Out of Character

Sorry. Lots of things going on here. I'm hoping April eventually settles and becomes a little more manageable than March was...

I hope so :) But it wasn't just you, almost every player hasn't responded for quite some time or has been responding rather scarcely. Let me know if something's wrong, whether about the game or in general.

Sorry for the delay. I have had no good ideas on how to proceed.

I'm going to withdraw from the game. It just didn't click for me.

I’m very sorry to hear that, Windyridge. I hope we get to play together in another game.

Now I’m curious on what the others think about this, especially @FluxCapacitor and @naelick since they haven’t responded still. Does anyone fee the same way?

For sure, me too.

Given that, I'm leaning strongly toward exiting, too. I'm not sure that I'm cut out for this style of Fate.

Well, that's a bummer... That's two out of five people neither engaging nor enjoying the game, that's a bad sign. Unless the remaining three are super down to continue, I'm now thinking of retiring this game.

I'd do that at this stage, ireneofunyes. I had a hard time getting engaged with this due to the opener, and honestly I've been looking at reducing my overall game load recently. I'll step back too -- thanks for running!

Well, it’s settled then. I’ll wait for the remaining players’ answers before closing the game. Thank you all for joining me through this adventure. I’ll try to not make this bother me, instead learn from my mistakes so that I won’t make my possible future players uncomfortable like I did to you. I hope you at least had some joy in this and I also hope I can get to play with you again some day.

Oh wow, I'm sorry to see the exodus here. I enjoyed myself thoroughly in the game. It seems like people have some very definite opinions on how Fate games should operate (not a criticism, just an observation) and it would make me feel a little intimidated about trying to GM one. I really appreciate the time and effort you put into the game and the setting, and I hope we can game together again in the future.

I'd like to clarify they I like ireneofunyes as a GM, a deft storyteller and fairly astute at knowing when to be poking people to keep going.

I think the opening bit left me with no agency or sense of purpose and instead of growing attached to my character I became ambivalent, that whatever choices I'd made were somewhat erased.

I'd be happy to play with you again ireneofunyes. Maybe not in a game that begins with a dream, haha.

Yeah, please don't take it the wrong way. I can't tell you how many games I've run over the years that haven't gotten off the ground!

I've been enjoying the game and would be happy to continue or start another game, but I also confess to be at a loss at how to proceed. I had a busy week at work and even though I opened the game several times to check it, I couldn't think of what I wanted to do or have happen, so I was waiting on someone else. Hariette is a pretty active character but I didn't want to be the one dominating every situation.

Also I'll second Qralloqs continuing feeling of lack of agency, though it might have just been miscommunication. Talking with those aliens, I felt like I would have liked to roll it as a social combat. But I think that might be on me for not stating what I wanted clearly enough. And one of my favorite aspects of fate is compels, and the tension generated from spending fate points to succeed in one situation knowing it might cost you later. But again, I could have communicated that I wanted that, rather than wait and see if it would happen.

Anyways, seconding that I'd be happy to try again when you want to

First of all, thank you all for taking the time to both play the game and express your opinions. As I said I'll try to learn lessons from this experience. Still I hope I didn't make some of you think that Fate is not a game for them. Most of the problems arising from this game happened because of my GM'ing and handling the story, not because of the system. Especially for Windyridge and Qralloq who seem to think Fate is not for them. I'd suggest you to try it at least one more time.
Sure. I'll definitely try another Fate game, although probably not soon. When that happens, if you're still around and interested, you will have special seats for recruitment :)

I wish you all fun games. I'll leave the game open for a few more days before retiring it in case any of you have anything to add.