A Crash Course in Roleplaying

Roleplaying in Eclipse 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 Vagabond, you aren't going to know all the things the Lazarus 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!

The Northern Light is host to myriad organizations beyond the companies you work for, and as such their equipment can be relatively common. Yelling "traitor!" if you see someone using a Serbian gun, or wearing a red spacesuit is a good way to get labelled a metagamer, and you may be entirely wrong. Check the laws page for a guide to what items are legal or not.

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

As an antagonist, you should 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 an operative 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 grenades, 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.

• Captain

• First Officer

• Bridge Officer

• Aegis Commander

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 ship. You can role play a battle hardened veteran or a paper pusher with little field experience but that is a brilliant tactician and knows a lot of law and SoP, for example.

• Free Trade Union Merchant

• Chief Engineer

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 Chief 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 engineers, that will fix all holes you point to, change the light bulbs in any room you tell them to. You have a simple job. Prevent ship damage. And that's both serious and hard. That's why you are the Chief. Everyone can close a hole. But only you can find them all.

• Chief Science Officer

You supervise the team that gives a purpose to the ship. 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 tight 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 Medical Officer

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.

Aegis Tips

Aegis 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 ship go down in flames. And why are they more dangerous then bombs and singularities mixed together? Because it tends to be they who mix them. You're a trained para-military professional. Act like it. Don't abuse your power, and keep the station safe.

• Gunnery Sergeant

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 ship safe, don't abuse your power, and keep on going.=

• Investigator

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.

• Medical Specialist

Free Trade Union Tips

The Union are a combination of explorers, scavengers, and merchants.

• Cargo Tech

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

• 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.

• Artist

Engineering Tips

Engineering is the technical and repair team of the ship. You do the hard labor, and without you, the ship would literally 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.

• Engineer

You care about the ship. The ship is your home. And a man's home is his castle. Engineers 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 hip flying, and you can do that spectacularly.

Lazarus 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.

• Lazarus 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.

• Lazarus Trauma Team

A stressful job. You're constantly dealing with the unruliest, and most violent patients, who are often hovering on the brink of death, and it's your job to make sure the doctors can tip the balance, or do it yourself. 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 the Janitor who comes in complaining about a burn from touching a light bulb, but more often than not you'll be pulling double duty. This job attracts those who can deal with the stress, but it's tough. You're security and a rescue operative before anything else.

• Roboticist

You're the invisible helping hand of the ship. 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 ship 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 explosives, 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.

Civilian 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...

• Deckhand

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

• Club Worker

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 in 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.

• 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

• Preacher

While technically a head of staff, the Preacher is the head of the Church first and foremost. The Preacher is the primary priest for the Children of Mekhane, with the ability to induct people into the ranks of the faithful, or convert people to the status of Acolyte, and much more. Given an armory to hand out to your acolytes during times of crisis. You're a leader and a preacher first. Operate the biogenerator, assist the ship in matters of the faith and matters of mental health (if they're willing), and maintain the presence of the Church aboard the Northern Light.

• Acolyte

Your job as a Acolyte is many. Followers of the Church are called disciples, but you are one of the chosen few who have chosen to dedicate themself to Mekhane entirely, and become an acolyte. 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 Preacher, 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 if they fall?