Down in the Gutter: OOC, The Nuts and Bolts of Staying Alive Options

[WinterRat1]

Hey all, I will not have time to post before I take off tomorrow.

Voorhees - I know I owe you a post, you're priority #1 when I get back, or if I can find time to squeeze in a post while away.

In Hot Pursuit - You're next on the 'to post' list, sorry I forgot you the first time, I dunno how that happened! :(

Sushi Shack - I'll get to you guys after all that, since the fight shouldn't take too long to wrap up.

[adamu]

Winter

Missed deadline, but I DID say I would be offline for a few days...

Anyway, noticed it wasn't resolved yet, so went ahead and put up my actions/rolls.

Hope that's okay.

[Unarmed]

I miss WR1. =(

[Meriss]

As do we all. *pats Unarmed on the shoulder*

[WinterRat1]

OK, back from my training. Real life catch up is the priority until Sunday afternoon. I will be catching up on all DSF related stuff Sunday afternoon.

[Abbandon]

Welcome back Winter. What was your old job and what are you doing now? Isnt Baltimore Maryland like a huge gaming city? Are you anywhere near there?

[WinterRat1]

Sorry everyone, I was caught up in RL stuff longer than I expected today, I won't be able to start making headway on DSF stuff until tomorrow evening. My apologies to everyone and thanks for your patience.

Abbandon - I was a corporate accountant, but now I'm back in public accounting. I don't know anything about Baltimore, I was in Bethesda, Maryland and didn't really do much tourism while there. Currently I'm near Chicago.

[WinterRat1]

OK here's some updates:

In Hot Pursuit - Your IC post for Combat Turn 1 is up. Go ahead and post your IC posts describing the actions from your character's point of view for Combat Turn 1 ONLY.

I will get to Combat Turn 2's calculations next.

Voorhees - I'm very sorry about the delay in your IC post, it's up now. Currently Aziz is out cold (anesthesia), so you can either put up a flashback/hallucination/dreaming post while he's out or I'll move you forward and wake him up.

I've really enjoyed the 'delirious' posts you've been doing, so I thought this would be an opportunity for a more extended one. Plus I admit it, I just needed to buy time and split up what was a longer IC post into two shorter ones. But I wanted you to at least have something ASAP to read and respond to, if you chose. Let me know if you want to post something or if you just want me to move you along.

Mister Juan - I'm going to need an IC post from Felix soon, if possible, otherwise I'll have to have Shade move the action along for Aziz. Personally, I think a lot of the drama in this whole scene will be lost without IC post(s) from Felix, and while I grant you can always do them as a 'flashback', in this particular scenario I think they'd be much more meaningful if they happened as the action was occurring.

I know you have RL stuff, but consider this a reminder that if you can get a post or two in for Felix, I think it would be great.

Sushi Shack Showdown - You guys are out of Combat Time and free to post IC. Please post your IC posts for Combat Turn 4 before posting your 'out of combat' IC posts. Thanks.

[WinterRat1]

Everyone - I know things have been a little slow with the 'gathering' of PCs so far. So you know where we're at, my PCs are about done with their journeys and should be joining up soon in game.

Meriss - This will broaden to include you, so you haven't been forgotten, and after your long delay, you'll be able to post again. Thanks for your patience.

The next 'event', specifically the gathering of all PCs, should have a RL deadline some time in August, probably the end of August. More details to follow, but that's just to give you a heads up on what's coming next and let you know that we do plan on moving the storyline forward shortly.

[Meriss]

@Winter: Hey ese! gald to see you back. Want me to touch up your peice? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

@All: It LIVES!

[WinterRat1]

Geez, I'm gone for a week and it's like people expected this game to up and die. Come on people, where's your faith? ;)

[Meriss]

@Winter: Oh I have lots of faith. :D But it kinda did die, at least there was very little activity. Welcome back. More NPCs as I finish em and send em to Vegas.

[Unarmed]

Well, it is really tough to post much when the GM isn't around to help out, so it makes sense. But RL is RL and you can't fault people for having them. I guess what I'm trying to say is: Welcome Back Winter!

[Mister Juan]

[WinterRat1]

Take a shower? Eat? Good gravy man, it sounds as if you’re attempting to have a life outside of gaming! Haven’t you learned anything in your time on DSF? I’m gone for a week and people are putting the game on life support. I’ve learned my lesson about trying to put any priorities above gaming, and you should too, lest your fellow gamers hunt you down for being the reason they are unable to get their role-playing fix. ;)

Seriously though, I wasn’t trying to get on your case, I just wanted to prompt you in case you’d forgotten you’re up, because I know RL has been very busy for you lately as well. Hope that came across clearly and didn’t get misconstrued by the electronic medium. Or the fact that I was whipping that post out right before I had to get to bed. Along with all the other posts I put up last night. :)

[Fresno Bob]

[yoippari]

@Konsaki

You around at all?

[WinterRat1]

In case you all haven't noticed, due to my drastically shortened free time until I move and my commute no longer sucks beyond reason, I am responding to you all on a rotation basis for the sake of fairness.

In Hot Pursuit (Rob, Vegas, Sparky) is up tomorrow, then I'll hit up Mister Juan and Voorhees if I have time, or push them to Thursday.

Sushi Shack people (Grendel, Unarmed, Pragma, Adamu) are free to post, I put up a brief blurb showing the ork following Legion's orders. For the sake of assisting me in my planning, I assume you're all still intending to move south into the former LoCoS territory?

Konsaki's Players - I left him a message checking on his status, if he is unable to move you all forward I'll systematically start picking you up to keep things moving along.

All - Also, I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that 2 GMs, while functional, is far from optimal. 3 or even 4 is probably the ideal number. Anyone know of 1-2 people who'd be interested in jumping on board as a GM?

[WinterRat1]

General Announcement – IMPORTANT! Everyone please read!

OK…I don't know to say this, so I'll be straightforward with you all. DITG is now officially on life support. I received a PM from Konsaki this morning in response to my queries about his status, and the short version is, he'll be stepping down from his GM duties effective immediately. I will leave it to him to decide whether or not he will disclose the whys and wherefores of his decision to the general public at large. For now, suffice to say that his basic rationale stems from a lack of time due to RL and other commitments.

I'll be honest; I'm not exactly sure where to go from here. DITG was designed as a multi-GM effort, ideally in the 3-5 person range. I had 3, and then Wounded Ronin dropped out about a week or so ago (although his contributions were mostly behind the scenes, so his absence was not necessarily noticeable). Now Konsaki is gone, and I'm down to me, myself, and I.

The realist in me says there's no way I can continue to run this ship by myself. I should just cut my losses, chalk it up to a good effort that fell flat for reasons beyond my control, and call it a day.

The GM in me does not want to let this game go the way of so many other forum games before it and watch what had the potential to be a truly great game die off through no fault of its own, simply because people decided to walk away from it. Additionally, I personally feel a sense of responsibility and obligation to you, the players. I started this game and solicited your assistance (which has been absolutely magnificent, by the way) for the purpose of attempting a game I believed had a chance to go down as one of the great gang campaigns on DSF. You held up your end and enabled this game to even get off the ground, and if this game is going down, I believe I owe it to you all to at least make sure it goes down fighting.

To that end, I plan on continuing the game until such time as it is conclusively demonstrated the game cannot be run by me alone. I freely admit, I will need to take shortcuts at certain points and I will need all of your assistance and cooperation. Even more than before, this game will not run without a concerted effort towards player-GM cooperation. With all the work everyone has put in so far, we already have a firm foundation in place for the game to run on. In my mind, if we can just make it to Event 2: The Regrouping (actual title still TBD), we'll be past the rough part and more or less in the clear.

Therefore, the first order of business is to get Konsaki's players back up to speed. Some of you have been waiting far too long for replies, and you have my sincere apologies that you've had to sit and wait for so long.

Effective immediately, all players are under my direct GMing again, and we will continue using the violet/cyan color coding my players have been using all along.

I will need the following from each of Konsaki's players:

1. Your current in-game location

2. A summary of everything that has happened to your character since game start and the situation your character currently finds him/herself in.

3. Your current condition monitor status in the following format: X out of Y Stun, X out of Y Physical, where X is the number of boxes currently filled in on your condition monitors and Y is the total number of boxes your condition monitor has.

If you recall the Guidelines, we already noted how most IC posts would be written by the players in accordance with GM instructions for their specific circumstances, with GMs taking a more active 'traditional' role only where direct intervention was needed.

We will now be switching to that system, effective immediately for all players. I will try my best to continue to post as a GM, and will definitely post where necessary. But from this point on, until such time as I receive more GM help, be prepared to take a much more proactive role in guiding your characters forward.

It probably should go without saying, but in case it needs to be said, the higher quality IC posts you make and better information you give me, the more I can give you to work with. As the famous saying goes, 'garbage in, garbage out'. DITG is transitioning more and more into a game where what you put in is what you will get back out, so keep that in mind.

I admit I'm not sure how things will turn out, I never intended for things to get to this point. All I can say is I'm still here and will do my best to provide you all with the best game I can, and we'll just have to let the chips fall where they may.

I've enjoyed playing with everyone so far, and I feel confident that if we all work together and everyone pulls their weight, we'll get through this and have a great time doing so. The game must go on! :)

[Vegas]

Yikes. While I don't think I'm capable of stepping up to fill a GM hole, I do want to try to do what I can to make the game keep moving forward.

Let me know what more I can do to help on an admin/wiki end, or from an IC perspective as well and I'll do my best to comply.

Really really hope Konsaki is ok.. glad to know he's still ALIVE (yes the "mom" in me was worried :D)

[Meriss]

@Winter: Semper Fi!

Ink
Location: In transit from LoCoS HQ to the Bodega Gato. I forget where the HQ was and am having a heck of a time finding it. If, mind you if I remember correctly the bodega and the safe house were on opposite corners of LoCoS turf so, Ink will be going through his old turf to tryand avoid any Black Plague or other gangers.

Summary: The LoCoS are all dead, Ink is the last. He searched and burned his compadres. And now he is on his way to see his grandparents and get some shut eye.

Condition Mods: None, but Ink will need a BOD + WIL check in about two hours to avoid falling asleep on his feet. And an addiction test somewhere around the 2nd of November.

On GMing: I can prolly handle puppeting a few of the wiki NPCs. I've been working on them so long they're familia.

[Unarmed]

I've been sitting here since WR1 put that post up debating whether or not to throw my hat in for GMing. The main problem is that I have never GMed a PbP game before, and this is actually only my third time playing one, so I'm really not very experienced. Bottom line is, I have no idea how much greater the time commitment is from playing to GMing. I can handle a greater time commitment, but I'm not certain that I can handle a massive time commitment.

I don't really doubt my abilities as a GM, as I have GMed tabletop games of multiple SR editions, although there are many people on dumpshock that have a much better rules grasp than I do.

Basically, my question here is, to winter and to others that have GMed on here before, how big is the time investment? How much more work is it going to be than just playing in a game? I don't want to come out and say I'll be able to GM if I don't have the time for it, because I love this game so far and I don't want to throw out false hope.

The only other problem is that Doc will have to be an NPC and I was looking forward to playing him, but that's a small price to pay for the game running smoothly.

[DireRadiant]

GMing isn't a steep time commitment at any one time, it's a commitment to put that time in every week for months or years.

[WinterRat1]

In Hot Pursuit

Combat Turn 2

[ Spoiler ]

Combat Turn 2

Initiative Pass 1

15 – Human 1
Free:
Simple 1:
Simple 2:
Complex: Suppression Fire – 3 hits
Movement: None

12 – Human 2
Free:
Simple 1: Hold Action
Simple 2:
Complex:
Movement: None

9a – Bockscar
Free: Whisper to the group - "Wait for it..." then bellow around the corner as loud as possible, "FRAG OUT!!!!!!!"
Simple 1: Throw the gas grenade round the corner - Intuition 4 - Defaulting 1 - Blind Fire 6 - Firing Behind Cover 1 - Wound modifier 1 (-3 Dice).
- No chance in hell of getting any degree of accuracy on this one. Just want to make them duck/throw up some obscuring smoke. Didn't even bother to roll.
Simple 2: Take Aim at corner
- Popping the camera of the rifle around the corner to see what our friends are up to.
Complex:
Movement:

9b – Nevada
Free: Description – Make certain her armored jacket is buttoned/zipped up closed.
Simple 1: Canceled – See note
Simple 2:
Complex:
Movement: None
Note 1: I drew the conclusion Nevada would not run across the street, as doing so would subject her to defending against the Suppression Fire (even with the gas grenade; when using Suppression Fire, visibility is irrelevant), which I assumed you did not want to risk. If my assumption was incorrect, please correct me during the Resolution Phase and we will adjust accordingly.

8 – Badmarsh
Free:
Simple 1: Canceled – See Note
Simple 2:
Complex:
Movement: None
Note 1: I drew the conclusion Badmarsh would not run across the street, as doing so would subject him to defending against the Suppression Fire (even with the gas grenade; when using Suppression Fire, visibility is irrelevant), which I assumed you did not want to risk. If my assumption was incorrect, please correct me during the Resolution Phase and we will adjust accordingly.


Initiative Pass 2

15 – Human 1
Free:
Simple 1: Held action
Simple 2:
Complex:
Movement:

12 – Human 2
Free:
Simple 1:
Simple 2:
Complex: Suppression Fire – 3 hits
Movement:

9a – Bockscar
Free:
Simple 1: Canceled – See Note
Simple 2:
Complex:
Movement: None
Note 1: I drew the conclusion Bockscar would not step out to fire, as doing so would subject him to defending against the Suppression Fire (even with the gas grenade; when using Suppression Fire, visibility is irrelevant. So is cover, if you step out from it), which I assumed you did not want to risk. If my assumption was incorrect, please correct me during the Resolution Phase and we will adjust accordingly.

Resolution Phase Deadline for Combat Turn 2 is Thursday, July 26, 2007, 23:59:59 US Central Time.

Bockscar's Observation reveals that the Raiders are staying well behind cover and alternating their fire to keep your group pinned down. He has a sneaking suspicion they're in no hurry to actually advance, and are content to simply wait around...

We have a Resolution Phase because I overruled your characters' actions in the name of what I perceived to be their best interests. If you wish to disagree and go with your original actions only (i.e. what was posted to the Combat Chart), let me know and I will make the appropriate adjustments.

Because of the potential for a Resolution Phase, the GM IC post will not be up until AFTER the Resolution Phase, so I know exactly what happened during this turn.

[WinterRat1]