Eh, it's fine. I get spotty even at the best of times due to chronic Flighty Muse Syndrome. Have a fun vacation!
Doing alright. My family is in the process of moving, so things are a little hectic, but being honest most of my spottiness is my own fault for forgetting things.
Still around, and wondering what I can do to help the game pick up the pace (while understanding it's a busy time of year for everyone).
I'm going to try this: End of Session!
It's as good a time as any to end this "episode" and get ready for the next -- most likely going to rescue the Androidians from the Skullions, but what you do next is entirely up to you.
Keep in mind you also all have Team Moves as part of your playbook, including sharing a triumphant celebration with someone, since you all just took down the Scrapper League.
And for the end of Session, how about answering this question:
Did you....
Grow closer to the team? Explain
who made you feel welcome; give
Influence to that character and clear
a condition or mark potential.
• Grow into your own image of yourself?
Explain how you see yourself and why;
shift one Label up and another down.
• Grow away from the team? Explain why
you feel detached. Take Influence over
you away from another character.
I was basically waiting for a transition towards getting to the airfield, though I should have probably taken the initiative. It's been fairly busy for me as well since I started school again.
Shin feels like he's grown away from the team. Not completely because of what's happened with Kayla, but feeling like he's becoming a worst version of himself. He's keeping it under wraps - but it's caused a new rift between him and Psyche, so he'll take her Influence away from him.
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Hmm hard to say how Trip has grown. She feels a bit weird by how Kayla left, but that's not exactly new for her people come and go including herself in the multiverse. But she was rather attached to hanging out with her Hero's daughter. Isaiah and Trip have had a bit of bonding in their own weirdness, but I don't think the team overall has been super on board to get to know her more. Kinda all been dealing with their own thing including the new arrival and recent departure.
Glad that everyone is giving Siphon a chance but not sure if that's exactly growing into the team, seems more growing into herself as someone who can offer reasonable change to the places she interacts with.
Could make an argument for all three, gonna go back over things one more time later today assuming this headcold slows it's roll. And see if I can't decide which makes the most sense.
Ookay, moving is actually super disruptive. I'll probably be able to have time to think about a response in a day or two, but currently mostly sit in cars with no internet.
Okay, I'm now finally settled down somewhere I can do things, and should be able to put something together after some time to think.
Oh yeah, I know I need to handle some other things, I just wanted to at least get a post out because otherwise I might put it off forever.
Trying to think of how to handle all the stuff I've got going on, and how to respond to Trip's Comfort. Btu currently struggling with motivation and creativity issues. As well as reminders that while Isaiah/Inquiry in character is perfectly capable of multitasking several different activities at a time, and perfectly remembering all of them, I as a player am still limited by my puny meat-brain and its tendency to forget things.
Sorry to hear about that, Isaiah. I'm also struggling to decide what to do with this game. It's slowed to a glacial pace lately, with some players not having posted or posted frequently for nigh on months now. I'm wondering if interest and momentum has waned so much that it's not really feasible to keep this game going.
I've got ideas to keep running, mind you, and the energy to keep it up. But if too many of the players have lost their focus and interest then it might not be worth continuing at this point.
I don't know. Maybe this is everyone's preferred pace and you're all happy to keep it going with a smattering of posts every few weeks. We started this game pre-pandemic with a lot of energy and incredible momentum. But it was a different world then and I understand if players' situations have changed so much that they can't devote the time and energy like they used to.
And, maybe the direction the story's gone has something to do with it. It wasn't quite a team breakup, but maybe the intra-team conflict with Siphon and Praetoria was too much for people. I've tried to stay as hands-off as possible regarding how I want things to turn out and leave it up to the players/characters, and playing the NPCs as characters and not plot devices. But maybe my refusal to steer the ship has gotten us too far off course. If that's the case, I'm sorry. It was not intentional.
I'm interested in hearing what you all have to say. Three years and nearly 5,600 posts is an incredible run, so there's no hard feelings if we decide that we should retire the campaign. Let me know your feelings. Thanks.
Part of what's slowed me down over the past few months has a lot to do with starting graduate school and juggling two jobs on top of that. Though there's also the fact that I've always had Horizon bouncing off of both Psyche and Praetoria in order to drive his decision making, and it's been harder to figure out his placement without their contributions.
I can understand if real life has effective limited anyone's ability to keep up with the game. Especially since it's been years and maybe people are getting tired of their characters. Seeing as MASKS has an in built mechanic specifically tailored for changing your character, I wonder if we're at that point for some of us. I really enjoy playing Shin, but I couldn't say if that's what everyone else feels about their own.
I’m still enjoying the game, but don’t want to overwhelm the thread with posts myself. But I have also been busy with life and work as well, which has slowed me down across the board in general.
I changed characters because it fit the narrative for Praetoria given the shift in interactions from the team. Would it be better for the game if I kept her around instead?
Some of it for me is that I bit off more than I can chew... But at the same time, something about how things have been moving hasn't really clicked to get me really going recently. Not sure I could put a finger on specifics, and we can probably handle the shift eventually, but I am somewhat of the opinion that the drama has been in too high of focus recently. It feels like the team is legitimately falling apart, and, well... that's not that fun to be a part of sometimes.
That's just my opinion though.
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Between, working on my current house for reappraisal, and sorting things out with work and the place i'm moving too i've been pretty drained x.x I think we need a moment to gnash out some of the conditions that everyone has built up and then tackle the next action bit. We've been riding the dramallama for a while now which is all good and part of the game, but it's been a pretty non-stop slap fest of emotion with only a spattering of tiny tiny wins for the team. Even the bigger wins have been sort of torn down by the adult(looks at Silver) doing a "Are you sure about that?" and Prae leaving the group, which we haven't had a good moment to actually address I guess?
I personally have been suffering a serious mental/creativity block. Like everytime I come to post in gameplay I kinda wind up staring at the text box until I can't come up with anything and more on to something else
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So I definitely (much as I wish and keep trying to convince myself otherwise) don't have the time and energy for the game that I used to. I hope we can keep going, definitely without a Psyche-centered story for at least a couple months though.
It sounds like a common theme is that aside from player fatigue, people are concerned about there being kind of a lot of motivations and ongoing interpersonal drama that hasn't really had the chance to breathe or be resolved. Maybe even if we don't retire some characters a season break could be useful? A gap of in-game time that lets people refocus their characters and energies towards just what they want to move forward with can be very revitalizing from a narrative perspective.
Plus, anyone who does want to swap characters can either have joined in the interim or have their 'Welcome to the Team' be part of the first arc.
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Okay.
I've been thinking about doing this anyway, and Psyche's post just solidified it. I'm going to do a jump in theme and scale, though not a time jump.
I'd been planning reducing the scope for a while, but there was always *just one more thing* over and over. Since school started up for the characters, I've wanted to set some stories in the classroom and extra-curricular activities. Especially with our new Janus, that playbook just screams out for events in and around the school.
The Skullions are sort of in the way -- I'd been planning on doing this once they've been... well, "dealt with" might've been a tall order, but you know what I mean.
But given the pace we've hit, we'll be lucky if we could get through the fight in under six months. I don't want to do that grind. So I'm going to say the Skullions cleared out of the air field before the Sentinels go investigate. We'll put the Skullions/Androidians story on the shelf for a while. It'll be a dead end for a while and we'll get to it later.
So... you can investigate over in the main thread, but don't expect to find them right away. And then we'll transition to some light and low-stakes school stuff.
How does that sound?
Sounds good to me.
Works for me too!
Actually, can I request one additional element?
Right now Psyche doesn't have an adult to push back against. You okay with Gothic 'advising' her not to just spread her psychic web everywhere at school?
Someone Psyche has to sneak past/circumvent or just openly defy would be a fun dynamic for me to work with.
Psyche: I can do that. Also, don't forget your probation officer.
Yeah, but someone with the brain oomph to back it up adds some different vibes :-)
I'm happy with us running cold on the case, and Shin will definitely be glad for the change in tension. Hopefully we'll be able to pick things up some more even though the holidays are here.
I'm currently doing Thanksgiving related things and am a bit busy, but that does sound fine. Isaiah will be frustrated, but he really does need a decrease in how much is on his plate. And can get back to deliberately dropping confusing hints around school (he doesn't actually need education, so it's more of a social observation thing for him anyway.)
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Ok I think it's super late to say this but I think Trip may have grown into herself a bit. I say this because while her and Isaiah have been having their own bonding experience the rest of the team hasn't been in a position to make any bonds with her, especially with Kayla leaving, and the focus shifting to getting Siphon on board with the team. She's also slowly trying to acclimate to Earth culture a bit more and trying very hard to explore these weird terran emotions she has been feeling since she's been with the group. I would say she hasn't grown away from the group though because noone has actively pushed her away, not even Kayla after the incident(not anymore beyond separating herself from the team).
I also have to say, sorry for the huge chunk of radio silence, still trying to figure out the house stuff while also already having to start my new job(before I actually move to where it's not a 2 hour drive one direction x.x). Between that and the usual brainslump, post convention depression, and general just trying to do life stuff. I haven't had a whole lot of free braincells to dedicate to writing anything here. However I hope to get back to it a bit more once everything calms down and i get all this reality under my feet again.
oh btw danger down superior up(-1 and 2 respectively)
Okay, moving process is now mostly done. I should actually have reliable internet now, though I'm still somewhat worn out.
Let's see, still swimming in boxes, but I have computer, internet, and time to sit when not unpacking boxes. Now just to decide what end-of-session thing to actually do with Isaiah.
I'm leaving some of Psyche's anti-inhibition work up in the air for other people to grab they find it an interesting hook, but she's mainly thinking things like the spirit section of the bleachers going even crazier than normal, or people in the theater getting **really** into their roles. All still in the realm of nudges and influence rather than control though.
@Psyche: I can work with that. :)
Is Psyche leaving her teammates out of this experiment, or will the others find themselves becoming more intense as well?
Isaiah/Inquiry personally is probably unaffected, unless Psyche intentionally works to hit them as well. While they don't have a blanket immunity to psionics, their mind works on entirely different basic principles. And the main portion of it is located elsewhere anyway.
She is more amping up vibes in different areas than anything targeted at or away from individual people. I could see different members of the team being more resistant to it from psychic familiarity, or being more susceptible because they're used to Psyche in their heads...
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!
And holiday wishes and good cheer even to those who don't!
Happy Holidays! I've also been somewhat busy and distracted.
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Happy New year everyone! I hope that 2022 treats you better than 2021!
Let's see, looks like Isaiah's not getting a response from Psyche, so what to do.....
Sorry Isaiah, missed that part of your post - I'll have a reply up later today
Alright, I'll wait for it, though I should also think of one or two other activities to get up to. Maybe Isaiah really will go to the local adult supers to complain about their prison setup.
Okay, I've been having a lot of trouble with Paizo recently if people have been waiting on me. Probably need a day or so to catch up still.
If anyone else is having trouble with logging on, try clearing your cookies and cache, that worked for me.
Ahem. Announcement time.
I have come to a decision regarding this game. In light of the slow progress lately, the disappearance of some of the current players, and the general state of the Sentinels as a team (in-world), I have decided to make a major change.
I'm NOT ending the game. Or, at least, this comic-book world we've created. But I believe it's come time to retire this current game thread and start up an all-new, all-different team of superheroes.
I plan on starting a new thread, and bringing in a few new players and pick up the story of Halcyon there. I'll leave this game open for a while, to let the current characters continue their stories if you're still inclined to keep it going.
Everyone here is invited to the new game. If you wish to continue your current characters, you may. I encourage you to consider picking a new playbook to reflect change, growth, and a renewed focus. If you wish to retire your character and create a new one with a new playbook, that works too.
What will happen with the Sentinels? Well, it depends on the consensus of whoever's left. They can exist as another team in Halcyon like the Alliance or Heralds, or the team can break up. Some team members might strike out on their own, some might retire, and some might make the transition to the new game. Up to their players, really.
The new thread will see the creation of a new team. I plan to work with everyone to come up with a When Our Team First Came Together storyline for group cohesion. I still plan on a reduced scale -- at least at the start -- focusing on life-school-heroing balancing and all the trappings that come with that. Seeds planted in this game will definitely come to fruition in the new thread, so old friends and enemies as well as new faces and threats will be encountered.
If you decide to retire from the game entirely, I understand. Thanks for playing and being a part of this collective storytelling adventure. I've had a lot of fun and wish you the best.
If you decide to continue, great! I look forward to working with you to either continue your character's story, or figuring out their best send-off and creating a new character for the next chapter of Halcyon City.
In the meantime, go ahead and use this discussion thread as the place to plan for the future, brainstorm new characters, and ask me any questions you might have about this new direction. None of this is set in stone, and persuasive arguments might get me to change my mind about any of these plans. But something's going to change.
I'm sticking around. Whether I remain as Steel Guardian or make a new character depends on what everyone else decides.