[Taocow PBEM] OOC: GM Ranting/Observations

[Aaron Clausen]

Okay, I'm looking at the paucity of responses to my last post, and I'm
wondering "Where is everyone?"

I realize the real world interferes, and players have to put aside
playing when duty calls.  But basically, since September, I'm down to
just two players.  In part I suspect some of it was from a dust-up
that was partly my fault, but still, I'm feeling like the game is
floundering badly.

I'm bringing in new blood, but trying to do their introductions in a
sensible way so it's not just "Suddenly you run up against some guys
in the woods."  But what exactly am I bringing them into?  As I
prepared to add new posts to the archive, I realized they're becoming
almost unintelligible, basically just combat with interludes where I
sort of haul things along narratively.  Not a lot of fun.

So this is what I propose.  I'm going to give everyone who hasn't
posted until this weekend to at least give me a sort of "meta-post" on
where they vote they want to go; to New Camelot, or to avoid it and
head north, to save Ted Smythe's life (he is suffering from a poison
that will eventually kill him).  Alex, we know, doesn't want to go to
New Camelot, so what about the others.  The next post will be sort of
a "parting of the ways", in which Koba, Carlos and Owen, and anyone
else who no longer wants to play, go into the sunset.  That way I'm
not dragging along characters that may never actually be played very
actively at all get to go off to great adventures we may never hear
of.

If indeed players have life happening to them and can't play, but
don't want to drift off, then let me know this week.  I don't mind
keeping PCs in the game even if the players have to take leaves, as
long as I think there's some chance they'll be back playing them.

As a bit of an incentive to keep playing, I'm going to tip my GM's
hand here and let folks know what's coming.

There's a war in England.  The Splugorth have allied themselves with
other unsavory sorts to make a play for all the Isle of Britain, or at
least as much of it as they can get.  In particular, they want control
of key nexus points.  New Camelot is being attacked, and soon other
free lands will be beset.  To save Ted will mean having to head
northwards to Scotland, right through the middle of these armies, and
through all the machinations and strategies of the Splugorth and of
the free realms of England.  This will not be the Britain of Rifts
England, but a much less peaceful place, where even woodland Druids
find themselves beset by a conqueror who would just as soon send them
off to the slave markets of Atlantis.

As well, because the number of players will (hopefully) be bumping up
again, I'd like to streamline combat even more.  I'll do my part in
better posting the scene, and I'd like players to post multiple moves,
as opposed to "I attack with my Triax Wambungler Demon Killer
Megagun!"  That way I can move past combat quickly, as opposed to
being mired in it.

-- 
Aaron Clausen
mightymartianca at gmail.com