[Denied] Finblob's Head of Staff Whitelist Application

[finblob]

BYOND key: Finblob

Character names: Ted Grimsby

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How long have you been playing on Aurora?: Since mid-2015, took a break this January and started playing again last week.

Why do you wish to be on the whitelist?: I've played Head of Staff roles a ton on previous servers over the course of a few years and really enjoyed it.

Why did you come to Aurora?: I used to play on UT and then Phoenix and some other servers like that, then stopped playing for about a year and a few days ago remembered this game existed and found the server- it's really fun and good RP.

Have you read the Aurora wiki on the head roles and qualifications you plan on playing?:

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Yes

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:

Entertainment for everyone involved, scaled so that everyone is able to have fun. Roleplay should be realistic but not a documentary- sure, not everyone is great at the game or at roleplaying, but as long as they're having fun (and not ruining anyone else's good time) then we should work with them to create exciting scenarios. In short, roleplay should be about co-operating to improvise fun scenarios, using the games mechanics to aid this.

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

At the end of the day, everyone is trying to have fun, and this is hard when you have incompetent Heads of Staff. Not just in terms of gameplay, but also in terms of roleplay. The purpose of a HoS is to, largely, fill in a place on the station to allow the game to progress. However, this does not mean they have to sit in their office, detached from the rest of the game, only doing their assigned tasks. A HoS should be able to co-operate with other players to not only progress the gameplay but also the overall drama of the round, and the stories of individual characters.

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

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To be a good example to new players, and to provide frequent players with a beacon of vague sensibility and assured fun should they join the round with them. It's daunting to join a round with no recognisable characters, and while it can be fun to meet new characters and interact with them, it's always good to see familiar faces. A Whitelisted player should integrate with other communities ingame and make an effort to join in conversation OOC, even if its just for a bit of banter. It strengthens the community and makes the time more memorable and fun for everyone.

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

Character name: Ted Grimsby

Character age: 34

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

When God, or whatever, created the universe. They gave humans, and most living beings, the freeze-flight-fight response. This meant that, in the face of danger, they would initially freeze (to avoid detection) take flight (to avoid being caught) and, if all else fails and they're backed into a corner, fight.

Ted Grimsby, however, got the flight-freeze-flight response. This meant that when faced with anything with more teeth than him (which is most things; he doesn't floss), he will initially take flight (run like Hell), freeze (to catch his breath), and then take flight again (with added screaming). This is all well and good for most people, cowardice is an effective trait to have when you want to stay alive. Unfortunately, Ted is also stubborn, and competitive, and often makes bad decisions. His bad decisions led to him falling from esteemed doctor to a homeless addict, his cowardice kept him alive on the streets, and his stubborn nature allowed him to claw his way back up to the top, joining Nanotresen and (mostly) kicking his addiction. Despite his ugliness, shortness, bad-breath, selfishness, and greed, he was able to secure a husband and adopt two daughters. This new leaf has led him to kid himself on, believing himself to be a responsible adult, and thus fuelling his hopes of a promotion to Head of Personnel, a position most enticing to a man who loves sitting, paperwork, and dogs.

Unfortunately, we all know that if he does get this job, he'll get a lot more than he signed up for.

What do you like about this character?:

He's fun to play, I've had him for years even before SS13, and I develop his character outside the game, too. He's well-known among many of the players so whenever I play a round with him I have a lot of fun. I see him as a projection of myself, pushing negative and positive traits into him and exaggerating them to create an individual person. It's also fun to play as him because I can explore the different ways he would react to the hazards ingame. When I first started, I pictured him as selfish, rude, and only caring for himself. However, escaping danger and leaving everyone behind got boring, and he evolved as a character to become one who actually cares for his colleagues (to an extent) and goes to great lengths to help them- something I never pictured when I first made him. Overall, I like him because he's evolved, and is constantly evolving, even in terms of physical appearance.

What do you dislike about this character?:

Sometimes I fall into habits of projecting a false character onto him, such as making him selfish and greedy like I mentioned above, purely to maintain a character, ruining any good potential gameplay/roleplay. Luckily, I'm doing this a lot less, but I still notice myself doing it sometimes.

What do you think makes this character fit to be a head of staff?:

He's a classic example of a boring, shirt and tie working man, and forcing him to take on the more dangerous roles such as Head of Personnel would be exciting for me, personally (personnely?? bad joke, sorry), to roleplay but also his relations with the other crew and the unique way he reacts to the world around him would allow good roleplay scenarios to blossom, making the game fun for other people too. Not only in terms of roleplay, but I also feel Ted would be very good at his job, as a person who has experienced a lot of what life has to offer, and is able to relate to his colleagues. I pride myself on improvisation and project this into Ted, and I feel a Head of Personnel has to do a lot of thinking on the spot. Furthermore, I think it would be likely he would land himself in a top job through bribery and begging, before realising it's a lot more dangerous than he would have liked. Finally, he really likes dogs, and Ian would never go unfed.

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Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions.

How would you rate your own roleplaying?:

I'm a trained actor and I like to think I project this onto my characters. I develop Ted Grimsby inside and outside the game, and I feel very comfortable roleplaying him. I only joined this server recently, and I recognise many of the players from previous servers, and they all seemed pretty happy to see Ted back, hopefully this means his roleplaying is memorable and fun. I've compiled a few reviews:

"ted's back!!! yes!" -me

"wow, i love ted. he's my favourite scotsman" -muncorn, probably

"i thought this would be a funny joke, but is probably only making me look stupid and lessening my chances of a successful application"- also me

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Extra notes:

I've played almost all jobs (bar Security), but would largely stick to Head of Personnel and Chief Medical Officer (I usually play cargo or medical)

[Guest Menown]

So, I've seen Ted as a Xenobiologist, Chemist, Quartermaster, Cook, various different other jobs.

What all can Ted do?

[finblob]

He's mostly service and medical, but in the four years I've played him he's spent shifts getting amateur training in Robotics, Hydroponics, he's been CMO before on other servers but that's not canon, and got some training in atmospherics and stuff but I don't remember how it works lmao.

I don't want him to be some superhuman powergamer though, so I usually just keep him medical and service and then sometimes working in Robotics or other skilled jobs if he needs to, and only basic things that anyone could pick up without formal training.

Jack of all trades master of none sort of thing. Except 'all trades' is 'some trades'.

[ToasterStrudel]

That may be a large redflag as to how we work here. Cross Departmental jobs usually have extreamly different degrees and job titles, its extreamly unlikely that a Medical Doctor would be assigned as a Janitor or Cargo Tech.

I really can't see a 34 year old having enough degrees to work in Science, Medical, and still have time to work in some service job. I highly suggest making some other characters to fill those positions as you're likely to get bwoinked by one of us if you don't.

Onto the application, Its solid (Minus the previous topic).

[finblob]

Yes! I see what you mean, I think what I meant was more not that he has a degree in science, but that he's able to work the Robotics machine if he has to, as an MO.

In terms of service work it's usually just because Medical is full, but I'll keep that in mind and avoid it in future, thank you!

[sonicgotnuked]

Yeah, the cross departmental knowledge is kind of sketchy... But I will state that his RP is fantastic when it comes to antags. Last time I seen him antag, he held a ceminar in the chapel to persuade people that the person who attacked security with a sword 20 minutes in was just a extremist and shit. Hell, he even made me chuckle a little when I got converted and he said, "Nar'sie damands hands, literal hands."

Ted is generally a good character from what I see, just the cross departmental knowledge is the only sketchy thing. +1 of you stick with one job (He made a shitty game mode not shitty)

[Bygonehero]

+1 Excellent time roleplaying with Ted

[finblob]

Thank you! And yes, recently I've been avoiding any jobs other than medbay to avoid cross-departmental stuff, and I've made new characters to play these roles if I ever want to.

[DatBerry]

well, my only complaint has already been addressed, Ted joined the shift as a geneticist, got somehow promoted by the RD to CMO and went in to do surgery.

as you've already acknowledged it I'm not going to -1 over it, but i do think you should spend more time, being a head of staff here is more than just bossing around the department and a bad of head of staff can ruin the round for the entire department if not the whole station.

[finblob]

Yes, that round was a bit strange. I joined as Geneticist, without any RP experience mainly because we'd never had genetics before so I didn't think to add it to my employment records. The only prior experience I had in genetics was on different servers where the conduct was a little different, and my fault was in assuming they were the same.

In regards to becoming CMO, it was a mercenary round and Ted was the only person trained in medical on-station, other than a surgeon who was drunk and smoking during surgeries, and so the RD gave him all-medical access in the emergency. Ted's trained to be a CMO and his employment records show this, and I've done a ton of research to back up his records (trained on Canis Minor, and in Harmony City, etc), so I feel his becoming a CMO that round in an emergency was justified. And to be fair, he didn't ask to be CMO, just to be a surgeon. Due to the captain being dead and about four people needing operations (with only one OR), I think it was a good idea as he ended up managing to fix just about everyone (sorry to the Vaurca who needed about three different operations), and another crew member even said he 'saved medbay'. So that's fun.

And as for getting more experience, I have played on heavy-RP baystation servers for about 4 years now, always in medbay, and on all these servers (including Aurora, before the whitelist) I've played as CMO and HoP, and feel experienced in both. Although I would likely only choose one as to avoid crossing departments, as previously stated.

[Stauto]

Honestly, Ted is an interesting character. I know people like that in real life, and I feel the Flight-freeze response is played extremely well. His movement to Head could cause some interesting Antag opportunities as well, since people will try to pull a fast one on him. All together, I think he'd be a great addition, and I've never heard any bad things about Finblob as a player.

+1

[ShameOnTurtles]

Application denied. PM TishinaStalker or I for why.