Plasmamen Behaviour, Naming and Society.

[Stickymayhem]

So it seems no one is in agreement yet, and plasmamen need some kind of niche to fill making them different enough from existing races and not just a blank gameplay difference. Some loose established base to roleplay from almost always results in better roleplay so:

Naming: Most people seem to agree that a name combining an element, fictional or not, and roman numerals is the standard. I like that as something to stick to and considering the majority do so for lizards it'll hopefully continue like that.

Personality: I like the idea of plasmamen being steadfast, polite and unreasonably concerned about correct forms of address and hierarchy, human or otherwise.

Society and Behaviour: They are, in particular, very keen on appending honorifics to the end of most sentences, whether human like Sir, Ma'am, Officer, Captain and so on, or Plasene/Plasmene which can vary based on on their clan (e.g. whatever you want in that style); generally clusters of hard consonants like Krrck, Zrrn, Trst or whatever.

They are greatly concerned by hierarchy, making sure that someone is above, below or equal in rank, to varying degrees of pedantry depending on their personality and adoption of human customs. Interactions within and between clans have advanced titles and honorifics that would result in offense if misused, so they are terribly worried about upsetting their human bosses.

They tend to prefer to avoid violence and intervene with words instead. This is based on their pretty severe fragility and dislike of disrupting their status by fucking with someone of a higher rank, as well as being polite in general.



I guess the purpose of this angle, even if it seems boring, is to get the kind of people who might play plasmamen (people bored of the core game and looking for a more mechanically challenging role) to try it from another perspective. I've tried this a couple times now and it's surprisingly fun, which is weird because I'm one of the biggest shitlers who's ever been on the server. It's a new way to resolve conflicts and maybe if enough people try it and establish it as the norm plasmamen will be a really interesting race to interact with and play as.

As with anything else, these are just guidelines that can be ignored, justified by integration with humans and so on. It's just nice to have a base to work from.

I'd like to write up a wiki page about this with some lore sprinkled in to make sense of it. I have a decent idea of where I'd go with that but comments and suggestions from everyone else would make this a lot better than just me writing random shit alone.

TL;DR:

Plasmamen might need lore/basic traits

Name: Element + Roman Numeral
Basic Personality: Polite, Steadfast, avoids physical confrontation and offending people
Society: Come from clans. Varying amount of integration with humans
Help me with ideas I might write a wiki page.

[oranges]

Carbon Dioxide VIII

[Shadowlight213]

If we are going to have lore and traits we should make plasmamen whitelisted tbh.

[Luke Cox]

Naming is pretty universally agreed upon, it's word + roman numeral. Elements are popular but I have seen a few exceptions (mine is Times XII, as in the font). As far as their place in spess society, I imagine them being feared and seen as untrustworthy more than outright looked down upon like lizards are, with the fire and all. The nonviolent approach to things you suggested makes sense. Unless you have a reliable stun, you are not going to robust somebody as a Plasmaman.

If we are going to have lore and traits we should make plasmamen whitelisted tbh.

Sticky is going a tad overboard here. Aside from the naming convention I don't think any of this stuff is going to be admin-enforced.

[Stickymayhem]

I wouldn't intend to whitelist or admin enforce this stuff. It would literally just be for a wiki page and convention.

People tend to stick to the basic conventions anyway. With some established base you can still subvert it to make an interesting character.

[oranges]

If we are going to have lore and traits we should make plasmamen whitelisted tbh.

[Stickymayhem]

If we are going to have lore and traits we should make plasmamen whitelisted tbh.

[img]https://file.house/3-Ei.png
[/img]

try again m8

[Aloraydrel]

If we are going to have lore and traits we should make plasmamen whitelisted tbh.

Whats wrong with wojak?

[Saegrimr]

Already claimed Zyklon B as the edgy plasmameme name sorry guys

[Stickymayhem]

I'm bored I'm just going to write the wiki page.

[Stickymayhem]

https://tgstation13.org/wiki/Plasmaman

[Shaps-cloud]

I thought plasmamen were humans who were crisped in raging plasma fires but somehow regained sentience and comprehension due magical properties of plasma?

[Stickymayhem]

I thought plasmamen were humans who were crisped in raging plasma fires but somehow regained sentience and comprehension due magical properties of plasma?

Nah we scrapped that it was shit and didn't make sense.

They are plasma aliens from these plasma rich area of space nanotrasen is researching.

[ColonicAcid]

?????????


the burning plasma revenant thing makes more sense than literal sentient pieces of plasma. i mean just because the great salt lake has a large amount of salt does not mean that the creatures who live there begun developing into salt creatures.

cmon

[Stickymayhem]

?????????


the burning plasma revenant thing makes more sense than literal sentient pieces of plasma. i mean just because the great salt lake has a large amount of salt does not mean that the creatures who live there begun developing into salt creatures.

cmon

That's not my part of the lore that was the established thing already m8.

I added most of the roleplay section and some other fixes.

I can probably think of something better, but to be fair humans are surrounded by everything carbon so we're mostly carbon, just like plasmamen are surrounded by plasma and mostly made of plasma.

Plasma is a sci-fi "Do what ever we want" material and it's weird which is presumably why nanotrasen is researching it. It can do this shit if we want.

[ColonicAcid]

It's not the same thing. Plasma is a molecule. Carbon is an element that is particularly useful as it's got four areas of electron density to allow bonding, in particular it allows both chains and side groups to them. Silicon can do the same thing but for some reason or another the goop that made life was carbon based and not silicon based.

i mean i could argue this all day i just wanted to say that plasma men being just sentient pieces of plasma is dumb

dont even add a backstory to plasma men they're just "there" nobody knows why. they're like that one guy in a party that nobody invited, is friends with nobody but everyone just tolerates them. let it be a mystery for players to wonder about i dunno.

[Atlanta-Ned]

Looks great Sticky. I wish we had something like this to give some more depth to fly and lizard people too.

[Super Aggro Crag]

I don't like roman numerals so my guy is named Krypton Thirtysix.

[Stickymayhem]

I'M NOT GETTING OBSESSED WITH PLASMAMEN I PROMISE

reeeeeeeeeeeee

[Stickymayhem]

I don't like roman numerals so my guy is named Krypton Thirtysix.

Yeah that's cool too.

[Saegrimr]

>.jpg

[PKPenguin321]

I'M NOT GETTING OBSESSED WITH PLASMAMEN I PROMISE

[[JPEG ARTIFACTS]]

it's a good art but you need to fix this

[Steelpoint]

The jpg is real.

[ThanatosRa]

Honestly, being incredibly hazardous should be the reason plasmamen are whitelisted.


However, I may just play one as a suicidally depressed clown.

[Stickymayhem]

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND IMAGE COMPRESSION I'M SORRY I FIXED A TYPO HERE TOO

[Sweaterkittens]

Holy cow Sticky, you're really taking to my Plasmamen.

Also
> Writing your own lore without acknowledging the lore that I established when I designed them for /tg/
> Not putting in that Effigens was their already established formal name
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE


But in all honesty we're on the same page on pretty much every point. They're not ex-humans, they're plasma constructs, and the skeletal likeness is purely because both humans and Plasmamen are humanoids. I always thought that the ex-human backstory was a little silly, and on their gas giant home planet they would obviously be living and surviving without suits and internals - those are only a requirement in a human-supporting atmos.

For reference: https://tgstation13.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4828

I'm glad people are enjoying them. I think they're a super fun, interesting race.

EDIT: Holy shit that infographic is awesome.

EDIT EDIT: Don't forget Gasbags as a racial slur. Also I can't believe you put Plasmemes as a racial slur Sticky pls.

[Stickymayhem]

Holy cow Sticky, you're really taking to my Plasmamen.

Also
> Writing your own lore without acknowledging the lore that I established when I designed them for /tg/
> Not putting in that Effigens was their already established formal name
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE


But in all honesty we're on the same page on pretty much every point. They're not ex-humans, they're plasma constructs, and the skeletal likeness is purely because both humans and Plasmamen are humanoids. I always thought that the ex-human backstory was a little silly, and on their gas giant home planet they would obviously be living and surviving without suits and internals - those are only a requirement in a human-supporting atmos.

For reference: https://tgstation13.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4828

I'm glad people are enjoying them. I think they're a super fun, interesting race.

EDIT: Holy shit that infographic is awesome.

Sorry man I asked around and no one mentioned anything about lore so I just went for it while I was drunk last night. You can edit the wiki page if you want. The only lore I was aware of is on the wiki page for them and I left that untouched, only adding to it.

Plasmemes as a racial slur was there already. You can see what I added by looking at the edit history on the wiki. I didn't want to step on anyone's toes by editing existing stuff that I assumed you had put there.

[Sweaterkittens]

Oh no it's all good! Like I said, I'm just really glad that people are enjoying Plasmamen and getting into the spirit of things. They're such a cool race, and I was really hoping that people would take to them, but I never expected anything as awesome as this. I'm just giving you a hard time my man, no worries.

[Stickymayhem]

Nah mate I added your lore to the top of the wiki. Want me to change their 'latin' name from Ossius Pyrus to something involving the Effigin thing? Effigius Pyrus or something?

[DemonFiren]

Wait, we fake Latin now?

The latinist within me writhes.

[Munchlax]

I dislike the basic personality bit, they should have the option of a wide range of personalities just like humans and lizards have imo

[Stickymayhem]

I dislike the basic personality bit, they should have the option of a wide range of personalities just like humans and lizards have imo

Then it's just another skin change with minor handicaps. I think behaving slightly differently is the most interesting part of races and encourages the good non forced kind of rp.

[DemonFiren]

>non-forced rp
>forced personality

Sticky, please.

[Stickymayhem]

>non-forced rp
>forced personality

Sticky, please.

>Forced anything

Why can't you nerds accept that something can be in the game without being strictly enforced

Don't be deliberately autistic

[DemonFiren]

Well, if it's not enforced than not too many people are gonna give a shit unless it happens on its own, see: lizardmemes.

[ThanatosRa]

But but suicidally depressed clown plasmeme that the crowd has to laugh at awkwardly to keep him from taking off his helmet and burning down the bar.

[Sweaterkittens]

Nah mate I added your lore to the top of the wiki. Want me to change their 'latin' name from Ossius Pyrus to something involving the Effigin thing? Effigius Pyrus or something?

Oh, thanks man! And I like Ossius Pyrus, that gave me a good chuckle.

>non-forced rp
>forced personality

Sticky, please.

>Forced anything

Why can't you nerds accept that something can be in the game without being strictly enforced

Don't be deliberately autistic

I'm with Sticky here. People are going to play however they want, sure, but we can set up a basis for people to work from so people who /want/ to roleplay /can/. That way half the people aren't saying that plasmamen are a warlike race of former humans, and the other half are saying that they're the first race in the universe, and the third half are saying that plasmamen are a peace-oriented alien race. Three halves, that's how disorganized it gets.

[Incomptinence]

Rather than try and dictate personality directly I suggest just a basic cultural description of their nation. That way all the inevitable inconsistent plasmowflakes can pretend they are sticking it to The PlasMan.

[Sweaterkittens]

Rather than try and dictate personality directly I suggest just a basic cultural description of their nation. That way all the inevitable inconsistent plasmowflakes can pretend they are sticking it to The PlasMan.

I think you're overthinking it. He's describing the "typical" or average Plasmaman. In the same vein, I would say that most humans have good intentions. I'd say that most humans are just looking for happiness and a sense of purpose. That's not to say that there aren't plenty of humans with ill-intent. There's plenty of humans that are completely fine with being apathetic and never achieving anything. There are always going to be outliers, Sticky and I were just creating a general guideline as to what your average Plasmaman would act like given their culture. So even if there's someone who wants to heavy role-play and prefers something different, they can do that too.

[Jacough]

gender indentification information

Easy, just look at their pelvic bone.

Spoiler:

[Munchlax]

Rather than try and dictate personality directly I suggest just a basic cultural description of their nation. That way all the inevitable inconsistent plasmowflakes can pretend they are sticking it to The PlasMan.

I think you're overthinking it. He's describing the "typical" or average Plasmaman. In the same vein, I would say that most humans have good intentions. I'd say that most humans are just looking for happiness and a sense of purpose. That's not to say that there aren't plenty of humans with ill-intent. There's plenty of humans that are completely fine with being apathetic and never achieving anything. There are always going to be outliers, Sticky and I were just creating a general guideline as to what your average Plasmaman would act like given their culture. So even if there's someone who wants to heavy role-play and prefers something different, they can do that too.

>having your own quotes in your sig

[Beegix]

I'm surprised they don't have some sort of verbal tic like lizards and flys do. Maybe they could draw out their vowels like lizards do with the letter s? They seem slow and ponderous to me.

[Cheimon]

gender indentification information

Easy, just look at their pelvic bone.

Spoiler:

Without needing to get them naked (and really, who wants that?) you can look at the skull. The academic term for this is "sexual dimorphism" and in humans there are some quite helpful differences between male and female skulls. The easiest of these to spot is that in male skulls, the brow ridge tends to be bigger. Now, in humans it helps to know which ethnic group a person is from, because some ethnic groups have bigger brow ridges and some have smaller ones. Hotheads are clearly their own ethnic group, so you need to get a lot of samples (ideally use a 3D scanner) from known male/female skulls, and then use that as a basis for spot judgements on unidentified ones. Get a feel for the average brow ridge size, and then when you meet a strange plasaman, you can see if it's bigger than usual (male) or smaller than usual (female). Probably, at least, there's about a 75-90% chance of getting it right depending on how much they vary.

http://www.academia.edu/1905273/Sexual_ ... s_approach

[Super Aggro Crag]

You can tell who is a male plasmaman by checking if they have a boner.

[Remie Richards]

-snippity snoppity-

Afraid that won't work, Plasmamen have no sexual dimorphism (When I ported them I set "sexes" to 0 due to VG only having one set of sprites (besides the "skin" variant)) there's no difference in male or female sprites for a plasmaman, besides any errors in their "births" or any damage they've incurred, they're a largely homogeneous species and each individual, regardless of sex, would look extremely similar.
(I imagine the only way they tell individuals apart is markings on their bones or something like that)

[Cheimon]

-snippity snoppity-

Afraid that won't work, Plasmamen have no sexual dimorphism (When I ported them I set "sexes" to 0 due to VG only having one set of sprites (besides the "skin" variant)) there's no difference in male or female sprites for a plasmaman, besides any errors in their "births" or any damage they've incurred, they're a largely homogeneous species and each individual, regardless of sex, would look extremely similar.
(I imagine the only way they tell individuals apart is markings on their bones or something like that)

Ah well. I knew I was guessing based on human bones.

If there's no sexual dimorphism, though, is there such a thing as male and female? Shouldn't they all be 'it' in the game? Do they even breed like mammals? Are they born or built?

[Remie Richards]

-snippity snoppity-

Afraid that won't work, Plasmamen have no sexual dimorphism (When I ported them I set "sexes" to 0 due to VG only having one set of sprites (besides the "skin" variant)) there's no difference in male or female sprites for a plasmaman, besides any errors in their "births" or any damage they've incurred, they're a largely homogeneous species and each individual, regardless of sex, would look extremely similar.
(I imagine the only way they tell individuals apart is markings on their bones or something like that)

Ah well. I knew I was guessing based on human bones.

If there's no sexual dimorphism, though, is there such a thing as male and female? Shouldn't they all be 'it' in the game? Do they even breed like mammals? Are they born or built?

a burny skeleton can identify as whatever they wish, if you disagree they can just set you on fire.
Besides self-idenfication/brain gender or some elaborate "not displayed in the sprites" sexual dimorphism I'm not sure how to cover it either, especially since the first two are a bit too tumblr-y for most people.

[PKPenguin321]

my proposed plasma man lore

1. plasmamen are giant fucking nerds
2. they cant win fights because they combust and drop their spaghetti in tense situations
3. they like plasma research because they're plasma so they are extra engaged with science stuff (nerds)
4. they literally do not have gender and shit htey're skeletons what the fuck
5. they dont feel complex emotions (they're not speshul snowflakes)
6. they dont like humans because they know that humans have bigger dicks

[DemonFiren]

But if they don't have a biological sex, why the fuck do they care about human dicks?

CHECKMATE, ATHEISTS

[Screemonster]

If I wasn't at work there's an oglaf I'd be looking up on this very topic.

edit: turns out I posted it in another thread so here you go