most powerful things to do is going and being the change by interacting with people and their needs. Look at motives for example. Invite fellow co-workers out for lunch breaks to the Pub! Order some food, get some beers and hang around and have fun. Some maps have break rooms integrated into their departments. Why not use those as an opportunity to relax with people and drink some coffee? Remember that if you stand around waiting for the roleplay to happen, it's not going to. Once you start an incentive and openly invite people to interact, they'll be more than happy to join you.

You know, you don't really have to roleplay stuff that's in the game. You can always just… make stuff up. Think about stuff that doesn't need to be done but you could still do. The cargo workers don't need to keep invoices and manifests of everything, but they could. Janitors don't need to constantly sanitize low-traffic areas like the bathrooms, but they could. Heads of Personnel don't need to carry out inspections of the premises, but they could. Let your imagination take over, the more you do to make the game more of living workplace the more people will be happy to join you in working in it.

Improv is a style of roleplay/comedy that works extremely well in Space Station 13's environment. Many player 'gimmicks' are an instinctive attempt at improv, and when that player's gimmick doesn't go anywhere it's often because other players are breaking the basic rules of improv without even knowing it.

Read the specifics at Guide to Improv.

In Space Station 13 in general, death is a pretty big deal, especially if your body is unrecoverable. In Star Command 13, at the beginning of the round there is always a copy of every crewperson's DNA in the system, as well as a brainscan that updates regularly. However, if someone manages to wipe out that record (or the DNA Vault), or if you aren't a crewmember, you have no hope of being revived unless you had gotten a cloning backup when alive and someone double-checks them. But no matter what happens to your earthly vessel once you pass away, your soul goes on to the afterlife as a really spooky ghost. Yes, a ghost.

Dying is considered out-of-character and as such, Deadchat (also known as Ghostchat, the Observer Lounge and Butthurt Central) is a strange creature and a mix between in-character expression, as it is still your character talking even if you're dead, because there is an afterlife after all, and it's full of complaining about the living; blatant out-of-character information (who killed who, what is going on in the round, what antagonists there are, what those goddamn admins are busy doing, etc); and the greatest concentration of salt in the known universe. Simply put, Deadchat is where all your chatter should be going once you're dead while being ridiculously lax about what is being discussed. If you want to discuss what you had for lunch or write an essay on how that item that broke your skull needs to be nerfed, go ahead.

Note that in the event of you being revived (brought back into the round in a character), any and all information you have learned in Deadchat is null and void under the fact of Deadchat broadcasting out-of-character information. Yes, we are all aware that it's quite hard to sweep out of your mind the very precise list of round antagonists and all the juicy information you have learned while you are dead, but at least try to not act on it until you get a good reason to know about it.

While it is common for ghosts to idly discuss what is going on in the current shift and what caused them to arrive here, discussions completely unrelated to the game can and will crop up, along with things that are obviously not in-character (such as discussing the admin's actions). As such, all information incurred during your death is discarded when you return to life. This general guideline should be followed:

If you are brought back directly from your dead form (for example as a manifested ghost by the Cult), you are allowed all the information you have incurred when you were alive, or during your time when dead. Note however that you should not mention purely out-of-character things (for example if a player was banned) unless you can manage to reasonably formulate it in-character. Even incomplete or misinterpretable information is simply more fun than giving some random player an encyclopedic reading of literally everything happening in the shift.

If you are brought back from your dead body (cloned, defibrillated, brain transplant or having your body be brought back to life in any other way), you retain all memory up to your killing blow (including what actually killed you, and whom if they did not disguise their identity). For obvious reasons, anything you have learned after dying and ghosting from your body should be discarded completely. You certainly shouldn't pop out of the cryogenic pod PDA messaging the Head of Security the precise list of all antagonists in the round.

If you are brought back from a genetic backup of your body with no updated brainscan, you remember everything up to the point where that backup was taken. So most likely not who murdered you.

If you are brought back from the dead as a whole new mob (Dionaea, Alien Larva, Mouse, Borer, Posibrain etc), you do not remember anything whatsoever. You are a brand new character. Attempting to cut old loose ends after you come back in this fashion, for example going on the Diona Nymph revenge quest, will lead to rapid expediency from the admins.

Having someone you murdered getting revived is already problematic enough, so don't push it by using knowledge you amassed while dead to overpower them. In case you're really having trouble forgetting all this information (for whatever reason) there's nothing wrong with just logging out while you're dead. It'll be less painful for you in the long run.

Behind this one word lies perhaps the most important part of the roleplay experience. As you might be aware right now, most of the game revolves around the action of the antagonists against the station and its crew. While the antagonists are expected to get good at the game and avoid being caught or killed, there are many actions that you, as a non-antagonist player should not take to foil antagonists. Furthermore, due to the fact that the entire round revolves around the antagonist's in-character actions, it is expected that, to remain fair, no out of character information crosses over in your hunt for valids.

Metagaming, to put it in a very descriptive fashion, is “any act that leads to out of character information about the ongoing round or current events being used by a player to change the behavior of his character or perform specific in-character actions.”

When you play the game it's important to remember that you see the game world through the eyes of your character. Even if you know something as a player, that information may not be available to your character. Another way to put it is that Metagaming is using information on the current round obtained from outside your character's means while in your character. The following are all classic cases of Metagaming:

Using information from the OOC chat is the most minor and common form of metagaming. Even if it's innocuous and harmless, you're still acting on something that you wouldn't have known about otherwise. This information shouldn't be present according to the IC in OOC rule, but in the event that such information sneaks through, you will be expected to act responsibly by not acting on it.

Using information from chats external to the game. This is Metacommunications. Since we have no ability to moderate or obtain the IP of these external forums and their use cannot be noticed outside of someone on the inside snitching on the metacommunicators or the behavior of the metacommunicators giving away their relation, any verified case of Metacommunications will lead to a no-warning no-discussion permanent ban for all parties involved. When one player gets attacked and another one immediately darts to the scene from the other end of the station with a stunprod and cable restraints in hand when not a word was spoken the entire time and the second person had no way of knowing the attack was even occurring… it's not very challenging to guess what's going on here.

Using information acquired while dead to act when revived (especially in obvious cases like rushing out of the Cloning Pod to smash some completely unrelated person's head in and then “discovering” their Traitor equipment) is considered metagaming.

Metagaming in general is the antithesis to roleplaying, especially if the collected information is used to significantly alter the course of the round, most commonly (and most severely) by gathering information on/eliminating the antagonists or by getting one back into the round (for instance by giving the location of your body to living players through external chats).

While Metagaming can be described as the use of OOC information, Powergaming is more like “the use of any game knowledge about potential events in a fashion that would be completely obscure to a character, to anticipate events or pre-emptively overpower antagonists and other players in a ridiculous and out of character fashion.”

Despite being a subset of it, Powergaming is more common than normal Metagaming since an experienced player is bound to have far more awareness about the station's general welfare than their character could ever hope to. Thus, it is important to point out the obvious cases of Powergaming which will almost certainly lead to intervention, and decline from here until we find the line between acceptable behavior and full-on Powergaming.

No, you aren't allowed to put the “wizards are not human” silicon law at 12:09 in anticipation of a wizard when no proof of any wizards has been shown. Changing the AI's laws to a more wide-reaching lawset like NT Default is fine and quite common.

Setting up a scheme to “antag check” people without probable cause, or using specific and otherwise unusual counter-measures to foil antagonists before any proof of their presence is given. Basically you're hunting for antagonists or trying to foil their plans when you have no reason to. Obvious examples are “code blue” randomly arresting people in the hallways and searching through their inventory for unlocked PDAs or traitor items, or generally deploying counter-measures to specific antagonists “just in case” (such as installing manual valves in Atmospherics, splashing everyone with holy water or mass-implanting loyalty and holy implants).

Acting on someone due to their behavior that, while being perfectly compatible with the in-character reason of their presence of the station, can be considered as a “likely action for an antagonist” out of character. For example, randomly searching the Toxin Scientist or Virologist because “these jobs are usually done by antagonists to cause station damage” or killing someone for a Space Law offense that is not even worthy of item confiscation because the crime appears to have been done “to antagonistic ends”.

Obtaining gear as a non-antagonist illegally without probable cause (often linked with Greytiding which is usually done by Assistants, the name coming from their jumpsuit's color) or “since it could come in handy”. For example, looting the Armory as a non-antag not only to deny the guns to actual antagonists, but to have a weapon of self-defense if you get attacked by an antagonist. Grabbing that shiny, shiny thing across the window bay or rushing to get the insulated gloves is fine, literally gearing up like some kind of action movie protagonist and running around the station with more offensive capability than a Deathsquad Officer as an Assistant is not.

Going on a proactive and prolonged hunt for antagonists as non-Command or non-Security without probable cause. A Medical Doctor shouldn't be patrolling the maintenance tunnels with a syringe gun looking for the traitor, they should be reviving the people getting killed by said traitor so they can find out who it is. The time where antag-hunting is fine is when the situation has been compromised so much that continuing to do your work is outright counterproductive.

Due to the nature of light roleplay standards, some semantics should be made:

While acting against specific antagonists before their presence is confirmed is unacceptable, it's fine to start a round with the mindset that there will be an attempt by some sort of antagonist to damage the station. Securing sensitive items (securing, not hiding or destroying) and cracking down on sudden and unexplained violence and break-in attempts into secure areas is OK. Note however that only the Command and Security should actually be on the lookout for antagonists like this at the start of the round since it's their job to keep their departments secure and functional and keep the station safe. All other crewmen should be acting “normal” until shit eventually hits the fan.

To further the above point, it is estimated that all crewmen are trained to recognize and deal with all antagonists as perfectly as the actual player is. If you hear there is a Cult going about, it's perfectly fine for your character to suddenly remember his extremely thorough training on what the Cult of Nar'Sie is. Don't be that guy. Furthermore, all crewmen are trained to recognize (recognize, not prosecute) antagonist actions or items when they directly see them (for instance a Changeling absorbing someone, a Cult rune or an airlock being emagged). Just remember that until you actually confirm said antagonist, preventing a specific type of antagonist is not fine.

Carrying antagonist items does not make one an antagonist, but expect sec to stare daggers at you if you don't have a good reason to have it. If you find some emag on the ground, give it up ASAP so they know that you're not planning any nefarious deeds. Basically, don't get caught with it if you're getting searched or you'll regret it. If you have any reason to doubt that this person carrying an emag is actually a Traitor, apply that doubt. Unless the crewmen was acting antagonistic, executing someone for owning an antagonistic item they have a plausible explanation for is a quick way to create enemies.

Validhunting is “the act of intentionally going out of your way to find and take out of the round anyone who is flagged as “valid (to kill)”, which usually means antags.

While killing people that you are allowed to kill through server rules is obviously not against said rules and admins are wholly responsible for anything they clearly suggest to players, it is generally considered undesirable behavior to completely go out of your way to take antagonists out of the round when you aren't part of Command and Security staff (as stated in Powergaming), though the specific nature of Space Station 13's culture ensures that people will do so anyway. Antagonists should keep this in mind, as the confirmation of an antagonist's identity is very likely followed by assistant lynch mobs and cargo-worker vigilante gangs hell bent on robusting them.

While you will almost never get in trouble for it unless you are completely unable to justify how you discovered the antagonist outside of Metagaming, repeated cases of your Validhunting coupled with general undesirable behavior can lead to you getting struck down by Rule 0 after a long enough period of bullshit.

Remember that antagonists are players just like you, and that getting picked as an antagonist is already rare enough. While antagonists aren't exactly expected to consider non-Security personnel as compliant to their actions, it is very annoying to discover that some random Assistant slipped you, rummaged through your backpack, found an electromagnetic card in your box and immediately proceed to cable cuff you and take you to the nearest airlock just because “you are an antag”. Given that Validhunting is the subset of Powergaming, any non-Security personnel who suddenly “discovers” the presence of an antagonist via the methods in the section above and proceeds to lynch them will likely get in trouble. Of course, if they did all of that after your status as an antagonist was confirmed by someone else then they're perfectly justified in robusting you.

A lot of people interpret this to mean that only certain jobs know about certain things, e.g. “an assistant wouldn't know much about how to set up a supermatter reactor besides hearsay”. However, this generally isn't how it works in practice. The relationship between your character and your knowledge of the game as a player is less like a list of roles and their knowledge levels about certain things; rather, the circumstances of the situation and judgement as to whether the OOC info/knowledge was acted on wisely.

That means that roleplaying with your knowledge of the game, like many other facets of roleplay, depends highly on context. If a Vampire and their coterie of thralls was sucking people's blood in public and inducting them as thralls like an unholy combination of The Warriors and Phantom Blood, nobody's going to complain about you screaming over the radio about vampires and demanding Cargo for holy water. Conversely, if you stumble upon a vampire just chugging a glass of blood, trying to convince you they have a rare medical condition that requires them to physically ingest hemoglobin, then it might be more fun to play along and see where it goes instead of running to Security demanding they be put to death for being a vampire. Both of them are fine, but one of them just makes you look like a validhunter. In the end, what it really boils down to is, are you using your knowledge of antagonists to create a better experience for everyone?

That said, it's not against the rules to roleplay being an idiot. If that's how you want to play it, go for it. Some people enjoy the process of discovering how, say, a Traitor gets all their fancy equipment or doing things like holding emergency meetings to educate the crew or asking the AI to “download” information about antagonists, even deliberately getting things wrong for the sake of the funny, like throwing sacks of rice filled with bricks at a Vampire or asking a Traitor to show off their emag to see how it works.

Getting “In Character” can be hard, but this should at least give you an outline.

The first step of understanding your character is to get an idea of what they'd be like. Some distinguishing trait that helps them stand out a bit from the crowd. They might speak with an accent, have a distinctive laugh, or always ask for a certain drink at the bar. It doesn't have to be anything overly complicated but it can help to distinguish your character and make them interesting. Old tabletop roleplayers will know that the personality of your character changes and evolves, but it's still useful to start small. A few questions that you should be able to answer include:

• To strangers, am I shy / extroverted / friendly / arrogant?
• How much does my character value the job / How obedient are they towards the 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 the department?

Ask yourself these questions one by one and answer them. If you can't answer them within a couple minutes, consider the way your character has behaved so far and use that as your answer.

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 club if needed, never even feels slightly sick at the sight of gore, can take ridiculous amounts of pain without flinching, and is only mildly afraid of death? If most of these apply, chances are you're one of the thousands of players who haven't put much thought into roleplaying. Don't feel bad about it, this isn't anything special.

If you have a character like this and are in the mood to improve your roleplaying on the small scale here are a few suggestions for you to try out.

Keep it up and eventually you'll settle into a style that fits you just fine. It'll just eventually… occur to you one day.

As the engineer you generally have lot of free time to roleplay, work on new expansions, redo piping, and keep the place running well! Your imagination is the limit here.

Idea: Run departmental inspections for safety issues and give suggestions. Is chemistry storing fuel tanks too close to lights or dangerous machines? Is science doing dangerous tests or burning stuff too hot? Try to help keep the place safe!

Playing the security role isn’t just about finding the antagonist in the most efficient way. It’s about creating an experience for the antag, yourself, and everyone around you. That doesn’t mean that you're not allowed to catch antagonists, just remember to keep it clean.

• Idea: The local sheriff/constable and recruit an assistant as the “deputy”. Talk westerny/cockney or just get drunk in the bar and talk like that.
• Idea: The mall cop that hands out tickets for littering/running in the halls. Other titles: Hall Monitor, Paul Blart Jr., Segway Champion 2006
• Idea: Going undercover isn't just for the Detective. Go undercover and ask the botanist for weed, then arrest them when they give it to you.
• Idea: When you do catch the antag, you're fully within your right to have fun with them. Hold a public trial for a traitor or lock up the ling for research! Don’t just gib them/space them/permabrig them. They might not appreciate staying in the round, but it's the attempt that counts, not the result.
• Idea: Be THAT cop no one wants to deal with, as long as it’s kept reasonable. You don't have to be the guy that takes bribes or “finds” weapons on someone, you just have to be hate-able in a way that doesn't make people want to brain you or bomb the brig. You'd probably want to be less of a “heel” like a corrupt cop, but more of an elitist, especially regarding Space Law. Security that knows Space Law to a T and doesn't fake knowing it are some of the more frightening ones simply because they're capable of running circles around the average window-smashing Assistant. If you want to get someone locked up and out of the game for a while, knowing Space Law and its maximum sentencing lengths well is all you need to really grind people's gears, especially repeat offenders.

Remember, you're better suited for information gathering rather than arrests. So avoid becoming a mini-officer and keep in mind your revolver is for self defense.

• Tip: You're an information gatherer. Go gather information. Spy on everyone. Periodically use the cameras to check areas of interests. Take photographs. Slap microphone stickers in places or on people you want to keep an eye on. Record conversations. Wear disguises.
• Idea: Take on private investigation work outside of Sec. If someone gets their ID stolen, offer to track it down for a fee.
• Tip: When you've found out something worth an arrest, coordinate with Security rather than take them on yourself.
• Tip: A good detective should always be a bit aloof. Play off of that by being selective with the information you share.
• Tip: Try to use info and evidence to manipulate people into taking a desired action, whether or not you're an antagonist.

As a doctor, you hold a special place on the station. While you can make your care simply reactive, remember that the easiest way to create roleplay is to be proactive. Encourage crew to come in for checkups! Give out prescriptions if somebody has a issue! Hold first aid training! Just have fun with it and try to help others enjoy the round more.

• Idea: Host first aid training for the crew; teach them how to use stuff like syringes and patches, and don’t be afraid to go into detail about how you use them!
• Idea: Use the patient rooms for treating patients
• Idea: General well-being checkups
• Idea: Therapy
• Idea: Produce vaccines for the flu/other illnesses

The custodial technician is one of the most significant jobs on the server. Why? Because they are in charge of making sure it doesn’t look like everything has dissolved into chaos.

• Idea: Be weird and unnerving
• Tip: Put down the damn floor signs
• Idea: Handle things outside of just cleaning. Do general repairs like replacing light bulbs or damaged floor tiles. Keep a belt full of tools for this.

You are ostensibly here to assist. Load up on light tubes and sheets and throw yourself at minor problems no one else has time to deal with. Interact liberally with higher-ranking crew and demand tasks to be set on.

• Idea: Be an annoying bugger who won’t stop pestering the same person nonstop for something to help them with. If they ignore you for too long throw a temper tantrum (like assistants don't already do that).
• Idea: Assistant has a wide range of meaning. You can act as something of an intern for an understaffed department. You can run tasks for people who don't have the time or ability to perform them. You could be a personal assistant for a high profile figure like the Captain.
• Idea: With the CEs/MDs/RDs permission act as a engineering intern/medical resident/scientific observer.
• Idea: Try inventing your own job role that the station lacks and running it as a private business. For instance, there are a lot of critters running around and no exterminators.
• Idea: Play games!
  • Hide and seek
  • Tag
  • Scavenger hunt
  • Uno

The chef is a role that shines but in moments, so have fun with it. Remember, people need to eat food, so by extension they need you.

• Idea: Make people sign waivers to eat your food (very inconspicuous)
• Idea: Create a menu for people to order from. List several entrees and side options
• Idea: Employ a waiter, the bartender, or assistant to take orders to run back to the kitchen and to serve guests

As the QM, your main job is keeping every department well supplied, and ensuring that people get what they need quickly.

• Idea: Be the King of Red Tape. Write up supply request forms and insist they be filled out before any goods are requisitioned. Demand signatures from department heads. Issue receipts for both yourself and the poor sod in question.
• Tip: Turn a profit by reselling items you've bought at a slightly higher price to the crew.

A very variable role.

• Idea: Write up proper artifact research reports instead of autogenerated ones.
• Idea: Recruit crew members to explore ruins
• Idea: Develop risky experimental drugs and test them on willing crewmembers (or inmates).
• Idea: Develop your scientist character; are you a mad scientist or a safety-obsessed timid researcher just out of grad school?

The ultimate job, the Captain can be played in a lot of different ways depending on what other crew are available.

Idea: Go bother the other heads with paperwork about performance reports, quarterly updates, and give them the latest information about what corporate is focusing on.

“We’re focusing on phoron research this quarter, I’d like to see what your current facilities look like and how we should direct funding.”

“We noticed a 10% increase in your medical supply expenses in the last month with only a 2% increase in crew, can you explain or look into why and get some people together to work out how we can get that back down?”

You do have the authority to relieve people if they are being incompetent, however keep in mind that they may resist, so be careful. If you do decide to go down this path, have a good reason:

Bad “He isn’t doing his job correctly”

Ok “He’s refused to work with others to improve productivity”

Good “The chief medical officer has on multiple occasions disrespected senior officers and under his command the ship has failed numerous productivity goals, he is incompetent and a drunkard that continually smears the reputation of the ship, we need him out of the picture”

Antagonists present a unique perspective for roleplaying because you're intentionally put at odds with the crew. Whether you want to kill someone, disfigure them, or steal something from them you should try to keep your eye out for opportunities. Bear in mind that you should be discerning about roleplay attempts that might expose you as an antagonist. Even something as simple as attempting to purchase .357 cartridges from the Warden can clue them in. You are your top priority but roleplay can improve the experience not just for yourself but for everyone else as well. You're the driving force of the disorder in the round. 10 wordless revolver shots to the head is less fun for you and your victim then a long Bondsian monologue in a secret outpost on the asteroid, ending in a complicated death. The enjoyment of roleplay isn't meant to come from the result, it's meant to come from the attempt.

As silly as it is, Inigo Montoya's cliché “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” speech in The Princess Bride is, rather unironically, a good example of antagonist RP. It succinctly sets up a scenario, shows an obvious intent, and gives the other person an opportunity to respond back. That last part is crucial; Space Station 13 is at its finest when it plays like improv, where people respond and react to each other and get to unleash their creativity to create a story like no other.

Just because you're an antagonist doesn't mean everyone has to be your enemy. Make friends with certain players. They can be useful in helping you out of a situation by vetting you as someone who is helpful. In turn, you can use your antagonist status to take out people giving them grief. Manipulating, extorting, and bribing crewmembers can get you way farther than using a gun; tell crewmembers that you know what they did that night on Mars and you’re not afraid to tell everybody…. Steal an item with value from a crew member and hold it hostage…

Firstly, not all antagonists are secret, and some such roles do not lend themselves well to roleplaying. A Syndicate agent with a blob ready to burst from inside them isn't going to have the time to stop and chat. Cortical Borers are an excellent opportunity for roleplay if they choose to take the route of peace, while spiders and xenos are more interested in growing their numbers and less interested in talking about their feelings. But there's nothing wrong with trying.

Secondly, antagonists are completely allowed to ignore their objectives and do their own thing, and they can be as friendly or nefarious as they'd like. The difference is, when you're trying to roleplay, this autonomy comes back to bite you, since now you have to look out for everyone's fun, not just your own. You can always bomb places or even do rampages; those are always allowed, but you want to make it enjoyable for everyone involved. What happens is that, in practice, making rampages and bombings entertaining tends to be pretty hard to get right, and so you usually don't see roleplayers doing them.

Normally when you are an antagonist most people do not say why they are in the position they are currently in. To deepen your character it would be a good idea to ask your self “Why am I here?” Try to create a motivation for your traitor round. It could be as simple as you were offered a sum of money, or maybe they have a hostage and you are being threatened, or you were just curious why everyone in your hometown kept referring to the person who lived in the abandoned mansion in the countryside as a “vampire lord”. An infuriated worker, angry with lower pay and trying to start a working class revolt. A legitimete agent of a rival corporation, spying on science and trying to steal artifacts. Or maybe just a random Jill who can’t pay the bills with her janitor salary and needs a bit of extra cash, so along came the Syndicate? This is the fun part of being the antagonist; there's no rules saying how a particular antag needs to be played, only that it be fun. Feel free to subvert the expectation of what’s expected for you: a ling that doesn't eat, a vampire that is trying to kick their blood habit, NT-contracted traitors. It's your traitor round, so you get to use your imagination.

You don't need to go all in on this, you can just play an antagonist normally but with a self-enforced twist: a changeling who just wants access to a department for a short time might agree to leave the target tied up and welded in a closet in exchange for the disguise. A bloodthirsty vampire might be open to enthrallment instead of feeding which keeps people in the round. Some antagonists aren't even particularly interested in killing - cultists in particular just want to grow their numbers to achieve their goals. Keep in mind that if you are converted into a thrall or cultist your roleplaying should not give away your newly-acquired status. Remember Metagaming? If you wander off into maintenance to collect glowing fungus and come back to work talking about joining a strange book club, you might end up giving away that there's a cult on board and inadvertently ruin the round.

Changeling can seem like a antag that goes against what RP is (chatting and talking, meanwhile ling at it's most efficient is silent-shuffling people out of the round) however, that doesn't mean you can't have fun and be dramatic.

Changelings are supposed to be aliens. Play around with that idea and see what kind of stuff you can do with it.

• Idea: Leave husks out to be found (maybe without the brain). Use the voice mimic ability to increase paranoia (after all, the chief weapon of the antagonist is horror.)
• Idea: A scared creature that just escaped from a lab who targets scientists for their involvement in what happened to you.
• Idea: Covertly at the fact that you aren't human in conversation, make little mistakes. Example: “Hellllo… Captaiin” like the G-Man.

Generally, the best thing to remember is that roleplay is actually the easiest part of this game. If you roleplay bad, at least the only person who's looking stupid is you. Not so if you mess up the singularity!