New Admin Event (Admeme) Policy
This details the guidelines for admin intervention on Moffstation.
For the sake of simplicity, both admin intervention and admeme are defined as any player-facing action taken by an admin within a round, regardless of scale, that is outside the scope of their normal admin duties.
Examples of admemes/admin intervention:
- Spawning an item in maints
- Responding to players or faxes
- Changing the laws of borgs
- Running a server-wide event
Examples of things that are NOT admemes:
- Fixing bugs that players encounter
- Responding to ahelps
- Giving someone an antag token because they lost their roll
- Talking to people in dead chat
What is the purpose of admemes?
The purpose of admemes is to enhance the experience for players. A well-executed admeme can give a player the best round they’ve ever had, while a bad one can completely ruin someone’s opinion of the server. Running admemes and knowing what goes into doing them properly requires experience and player feedback. This guide is meant to detail the basic principles of what goes into a “good” admeme and how to avoid making bad ones (at least for the community and environment of Moffstation).
Rules
These are lines that should not be crossed in the vast majority of circumstances.
Admemes Require Thought, Effort, and Planning
Put effort into what you are doing, and think about the consequences. Think about how your actions will influence the round via the butterfly effect, and imagine yourself in the shoes of the players (both antags and crew). Imagine the worst possible thing that could happen and plan accordingly. Before doing something, ask yourself, “Is this going to be fun for the players, or just for me?” If it’s not going to be fun for players, then don’t do it.
Frequency and Scope
Any admeme that majorly affects the round should be either voted on in-game or scheduled in advance via Discord. Additionally, not every round needs a station-wide, round-defining event; most rounds should be relatively normal. Avoid repeating the same gimmick across multiple rounds.
Do NOT Give Players Special Treatment
We have no shortage of players with popular or interesting characters; however, that does not mean they need to be given special treatment and attention (both positive and negative). Avoid admemes that are centered around giving attention to a specific person or character.
Maintain Immersion
Generally speaking, both serious and silly admemes are welcome. However, “silly” admemes should not break character immersion. Anything you do as an admeme should have some form of plausible IC explanation. We expect players to maintain MRP roleplay quality, and the admemes you do should follow that same standard.
Examples of breaking immersion:
- Spawning in Narsie for no reason
- Exploding someone because they annoyed you
- Making OOC references
Don’t Encourage Rulebreaks
Self-explanatory. Don’t bait players into breaking the rules, or expect them to follow the rules when your admeme encourages them to do otherwise. If you give a player a gibstick, expect them to use it.
Test Before Doing/Uploading Things
Test on a localhost before uploading prototypes or taking actions that risk breaking the server. We don’t always have someone on hand capable of restarting the server, so if you break the server, you can end up disrupting or ending the entire session.
Log Your Admemes
Any admemes that affect a signifigant portion of the player in the round should be logged in the admeme logging thread within the admin channel. Include the round number as well as a brief description of what was done.
Guidelines
These are a looser set of guidelines, but should be treated just as seriously.
The Golden Rule: Players Should Decide the Outcome
If you have heard the term “player agency,” this is what it means. The choices of players should not be invalidated by the whims of an admin. Play into what players are trying to achieve, rather than forcing them in your own direction. Avoid railroading, and allow players to make their own story.
Don’t Play Your Own Admeme
The story is not about you, the admin; it’s about the players. If there are roles that need to be filled, give them to ghost players, or recruit people before the round.
Running Events at Central Command
Things run at CC should not entice players to break safe zone rules (if you do otherwise, give them prior warning). CC admemes should avoid causing players much trouble, should remain in character, and should allow people to continue their roleplay.
Playing as Central Command
You are allowed to respond to people as Central Command. HOWEVER, this does not mean you should authorize everything coming your way, even if it would make sense. People tend to take everything CC says as “word of law,” and the station will run with anything concrete you give them. As such, you are advised to be either indifferent or dismissive toward most of the station’s requests. As an admin, you should never personally travel to the station; allow players to take CC ghostroles in your stead.