Heist the Colours (OOC)

I would treat that as two rolls, one to decide on a route and one to run that route. Though I assumed, here, that the comment about not wanting to run after the guy implied a desire to find a route that did not need Athletics?

Navigation seems too involved here, it seems like it should require maps and time to study them. There may be a posted ('You are here') map of the park which you may be able to use to cut through there, which will be Navigation, but also make the roll easier (or give a Boon, I am not sure, off-hand, which, and would probably just deal with it in the fiction).

I would think this is just INT, for being clever, with no Skill or Skill Penalty.

If you seek out a park map and use that you will take the Navigation Penalty (-2), but also get more extreme outcomes: Either you read the map wrong and end up in the completely wrong place (or maybe behind a locked gate, or on an overpass (foot bridge?)) or something that needs significant effort to overcome; or you easily get in front of GJ in an optimal location.

It really depends on what exactly you are doing.

Yes, you're right. I guess it's not a good fit then.

I'll roll +int only.

Bit odd that even with such a big list of skills, we can't find a good match. :P
Or maybe I'm just a difficult player. *evil smile*

The way the rules talk about it, they make it sound like rolling a Characteristic only is about as common as rolling with a Skill. I did not expect to do it much, but I think we are seeing that there are times.

This is regularly a problem with Skill-Based games, which may be why Class-Based is so much more common?

I added the roll

A 12 is pretty good. Go ahead and narrate how and where you catch up to GJ, who is with you, and what you do.

Sorry once again for the delay... I had an insane workload recently. Each few days I tried to get to the GP and read your post, but I have been finding out that I was too tired to do so. And as I didn't know when this will slow down, didn't know what to write you:( So: apology again. It starts to normalize recently, so I should be faster with my posting. Thanks for not kicking me out! :)

I have posted my actual actions in RP thread, but still didn't read this OOC thread. Will do it today and answer if there is anything to answer.

So do I understand it correctly: GJ is near van, but decided not to enter it and started to walk in different direction ?

Yes, you can make it there and coordinate with Ronny and the others. Everyone can be together, or arriving at the scene as desired.
Correct. He is trying to get away from all of you. The gunfight (and maybe something else?) spooked him.

We all understand that real life comes first.

But there may have been a loss of interest with all the delays and slowness. We may be looking at putting this game on a shelf for possible later resurrection. This is especially true if your future still looks like it will be filled with 'insanity'.

The timing was, of course, bad, coming as it did during 'Initiative' where the mechanics actively fight our attempts to give each player the amount of focus they want or can handle. But it was also good to have this come up soon, I really am not enjoying the structured Initiative system (always a problem in PbP), and may have to look at excising it from the rules. I am not sure, though, if that is feasible, the specific timing of Turn Order is baked quite hard into many of the mechanics.

Yes, please skip me if the situation will ever happen again. Things should be much better now, but including next week I can't promise daily posting. But few per coming week should be doable. So considering your last answer. We are moving to van scene.

Hopefully this game will survive:) As I have invested the most time in it than any other in PbP space.... I think it should be much better with me from now on. I decided to post even one "sentence posts" to move things along and not to analyze too much from now on. As I sometimes do... :)

I'm ok, with anything you will or not change with initiative approach. Moving this game forward and having fun is much more important than sticking to rules for me.

Think about the initiative some more right now, I think we could stick to 3 "initiative slots":
- PC slot 1 -, "before NPCs",
- NPC slot ,
- PC slot 2 - "after NPCs",

We and NPCs roll normally, and then are grouped in those 3 slots. The posting sequence between characters in particular slot is completely free. If player is Slot 1 and lagging with posting, after some time(3 real time days?) "falls" to slot 2. Again: if player is lagging in Slot 2, after some time he falls to slot 1... of next turn. Apparently his PC, was distracted by something.

I think it could work to move things faster and still allow to use most mechanics of initiative from Traveller rules, no?

So, can Raf walk out of the cluster of trees onto the sidewalk that GJ is walking on as he walks away from the van? Basically blocking his way (for now, mentally)?

Except that it is not the NPCs that are slowing things down (that sounds like an 'at the table' problem with tracking and lots of rolls, which is not a problem for PbP where all the NPCs' rolls can go in one post and take the same amount of time as just one), and we have not been worrying about individual PCs acting before each other, especially since we are waiting for players to post, not for characters to act. We can always post our desired action in any order and then resolve them in 'proper' order (and only worry about that resolution order if they affect each other).

The problem with Initiative systems is not that they force an order, but that they gate our next 'round' of actions. we have to wait for the previous round to conclude before dealing with the new one.

There really is no need for our actions to be so closely tied to each others'. Some actions take longer than others, and quicker players could post many quick actions if needed. There will come a time when everyone needs to sync up, but I have never had a problem with that in systems that don't have 'Initiative' (all PbtA, for instance).

These rules tie a lot to the Turn Order, and strongly couple all the players' actions to each other.

You could roll to try to do that. But Ronny has already rolled to get a handle on the situation, so maybe you two could coordinate and have Ronny use Raf as the blocker?

Good to have you back Pedrop! :)
Yeah, I have to admit, the past weeks things have been really slow and it was a bit demotivating. But if Pedrop says he'll be more active again, I'm still game.

Airshark is on holiday this week, so that may still slow things down a little bit. But we can work around it, I think.
@Pedrop, how about I say through comms that he's going for <something>street. And you cut him off?

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I'm used to playing games without initiative order, so I kinda don't really pay attention to it. Is that okay, or should I be firmer in the posting order? I do try and do either reactionary things or 'actionary' things based on my position in the order.

No, it has been fine from you so far.

The rules tried to force 18 meters of movement on you when you went in chase of Gabriela, but everyone else was also doing long actions so I did not see it being worth counting out the rounds for that.

I'll admit that I haven't been very active, but that factors both real-life (my wife is getting ready for hip surgery) and a small loss of interest. I think what is throwing me is our tendency to discuss everything OOC. I'm more used to the GM making a call and everyone else reacting to it, rather than discussing every detail in depth. I'm not placing blame; that's all me, but that's what I'm feeling.

I get that, there has been a whole lot of OOC talk. More than I'm used to as well, even though I'm a fan of discussing things OOC often. But everyone has a different playstyle. We're all just trying to create a nice story together, each in our way. :)

Sometimes people's playstyles don't work well together. Which is totally fine. I guess that's the beauty of this website. You can try things and see what works and what doesn't.

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That sounds like a difficult time coming your way. I hope your wife has a speedy recovery!

Thank you for the well-wishes. The doctor says that it is a complex surgery and there are risks involved (including the possibility that it may fail catastrophically and she will never walk again), but it is a risk that we are willing to take because the pain is such that she can barely walk now.

Yeah, there has been a lot more table talk (OOC) than even I (who have been accused of being too collaborative) think is ideal. I am always hopeful that will settle out as we play and learn how we do things.
For the GM to do that, though, they need to know what people are trying to do, or people need to do things within the rules. The 'rules' have been slightly clashing with my style, since I try to be free and let the players take the lead, but they then need to do things that work within the world and the rules. The most common OOC chatter has been about which Skill to use and that will improve as players become more clear on their actions so we can judge which Skills apply, I don't see that going away, though it will diminish as we all learn which Skills work where.

As stated in the Recruitment Thread: "• Players are expected to be proactive and to take an interest in- and ownership of- the world" but I have had to drag out from players what they are actually trying to do. I can't make a ruling on how things go if I don't know what they player is trying.

I will never make a ruling about what your character does. So if the player does not adequately describe their actions it is often impossible for me to describe their failure (success is easier). That is a hard rule with me, so that part will never go away.

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@WhtKnt: I understand that you have have had real life challenging your time to play, so have let your single-line posts slide, though they will often require some questions about what you are wanting to do. But I also see you recruiting for multiple new games, which makes me a bit worried that there is more to this.

If this game is not working out for you, I will not be offended if you choose to leave it so you can have more time for the sorts of games you enjoy more. That is completely fine, and it is good for the group if everyone is on the same page about things like post detail levels, and levels of engagement and ownership with the world. I am not saying you need to leave (if it were a problem I would say so), just that you might not be getting the most from this, nor showing us your best self.

Do you want to continue with this game?

Wishing you and your wife all of the best.

Honestly, at this point, I think that I will step down. This is not an affront to your GMing style, please don't take it as such. We are just on different levels of what we expected from the game. It happens. I appreciate the opportunity to play and I hope that the rest of you have a very enjoyable game. Have fun, and I hope to see some of you around on the boards. Thank you again for the opportunity to join you.