Help Needed: CM RolePlay Guidance

General Discussion
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Hey everyone,

We all know that CM is a special, sacred game - something a lot of us have put countless hours and years of time and effort into.

From time to time, I have inspiration to write some kind of guide so that new players can get familiar with how roleplay works on CM, moreso as Marines as opposed to Xenos just because I am more of a Marine main - but it is very true that xenos have a unique roleplaying style, and I’d like to hear that as well.

I’ve personally managed and helped create roleplay guides for several other HRP servers, and I know for a fact that while they might have some decent ideas that could be used in CM… but CM is truly a beast of its own, and any guide that would try to capture its soul should be tailored specifically to the game we all play and love.

I’m not asking for a lot, you don’t need to write a whole guide in the thread unless you really want to.

I’m just asking for the players of CM, especially those who have been here for a while, to impart their own ideas and experiences so that they can be passed down to the new generation of CM players. Something so that players can understand and have an easy way to conceptualize what it is to roleplay on the game. Afterwards, I will try my best to put together the cream of the crop into something comprehensible - or maybe someone else will before me, who knows!

Additionally, I think it would really help pave the road to a higher standard of roleplay in CM. Though as staff we do talk to people about being LRP, that’s only if we see it or if its reported - we’re not omniscent. It’s always better to try to give guidance and teach people, and inspire them versus catching and punishing people and leaving notes. It’s not necessarily about avoiding punishment, it has more to do with having a resource we can point players to if they want to improve their roleplaying skills in general.

I have plenty to say myself, and could honestly try writing a guide myself and I probably will. But before any of that, I’d really like to know what you all think and to get some discussion generated. I think, if I had to summarize things, its really important to understand in CM there is a range of expectations of roleplay. Some people take things less seriously, some more so - and the grey area in between. I would even say that most players don’t stick to one end of the spectrum, but rather travel it back and forth as the context allows.

I think it’s really important we bring up things like Mandatory Obedience, or at least the difference in expectations in roleplay between the enlisted and officers and all in between.

I think its really important that, for xenos, we talk about the diction that is expected - talls instead of humans, metal bird instead of CAS, and so on.

But its not limited to the things I say in this initial post - it can be about whatever you want, I just ask that its relevant to the topic.

The wiki does provide a lot of good information on things like this, but I have yet to really see a dedicated guide to the subject. If we can put our brains together, get our ideas in one place, I think we could make something really cool that can help new players get up to speed - a lot of knowledge is on the wiki, but there’s substantially more that you just need to experience in the game to figure out. My proposition is to help create a bridge, so newer players and those who are interested in getting better at roleplay have a path that will help people improve their roleplaying skills, but equally be realistic to the soul and integrity of the game as we play it. That said, I’m not looking for haughty taughty big paragraph emotes or whatnot. I’m looking for Real CM RolePlay and advice and ideas from the community, that we practice in-game and aspire to for a better future for the community, I’m looking for what we practice in game, and what we want to do that is both practical and realistic for the game we play - we often are variable in how much we roleplay, because in certain contexts (like the front) you can’t really write too much or you’re going to die. However, pre-drop and post-evac, opportunities open up - as well as in small moments of respite in the thick of things.

Every character we play has been a baby, has grown up into adulthood, s shot their gun for the first time once, has some semblence of family, has a motivator that keeps them going, has something deep to contribute - no matter how shallow they may seem, every character has that special uniqueness inside of them. I think if we work together, we can help people realize those things and express them a little better, even if its just a little bit more.

On the other hand, I am genuinely looking for your opinions and thoughts, and I hope this doesnt just get buried, because I think it can do a lot of good for our community. Consider putting in your two cents, and lets see what we find. If you happen to know anybody who would like to contribute to this thread but doesnt really know the forum, let them know its around and hopefully something amazing comes out of it.

Thanks for your time!

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Xeno language is a direct translation, hence why I for one don’t care if xenos say “metal bird” or “dropship”. Forcing people to use that lingo isn’t really roleplay, but xenos lacking in roleplay that isn’t “mommy mommy mommy” isn’t exactly new.

I can impart some words regarding human RP however. Contrary to popular belief, I have roleplayed a lot in the past, and started out as a CL main. I feel roleplay was a bit better back in the day, with a little less focus on the TDM aspects. Different culture, overall.

However, I can throw in my two cents with an excerpt from my Yautja app in 2020:

“Roleplay can be extremely simply described as «playing a role». I believe that it should be more than that however. Any marine is, by playing CM alone, roleplaying. Even if they are screaming «unga dunga unga bunga», they are still technically roleplaying (albeit at a low level). I don’t count that as actual roleplay, though. I feel like roleplay needs to include fear, anger, happiness, sadness and other reasonable, well-proportioned emotions to be proper roleplay. For example, a Corporate Liaison pacing back and forth in his office in fear, waiting for the command staff to open the evac pods so they can get out of there as soon as possible to avoid the xeno threat onboard. That’s what I’d count as roleplay. Or maybe two marines having peaceful banter in the FOB, trying to distract themselves from the stress on the colony? Someone actually showing that they’re wounded?

I feel like roleplay should be a «How would you react» scenario, as well as a «How would your CHARACTER react» scenario at all times. Did someone piss you off? Show that you’re pissed off in an understandable, reasonable manner. If someone calls you stupid, you wouldn’t begin brutally attacking them in real life, would you? Are the aliens rushing onboard? Show that you’re fearful, if that’s what your character would do. Perhaps he enters survival mode and tries to help others above himself instead?

Roleplay is to me a player’s responsibility to try to immerse others and to a large extent, yourself, in the world you are playing in. You won’t be that immersed if a marine gets shot in the chest and they go: «Medic, overdose me on bicaridine and bandage me». If they however begin screaming in pain, perhaps even stuttering their words manually, it will be more believable and entertaining for all parties involved.

By doing all of this, the gameplay will most often increase in quality, due to the effort between two or more players to MAKE IT SO. Immersion is what I think roleplay is all about, both in general and on CM.”

Roleplay can be a beautiful thing, but enforcing roleplay to an acceptable standard, to which you describe, would require a significant cultural overhaul and staff intervention. I’d like to see it, but I have my doubts.

best regards

  • jo dafo
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As someone who’s played the game for a while and has gotten myself a few whitelists I’ll comment a bit on some things. I’m by no means the best at RP or even particularly good, but here’s some things I think are true about CM RP.

It’s very much vibes based, and most of your skills that you need to develop will be determining what the vibes are. Is it a serious moment where you’re 1 on 1 with someone talking about something like the death of a close friend? are you talking shop with your fellow crew? are you shooting the shit and making small talk with your squad? Each one of these situations requires different tones that you’ll need to find and fit into. I don’t think it’s too hard to learn, but just be aware of the situation and try to get a feel with who you’re talking to and what’s happening.

The next big thing is improv. This is probably the biggest thing when it comes to RP. You’re gonna be making shit up for RP, and a lot of it will be done on the fly in the moment. It can be a bit scary to think about but you just gotta go for it and be confident. Over time it’ll get easier and easier and stuff will pop into your head easier. Use stuff that’s happened earlier in the round to help you out. A common situation is talking with the CL as a survivor after you’ve been rescued. Often they’ll ask you something along the lines of “what the hell happened down there, where did the bugs come from?” There’s no one correct answer, and it’s up to you and your fellow survivors (if there are any left) to make it up for them. Often times on the map there could be some things to help shape your answers, so you don’t have to go completely blind. Maybe there’s some CLF or UPP stuff around, and after you get to the CL you tell them “it was the damn CLF I tell you! Musta brought the damn things down to the colony to kill us all!” Or maybe you go the old classic route of “It was the company! they were experimenting on those damn things and they broke out!” It depends on your character, the vibes, the map, and what your fellow survivors decide is the cannon for the round. That’s another thing, go with what other people say. If someone says “Jimmy was an engineer that shot himself after the bugs came for him.” It’s gonna be really awkward if you go “Jimmy was a doctor and got killed after acid blood got on his face.” There are situations where conflicting accounts on things would make sense, but you gotta be careful, and try to “yes and” things when you can.

Another big thing for RP, of course, is your character. You need to be thinking about what your character would do in each situation. Some people like to make long and detailed backstories for their character, to really get a feel for the character and what their RP looks like. That’s one fine approach, but I go more onto the opposite side of that. My characters don’t really have a defined backstory going into the round. Instead I try to build my backstory as the round goes on and what would be the most interesting. I think it works best with my synth Willard. He has a general overarching idea of “works with animals” but in every round it can take on a completely different form. Maybe one round he has a cat with him that he takes care of, and talks about his experience working as a pet sitter for high up corporate board members. Then in another round while talking to researchers, he recalls his time working with a research team studying an unexplored exoplanet’s exotic fauna. It depends entirely on the situations the round has brought me, and what I’ve decided would be the most interesting.

Those are the three big things I think you need in order to approach every encounter you find in CM. The tone, your character, and your improvisation. If you have these, you should be able to adeptly move through whatever curveballs you get thrown. You don’t have to be perfect, and don’t get too scared off by any of this. You just gotta play off whatever you think feels natural in the moment. Maybe you say something in the moment and then think “that was kind of stupid,” that’s fine, it’s bound to happen at some point to everyone, just move past it and keep going, either pivot or lean into what you said or did.

One thing I think isn’t utilized nearly enough in RP on CM is actions. In most encounters, you’ll very rarely see a /me used, aside from maybe a nod or blink or something. Get creative with it. Talking is fine, but doing some good emotes can really bring life to the situation. something like looking around erratically to show you’re paranoid, or rolling your eyes. I remember a really funny time when a corpo bodyguard was outside the meeting room as the CL talked with us survivors, and he /me’d action rolling across the room to inspect a potted plant. Shit like that is great and we need to see more of it in CM.

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Honestly, for marines, the easiest place to start is usually where is my character from?

Then, refer to our handy lore pages on the wiki to get a sense for what their place is like in 2182. Then, fill in extra details as needed to make it make sense.

For example: I had an Australian character (BEFORE we agreed on Canberra, okay?!?!). Because Australia wasn’t UA, but TWE was relatively friendly in Neroid patrols, I decided he was a loaner pilot. Voila: I had a set of jobs I could play him as readily, a style of expressions, and he was Top Gun Tom Cruise For Real so he was Like That.

And then people in Discord agreed blowing up Canberra was canon and that was too weird to work around so I deleted his slot byeeeeee.

It can be less “special”, though; I also played an Alaskan and that helped flesh out his traits and usual jobs: self-sufficient, steely, genial but not exactly nice. A good candidate for RO!

I’m also of the belief that being 1:1 to lore isn’t required. That’s for HRP and who really cares. My approach is just Practical Advice to Making A Good Effort.

In short terms, as with good characters in any media, ask:

  1. Who are they?
  2. What do they want?

Everything else comes from there.

Also I think this covers the full gambit of areas well enough. Sometimes all your dude really does want is to make it out alive and that gives you the room to focus on TDM stuff when it’s time to be up front.

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I’ve been roleplaying on SS13 (among other roleplaying games) for well over a decade. I think I can chip in my two-cents here.

To be honest, grasping at what exactly makes the “soul” of roleplay is kind of a monumental task. And at the end of the day, it’s different for everybody.
If I could put it simply, I’d say that “playing a character” is really all about learning how to fit yourself into somebody else’s shoes.

Somebody else’s upbringing, their worldview, motivations, ask yourself: “What makes them happy?” , “What do they strive for?” or “How would they react to this differently from me?” it might take some effort and a couple notes, but with a good amount of practice you can draw a line in the sand between yourself, and the character that you want to play as.

In essence, I would say quality roleplay is about sticking to your guns: the morals and personality of the character you play. Even to a fault! Nobody is perfect.

You might break down in stressful situations, you might get angry, you might even lose hope. You’re human. That’s okay! That’s part of the atmosphere. It’s raw, it’s realistic, and it conveys more emotion than the typical “UNGA” charging to their death heroically. Not that we don’t need those types either, we do! But you can be adaptable about it.

You need to be contemplative, sometimes even creative, and willing to explore new themes and ideas you normally wouldn’t. People are different in ways that modern science still doesn’t have a solid grasp on, let alone by 2182 standards. Much of what makes great roleplay is purely the spontaneous mixing of different ‘flavors’ of people and psyches blending together, reacting to different situations.

At the fundamental level, roleplay is about incorporating parts of yourself into somebody else. Not self-inserting, but taking aspects of your experiences and bringing them to life. Trying and splicing together different ideas and personalities into something that eventually comes to resemble another person. Not a John Marine, but somebody who has friends, family, & memories of their own. Roleplay has more to do with storytelling and on-the-fly narrative than anything else. And nothing beats practice.

Try to remember that everyone you see is somebody else behind the screen. Be civil, be creative, and don’t be afraid to experiment. We’re all here for fun at the end of the day.

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Role-play is always going to be a two way street, if people see you role-playing they are going to join in.
The key to characters, and the advise I give to synth apps too, is the rule of three + theme.

Find a theme for your Character, take my Synth - Grace. She’s a Geologist and made specifically to handle both harsh environments and people.
well, what traits would a synth need in this example? - well, lets break her down further.

To her three traits.
Cunning, Curious and Casual.
Why these traits? well simply put, a researcher is always going to be curious about the world around them, Cunning because she needs to be quick thinking, even if it leads to a bit of sass, and casual - because having a synth panic, and scream all the time when dealing with life or death, only creates further panic.

As to how I engage with others? - simple, I say hello. The first step to all RP, is to have a hook for another player to chew on, - improve. Give that other player the “yes and..” to build from.

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To be honest, the majority of players on CM can genuinely roleplay seriously and do it pretty well, it’s kind of funny how players who typically don’t really put much effort in on PvP suddenly become well-trained, disciplined with (kind of) their own personalities when they’re in PvE.

I think the general high-paced TDM nature of CM + already lax ‘MRP’ culture just nudges everyone to put less effort in. There’s a few active players who give it their all and RP an actual character 100% detached from their OOC behaviour, but I could count them on two hands or less. The majority mostly just roleplay as some vague grunt who ‘kind of’ follows orders.

Re: xeno roleplay, I think this ship has sailed- xeno RP was always barely existent and nowadays it’s in a complete gutter. There are literally no gameplay mechanics to even uphold xeno RP, you can’t pick things up or interact with your environment- Most people don’t even bother using xeno terms (since it’s not enforced anymore).

Re: human roleplay, I think going from a bottom->top approach is best, as Nyoom said it’s easier to start broad and think about finer details later.
For example:

X was born on a (mostly) loyal UA frontier colony on the rim, they were raised in a family of colonial marshalls.
CLF forces had a brief surge in activity on the colony after being established shortly after the Slaughter of Xibou which led to a number of relatives and friends being killed. The UPP covertly supplied weapons to the CLF.
X signed up for the USCM a few years afterwards from a combination between their personal vendetta and a desire to protect the UA and its loyalist colonial population from the CLF, as well as UPP influence.

From these 3 starter sentences, you can then make some inferences as to how someone might act if they had this background:

X prides themselves on the ‘colonial spirit’ (a common theme in frontier colonisation), which emphasises self-reliance (play down your injuries, hesitance to get medical attention, don’t make trouble for others) and standing up for your own (strong camaraderie, go through hell to save your buddies).
X’s brief stint as a marshal as well as their parents instilled a strong sense of respect for the law (don’t break ML, intervene as fun-police whenever a fellow marine does a minor crime), and thus X is always a goodie-two-shoes when it comes to authority (follows any order that isn’t blatantly a symptom of dementia, always addresses superiors respectfully with a sir or ma’am. Salutes frequently and doesn’t make unnecessary small-talk.)
X really doesn’t like the CLF or UPP.

There’s certainly more things you could think of, but in most situations you’d now have a ‘basic idea’ of how your CHARACTER (not you) would react in most situations in CM.
Would you be a piece of shit for ratting people out when they break windows? Yes. Would it be good roleplay? Also yes. Is this character necessarily interesting? Maybe not, but it’s just a quick example for demonstration purposes anyway.

It’s very rare anyone will actually ask about your character much (and when they do, it’s a one time thing), so most roleplay will manifest more in how your character talks and how they interact with situations.

Hence, most memorable characters will usually incorporate some kind of ‘quirk’ to their speech, like your average texan cowboy, or some infuriatingly shy person or something.

Or you could be a gigachad and effectively self-insert yourself like everyone else.

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I talk about etiquette briefly in my Guide to Xenos and gave some of my own witty and strange ideas that I find fun roleplaying as a xeno but at the end of the day most people are just gonna have fun the way they like to type. Its already a difficult game, incorporating the requirement/skill to type 1000+ words a minute is detrimental to the casual player base. I think LRP is mostly unacceptable, it use to be worse. Way. Worse. MRP should be fun and zany. However the reality is the server is carried by HRP veterans and that is why I think the server works. I think at the heart of MRP in most situations is just Improv especially so for Xenos. Xeno RP is probably the most free RP in the RP space on the server. From complete obedient and good teamworking Drones. To the most infamous Lurker or Warrior who rarely utter words. All of which in character would honestly be pretty mute.

Tl;Dr I agree Improv is KEY to any CM Roleplay. Marines are easier in the way you have plenty of self referential material and even lore or history you could incorporate if you like reading fiction. Xenomorphs are strange in that the improv is all Queen based and way more direct almost formal sometimes. Kind of a mixed bag and open to interpretation. Top Down RP enforcement & leading by example of HRP players COs Synths any of the WLs and even the Xenomorph Queen make the server work.

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Sabaton dropped a new album. The Napoleon song is ok.

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YARN | Who is it you think you see? | Breaking Bad (2008) - S04E06 Drama | Video clips by quotes | 232d27a7 | 紗

I was listening to it day one Duke!

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Probably the only reason I stuck around for CM was because 1, it was clear what needed to be done, and 2, I wasn’t getting banned day 1 because half of the expectations are just common sense, if i were forced to read an entire wiki on how my character should act rather than just imprinting myself onto a character to start with i would have probably walked out the door and not looked back

Most importantly, its a game, having a couple silly moments isnt a bad thing, (not to say being a shitter is fine as its not) i would say having a funny moment with a friend is the only reason why cm is still around, going forward with flat out increasing all RP standards overall will just alienate a large amount of the player base because they are now forced into being someone they either dont know how to properly act as, or dont want to be with the threat of punishments if they dont play along properly

If i interpreted it wrong then my bad but it does sound like youre pushing for an overall increase in standards which although a good thing on paper, i doubt it will be in practice

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Oh you’re still here huh? RP and all, imo some people playing this game don’t really care about rp but want the action side of things. I used to think it’s better to increase the rp level but then it means forcing people who can’t or don’t want to rp to do it. And yes it’s bad for a community to copy paste some generic behaviors. Like a wise man said, if you want rp, go play shipside.

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One more for me that I forgot I do and think is funny but a good incremental way to set up part of “who your character is” (no one will really notice, this is just for you): pick out what their favorite meal is so when you wake up in prep, you get that from the vendor! Minor in the scheme of things but can be kind of funny and a good sort of “action” cue for you to start your “okay, now I’m going to think about what this person would do in this scenario”.

EG; I have a vegan so I only eat tofu and chunk bars; I have a southern guy that would only like the chicken and biscuits tray. One thousand little actions eventually make a sort of “aura” you want your person to embody. Food is telling of people.

Also I would encourage people who want to do more that if they’re really lost on cementing a story or a vibe, they should spend some time in the character loadout just looking at all the doodads; I find you can craft a compelling little story from those. You can then build out extra “yes and” reasons from simple decisions. My vegan is hyper-religious so I will also play medical roles and take the rosary in character loadout. My southerner loves his family-style food because it reminds him of his family, and he also has a family photo from the loadout. I find that those little steps then help steer the rest of “what do I sound like/act like”.

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I feel like this is just a collection for those wondering about RP standards on the server. I don’t think the OP intended to increase the standards but help flesh out some knowledge on Medium Role Play on the server. How to potentially start. What is important. What to work on. If you decide to engage with the RP it’s super beneficial and a great time typically.

I mean we were all wanting them to change how we interact with the “photo of family” item you could pick in your load out about a year ago. Small items small tropes could make the server pop a bit more. Outside of the Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder trope of quickly equipping and unequipping your weapons as a squad during briefing or on the drop ship :laughing:

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There’s a lot of power in the smallest moments.

An SO sends a message to you via overwatch during a communications blackout: “RUN NORTH. THEY ARE COMING FOR YOU.”
The synth you are marooned on the planet with reads you your statistical likelihood of survival. It’s low. Very low.
Your superiors have a plan that you have no faith will work. You say “Yes sir” anyway, while quietly making plans for when things go tits up.
A band of survivors are rescued and take stock of who is left. They all realize one of them isn’t there anymore, and nobody knows how or when.
You are cornered with xenos tearing down the walls around you and all you can hear is their hissing and roaring.

You’re trying to overcome the bar of people who know they will be engaged with a certain thing with the uncertainty of the level of engagement they’ll get from interacting with you. The larger the story you are trying to tell, the higher the bar that you have to overcome. That bar for some people is higher or lower, and can be further modified by how well they know you or what they know of you (or their characters). It’s a general rule of thumb for me that I try to engage with people who are trying to RP with me, but I’m only doing that to be polite. I have been pleasantly surprised with this rule.

also i think roleplay would be in a better place if more people perma’d (you can cut my head off ingame and i will never ahelp it)

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“It was consented, you meme” famous last word against the bwoink for cutting your head off.

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An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Just wanted to reinforce that take, A++ staff.

If I could do anything to help new players catch up, it would probably be make Operation Tychon Tackle easier to find. It is probably the most important piece of homebrew server lore for marines, and took me years for someone to link.

I also think xeno might be lacking a core guide to RP expectations. For example, I’ve three different head-cannons on how the Hivemind works.

  1. Ala Tyranids, where xenos have free will or base instincts overwritten by the Queen’s mind.
  2. A shared pool of consciousnesses, known as “D-Chat”, which simply inhabit xeno bodies, returning to the hivemind on death, and ruled by the Queen while in earthly forms.
  3. A single consciousness, implied to be the Queens, where every xeno has no will and is one mind, preforming actions in tandem.

Everyone knows how to be human, if not be a marine, which makes RPing a lot easier. But not everyone is on the same page on how to be a xenomorph, or how smart a lone xenomorph is. Some form of lore-bible would be huge for them, especially when xenos strength and attributes vary wildly between established canon media, not to mention our own exceptionally different variant used in CM.

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When it comes to xeno hivemind theories, i personally like the “schitzoid” one. Where the queen is the main brain across the entire xeno hive, but to make the hive function better, it gives each xeno their own personality, even though its just another personality inside their brain. So when xenoes are talking in hivechat, they are talking where they are located, but when talking and moving normaly, they are essentially the queens personality moving them like a puppet.

And this all becomes even more complicated when you factor in that Queen Mother is doing this for all the queens as well, on a much larger galactic scale.

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Xeno hive is a big galactic asylum, or a deep and profound sarcastic way to describe players - characters relatio….. yea no we aren’t that deep, or smart.

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Number 3 is how typically envision it but RainbowStalin “schizoid” theory actually works right into it. The Queen is the sentient one. She is an alien intelligence of unprecedented and undefined ability. So I typically internalize most of the xenomorphs in my hive and their quirks as part of myself/QueenBop. Which is how I believe it’s really dependent on the Queen. These might be my own understanding but I will list a few different personalities I’ve seen as Queen and how operating in their hive works. WAR expect little to no personality as she(the player) exudes it as a Queen with obedience being a core tenant. SO expect some personality but only in line with her(the player) own ideas. III expects quirky xenomorphs while towing a particularly loyal(different from obedience) to the hive cause. BOP expect a free hive similar to quirky however relies on loyalty rather than obedience(being obedience Queen is difficult). I could go on with these diluted generalizations but it doesn’t bare repeating. The Xenomorphs are an extension of the Queen. Enforcing these standards are all based on the performance, notoriety, and communication skills/social norms the Queen wants. Typically results in banishing if you aren’t towing the line. It can be construed as grief or not following the rules. This is just my opinion on it.