Space Station 13, Where Work is- HONK!

[Quisoves Potoo]

 

What fresh Hell can this be, I hear you ask.

 

Hell in space, it seems.

 

The year is 2561, some three centuries since humanity erupted from its solar system, spreading its seed among the stars. Scattered throughout the cosmos are testaments to the success of homo sapiens, Evolution's boon. So too those to other lineages, be they skrell or vox or myriad others. Mankind and its cohorts play god, resculpting the very universe.

 

Not all of mankind, mind you.

 

Invariably, some get left behind. Far from the warmth of the Dyson spheres, the hodgepodge vestiges of eras past eke out their ungainly existence, hoping, if nothing else, to amuse the universe enough that it remembers them. Civilization here has mutated into something less than sane, a shoddy amalgam of that which it understands and that which the Higher Powers have cast aside. The line between dreams and reality has blurred, yesterday's fiction becoming today's fact. The clown, once a mere guise, is become a lifestyle, woven even into the genes of some. Vast space stations are guarded by artificial intelligences with the minds of toddlers. Crowbars and screwdrivers are wielded alongside technologies that to their users resemble magic (though they've seen enough of the real thing to know the difference.)  Everything matters, for nothing matters.

 

One of the more prominent backwater entities is the corporation-state of Nanotrasen. Aboard its space stations, its employees (or property, depending on whom you ask) expand their limited scientific knowledge, improve the quality of life, mine for precious minerals, fend off invaders and infiltrators, and generally live their lives. All of this is in furtherance of their masters’ nebulous goals, the nature of which they see no need to question. Who are they to bite the hand that feeds them?

There are many sorts of stations: There are the Class Zeds, pristine, ordered, the breadbaskets of Nanotrasen; there are the Classi Bellorum, dedicated to the defense and expansion of the corporation; there are the Class Lambdas, your garden-variety stations, unremarkable in the best of ways; and then there’s Space Station 13...

 

Space Station 13 is an online, multiplayer, simulation… Thing. Though basically sci-fi, it would be a mistake to classify it with the likes of Starcraft or Wing Commander. Instead, it uses its setting as a springboard for all manner of shenanigans.

Want to play the part of an engineer, keeping the station powered and running? You can do that. Want to play the part of the captain, keeping it all together? You can do that. Want to play the part of the clown, generally amusing and annoying the crew (most likely the latter)? Oh yes, you can do that.

Or perhaps you’ll wind up a traitor, tasked with some act of murder or subterfuge. Or a wizard, whose job it is to wreak havoc on the station.

In order to achieve your goals, you’ll have to interact with an environment where, odds are, if a thing works a certain way in reality, it likely does so there as well. Found a deck of cards? You can play card-games! Got a flag? You can set in on fire with a lighter! Wandered into a low-pressure room? You’ll start dying!

In short, Space Station 13 is immensely detailed and (in the right hands) immensely entertaining.

When?

RRU’s rounds are typically held from around 6:30 to 12:00 PST. If a round is about to start, I’ll put an alert in the Chatbox, for the benefit of those not on Discord.

 

This is Boring, Nothing’s Happened Yet!
If there’s anything Space Station 13 requires, it’s patience. Rounds can run for hours, and player participation is key. Don’t sit around doing nothing and expect things to happen spontaneously. Nor should you expect every round to be a disaster from the word go. Variety, as they say, is the spice of life, and SS13 has plenty of it.

 

Rules

RRU’s Terrastation, being a private station, lacks the vast rulesets of most public servers. There are nonetheless a few points of conduct:

·         Stay in character: Keep all out-of-character interactions in the OOC chat. No emotes, etc. IC. Try to do your job. AIs and Cyborgs are expected to follow their lawsets.

·         No spoilers! If you’re having an intimate discussion with the chaplain, only for him to pull out an energy sword and cut your head off, no using OOC or Discord or what-you-might to alert everyone to his treachery. If you didn’t get the chance to cry out over comms, too bad. This goes for NPC enemies as well. In event you are resurrected, your character suffers minor memory-damage, preventing you from identifying your murderer. Knowledge acquired as a ghost is also not remembered.

·         Don’t grief: Unless you are an antagonist, your character is assumed to be reasonably virtuous, sane, and law-abiding. If you are mind-slaved, or thralled, or whatnot, you are to obey your master’s every command, provided you are not asked to commit suicide. Acts of trespass or theft are permitted, so long as you stay in-character (no kleptomania, please,) but expect in-game consequences (e.g. jail.) Brawls are allowed, so long as they escalate convincingly. Don’t go looking for a fight.

·         On a related note, the clown and mime have considerably fewer IC restrictions, being prank-loving chuckleheads with no serious jobs. They are still prohibited from griefing. Breaking into chemistry to mix a hair-growth solution is fine. Breaking into engineering to release the Tesla ball is not. If you’re planning something you fear might cross the line, contact an admin via adminhelp.

·         AIs and Cyborgs are bound only by their laws. If your lawset tells you to minimize expenses, and you believe that a certain player is more trouble than he’s worth, you are permitted to do away with him (but don’t be surprised when your lawset is promptly changed.)

·         Do not commit suicide unless there is a convincing IC reason. If you have to leave the game, have the other players put you in the cryo-dorms.

·         If, as an AI or Cyborg, you are given a law ordering you to commit suicide, you are not obliged to obey it.

·         Do not tamper with players suffering from Space Sleep Disorder (SSD,) i.e. players who are logged out. If for some reason you need to interact with someone who’s gone SSD, please consult with an admin.

·         If you have any questions about the rules, or think that someone else has broken them, don’t hesitate to contact an admin via adminhelp.

·         On a related note, mentorhelp is available for those with questions about game-mechanics.

·         Above all, don’t be a jerk

Getting Started

·         Space Station 13 runs on an obscure online-game engine called BYOND. If it looks like something made around the turn of the millennium, that’s because it is. In fact, Space Station 13 was first released in 2003. BYOND is free and can be downloaded here. Doing so should present no difficulty at all.

·         Once you’ve installed BYOND, you’ll need to make an account. Again, this is simplicity itself.

·         Terrastation is private (a list of public servers can be found here, if you’re interested,) so you’ll need the IP, available in Discord and the Chatbox. Once you’ve acquired it, and once the host is ready, launch BYOND, select open, paste the IP, and press OK. This will launch the game.

·         Once you’re at the startup screen, choose “Setup Character.” A window should pop up, looking like this.

·         In contrast to much of the game, most of the choices presented here are cosmetic. Giving yourself a second language can be fun, and giving yourself a disability could make for an interesting challenge, but what matters most is your species.

·         As a beginner, you’ll probably want to choose one of the following: Human, Tajaran, Skrell, Unathi, or Vulpkanin. They have minimal differences, and are the simplest to play. Other species have special abilities and disabilities. For example, the Vox breathe nitrogen and can survive in the vacuum without a spacesuit, the Diona are plant-people, and machines are machines (though not to be confused with cyborgs.)

·         Please note that the armalis variant of the vox is rather broken right now, so you’d be best to avoid playing one for the time being.

·         If you want your character to have a species-appropriate name, select “(Randomize)”.

·         Once you’ve figured out what your character looks like, select “Set Occupation Preferences.” For each job, you have four possible settings: Never, Low, Medium, and High. These determine the priority with which the game gives you a position. If nothing can be found at one priority, the game searches the next one down, and so on. If nothing is found, the game will follow the instructions on the bottom button. You can also change the name of certain professions: E.g. “Librarian” can be changed to “Journalist.”

·         Since you’re a beginner, you’ll probably want to avoid playing as any Head of Staff. Similarly, avoid the AI and Cyborg options. If you want a position that enriches the setting without having many responsibilities or expectations, select Librarian, Chaplain, Bartender, or Barber. You’ll probably want the bottom button set to “Be a civilian if preferences unavailable.”

·         When you’re done with that, go to game preferences. Here you can make yourself available to play certain special roles, largely antagonists. Given the usual amount of players, most of these probably won’t get used, with the exception of the traitor, the vampire, the changeling, and the vox raider. Please note that admins can make players antags, preferences or no.

·         Finally, there’s Loadout, which allows you to select five points worth of minor clothes or items to start with.

·         Once you’re done with your character, select “Declare Ready” or, if the round has already begun, “Join Game.” The latter allows you to choose your role from a list of available jobs.

 

        

·         First of all, you'll want to talk. To do this IC, type "Say" followed by what you want to say, in quotes.

·         To talk over the comms, so that everyone can hear you, append a semicolon to the beginning of your sentence. E.g. 'Say ";Hello!"'

·         Additionally, some departments have special channels. These can be accessed by appending a colon followed by a specific character. Security officers, for example, talk on their channel by typing 'Say ":S Hello!"'

·         To talk OOC, type "OOC" followed what you want to say.

·         Most objects (and creatures) in the game can be interacted with by clicking on them. Left-clicking activates a thing's basic function, while complex or universal choices can be selected by right-clicking.

·         Some objects can be made to interact with each other, provided you are holding one of them. If, for example, you wish to fill a bucket with the contents of a water tank, put the bucket in your active hand and left-click on the tank.

·         If you wish to view the contents of a container, left-click it and drag the mouse to your character.

·         In addition to picking up items, you can also drop, pull, and throw them.

·         You can also make your own items, using the crafting menu, provided you have the right materials.

 

·         Your character has a number of slots for items. In addition to your hands, you have a suit-storage slot, an ID card slot, a backpack slot, two pockets, a belt slot (which can also be used to hold anything your pockets would), and a special PDA slot.

 

·         Furthermore, your character has clothing slots. These can be accessed by clicking the backpack icon in the lower left-hand corner of the screen.

 

·         Some items, such as suits, must be removed by clicking them and dragging to the active hand slot.

·         You can interact with creatures in four basic ways: Greeting/helping, disarming, grabbing, or attacking. You can choose your default intent, but remember, clicking on anyone while holding a weapon (even a makeshift one, like a toolbox) in one’s active hand will automatically trigger an attack on them. This includes yourself.

 

·         If you wish to remove an item from a creature (particularly useful if you’re an antag,) drag it to your character, and select the item of your choice.

·         In the lower right-hand corner of the screen is a doll-display. This determines which body-part you target when interacting with a creature, including yourself.

 

·         A rather useful option, found under the IC tab, is “Resist.” If someone is pulling you, or you’re on fire and need to stop, drop, and roll, or you want to free yourself from a pair of handcuffs (this one takes some time and can be interrupted) simply select it.

·         There are a number of hotkeys, the full list of which can be found with Hotkey Help, in the OOC tab. Some particularly useful ones are HOME for Drop Item, ctrl+e for Equip Item, ctrl+x for Swap Hands, ctrl+z for Activate Held Object, ctrl+r for Throw Object, DELETE for Stop Pulling, and ctrl+b for Resist.

·         For far more detailed information, see Paradise Station’s wiki. Our code and content are primarily those of Paradise.

General Tips for Antags

·         Clicking on a cable-coil allows you to make a hand-restraint out of it, provided it has at least 15 wires. To restrain someone, put the restraint in an active hand and click on them. This takes a few seconds and can be interrupted.  Particularly useful for vampires.

·         Don’t have the requisite access to get through a door? Hack it! This requires a screwdriver, a crowbar, a wire-cutter or multitool, and preferably insulated gloves. First, screw open the access panel. Then, start figuring out which wires do what. Wire-properties are universal to all doors, and are randomized at the beginning of each round. You’ll want to find two particular wires: That which controls the power and that which controls the bolts. It will be obvious when you find the latter. When you find the former, all the panel’s lights will turn off at once. You’ll then have a short period during which you can open the door with a crowbar. You can then activate the bolts to keep it open. There are several complications, however. In the event that you’re using wirecutters, it is imperative that you cut the power wires before you cut the bolt wires, so you’ll want to find a practice door first. Furthermore, one of the wires will electrify the door and (if you aren’t wearing insulated gloves) shock you. If you pulsed it with a multitool, the door will remain electrified for about half a minute. If you cut it, the door will remain electrified until the wire is mended.

·         If you have a roll of duct tape, you can use it to gag another player. Any attempts on their part at talking will come out as mumbles.

·         Tool boxes are quite robust, and make useful makeshift weapons.

·       Welding tools can weld shut doors and lockers. Useful for hiding bodies and whatnot.

 

Help! I’m Dead!

Congratulations, you’re a ghost! What can you do now?

·         You can talk with other ghosts. IC restrictions don’t apply.

·         You can watch the round unfold. You can walk through anything and teleport anywhere you like.

·         You can make players vaguely uncomfortable or flicker nearby lights, using the “Boo!” spell.

Of course, that gets boring after a while. Fortunately, in Space Station 13, death is not the end.

·         Other players can resurrect you, either through cloning or through the mysterious chemical known as Strange Reagent.

·         In the event that your body exploded, your brain can be housed in a cybernetic frame. Being a cyborg is far from ideal, but it’s better than nothing.

·         You can respawn as an NPC animal. Again, far from ideal.

·         An admin can offer ghosts the opportunity to respawn as a completely new character, to respawn in a special role (e.g. a member of an Emergency Response Team,) or to respawn as a specific character.

 

 

Honk!

[Lair]

 

 

 

trailer

[lol username]

For those who don't know, this thing has been a favorite around RRU for quite some time, at least going back to 2010 - maybe earlier? Here's a topic from 2012:

 

 

Also:

 

 

[Quisoves Potoo]

 

Psychology, spess-style.

 

Courtesy of Terrev and Yajmo.

[The Ace Railgun]

This isn't one of the RRU Adventures in space, just another person being a miscreant.

But It's a damn good video to show what SS13 is.

 

 

[Lair]

 

Ace posted these on twitter but i thought it deserved to be here too hope you're okay with that Ace

 

also s***ty artist representation of that round:

 

[DarkianMaker]

Poor Uncle Steve 2.1 just made a tiny little mistake :v

[someswedish]

Don't forget that i drew something as well that round.

 

[Quisoves Potoo]

Rules

RRU’s Terrastation, being a private station, lacks the vast rulesets of most public servers. There are nonetheless a few points of conduct:

·         Stay in character: Keep all out-of-character interactions in the OOC chat. No emotes, etc. IC. Try to do your job. AIs and Cyborgs are expected to follow their lawsets.

·         No spoilers! If you’re having an intimate discussion with the chaplain, only for him to pull out an energy sword and cut your head off, no using OOC or Discord or what-you-might to alert everyone to his treachery. If you didn’t get the chance to cry out over comms, too bad. This goes for NPC enemies as well. In event you are resurrected, your character suffers minor memory-damage, preventing you from identifying your murderer. Knowledge acquired as a ghost is also not remembered.

·         Don’t grief: Unless you are an antagonist, your character is assumed to be reasonably virtuous, sane, and law-abiding. If you are mind-slaved or thralled or whatnot, you are to obey your master’s every command, provided you are not asked to commit suicide. Acts of trespass or theft are permitted, so long as you stay in-character (no kleptomania, please,) but expect in-game consequences (e.g. jail.) Brawls are allowed, so long as they escalate convincingly. Don’t go looking for a fight.

·         On a related note, the clown and mime have considerably fewer IC restrictions, being prank-loving chuckleheads with no serious jobs. They are still prohibited from griefing. Breaking into chemistry to mix a hair-growth solution is fine. Breaking into engineering to release the Tesla ball is not. If you’re planning something you fear might cross the line, contact an admin via adminhelp.

·         AIs and Cyborgs are bound only by their laws. If your lawset tells you to minimize expenses, and you believe that a certain player is more trouble than he’s worth, you are permitted to do away with him (but don’t be surprised when your lawset is promptly changed.)

·         Do not commit suicide unless there is a convincing IC reason. If you have to leave the game, have the other players put you in the cryo-dorms.

·         If, as an AI or Cyborg, you are given a law ordering you to commit suicide, you are not obliged to obey it.

·         Do not tamper with players suffering from Space Sleep Disorder (SSD,) i.e. players who are logged out. If for some reason you need to interact with someone who’s gone SSD, please consult with an admin.

·         If you have any questions about the rules, or think that someone else has broken them, don’t hesitate to contact an admin via adminhelp.

·         On a related note, mentorhelp is available for those with questions about game-mechanics.

·         Above all, don’t be a jerk

 

 

Duplicate for reference purposes.

 

[someswedish]

On the 2nd round of Space Station 13 on the 1st day of the year 2017, I became a vampire and took with me 2 victims before eventually being struck down by the captain.

 

Here's a crudely drawn picture of what it pretty much was like.

 

 

All fear the Chicken costumed Lizard Vampire Chef. And i just noticed i misspelled vampire by an additional ")"...

[Quisoves Potoo]

Truly, Poly is a thing of beauty.

 

[DarkianMaker]

"UNIT BACK ONLINE"

Oh Uncle Steve and your lack of lowercase letters

[lol username]

 

[someswedish]

I drew this for Quisoves on the discord Chat, and he told me to upload it here. So enjoy

 

[someswedish]

 

I ate my own cooking and puked all over the medbay, i'm a  bad cook.

[lol username]

 

[someswedish]

Terrev tried to feed a dead body rice pudding.

 

[Agent2583]

What is this about?

[lol username]

3 hours ago, Agent2583 said:

What is this about?

The OP explains rather extensively...