After a dchat where Norwest myself and a few others were talking, I thought it would be fun to write out a few ideas for "minor antagonists" that will serve the role of adding a bit more variety and innocent crime to the round, as well as give more players the opportunity to 'practice' being an antagonist.
What does minor antagonist mean?
A minor antagonist will be a player with relatively easy objectives compared to the major antagonists. A minor antagonist is also a set of roles that would not allow for the full-range of chaos that a traditional antagonist (Hereafter referred to as: "Major Antags") such as a traitor or cling would have, I;e you don't have a right to kill an officer arresting you for these crimes.
Minor antagonists will have no relation to the syndicate or other antagonist factions, but will instead be roles dedicated to the typical petty crimes you see in cities irl.
Minor antagonists will still be expected to fulfill their normal job's functions, unlike a traitor or cling that fucks off into oblivion the moment the round starts.
Their challenge will simply be to complete their objectives without having to serve a brig sentence.
These roles will cause minor levels of chaos (as will be discussed below) but will not be allowed to become a major hinderance to the round.
And most importantly, minor antagonists will not have goals that result in perma-brigging or execution.
Why would we need minor antagonists?
There are two major issues:
The first issue is whether less-robust players have an opportunity to have variety in their rounds, without the extreme anxiety and adrenaline that can come with that rare antagonist round.
The second issue is how we can provide an outlet for those "unga" urges a lot of players feel after a long string of shifts without a single antagonist role.
As for the first, it's frankly obvious that relatively new or just unskilled players get extremely frustrated with their antagonist rounds, simply due to the regular crowd being very, very skilled at stopping those antagonists. There is never an excuse for a new player to learn how to build a false wall, as an example. There is no reason for a new player to learn how to deconstruct things, or make dangerous narcotics/chemicals, or fashion a stunprod, and the list could be endless on that front.
Minor antagonists will provide a solution for this new/unskilled player by giving them an opportunity to commit relatively severe crimes (like breaking and entering, distribution, etc.) without fear of a bwoink or extreme security scrutiny of their actions. It gives them a safer-space to practice these necessary skills for major antagonist roles, while not depending on that rare 1/20 round where they get a major antagonist for that training.
As for the second issue, I think this is pretty obviously geared towards the antag-lovers out there. No matter how much you love the game, there are just some shifts where you want to break some shit, or rather, you just want some variety from a bit of clandestine crime in-between your regular duties. If there's an outlet valve for these urges, there is a significant chance that you will see less annoying greytiding, while also giving some significance to the greytiders.
What would a minor antagonist look like?
Simply put, a minor antagonist will have one or two petty-crime objectives. I think it would add a lot of flavor for them to have titles, as you'll see with my example ideas:
The Vandal - A variety of objectives could exist here, the minor-antagonist's role will effectively be to tag an important location, maybe even just several small locations, with an "illegal" symbol that normal spraycans won't be able to produce.
The Drunkard - Get drunk, beat the shit out of someone in the bar (probably the bartender for consistency), but don't kill them. Only greentext if you manage to knock them into crit.
The Identity Thief - Collect a certain number of UNSPECIFIC ID's that don't belong to you. (reminder, minor antagonists will not be allowed to use lethal force for their objectives.)
The Anti-Jani - Where janitors are graded on how clean the station is, this antagonist's greentext conditions will be linked to the cleaning score at the end of the shift. Their job will be to make as many messes as they can, without going full destructo mode.
And you can get the idea from there. Shitloads of potential minor antagonist roles that would add flavor to the round, especially for security which will finally have someone to arrest other than tots and vampires and greytiders. A side effect of this would likely be a much less stressed out sec department, actually getting to arrest people for minor crimes on extended rounds, as an example.
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As for the other questions, such as how many per round, how feasible this is, etc. will have to be answered by someone with more experience, but I hope this post is a good basis for this idea.
