Friendly Antags AKA The Embodiment of Vile Evil
Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 11:56 am
I saw a wizard bar RPing and taking part in a costume contest on Manuel the other day.
What possesses people to play friendly wizards? Is it a desire to make the world an infinitely worse place? A rare opportunity that few players get to enjoy, one of the few antagonists on Manuel where you can actually, properly antagonize, with a wide array of remarkable spells and tools at your disposal, and you decide to roleplay in the bar and stand in a line for the costume contest. If only there were a way to peek within the twisted, abyssal mind of a friendly antag player - but I fear that those without sufficient psychological fortitude would have their own psyches torn asunder by the malignant chaos contained within.
Now, this is not to say that there are not exceptions to this rule; Deadpop is best, after all, when there isn't an antagonist murderboning the 7 (3 of which are SSD) crewmembers, but there are people in this world, on this forum, playing on Traditional Games Station 13™ that encounter the coveted wizard roll and immediately think to themselves, "Hmm, today I will engage in bar RP".
Of course, many will claim that my mistake was playing on Manuel - and I suppose, in a way, this is true. A friendly wizard RPing in the bar is, in a way, a condensed version of the worst aspects of Manuel that people (often ironically) complain about, and in my years of playing Space Station 13, it isn't as if I haven't seen such abominable atrocities before. I suppose it was a sobering reality check.
Contrary to popular belief, I do not loathe roleplay as a concept. I do not loathe character interactions beyond making spacemen go horizontal or spam-clicking while mashing your clap key. I can understand somebody taking another antagonist role, such as traitor or changeling, and doing something either laid-back or friendly in a variety of circumstances. It tends to irk me, but I can see their reasoning and respect it.
The reasoning behind friendly wizards, however, continues to elude me to this day. Much like a caveman, I initially responded to this strange and horrifying thing with hostility, but this last time, I simply gave my spaceman up to the ghosts - and, before departing, I saw what the others in deadchat had to say about this. They were quite defensive, with at least one passive aggressive smiley face being sent my way.
This is not an attempt at getting friendly antags banned, or anything. Just as, in my ideal world, antagonists should be free to do as they please, they can also take the deranged path of doing nothing of note. A wasted roll, but wasted of their own volition. This does not, however, absolve them of my scrutiny, nor did it stop me from sitting down at 6:53 AM on a Monday morning and writing this out. I cannot tell if I have transcended being buttmad or simply wish to examine the psyche of the friendly wizard. I do know, however, that I should begin getting ready for work.
This has meant nothing.
Friendly wizards (and antags in general, in many cases) should still have a legion of validhunting greyshirts descend upon them, however.
What possesses people to play friendly wizards? Is it a desire to make the world an infinitely worse place? A rare opportunity that few players get to enjoy, one of the few antagonists on Manuel where you can actually, properly antagonize, with a wide array of remarkable spells and tools at your disposal, and you decide to roleplay in the bar and stand in a line for the costume contest. If only there were a way to peek within the twisted, abyssal mind of a friendly antag player - but I fear that those without sufficient psychological fortitude would have their own psyches torn asunder by the malignant chaos contained within.
Now, this is not to say that there are not exceptions to this rule; Deadpop is best, after all, when there isn't an antagonist murderboning the 7 (3 of which are SSD) crewmembers, but there are people in this world, on this forum, playing on Traditional Games Station 13™ that encounter the coveted wizard roll and immediately think to themselves, "Hmm, today I will engage in bar RP".
Of course, many will claim that my mistake was playing on Manuel - and I suppose, in a way, this is true. A friendly wizard RPing in the bar is, in a way, a condensed version of the worst aspects of Manuel that people (often ironically) complain about, and in my years of playing Space Station 13, it isn't as if I haven't seen such abominable atrocities before. I suppose it was a sobering reality check.
Contrary to popular belief, I do not loathe roleplay as a concept. I do not loathe character interactions beyond making spacemen go horizontal or spam-clicking while mashing your clap key. I can understand somebody taking another antagonist role, such as traitor or changeling, and doing something either laid-back or friendly in a variety of circumstances. It tends to irk me, but I can see their reasoning and respect it.
The reasoning behind friendly wizards, however, continues to elude me to this day. Much like a caveman, I initially responded to this strange and horrifying thing with hostility, but this last time, I simply gave my spaceman up to the ghosts - and, before departing, I saw what the others in deadchat had to say about this. They were quite defensive, with at least one passive aggressive smiley face being sent my way.
This is not an attempt at getting friendly antags banned, or anything. Just as, in my ideal world, antagonists should be free to do as they please, they can also take the deranged path of doing nothing of note. A wasted roll, but wasted of their own volition. This does not, however, absolve them of my scrutiny, nor did it stop me from sitting down at 6:53 AM on a Monday morning and writing this out. I cannot tell if I have transcended being buttmad or simply wish to examine the psyche of the friendly wizard. I do know, however, that I should begin getting ready for work.
This has meant nothing.
Friendly wizards (and antags in general, in many cases) should still have a legion of validhunting greyshirts descend upon them, however.