Atlas2112 |
Hey guys, let's talk about a couple questions:
1) Wherefore the Followers?
I think he's serious about us being followed. Do we want to hit 'Load Saved Game' and say we never did stuff, or do we want to handle them?
Persnoally, I think handling them is the better option. It'll give us some more combat experience (as Players) while at the same time sending a message that even if we're not knocking them over, we're not to be F'd with.
With Renegade having Awareness, that means that he and Imagine make one hell of a team-up. He can find people, and she can make them do unwholesome things. Possibly to themselves. With all of us working together we can make sure we're not followed.
Thoughts?
2) Baldy?
If we let him go, he's sure to be a re-occurring bad guy. Not sure how you think of that. But I'm not sure PWGM will let us do anything else with him (i.e. murder-death-kill). Hence, I have no ideas on the topic.
Welllllllllllllllll, in theory I could keep him locked down until we do the Milk Run, but I'm not sure how effective that would be.
Poor Wandering GM |
My guess is the GM is going to hit the hideout with something that you squishy types would get squished by (not Jud, nope, ol' Jud isn't squishable). And if you don't get squished the first time then he'll just send more and better squishers time after time so my vote is reset back in time.
More than happy to rewind but I wonder how much it will matter? Judd walked directly back to base after being told by Renegade that you were being followed. Even if we rewind now what is to stop this same thing from happening again and again?
I am beginning to suspect that there may be a difference in expectations operating here. NE has been described as "X-men if the Sentinels won". If folks are expecting something more like Avengers with a body count we have a problem.
Atlas2112 |
I'm fine with that. As in, we meet outside the convenience store, but then, upon the stragtegic thinking, decide we should just do the Milk Run and then gather at the base to have the discussion we just had?
edit: You may have a point there. I'm starting to see now the better mindset for this is like the movie "Red Dawn" or, possibly, that we're the VC during Veitnam.
Poor Wandering GM |
Hey guys, let's talk about a couple questions:
2) Baldy?
But I'm not sure PWGM will let us do anything else with him (i.e. murder-death-kill). ..
Actually unless we rewind this problem solved itself. When Imagine left Baldy was following his last instruction and heading for the God Shop. By the time Imagine gets home Baldy is back among the slashers.
Rigor |
Sorry I haven't posted in a a while. In answer to the question regarding how 'stealthily' Rigor is returning to the base, well, her plan is to make it to a place calm enough that she sill revert back to Tracy before returning, sorry if I hadn't made that plain.
Since by her very nature, she only reverts back in -non- threatening circumstances, she is unlikely to bring back a 'tail'...
or at least she thinks it is unlikely; neither of them are stupid, but neither of them are exceptional thinkers.
As to the possibility of our base being compromised...
well, while I like either idea, I am also okay with our characters having to learn some hard lessons from our overconfidence. If they wind up being fatal lessons...
to quote Xykon, 'We're the villains, we play rough'.
Atlas2112 |
Am I wrong in detecting a lack of enthusiasm for allowing any action remain that may end in something being a 'fatal' lesson?
If so, by all means correct me, but does it start to seem that we might be most attracted to a timeline where we avoid any gang entanglements altogether and fast forward to a time when we're just about to get started on the Milk Run?
Atlas2112 |
Mmmph. While I'm normally quite agreeable to going with majority rule, in this instance I'd just like to voice my fear that taking our lumps carries two strong arguments against:
1) We might lose.
PWGM has already demonstrated that he's not one for pulling punches. So, keep in mind that we might face a long, drawn out fight, only to either lose, or get attacked so constantly that the game becomes monotonous and needs a re-start.
2) Even winning might not gain us anything.
As before, what does winning even look like? Why would we retreat from fighting the gang only to...fight the gang?
And even if we wipe them out, we haven't gained anything; the V'Sori are still there and not harmed a whit.
Okay, three things. =)
3) The likelihood that we'll be in good enough shape to then pull off Milk Run (at 2:30am) is low. We'll either be fighting for our life, or too banged up. Some of us might be making new characters.
Four things. (*heh*) ^_^
4) Look at our post rate.
We probably lost SnakeCharmer. Will a long battle renew interest?
I hope I'm wrong. If you guys are chomping at the bit to post 3x a day for a huge, running battle, then tally the F**k ho! =D
I'm not trolling, just looking at honest factors. I've not done PbP that long but I've already had a lot of campaigns burn out from lack of interest and I do NOT want this one on the trash heap.
Look to hearts, and tell me true.
Snake Charmer |
I'm not lost, I'm ... biding my time, I guess.
When I came in, there was a fight that was kind of over before it began, and then we set off to the next thing and stalled.
And that's not a complaint, that's what happens when you hop a moving train.
I don't have much invested in this game yet, so I haven't really wanted to try to influence the decision we're all making here.
But because I'm a sucker for bullet points, I'm going to respond to Atlas.
1. We might lose: Always a possibility.
2. This is an important question. I'm puzzled, though, because I was under the impression that taking out the gang was the first step towards taking down the V'Sori. If it's not, we should figure out what is, and do that.
3. See 1.
4. Post rate is down because we don't know what's going on. Is it game over? Reset? Or are we going to play the hand and see what happens?
As far as I understand the options, we can
1. go ahead with our plan A that we've been told is going to end horribly
2. figure out a plan B that isn't going to end horribly
3. grow old
Ordinarily, I'd vote for 2, but we don't seem to have the information we need to figure out a plan B. So I guess I'd take 1 over 3.
Carl, Phasing Addict |
In reality, I'm good either way.
1) If we don't change things we'll have some terrific fights, and some of us might really shine. We'll also really get to know how good (or bad) are character builds are. Of course, we might die (or worse), or the scenario might grind to a halt.
2) If we do change things we'll move the story along better, but it sets a precedent that if we, as a group, make bad decisions, the GM, as a deus ex machina, can fix it, and our bad decision-making has no (or little) downside.
Now that I've listed both ways, I actually think we should stick to what we've been doing, and leave it up to the GM to figure out a way to not have the storyline die. Perhaps the rival gangs have problems of their own, and/or the V'Sori really don't care about the Slashers, and/or the V'Sori are using this as a crucible to test Dr. Destruction's real capabilities...
Poor Wandering GM |
So it appears that there is consensus for the "lead the Slashers* back to your secret base after revealing that at least half of you are metahumans**" option.
Support for the above.
*Judd walked directly home after Renegade revealed the presence of the tails.
**Renegade's armor. Carl observed out of phase. Rigor's size and monstrous limitation. I am discounting whatever info Baldy supplied as it is only by my intervention that he is alive.
Some specific answers
Snake Charmer. This is a sandbox game. Perhaps the wrong choice for PBP. You the players choose what you want to do. Re: your point 4 what information do you feel you are missing?
Carl. The story line can die. The V'sori care about control. Why the slashers/other gangs/Star City is/are allowed to exist is a very good question. Which I will not answer.
If you choose not to rewind or end the campaign one of two things will happen. Either Jack Axe will sell you to the V'sori or he will deal with you in house. I have not made this decision yet as I was waiting on your decision on the rewind.
It appears that decision has been made. We move on.
Michael Weiss, "Renegade" |
I don't think there is going to be any way to hide the fact that we are meta-humans when we undertake missions, so I think that much is a wash. However, after we settle this little debacle, I do think it needs to be made clear to all that care needs to be taken in returning to our hideout.
Tracy Warren |
So what is your goal Tracy? How do you want this to go? Feel free to do what you like with the watcher-mooks they are combat negligible but someone might eventually notice if they went missing. If you want to talk with Jack Axe he is at the God shop the only difference between walking there now and the walk you took before is that Judd smells more like chicken. What are you doing/going/planning?}
I had actually not been quite certain where I wanted to go with this, until it hit me just today.
Tracey is going to try & convince the Slashers that she is a V'sori 'plant' in this new Omega Cell & if they don't back off toot sweet, her handlers will come down on them like the wrath of god.Rigor |
PWGM, everyone, I've been debating this for a while & I am going to bow out.
Particularly given the additional hours I know I will be working for the next several months, I am deeply over committed.
The fact that I essentially have myself playing two characters isn't helping.
It has been a lot of fun, but I simply no longer have the resources needed to commit.
Good luck & have fun all.
Poor Wandering GM |
PWGM, everyone, I've been debating this for a while & I am going to bow out.
Particularly given the additional hours I know I will be working for the next several months, I am deeply over committed.
The fact that I essentially have myself playing two characters isn't helping.
It has been a lot of fun, but I simply no longer have the resources needed to commit.
Good luck & have fun all.
See you Rigor. I fully understand. See you round the boards.
Poor Wandering GM |
I think it may be time to call this game. Or at least do a hard restart.
The fault is mine. This was entirely too ambitious for my first run at GMing pbp.
Still it was fun and I learned a great deal. If/when I run this/another Pbp I now know to employ a much firmer hand and formally discuss things with the players to make sure we are all seeing and expecting the same things.
Your thoughts?
Aubster |
I think it may be time to call this game. Or at least do a hard restart.
The fault is mine. This was entirely too ambitious for my first run at GMing pbp.
Still it was fun and I learned a great deal. If/when I run this/another Pbp I now know to employ a much firmer hand and formally discuss things with the players to make sure we are all seeing and expecting the same things.
Your thoughts?
Running a PBP game is hard and very different than running a live game and I appreciate you getting us this far. I don't really have any suggestions for doing things differently except maybe being more forceful in stopping the players from attacking the Slashers since it took things in a way that distracted from the main quest line. But it's a tough line since you want to let them make their own decisions. I'm running my own PBP campaign and it has had some issues too so I definitely don't know the answers.
Atlas2112 |
Oh.
I can only feel that much of the blame is mine. I came in to this with a very "French Resistance" mindset, thinking that we just needed to reach out and organize the populace and show a united front. But now it's apparent that this is--
well, it's Shadowrun.
The group needs to keep to the shadows and dodge between the rocks and hard-places scattered throughout.
(I think i'ts been said before that the term "Super Villain" is misleading. We're gifted, but instead of orders of magnitude between us and everyone else, it's just scattering of degrees, and not really noticeable when comparing us to the megacorps, erm, ah, alien invaders. =)
I thought I tried to get back on track once I realized the damage I had caused, and tried to shut up so that someone else could take the reins, it's just bad luck that we were waiting a week for someone who was leaving anyway.
Mind you, to borrow a chess term, I don't really see this position as "unplayable".
You might be a little down because of all the attrition this game seems to have, but from that a loyal core seems to have emerged. You know that you'll always have me an' Carl, and Aubster's a trooper--it's true, his campaign shows that. Renegade has yet to prove his mettle, but things look good so far.
Idunno where I'm going with this. I like this game and it looks like it's just getting back on track.
I know that there are a lot of nice, cheap words that get thrown around on the boards, but at least here I meant it that I'd like to see this continue.
I'm gonna throw up a gameplay post. Meditate on it. If you feel like once more unto the breach going, that's great. If you wanna re-start, that too, is great.
To help your muse, here's the magician that won the 2014 AGT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITkjfSPDkqc
Poor Wandering GM |
It is with a heavy heart I announce the closing if this game.
I am afraid that I simply could not sustain enough interest to keep going.
I may try this game again in the future or more likely try running something on a smaller scale. I learned a great deal from this experience and will likely take another stab at GM'ing in the future
I apologize to you all.
~PWGM (retired)