Futuristic NCQuest: Mecha flavored action, OOC

[Viper Actual]

Fuck it, taking a chance here.

 

[SkyHawk MK IV]

Actually, just skip me for now. Hazel doesn't have anything else to add to the conversation.

 

[YsFanatic]

Ok, I'll see if I can something up this weekend

 

[Windsock]

Seems Dwiz ate my notifications too now! I'll make sure to post something today.

PeYtOn SmAsH

 

[YsFanatic]

Alright, I got a post up.

 

[Windsock]

Okay, we can consider Episode 1 to be effectively finished. I'll let everyone continue posting to their tastes for some final IC discussion or anything else, but when everyone has notified me they're done or are otherwise okay with ending, we'll enter another explicit rest period before EP2 starts. Don't worry about getting bored, I plan to give everyone some homework; I revised the character sheet templates and I'll hand those out when we finalize EP1 (or you can ask for them immediately), alongside some other discussions I may or may not bring up in private. You can use this an excuse to tweak anything about your characters (noting any minor development etc) and to upgrade your NC's for later operations. Any big modifications, please notify me and I'll give you an estimated cost and a little lore tidbit to put into (or otherwise adapt for) your sheet.

But, in general; continuing what I said earlier about wanting negative feedback, if you'd like to review anything with me, anything at all, please hit me up. I have my own self-review I'm preparing, just to let everyone know I plan on improving things for the future and how I'm going to do it. I'm well aware I haven't optimized my own methodology yet, and I'd like to reassure everyone (including myself) that I'm going to have a more explicit blueprint for future developments. Please expect that "soon".

Additionally, I have one announcement; Tanya Degurechaff 's 'Meanwhile!' collaboration is fully underway and you can expect that relatively soon, so they'll be posting normally again starting from EP2.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Windsock]

Oh, another thing is that I'm considering figuring out RPN's threadmarking feature. If it works like I think it does from my 2 minutes of experimentation it'll let me quickly review posts involving specific threadmarks, so I can review everything in a certain operation in one stream for example. You'll probably notice me dicking around with it, but don't worry.

Edit: Nevermind, it doesn't quite do what I thought it does. As we were.

 

[Viper Actual]

Windsock AnonyMouse been a bit on the down-low these past days, will reply ASAP but, at the latest, tomorrow night.

 

[AnonyMouse]

Windsock AnonyMouse been a bit on the down-low these past days, will reply ASAP but, at the latest, tomorrow night.

If you can't find the time or energy to do so, that's fine by me. I have nothing further planned except some minor smalltalk between Cammy and Peyton, which isn't really necessary. There will be time for that in the rest period after this mission.

 

[Windsock]

There will be time for that in the rest period after this mission.

Notification: I actually meant that both IC and OOC in case that wasn't clear.

 

[Windsock]

As I stated earlier, I'm reviewing what I've done, and how I've been running things as GM so far, and this is my 2 cents on what I should improve and how I plan to do that in later developments.

The biggest issue I believe is that I need to have much more structure both behind the scenes and plainly visible. I used to believe I wrote the best when writing by the seat of my pants, but in practice that hasn't been top-tier, especially in this context, and I'm going to be writing 'development documents' for future episodes from now on. Leaving surprises for people is still paramount though, to help garner interest and a sense of excitement and uncertainty, which is important.

In short, I'll make sure to iron out basic ideas for each episode and make a list of plot points and 'bits' I want to involve, and a summary from which to expand from when practicing, so that when I'm actually sitting down to write I know what I want beforehand and I can then focus on building on the concept for more clarity and neat random variables that could happen. Furthermore, every episode should have something in mind for every character involved, such as a nice opportunity to express themselves or show off their skills.

Another issue, which certainly isn't as major but is notable, is general pacing, but more specifically how I've been handling 'inputs and outputs' in practice so far. In short, how I've set it up is that people post what they're trying to do, and then I react to that by summarizing it and giving them their 'output', which they then re-interpret for their posts and they provide new 'inputs', continuing the cycle.

So far, this has been 'fine', but I'm considering ways to optimize this somehow. Currently, it makes me the ultimate fulcrum around which every post is forced to rotate around, which as GM is somewhat part of the job description already, but I'm sure it can be frustrating waiting on me for every little thing. I can't give everyone the same kind of 'ultimate authority' that I have as GM, but I think everyone would appreciate the ability to 'force their own outputs' somehow, at least for minor results like getting rid of the small-fry or stragglers in a fight.

I don't have any explicit ideas besides a very basic dice system ultimately derived on GM fiat, augmented by more information on what every character under my control is attempting to do, so that people can make educated guesses on what to write based on the dice results. I used this basic idea with some success earlier in previous escapades as GM, and how that ultimately worked is that I gave a number and people had to 'beat' that with a roll of their dice, and I would give them plus or bonuses to their roll based on random factors involved, like "Since this target is hard to hit, roll a d10 and subtract 1 from your result."

This system would probably be entirely optional, so if I decided to use such a system you could disregard it and just wait on me as we do now. I'm well aware that this might be more trouble than its worth, and it'd probably need more depth than that, but I don't want to move this RP to dice so I'd rather keep it as simple as possible. if I could get this right, it could make things more interesting for everyone involved and provide a faster pace.

Thank you for reading my thoughts.

EDIT: edited more info, highlighted in orang.

 

[YsFanatic]

Something that I've seen used and done myself in other RPs is that 'mooks' that are far below the skill/power level of the PCs are sometimes designated as 'auto-killable' and the players are able to describe how their character takes out some of the enemies on their own, so long the number of enemies and how they are destroyed make sense. Tougher enemies were handled the same way its been handled here thus far. The tricky part is when you have mooks and stronger enemies mixed together in a single battle. I'm used to it, but I can see how it be confusing for people who are not used to it.

 

[AnonyMouse]

Windsock
I absolutely abhor dice RPs. I don't think I've ever been involved in one where the dice didn't make some choices feel arbitrary. I mainly RP because I like to tell interesting stories and see how my and others' characters develop. Leaving major plot beats up to dice rolls just... ugh, it rubs me the wrong way. I think every choice should be a conscious one, made with thoughtful consideration of the narrative doors it opens and/or closes, even choices that appear to be luck-based or completely up to chance.

YsFanatic
I was gonna say something like that, but you beat me to it. Most of the enemies thus far have been "boss" or "sub-boss" level enemeies, where auto-killing or even severely damaging them would pretty much end the operation (or one phase of the operation). The lack of 'mooks' or basic cannon fodder means we have to tread a little more carefully. It also means we're all attacking the same target. So, if someone fires a huge cannon at that enemy, othes have to wait and see if the attack connected, how much damage did it do, how did the enemy respond, etc, etc, because there's nothing else to attack and you don't want to start 'stacking' attacks until you know what's goin' on.

Mind you, I'm not saying that's a 'bad' thing, merely that it affects how the turns play out.

 

[Windsock]

Thank you two for your considerations. With these in mind, I think the most prudent thing to do is to simply be more open about what I consider every enemy that shows up to be in terms of power level.

 

[YsFanatic]

AnonyMouse
How we handled that issue, which may not work with how we are doing things here, is that people would often put a conditional statement at the end of their post. Something along the lines of 'If tank A dies then Adam will shoot tank B'. That group of players has no problems with including little OOC comments like that into their posts to keep things going, but if you want to keep that stuff out of the story posts than this method will not work.

 

[Viper Actual]

Windsock I appreciate that you're open and honest as a GM and I think you have some good ideas going already. However, please do not overwork yourself- I've seen too many a GM try and reinvent the wheel then watch as everything just goes worse until it finally flatlines.

 

[Malphaestus]

I did tell him that he was overthinking the dice issue.

 

[Malphaestus]

Either way, I'm done with episode 1, waiting for that intermediary period at base.

 

[Windsock]

Malphaestus
Viper Actual
SkyHawk MK IV
YsFanatic
Tanya Degurechaff
AnonyMouse

On the side, I figured I'd publicly ask people help me brainstorm stuff for EP2. As I said previously, it'll be a normal non-combatant episode and an opportunity to have in-character discussions and just talk/do stuff IC.

First thing on the agenda so far is to have every player character's personal relationships get properly started outside of a warzone, so here's my current ideas on that.

My first idea is that Camille is probably the type to throw a victory party after her first successful operation, since it's already mentioned and generally implied she's that sort in her CS. She'd obviously bring Peyton along (who is trying to be a little more personable so it makes sense she'd come), and probably her neighbors, who happen to be Adam and Hazel. Handlers probably not included, I'd rather focus on the PC's themselves, main characters and only EP2 and all. But if Elena and Alice show up, no issue. I'd bring something up maybe halfway through to spice things up and remind everyone it's an intended action/thriller theme, but nothing major.

Second idea is necessary because Streuben doesn't live near anyone else and Nico needs something to do and he almost certainly wouldn'tve been invited, for similar reasons. I'm not so sure on this front, nothing immediately comes to mind with any strength. I have the most problems here because neither of them have any obvious hooks, and especially for anything that could involve the two of them. I might suggest something absolutely lame like meeting eachother by chance at the grocers purely because of the humor value at the mundanity of it.

Another idea I just got while writing this is that both Oswald and Malthus were implied to have some familiarity earlier, and maybe they both get the idea of dragging their assigned Linkers somewhere, and they meet up by chance there. Oswald is supposed to be big and fun and Malthus already seems like the type to drag people around like a suitcase.

Both of these ideas are admittedly pretty dumb but it'd help convey that both Handlers and Linkers are just nerds at the end of the day, which is important for the slice-of-life-ish aspects we're using to relax between Operations.

If any of these seem worthwhile or you have better ideas, please discuss.

 

[Malphaestus]

Malthus can drag me around all day. Or something.

 

[Malphaestus]

I am generally rather open to any and all ideas.

 

[SkyHawk MK IV]

I'd be up for a little victory party. Be good for PC development.

 

[Malphaestus]

I am expecting there to be a bit of post-battle talk between Team 1A, though. At base.

 

[SkyHawk MK IV]

Aye, that's true as well. Need to get that sorted out as well before anything else.

 

[AnonyMouse]

Windsock
I'm down for a party. That's what Cammy was gonna ask during her "smalltalk" with Peyton that I mentioned earlier. Everyone would be invited, even Nico and the handlers. (Even though he hasn't been mentioned IC, he works in the same hangar as the rest of us, so I'm sure Cammy and the other player characters at least know who he is and wouldn't just leave him out.) Whether they all show up or not is up to them, but there would be an open invitation to come over, pound some shots, and share war stories.

However, I'd like some post-mission time at base before getting to that. 1A has to have their talk and there's some Cammy and Halliwell stuff I wanted to add. It's about what we discussed earlier.