Sandbox2:Lavillastrangiato
So you've just rolled an antagonist role! Great job! As an antagonist, you are the catalyst for a lot of crazy stuff happening on-board the SCCV Horizon, and you help push the action of the round along. If you're overwhelmed and don't know what to do, this guide is for you.
How to Conduct Yourself
Being an antagonist still requires you to follow the server rules, and even if you're still technically following the rules, you can still be an antag that's just plain not fun to play with.
That being said, here are some general tips that you can follow to help push an enjoyable, engaging round.
- Engage with the crew. This is a very broad topic; while no one antag gimmick can involve literally every department (unless something wild happened), you should try to get involved with more players than just the Security department. This can range from involving personnel from another department in your gimmick, threatening a particular department by hiding out in that area or just because you ended up having a bone to pick with them, or, well, hurting people so that they need to be taken to Medical. With that said, however...
- Use good judgment when robusting. Don't get it twisted, it's perfectly fine to have a gimmick that causes a lot of violence and chaos. But it sucks to be taken out of the round immediately after being shot in the head so much that your head literally blows off. When you attack people, try to give them some leeway to be helped. A general rule of thumb: the closer you are to the end of the round, and the greater the effort your pursuer has put into stopping you, the more acceptable it is to try and kill them. If a Security Officer has gone EVA all the way to your escape shuttle, it's safe to say they've fucked around and it's fine to make them find out.
- ROLEPLAY. Use the same tools you use on your shipside characters to create a compelling antagonist. Why does this character do what they do? Are they in it for money? Love? Bloodlust? Madness? How can they be dissuaded in their goals, and what lengths will they go to? This can create an extra layer to your interactions with the crew; if you've kidnapped a hostage, what could they say to make your character let them go? Don't just interact with the crew by killing them. Have a villain monologue while putting a gun to the Captain's head! Reveal the dirty secrets of the security officer trying to chase you down!
- Losing is fun. It's okay to put your character into a situation where they might lose, so long as it creates interesting roleplay. This is a character (or a version of a ship character) that you're playing for one round, after all; tryharding your way to kill the entire crew gets unfun for everyone else, especially if you've been doing it for two hours. Don't be afraid to lose, and make sure to have a dying monologue on-hand. You're a villain, after all.
- Be aware of the scale of your antics. If it's a round with very few players, gimmicks where you try and murder the entire crew can feel pretty cheap. Similarly, if it's a round with a higher player count but medical and security have small numbers, try to scale back the violence. Also, if there's one Engineer, don't spread a gas leak.
- If you're going to peacetag, make sure you do something. "Peacetagging" is slang for an antagonist that doesn't do anything antagonistic during the round. Contrary to popular belief, this isn't an inherently bad route to go down; your Mercenary team can be a crew of actors looking to shoot a scene on the Horizon, or your burglars can be a pair of annoying workplace inspectors for the SCC. Whatever the case, if you're not going to go an ultraviolent route, make sure the crew can still be engaged by whatever you're doing.
