New Service Role: Recreational Attendant

[RyverStyx]

So I'm not going to sugarcoat it, the holodeck, pool, and gym see almost zero use outside of random gimmicks; but, they take up such a huge portion of Deck 3. If we had a role that would make going to these areas of the ship more engaging and fun it may breathe some fresh air into the locations!

The Recreational Attendant role would be in charge of maintaining and ensuring the facilities on Deck 3 are fully operational and utilized. Ideally they would be trained in all the gym's equipment, different life-guarding techniques at the pool, and how to properly utilize the holodeck (even though it's just a simple button press). A big part of this role would be making these areas appealable by bringing some mechanical aspects that are backed with roleplay. Maybe your character needs some physiotherapy after their femur was snapped by an antag? Head to the gym with the Fitness Coach or Physical Therapist. Maybe you want to relax on the beach? Let the Recreational Attendant whisk you away to a sandy wonderland. Perhaps you want to swim but your character has never been in a pool in their life? The lifeguard can give you floaties and make sure you don't go under.
 

• Possible Alt Titles
  • Lifeguard
  • Fitness Coach
  • Physical Therapist

A big positive of this, in my eyes, would be moving traffic to the D3 recreational rooms that barely see any use. It also opens up more opportunities for interesting characters and roleplay! And, if anything, this would only need a small locker room/office for the role that can easily be mapped into the existing area.

Edit: Also- This necessarily wouldn't NEED to be it's own role. Perhaps alt-titles for assistant? Open to either

Edited March 25, 2023 by RyverStyx

[icedcabbage]

I love this idea, it gives the chance for RP in an area that rarely gets used. I also want to say before anyone says "there will be nothing to do" keep in mind we have the Chaplin and Librarian already, so there is a place for RP orientated roles.

[Rabid Animal]

I've talked about this privately a lot because its actually a 10/10 idea I'm excited to see it happen.

EDIT; to tie in with the physical therapy idea, maybe they'd have access to medical records? A thought.

Edited March 25, 2023 by Rabid Animal

[Girdio]

The holodeck/rec areas were, as stated, woefully underused on both the Aurora and Horizon. The times I see people interact with the area is incredibly seldom. It will be a little hard-pressed for interaction, but on the other hand, it gives people the easy ability to create engagement for areas not used.

Scrapping the rec room lounge and turning it into their personal space could possibly work well. After all, there's the much bigger third-deck lounge and without the rec' area seeing much use already, there's no real point of the lounge there.

That said, the lack of interaction is a necessary talking point on this role I feel like, because it runs the risk of just having another Service role that nobody ever plays. Roleplay-dedicated roles, by nature, are very hit-or-miss, with the bartender and chef being the only sure-fire occupations to be given any interaction. With the library and chapel both being on the second deck (and therefore more readily accessible by crew simply passing by), the question becomes if the new role will simply become bloat. By being on the third deck, and tucked away even more than the journalist's office is, it's hard for crew to naturally stumble across something (because again, as stated previously, most characters simply don't go up there). The easy response is to say "well we don't know if it'll be bloat or not you have to give it a chance!", but it's possibly something useful to think about.

So, while it could certainly be interesting and useful for potential roleplay, I think it's also a pretty big candidate of role bloat, with it turning into there simply being too many jobs on the Horizon.

Edited March 25, 2023 by Girdio

[limette]

If you can't get traffic as an assistant/off-duty, having a special title won't bring traffic. If you can, I don't see the need for this.

What does this substantially change about the recreation area experience that will suddenly change whether or not people go there? Is it just so people look at the manifest, see the title, and run over? I can't really think of another benefit for it over an assistant advertising the pool/gym over the entertainment channel.

Edited March 25, 2023 by limette

[RyverStyx]

Just now, limette said:

If you can't get traffic as an assistant/off-duty, having a special title won't bring traffic. If you can, I don't see the need for this.

What does this substantially change about the recreation area experience that will suddenly change whether or not people go there? Is it just so people look at the manifest, see the title, and run over? I can't really think of another benefit for it over an assistant advertising the pool/gym over the entertainment channel.

As I mentioned in the discord channel; nobody ever goes to the library without a librarian there. Rounds with a librarian; there is foot traffic in the library. When you know it's someone's JOB to be there and RP with you it makes it a lot more appealing to wander on up there and roleplay.

[FearTheBlackout]

I don't see anything wrong with giving some official job status to characters who want to do this kind of work. I think it would be fun to service people as this job or be serviced by them as well. I honestly have felt that the Service department has been remiss in something or another since Service Manager was removed for unrelated reasons.

[Girdio]

6 minutes ago, RyverStyx said:

nobody ever goes to the library without a librarian there. Rounds with a librarian; there is foot traffic in the library.

Keeping in mind that there's rarely a librarian character on (which I feel like will contribute to this new role as well), even with the librarian characters I can really only think of one that had players aware of their presence, in the last few months. In turn, I think the issues with the library and chapel (with both spots being rarely used even when the roles are filled) would carry over to the holodeck role too, so I'm not sure in increased foot traffic would be that significant when it came down to it.

Edited March 25, 2023 by Girdio

[Rabid Animal]

To add onto all that;
If you're expecting people to waltz up to YOU to roleplay, that's not how this works - it's always on the player to create engagement and the same will be said for this. The librarian will have good luck getting people to come over if they talk on the radio, print ads, ask people to come by. They can't just sit at the desk and twiddle their thumbs as if something will happen when they do so. The same logic can and will apply to the gym role.

So the answer to "What does this substantially change?" is someone who, hopefully, has the foresight to put effort into the role and give people more things to do, and not just sit around wondering why there's still no engagement.

[Carver]

This feels like an assistant gimmick. I don't dislike the thought at all, but I also don't see why this couldn't be done as an assistant.

[wowzewow]

Yeah, this feels too much of a gimmick. It's Clown/Mime tier of job title.

 

A new fancy title isn't going to be turning heads or changing player behavior anytime soon.

It's happened before with the Chaplain and Psychologist, which *still* struggle to find RP unless they instigate it themselves.

Edited March 26, 2023 by wowzewow

[RyverStyx]

50 minutes ago, wowzewow said:

Yeah, this feels too much of a gimmick. It's Clown/Mime tier of job title.

 

A new fancy title isn't going to be turning heads or changing player behavior anytime soon.

It's happened before with the Chaplain and Psychologist, which *still* struggle to find RP unless they instigate it themselves.

The whole point is they should be the ones to initiate the RP.

[WickedCybs]

I don't think it being an alt-title would be a bad thing really. I think the name of your position is always going to be an important part of your character and even if an assistant can do the same things, I'll have different thoughts on a "recreational-attendant" versus the more general purpose assistant.

So, I don't mind this. More alt titles for assistants specifically could be cool.

[EJJ]

I think more Assistant alt-titles would be nice, Assistant, especially on Aurora is kind of a role with a lot of OOC baggage. You have to be established, someone people OOCly know won't murder them or have a really good character gimmick off the bat.

I'd love the ability to make custom titles for Assistant but I know as soon as Dominian Noble Slayer comes in from the crew quarters it'd be a problem.

I'm +1ing Assistant Buffs though. Service needs some more stuff in it.

[KingOfThePing]

Since "Assistants" are inheritly useless in our setting and dont really have a reason to exist, giving it alt-title at all (not only the ones suggested) would give the role an actual purpose, so I am all for it.

[RyverStyx]

What other alt-titles would people be interested in for Assistant? I agree with some other comments here that the generic "Assistant" title normally has a negative connotation.

[DeadLantern]

This gives me an idea--perhaps we can add mini games to each rec room area to bolster the use of those amenities. It would require coding but theoretically zero sprinting. For example, if you bring up the "dueling" or "boxing" area for the holodeck, instead of punching each other ss13 style, it could open up a window where you can choose what moves you do and a little game happens.

You could do this for basketball as well, and it could be a mix of actually moving and strategy (like, if you choose the block option, you are more likely to automatically steal the ball if you're in front of someone or block them from moving forward and better at passing the ball, but worse at shooting the ball) and etc.

There could possibly be something like this for water polo or just a swimming contest or something.

The title for this role could be "referee."

[greenjoe]

3 hours ago, RyverStyx said:

What other alt-titles would people be interested in for Assistant?

I'd half feel some sort of entertainer type thing could be interesting, but that could lean dangerously close to clowns, unless it was explicitly stated that clown type activities are not something allowed with entertainers. (either ICly, where you'd get charged by sec/suspended, or OOCly, getting told no by admins)

[RyverStyx]

5 minutes ago, greenjoe said:

I'd half feel some sort of entertainer type thing could be interesting, but that could lean dangerously close to clowns, unless it was explicitly stated that clown type activities are not something allowed with entertainers. (either ICly, where you'd get charged by sec/suspended, or OOCly, getting told no by admins)

I talked with some staff about this before and it's been a "hard no" sadly due to the association with clowns.

[greenjoe]

3 minutes ago, RyverStyx said:

I talked with some staff about this before and it's been a "hard no" sadly due to the association with clowns.

That does make sense, sadly, as much as there could be non-clown stuff that could be done as an entertainer.

and I don't really have any other ideas of alt-titles at the moment.

[Carver]

18 hours ago, KingOfThePing said:

Since "Assistants" are inheritly useless in our setting and dont really have a reason to exist, giving it alt-title at all (not only the ones suggested) would give the role an actual purpose, so I am all for it.

I'd argue assistants have plenty of reason to exist, it's just that they're criminally underused. They're very helpful for Command (or any crew) who need small tasks done, or just wish to have a general helper on-hand.