[Bryce_Hego]

GANKING:
This refers to the classic style of antagonism, where you go around the map to try finding people to gank. This activity can be a lot of fun and is a great thing to do. It's easy and spontaneous, and can affect characters strongly since you're an immediate threat which forces people to react or at least rp about the repercussions. I think we could always use more ganks, and anyone can do it. Generally it's good to blend in some ganks with other styles since it's a simple way to make more people know about you and make people involved in your character's story. You can also do PLANNED ganks, which is just as good in my opinion, for different reasons. It's important to remember conflict rules for this style because it was essentially made for it.
1: Ask Danger Level
2: Clarify that the scene is locked! So important!
3: Agree on outcome if needed ("I wanna escape even if you win") (Yes you can do this)

I think the entire topic on an antagonism guide is ridiculous. Letting people know they can use the assistance of eventmins as a seldom known concept is fine but when it comes down to it antagonism is about understanding what is gotten out of it on both sides of the story, not something you can explain with a lengthily written flowchart. It's not hard to take a step back and ask yourself "is this going too far? does it improve the story?", something that even protagonist type characters -should- stand to do.

The ganking portion of your topic I absolutely cannot forgive in the slightest. I've gone through the wringer on Byond, DB RP games, NRP games, AoG, Eternia and SL2. SL2 is a vastly different RP environment from it's competition being mostly casual and petty conflicts, with the rare neatly written story between friends. Even with all my experience there's almost nothing about SL2 ganks that contribute to really anything good aside from the warm tingly feeling you might get from bullying.

I'll try to avoid talking about protagonist gank squads and focus on antagonist gank squads, be it 2v1, 4v2, or even the un-necassary 4v1.
I won't deny ganking gives victims some strong motivations to strike back, these are more often than not a OOC grudge of salt. Can you honestly tell me, if people you do not know or trust on an OOC level came up with a danger level any higher than 1, that you wouldn't be the least bit upset? Practically no one runs a build designed as an anti-gank as a "just incase"

Ganks are usually if not exclusively done against someone that had no chance of fighting back, like a random that hasn't even hit level 60 for the first time. The entire point of pumping up the numbers is to force a win and you admit that by saying it helps prevent avoiding repercussions. Gank squads are usually not consisting of fodder tier thugs either, on the antagonism side of things, they tend to be extremely well coordinated and synergized with strong kits that overwhelming any competition.
Now I get it, you're an antag. You don't wanna lose a fight, maybe individually you're a bad matchup for the target player. Maybe that isn't the case and you just are worried that the random guy you target might actually pull through and ruin your fun. After all, if you're ganking, chances are your fun comes from the act of winning encounters and furthering your characters goals.

Don't think for a second that danger level or the option to omit is a quick and easy cure. A lot of people can and will be running a "fuck it we ball" type mentality, where they are ready to accept what happens even if it feels dirty. In the end, they'll still be salty. I wouldn't say that makes the gankers inherently malicious since they did give the option to back out and omit the encounter, but it does mean the victim has a bitter taste in their mouth.
What can the victim do? They could try to confront one of the antagonists for a one on one, something unlikely given the gank happened in the first place. The antag might even feel fucked over if their friends were asleep or busy with IRL, even if the other side sees this as rightful payback.
The victim could completely redo their build from the ground up to try and beat the numbers, something that will more often than not end up fruitless. Again, Antag ganks don't typically consist of level 40-50s that are new to the game.
The last plausible course of action is forming a group. While the odds might not be great since chances are the group doesn't have perfect synergy, it's their best bet. Even if they do pull one over the antagonists, they probably don't feel that much better about the whole situation.

Ganking can work and be fun for the whole family in niche situations, typically those situations involving the player knowing their would be antagonists before they come. It eases off so much more stress for both parties to know one another.

This guide is unfortunately shilling the idea that it's a valid way to start conflict, and while it works, that doesn't make it good nor should it ever be outright encouraged.
Eventmins do not buff antagonists up so that they are guaranteed to win a encounter.
They buff the antagonist so they stand a fighting chance. Ganking is not about evening the odds, it's basically never about evening the odds, it's about winning so that someone suffers an IC consequence and now you're on the radar. Congrats, everyone thinks you and your posse are a bunch of (OOC) dickheads, except for the people that already knew you or could vouch for you.

Never -ever- say we could "use more ganks". Eventmins buff antags against protag ganks explicitly cause it's a blatantly harsh and mean way to approach OR end any conflict. SL2 is not a story written by one man, not everyone wants to get pummeled by unwinnable odds for the sake of some greater narrative they can't even see the end result for. Non-antags are not going to recieve a EC buff or compensation for toughing it out.

This is not something any healthy antagonist player should ever have to accomplish in a guide for antagonising in a correct way. It's not a healthy view of point to openly promote ganking in a game where skill gaps and mechanical advantages can lead to a unfair, and unfun fight. Nobody likes to get ganked by unfair odds, let alone when one person enough would be sufficient to beat them. The viewpoint of ganking to attack generally new players is a very walled garden approach to antagonizing.

A good story and RP story is not made through brute-forcing through superior PvP builds or tactics, a good story is made through making those encounters have meaning. Build up an encounter, build up a storyline with that person, instead of immediately forcing sudden repurcussions against their character.

A session of roleplay will always be far more enjoyable if both parties have fun, and both parties can look back and go 'hey, my character developed from this!'.