FluffyGhost - Command Whitelist Application - Third time's the charm

[Fluffy]

BYOND key: Fluffyghost

Character names:

(EW-A is also CyAO, the AI)

How long have you been playing on Aurora?: Approaching a full year

Have you received any administrative actions? And how serious were they? I got a complain on my character when I first joined the server, a forum warning that expired and an ingame one because I fell asleep that was purged soon afterwards

 

Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph each.

What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame?:
The main OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is to ensure everyone in the department, and that interact with members of said department, gets treated fairly and according to the rules, in a believable way and if possible that they can get a fair share of fun out of it, that includes curbing down do-all know-all personnel, attempts to metagame, to mantain situation and characters believability while ensuring the department try to remain functional and perform its services, that the tasks are fairly distributed to all the people in the department and are therefore engaged with the game while retaining a healthy amount of leeway on personal choices.

You can also be tasked to teach and show to new players (or otherwise interns) how to do things inside said department, including etiquette and mechanically, or assign someone as a mentor to them to distribute the tasks, depending on how well stocked your department is.

OOC ultimately, I believe your first task is to mantain an healthy balance of the fun of all players and be the first line of defense against rules violation.

 

What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them?:
Whitelisted (heads whitelist) players are expected to act responsibly with the power they hold, striking a balance between allowing anarchy to spread in the department and a 1984 absolute survelliance and order dystopia, you'll be referred to and are expected to uphold and help uphold the rules and regulations (and definitely not break them, at least the OOC ones, and the IC ones only with a good, RP believable and explainable reason), you are also responsible in try to help player retention (including via the means indicated above) and have your good share of knowledge, work with the staff and be the first line of defense against bad behaviors.

They also help to shape the events and atmosphere through their decisions, which must be believable.

Finally, granting all of what already said, you are responsible to get the things in your department done, usually indirectly: a department that do not function affect the whole round for everyone, it's your job to avoid it happening via IC or (hopefully rarely via) OOC means as appropriate for the situation.

I strive to uphold them via a careful consideration and balance of the round needs and the other player's needs.

 

Explain how the recent events in the Spur changed your character and how they came to be employed on the SCCV Horizon.

The defeat of the SRF in San Colette, for my gaddie, is indicative of the Solarian Imperialism™ consolidating its position and acquiring moral justifications for their imperialist expansion mires, confirming The Commander Was Right™ and that The Narrated Solarian Invasion Is Totally Coming For Real This Time Soon©.
CL-04401 is preoccupied of possible derivative IPC rampancy and untagged shells flooding the markets from runaway SRF IPCs, which represents a threat on multiple possible levels.
My Warden Diona is terrified of the fallout of a possible upcoming large scale war involving the solarian government and the SRF, and the losses and injuries such would bring, and dislikes the cats even more after the ALA encounter it got narrated about.
My Pharmacist is evaluating to start a "subsidiary" to produce drugs to sell as a self medication aid to new customers that are now in possible need of it, and the profitability of such venture.
My gonna-hopefully-be HoS wonders if this could ignite a "war to end all wars", and maybe provide some opportunity to advance career.
My FR IPC is worried that it would be required to be deployed in war zones, and possibly destroyed therefore, given the lightness of its chassis.
My Surgeon, as a stoic, do not let itself be much affected, sticking instead to what it can do and living the moment.
My gonna-hopefully-be CMO, former Psychiatrist, hopes to be up to par to help the traumatized victims that might seek employment here.

 

What roles do you plan on playing after the application is accepted?
Head of Security, eventually overtime to expand in other departments or even captain one day, in the future.

 

Have you familiarized yourself with the wiki pages for the command roles?
I have read the wiki page for the HoS, the CMO and the Captain.

 

Characters you intend to use for command or have created for command. Include the job they will be taking:
Fyodor Koesvyin - HoS
Sigismund Frenzick - CMO (former psychiatrist)

 

Do you understand your whitelist is not permanent, and may be stripped following continuous administrative action?
Indeed if I fuck up or ruin other people's fun, nuke me out of the whitelist, the server population's overall fun is more important than any whitelist.

 

Have you linked your byond account to the forums? 
Yes.

 

Extra notes:

Re-applying from 

After having waited more than the suggested period, hopefully enough to consolidate my RP abilities to an acceptable level

[dessysalta]

I jump into the whitelist apps on here a lot with kind words, but Fluffy is, what, one of about 3 people I'd write more than a passing +1 for? Fluffy's Deshan was one of the first few people for Kira to latch onto, they've helped me create Dhaval Hiyan (a Cadre member underneath section leader Deshan) and Fluffy in general is just super cool to be around. I love their characters and how they write them, I like how believably ruthless or passive they can be. 

Seriously. If Fluffy can't make a command whitelist, we're gonna have an issue. 

+1. Godspeed, and you better make Deshan a HOS sometime down the line.

[GeneralCamo]

Give them another trial. They've been working with the community significantly, and playing a lot. I had no issues with their last app, just the trial was rough. Let's see what you can do this time.

[meep109]

+1 Fluffy has really grown from their last command apps and I think they're an excellent roleplayer. I think they deserve a trial at the very least

[Kelnor]

+1 for the trial. Can't wait to bully his CMO as Georgia.

[Rookie Eyes]

I think Deshan Baral is a solid character, and the rounds they've interim'd they've been good about actually keeping sec in line. +1

[Ricky_the_banshee]

I've had the pleasure of interacting with both CL and Deshan, and I absolutely love Fluffy's portrayal of both characters. Despite being part of the same department, He's able to exceptionally portray the two as separate individuals puppeteered by the same player, which itself as good indication on the RP side.

As for his command play. The few times that Baral has assumed interim were definitely fine in my book. He's shown leadership, and organization skills. He's communicative, and has shown awareness of the responsibilties that a command member should have on both an IC-level, as well as how they should assist in moving a round.

 

+1

[Duthco]

Most of my interactions with Fluffy are via Officer Baral, with whom I have had the great pleasure of several IC sessions of an ongoing conversation across the Horizon's Bar. He was one of my bartender's first regulars, and it gladdens me to see him around whenever I do. Baral brings the RP in dialogue and in action, and it's apparent to me that the character has depth to him.

Given a read-through of Fluffy's previous Command Whitelist Application linked in the original post, and knowing recent play, I would absolutely say Fluffy's prose-grammar and room presence are of high standard, having apparently improved significantly in the time since the older application. Like, I wouldn't have guessed they were ever lacking.

Further, Fluffy strikes me as someone who takes and incorporates constructive feedback well, (Also props to Zelmana for such extensive and detailed constructive feedback.), and therefore I think another go at a command whitelist would be a worthwhile endeavor.

+1

[La Villa Strangiato]

I've been playing with Fluffy's characters for a while, around since they first started on the server, and I will say that they've come a long way in terms of roleplay. I like CL, Deshan, and Salvo, because they're very funny and their "quirks" are played into in an amusing manner.

One of the things that kind of bugged me about your medical play is that, while you are obviously playing a character who is a little bit of a dick, you tended to treat your mechanical responsibilities as just "mechanical" rather than taking small roleplay opportunities where they present themselves. When I say "small roleplay opportunities", I mean communicating with your patients, making them feel comfortable before they go under for surgery, and asking them how they feel when they wake up.

You can't do this all the time, and that's fine! In a round where things are very stressful, I also like to get my patients out of the black screen of surgery and the drone of the GTR as soon as possible. But IRL, good doctors are ones that don't make their patient feel like a slab of meat to be operated on (though god knows I am also guilty of this when shit is particularly stressful, which happens).

I think if you are going to play a command character, they should be a logical extension of your quirkier characters. A character who is a little bit weird rather than straight-laced and professional all the time goes a long way into making them interesting, and another thing that helps is finding commonalities with other characters. Capitalise on those little interactions; when I played Zelda Zamora for my command trial, she got along with Frederick Zhao because they were both engineers. Make friends, say "oh thank god" ICly when a command member you like rolls up, have favourites among your subordinates.

For now I remain neutral on this app as a whole, though I do think you should be given another shot at a trial. Godspeed.

[MattAtlas]

On trial until 25JUL2023.

[dessysalta]

Had the pleasure of seeing Fyodor today--blew me away. Treated our antagonist gimmick with respect, didn't let it get too out of hand, put his foot down when he needed to (from the antag's perspective that is) and delegated orders to his men (and I would know, I had a traitor radio LMAO). +1 at the moment, I'll update if it changes.

Nope, it's not changing. Badass, respectful commander.

Edited July 21, 2023 by dessysalta
another round

[Dreamix]

Played a round or three with their CMO, and a round or three with their HoS, both as my XO. They've both been okay, involved in command stuff and the like. I didn't see any red-flags or nothing like that. +1 I guess

Edited July 23, 2023 by Dreamix

[Waff-AI]

Having observed your recent HoS round as Fyodor, I have to confess that I was a little confused and dismayed by your handling of the hivebot situation. I suppose I have three questions:
1. Why did you forbid the usage of ballistic weapons? There isn't really any glass or exposure to vacuum in the atmos mix area, and the tanks are impact-resistant. I found this objectionable because it essentially made 60% of the armory unusable.

2. What was your ideal handling of the hivebot situation? Was Engineering to snipe the beacon with an emitter while officers provided cover fire? To rush the beacon? I bring this up because, really, it just looked like officers trickling in, slipping around, and generally getting wounded or killed. It didn't really evoke a plan or co-ordination.

3. Regarding Monday, this is less of a question and more of a comment. Was it really necessary to add a note to his permanent record? He did disobey the order against ballistics, yes, but he caused no lasting damages to Engineering, destroyed the hivebot beacon, and coordinated well with his colleagues. His only real offense was to your ego; And while, yes, you are expected to obey the reasonable orders of your Head of Staff, we don't play on a military ship. Orders that cause severe psychological distress or that may lead to physical harm should be carefully considered and openly discussed with your subordinates.

With that, I have to give this application a hesitant -1. Working with your department is key to your success as a Head of Staff, even if they do work for you. Someone who abuses that obligation just isn't a good fit for the position in my book.

Edited July 24, 2023 by Waff-AI
spellcheck failed me

[Fluffy]

49 minutes ago, Waff-AI said:

Why did you forbid the usage of ballistic weapons? There isn't really any glass or exposure to vacuum in the atmos mix area, and the tanks are impact-resistant. I found this objectionable because it essentially made 60% of the armory unusable.

Ballistics can pierce canisters and tanks, something you do not want to happen to the tanks in Atmospherics, given they contain a huge amount of gas at high pressure, and one of them is nitrous oxyde, which would flood the ship and put everyone to sleep, furthermore, the initial position was understood as behind the glasses, so lasers would have allowed the destruction of them from a safe position (excluding the beams of the beacon).

 

49 minutes ago, Waff-AI said:

What was your ideal handling of the hivebot situation? Was Engineering to snipe the beacon with an emitter while officers provided cover fire? To rush the beacon? I bring this up because, really, it just looked like officers trickling in, slipping around, and generally getting wounded or killed. It didn't really evoke a plan or co-ordination.

The hivebots would have been shot from behind the glass, west of Atmospheric Tanks. There were people with eyes on them, and 6 hivebots + beacon reported, that would be a hivebot and a quarter per officer, not to mention the Engineers, so a fairly easy problem to solve. In the meantime, I had to respond to other requests, in particular that the ship was being hijacked, so a hivebot and a quarter per Officer was not my priority for attention.

 

49 minutes ago, Waff-AI said:

Regarding Monday, this is less of a question and more of a comment. Was it really necessary to add a note to his permanent record? He did disobey the order against ballistics, yes, but he caused no lasting damages to Engineering, destroyed the hivebot beacon, and coordinated well with his colleagues. His only real offense was to your ego; And while, yes, you are expected to obey the reasonable orders of your Head of Staff, we don't play on a military ship. Orders that cause severe psychological distress or that may lead to physical harm should be carefully considered and openly discussed with your subordinates.

 

I have requested a mere apology, to which he doubled down, then I have suspended him (which is not a permanent record), to which he tripled down, hence he was charged, and I stand by that decision; I have no interest in filing a player complain, but do note that the use of slurs it is deemed against the OOC rules too, hence the least I could have reasonably done is charge him, which I did.

Also note, the order to use energy weapons is neither a psychological nor a physically harmful (more than usual for hivebot huntings) one, nor it would make sense to open a discussion about that when hivebots are well known to be deadly, amounting to an average of two deaths since when the tickrate was fixed, and their number increase by the minute.

Edited July 24, 2023 by Fluffy

[restricted]

I'd like to say that it is not an IC responsibility to enforce OOC rules. If the rules have been violated or you believe them to have been violated you should adminhelp the action. Fixing it ICly doesn't do anything to correct the breaking of the rules. Having that mentality is not appropriate for a command player. 

[Fluffy]

11 minutes ago, restricted said:

Fixing it ICly doesn't do anything to correct the breaking of the rules. Having that mentality is not appropriate for a command player. 

Never said to want to fix it ICly, I have specified my reasoning on why I don't believe it could have simply been handwaved, primarily for the tripling down but also in consideration of the choosen terms, and why the charge was in my view justified, without any expectation of "fixing it".

[meep109]

10 hours ago, Fluffy said:

Ballistics can pierce canisters and tanks, something you do not want to happen to the tanks in Atmospherics, given they contain a huge amount of gas at high pressure, and one of them is nitrous oxyde, which would flood the ship and put everyone to sleep, furthermore, the initial position was understood as behind the glasses, so lasers would have allowed the destruction of them from a safe position (excluding the beams of the beacon).

I'm not going to blame you for not knowing this but the BIG gas tanks that hold all the gases for the ship are bulletproof. Im 90% sure you cant break them without either A) A massive explosion or B) C4. Of course this would probably be a little less known if you don't play a lot of engineering so I don't personally think it's your fault for not knowing this, but it's something to note for next time

[NewOriginalSchwann]

I have interacted with your CMO in a few rounds and did not find him to be particularly impressive. You did not communicate with the department and it felt as if you were trying to lord over it as an absolute authority rather than serving as a leader for it. It is not fun to be threatened with failure to execute an order for disagreeing with your supervisor and my experiences with you as one of your staff, when combined with the feedback in this thread, do not give me confidence you are ready to serve as a head of staff at this time. -1.

[Fluffy]

20 minutes ago, NewOriginalSchwann said:

You did not communicate with the department and it felt as if you were trying to lord over it as an absolute authority rather than serving as a leader for it.

I have communicated a great deal with the department, informing about the proceedings of the gimmick, relaying calls for dispatchment, informing people (we have a fairly new roster) of what treatments to apply if they looked stuck, production of the medications, and so on, if you interpreted it as being an "absolute authority", that's your interpretation of it I guess, but that was not what I did nor intended, in fact I have handwaved far more than other CMOs would have, such as the funny Varuca Psychologist doing social experiments with a xenogun.

24 minutes ago, NewOriginalSchwann said:

It is not fun to be threatened with failure to execute an order for disagreeing with your supervisor

Never threaten anyone with failure to execute an order for disagreeing with me either, I have charged one person for tripling down alongside another charge (because it would not have made any sense to only apply one of the two charges), and it was not disagreeing either, it was actually doing it, then tripling down and earning another charge, and it should be pretty clear that I had no wish of charging him with failure to execute an order in the first place, it just didn't make sense to go along with one charge and make the other, which is the cause of the later, to not be added too.

[gladiatorgames123]

G'day, folks! Your local SecMain™ here to give a few pieces on Fluffy's work as a HOS.

I've been able to play with a few of their characters over some time alongside a fair few rounds with Fyodor, so I reckon I can place my thoughts here. Ultimately, I'll have to say that Fluffy's done well, but I'm not sold to the point of giving a plus one, so I'll hand over some thoughts. From my experience, Fyodor needs to work on communication with his team. Now, trust the fact I most certainly understand that the Head of Security can be one of the most challenging roles in relation to communications on the server, with players often having to juggle their team, command radio and listening into common all the while they sort out whatever they themselves are doing. But with what I've seen as an underling, Fyodor tends to have patches of radio silence, no communication, no answering questions.

Of course, these could have been flukes, one timers, but it's happened frequently enough for me to worry about it and I've noticed it even at times where there is no antagonist activity. I'll be sure to update this if I see that this isn't the case. I'm unsure what it looks like on the Command side of things for him, but perhaps any Command players with Fyodor as HoS could let us know what it's like from their perspective in relation to communications. In relation to communication, I'm unsure if this is an OOC or IC thing but I, at times, find that Fyodor's orders are somewhat muddy? A combination of, at times, not responding to questions and at other times, not providing clear instruction on what to do.

I'm sure with further time some of these kinks will be ironed out and I look forward to having you on the team in future, good luck soldier! 

P.S If anything changes in play, I'll be sure to update this!

[Fluffy]

2 hours ago, gladiatorgames123 said:

But with what I've seen as an underling, Fyodor tends to have patches of radio silence, no communication, no answering questions.

Of course, these could have been flukes, one timers, but it's happened frequently enough for me to worry about it and I've noticed it even at times where there is no antagonist activity.

The reason for that is pretty boring: I am typing a long message for someone else I am talking to, either in person or in another channel; I tend to write by double-checking what was said (thus scrolling up to what I'm replying and/or re-reading it), going back in the message to expand or rework certain parts to make them more clear (or unclear, depending on what I want it to do), and that takes a little bit of time.

If the questions are urgent, I abort the message I'm writing as soon as I see the question and reply back to it, otherwise I prefer not to, and I queue the question up and reply to it after I'm finished typing.

At other times, other questions require additional information to be answered, or someone else's perspective to consider, so I have to ask and get the information/opinion myself back, then reply to those.

It is also a nice way to give antagonists some leeway, the opportunity to take the initiative, do something interesting, or escape. While it would not make sense to order eg. to not handcuff the guy you saw with a blade running at 00.30, it makes sense that the response is delayed so he can bug off before we turn the round into glorified extended. What I'm saying is, silence is also a tool.

Lastly, as a person with HFASD, sometimes I just need a moment to reorder my thoughts if I am doing something and get suddenly interrupted by something else, especially if there's many consecutive switches.

 

2 hours ago, gladiatorgames123 said:

I'm unsure if this is an OOC or IC thing but I, at times, find that Fyodor's orders are somewhat muddy?

This is expected, I want to leave as much freedom as possible on how to approach a situation, so my orders are more towards the general aim/direction end of the spectrum, rather than towards a detailed step-by-step instruction list on what to do exactly (unless there's a particular need to, but it's rare).

[Kelnor]

I've only really had one round with Fluffy's CMO (Several with his HoS, but I don't play sec so can't comment.)

Not much happened that round, he did a good job of facilitating roleplay but didn't really get a chance to give any feedback beyond doing well with the conversation with my surgeon.

I can't +1 or -1, but would support an extension. Will add a post if I get a good enough round to give + or - feedback.

I will say, I don't think this is the place to complain about him giving you an order you don't agree with.

[Noble Row]

In my experience with Fluffy both in command, and in general for the few months I've played on Aurora, I've noted that they have a pretty solid head on their shoulders in terms of mechanics and leading. They care about antag gimmicks, do their best to facilitate the round, and go with a very straight-forward no-nonsense attitude which works in a lot of aspects.

My only main issue with Fluffy's characters, his CMO, Baral, so on, is that they all feel like the same character. They're all very straight forward (at least from what I've seen) relatively monotone, and objective oriented with rare regard for other characters. I think the most extensive conversation I've ever had with one of Fluffy's characters that actually had depth was talking to Baral about the Gadpathurian Military vs. the Sol Military as my Biesel Consular. But even then that's very... straight and narrow. No emotion. Military edged.

But in the end I don't think a blank character should discount Fluffy's ability to play command. They CAN organize, they CAN facilitate the round for the antags and players. I do not think they're a good mentor, they're not terrible, but it often doesn't feel very helpful (I used to play a sec cadet who Baral "mentored" a couple times) and it seems like Fluffy would much rather be doing their own thing, organizing a team and handling the antags as opposed to putting much attention in their own department. Which is both GOOD and BAD. GOOD as in, as mentioned, they can organize and do it pretty well. They care about the round. But can they LEAD? A leader needs to be there for their people on top of organizing them, which I still think is a skill that needs to be worked on a bit.

[LordPwner]

Spoiler

Looking back over this app, and after playing quite a few rounds with Fluffy... I think I have my biggest concern.

On 14/07/2023 at 07:56, Fluffy said:

What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame?:
The main OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is to ensure everyone in the department, and that interact with members of said department, gets treated fairly and according to the rules, in a believable way and if possible that they can get a fair share of fun out of it, that includes curbing down do-all know-all personnel, attempts to metagame, to mantain situation and characters believability while ensuring the department try to remain functional and perform its services, that the tasks are fairly distributed to all the people in the department and are therefore engaged with the game while retaining a healthy amount of leeway on personal choices.

While it's not a bad mentally, and actually fairly positive. I feel like it misses the mark for the OOC purpose. Command is the 'Oxymoron' of antags. The antag presents their gimmick, through a multitude of ways. Via announcements, etc. and Command players are to set the tone for response. This does not always mean bowing down to the gimmick. Considering each character has their own ideals/morals/experience/etc. and will react to things differently-

My Tajaran Consular might be super supportive of a PRA take over of the Horizon- maybe even attempt to help it.

My Dominian XO would riot and kick the can if a Kong-gimmick came in and forced him to change faiths/declare the Empire/Emperor should fall/die, etc. etc.

On this, I think you're lacking a bit. So far, I've only really witnessed your characters go 'yes, this is reality'. Never a comment or idea that they could be incorrect/lying/etc. A big part of Command play is setting that 'It's probably this- but maybe' tone (IMO). You want to try to leave yourself and the antag with as many paths as possible. Perhaps it is a story-rich peace-tag, and so reacting hostile (just the right amount) will help their story. Too much or too little could be unhelpful

Or the guns blazing, capture and kill-tags, letting them get their way may not be the best idea, if not be total destructive to the round's 'realism and immersion'

Which is the biggest key- We're the round's story tellers, or at least their assistants

I do think HoS (CO || Chief Officer, Fight me) is one of the harder trial roles because you need to accurately and quickly decide how hard you need to punch the tag in the face. Or how hard you need to punch random ship event- Which I got to agree with alot of the posts here.. you organize and take charge, but more often than not you don't keep that solid grasp, you more so leave people to it and players are dumb explorative. They'll see how far they can push, and it's partly our role to IC pull them back in. The range/amount etc, all based on character traits and personalities.

Which, I do have to agree, they all seem a bit samey, but that can be hard to really break them up. I know I struggle at times making my characters similar. Yet, it is something to keep in mind.

tl;dr 

For now, I got no judgement. An extension may be in order. There is room to improve, ofc. 

[Fluffy]

2 hours ago, Noble Row said:

My only main issue with Fluffy's characters, his CMO, Baral, so on, is that they all feel like the same character. They're all very straight forward (at least from what I've seen) relatively monotone, and objective oriented with rare regard for other characters. I think the most extensive conversation I've ever had with one of Fluffy's characters that actually had depth was talking to Baral about the Gadpathurian Military vs. the Sol Military as my Biesel Consular. But even then that's very... straight and narrow. No emotion. Military edged.

They have the general direction of being direct (though to different degrees) for a simple reason: I do not enjoy beating around the bush, in fact I find it very annoying, so I don't want to do that, it's simply not an enjoyable experience to play that way, for me

Me and Duthco have talked, at the bar (with Baral and Philo, respectively) about Philosophy over multiple rounds, resuming the conversation as it was left in the previous round.

Baral and Johnson (Warden) went for the better of multiple hours discussing similarities and differences between Sol and Gadpathur.

Baral and Eva (Investigator) talks about whatever while at the Bar

Baral and Boris (Officer) talks about Tajara culture and history, he even introduced him to drinking the victory gin, which he picked up

CL is a completely different character, it does not debate, it just offers (often made up) insights about what it's being told, it's also very incapable to understand social clues, and a very different character than Baral (as noted by Ricky)

My CMO is a Psychiatrist, it's far more emotionally expressive and tactful than either

Raccuso is all about socializing and having fun

My Diona Warden would never touch a weapon unless it has no other choice, and avoids all possible conflicts it can

And so on

 

I am not sure what you exactly mean by "having depth", so I am not sure if this addresses that point, but Military edged and objective oriented, I do not believe that's the case across my character, I do concede they are direct because I find not being direct unenjoyable to play, but that's just a common trait in an ocean of differences, from my perspective

 

2 hours ago, Noble Row said:

But can they LEAD? A leader needs to be there for their people on top of organizing them, which I still think is a skill that needs to be worked on a bit.

I was advised that I should avoid fronting as an HoS unless absolutely necessary?

1 hour ago, LordPwner said:

So far, I've only really witnessed your characters go 'yes, this is reality'. Never a comment or idea that they could be incorrect/lying/etc. A big part of Command play is setting that 'It's probably this- but maybe' tone (IMO). You want to try to leave yourself and the antag with as many paths as possible. Perhaps it is a story-rich peace-tag, and so reacting hostile (just the right amount) will help their story. Too much or too little could be unhelpful

Or the guns blazing, capture and kill-tags, letting them get their way may not be the best idea, if not be total destructive to the round's 'realism and immersion'

I absolutely avoid questioning what the announcements contain, they are the way (IMHO) that the antagonists use to set the "background lore" of the round, and pay a rather hefty price to do so.

Unless the announcement is clearly written to be interpretable or questioned, and unless there's a consistent body of evidences to invalidate what it says, for that round and in my opinion, it should be almost treated as the descended word of the lord himself.

You have, for sure, witnessed me saying no and questioning them, the least when they said (in the famous teleportation to the future gimmick) that they wanted to requisition the IPCs, I put my foot down and said that it won't happen, and suggested another solution.

I have drawn the line, told the antags where it is, and let them decide if they want to cross it and rev up the hostility or not.

1 hour ago, LordPwner said:

Which I got to agree with alot of the posts here.. you organize and take charge, but more often than not you don't keep that solid grasp, you more so leave people to it and players are dumb explorative. They'll see how far they can push, and it's partly our role to IC pull them back in. The range/amount etc, all based on character traits and personalities.

If there is no reason to say no to something, it should be said yes, as Garn said, saying no is pretty much the worst thing you can do, it's a big game of improvisation, and you should be looking for any reasonable way to say yes as long as it doesn't break the rules

Spoiler

Why would I want to say no to something, or make it so it's only done in one way, without a reason to? What is there to lose, if they decide to approach it one way or the other? They don't need to be optimal (and in fact, I believe a lot of times it's counterproductive for them to), a (non canon) round needs to be kept on the binaries so that it doesn't become a frustrating mess, but apart from that? Be my guest, I will try to give you as much freedom as permissible, have fun.