We need to have a serious discussion about admin run events

In all events the majority of the people are going to say it's good because that's Aurorastation. You can have an admin spawned antag on the station who murderbones people relentlessly and without RP and people will say it was good. Who can have an event where some lore figure tours all the departments for 2 hours, then leaves, and people will say that it's good.

It was not a good event. The only reason why it's considered an event is because it contains an antagonist that isn't normally obtainable, that's it. You can't deflect blame on this issue by saying it's the crew's fault because this could've been prevented by actually showing some care into the event. I could create a bad event where the antag murderbones everyone and at the end of the round go "Oh, it wasn't my fault that the antag murderboned everyone." despite my ability to step in any time. An example of an event with a good host was that Dionaea event where the host actually provided us with some actual direction, they told us what needed to be done and the host created scenarios which led in that direction.

Ironically the only reason why I observed that round was because I knew the event was going to be shit because it's almost always a murderbone event that doesn't make sense. I tried coming out of my shell and perhaps helping avoid that by actively assisting in that round, but I was punished for it by being locked in a Containment Cell for 2 hours. I'm straight up just not going to play non-canon events anymore because good, well-thought ones are actually rare.

In all events the majority of the people are going to say it's good because that's Aurorastation.

To those who seek enjoyment in things, they will find it. For those who seek the opposite, they will find it.

I'm straight up just not going to play non-canon events anymore because good, well-thought ones are actually rare.

Fine, we'll try to have fun without you.

In all events the majority of the people are going to say it's good because that's Aurorastation. You can have an admin spawned antag on the station who murderbones people relentlessly and without RP and people will say it was good. Who can have an event where some lore figure tours all the departments for 2 hours, then leaves, and people will say that it's good.

It was not a good event. The only reason why it's considered an event is because it contains an antagonist that isn't normally obtainable, that's it. You can't deflect blame on this issue by saying it's the crew's fault because this could've been prevented by actually showing some care into the event. I could create a bad event where the antag murderbones everyone and at the end of the round go "Oh, it wasn't my fault that the antag murderboned everyone." despite my ability to step in any time. An example of an event with a good host was that Dionaea event where the host actually provided us with some actual direction, they told us what needed to be done and the host created scenarios which led in that direction.

Ironically the only reason why I observed that round was because I knew the event was going to be shit because it's almost always a murderbone event that doesn't make sense. I tried coming out of my shell and perhaps helping avoid that by actively assisting in that round, but I was punished for it by being locked in a Containment Cell for 2 hours. I'm straight up just not going to play non-canon events anymore because good, well-thought ones are actually rare.

How would you have run it, out of curiosity? We value all feedback and it's needless to say that we're always open to ideas for events.

In all events the majority of the people are going to say it's good because that's Aurorastation. You can have an admin spawned antag on the station who murderbones people relentlessly and without RP and people will say it was good. Who can have an event where some lore figure tours all the departments for 2 hours, then leaves, and people will say that it's good.

It was not a good event. The only reason why it's considered an event is because it contains an antagonist that isn't normally obtainable, that's it. You can't deflect blame on this issue by saying it's the crew's fault because this could've been prevented by actually showing some care into the event. I could create a bad event where the antag murderbones everyone and at the end of the round go "Oh, it wasn't my fault that the antag murderboned everyone." despite my ability to step in any time. An example of an event with a good host was that Dionaea event where the host actually provided us with some actual direction, they told us what needed to be done and the host created scenarios which led in that direction.

Ironically the only reason why I observed that round was because I knew the event was going to be shit because it's almost always a murderbone event that doesn't make sense. I tried coming out of my shell and perhaps helping avoid that by actively assisting in that round, but I was punished for it by being locked in a Containment Cell for 2 hours. I'm straight up just not going to play non-canon events anymore because good, well-thought ones are actually rare.

 

How would you have run it, out of curiosity? We value all feedback and it's needless to say that we're always open to ideas for events.

More "Dungeon Mastering" needed to be done. You say that railroading leads to stale events, but it actually just leads to manageable events. There should've been a more deeper end goal for the borers explained to them other than just to reproduce and follow antag guidelines. You should've noticed that there were quite a few people in containment for 1-2 hours and should've created a situation that would get them out or at least encourage the captain to get them out. As I think coalf mentioned, as soon as you got central command involved, it was next to impossible for the Captain controlled borer to actually do anything of interest. The Captain tried getting people out I believe but the scientists/borgs/whatever were like "No, central's orders. They stay in here."

The borers during the round did not have any direction. No one really had a goal in mind other than to just reproduce. The borer who controlled the cat beast roboticist had an idea but that was it. It didn't really go anywhere.

[mention]BurgerBB[/mention] Gonna just mention before we break the record for quotes in quotes :^)

I see your point. For clarity's sake, I was the borer inside the captain. Most of the round we were trying to help the other borers but the crew instantly saying "Kill the brain slugs" made that difficult. As to why the CC team killed everyone I have no idea there. Myself and the captain entered diplomatic discussion, which I made the other borers aware of. I get that the admins could do more, and the person hosting it took in the feedback and sees where they went wrong, being the ultimatum. But in this case, the crew really did make it difficult to further the story aswell. I went in originally planning to weave a story of our "race" being endangered and eventually gaining sympathy, turning on them in an instant and taking over. However because the crew were so hostile upon discovering us (Muh FCP for sentient shit) we were forced to shift the dynamic a little bit. Which resulted in the former being the gimmick. A race seeking peace and survival. As much as I don't like peace antags, I didn't really like the idea of people being trapped in containment. [mention]Scheveningen[/mention] (Why tf are there so many spellings of schev on the forums , you better be the right one) can confirm that we did try and get the other borers freed. But there was only so much we could push without getting shot at by the HAPT. Which wouldn't accomplish much. I can't speak for all the borers, but myself and schev did try and make the round interesting for others, engaging in some of the best RP I've had in a while at the same time.

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it, and I can only hope that the next event is more interesting for you. But what's done is done, feedback was given, positive and negative. And the negative has not gone ignored. We can't promise all events will be good, but we can try to improve them for the future. For a first event, I'd say the host did alright. It's so easy for events to crash and burn and be shut down quickly, be it the fault of the crew or admin.

Rail-roading does not work as well as you might think it does.

This was an experience I had in a campaign. Suppose the characters enter a city, and find a riot or similar event. The most sensible choice would be to get the hell out of there immediately. If the players choose this strategy, and the DM needs their participation in the riot for the plot to develop, characters will find the city door closed, or a mob in front of it which prevents them to leave.

There are more subtle and less subtle ways of railroading the roleplaying experience. It is rarely a worthy sacrifice to completely disable any sense of free-will in roleplaying. You're forcing characters into a pre-written plotline and you do not give them the avenue of choice at all, which is something here that adds a ton of fucking depth to in-character decisions to be able to choose whether to participate or walk away from a situation.

Rail-roading is very bad because it gives the illusion that the outcome was random but in reality, it was orchestrated by the Master since the very beginning. Meaning the story and the point of roleplaying meant ultimately nothing because none of the players were able to make their own decisions and had to be forced to play along with the game that one person was planning to execute all along.

Rail-roading is oftentimes only fun for the DM, not the players that expect their decisions to actually have weight and depth to it. I'll fight anyone IRL that disagrees otherwise. Free will is critically important for roleplaying, because otherwise characters are not even characters. They are just vessels to be toyed with by a power-hungry campaign Master, which is hardly any fun for most people.

I did feel the experience was rail-roaded slightly when Central Command got involved. The initial plan with the HAPT was that they were going to nuke the station, did you know? Instead they got reworked to instate a slow-and-steady quarantine to hopefully involve more people into the paranoia rather than prematurely ending the round. I was annoyed as the captain as even I, the most important role on the station, was basically enforced to be locked up. It was annoying but I just deferred to speaking to my borer about fluff stuff to round it all out. I figured because it was happening that it was the intention of the event manager.

Not really the best thing that could've happened but I have rather low expectations for non-canon events too, but I don't go so far as to avoid playing them.

I'm just going to offer my two cents-- Often the issue is bad command and security play in these 'murderbone' events. I find that shifting the focus onto 'protect civilians and evacuate' instead of 'hunt down the antag' makes them better-- suboptimal play will result in suboptimal outcomes, and if you fail to realise that as neither mall cops nor soldiers, the NSS Aurora security force has dangerous gear and real responsibilities, but is also not a fugitive hunting team or an elite strike force. They are there to ensure the safety of civilians. Structuring the player/command response to events around this principle has made them much more enjoyable, in my experience.

Just dropping here to say railroading was in my opinion what harmed the round the most.

Read railroaded the event by joining and playing "Commander Huey", she had given both the HAPT an okay, borgs the "murder infected" laws and had bombed the fuck out of the trader shuttle.

Also I was the catbeast (visitor didn't play robotics that time) that had the borer in me, our plan was all around just "try to survive and get at least one worm on the shuttle" at which we eventually succeeded even though the HAPT had a gigantic murderboner.

I'd say the direct cutting into the event by the event master was exactly what made it overall enjoyable to anyone who interacted with the antags any other way than "Stomp the slugs on sight", due to the fact that people were slaughtered not only FOR being infected but also for being infected in the past which in the end just encourages people to not follow antag gimmicks and instead shut them down for their own personal enjoyment and safety.

It's important to note that if you look into this thread all evidence really presented is annecdotal with people both enjoying and not enjoying it and simply stating "Majority is on my side" would be incorrect since Read had done a vote and the people were in an overwhelming majority of "Yes it was enjoyable"

All in all I'd say the round was a 4/10, big part of the crew did their best to actually co-operate with the antags, borers didn't just jump to "Hang urself and take control" and command wasn't overly fascistic with the captain even negotiating with one of the borers.

What completely shit up the round was the CC inclusion by Read as Commander Huey and HAPT which essentially just served to put a complete stop on any RP with the HAPT members just batoning anyone who didn't follow orders fast enough and murdering anyone who even took a whiff of a borer and giving borgs a "murder infected laws".

None of it made sense honestly, NT IS supposed to be a souless company but wouldn't it be in their interest to just capture the borers instead of murdering the shit out of them? More Weyland Utani and Umbrella Corp rather than whatever the fuck that was.

I'd also question the AI as Read said they only acted on information provided by the AI? Which I believe at the time was Harmony, I think.

Either Read as Commander Huey had over-reacted or the AI had exagarrated the information provided to the commander.

The Borer round was really cool in my opinion, I enjoyed the entire round and got to rp with the Borers in some fashion, even letting one take over Pun-Pun was fun, I think the idea was good and it was all fun until the last half hour or hour, we were all trapped in departures sitting around for ages until the ERT finally came back, I had a little Borer in me before called Sea, and I made it my mission to try get them home, I even found another Borer and used it as bait saying it was the one that was in me previously that round, whilst Sea was kept in my pocket for the duration of that entire time, everyone was kill on sight with the worms and I don't know if that was valid or nothing, I mean I did hear earlier in the round the crazy people attacking so it kind of makes sense, but a lot of people just didn't care anyone trying to reason anything with the worms which was a bit of a downer, when the ERT finally got things running and the headache of being in departures with like 40 people was almost over we all queued up and it was my turn to be scanned, I got a nod of approval and went to sit down next to Willow and talk, an actual 30 seconds later an ERT approached me and started unloading into my head point blank, I stood up and just walked into the open where I was subsequently gunned down with absolutely no words said other then the excuse that I didn't get excused from the scan. It seemed dirty to me that it was stated right after I died in a rushed manor like they needed to tell everyone they had a certain reason for what was basically gunning down an innocent. I know ERT and it's kind of what they do, but having my head chopped off and just slung in the back really spoiled the whole round for me, any hope I had was just completely gone and I was forced out of the round and the rp I had with the Borer. I'm trying not to complain but the ERT definitely were the problem in that round for me.

(Needed to get this off my chest.)