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The things we see while observing:

This is a guide to how to, and how NOT to, roleplay on Paradise. This guide is NOT official server policy. Parts of it (like the definition of A tier) are purely my opinion. Parts of it (examples in F tier) are drawn from admin experience. Parts of it (like the examples in A tier) are mostly suggestions from other members of staff. F Tier: Banhammer-Worthy "RP" Covers stuff you're explicitly forbidden from doing by server rules, especially attempts to use "RP" as a justification for breaking server rules. Example 1: murdering as a non-antagonist, then claiming your character is "insane". ERP of any kind also counts. Example 2: choosing character quirks which are utterly incompatible with your game role, e.g. a deaf Captain, pacifist HoS, suicidal department head, doctor who likes to butcher their patients, a civilian who acts as if they're a caveman from pre-history, etc. If an admin messages you to ask why you did something, and your reply is that your character has some trait that means NT would probably never be willing to hire them, then that's probably F-tier. E Tier: Epic Fail "RP" Covers stuff that, while it isn't instant ban territory, is still considered objectively bad from an OOC point of view, and may get you in trouble with admins if you keep doing it. Example 1: job abandonment - IE signing up to play a job then not doing anything job related the whole shift. You can always resign from a job, or get a job transfer, at the HoP. Keeping the job, but failing to do any of it, hurts the other players who depend on that job, and prevents anyone else who wants that job from taking it. This includes taking a job, then simply standing in front of the bridge for the whole shift. It also includes disappearing into maintenance to make your own personal maint fort (unless you are a civilian). Example 2: giving your meta-friend a job as "bridge assistant" when you're the Captain, even though there's no IC reason for you to do this. Example 3: completely inappropriate use of flavor text, e.g: including things like "used to be a shaft miner on Luna", which is not permitted, as flavor text is reserved for how your character LOOKS. You can't include things people can't see from looking at them. Example 4: incredibly snowflakey characters, like 23-year-olds who claim to be a decorated former ERT sergeant, a rich socialite whose father is on the NT board of directors, a civilian who claims to come from a long line of SWF wizards, etc. Essentially, people who would never be allowed to work on the Cyberiad in the first place, because if their backstory is true, they'd be too important to risk on a deathtrap like the Cyberiad. D Tier: Annoying "RP" Covers stuff that is widely regarded as poor quality RP, and annoying, but won't get you in OOC trouble with the admins. Example 1: Non-command characters that only speak one language (other than galactic common), and therefore cannot talk with the rest of the crew. Example 2: Actions/speech that is utterly implausible to the point it breaks immersion of everyone who witnesses it, e.g. you asking to have surgery without anesthetic. Example 3: Characters with names inappropriate for their species, e.g. "Dave" with no last name as human, or a human-like name as Vox. Example 4: Any use of suicide or self-harm without an incredibly good reason. "I'm about to get captured by a xeno and facehugged" is a good reason. "I got a 60 minute brig sentence" is NOT. Suiciding over a 5-minute brig sentence is just insane, and terrible. Example 5: Acting as if your character knows things they couldn't possibly know. E.g. searching maint at roundstart for antags before you have any reason to think there are antags. Example 6: Taking on opponents you could never hope to defeat, or otherwise acting with no sense of self-preservation or fear, e.g. running into maint unarmed to attack shadowlings. Example 7: Willingly giving a vampire blood. They're a blood sucking bluespace parasite. Knowing their character OOCly is even less reason. ICly, it is not your character's friend who is asking - it is the parasite who now inhabits their body. ICly, you should recoil in horror, not act like it is still your friend asking. Example 8: Acting like you're playing a team deathmatch game where your goal is to kill the other side, rather than a job simulator where your goal is to do your job and survive. Example 9: Disproportionate retribution: spending your entire round trying to get revenge on someone for doing something that only minorly inconvenienced you. E.g. harassing sec all shift over a 5 minute brig sentence. Example 10: Using IC racism as a member of command in a way that undermines your ability to play your job role. E.g. a Captain who hates IPCs and won't talk to them - when they have IPC CE and CMO. Their IC racism undermines their ability to be effective at their command job, which is a large part of their game role, which makes IC racism in this context D-tier. Example 11: characters that make our playerbase cringe. Examples include characters with cringey anime references/language, half-breed interspecies hybrids, female characters with accentuated "sexy" traits such as large breasts, characters whose flavor text makes a point about how beautiful they are, slimepeople wearing clip-on cat ears, etc. Example 12: Use of vox-speak as a non-vox. C Tier: Bland RP Covers stuff regarded as bland and unexceptional. Example 1: Doing your job but without really interacting with anyone. Example 2: Doing what you do without any deeper sense of why beyond "that might be fun". No character definition or depth. Example 3: Doing the basics of what your species is expected to do (e.g: occasionally say "yaya" as a vox) without any understanding of the whys and hows of that convention. Example 4: Acting as a competent crew member - but without your character having any flavor text, employment records, character backstory, etc. B Tier: Good RP Covers stuff that really does add to the RP atmosphere of the server, and makes your character feel more fleshed out. Example 1: using species traits to make you seem more like that species, e.g. as a vox, making a point of hiding in lockers and otherwise displaying knowledge of, and willingness to use, their skittishness. Example 2: pulling species lore into your chit-chat, e.g: as a vox, talking about life on the arkship before you were exiled, or as a unathi, referring to other unathi by their last name. Example 3: using job history, e.g. a CE tutoring a new engineer by explaining what they learned "Back on the old NSS Legoslov, before it was decommissioned". Example 4: persistent character traits that always apply for a certain character, e.g: favorite food, favorite color, and that influence their actions in small ways that give them some personality. These can be tied to knowledge that character has, e.g. favorite drink at the bar, or past experience, e.g. weaknesses/fears. Example 5: ability to make friends with your co-workers without causing conflicts. Example 6: doing things that disadvantage your character for the sake of RP, without breaking role in any other way, e.g. as a civilian, not fighting back because you're a pacifist, even if it leads to your death. Note: as a sec officer, the exact same behavior would be considered breaking role, and D-tier, since sec are expected to fight. As a civilian, though, being a pacifist is a way to add meaningful flavor without breaking role, and thus B-tier. Example 7: claiming to not know things ICly because your role logically wouldn't. E.g. as a doctor, claiming to not know how to hack an airlock because even though you OOCly as a player do know, your character as a doctor doesn't have engineering experience. Note: you can only qualify for this if it is logical your character in their current job would not know. Pretending not to know how to hack an airlock as an actual engineer is D or E tier. A Tier: Inspiring RP Covers stuff that helps build an interesting and flavorful RP situation for much of the playerbase, without being implausible, over-the-top, breaking the rules, or causing other elements of the server's RP to suffer. This is specifically for things that have widespread impact on the round. No matter how good your RP is, if it only affects you and a few people you interact with directly, it is, at best, B tier. A tier is reserved for stuff with large, positive impact on the RP of the whole round. Getting to this tier is HARD. It requires serious thought and effort. Even the best RPers won't make it to A-tier most shifts. B-tier is what you should be aiming for if you want to be "good" at RP. A-tier is for those legendary rounds you and others remember for a long time. Example 1: As Captain, playing a former pirate captain who was hired by NT due to crew shortages. Explains unconventional uniform, allows for creative RP in chat, and provides plenty of scope for admins to launch pirate-themed events, without undermining the Captain's ability to do their job. Easy for other players to build off of, e.g. by starting to use nautical terms around the station. Example 2: As IPC, having downloaded memories from another person/character, thus causing tension between your natural inclinations and those of the implanted memories, leading to a situation where the crew as a whole start to question whether all IPCs have implanted memories, IPCs demanding "memory integrity", etc. The key thing is the positive impact it has on the round as a whole, making the crew question whether they really understand how IPC minds work, and making them think about the species more deeply than they would normally. If your RP only affects you and the people you directly interact with, it is not A-tier. Example 3: As Bartender, having a combination of medical training and a desire to experiment with flavors, that lead you to opening a bar that serves only non-alcoholic drinks - but the most exotic and interesting non-alcoholic drinks imaginable. Has huge scope for creating interesting situations, whether that is patrons demanding alcohol, or just enjoying trying drinks they never did before. Gives you the ability to roam the station interacting with all sorts of crew, acquiring exotic drink ingredients, sharing your story, spreading the legend of the "flavor bar", etc. Example 4: As AI, during a round where changelings are killing crew in maint, acting like the changelings are a biohazard. Theming your announcements, including text, voice, and radio, towards "biohazard containment" of the hostile changelings, thus inspiring a climate of (appropriate) IC fear in the crew, and shifting the atmosphere of the whole station towards distrust, paranoia, worry, etc. You're still on the crew's side, and visibly so, but you're setting atmosphere for the whole station in a way that drives the roleplay of the shift. Example 5: As Chaplain, hold a well-attended wedding event with lots of roleplay, interaction, possibly a dance afterwards, etc. Alternatively, actually preach a religion to the same standard that a real-life chaplain would - IE no joke religions, make a really serious effort, hold services, don't do sacrifices, don't rely on prayers, etc. Example 6: As Chef, make enough incredible food to serve a full three-course meal to ten people. Make it a first-come, first-served event with a waiter. Limit attendees to make it exclusive, inspire jealously in those not able to come, recruit the journalist to serve as a food critic and do a writeup for the newscaster, etc. Example 7: As Engineer, create a unique and interesting structure, with a story around it, that people want to spend time in. E.g: a temple that rivals the Chaplain or offers praise to Lord Singuloth, or a space observatory where people can appreciate the stars with a great view. Example 8: As Scientist, conduct an extensive series of scientific tests in the pursuit of knowledge, and publish the results in the newscaster. Example 9: As Atmos Tech, constructing an elaborate disposals-based roller-coaster throughout the entire station, promoting it, and then maybe even charging admission. Example 10: As HoP, require that anyone requesting a job transfer prove that they can actually do the job they're asking for a transfer to. E.g. give them a test which requires them to prove knowledge of the job. E.g. if someone asks for a transfer to Bartender, ask them to name their three most popular drinks, the recipes for them and why they're popular. Example 11: As IAA, keep a record of every person brigged during a shift, as well as the evidence/proof that got them sentenced. Near the end of the shift, have the Captain publish your results to the whole crew, praising or judging security based on how well they ensured that they brigged people correctly and had solid legal evidence for every person they sentenced. Example 12: As Librarian, become an investigative reporter, alerting the crew to people (especially Command) acting in corrupt fashion, and ultimately ensuring proper oversight is done of people in vital roles, even if NTR/IAA are asleep at the switch. Example 13: The storyteller: hang around in a public area, throughout the shift telling fascinating stories of your prior work on other stations/ships/etc in a way that adds depth and realism to the game world. Example 14: As a Kidan, start a public pressure campaign to have humanity acknowledge the harm done to the Kidans in the war, and pay reparations. Get your petition signed/stamped by all heads of department and the Captain, then transmitted to CentCom. Example 15: As a sentient animal, roleplay ignorance of human/crew conventions, and constantly ask questions of the crew around you to learn things your character doesn't know. Don't give up, even when many ignore you. Example 16: As barber, get an announcement made that a certain style of haircut is now all the rage on Sol, and form a team of volunteers with that haircut. Attempt to get a special lounge / exclusive club constructed for them. Recruit some taj/vulp who, although they cannot enter because they can't have that haircut, can be dyed and act as bouncers.

The way I see it, the BS needs to make a choice about who he wants to implant, having more alarms would of course be nice for the blueshield but it would make touching command substantially harder for anyone with a kill objective

dont they have one in their closet?

Foreword: This is by no means a success story. This is bittersweet at best and full of my usual bad luck. When you see what character I was playing in the story, some of the veteran players who know the character may understand why this might have been so unlucky. THIS IS A LONG STORY BUCKLE UP! Round start and I, Lich, am a Psychiatrist, alright but not great. This immediately became a lot more dynamic when I heard that strange conversion music, I was a changeling! My objectives weren't fantastic but they were potentially doable.. Or so I thought. Eight genomes, hand tele, kill the CMO, wear his ID and disguise as I get on the shuttle, alright let's do this. First step is first, Lich has a rather distinctive name and a few people know who he is, therefore it's best to spend as little time is him as possible I rush off to chapel maints and take my abilities: chamelon, arm blade, tentacle, mute sting, flesh mend. I came ready to fight knowing how my luck usually is so might as well go down swinging! I make my way there and chamelon in the old bar, waiting for my first prey. I didn't have to wait long before a random assistant found their way within my clutches. One tentacle lash and an a notice from the ESRB about our rating going up, I got them and ALMOST have them in a chokehol- "HELP BAR MAINT". Okay, I attacked a fucking stenographer apparently but that was a random maint call who would possible show up? I drag them to the left most wall in the abandoned NE bar and wait. On the otherside of the broken door I hear it slide open as I am nearly done choking this defiant assistant, mid proboscis production, standing there is a vox security officer starting me dead in the face with this assistant being choked out at my feet. Well shit, I let go and book it! I can chameleon so i use that to my advantage and it worked, the sec doesn't even come looking for me and they both escape. Minutes later I hear the alarms go off and the other changelings are yelling at me until they hear the announcement for... Vampires?... Okay, let's go with that. I decided then it would be best to press my already thin luck and lay in wait, chameleon in the middle of the old bar. Enter the mime. He was looking about, not really seeming to care that there was a call out earlier from this area so I try and make this quick. I grab them, managed to get them down, husk, assume the identity, ditch my stuff and steal theirs. I ended up locking them in their own mime cabinet, realizing that no one really messes with that or would search it. My stuff? Lich is reported as dead. Good enough and usually accurate anyway. So I am sitting with 3 genomes now and feeling a bit bad. I decided to play the role of a mime for a bit, randomly messing with people with some good roleplay to include giving Slith the ULTIMATE BOOP. All the while, I am silently stealing everyone's genomes around me until I am stuffed fool at 7. Thankfully, the last person I stuck was a very light colored slime so I passed as being human, no one noticed the difference as the human mime switched to a slime mime for a bit. One more sting and I was done. This is going well! I decided to check in on my target, the CMO. While I had been going about RPing earlier I noticed that he had been pretty damn insistent having 1-2 friends around at all time and was rarely out of medbay. Oh well, I will try again later I thought. So I go trolling around maint for a bit as I contemplate my next move when I get wind that they might be unto me via changeling chat. Someone apparently was calling the mime out for suspicious behavior! Personally I thought it came with the territory of dressing up like a mute bank-robber but not everyone shares my vision. Regardless, I needed a fall back disguise. I bumble about chapel maint and find the chef working on a few glass walls! I approached, got out my tentacle... And I will leave it at that. At the end she was husked, let your mind fill in the blanks. Now, like my first target they managed to get out a "Help maint!" but weren't specific. I thought I would be okay until someone pointed out that it's the chef so likely the area of bar / chapel maint... Fuck. I dragged them off into old bar (I am really familiar with that place now), and deposited them there while I worked out a means of hiding the body. I didn't have time to switch out and I knew that the ID would be hot anyway. So, like a punk, I fled after killing a random chef (sorry!). I hear that security has responded to the area and like so many noire movies, the criminal returned to the scene of the crime. There was the chaplain and two sec, looking for vampires. They quickly arrested me for showing up and after shoving holy water down my gullet, realized I wasn't a vampire (to their credit they're correct at least about that.) Then entered Ash, the Vulp(?), who seemed to know what was up a bit more then everyone else. She pointed out that indeed, vampires don't husk people. The chaplain, however, retorted that "Alright, smart ass. You tell me what it is then?" Before promptly defending that this was indeed proof of a vampire and that efforts to find them needed to be doubled... Alright then. To my dismay, I find out a bit later that not ONLY did medical revive them, another changeling who was IN medical working there HELPED THEM. So now they know that the mime is the vampire(?) and they're hot on my trail. I needed to ditch this disguise and FAST! Unfortunately, I was stuck once again in chapel maint due to how many people were milling in the dorms and hallways. Thus, I sat and waited in the darkness as an invisible shadow ready to pounce. I waited and a female slime surgeon came in, looking around for a bit. I threw my tentacle and started to take them down, once again they managed to get off a word or two before I could actually mute sting them and choke them to silence. Once again, someone came to their rescue. I am standing invisible over this downed person who is still SOMEHOW speaking and calling for help. The chaplain shows up, weapon in hand and ready to help! The Slime person called out that I was invisible and over them, prompting the chaplain to attack, trying to disarm me! I returned with my arm blade (forgot I grabbed that, didn't you?) and aimed for the chest. Thanks to many budget cuts in IPC design, my armblade cut through the tissue paper chassis of the chaplain and dropped him but not before the slime managed to escape with their corpse. Dammit, oh well. I hid out a bit longer at that spot, knowing that I was going to be swarmed and thus far I was doing a GREAT job at hiding. Enter the Pod pilot. This time I was successful, grab, sting, choke, absorb, replace, done. With that, I went from the old bar to security, seeing what more I could glean while listening to their comms. I heard that they REALLY wanted to find that Mime, thankfully I wasn't them anymore yet they were huddled down into sec for a bit while they mobilized to hunt the vampire mime with impunity! Once they were gone I rushed in and stole the pod, going into space while laying low. To my dismay, the AI called me out for not having a mindshield despite the brief time I was visible! "Do pod pilots have mindshields?" Asked the AI. "Yeah." The HOS responded. "Well the Pod Pilot is missing theirs, might be the changeling." The AI reported. "Clever clever.." I said. Then, I mustered every bit of linguistic skill I could to silver tongue my way out of this situation. That's right.. I called them a nerd. "However, incorrect nerd!" I retorted triumphantly! "I have a mindshield." I lied. To my disbelief the AI believed me! Even apologized! I might have shit luck but I can talk my way in and out of most situations at least! However, let's see how far I could get for now. So for a bit, I enjoyed playing as the pod pilot, buzzing around space and harassing the Mechanic like a traffic cop. My joyride ended after a bit, letting sec search for a mime that didn't exist. I parked the pod, locked the doors, stole the keys and went back to Sec maint. While there I found a unsuspecting janitor. Thankfully, they were to bewildered by the giant tentacle that sprouted from the pod pilot to question much else. Unfortunately for me, however, someone walked in. A grey who looked like they were on vacation with a Hawaiian shirt and straw hat on. I channeled my inner rent-a-cop and randomly stunbatoned the janitor and began arresting them, ordering the grey to move along and so they did. I dragged them off, did my thing, now I am an elderly male human janitor! By this point, I switch out the sec key in the headset on the new service one I picked up, leaving the sec one behind with a service key in it so no one suspected that I really had what I wanted from it. During this time while I was spying on the still very much surrounded CMO I was listening to how Sec apparently hunted down, tazed, force fed holy water, executed, and failed to revive Ash from earlier. I wasn't sure how all that went down but the HOS was being fired over it, one less thing to worry about I guess? Go vampire hunts! I eventually said fuck it, the CMO was camping so hard in medbay with their friends that they might as well have been cooking smoores. I didn't feel like sticking around for them to start singing Kumbaya. I went off to do that other objective I had, stealing a hand-tele. I realized that whipping out my armblade in the middle of the hallway with my luck was probably the worse idea possible, so i got creative. I changed up my abilities a bit and grabbed monkey form, went into the janitor's closet, went monkey, grabbed the tele, and went wherever it took me. I ended up in atmos, no one around and no one saw me so who cares? I hid it in the atmos clothing locker next to the pipe dispenser and went back through the vents to my stuff. After becoming human once more and grabbing my stuff, I was off to collect my well-earned Hand-tele. Get to atmos, start to break the doors open from maint with armblade. ALMOST get in when the SAME SECURITY VOX FROM EARLIER SHOWS UP! I rush into atmos, grab my hand tele and chameleon. Of course, he comes in, looks around and opens my locker waiting to find me. I could hear my heart beating in my ears as I watched him but thankfully he didn't decide to taze that spot anyway. He then did the unthinkable, he walked into me and THANKFULLY I WAS ON HELP INTENT! We both switched places without anything seeming to happen and I remained invisible. They left while being absolutely confused, not even setting me to wanted despite seeing my name. Off I went. Back to the CMO. He moved a whopping two feet which was an accomplishment for them but still surrounded in medbay where they had a medical hardsuit, a teleshield, and several of their friends on standby. This wasn't going to be easy. I collaborated with the other changelings still remaining and we came up with a plan, the coroner (remember him? the changeling that outed the mime?) would draw the CMO into the morgue and we'd jump him. Easy right? Nope. Instead, this guy decided to just sting the CMO with neigh everything. We're watching this CMO go up in flames, blind, everything. This, of course, hinders us even more because now they're being medically tended to. I decided to pass the time with my sec hud while I waited, setting random people to arrest for random things to keep sec busy while we figured this out. Sadly, the shift time ran out. We were unable to get the CMO who got escorted by several people to the shuttle within a large group while they held their shield and had their suit on... Lame. Oh well, made for an okay story.