Revolutionary

Three Syndicate agents disguised as crew members are inciting station-wide rebellion against the Heads of Staff! Armed with special flashes to convert certain crew members to their cause in their hands and a song of angry men on their minds, these Revolutionaries conspire to overthrow the Heads of staff, whether through bloodshed or banishment.

Red October

Before any of this can happen, first there must be at least 15 people ready to play as soon as the round starts. Not merely 15 people on the server, 15 people who have joined the server before the round started and have chosen the "Declare Ready" option. 15 or more people doesn't guarantee that Revolution will be the round's game mode, but it does make Revolution one of the possible game modes chosen for the round, similar to Blob.

At roundstart, up to three crew-members are randomly chosen to be Head Revolutionaries, denoted by a Blue R icon only they and other revolutionaries can see. (Said Head Revs cannot be Heads or Security Staff, but considering that antag selection happens before job selection, this is a given.) These Head Revs are equipped with special flashes that can instantly recruit non-Command non-Security Officer staff who are not wearing suitable eye protection to their cause, making them a Revolutionary, denoted by a Red R icon only they and other revs can see.

Together, these Head Revolutionaries and their Revolutionary underlings must overthrow the Heads of staff, whether through death or banishment. Meanwhile, the station crew and its heads must crackdown on the rebellion and eliminate the Head Revolutionaries through any means necessary.

There three possible end conditions for this game mode:

• Revolutionary Victory: All the Heads of staff that spawn at roundstart have either died or "abandoned the cause" (left the station z-level). Heads that join after roundstart are not counted.
• Crew Victory: All the Head Revolutionaries have either died, been brigged, or left the station z-level.
• CentComm Victory: At the 35 minute mark, CentCom will announce that it has detected a revolution on the station. After 25-30 minutes and a few more annoucements, it will initiate "hostile termination" (i.e. gibbing) of every human on the station (Silicon lifeforms are mercifully spared). It's rather slow though, so it's entirely possible that one side will be terminated before the other one, causing the game to prematurely declare Revolutionary or Crew Victory before every human has died.

In this case, "dead" means being, well, dead (lifeless corpse, not cloned/revived, and such). If they are converted into a Cyborg, or become a Ghostdrone or Ghost Critter, they still count as dead, though the post-round summary still notes them as survived for whatever reason.

Note that, unlike other versions of revolution, the shuttle CAN be called in this mode, and though the timer will count down as usual, the shuttle won't dock. Instead, there'll be an announcement along the lines of "CentCom has received reports of unusual activity on the station. The shuttle has been returned to base as a precaution, and will not be usable." In the past, the call was simply rejected, but then some Metagaming nerds kept calling the shuttle early to figure out the game mode during secret, so it was wisely changed.

The Estates

Head Revolutionaries

Congrats, you are a brainwashed agent provocateur sent by the Syndicate a covert freedom fighter, sent to free the crew from the tyranny of the Command staff! For this, you have a special, uniquely-colored version of the flash, creatively named Revolutionary Flash ( ). As you might expect, like a normal flash, it disorientates and stuns people and cyborgs, and it's blocked by the same counters. Most importantly, when you use it anybody who isn't a Head of staff, a Security Officer, the Detective, a Vice Officer, a welder, and/or a Corey Hart impersonator, it instantly converts them into a Revolutionary, a brainwashed underling a loyal ally in your mission to kill the Heads of Staff.

Keep that Flash safe! Don't let some clown steal it! If you lose your Revolutionary Flash, you can't get another one, unless you scanned it with Mechanics beforehand. Unlike in other versions of Revolution, you can't convert people with regular flashes.

For The Struggle Carries On: Conversion Tactics and Staying Hidden

Try not to be too overt with your flashings - the Revolutionary Flash makes a distinct sound that the attentive crewmember will notice. Keep in mind that as much as people love being revolutionaries, people tend to get incredibly uncomfortable if you suddenly run up and get close to them, for a number of perfectly good reasons.

If you're not robust enough to quickly walk up to someone and flash them or have a particularly twitchy recruit, you may need to slow/hold them down briefly for conversion. Your Rev flash is fine for this, for you can still use it in-hand for an area-of-effect disorient that'll slow targets down for conversion; you still don't need eye protection either. Even fisticuffs can work in pinch; punching a person staggers them for 3 seconds, slowing them down and preventing them from sprinting away from you. However, you'll also be staggered, and the target can still escape if they're nimble enough.

Getting caught is especially risky in this mode, because while the playerbase is generally surprisingly oblivious (with many exceptions, of course), they often perk up upon news of revolutionary activity, because they know that the revolution affects everyone. The Heads players often become especially paranoid, because they know that their lives/rounds are at stake. In fact, many, many Head Revs have failed and found themselves dead at the 15 min mark because they were caught early and thus swiftly crushed by an aware Heads and Sec team.

If you do get caught, put on a gas mask or face-concealing helmet (e.g. a space helmet) and remove your ID, so people don't recognize you. Doing so makes you show up as "Unknown", though speaking will still reveal your name. Better yet, wear it before you flash and convert people. Helmets are preferred, since more experienced players tend to distrust Unknowns in gas masks more than Unknowns in other garb. It also conceals your hair, one of the main ways people will recognize you. Hiding is not recommended, because, again, people tend to extra alert during Rev rounds and rarely drop their guard. Also, if you were outed in the middle of a conversion, finish the job, for it's better to have an ally who'll (hopefully) help you when interlopers arrive than run and have a vengeful victim out who will most likely alert other people.

Remember, you are not easily replaced. There is no way to promote regular Revolutionaries into Head Revolutionaries, and only you have to power to recruit new Revolutionaries for the cause, so a regular Rev can't just pick up your flash and start converting people.

Comrades, Come Rally: Conversion Targets

As for flashing targets, you have a number of high-priority targets you'll definitely want as allies.

• Mechanics can scan and reliably equip your revolutionaries with a number of deadly weapons, including Security Officer equipment. Combined with a sympathetic Quartermaster or Miner to provide regular shipments of metal, Mechanics can churn out hordes of weapons to arm your revolutionary party and balance out the equipment advantage of the Heads of Staff. They may even be able to stand toe-to-toe with the Security forces.
• Scientists have access to Chemistry, Toxins, and Telescience. A good revolutionary scientist, like a Traitor scientist, is a force to reckoned with, and their destructive potenial is rivaled only by a fellow scientist. Revolutionary scientists can manufacture devastating chemical weapons, blow their way into Command hideouts, make drug mixes to laugh off Security's tide of stun batons and tasers, and forcefully beam those heads of staff far, far away from the station.
  • If no scientists are available, the Chef and Barman can use the Bar's chemistry equipment as an improvised chemistry lab, and Engineers can use the engine ports and combustion chamber as a semi-rudimentary Toxins lab.
• Roboticists have access to Robotics Manufacturers, which can hacked for a cheap source of stun. They can also outfit you with cyberhearts so you can eat Security's tasers, and robotic limbs to outrun those pesky Security Officers.
• Geneticists can empower even the lowest of greyshirts into superpowered X-Men. Thermal Resistance is always handy, SMES Human helps with resisting Security's stun batons (but not their tasers), Chameleon and Cloak of Darkness can aid in ambushes, and even High Pressure Intestines can be surprisingly useful.
• Quartermasters can order more loyalty implants, preventing people from becoming revs. You definitely don't want people to stay on the Heads' side, so you might want to convert them to shut down the Heads' anti-rev implanting. Otherwise, QM is a mixed bag. Generally, anything QM can do through their crates, other jobs can do better. However, if you get a hold of a Security Officer or Detective's ID, you can open all the Security-cardlocked crates, so you can get extra Sec gear and grenades, phasers, stronger, higher-capacity stun guns and special grenades--lots of fun stuff.

Occasionally, you may find people who actually want to join the revolution and willingly come up to you to be converted. While it may be tempting to enlist such an motivated recruit, this is absolutely against the Rules, especially Rule #1, as they're attempting to circumvent the rules against griefing. Thus, you should adminhelp the person (Hotkey: F1), so an admin can Yell at Them and possibly dole out Suitably Ironic Punishment. Or, if you're feeling real mean, exercise your Antagonist privilege and just beat them up. If they're so eager to join the cause, they can join--as a punching bag.

And So Begins the Final Drama

Keep converting until you've reached a suitable amount of converted revolutionaries. The exact number depends on crew size and your personal preferences. Some people like 15, others can make do with just 10 or even 5. A few godly-robust people can work just two or even none at all. It's not entirely unreasonable; after all, one traitor and two deluxe mindslaves can wreak plenty of havoc already. 18 or 20 is ideal. Even on high-pop (40+) rounds, that's still plenty people. It's simply hard to lose with that many revs.

Once the revolution's reached critical mass, it's time to kill the Heads. Once again, you've plenty of options. You could...

• Lead a posse of Revs on a Head manhunt, searching and destroying each Head one at a time.
• Play the numbers advantage and sic all the Revs on all the Heads all at once.
• Set up an ambush in Barbershop, Bar, Chapel, or whatever and ask a Head to come to there under the guise of a "haircut" or a "party" or an "emergency meeting".
• If you're the weirdly stealth-obsessed sort, masquerade the revolution as a murderous cult seeking the "best" sacrifices or gang with a serious blood feud. If you're really worried about "blending in", you could go further and make everyone dress in similar outfits.
• If you're hopelessly addicted to complexity, hack into the AI Upload and add a law encouraging the silicons to robotize as many people as possible. Once you've borged enough people, add a different law declaring the Heads non-human, and order them to purge any non-humans, letting the AI and borgs do the dirty work for you.

There're many different approaches, but they all arrive at the same result: dead Heads if they're successful, dead Head Revs if they're not.

Speaking of dead Heads, you only have to kill the Heads that spawned at roundstart to complete the revolution. The ones that join later don't count. Of course, 9 times out of 10, the Admins won't mind you killing them anyways. That said, it might create some interesting roleplaying opportunities.

Converted Revolutionaries

Welcome to the Revolution! As one of many brainwashed and crazy slaves fellow freedom fighters against tyranny, you are a key force in the Head Rev's station liberation war. Your duties are simple yet vital: carry out the will of the revolution.

How exactly, you may ask? Lots of ways! Robust recruits and bring them to the Head Revolutionary for conversion. Procure arms and gear for fellow soldiers. Break into the AI Upload and subvert Big Brother over to your side! Or just build loads and loads of TTVs and hellchem bombs. You might use them, you might not. The Revolution will be stronger in either case! So long as you take care not purposely to kill your leader or another comrade (seriously, adminhelp that if it happens) or violate some common ground rules, do whatever you need to enforce the will of the revolution.

And the will of the revolution is to oust the tyrannical Heads of Staff. Preferably, you should depose the ones that were in power at the beginning of the "war" (i.e. round) rather than the ones that arise later, but a dead Head is a good Head, regardless of when they joined. Feel free to seize them when the opportunity arises. Peaceful capture and exile is somewhat preferred, but you are authorized to terminate with extreme prejudice when necessary.

Sure, you might not be the best one for the job. You, and your comrades, may not be the most robust. You may not be the most knowledgeable. You may not even know what you're doing--at all. But you don't have don't to be. With the iron bond of teamwork (or, in a way, friendship ), you can overcome anything. If teamwork can triumph over horrible alien shape-shifting assimilators, giant ravenous mold, elite mercenary strike teams, and supernatural beings of inscrutable power, then it can surely triumph over a bunch of mere humans with fancy toys and their gang of goons.

And remember: even when the Man's locked you up, it's not over. The revolution doesn't stop when you're imprisoned. (It does when your leaders are though!) Only when you're brainwashed, physically beaten, or psychologically battered will your war be over...

The AI & Cyborgs

Revolutionaries are humans, albeit humans peculiarly inclined towards violent anti-authoritarianism (more than usual, perhaps). Under default laws, you shouldn't follow any orders that would directly lead to revolutionaries being harmed. At the same time, you shouldn't follow any orders that would directly lead to non-revolutionaries being harmed either. Since the revolutionary conversion process is fined-tuned to specific quirks of human anatomy, you cannot be converted to the Revolutionary cause.

While AIs and Cyborgs can certainly bolt down Revolutionaries, it is considered very unfun, especially if you are not specifically ordered to do so. Rather, you're encouraged to, with some ounce of subtlety, notify the crew. In this way, you let the Heads, Crew, and Security (hopefully) get a clue of what's really going on while still allowing the Revolutionaries time to build up. In a sense, you're giving both sides some time to prepare and gather some momentum so that the conflict is more fun for everyone.

Beyond that, you have a lot of freedom in how you'll intervene in this conflict. The most important thing is just to make sure you're following your laws. You have no inaction clauses whatsoever, so you are in no way law-bound to prevent pro- or anti-revolutionary activity. In fact, it's completely within your laws to do absolutely nothing about it and carry on business as normal if that's what you want. Use your own judgement. If you're unsure if something is within your laws/the Rules (it's probably not, though you should make sure), consult with an Admin about it through Adminhelp.

The Station Crew

Note: These are also the rules deconverted revolutionaries and the loyalty-implanted follow.

For the most part, your allegiance lies with the Heads of Staff. As loyal NT crew, you exist to serve and protect the Heads of staff and should cooperate with Security and other loyalist crew members to crackdown on the Revolution and eliminate the Head Revolutionaries.

Remember, you are brainwashed by pledge your allegiance to NanoTrasen, not the revolution. Revs are your enemy here! You should not intentionally/knowingly assist them beyond the normal scope of your job or attempt to join them, and if you have a loyalty implant, you should not attempt to remove it. All these behaviors are considered grief and are thus against the Rules. especially #1. If you are witness to any revolutionary activity, especially attempts on the Heads' lives, try to stop it or report it to Security. If anybody tries to convert you, you have to right to resist and act in self-defense, as with any other antagonist.

In addition, there's special addendum for people who got converted to the revolution, but then lost their rev status: as per a May 2019 update, if you were deconverted, you cannot reveal the names of your former fellow revs or the Head Revs. Not that this should prevent you from supporting the Heads of Staff in other ways.

The Security Department

Much like the station crew, you are allied with the Heads, whether you're the Detective, a Security Officer, the Head of Security, or, heck, even a Vice Officer. Unlike the station crew, however, you cannot be converted to the revolutionary cause. No one is completely sure why, and everyone has different answers. It's not that there's some sort of implant preventing you from being swayed, because there isn't. The fact that the Lawyer can be swayed just makes everything more confusing.

Leading the Counter-Revolution

Regardless, you should assist the Heads in quashing the revolution. Help them loyalty-implant crew and deconvert revolutionaries. For this, you might want to dust off the implant gun in your equipment or borrow Medbay's if it's missing you don't have on. The gun injects loyalty implants quickly and easily, and you don't have to get uncomfortably close to a target to implant them, unlike with the regular implanter. Put on your SecHUDs too; people who have loyalty implants have an L above them, so you can easily tell who has and hasn't gotten an implant.

In the absence of loyalty implants, you may have to beat the revolution out of people by attacking them while they're down and close to/in critical condition. Yes, police brutality may actually be a good thing here. However, it won't prevent them from becoming a Revolutionary again, and there's obvious a risk of them dying if you're not careful. If you decide to pursue this method, you may want to announce your intentions to do so. This applies to anyone attempting this method, but it's more important for Sec because beatdowns from Sec are more harshly scrutinized than ones from other jobs.

In addition, you should take down and detain anyone who tries to stun and convert crew members. You'll know--the Revolutionary Flash has a tell-tale tone, that sounds like a low whirr or something winding up, which an attentive ear will easily pick up. Even if you don't hear it, it'll be incredibly obvious the man waving a mysterious device in front of people he's dragging into a maintenance shaft is up to no good.

Again, your general goal is to protect the Heads. If you're not busy implanting or deconverting people, don't be afraid to offer yourself as a bodyguard. There's some preference for guarding the ones that spawned right when the round started. If they are killed, the revolution wins, even if the Heads that joined later are still alive and kickin'. Not to mention, they'll have safety in numbers.

Keeping Yourself Safe

Speaking of which, revolutionaries often attack in packs. They usually prioritize Heads over Security personnel, but if fighting multiple people at once is too much for you, you can always ask a fellow Security agent to accompany you or deputize someone you trust to be your buddy.

Finally, as always, keep an eye on Security and make sure no one gets unauthorized access to your gear. The Head Revs' Rev Flash works fairly well on its own, but they and their underlings will often want stronger weapons to capture the Heads and other nefarious purposes. For this reason, don't hold your weapons out in your hands; you're liable to lose them to a lucky Disarm or slip and drop them on the ground for some Clown to pick up. Instead, keep them in your backpack/satchel/belt, and take it out when you need it. And as you always should, crack down on and arrest those who try to break into Security.

The Heads of Staff

You've a tough road ahead of you. The revolutionaries will nearly always outnumber you, and generally the only thing standing between you and the bloodthristy hordes of revs is the Security team and your own competence. Whether you'll end the round covered in the blood of assistants or covered in your own blood, dead in maintenance, will largely depend on your wits, resourcefulness, and proactiveness.

Be vigilant. Keep a eye out for signs of revolutionary activity, such as random flashings without any further violence. When you've solid evidence of mutineers among the crew, meet with other heads in somewhere safe and access-restricted, such as Security or the Bridge. At the very least, notify other heads over the Command frequency :h. For this reason, feel free to recruit the AI into the counter-revolution. They have eyes over most of the station, so they can see where suspicious flashings and attacks on Heads are occuring and track down the culprits.

If you're especially fearful for your life, you might want to ask a Security Officer or two to be your bodyguard. After all, that is their job. If there unfortunately aren't any, you could ask a fellow Head or someone you trust to accompany you.

The Line in the Sand: Why You Shouldn't Hide

But, just as important as being vigilant, is being active! Revolutionary rounds are much more exciting for everyone if the Heads and Security go out and actually try to deconvert revs rather than hide out in Space in a Space Pod. With active Heads, Revolutionary becomes what it was meant to be: not a single-sided steamroll of Revolutionaries curb-stomping pitifully outnumbered Heads, but a station-wide clash of Heads/Security-aligned and Revolutionary forces.

Plus, it's truly in your best interests to deconvert rather than hide. Every person you deconvert and loyalty-implant is one less person for the revolution and one more person (hopefully) protecting you. Your power only grows for everyone you loyalty-implant. If you hide, the revolution's power only grows as they convert/kill everyone who can protect you.

Deconversion

You have three options for deconversion: loyalty implants, melee beatdowns, and..."enhanced interrogation" as they call it, each explained further below. When you successfully deconvert someone with any of these options, you'll get a message along the lines of:

Grey O'Tide looks like they just remembered their real allegiance!!

Anyone brainwashed and crazy enough to lead a revolution in the first place will be completely resistant to all these methods. If someone seems especially resistive to your deconversion attempts, there's a good chance you've found a Head Revolutionary. As such, you may wish to consider alternative treatments.

After you deconvert someone, you unfortunately can't ask them who temporarily realigned their allegiance anymore, but you can at least take pride in the fact that you're slightly less outnumbered. Persevere with deconversion, and you may live to see another day.

Loyalty Implants

Counter their brain-washing with your own brain-washing! Not only will a loyalty implant decovert a revolutionary, but it will also prevent anyone, whether or not they were ever a revolutionary to begin with, from ever being converted into a revolutionary! On top of that, it deconverts them instantly! Because it's both pre-emptive and reactive counter-insurgency, it's definitely the most effective of counter-revolutionary measures.

Loyalty implants are found in the Armoury and Loyalty Kits from Cargo, priced at 6000 credits each, with each crate providing 4 implants locked behind a Security-access ID. If you're on Cogmap1 or Cogmap2, you can also find a whole box of loyalty implants somewhere in Security, either on a ring of tables next on a box of cuffs (Cogmap1) or next to a Confiscated Items crate (Cogmap1). If you ever run out of funds for these, feel free to ask the Head of Personnel or Captain to reroute some funds to the Shipping budget. Likewise, the Chief Engineer should feel free to get the PTL up and running and providing funds.

Implant everyone you suspect to be a rev. And you should suspect everyone who isn't a Security Officer or fellow Head to be a rev, so be generous and implant everyone you see! If your implant supply is limited, implant people like the Quartermasters, the Mechanics, robust people--basically, anyone the Head Revolutionaries would like on their side. Again, everyone you loyalty-implant is one less person for the revolution.

For this reason, the Medical Director should feel free to offer their implant gun to whoever's leading the implanting efforts, or, if they want to, use it to implant people themselves. This marvellous device puts some much-needed distance between the implanter and the implantee, who may very well be ready to eviserate anyone who comes near them, whether they're a Revolutionary or not. Plus, it's much easier and faster to implant someone walking down a hallway with the gun than it is with a standard implanter. It takes a certain level of gunslinging though; people tend to run away from anybody with an implant gun, because it looks so much like a generic gun in-hand.

It's also a good idea to ask Security for a pair of SecHUDs. When you wear them, people who've loyalty implants have a little L in the top right above their image, so you can tell at glance who's implanted and is thus trustworthy.

Not to mention, it's also more reliable at finding Head Revs than the other methods. If you implant someone, and you get message along the lines of:

Prof. Voecatur seems to resist the implant.

You can be 100% sure you've found a Head Rev, because this message only shows up for when you try to loyalty-implant a Head Rev. Not loyal crew, not Revolutionaries, just Head Revolutionaries.

Melee Beatdowns

Sometimes, violence really is the answer! If you beat someone into or while they're in critical condition (that's less than 0 health) via a melee attack, you have a good chance to deconvert them. (You can most likely guess what's really going on.) The instrument used doesn't matter; a toolbox, an extinguisher, or a simple punch all work fine. You don't have to actually use melee attacks beforehand either; you can start by serving them an appetizer of bullets, then serve them knuckle sandwiches. Or set them a flamme, with a flamer or beaker of fire chems. Or poison them. You know, the usual murder methods. Robustness helps, of course.

Aside from the obvious fact that this method involves a lot more fighting skill than other methods, they can still be flashed again and reconverted. Also, it's most likely in your best interests to heal them up after beating the revolution out of them, which obviously requires some medical supplies. For Heads, they're not hard to come by; MDir obviously has Medbay access, RD can make them, CE can order them from cargo, HoS and HoP can upgrade their IDs for either methods, and Captain can do all these from the beginning. For those in lesser positions, there are still MiniMeds, and places like the Gym, Crew Quarters, and Emergency Storage often have medical patches and/or boxes of donk pockets.

In addition, there's balancing act. More hits means more chances of de-reving them, but if you wail on them too much, you might just put them into a "hard crit" that's difficult to heal out of. For this reason, it's often better to use lower damage melee weapons or ones that purely take away stamina when trying to the deconvert revs (Again, you can still obviously use higher-damage weapons to put them into crit in the first place). Boxers may have finally have a purpose here; punching with boxing gloves on does very little damage, while still allowing you to deconvert people.

Just be sure to watch out for the deconversion message. It's easy to miss it in the middle of an intense brawl since it's in standard font.

Enhanced Interrogation

Sometimes, torture really does work, though it's not as efficient as brain-washing or violence. As it turns out, activating an Electropack or electric chair on someone will, with near-certain success, decovert them from the revolutionary cause.

Really only practical for the Head of Security (who has electropacks in the Armory and helmets in equipment lockers), the Medical Director (who has electropacks in the animal lockers in the Monkey Pen), and the Research Director (who has one in their equipment locker for some reason). Hooking a culprit to an electric chair or electropack takes much more effort than simply punching someone in the face a few times or giving them a loyalty implant.

GuardBuddies

The Research Director don't bring much to the implanting chain. Instead, they bring something entirely different: GuardBuddies! These loyal, adorable robots, when set the ominously-named purge mode, will attempt to arrest everyone not wearing a Head of Staff ID.

And by everyone, we do mean, everyone, whether they're a revolutionary or not. Loyalty-implanted crew, Security Officers, random Monkeys--if it's not a Head, they get tasers/flashes and handcuffs. Expect a lot of people shouting "GUARDBUDDIES ROGUE" if they're set to purge. Use with caution, obviously.

Gallery

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