Futuristic NCQuest: Mecha flavored action, OOC

[SkyHawk MK IV]

Oh hell, I'm going pretty easy all things considered.

Fair enough.

 

[SkyHawk MK IV]

I'll get a reply up soon enough Viper Actual

 

[Viper Actual]

No rush brother, things have been slow on my end due to RL stuff so take your time.

 

[Windsock]

Malphaestus
Viper Actual
SkyHawk MK IV
YsFanatic
Tanya Degurechaff
AnonyMouse
Aldur

Well, to not put too fine of a point on it, I'm sure we can assuredly state that we're at a hiatus, which I insist on taking full responsibility for. As I said earlier, I'd like to thank everyone for their participation up to this point and I really do enjoy the times we've had so far, and I still hope to continue later on. But, I think it's healthier to make the end for what we have right now, official, so we (mostly me lol) can move on from here in a proper fashion.

Again, every single one of you has honored me greatly with all the work you've put into this, but it's clear now is just not the right time in many of our lives, and in my own case I don't know direction to go into.

I hope to contact you all again in the short-term future with a new game-plan and to more or less continue as we were.

If there's any recommendations you have for the future, please convey them to me however practical and I'll be sure to keep them in mind.

 

[Viper Actual]

I'm sad to see we couldn't pick up our previous pace- even though everyone said that they were still around.
Either way, it's been a blast and I hope we can get things going in the future.

 

[Malphaestus]

I didn't get notifications.

 

[Malphaestus]

Though, in utmost honesty, I do feel like I've lost my touch. So to speak. Unfortunately.

 

[YsFanatic]

I had fun, and I'll be around if/when things resume.

 

[Windsock]

Malphaestus
Viper Actual
SkyHawk MK IV
YsFanatic
Tanya Degurechaff
AnonyMouse
Aldur

I took a total absence from RPN for about a month (as I'm sure some have noticed) and I reckoned now is the time for me to start my preliminary reconstruction work. I'll be doing my best to work on the continuation harder and smarter. Currently, the plan is to generally "trim the fat" and re-focus the continuation more strongly on the parts that are actually relevant. I'll do my best to optimize everything RP side for actually running things, and I'd like to finalize the 'grand re-opening' by February of next year as a goal. I want to put in proper work and pre-plan things better.

I'd like opinions on the best way of handling the story-so-far and general information we have, and of possible story optimizations and retcons; those sort of things can be very useful if done right and I am considering them for "optimization" purposes. Due to the large amount of directly requested side-characters and side-plots, all very high quality, I believe minor re-work of the story so far would be very practical to allow some of these elements to be introduced sooner, preferably almost immediately upon continuation.

Another factor I'm re-evaluating of is my previous secrecy; I want surprises, as a GM, for obvious reasons, but I also realize that having a fuller understanding of 'the script' as I see it is very useful for players as well. I'll attempt to be more prudent about my secretiveness of the planned plotting in the future.

I'll be creating a synopsis of the total story so far (adding any prudent retcons) as a new intro for the continuation, which does bring me to my next point; if there's no objections, a new thread will be started. Furthermore, if a significant amount of people leave I'll be asking for permission from you, the players, to see if I can recruit new blood.

Finally, as usual, I wanted to express my honest thanks to each of you for giving me all you did, I had a lot of fun and I hope to continue that trend in the future.

 

[Windsock]

Malphaestus
Viper Actual
SkyHawk MK IV
YsFanatic
Tanya Degurechaff
AnonyMouse
Aldur

Been a little busy in my personal life, but managed to write the new intro-blurb for the setting, including a greatly generalized story-so-far for the actual IC business. I wanted to use it to get back to writing, and thankfully it seems I haven't rusted over completely just yet. And, I've decided on the broad optimizations that I mentioned.

First, we're just going to focus on the North-American continent for this story (at least, for the foreseeable future); I wasn't clear on this beforehand, but I'm going to be clear on it now. I'm cutting down mentions of things elsewhere just to laser in on where the game is actually set, post-apcoalyptic Americaland. I'm not removing anything I wrote down explicitly, I'll just be downplaying their importance to what's actually going on in the story right here, right now.

Related to focus, are the retcons I mentioned. I'll be messaging everyone who had distinct plans that they discussed with me. We'll be confirming all planned things between us and setting up a specific timeline for the planned events for future reference. A few things will be changed so that certain events or characters can be introduced as soon as we start up; I'll tell you in the message I send to you specifically.

Related to the actual process of restarting, we're not doing a full restart at all; for full clarification, we're just going back in the timeline (with the addition of all retcons) before the current round of missions were started. To ease everyone back in, another all-player-characters-present event will be introduced so that everyone can get used to writing their dudes again. I haven't decided on the details of this event quite yet, but the current plan is a dual-purpose surprise inspection/interview by the middle-management of MAVERICK, with some character-specific side-hustles. Some characters will be notified of the interest and offers they've gotten from certain parties, for example.

Of course, the missions will be re-shuffled and changed to something a bit more simple, since clusterfucks aren't too fun in practice.

Again, thanks a ton to everyone for staying up to date!

 

[Viper Actual]

First off; Happy holidays everyone!

Secondly: Past two weeks have been a mess for me on a personal level. I still hope to join but as things are right now I will not make any promises or guarantees until I sort things out.

 

[Windsock]

Minor status update of my own: having some difficulties getting my ass truly in gear, but working on a full list of characters and their name(s) to be used in the continuation. Re-affirming all character roles and plans and all that.

 

[Windsock]

Hope everybody had a decent year so far either way lol.

Malphaestus
Viper Actual
SkyHawk MK IV
YsFanatic
Tanya Degurechaff
AnonyMouse
Aldur

I'm still having major trouble motivating myself to actually get down and write things, but I'm still getting solid sounding concepts here and there formulating in my head. I also got a few requested retcons and I'm liking everything I see so far. As planned, we're going to start up again as soon as February rolls around; current plan is February 5th specifically.

About the retcons and continued interest, those are going to be negotiable until february 5th of course lol but I'd like it if everyone who's still been thinking of changes they'd like or like to request got to me, asap. And, of course, that goes similarly for everyone who wants a break from NCQ for whatever reasons. Just tell me as soon as you can and we can figure something out so you can return later.

Besides the reminder and sitrep, I hope everyone has been doing OK.

 

[YsFanatic]

Just an FYI, new Ys game comes out on the 2nd and everything for me is gonna be on hold until I complete it.

 

[Viper Actual]

Unfortunately because of real-life events, work and other things in life I have almost zero inspiration to write anything these days. As much as I'd like to participate in NCQuest once more I wouldn't be fair to you guys (especially you Windsock ) nor to myself if I jumped into something while not being ready to fully commit to it. Last year I over-extended myself as far as RPs goes and because of that I managed to snuff out whatever creativity I had as writing posts for the 5+ or so RPs I participated in started to feel more like a second job than a hobby.

That said I'd still be interested in joining- just not for the moment. Hope y'all understand.

 

[Malphaestus]

Unfortunately because of real-life events, work and other things in life I have almost zero inspiration to write anything these days. As much as I'd like to participate in NCQuest once more I wouldn't be fair to you guys (especially you Windsock ) nor to myself if I jumped into something while not being ready to fully commit to it. Last year I over-extended myself as far as RPs goes and because of that I managed to snuff out whatever creativity I had as writing posts for the 5+ or so RPs I participated in started to feel more like a second job than a hobby.

That said I'd still be interested in joining- just not for the moment. Hope y'all understand.

Ditto'd.

 

[Windsock]

Unfortunately because of real-life events, work and other things in life I have almost zero inspiration to write anything these days. As much as I'd like to participate in NCQuest once more I wouldn't be fair to you guys (especially you Windsock ) nor to myself if I jumped into something while not being ready to fully commit to it. Last year I over-extended myself as far as RPs goes and because of that I managed to snuff out whatever creativity I had as writing posts for the 5+ or so RPs I participated in started to feel more like a second job than a hobby.

That said I'd still be interested in joining- just not for the moment. Hope y'all understand.

Ditto'd.

Malphaestus
Viper Actual
SkyHawk MK IV
YsFanatic
Tanya Degurechaff
AnonyMouse
Aldur

Admittedly, I've definitely been having my own severe motivational problems, as I'm sure the lack of my presence has clued in on. I'm still interested in continuing this story but I'm just not sure what to do in practice anymore, either, myself.

For now I'm going to wait and see how I feel when my original re-start date, February 5th, rolls around, and promise to make another address with anything I've come up with at that time, if anything lol. If anybody would like to continue discussing or talking of NCQ and its continuation, please do so however you feel is most prudent.

I want to thank all of you for being excellent players so far and I really look forward to working with every single one of you again in the future, on any kind of writing project. Please take care now.

 

[Malphaestus]

This is not the end, brother. Just a hiatus until our clocks re-align.

 

[Windsock]

Malphaestus
Viper Actual
SkyHawk MK IV
YsFanatic
Tanya Degurechaff
AnonyMouse
Aldur

2 days early but just notifying everyone I got to working on what I have to say, and I think I might have a lot to say lmao. May post my evil plan early.

 

[Windsock]

Malphaestus
Viper Actual
SkyHawk MK IV
YsFanatic
Tanya Degurechaff
AnonyMouse
Aldur

Okay, here's everything I've thought of, the changes I'm going to try and introduce in-story and outside, and anything else I wanted to say up to this point I thought was prudent. I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of stuff, and I'm also sure I say the same things a few times, but here goes.

Oh, but, also, please feel free to give me your own thoughts on what you'd like to see done, and convey them to me however you feel most comfortable.

Without further ado...

Spoiler: STORY STUFF

The majority of you have given excellent ideas to use for our story (and your own side-stories), and I'm going to rectify this as the main issue as soon as the proper continuation is ready. With the fact not everyone will be able to join as full players immediately, it did happen to begin to inspire me in hypothetical methods to give each character a proper introduction to their own side-stories even if they can't be present in the main story, and perhaps a better idea of a more prudent story structure overall to fit everyone and their needs.

I want to let everyone know I'm going to be continuing NCQ with a few different ideas in mind, including some retcons, major and minor, I'm willing to take thoughts on, but I admit I already feel good about.

The biggest one I've considered is something related to Linkers and MAVERICK in general; in the writings so far, MAVERICK has been portrayed as a monolithic entity, and even though it makes sense given the context, I think a more excellent choice would be the addition of distinct, more recognizable 'cliques' that're officially recognized in the greater MAVERICK structure. In other words, specific 'clans' that make up the organization to give it a bit more flavor and enhance overall story and characterization potential. I think this would enhance it by way of making it easier to convey that the player characters are each themselves parts of something greater in the organization, that isn't the mysterious monolith of MAVERICK itself. It's not a revolutionary idea or change, but I like where it's going in my mind and I'm going to convey a better conceptualization of this full idea, and what it will mean for our story, in the new introductory write-ups I'm going to prepare for the continuation.

Somewhat relatedly, I think the current plan for our starter plot with the "Sons of ZEUS" is probably too complicated, and given too much importance in my own mind, and the current story context. I think the fact that everyone is at one base and is almost one 'team' may be related to this factor, so I think more concrete existence of other things going on is going to be prudent in the continuation. I know everyone likes the coastal headquarters, but I'm going to be retconning the other bases previously described, if in other forms, somewhere in the mix as well; maintaining the primacy of the current HQ, though, cause it's admittedly got a lot of potential and coastal bases are just cool. I promised a beach episode so we gotta do that too lmao.

Furthermore, I was talking with one or two of you about my primary story concepts, and after some private musings I'm going to go with the broad strokes of what I had so far and put more effort in considering the 'why and how' of things in the storyline. Anybody who also wants the broad strokes I gave to these private individuals, go ahead and ask for them in DM's, be my guest. If you'd like to remain totally, blissfully unaware of the main plot concepts for surprise, also be my guest.

Back to the issue of some players not being able to fully join for the continuation: related to my earlier implication, I'm thinking of more distinct side-plots that could be played out in private, to be added to the main thread after completion, and the confirmed readiness of the players involved to join the main plot again. Similar to the distinct queue concept we had going for a while, but with one more layer lol. In other words, just because you can't join doesn't mean we can't come to an agreement that your character was doing some cool shit on the side, and write out some related story threads. Everyone has a little something planned for their own characters, so getting those balls rolling is paramount. If we can knock out two birds with the same ball, why shouldn't we?

Onto actual story and writing content, I got good data in the interim of what's honestly missing in the story, and I intend to rectify the private complaints I've received in the continuation as well. I'm going to re-work the mentioned organizations we have into something more logical for the stories I want to convey and more tenable overall. Admittedly, I'm an expert at writing needless tidbits into lore and I'm going to be much more careful about this in the continuation's re-write. I've come to a conclusion in private I work best closer to beige prose compared to purple, so expect less unnecessary fluff and for all the information described in the continuation to actually be important. Furthermore, important information will actually be printed in lore pages instead of scattered around in PM's and in the story thread. Nobody complained of this, I personally hate how I did this as I comb through things smh.

Overall, expect some things to be simplified, but things to be added to make the story a bit easier, and make interacting with the world through text more simple and intuitive. More useful setup, IC and OOC, is my priority for the continuation.

Spoiler: CHARACTER STUFF

Outside the main meatiness of the story, there's going to be some adjustments to the characters already involved, and those not yet present. I really hate how I basically did nothing for some of these characters, and I mis-judged my own mental images of them as soon as I got to actual writing (in all my time, I'm the only one who does this lmao), so expect re-writes and closer following of the revised Character Sheet details on my part for all GM characters in the story so far. Additionally, mentioned characters are going to be more visible and expanded. The 'asides' I had going, with the chat-rooms and side stuffs happening; I really like those and I'm going to expand those somewhat so that everyone gets an idea of the characters coming into the story, well-ahead of time, depending on actual need. It's good practice for me and It's something interesting to read as we go through the 'queue'.

Anyway, to some examples...

Henrique Dillan (NC Dreadnought), is going to be expressly re-forged into the leader of one of MAVERICK's 'cliques'. His CS is going to be re-written to fit his current actual written tone of being a rough, yet strong-morals type of character. Some concepts I had in mind for him are going to be revealed a bit earlier, namely by being implied or outright stated in his CS in some cases.

Topically, Yoko (NC Senbazuru) is also going to be re-worked as a more active character, and I plan for her to appear occasionally to check in on the player characters remotely. It'll give an excuse to introduce chatroom scenes involving the actual player characters, and ease into more player utilization of the scene-type. Related to her old CS, maybe some PC's will get interesting things in the mail lmao.

Finally on explicit mentor/senior characters, Rosa Slydina sucks major ass compared to my original visualization and she can expect a near-total re-write.

I like where Xavier Crowley is, but he'll be a bit more obviously flippant in the future.

Corbin (NC Kugelblitz) is also fine for the most part, but I'm going to tweak the planned order of events for him so his complimentary role in the story for a character or two is more set in stone before the parties even meet. In words alternate, there'll be more immediately obvious reasons for him to be in the story, specifically, and maybe some starting insight into why he's the way he is as an asshole with something to prove, a hunger for money, and an itchy trigger finger.

A few characters we originally weren't going to see in person for a while are also going to be mentioned or directly present in contexts like the chatroom asides and side-texts. Just to get some appetites, seeing who these people are and what they're about. Yes, big main plot tier stuff included.

Calling some people by rank descriptors was getting tiresome so the 2 notable Sons of Zeus people will be getting full proper names and slightly more direct characterization. Also, more/better/present hints into the overall SOZ story.

The Baltimore Governor will also be getting better characterization, including an actual name. Nothing too heavy because he isn't planned to be super important.

All planned Linkers will be lightly re-tuned with the 'cliques' concept where prudent, for simplification purposes. Also, Irregular Linkers will feature more prominently, a bit more quickly.

Finally, all planned characters will be re-worked and optimized to better convey the new point that multiple streams of 'stuff' should be happening. Across the board, characters, their sheets, and in-use characterization will be tuned to have less needless baggage, but to have immediately cool and important stuff present innately.

Spoiler: SETTING STUFF

On the setting itself, no major changes to the broad strokes besides the earlier mentioned re-focusing in on the Americas for simplicity's sake, and the relocation and re-writing of organizations to better fit the new focus. A majority of mentioned groups will be retconned into being from present continent, including certain Mega-Companies. Furthermore, more stuffs will be present in general after the re-focusing and re-tooling, for now focusing in on yet-unmentioned neighbors of New-Baltimore. Player-created Ruling Companies, and companies where their foreign-ness is important to their future utilization, will still be from other continents and maintain their location.

For now, I'm maintaining a policy of 'nothing that isn't actually important right now' as described earlier; all information will be.. chunkified.. so that each chunk of information shown is actually prudent to when it first appears in the story, in real time, or close to.

On technology writeups, I'm not going to bother with the hard specifics like specific truck types as much anymore, since in hindsight that was a waste of time. Model lines are a lot more important than specific model numbers.

Spoiler: OOC STUFF

I'm also going to re-read this documentation, and every other good idea I've ever had as GM, and write all the good points down in an actual bullet-point list, which I'm going to analyze before I write or do anything for NCQ so I can maintain 100% consistency in all new policies and good ideas. If I post something and I don't give a count of how many times I read this currently hypothetical list of good ideas, and say something unique about the list, you have current me's permission to hit future me in the head with a hammer. An NC-sized hammer.

Further on out-of-character stuff, as stated, there'll be a new thread(s) for the continuation.

Relatedly, I'm going to ask everyone to re-write all their character sheets to a new-new format right before we're underway again, because I am still a cruel GM. For posterity, we're going to have 3 sheet types in the continuation. This'll also be the main opportunity for ya'll to have your requested retcons for your characters.

MAIN CHARACTER (+LINKER) SHEETS
High-detail sheet, basically what we have now but re-categorized again.

NC SHEETS
See above, but for NC's. Better construction is to be expected.

SIDE CHARACTER SHEETS
Simpler character sheet. This will also be used for non-important NPC's. Small, modest sheet with low-detail; only simple strokes necessary.

Lore information, like write-ups on the ruling companies and technical details and location information, that's going to be freeform and won't necessitate a sheet.

This is a lot to chew through by my own standards, so please don't feel funny about taking your time to read through all this. But, I'd like to get something off of my chest. Yes, again, you've all been a great crowd and I hope to improve everyone's enjoyment in the full continuation of our story. I'm the type where I need to burn something down to build it better again, so I hope that making a new thread and retconning some things will re-invigorate myself, and through the hopefully higher qualities resulting from that, re-invigorate everyone else just as much, if not more, than myself, and result in further great fun for everybody.

I admit I'm not exactly sure when I want to restart, but I'll try to get everything ready and orient myself for the start of the continuation in April at the absolute latest, but hopefully March.

I Hope to see you all again for the continuation at that time!

 

[Windsock]

Malphaestus
Viper Actual
SkyHawk MK IV
YsFanatic
Tanya Degurechaff
AnonyMouse
Aldur

Howdy, just thought I'd give a weekly status update. This time, mostly about the plan for the internal MAVERICK Cliques lmao.

Big preliminary cliques and their base characterization is done, and more importantly I'm getting a pretty good idea of the new political sphere concept for the Americas. A lot of it is still only in my head, but most of the ideas are getting solidified.

About re-writing some of the GM characters; not entirely sure what to do specifically about all of those just yet, but still working on it of course. Not like there isn't time lmao. All of the GM defined internal MAVERICK sub-groups are written down even if I'm not entirely sure what to do with them in details, which does lightly bring me into my next point.

If anybody would have requests for the gangs and goings-on of MAVERICK's internal affairs, please feel free to notify me. I've made a decent variety so far, but if you have any need for something unique, don't hesitate to ask. Speaking of, it'd certainly do to provide you all with what I have, so here's what's been made concrete so far:

Spoiler: preliminary list of preliminary cliques

Spoiler: Clique: Crusaders, part 1

The Crusaders are an internal clique of MAVERICK Linkers, called so for their rough-shod, if strongly moral character as a group. Founded by the same lineage that heired Henrique Dilan, pilot of the NC Dreadnought, the Crusaders trace their origins to the 'Century of Chaos', being one of the oldest Cliques in MAVERICK, with a high bar of entry; not of strength of arm, but of strength of character. Always rough, but consistently altruistic, the Crusaders also have a history of relying on salvaged or inherited NC parts, justifying a stereotype of exclusionary, goody-two-shoe busy-bodies who make do with hand-me-downs and battlefield acquisitions.

With the fact that the organization has always been lead by the pilot of the Dreadnought and a worrying tendency of only accepting students of previous members, the clan has come under-fire for being nothing but a personal army for the one in charge. Still, the Crusaders have maintained a long history of fighting some kind of good fight up to the present day, even if the particular definition has changed with the times.

Spoiler: Clique: Frogmen, part 1

'Frogwork' was an early, euphemistic term used in MAVERICK to describe even less scrupulous than normal contracts, such as fighting for particularly violent rebel groups, bandits, warlords, or full-fledged international terrorist organizations. Sympathizers to the causes, firehearts, and plain sociopaths who enjoyed that kind of often overly vicious work soon banded together to form their own gang in the MAVERICK organization, originally nameless. In reference to their surreptitiousness and their enthusiasm for wetwork, they were called Frogmen by others, and the name stuck.

The MAVERICK Frogmen are a group of highly professional, but amoral (if not sometimes utterly immoral) individuals who operate, in some sense, like a cartel or mafia cell. The 'Boss' of the Frogmen is currently one 'Butch Maranzeno', pilot of the Neural Combatant 'Wise-man'. The Frogmen are internally handled entirely by votes of confidence and of a somewhat warped sense of honor, with few internal rules besides keeping internal business internal and keeping each-other from going too overboard on the job, averting an excess of ire.

Spoiler: Clique: Scrapcrackers, part 1

One of the most recent Cliques, the 'Scrapcrackers' are a loose gang of engineering enthusiasts who do independent maintenance work and blueprint out their own designs on their NC's. Little defines the clan besides that, discounting a noted proclivity to nicking everything they can after Linker-Versus-Linker operations. Helpful, but grabby, the Scrapcrackers are adored and hated for their collective idiosyncrasies. Named by their founder, Dennise 'Blowtorch' O'Hara, she organized the initial founding of the group entirely on-the-spot, and is utterly hands-free of the modern crew, besides being the first amongst equals, and an occasional mediator.

Spoiler: Clique: Blank Cranes, part 1

The 'Blank Cranes' are a fairly unique institution in the larger MAVERICK structure; a collection of Linkers noted primarily by intense anti-war disposition and peace-keeping attitudes. Entirely open-access, in some sense the only requirement to be a Blank Crane is to follow the ideals and call yourself one. Always considered in some sense hypocritical, the Blank Cranes are still respected for strong humanitarianism and austere, simple character.

A pillar of the group is the private, veteran Linker 'Yoko', a Second-Rate who has tutored a large handful of many other Linkers to her piloting techniques and moral philosophy. Although she was the impetus of the organization, Yoko is interestingly not a member; the actual self-proclaimed leader of the organization being her most prized student, 'Katashi', a relative war-hawk in the collection of doves. Maintaining a disgust of senseless violence, Katashi is far more open to bashing heads for the good of humanity, but isn't always listened to for his more openly violent tendencies.

Spoiler: Clique: Bluebloods, part 1

A refuge for those of 'superior pedigree', the Bluebloods are, as the name implies, those in MAVERICK who come from lineages both related to the Linker career and also those influential dynasties outside of MAVERICK's mission statement. Highly exclusive, the Bluebloods take great stock in heraldry, ritualized combat, politeness, and tact. Of course, the court is also entirely amoral and well-understands the business they're in; treating NC combat much the same way as the nobility of ancient times considered the field of battle; an escape from 'courtly affairs', ways to attain wealth, glory, and more simply; fun.

The Bluebloods have a unique, courtly code of ethics where murder of fellow Linkers is harshly frowned upon; but demanding a king's ransom from an opponent after their defeat is expected and encouraged. Following the orders of the next highest in the pecking order, to the letter, is also integral to their sensibilities.

Lead by the First-Rate Linker, Elizabeth Leopold Christian Rosemary Salvador Rafael Hohenstein, acting as 'Grand-Queen', the Bluebloods have an intentionally disproportionate number of high-tier Linkers, all grouped up into an internal chain of ranks based on ancient nobility, of course.

Spoiler: Clique: Wolfpack, part 1

A particular pack of brigands, the Wolfpack are a harsh, brutish gang of Linkers who respect only strength of arms and viciousness; obsessed with martial superiority and the exercise of such. In some sense descending from street-gangs and warlord groups from the "Century of Chaos", the Wolfpack are consistently considered the band of Linkers most likely to go Irregular, and one of the few internal squads inside MAVERICK who has been officially censured in the past for needless collateral damage.

Still, the Wolfpack are hands-down the meanest sons-of-bitches in the organization, both in temperament and in battle. A necessity to even join their association is getting beaten half to death with blunt instruments by every other member of the troupe in person, and then having to enter combat and kill another Linker in a fair fight during the week afterwards. One of their rare concessions is that anyone can volunteer for this, and as many times as necessary; furthermore, any target can be considered.

Only technically leading this merry band of lunatics is the First-Rate Albert 'Giggles' Parker, well-known for his tendency to, as his nickname suggests, laugh, chuckle, and cackle uproariously during battle, and encouraging this quirk to the rest of his unit.

Spoiler: Clique: Internal Affairs, part 1

The I.A. is an internal clique that answers directly to MAVERICK's Chief Director, and is primarily concerned with bringing in and taking out Irregulars, but is also eligible for whatever other purpose the Chief Director deigns to give them. With a list of members that is entirely classified, the I.A. is nonetheless believed to consist all but entirely of First-Raters, almost certainly those who are in other groups besides. Believed to also act as spies for the Director, the I.A. is something of a bogeyman for most Linkers, but for once is explicitly confirmed to exist.

Anyway, that's the list so far. You can expect the ones you see here to be pretty much finalized. If you've any complaints or compliments, again, hit me up however you feel prudent.

Admittedly, it's not that great of a range, but I just got to writing what I think was cool and that's ultimately what my fingers clicked out. The basic idea internally as GM is that in practice we need 'the usual adversaries', and the NPC cliques are a part of that. Cheap characterization can be very cost-effective!

I know I just said 'NPC cliques', but don't worry; if you want your dudes to join any of these over the course of the story, go ahead and talk to me about it and we'll figure out a little plotline.

 

[Windsock]

Malphaestus
Viper Actual
SkyHawk MK IV
YsFanatic
Tanya Degurechaff
AnonyMouse
Aldur


Sorry about the absence of status updates; nothing bad, just distracted. Nonetheless, besides some specifics there's a good idea of the revised political climate that our characters are going to be involved in; sadly, not anything I'm proud to show yet, but I'm still confident it's in the right direction. In short, we have the personal minimum 3 major political powers in the Americas, the same 3 ruling companies we had before, and minor groups I'm still thinking about.

Also been working on practice writing for a few characters; again, nothing I'd like to show if only for different reasons lmao. Getting the concepts for our major villain(s) and the like more ironed out, stuff like that. Admittedly, there isn't a whole lot of actual "work" to do now, just more solid concepts and making sure I know what the hell I'm doing better.

But, besides, the plan to start up again in March is very doable on my end, and I hope to see you all there when that time comes. The preliminary continuation date is going to be March 12th. We'll be opening up with a review of our retcons and get right back into a minor story thread at-base and go from there to the revised second missions.

 

[SkyHawk MK IV]

I'll be able to make that date. Sorry about me not getting back to you on some things, I've been distracted myself with other stuff!

Can't wait to see the gang all back together hopefully!

 

[Windsock]

Malphaestus
Viper Actual
SkyHawk MK IV
YsFanatic
Tanya Degurechaff
AnonyMouse
Aldur

First check for restart's starting attendance: I'm going to try and make the new threads and whatnot starting this week, then we'll start at the 12th as described.

 

[Windsock]

Malphaestus
Viper Actual
SkyHawk MK IV
YsFanatic
Tanya Degurechaff
AnonyMouse
Aldur

New threads have begun; we'll be starting out baby-steps for the new IC tomorrow. Here's the new OOC: Futuristic - NCQuest: Tactical Mech Action, OOC

Though, this reminds me on the specifics of how we're going to handle those who need to drop for whatever reason. As stated previously, we're going back in time somewhat to a new starter storyline for ep3: those who needed to drop are going to be away from New-Baltimore at the request of MAVERICK's Directors, with a default reason of a surprise audit-inspection and/or being sent back for further training/skill analysis. Any additional ideas or reasons you'd like for Your Dudes to not be present if need be, hit me up, but those are just what we're going to default to for the time being.

Hope to see you all there!