On Antagonist Characters for S13 Missions

[Lucid]

Due to the fact that many of our missions require the participation of a character who is either:

A) Going to be killed in some grizzly way

B) Going to be sold out and utterly ruined socially/politically

C) Just generally wrecked

D) Privy to information that most PCs would require dozens of RPs to acquire so that it could be realistic in game.

I am going to suggest the implementation of one time use characters who do not require a profile and who can be killed/ruined/wrecked/privy to needed information. These characters are simply to facilitate what is required of the mission without the attachment issues that are present whenever a PC's life/reputation comes into question.

Because of the sneaky nature of political manipulation and espionage, the use of characters that exist solely for the duration of the RP then either vanish or die (not that they cannot become recurring should that be desired but only in relation to the S13 Mission arc/RP), would greatly reduce the likelihood of OOC drama and grudges arising. Though PCs may be used as the body that is being investigated/espionaged (yes that is now a verb) the party RPing said character must understand the risks involved as well as be able to differentiate between out of character information and in character information. Additionally, if a PC is used, and this goes for the one time use "NPCs" as well, whomever is writing them must be willing to concede some information rather than simply metagaming their way out of having their character being suckered.

All of these missions require a certain amount of RP skill and understanding otherwise, as they have in the past, they'll simply fall flat. It is my hope that these one time use characters will be better able to advance S13 missions insofar as to be sufficiently suckered/tricked/bamboozled/generally manipulated so that the mission can be completed. However, this is not to say that whomever is writing said NPC should make it easy for the PC/PCs investigating. It's a very fine balance that is going to take some time to work out so that this works efficiently.

On that note: for S13 members involved in missions outside of the ones posted in the relay, it's anybody's game and you must be sneaky. Present your character as someone else if you must, do whatever you have to...play a spy. Other characters shouldn't know, etc etc etc.

If this is confusing (as I have a feeling it may be) please ask questions.

 

[Gambler]

Seamus' rules for one-time use NPCs stands for some missions, but others will require you to hunt down actual PCs instead of faceless, unattached NPCs. It really depends on the nature of the mission. Assassination missions will, for the most part, be PC kills, generally those who have sensitive information or are in positions that threaten the Republic. Namely, assassination missions will target Hutt officials, which tests your skill as an Rper to lure the person into a thread, out maneuver them, and then kill without leaving behind a trace of who you are.

Other missions, such as sabotage and infiltration, will involve a mix of PCs and NPCs. The tricky part of S13 missions is that we either set them up against NPCs so people don't bitch, or we plan it out, get the OK from the opposing faction leader, and duke it out from the shadows. For sabotage missions we will have to let Santoro know where we're going to hit before we hit it, and then invite people in to act as security. There will be a plethora of NPC security forces along with their PC handlers, so the fun goes round and round.

To minimize OOC bitching/metagaming, it is necessary to plan missions out well ahead of time. Aliases, disguises, escape routes, equipment - everything must be outlined in the very first post. If you are paranoid that someone will metagame, take every precaution against it. In your first post write only under an alias, vaguely detail equipment, and mention at a glance certain points that will be used later as escape routes/blind spots. Also, at the end of missions, it will be necessary to go on cleanup duty. If you don't write IC that you erase security footage, burn data, or whatever you need to do to clean up, then it isn't considered done and you'll have to live with the consequences of someone using those clues later on.

In the perfect world where every writer on this site was mature enough to handle character death or manipulation, we wouldn't have any trouble at all with this sort of thing. Unfortunately, there are still people who refuse to let their characters die, even when they have been solidly beaten and backed into a corner. Instead of allowing OOC drama to build due to these silly inconveniences, I suggest we cover all of our bases from the get-go. It might mean some actual thought before Rping, but if that extra thought saves you days of backtracking, drama and possible retconning, then it is well worth it. A few extra minutes to sit down and think through what you are about to write isn't going to kill you, though the inverse is most certainly true.