Head Whitelist App - ChevalierMalFet

[ChevalierMalFet]

BYOND key: ChevalierMalFet

Character names: Sarad Amrapurkar, Calonice deNomikos, Chen Yiwei

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How long have you been playing on Aurora?: Around two weeks, I'd say?

Why do you wish to be on the whitelist?: I feel that I would do good as a head, I would enjoy doing it, and that it makes sense for my character.

Why did you come to Aurora?: Jackboot is a good personal friend of mine, and he talked up both SS13 the game and Aurora the server.

Have you read the BS12 wiki on the head roles you plan on playing?: I have, many times.

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

Give a definition of what you think roleplay is, and should be about:

Roleplay is the act of taking control of a character, understanding their motivations, and guiding them through situations - particularly those involving their values, their beliefs, and their interactions with other people. It is the art and science of embodying a person with verisimilitude, in such a way that an observer might think, "this is a real person." It is, in short, the art of recreational impersonation as a means of exploring one's own values, beliefs, and interactions.

In this context, roleplaying should be about taking something as flat and static as an on-board profession and imbuing it with nuance and personality, such that other players enjoy interacting with that character and have memorable experiences with it. It's doing one's part to maintain a harmonious circle of "real people."

What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame?:

The OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is fundamentally three-fold. Their most obvious job is to cover any shortfalls that may occur in a given round's roster - for an example I've seen constantly, a Chief Medical Officer can give the Medical staff access to chemistry if there's no chemist on duty without breaking a window or hacking the door. In this specific case, a Chief Engineer has access to Atmospherics and can facilitate that part of the station in the event that nobody has chosen to play as one.

The second purpose is to serve as a veritable font of wisdom. SS13 is a game of complicated systems; doing a job well requires real training and understanding. A Head of Staff who is competent in their duties is a ready mentor for new players who are still learning the ropes. This makes IC as well as OOC sense as well, of course, since heads of staff would be in charge of training new employees.

The third and final purpose is to facilitate characters, and by extension players, in thinking of themselves as a "team." It's very common for Engineers to sort of 'glide past' one another once the engine is started up, kiting off to do their own thing and haphazardly negotiating with each other whenever an emergency arises. By breaking large tasks down into smaller ones and splitting them up, a good Head of Staff can get the players feeling invested in one another's success, leading to a more satisfying state of play overall. In fact, one of the refrains I would return to often as Chief Engineer is the idea that Engineers are or should be unionized, with all that entails.

What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them?:

Whitelisted players have to be exemplars; they have to essentially be the ideal player. A whitelist is a symbol of trust, and players who possess them should always serve to embody that trust. It's actually really simple - be good at your chosen duties, always follow the rules, or eat your humble pie when you break them, always strive to get along with other players, and be the bigger person if necessary.

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Please pick one of your characters for this section, and provide well articulated responses to the following questions.

Character name: Sarad Amrapurkar

Character age: 51

Please provide a short biography of this character (approx 2 paragraphs):

Sarad Amrapurkar was born on New Gibson (TCet e) on the 17th of September, 2406. His parents (Sachin and Lata Amrapurkar) were the owners and proprietors of a tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant in a massive industrial shipyard, and from an early age Sarad (second of two sons, with one sister) dreamed of getting off his factory hell-hole planet and one day seeing the stars. The restaurant couldn't support two sons, so once he finished as much schooling as he thought he'd need, he signed up as a deck hand for NanoTrasen shipping in 2424.

Advancement was achingly slow, but Sarad had perseverance. In 2427, he became a mechanic's assistant; in 2432, a certified shipboard electrician; in 2437, he became an engineer's assistant and in 2440 an engineer in his own right. In 2445, he added an atmospheric certification because it opened the way to better pay. In 2450, he finally attained, through sweat and hard work and on-the-job training, the highest enlisted rank in NanoTrasen Merchant Astry, a task that involved completing a graduate dissertation (which he did, barely, in his first experience in the world of higher academia). In 2453 finally transferred to station work for the promise of better pay and more reasonable hours - the better to spend time with his new family.

Through all his years of work, Sarad has never forgotten his roots, and has always considered himself a friend of the working man against the depredations of the managerial class. He has been heavily involved in both mentorship of younger engineers and in union politics; indeed, his advancement has been halted at several turns by his occasionally hostile relationship with management. He cares deeply about the well-being of the people he manages, and at the same time he cared deeply about being good at his job and ensuring his job is done well.

Sarad has a wife, whom he married comparatively late in life - she was 43 when they married in '51 - and by the blessings of modern medicine, they have a son and a daughter. His wife's name is Anjali, and his children are Madhav and Madhuri. He has finally acquired that which he most despises - middle-class respectability. Due to his long shifts far from home, his relationship with his family is somewhat estranged, though it's better than it would have been if he were still out for months at a time like when he worked on ships.

What do you like about this character?: Jeez, he's like someone out of a Bruce Springsteen song - a hard-working, blue-collar hero of the old school. He is loyal to his friends, true to his word, listens before he speaks, he leads by example, and he pays respect to others and demands it from them in turn. In fact, that last thing - the fact that he "sticks to his guns" when it comes to his and his people's well-being - is the thing I like most about him.

What do you dislike about this character?: Having finished school at 16 and started work at 17, Sarad has a definite anti-intellectual bias; he thinks that the school of hard knocks is better than any university. He is resentful of education, especially when someone actually knows better than he does as a product of that education. Also, he generally has a poor opinion of aliens - especially Tajara, whom he considers indecent gutter-people - and this is made worse by the fact that he can, in fact, come to respect them as individuals if they eschew their alien-ness and start acting like, well, humans.

What do you think makes this character fit to be a head of staff?: Experience, skill, and temperament. If one were to dream up an ideal Chief Engineer, it would probably look something like this.

 

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Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions.

How would you rate your own roleplaying?: 8/10. I have a tendancy sometimes to segregate a given round into "roleplaying time" and "get serious time," and during the latter, all of my characters coalesce into one - a sort of very grim, determined character who's ready for action. I freely admit that this is probably driven by a hunger for something bold after an hour and a half of wiring solars. Nevertheless, I've been playing D&D&c for 15 years and I think my roleplaying performance is generally above-par.

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Extra notes:

- I inserted that bit about him mostly working on ships to give me an 'out' if I make a bone-headed mistake about something he should know; he can shrug his shoulders and say, "that's how it works on ships, sorry, old habits die hard."

- At this time, the only head of staff I intend on playing is Chief Engineer. If, further down the line, I intend to create a character who could fill a different role, then I'll come back and re-apply with them, or something like that.

- I respect the fact that I am probably jumping the gun on this one, but I wanted to submit anyway.

Edited November 24, 2015 by Guest

[Killerhurtz]

+1. You're not jumping the gun if the gun is shiny and chrome.

Though while this application is REALLY REALLY GOOD, there's a little thing you should know:

it IS an universal head whitelist. You don't need to reapply - as long as your characters are good, you can have as many Heads in whatever position you want.

[ChevalierMalFet]

+1. You're not jumping the gun if the gun is shiny and chrome.

Though while this application is REALLY REALLY GOOD, there's a little thing you should know:

it IS an universal head whitelist. You don't need to reapply - as long as your characters are good, you can have as many Heads in whatever position you want.

Oh, I know. I'm just signifying that I have no intent to run off and start playing a captain right away.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

I can confirm that I've been pushing Aurora on Chev for awhile now. He's a creative individual and a cool guy.

It's my unbiased opinion that he'd make good on a whitelist.

+1

[ChevalierMalFet]

I can confirm that I've been pushing Aurora on Chev for awhile now. He's a creative individual and a cool guy.

It's my unbiased opinion that he'd make good on a whitelist.

+1

So... What happens now? How many more +1s do I need?

[Aqy]

Application approved.

 

 

Glory to Aurora.