PVE:Roleplay Standards

Introduction

On the PvE servers, roleplaying is likely to play a larger part in the average round compared to ones partaken in by our PvP counterparts. As such, the standards for roleplay are a bit more stringent than our sister community.
The following standards help inform what your roleplay should look like in a standard round. Unless explicitly stated otherwise by a specific round’s Game Master, these standards offer a bare minimum standard you are expected to meet during an average round.

If you don’t know where to start with roleplaying, other SS13 servers have guides that can help you out (see for instance: Paradise Station’s Guide,) or you can ask questions on the CMPVE discord. Bear in mind, the roleplay standards are not here to daunt you from roleplaying, and we will always try to advise poor roleplay before punishing it. Enjoy it!

General RP standards

1. As long as the Game Master is explicit, they have final say over the roleplay standards in their rounds. No exceptions.


2. Attempt to maintain a basic level of literacy when speaking in-character. Proper punctuation and capitalization is also heavily encouraged.

3. Attempt to play as your character, not through your character, as much as possible. Interesting roleplay rarely comes from optimising gameplay.

Put yourself in the shoes of your character as best you can. Would your character do XYZ freely? Or would it require a significant contributing factor to spur them into doing such? A reasonable example scenario is attempting to surrender to hostile forces; would your marine surrender if caught alone? Would they fake their surrender, only to go down in a blaze of glory? Or would they refuse to surrender, being killed by the hostiles as a result? Another part of this is how you character feels at any given point, both emotionally & physically. Have they been wearing uncomfortable equipment for a long period of time? Is it chafing them to the point it draws out IC gripes/complaints? Are they hungry and in need of food? Things like this are worth thinking about during rounds to help add depth to your character & open avenues to interactions with others. An example of such would be; PFC John Marine slumps down into the chair, tugging the neckguard of their armor of with a sigh to rub at the red-raw skin beneath as they ask, "Hey, we breaking out the MREs yet?"

4. Attempt to keep your character engaged with other characters. One that avoids talking or interacting with others across the entire round is not the sort we really want here.

Be talkative! Even if ICly there are reasons for your character to not speak much with certain other members of their unit, that doesn't mean you should spend the downtime of the round completely silent. Engage in chatter with other players, build rapport with one another, it all serves to flesh out the characters and make them feel more than just two-dimensional caricatures. Engage with newer players! The first few rounds for someone new to PvE, and certainly SS13 as a whole, can be somewhat daunting. Help them acclimitise to what in-game interactions are like!

5. Attempt to avoid pain and unjustified injury or suicidal acts. Your character is expected to be sane and mentally well-rounded.

Don't willingly hurt yourself or commit suicide without good reasoning. A sane, well-rounded character would not engage in actions that are overly painful, or put themselves in harm's way without consideration. Examples include; willingly stepping into the line of fire of a hostile sniper when they don't absolutely need to, stabbing themselves repeatedly (slip-ups with self-removing shrapnel is one exception to this), or continuing to run at someone with nothing but a knife after being shot multiple times by them.

6. Attempt to avoid using character-breaking information (metaknowledge;) the same applies to competently using skills your character isn’t competent at.

Restrict yourself to your character's knowledge. You, as a player, might have the knowledge of how to perform complex surgeries, but your average rifleman likely doesn't. Don't explain ICly to someone who might, as a player, not know how to do organ repair surgery (as an example), but is in a role that may be expected to know such whilst you yourself are in a role that wouldn't know these things! Use LOOC to either tell them the steps, provide a link to the wiki page of surgeries, or suggest they ahelp for help from the GM. If your character does not know how to perform a job, don't go and do it yourself anyway! Instead, request the assistance of a character who does.

7. Always attempt to convey information a character wouldn’t say/doesn’t need to know through LOOC (for example, how to do something mechanically even if the character receiving the information is competent in universe.)

8. Unless explicitly permitted by the round’s Game Master, your character should be trying to perform their job to an acceptable standard. This is increasingly stricter the more important the job is (Unit medic, Unit senior NCO and Unit Commander are at the stricter end of job competency.)

Understandable or minor failures at doing so may result in IC consequences, but constant, repeated failures without sense or reason can result in jobbans (The military would probably not promote your character or pass them as certified for certain military occupations if they were completely unable to do their job). Note that you are not expected to be a role model member of the armed forces, but are asked to not use your role to grief and to also have an OOC understanding of what’s going on.

9. Inter-character relationships should be kept subtle, believable, and not disrupt the flow of a round in any significant manner.

Excessive fraternisation is frowned upon in most militaries, and (between the chain of command) often a punishable offence. The less regulated discipline of a patrol ship can allow for greater relationships than would be typically allowed in most militaries (see the relationship of Drake and Vasquez in Aliens,) but there is still a discipline that even a patrol ship would be expected to pretend to keep. Marriages amongst personnel in the same company or aboard the same ship are similarly not allowed.

Lore RP standards

10. Attempt to avoid referencing lore that directly contradicts the codebase or a specific round’s Game Master.

11. The events of previous round (unless stated by a GM) can be loosely recalled by your character in successive rounds. If the two contradict, the newer one should be canon (for example, if you’ve died previously but are alive now, you’re alive.)
One caveat to this is prior character knowledge of the xenomorph is wholly dependant on if the round is classed as a "first contact" operation or not. If so, then characters will have no prior knowledge regarding the xenomorphs.

12. As the Alien setting was originally realised through a 1979 mindset, attempt to avoid Slang, references, and real-life history past 1979.
The internet as we know it never developed in the Alien setting, so avoid using modern internet slang ICly. Things such as "lol", "skibidi", ":3" and similar should not be said ICly.

13. Attempt to reference lore by virtue of how highly ranked it is in this Alien canon source list. The only exceptions to this is homebrew PVE lore and the Technical Manual are ranked higher than newer written sources, like elements of the Alien TTRPG.)
Some examples of this are the PvE renditions of the Union of Progressive Peoples, or the TWE's Royal Marine Commandos forces, both of which differ a fair bit from how they're portrayed in the Alien TTRPG.

Command RP standards

You're at the top. The highest ranked of those aboard the ship. You were promoted/commissioned to this position because you've demonstrated adequate capabilities of leadership skills, either in your career or during OCS (depending on your role as unit SNCO or officer). Greater power comes with greater responsibilities and stricter expectations of IC conduct, however.

14. Attempt to play a character that could have reached that rank through adequate demonstration of command or leadership, theoretically or practically. Your character should not be solely incompetent, even Gorman had some qualities.

15. You should attempt to maintain some discipline under your command. You can punish cases of ill-discipline, but it should not be manifestly unfun or not interesting for the person being punished if it is prolonged.

Be tough, but fair. As a carreer marine senior NCO, or officer, the enlisted and junior NCOs should afford you a level of respect (to your face, at least). Those who don't, it's more than fair to have them perform menial punishment tasks such as push-ups or cleaning up of a room. Just don't go overboard with it, ultimately it's another player who is behind the controls of the character. There may be an element of consequences for their actions that they'll be grudgingly fine dealing with, but pushing them past that point will might make it just outright unenjoyable for them.

16. Though believable in universe, avoid collective punishment: only punish the character who has performed a punishable act.
Don't enforce needless punishment tasks on those who haven't earned them. Things like making the whole unit do mandatory PT, cleaning the entire ship, inventorying every little thing in the storage rooms, all of those largely draw back on the chances for the players to roleplay with one another before the 'main stage' of a round begins.