The New OOC and Hangout

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Let's talk! In the spirit of RPN updating tomorrow, let's sit back and think about what we want to do with Aegis.
  • What plots would you personally be interested in exploring next?
  • Would you prefer the next stretch of the RP to be a guided plot, or more sandboxy?
  • How would you like to see new players brought in and assimilated?
  • What do you think are the good parts of Aegis that I should keep doing, and what do you think are the bad parts that I should stop doing?
  • If you are one of the folks who haven't posted in a while, or have joined and haven't yet posted, what can I do to help you out?
AllHailDago AllHailDago Transparent Transparent B Bag o Fruit Clinthulhu Clinthulhu Codebreaker Codebreaker Damafaud Damafaud Dano Dano Aldur Aldur @Drippi the gunsmith Giyari Giyari Gus Gus Ixaix Ixaix D duegxybus D. Rex D. Rex Kiyoko Tomoe Kiyoko Tomoe kou kou LilLappy LilLappy Lioness075 Lioness075 Malikai Malikai ManicMuse ManicMuse Natealie Natealie Necessity4Fun Necessity4Fun Nidelia Nidelia JustNicole JustNicole SecretRock SecretRock S Shabazz Lemon Boy Lemon Boy Swoob Swoob Syrenrei Syrenrei Teh Frixz Teh Frixz The Oldest Blueberry The Oldest Blueberry The Fuzzy Pixel The Fuzzy Pixel The J The J The Mechanist The Mechanist The Suspicious Eye The Suspicious Eye yoikes yoikes VirtualUnity VirtualUnity welian welian Zahzi Zahzi

Wow that's a lot of tags. Some of you aren't in the Discord server, either. Here, take this link: Discord - Free voice and text chat for gamers
 
  • What plots would you personally be interested in exploring next? I'd like to know more about some of the NPCs (such as Matron), but I'd also be interested in exploring the social angle of supers. The Knights have plotted against them and are painting them negatively in the public eye, but the supers themselves are not doing anything established to combat this. Action scenes are good as well, so long as they are not singularly fixated on combat. Sneaking, stealth, puzzling situations that require logic, or convincing an NPC that you need to ally with you would be good directions to head in.
  • Would you prefer the next stretch of the RP to be a guided plot, or more sandboxy? Guided plot. With sandbox it's easier for exclusion to happen or, more importantly, for people to feel that they aren't impacting the story and world as much as they'd like because there are independent scenes around them.
  • How would you like to see new players brought in and assimilated? Ideally I'd ask them to find a player (or players) to collab with initially. Perhaps this could be assigned. Rather than waltzing in and hoping they have a meaningful interaction, they can take that first step to know another player, plan to run into them, share a dorm room with them, etc. I also think they should only be subject to critique of current, active players. These are the people they will be RPing with. Review by people who have no 'horses in the race' and are not involved in actually keeping the RP might make the administrators or retired players feel better, but it doesn't help the actual people in the RP necessarily. We should be rewarding and reinforcing active people. ADDITIONALLY, I don't think any new folks should be able to make a Knight. Knights should be limited (if they are continued) to players who already have heroes.
  • What do you think are the good parts of Aegis that I should keep doing, and what do you think are the bad parts that I should stop doing? I like the character creation system actually, even if it is flawed. I think there should be a hard cap for characters, players should be required to play a hero before they can play a Knight, and each person should only be allowed one S-Rank ever (no one has two, but it doesn't hurt to set this limit in my opinion). I think the RP benefits from the most hype and excitement when you are actually posting and involved, Welian, so if you take another co-GM you shouldn't keep stepping back entirely yourself. When you do, people tend to wander around/away.
 
I will echo Bag’s thought on discord that we should have a testing thread. That would be fun and could be a neat way to induct new characters also.

I will think on the other questions and answer in greater detail when I have a proper keyboard.
 
welian said:
  • What plots would you personally be interested in exploring next?
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I don't have a response to that one, anything you want to do is fine. I'm sure I'll love it anyway! I do have a couple of ideas for mission threads, but we all know how I'm not good enough to run anything... Unless someone else would want to step forward? ^^' >w<

welian said:
  • Would you prefer the next stretch of the RP to be a guided plot, or more sandboxy?
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Guided plot. I had my fair share with sandboxy with Hell City and it's really hard to keep the group interacting and interested when you do that... Things tend to derail and then everyone goes their way, specially if the GM disappear. Not to be accusatory or anything, but we know how you are with posting weli, better not to risk it...
welian said:
How would you like to see new players brought in and assimilated?
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I have a weird idea about that!
How about we start a new episode (along-side ep 5) but also run a side-mission that has all the new players as focus?

Something light, to get them and their characters acquainted to each other right away, that the older players could also join to help here and there, perhaps one more school-focused plot...?

I'm just worried that since we have known each other a while now, the new players are not feeling as welcome... Specially since the whole RP went kinda 'dormant' by the end of last year. I feel like that prejudiced the member interaction a lot and it's a concern someone else has brought to me before (I'm not saying names, they may stand up and speak if they want to) and I've been hitting my head around that ever since, even putting a lot of effort into trying to fix it for/with them...

Maybe doing something like this can help them feel like they're part of something as well...

It makes me really sad that it's something that someone legitimately felt about this RP. It's the opposite of what AEGIS feels like to me. I feel at home here, I want everyone else to be at home and happy too, I want they to enjoy it as much as I do! >~<

welian said:
  • What do you think are the good parts of Aegis that I should keep doing, and what do you think are the bad parts that I should stop doing?
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I gotta agree with Syrenrei there, the character creation is unlike anything else I've seen so far and it really gets me worked-up (in a good way) everytime I go through it again, be it for myself, be it for others. I always love and am extremely grateful that despite the fact that RP goes silent, I can trust that it will be back with that same passion it burned once with.

You said it yourself on discord that you're a necromancer with this kind of thing and this is really one of the things that put you apart of other GM's. You don't just give up, 'Ah it didn't work, time to move on to something else', even if you don't believe you're a good GM, I do and a lot of us do.
Really, thank you for sticking around with us, here's to more years of fun! >w<

Buuut again, If you could disappear a little less, I'd appreciate it. I'm not even saying you need to post as regularly as me, or Gus and so many others, but we do need our GM to be around and to offer guidance when we need it, not to mention that you're our friend and we like staying in touch...

Just, be around and step-in if things fall into disarray, or go too slow again. It's your RP we can't do these things for you, it's like mothering for another's baby, no matter how much we try it wouldn't be the same thing.


Other thing, a bit of a complaint, Frizx said plot advancement but I gotta say, no matter how you do it, can we promise to never do this big of a time skip ever again?
I'm feeling like time is passing too fast and we're getting less time for character interaction... I mean, iirc there was a whole month between Eps 4 and 5, what happened in that time? This is too huge of a gap to simply dismiss!!!

Our characters have lives beyond the school, how did the happenings of that day affect those? Did they interact more with the friends they made that day, were there tension between some of the relationships and did they try to fix it? It's just, we talk about treating NPCs like people and we talk about staying true to reality in that matter, but such a huge leap in time breaks the immersion for me, I simply don't know what happened!

Yes, we could sit and discuss it, and plan it, but I'd have more fun playing it.
Syren asked for more the social side of supers, I add to that and want more interpersonal relations. (Perhaps in-between the plot heavy episodes?) I feel like we had too little of that and there's a lot we could explore, for example, we have Annaliese as a character, why did no one try going for therapy or something yet?! There's so much wasted potential! Make an opening for that too!

Once in a while, try and move a little slower... Some of us would have a blast with these type of things.


Woa, haha, that got a little rant-y there, oops! Sorry about that ^^'

....After writing all of that, I wonder if that last bit should be in question 1? : O
 
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welian said:
  • If you are one of the folks who haven't posted in a while, or have joined and haven't yet posted, what can I do to help you out?
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Uhhhh, I need to apologize to The Mechanist The Mechanist about that... We planned the character, we figured every bit of the CS out BUT, I got busy with college and then there was Christmas and I've been slowly greeting my things together again, after I almost went full-breakdown last year

So, I'm sorry! >~<
I haven't had much to time to work on that yet!! I have a bunch of medical exams to do tomorrow and then I'll see if I can kick that up a notch during the weekend so that we can enter review phase and finally finish it, hopefully...

I don't even know if you're still up for joining because, I left you hanging and it's been a month at least... Aaaaah, forgive me if that is the case QAQ
 
Necessity4Fun said:
Uhhhh, I need to apologize to The Mechanist The Mechanist about that... We planned the character, we figured every bit of the CS out BUT, I got busy with college and then there was Christmas and I've been slowly greeting my things together again, after I almost went full-breakdown last year

So, I'm sorry! >~<
I haven't had much to time to work on that yet!! I have a bunch of medical exams to do tomorrow and then I'll see if I can kick that up a notch during the weekend so that we can enter review phase and finally finish it, hopefully...

I don't even know if you're still up for joining because, I left you hanging and it's been a month at least... Aaaaah, forgive me if that is the case QAQ
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I'm always down to rp with you hun ^-^ take your time
 
welian said:
  • What plots would you personally be interested in exploring next?
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I like Syrenrei's pitch about exploring the social impact aspect of the setting. I haven't been here long myself, but if I remember right someone took out a bridge two miles away from the school on accident. That's not really the kind of thing a society would brush off. I know some people feel it's overdone to have tension between super powered people and non-special folks, but any way you look at it, it just makes sense. Especially with this kind of stuff going on. Then there's the Knights making supers look bad. How has Facility 108 not been the victim of an angry mob yet? How does the school's community even feel comfortable walking around the city after all that's been going on?

Using superpowers to deter these kinds of problems would just exasperate them further, and the Commonwealth already has a reputation for letting things get out of control (sorry Chernov, still love ya).

What people do outside of school could also be something fun to explore?

welian said:
  • Would you prefer the next stretch of the RP to be a guided plot, or more sandboxy?
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Most of my roleplaying has been on proboards or jcink where whole boards are dedicated to different places, and people can create their own bubble in a liquid timeline by making threads wherever they want. So coming back to this 'everyone-pile-into-one-thread' mindset is like trying to put on an ill fitting shoe for me. It would be my preference to have that sort of setup, but I'm unfamiliar with RPN's limitations.

A guided plotline would be preferred, even if it's loosely done. People don't need to be dragged down a hallway, but at the same time we need to keep things moving so people don't somehow get stuck staring at the wallpaper in said hallway. Expand that corridor to a controlled sandbox (whether that's Facility 108 or a specific part of the city), and that should be a wide enough setting to include people while still giving them the freedom to do things they want to do. All that would be required is that whatever is impacting the story needs to be spread out enough to keep people from bunching up unnecessarily, but still keep them engaged in the ongoing event.

TLDR: Compromise.

welian said:
  • How would you like to see new players brought in and assimilated?
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From what I’ve gathered it’s not an unpopular opinion that the joining guide AEGIS Roleplay Manual is outdated and that relevant information is scattered everywhere in different locations outside of the ARM. I've brought it up a couple times now that I felt that was the biggest hurdle when I first joined. My impression of the reaction to this is that it's something most people are aware is a problem, which they awkwardly shuffle around about whenever it's brought up, but is ultimately ignored like a college paper that's due months out. Mostly because the veterans here already know how things work. What about people who aren't vets?

It would only help bring people in if information were updated and reorganized. Let's say a newcomer wants to make a teacher. It's been 10 months since the master list of staff positions has been updated in the Character Sheet forum which would have prevented them from wading through 7-8 pages of profile threads, but then there's a google form to insert characters in a offsite database which not everybody even does, and you'd only know about it if someone told you that you can possibly check, and if that doesn't work you can check the blog, and if all else fails send out an SOS in the discord chat. This is all set up so you have to ask so many questions as a newcomer just to dip your feet in the water. I think it's great Welian has helpers who can assist newbies. However, I don't think it should be necessary to have to ask several people about things that should already be in the ARM.

On that note, maybe even do a spring cleaning of threads to help remove clutter?

welian said:
  • What do you think are the good parts of Aegis that I should keep doing, and what do you think are the bad parts that I should stop doing?
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I'd have to echo the sentiment of you not disappearing as much, but life comes at you fast. Do what you gotta do, but help us help you; people do seem to be more engaged when you are engaged here.
 
The Fuzzy Pixel said:
How has Facility 108 not been the victim of an angry mob yet?
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Not an angry mob per se, but in the start of episode 3 a huge wave of reporters had gathered in front of the gate (they had come because a rather famous vigilante was joining the staff + The mall incident had just occurred a week or so ago), it didn't end too well. We had reporters harassing students, students giving it back in the same coin and even teachers having to come and rescue their students from the crowd (Not to mention the group of students that tried to bypass all of that rucks by sneaking-in/using portals to get in)

SO yeah, that was a thing!

Ps: people had also spray painted bad things in the facility's outer walls iirc
 
welian said:
So what you're saying is, 108 gets shut down in Episode 6.
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I wouldn't be against that, to be honest. It would still be progression of some sort.

Could move things to a place where the Commonwealth can keep a better handle on things, or go in the opposite direction. Have the school staff try to take the reins for a while. They should in theory know the students the best. Their needs, their wants, their goals, their fears. Could put some distance between themselves and the feds playing big brother.
 
I don't think it getting shut down is necessarily realistic either. Would there be inquiries? Yes. But the supers ultimately need training, and I expect that any shut down would take a while because the supers currently at 108 would need to be moved elsewhere. You can't just have 'weapons' in the forms of untrained supers running around without adequate attention to the damage they could cause without oversight.

And remember- bureaucracy is slow.

I think we need to be realistic on BOTH sides.

Facility 108 would be fighting back the bad publicity rather than sitting on their hands. There would be conferences, official statements, perhaps community service. The larger super community would be making an effort to prove themselves so to speak. After all, there will be bad guys in any population. Do regular humans really have the capacity to fight criminal supers without the help of blue cards? And would there be blue card volunteers if they are being figuratively shit on constantly, subject to discrimination and fear even when they help, and perhaps even oppressed by the society they support?

I have put forth an idea that helps address the whole concept of putting forward a face that would help make the Commonwealth and AEGIS less retarded, but... it's ultimately up to you guys.

Right now I feel like we're in that hallway staring at wallpaper.
 
On a side note, for the Strawpoll in the Discord server - it looks like The Cake is a Lie and The King's Archives are tied for episode 6.

Syrenrei Syrenrei Wallpaper is pretty.
 
1. What plots would you personally be interested in exploring next?

Maybe something dark? To balance the fun and jokes the characters have experienced so far?
A serious, death or alive fight against the Knights?
In the accident in the mall and the Commonwealth attack, i think only a few students are involved? Sorry, i don't really remember.

It doesn't necessarily need to be the Knights, maybe super powered kids illegally sold as super soldiers etc.

2. Would you prefer the next stretch of the RP to be a guided plot, or more sandboxy?

Guided plot. Sandbox is fun, but it's easy to lose focus and some characters might 'miss' important / big happenings because they are somewhere else.

3. How would you like to see new players brought in and assimilated?

Maybe open a special 'side story'-ish thread?
Like a welcoming mat. They could interact with old characters, and in the main story maybe they turn it into a basis of their character relationship with the old characters. But the new characters must go in together or it will be all over the place...?

4. What do you think are the good parts of Aegis that I should keep doing, and what do you think are the bad parts that I should stop doing?

I really like the character creation! I have fun thinking about creative powers that my characters could have, and the feedback given by everyone here are very helpful!

The bad parts.... I've been away for too long so i don't really remember about any bad things i've come across. Maybe how slow the plot progressed? Like, we talked about this thing happening and that thing happening here / in Discord but with this pace we will never see it happen.

5. If you are one of the folks who haven't posted in a while, or have joined and haven't yet posted, what can I do to help you out?

I'm sorry!

Wish me good luck?
 
So long as you stick with never using animal-themed villains again, I'm a happy man.

I support Syrenrei's responses to your questions.
 
welian said:
Someone has been snooping in my notebook.
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uh oh

The Fuzzy Pixel said:
How has Facility 108 not been the victim of an angry mob yet?
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... Angry mob attack might be a fun plot?

Like, i think are a few characters that are very optimistic and idealistic-ish. Like, how Mitch thinks of becoming a lawyer to help superpowered individuals (or maybe i'm just too biased to my character?)

Being attacked by angry mob... It's kind of a kill or be killed, beat or be beaten, fight or flight situation?

Will the students attack the mob to defend themselves? Will someone commit an accidental kill in self defense? The moment they use their power, even as non-lethal or just use it to get away from the mob, the mob / society / media will find a way to twist it into something sinister and justify their actions anyway. As something dangerous....

After the attack, i think the characters can develop in various ways that may or may not give birth to a future villain or two
 
So some of you might be wondering, hey, what's with this massive influx of people? Well!

First of all, I want to welcome Noble Scion Noble Scion who is a completely normal RPN user, and does not deserve whatever is about to happen. I also want to welcome Lady Midnight Lady Midnight who is a friend of Malikai's and shall be joining us on this horrendous adventure.

Secondly, a little backstory. Aegis is the sequel to Otherworld, a roleplay I ran on another website in 2014. It was my first extra-large roleplay, and where I cut my teeth on using spreadsheets to track characters (at one point we had 70+ characters across six factions). Some of our players are from the original RP - Zahzi, who ran it with me, Giyari, Leopold, and Pixel.

While looking at the old roleplay and reminiscing about how much has changed (mainly, the setting is a lot more toned down), I decided to reinstall Skype and see if I could track down some of the old players and check in with them.

Anyways, long story short, between Skype and Facebook, there's now like, four new people in the Discord server who have been scoping out the RP and nostalgia-ing around like decrepit old folks. If you see them, say hello to Tyrannosaurus Rekt Tyrannosaurus Rekt , Alyxsandre, Sami, and Teru. Treat them gently, you know how old people get scared when placed in a unfamiliar environment.
 
To make the newcomers life easier I have compiled this list of every single plot summary we ever did, they're all available in the blog, however in the opposite order making it a bit of a hassle to follow, so here you go!
If you need even more details you can always come to me and I'll tailor people personalized summaries!
(Also, for some reason this was incredibly frustrating to do?? Evernote wouldn't stop glitching and getting rid of my links QAQ)

Chronological List of Summaries!!​
--Weekly Plot Summaries on the Blog-- (EVERY MONDAY!)
Episode 5: When The Knights Go Marching In (Ongoing)
 
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