I think we can all agree that, in our current state, the objectives of traitors don’t really lend much to RP.
And I feel like a big part of that is that well-developed characters are suddenly thrust into a role of an enemy agent with no flavour text or backstory. But what if that wasn’t the case? Maybe people could select from preset backstories or get one assigned randomly, depending on their objectives?
And so, I present to you a couple of ideas I had.
First of all, we borrow certain objectives from other servers. Stealing items means that, instead needing to have the item on you, you have to send it off from a specific location. However, this alerts the crew, so that you cannot perfectly stealth it. And steal items should be more meaningful, things like slime extracts or plasma tanks are meaningless. Perhaps we could steal TG’s master server and its steal objective, as well as reduce the amount of research nodes needing to be stolen but them un-researching the stolen nodes. Stealing something should have a noticeable impact.
Assasinations get replaced with brain bounties, and the brains can be bought back at a ridiculious price. However, a brain being bought back does not fail the objective. Maroons get replaced with ‘shows of force’, requiring you to kill someone, leave a calling card or a signature on the body and take a photo of it, then send it away as proof. Planting bugs in offices and leaving syndicate graffiti/posters could be introduced as small side objectives.
Now, as for the backstories.
The hostage relative
Your parent or sibling are being held hostage by the Syndicate. They promise you that they’ll be released safely, as long as you do a couple of side jobs for them.
However, the crew of the station could attempt a rescue job. You’re given a password or special set of coordinates, that leads to a space ruin containing your relative and some Syndicate commandos keeping them held. Perhaps both the commandos and the hostage could be ghost roles, with them becoming NPCs if no ghosts pick them.
You could ‘win’ by either completing your objectives or rescuing your relative and delivering them to CC.
The debt
You owe the Syndicate quite a large sum of money. Instead of needing to have certain items on you at the end of the round, you have to deliver them to drop off location, or send off someone’s brain or a photograph of them being dead + some kind of signature/calling card from you as proof. This nets you reasonable amounts of credits.
To ‘win’ you must either deposit a huge sum of money towards a bluespace-linked bank account or have it on you at the end of the round, be it physical credits, or a sum of linked bank accounts of IDs on you. Which means yes, you could go around stealing ID’s of other people or mugging them for money to achieve this.
The mad scientist
You’ve found that Nanotrasen’s morals are far too restricting for advancing the field of science, and so you sought out different benefactors. The Syndicate has provided you with the means to further your research, as long as you do some odd jobs for them.
To ‘win’ you would be required to finish your crazy science doohickey, which would require immoral experimentation/brutalization of several crew, be it a horrific mix of cyborg and man, a horrible bloated mass of a Frankenstein’s monster or a bioweapon capable of wiping out all sentient life, or even a ritual to reach out towards the things beyond the veil. Finishing this could, perhaps, lead to a Blob/Swarmers/Morph/Blood demon spawning.
The legal trouble
The Syndicate’s got you by the neck, you’ve signed a contract you should not have and now own your life. Not completing objectives means, after a certain point in time, a hit squad gets sent after you, with ghosts controlling them. Or maybe even a Ninja.
You ‘win’ by either completing objectives or successfully defending yourself against the hit squad, as the Syndicate considers you to be not worth the trouble at that point. This one I honestly thought out the least so input would be appreciated.
The man who has nothing to loose
Either you were wronged by Nanotrasen so much you now seek out revenge or you were born and raised as part of the Syndicate and were trained to think of NT as your enemy. This would be the ‘trained assasin’ backstory, and would only be reserved for martyr/hijack/nukies.
I definitely think we could get a lot more roleplay opportunities from this and I’m very happy to receive feedback and new ideas and backstories.