Main Differences between Bubberstation & Other Servers
Focus on Characters
Bubberstation focuses on having good, complete characters. If you can't answer basic questions about your character, expect to be seen by admins. Don't be surprised when features, moving forward, are implemented that require you to put additional thought into character creation, or that raise Roleplay quality in the server. Check out the Roleplay Guides section for some help on making a good character.
But more than that, we want these characters to interact. Let their personality traits mesh in new and interesting ways. And to do that, you have to play something more than just your self-insert. Give us something to munch on.
Presence of Antagonists and Events
Bubberstation focuses on having antagonists, and events, that create conflict within a round. This means some people will die, but most will live. We're not looking to emulate /tg/station in terms of events, but we're also not looking to run a hugbox.
Expect to see a good few antagonists in your average round, and you might even be attacked. You're expected to respond with grace, sportsmanship, and of course, roleplay, see our Rules.
Silicons as Characters
Seen a lot of Silicons on the server? Well, here's what you need to know about dealing with them:
On Bubberstation, cyborgs and AIs are required to be sentient characters,[1] and this comes with some important details:
- It's not going to be as easy to identify when a Silicon is violating its laws, see Safeguard for help with interpretation.
- Silicon players are likely going to treat you worse, or outright ignore you if you are rude to them, outside of urgent situations.
- You have to treat a Silicon as if it were a person OOC, despite its robotic status. That is to say, you're going to be talking with admins for bad sportsmanship (see Rules) if you do something like attempt to law 2 a Silicon to kill itself, do endless menial tasks, or order it to never enter your department/Science without valid reasoning, as all are a violation of law 1 under Safeguard.
It is not a violation of this expectation to play a character that is formal and robotic; after all, a Roomba with a surfer dude voice isn't exactly the pinnacle of realism.[2] It's just an expectation that a character be present.
Differences: Lower and High Roleplay
You may be asking, what makes our RP different from it's two twin sisters? There's a simple answer: expectation.
Lower Roleplay
It's expected that on servers with low roleplay that there isn't much if any roleplay to be provided at all. This means that players would be engaging primarily in a way that is more similar to regular gameplay. Servers that are low roleplay tend to have higher action, faster paced rounds, and more intense antagonists on average. These servers have rules that focus more heavily on ensuring game balance while minimizing admin oversight. However, there are some protections that may be placed on players in order to preserve game balance; such as validhunting rules which forbid non-security players from self-deputizing. Example servers: /tg/station 13 Terry, Goonstation 1, BeeStation LRP
High Roleplay
These servers expect players to be in-character almost consistently the whole round. There are far more rules dictating what your character should know, should be, should do, and there is a lot more admin oversight in order to enforce this. High roleplay expects that players are able to make stories with one another without the involvement of antagonists, and should there be any--antagonists are expected to provide an opposition that is firm, yet fair; not in lieu of destroying someone else's enjoyment, or interrupting the story. Many high roleplay servers either do not have normal occuring antagonists, or any round-ending ones. Example servers: Baystation 12, Sojourn, Aurora Station
So that's cool and all, but how does this relate to Bubberstation 13?
Bubberstation is part of the RP servers that try to find that middle-ground. Accessibility to diverse gameplay, interesting antagonists, engaging roleplay, but without the constant discrimination of admins watching down on you, or the horde justice of your fellow players. Our Mission Statement idealizes this concept in execution. Part of passing the whitelist needed to join, is to ensure that only those who meet the minimum roleplay expectations are allowed in-- As a chief part of the server, we also feature the core gameplay loop of SS13 as seen on places like Citadel and /tg/station.
