Cailin knows some of the stuff regarding toxic shamans, not all the stuff ^^ And it wouldn't change much even if she did anyway I think: Cailin really believes that torturing and twisting spirits like they do is unforgivable.

And I'm perfectly fine if you get to shine more in combat in that case, don't worry about it
What worries me more, is that Cailin will really not shine in combat

Thanks for making me google pareidolio.

I though the usage made it obvious...but you are welcome.

I'm 2-3 days behind reading my IC threads, and may continue to be slow on that over the next three weeks. I'll get periodically caught up, but will probably be reading at a quick scan rate. If I haven't responded within a day to something that is holding anyone else up, please send me a message (I'll see it in my mail). Sorry for the sudden fade of available time -- should clear up in early October.

And from reading this thread -- the social characters have just been talking their jaws off here, hogging most of the screen time! I have no issues with some combat happening. My main intent with Addie had been to support other characters, hasn't worked out that way so far, but maybe one of these days .... And hopefully that was a sarcastic "didn't see that coming" about Addie voting to attack? Of course he gnawing sense of inadequacy would make her vote 'do something about the problem' rather than 'avoid the problem.'

Maya does not see it as simply avoiding the problem, but more knowing which problems to avoid. She does not want to see anyone die over this when we can just walk away. Does anyone want that on their conscience........that they voted for something that gets some kids killed? Not her. She will fight if she has to, but this is not one of those times.

Maya is wise (also somewhat older, more experienced, and more independent). Addie is really not acting rationally at this point (although she may not agree with me, with really just makes her more dangerous).

You should all listen to Maya and not Addie (but again, Addie would not agree with me here, and she can be quite persuasive..)

We should but Addie is charming beautiful and charismatic... I try to RP her as the more convincing of the two.

Plus now that she took her decision, Cailin will lean towards "handling" the Toxic, maybe not as vocally as others, but it can weight a bit (but she will want to make sure the plan is good, not just "walk to the toxic and stab him when he doesn't expect it" ^^)

Heh, you do realize that thus could loop back to Addie offering to be bait, right?

ETA: sorry for the partial post that was up for a while. Finally got back to my desk and finished it up. ..... annnnd Addie is coming around to avoiding, but depending on the options (after all, she'd feel better about abandoning the camp if there were more strong characters to take care of it).

I'd like to craft a bow but I have no idea how long that will take is it an extended armory test?

If you look back, Rafferty and Aria worked out what was required to make a bow.

You gonna make me read all of that =P

It took four days to Raf' with a single roll I think (taking the correct modifiers into account of course)
If I remember correctly, he had four successes on that roll.

Yikes, your memory's better than mine!

All I remember was a lot of wikipedia research then negotiations ending at four days!

Except that with a little digging (from here and a bit later) shows that there never was a roll, it was done "diceless".

So not that good memory ^^

I figured with Dana leaving camp toward the toxic the new player has some time to interact. The rebellion attempt (that can be as big or as small as we like) should also give Lindsey some challenge. I think it is just logical that Muhammad is not just going to let the council brand him or banish him or what ever as there are enough discontent meta's in the camp to incite. I was thinking of having a bunch of orcs either rob the camp for supplies and leave to the wilderness, or actively try to dethrone Rick.

Hah, that would be awesome - right when we are on the edge of becoming one big happy family.

Definitely all for it!!!

Alright. Maya is making her play to keep things together. She feels quite strongly that Dana and others leaving is a mistake, but cannot, of course, stop them. She will try to get them to delay leaving until after she gives her speech.

I am a bit uncomfortable with the latest Maya post. The thing is is that she is physically ugly and the large camp populace is very hostile toward the little camp (with few exceptions), despite what warm feelings we developed in the ivory tower meeting. I honestly do not see people allowing her to give a speech - sticking around to listen, - I see them tossing stones pulling down her flats to humiliate her or just ignoring her - and continue doing what they were doing. Since everyone is reading the story differently - I am just leaving it here open to discussion.

I mean, I can think of very few people that can actually speak and be listened to, in front of an angry crowd. To even attract the main focus of scene and get people to listen seems like an impressive charismatic feat to me. Perhaps I can imagine Rick pulling something like that off, because people fear him and he is the leader. I cannot see the self outcast with a cabal of mages that is suspected of doing terrible things to this camp actually pulling that off.
(Yes it is not us - but the popular opinion is that the little camp is guilty - even some of the council have voted to round down the little camp and attack it. ). Few people are capable of such a feat - and Maya has no way of knowing what is going on before leaving the discussion - (but leave that, we can fluff it as someone giving the council a warning). Calming a crowed like that, even for Rick is impressive and charismatic feat that few people can pull off. (my personal view on social difficulty)

The thing is that someone needs to do it and waiting for Rick to try is not going to work. It is better that we find an alternate. Maya has developed some social skills and is trying to make it work. Others can write that she says something wrong and is pulled down and beaten to death, but I think the crowd is hungry for this sort of talk. Most crowds are. All it takes is deflecting the passion and directing it to another task. I could be wrong, but this is a story and we are writing it, so I am taking my chances. If Aria wants me to fail I will fail. If one of the others writes that I fail, I will probably fail. I happen to think that this is somewhat rational and is a good read.

And being physically ugly is one thing, but every human here has a reason to think that anyone with tusks is ugly and the Orks can think that those without them are ugly. Sometimes it is all in how you say something.

So if Maya is going to pull it off she is going to be the leader of the large camp? not the same duckling that so decisively lost a debate with Rick that he took over all the NPCs to his side.

No, she is not the same ugly duckling. She does not especially want to be the leader, and it may not come to that. But yes, if it does, she will try. She has better social skills now and might make a go of it.

Okay, as long as we both see her as the charismatic charming type

It is really too bad that you feel you cannot stick around to see if you are needed. Your combat skills might be needed and you are flying off.

I don't' have combat skills - well I do but this is not the issue.

Dana is a chaos mage - I try to play her chaotic she feels bad when she is forced into linear thinking. I can bring her you but it may get bloody, because Dana's way to resolve a rebellion will not be long inspiring speeches. It will be violent - focused and lethal just like the Shark would have her.

Mercy do you mind splitting your post a bit - as it takes us too much into the future - (and perhaps Caillin would like to say something as well (or Vincent if he is around )).

Cailin will have to react, but she probably will not say anything.
Lindsey however, will certainly have things to say I think.

Nothing wrong with a long speech, per se.

To pull it off with the hostile crowd, Mercy had to assume/write some fairly ideal reactions from the opposition plus favorable responses from the group at large.

But certain other players have been writing large swathes of NPCs into the palms of their hands since the game started (at least once with negative game effects on other players), so I think Mercy's post is perfectly fine, and in keeping with this game.

I kind of hoped for it to be more of a challenge to be resolved in a single post - and yes I feel that. I planned for that guy to be a love interest and he turned out to be a big jerk - ov it wasn't so typical of teenagers - then I'd be against it.

I'm working on catching up on the last day of IC posts, but just saw that Dana, Cailin, and Raf are heading off to look for the body gloves then Blank. J ust wanted to remind that if they find the body gloves, that Blank's is probably not there. (Addie used the lower part of it for cooking, and the whole package would not have been with the rest of the unclaimed ones. (It should be usable, just ... a bit stained and possibly smelling a bit like veggie stew). I think everyone was careful never to count or describe the unclaimed clothes (leaving it open how many loners could be out there still), so it could have been another large one that Addie took rather than Blank's.

And without having read all of the IC posts beyond Dana & co getting together and Muhamed brewing a rebellion, but having read the posts here .... I wanted to step way ooc and perhaps you could say right to a meta point of view, for a moment: I think this game presents a unique challenge because of the number of NPC who are integral to the story. If all the PC had headed off together (or with just a few NPC, as the small camp was), then it is not an issue. But when dealing with 40+ NPC, and having many of them integral to the action, waiting on Aria to handle all of the NPC stuff would slow things down to a crawl, I think. The couple of days of dueling agendas between Addie and Lindsey were interesting, and personally I thought we were both reasonably careful to 'play fair.' with what each other wrote (at least I tried to--I don't know how others saw it) and I thought Irn0rchid did well at that). I tried to keep in mind the sort of rules people talk about for Improv comedy, things like:
-The first rule of improvisation is to AGREE.
-The second rule of improv is to not only say YES, say YES, AND.
-The next rule is MAKE STATEMENTS.
-THERE ARE NO MISTAKES only OPPORTUNITIES.
(those ones courtesy of Tina Fey, I've read others that put things differently, but they amount to the same basic concepts I think)
(For this sort of environment I'd maybe add - Leave room for the other characters (i.e. avoid categorical descriptions ('all', 'none', 'completely', etc), don't claim all of a resource, etc.)

(I'm sure that large LARPs have guidelines for this sort of thing too, but I know next to nothing about that scene. Granted that my knowledge of improv mostly comes from having watched "Whose line is it Anyway" and hearing a few interviews)

When and where Aria steps in, things leave that Improv sort of format (and players' stuff implicitly becomes more like questions), but when players are moving things along between themselves, then I think that making statements about the world (NPC, environment, etc) is kind of how it has to go, else the characters can only operate in very limited ways, really limiting how the story can advance. In essence I feel that the more different players move the various NPC around, the more realistically mixed will be their motivations and actions.

Now back to hashing through the IC posts.

Currently trying to decide how best to have Lindsey respond at this point, but just wanted to echo what Beta just said about 'playing fair'. This is my first time playing a game with so much leeway being given to the players vs the GM. I've been trying to follow the "Yes, and" of improv, (I didn't know the other 3 rules. ) so hopefully I didn't step on any toes. Having all of Lindsey's support yanked out from under her by what is effectively a stranger to the camp is challenging to follow up on without using the nuclear option, but I'm working on it.

As a neutral observer at this point I'd have to say it was pretty heavy handed. I could see this escalating to problematic levels, but I think we are all reasonable people and can avoid that kind of pissing contest.

If that is how she resolves issues, then please leave her away. Maya does not need that sort of resolution just now. Thank you for clarifying that for me.

LOL I guess we need to wait to see how the others respond to Maya's speech. It was hard for her to say all that and she hopes it does not backfire and get people hurt.

Hi folks...still here, just had to write off this week due to RL craziness! Much catching up to do...should perhaps have started with the IC but there you go

Should be up and running again next week!

That should end the stay vs go debate. ;p

I hope I am okay to have Muhammad going that radical - I left things vogue because I do not want to step on fingers. (fire burned supply did not burn and so forth) - I think it can also be an opertunity to build Rick, having him act somehow to supress the rebellion - crush it with an iron fist and make an example of Muhammad? or if you do not like it I can edit and we can have the orc do something else.

I'm not going to post till I see what Maya does next, but I'm fine with Muhammad doing his thing.

There is no way that Addie would not have intervened when Muhammad did his thing (yes she would have stood up to an angry orc, given that he is indirectly endangering those that Addie perceives as weaker (code of honor)). And she has enough social, group knowledge, and combat ability that I don't see her being that easily brushed aside.

So obviously she wasn't aware of what was going on, and given her general social antenna that means that she was out of sight and hearing, and quite likely out of her mind. So I decided that it all just got to be too much. She may have a willpower of 5, but all the same she just turned 16 and has her limits.

I'm not quite sure how far she may have run, but she has 10 dice to resist fatigue (3 body, 5 will, +2 from 'ware), although strength 3 and running 1 suggests she would not be all that fast of a runner. But I'm thinking it would be measured in kilometers.

Not quite sure what happens next with her (or if I switch characters or something). All plans have expired.

Hey, if Lindsey gets run out of camp then Addie and her can be crazy together!

Yeah, this whole group storytelling thing is escalating pretty fast.

It started a while ago with people not just fleshing out individual NPCs, but in fact steering the entire disparate group of individuals precisely in line with their characters' agenda.

And now that is just going back and forth tit-for-tat, and also jumping ahead in time and preempting characters' ability to act before major happenings are all said and done.

This stuff has been going on across our group, so I guess people are cool with it, but it seems to me things are starting to feel a bit hostile and competitive.
Maybe I'm just imagining that.

But I think all these 'just say yes and agree to everything anyone does' rules of improv only work when there is an amicable, non-competitive storyline going. And that clashes with our situation where we have both PCs and NPCs that uncooperative if not hostile and destructive to others.

And if it is going to remain a free-for-all, can I suggest adding one more rule to these laws of Tina Fey?
No actions that materially harm another PC (directly, like hitting with a rock, or indirectly, like depriving them of material resources)
Those things should be refereed.

Just some thoughts.

In terms of right now, I do like gilga's idea of the once strong but now extremely passive Rick (are we allowed to play him too, or is he, like, the only NPC that is the sole province of the GM?) stepping up and snapping Muhammed's neck or something.

I'll set it up, and if others agree they can run with it.

[Cailin - 4th day - Main Camp] #131

A bit shocked by the speed at which the situation went to hell, Cailin just watches from afar: anything she could do - and that's not much - would not improve the situation. In fact, it would probably just make her a target. So long as no one attacks her or people from her camp, she won't act. But one thing is sure: she didn't want to stay in that camp before, but now there's no way in hell she will. This is just a powdered keg waiting to explode.

Did you intend this for the IC thread?

Erm... That was... Damn, even with more than a healty dose of bad faith, I don't see how I can do anything else than admit I screwed up :o

So I can't help but think some of the possible acrimony is directed at me as the main antagonist character. I've tried to never jump too far or prevent people from doing their own thing, and even explicitly stopped when I thought others might want to contribute something. If anyone feels like I've taken liberties, please let me know here or in a PM so I can do better in the future, because I was trying not to. I promise you're not going to offend me or cause hard feelings or anything, but I can't fix what I don't know.

Beta - probably too late for that but as I mentioned (doing something drastic) I can edit to have Addie confront them in the supply or run after them to confront them if it happened to fast for her to respond. I do not want to take your chance from making the best Addie response. Or to metaphorically force Addie into a crazy state in the mountains, perhaps the new PC can find her there by the way. Or perhaps the eagle can find her saying "I found a body glove but it seemed to be in use."

Irn0chid - I do not see it as opposed to Lindsey, I mean the recent events all random but still - first a Orc strike someone to prevent rape and get banished (and eaten), then Muhammad do his things and the other things that happened... I bet most of the orcs in camp did not think that Grok was guilty and found banishing him to be a populist move. Then the hunters incident - that was your creation but still it was not Lindsey per-se, then Muhammad raped a girl and was expected similar treatment as Grok. But he did not rape her in a public clear cut way, it was a classic he said she said story - so guess what his fellow keen are going to think? I mean even if they know in their mind that he probably did something wrong - he is one of their own and is going to be punished based on an event that nobody else has witnessed except for the two.

So I figured - it can be fun to have him go for the nuclear option rather then seat down and accept punishment. Being so passive also kind of unfitting for a rich overly confident person that approached all the girls in camp trying to get laid. While many of the described events (not all) were your writing, it wasn't Lindsey that did all this.

Lindsey is selfish - or self survivalist in having the other girls look up for her. In a way it is not even manipulative as they indeed need Lindsey, she makes them feel strong in a very hostile environment of two rape attacks in 5 days. What will the poor terrified girls do without someone as Lindsey looking out for them? I personally kind of like Lindsey and so is Dana. As she did save Dana from getting involved with an NPC that turned out to be a huge jerk.

That said - I was thinking creating such a crisis can align Lindsey and Maya and allow them to work together for a bit. I am completely open to edit it a bit to allow interactions, confrontation or whatever Lindsey or Addie want to do. (Heck we can even have Dot confront them). I did not want and I still do not to escalate things so fast that choice is taken away. I mean... what is the point - so I am a bit sorry about the last Muhammad post that was a bit too ambitious for a single post.

Still I am open to edit perhaps a large spirit has confronted the group at the supply and frustrated the orcs threw a torch in there? Perhaps Muhammad had Nyaf kicking and screaming on his shoulder just because he thought he could get away with it? I mean it is just a one paragraph post I am not very invested in it - I just wanted to stir things up a bit to perhaps align Lindsey and Maya toward the same goal. (We do want to all play together eventually right? - resolving a crsis like that after nullifying each other - seems like a great ground to build something together.)

I personally think that Gilga took this way too far too fast. In the manner he did it, no one could reasonably act to stop it. What a shame.

Should I edit? Delete?

I edited the Muhammad part to:
As for Muhammad, at first he looked extremely frustrated - having Maya skillfully make his plan looks petty and ridiculous. Then he received help from the most unexpected origin - Lindsey. Lindsey has challenged Maya - and then instead of ignoring the girl - that admitted defeat, Maya has dedicated her entire attention to Lindsey and as she did, Muhammad has gotten the golden opportunity to redeem the situation. "See what I am talking about - we are being bossed around by incompetent princess that go on and on talking but cannot fend for themselves. " He said to his followers and the pack has then executed his plan, and begun marching toward the supply. Once there they ignored the guards and started snatching whatever they could carry.


Basically I only move them toward the supply where they ignore the guards and simply take what they want. It leaves room for Addie (if she does not want to run to the wilderness) to Lindsey, to Maya to anyone interested to confront them.

Gilga, perhaps you should have done that earlier, but now there are already several posts past that and you are just confusing the issue. In my opinion you went way too far, but we will have to live with that. That opinion may not be shared by others, but I think it is what it is at this point. Please go back and change it back so we can move on. I posted that Maya is trying to save the food, but did not move any NPCs around, so others can do that, depending on what they think should happen.

At this point Maya has no real idea how to do anything other that try to set an example and remain as calm as possible.

Just a small reminder, Cailin is quite far, several dozens of meters away from the group: she sees what is going on, and didn't want at all to be in the middle of it. Between those that would want to hurt an Awakened for giggles and those that would try to grab her as a ace up the sleeve, she's much better being where she is.
Dana is near her, Vincent went away to "scout" quite a while ago, so I think that only leaves Raf' and Summer (maybe) standing with Maya. Not that Cailin wouldn't help (even if I don't really see how, but for now, she's not in the immediate vicinity ^^)