Mar 21, 2019 3:30 pm
This seems like a good time to bring up some obstacles we're encountering in the storyline and to discuss ways to overcome them.
From my perspective, the stakes have shifted from "how to overcome the pirate threat" to "how to deal with the parasite threat" to "how to do all of it without losing our careers." This last angle makes sense from an objective viewpoint - certainly any crew that did the things we've all done would be court-martialed on sight. But the problem with that is that the PCs haven't been given the resources in-game that would have allowed them to make better choices while still being actively engaged in the game.
Btw, this isn't a complaint thread - I love a lot of things spinach has done and he's exhibited great judgment in tons of ways. But it feels now very much like the PCs are being held accountable for actions and decisions that were wholly or in part the result of being unable to access resources that if they were a "real" fictional crew, they'd have had automatically.
For example, I realize that we sent our head of security PC out on the away mission and he disappeared from the game entirely, but it really has felt like the entire NPC security team left is full of lazy incompetents who wait to be told to do things they should just be doing and reporting on.
We have an experienced starship captain commanding one of the most powerful Spacefleet ships as a partner, but they somehow have no ability or inclination to help or participate in an interrogation of a new life form, or to send help when we have medical and command crises. Now, I'm happy to roll with that if that's how we're playing the game, but it feels sort of unfair now for Cass and the others to be excoriated and facing disciplinary action for making the best of a situation that makes no logical sense, lol.
I'm hoping we can talk through this and figure out a way forward that doesn't feel hand-wavey or like the characters were set up to fail and are on their way to career destruction. Surely there's a middle ground we can find?
From my perspective, the stakes have shifted from "how to overcome the pirate threat" to "how to deal with the parasite threat" to "how to do all of it without losing our careers." This last angle makes sense from an objective viewpoint - certainly any crew that did the things we've all done would be court-martialed on sight. But the problem with that is that the PCs haven't been given the resources in-game that would have allowed them to make better choices while still being actively engaged in the game.
Btw, this isn't a complaint thread - I love a lot of things spinach has done and he's exhibited great judgment in tons of ways. But it feels now very much like the PCs are being held accountable for actions and decisions that were wholly or in part the result of being unable to access resources that if they were a "real" fictional crew, they'd have had automatically.
For example, I realize that we sent our head of security PC out on the away mission and he disappeared from the game entirely, but it really has felt like the entire NPC security team left is full of lazy incompetents who wait to be told to do things they should just be doing and reporting on.
We have an experienced starship captain commanding one of the most powerful Spacefleet ships as a partner, but they somehow have no ability or inclination to help or participate in an interrogation of a new life form, or to send help when we have medical and command crises. Now, I'm happy to roll with that if that's how we're playing the game, but it feels sort of unfair now for Cass and the others to be excoriated and facing disciplinary action for making the best of a situation that makes no logical sense, lol.
I'm hoping we can talk through this and figure out a way forward that doesn't feel hand-wavey or like the characters were set up to fail and are on their way to career destruction. Surely there's a middle ground we can find?
Last edited March 21, 2019 3:33 pm
