JT is assuming all the PCs are security like him.

Jacob, so far at least, is assuming that the newbies being called to the security office is standard procedure for fresh arrivals and hasn't yet cottoned on to the fact that that this is the group he'll be working with.

(on an unrelated note, my ability to post may be curtailed a little this week. I'm currently only able to get online via a fully wired connection and it'll be a couple of days before I can reconfig my home network to compensate. Given the massive issues with wifi, mobile phone signals and GPS signal dropoff in the area we're assuming they've deployed a fairly hefty jammer at the NATO summit location).

Cool! So the missiles aimed at them may find you instead!

That's pretty much my assumption as well. We landed. Now we all do in-processing. That means we visit security, safety, HR, medical, and a representative of the union before we're given our work assignments. Hence, no questions for security. What we need to know, you'll tell us.

Yeah, that sounds standard. Unfortunately, Dr. Jones has had little experience of in-processing since his undergraduate days. And a manual of standard operating procedures should give him something to read for a couple of minutes, anyway, while he is in line for whatever comes next.

Or not. Depending on the security chief's whim. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

My god life does not want me to post on Mars alpha! It's like a conspiracy... but who around here would believe in a conspiracy.

I think I'm being held up by the same black helicopters.

Due to various real life factors, not least of which was my computer dying on me, I am very sorry to say that I will be unable to GM Mars Alpha for the forseeable future. Sorry for letting everyone down.

Shit! Stranded on Mars in the middle of some kind of explosion. Every time I've tried to play Nathaniel/"Professor", he's ended up in a situation like this.

I'm beginning to think he is jinxed.

Sorry to hear about your troubles, Fueldrop. Hope things work out for you.

Hopefully you will be up and running come November. That is when my schedule goes back to normal! Been working ridiculous hours and have my 1 year old on my days off.

No worries FuelDrop, sometimes real life gets the better of us all - and at the end of the day real life's more important than the games we play (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Hopefully things smooth out, we can pick this up again someday & see how things pan out for our ad-hoc first responders (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)

Not a big issue. Thanks for the head's up, though.

So, Marcus, Bastard and nezumi, got any ideas what we might do instead?

I think we should join the rebels and start the reactor.

Unfortunately I don't have time to RUN a game (unless it's the Drop Bear Adventure), but I'm still up to play.

I'm all up for carrying on if anyone else is. We were going to have to do quite a bit of improv about mars itself anyway (there being so little in the sourcebooks) - and we're not entirely short on story hooks. With a healthy amout of "make it up as we go along" I think we could just keep rolling along..

It would certainly provide a novel example to the rest of the DS community: a team of players who don't let a little thing like losing the GM get in the way of a good game. We would have to work out the mechanics of who decides what happens in a scene.

Alternatively, we could advertise for a GM, assuming Fueldrop would be willing to share his story notes.

Hey, I'm all for the fun of a discordian GM-less game! But yeah, some way of figuring 'what happens next' is probably prudent.

We could probably handle the explosion response fairly easily - couple of die rolls maybe for number of casualties in the vicinity & largely wing the rest. Depends on whether we want to treat this scence as a "getting to know each other, the hard way" RP scene or a "there's something critical to the storyline going on" scene. We could concievably use it as both - the former the first time through just to get settled in, then the latter (maybe called back hours later to help investigate what happened?) later on if it's necessary once we've got some direction. Throw in some time between for arriving at quarters, having a wander around getting settled in etc (while Security initially investigates the explosion) and we've concievably got 12-18 hours IC time that we can likely just freeform.

It'd be a laugh to try even if it never went any further than that. And if we did take it further (with an overall plot from one of us, fueldrop returning or another GM taking over) we'd not really be doing anything of importance that could adversely affect a storyline.

I'm good to continue on.

Just got a new phone service that actually provides 4G service where I work so I'll be able to follow along now.

You got spunk, kid. I'm game.

Count me in too! Show DS how -real- players keep a game going.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

note: this post is mostly me thinking out loud about the current situation, workarounds for anything that might be original-plot vital and some assumptions about the base - I'll probably look at it tomorrow and wonder what line of logic produced such a mess

A handfull people still in a lab where the explosion occured sound about right for what's happening? Walking wounded would likely be out of the immediate area by the time we arrive, so anyone in there would be either stunned, unconcious, trapped, or injured. If it turns out that someone needed to die as part of the original storyline (should fueldrop return) a possible workaround would be to have one of them die from their injuries sometime after this scene. If there's something we're suposed to see we could explain that away through a combo of A/V recording (sensors, ware and so on) plus Dr J's remarkable memory.

I'd imagine a lab on mars being short on combustibles and really high on the top-end tech, so maybe some localised burning where solvents etc may've caught aflame but unlikely to be a huge conflageration. If the base is essentially an underground bunker complex structural damage should be minimal. Though the combination of residual smoke, fire extinguishant and blown-out light fittings would likely make for fairly poor visibility. Proper backup is likely only going to be a few minutes away too, so we've an out whenever we need it.

What do you think? As long as everone can find something to do would that be enough to work with?

In general, I can work with anything (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I'll let you take the lead when you feel we have enough group support (or not--I'm generally an eager poster, so I'm trying to be polite and avoid jumping in).

My question is, how do we determine the plot going on? Will we all narrate as we go along? Take turns? Use a random story builder?

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

You come to a T-junction. Darkness cloaks all in both directions. To the left, you hear water dripping. To the right, a rhythmic, dry, hot wind blows toward you, then draws away, repeating.

What do you do?