Rescuing the Rescue thread

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?

Death battle in the Holodeck.

In all honesty, knowing what COA protocols would be for Spacefleet (covering our butts), that would help. It's knowledge our characters would have, but that I know I don't.

Spinach, you've been super helpful with my messaged attempts to prevent Moira's reassignment. Do you mind if I share some of those thoughts here?

Of course, you can share whatever you want. They're your plans, after all.

It's a good idea to talk about how to resolve this situation. Things have kind of spiralled a bit out of control and while I love the drama that's happening, I can see how it feels hopeless to the players.

I made some mistakes due to poor planning. The biggest, in my opinion, was to have the Antarctica there to assist you because like you're saying, they should pretty much handle the situation while you are only assisting. Because of that, I've kept them extremely passive, which doesn't make much sense in universe but I feel is more fun for you than if I was playing them effectively. They did help with resources by sending soldiers and scientists over for the gas mission and they could offer further resources if you asked them.
I've been trying to think of a way to get rid of the Antarctica for a long time but I can't think of any that makes sense so they have just been kind of around.

With the security team as well, I could have made them resolve the situation in the hangar bay but that would not have been fun for the players. I should have added a sentence about how they at least took some shots and missed but I simply forgot to write that in, like I mentioned in another post.
The security team has also completely on their own, with only one minor injury for flavor, taken out the entire pirate crew on the one ship, so I wouldn't say they are completely useless.

And I was never planning on ruining any character's career or having anyone reassigned in this game. There's some stress on the ship, some decisions made that spacefleet wouldn't necessarily approve of, but I don't think there's anything that would be career ending at the end of the day when you come out as heroes. Maybe some reprimand here and some commendation there.

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And I hope I don't sound like I'm annoyed or defensive about this. I'm not. I think it's a good idea to lay out problems and discuss how we should rescue the rescue thread

You do not sound annoyed or defensive at all, and I'm glad that you haven't taken what I said as a criticism of you, because it emphatically was not meant as one. And honestly, I'm not unhappy with how things have worked out re: security and the Antarctica. I just felt a little hot under the collar when Tulak out of the blue decided that it was suddenly time to get all judgmental and captain-y and demand a report and so forth. I was all like, "Bitch, where da fuck you been up to now?" :D

Anyway, here's my proposal for the rescue of the rescue thread: the characters work through their resentments and baggage quickly, agree on behavioral norms going forward, and then devise a plan for how to deal with the parasite threat.

That makes sense xD

I wasn't trying to put even more pressure on you there. I just felt like that was not something they could just ignore but I also didn't want to give any harsh consequences, so I just had her ask you to write a report, which probably would have never come up again later.

And Tulak realizes it's her species' Shabbat so she can't be helping you and flies off

You can do better than that. Let it be her game night or something.

I love it!

Yeah, I'm actually really glad we at least haven't had to worry about shenanigans on other ships. And I like that Cass got us all into one room again. Easier to hash things out.

She plays poker with the other members of her bridge crew and gambles away the Antarctica so now they don't know how to deal with that

It was sort of like with Marbo's involuntary spacewalk. I was wracking my brain trying to figure out how to get Cass to them when she had no business leaving Kendall in the ready room and the bridge unattended and then I thought, "Oh yeah... I have a transporter."

Hahaha! That's a great idea!

However, on what passes for a more serious note in this game, what if we collaborated with Tulak to devise a plan, and then something took the Antarctica out of the equation unexpectedly? Or what if the parasites, having already had dealings with Tulak, managed to capture her? I hate to discard Tulak entirely and waste her intriguing background.

Or we send her to sweep for other pirates while we reunite our crew, then we catch up wiht her ship to handle the pirates once and for all. The Antarctica has a good chance at handling a short bout alone, but they'd need backup if we found the hive, and then we'd be full-staffed, too.

I guess they could go ahead to investigate what you suspect is the pirates' main base of operations while you go and rescue Zephyr and pals.

Or there could be another pirate attack somewhere in the sector that they get called to while you have to rescue the awaiting awayteam

I would like to join them for an eventual space battle if possible. I just know we need our bros back.

Yeah, any of those scenarios could work. I mean, we're going to need help killing these guys, so we shouldn't send the Antarctica away for good. We're a scout ship, for heaven's sake, and not even a good one.

But we have heart!

And we almost got to see yours and Marbo's today! :D

You probably got to see Cass' dental work if you were looking closely enough after the acid hit.

That's actually horrifying.