GM - just to double check, who is that speaking in your last IC post? Is it Dr Ben Taylor?

Thanks.

yes sorry, you have to pick each time which character is speaking or it goes to default but yes that was Ben

In reply to That Which Knows All (msg # 86):

Thanks.

Roo - Nice idea on the vote.

How are we handling it? Is there a player who wants to take a leadership role and we're steering the vote that way (making the voting more of a roleplaying element) or are we just PMing the GM with our votes so that he can collate the results?

The candidates are:

Dean Blankenship
Dr Patricia Kelly
Frank Curran
Kick Woods
Martin Roux
Natasha Zander
Orlando Bethay

In reply to Frank Curran (msg # 88):

Just something that our characters would have noticed that we may not as players:

Does anyone have any reaction modifiers or Leadership skill?

Natasha has Looks (Attractive), but that is it. Seriously. Some social disadvantages, such as Loner and Callous, may be slightly noticed, but not so much. Intolerance of V's in this environment is probably not noticed at all!
This message was last edited by the player at 09:20, Tue 30 Apr 2019.

Frank has Leadership at 9 and Odious Personal Habit (chewing tobacco) -5, though this hasn't really been obvious yet as he was eating sandwiches........

In reply to Frank Curran (msg # 90):

Lol, apart from the obvious dental work Tobacco has, and the breath! That is only a -1 to reactions, I believe?
This message was lightly edited by the player at 10:18, Tue 30 Apr 2019.

In reply to Natasha Zander (msg # 91):

I think so but I don't have the book in front of me to check.

Dean is Handsome, but that only works on Humans of course, and the +4 is only for women, it's +2 for men. He also has an Honest Face. He would make a great posterboy but I don't know about a leader.

He is also Humble, something I was trying to get across IC, and of average intelligence.

Odious personal habits is -1 to reaction rolls I believe.

I've got Attractive +1 and Sense of Duty: Resistance Cell (+2 when trust is required in a dangerous situation). Social skills - at non-professional levels - are Carousing, Intimidation, and Fast-Talk.

The only skill I have that's anywhere near "pro" is Driving (Heavy Wheeled). 50 points doesn't stretch too far. :D
This message was last edited by the player at 15:44, Tue 30 Apr 2019.

Trish has attractive, reaction bonus with patients past and present and a tiny bit of diplomacy.

It's entirely up to you how you wish to proceed with the voting.  I'm simply trying to stay back from it all to give you guys the chance to decide yourselves.  Don't want to seem like I'm strong arming anything.

Well, one question for the GM - how much of a sandbox is the game? Are you going to give us direction in terms of what we should plan or how we should proceed, or is it entirely up to us?

I was planning on leaving that matter to you the players, unless you'd like me to work in specific story lines.  I have a arcs in the wings but I really didn't plan on pushing any of them.  Letting that natural, organic game play take place.

Okay.

For my part, guys, I put my vote in a private line in the last post I made. That seems the simplest way.

As did I, in the spirit of trying to keep in character.

I’ve got quite a bit in regards to social and leadership stuff, but I’m perfectly content just being a delegate or something!

This is my, the player's, stance, not my character's:

Okay, so, the primary reason I've insisted that there be a leader is because of play-by-post pacing. It just a long time to have a back and forth conversation between multiple parties in this format, and if our resistance cell runs by committee, that means we'd be having that conversation often, every time we need to decide anything. The game will drag, players will get bored and drop out, and the game will die.

So we need a central authority to get input from everybody and make a decision. That's far far faster.

Looking at the set-up we've been given, I'm fairly certain the GM doesn't want to provide us with an NPC to fill that role. Ben isn't decisive enough, and basically keeps us in the same situation where we have to have a long drawn out discussion to get anything done.

Martin has his preferences, but as a player I just want one of us to be able to make those calls to keep the game moving and the pace fast, because face it, we're not going to get an NPC GM-Mouthpiece to tell us what missions to take. Deciding that is going to be part of the game.

Correct me if I'm wrong about any of this, TWKA.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:29, Fri 03 May 2019.

Agreed on just about all counts.

Trouble is, I'm concerned that we are not going to get that far to begin with at this rate. Assigning Ben as an interim leader, letting us all get to know each other a bit during the first "mission" and then coming back down around to it when he wants to step down might be a good way to get some starting momentum.

There is no first mission, though, unless we provide one for ourselves. And if it's taken a week for a simple vote, I'd rather just elect a PC to handle the logistics, tell people their parts, so we can get on with it rather than spend 2-3 more weeks in deliberation.

I was under the impression we all agreed to hit the ship and recon it right? Why don’t we all just steer our characters into that direction and hold off on the leadership stuff until then?

Out of the seven PCs present, how many had agreed to that course of action?

In reply to Martin Roux (msg # 106):

If limited to PCs, I would select Dean simply from the perspective that he showed iniative to select a leader first.

We can choose the party leader OOC instead of IC if the GM allows, sure.

First, do any players feeling unwilling or unable to make those calls? It's fine if your character doesn't want to but gets elected anyway, but if the player doesn't want to/can't, that's a problem.

It sounds great in theory, electing a PC leader to speed things up. But it relies on a few things. First that IC people will follow that leader when they say 'we're doing this-this-this and this' and won't deliberate anyway (which given the characters don't know or respect one another yet will likely still happen).

Second that they stick around. The game has only been going a month and people vanish from online games all the time. If our leader flakes it's not going to be any quicker.

I still think Ben as a temporary leader until after the first mission. It gives time for the character to get to know one another and we can see who's solid.