[OOC] Stargate - Alliances

[Lady Seraphina]

Forsythe said
"Ma'am, incoming from Earth. They are getting busy signal from Langara."

Hey Forsythe, not to sound overly argumentative but if we're not in range of the planet and they are dialing out how is Stargate Command contacting us?

[Sep]

subspace communications

No idea why that was itallic'd. Just looked cool.

[Lady Seraphina]

I totally forgot that was a thing.

[Sep]

If you want to join the mission you shall need to throw up a reasonably longish post detailing your ship boarding, assignment to the team readying up with everyone else but I don't think we'll likely be beaming till tomorrow. Just due to Forsythe/Fallens clash of timetable. We're waiting for the space battle to get to the point the ground team can launch, and for Echo/Bigscreech to finish their collab.

[Ciphra]

I've been up all night so I'm gonna wait till I get some sleep before I attempt this next post!

[Lady Seraphina]

Was there a point after Tolia and before Langara where we were in range of a planet's Point of Origin for which I could Gate onboard?

[Sep]

Yes, same point as Bigscreech gated aboard.

[Lady Seraphina]

Who's character was Bigscreech again? It's hard to keep them all straight and he's not listed on the Cast List.

[Sep]

That is because I have been bad and not put it in yet.

French Demo guy, his CS is like only a page or two back. Him and Echo are still collabing on his arrival scene. So you would probably do to pair up with someone with the welcoming committee. I'll let you decide who you want to guide your char around

[Lady Seraphina]

I'm not going to have proper computer access till monday cause the library is closed on Sundays.

Whose in the welcoming party?

[Sep]

You can really more or less make a choice with the current chars though if you do not have time I would say just skip that and post in the ready room getting the last of your gear done up before we go planetside.

[Fallenreaper]

Sep said
That is because I have been bad and not put it in yet.French Demo guy, his CS is like only a page or two back. Him and Echo are still collabing on his arrival scene. So you would probably do to pair up with someone with the welcoming committee. I'll let you decide who you want to guide your char around

Yeah... This might help a bit: I'm going to try to be online, early, on Tuesday or Wednesday. So that should help.

Prince of Seraphs said
I'm not going to have proper computer access till monday cause the library is closed on Sundays.Whose in the welcoming party?

Know that feeling. Currently I'm online on my iPad at the laundry place, which means Chatroom is a no go and it will be hell doing the collab. I'll try regardless.

[Ellri]

Sep... Just a minor observation...

Briefing rooms, prepping rooms, etc... They kill RPs. Not everyone involved need to post they're in there. Just presume that they are and go with that. This RP is good and doesn't need deadly slowdowns like that. Don't collab everything to gather people together. If it makes sense to someone that their character is present there, then he or she will make sure his/her character is there. Just push the plot ahead and make 'em catch up if you aren't sure they're there. It'll to Alliances good.

We may quarrel with ya, but we really don't want alliances to die.

[Sep]

Ellri said
Sep... Just a minor observation...Briefing rooms, prepping rooms, etc... They kill RPs. Not everyone involved need to post they're in there. Just presume that they are and go with that. This RP is good and doesn't need deadly slowdowns like that. Don't collab everything to gather people together. If it makes sense to someone that their character is present there, then he or she will make sure his/her character is there. Just push the plot ahead and make 'em catch up if you aren't sure they're there. It'll to Alliances good.We may quarrel with ya, but we want alliances to die.

Yeah uh, we've been over this. If you actually want to post in the briefing. It'll be optional, the ready room is really just so I can grab the ground team together before I go. Think of that little post like a little activity check. We're really just waiting on Bigscreech, Prince if he moves his stuff as well. Don't worry, you know me. I won't wait forever.

Bigscreech is out the now(Cause timezones though I've asked him to work on the post and show the collab in the past. People posting or not we'll be going on tomorrow.

Also Ellri, we don't relaly [i]quarrel[/ii]. Most of the time it is just imismmunication between us and then we argue separate points.

[Ellri]

Sep said the ready room is really just so I can grab the ground team together before I go

That, is the problem. That makes the ready room just another briefing room. Just presume you've got those you need and go.

Sep said Don't worry, you know me. I won't wait forever.

you tend to wait too long. Its not healthy for he RP to have such long waits all the time. You don't need to control all the time that the players are there.

When an RP moves too slowly, people find other RPs that engage more, and then their activity rate goes down even further in the current one. This is, as you're so fond of saying, Casual, not advanced. The pace you're moving at and the length of these briefing/ready/etcroom posts belongs in advanced.

Let the players loose, and they will reward you in the long run.

[Sep]

You are probably right.

When Fallen is on today I shall take us down, Fallen is another reason right now I am taking it slow. She's one of the most loyal players and such and has posting issues right now. I feel it would be unfair to push ahead without her, too far. Though we'll carry on today, as I said to Bigscreech his collab can be in the past.

[Sundered Echo]

The ready room has pretty much the same problem as campfire, if the characters have established relationships and lots to talk about they'll probably chatter a bit and make it interesting, otherwise grabbing your gear and standing around makes for a rather dull post.

I understand the idea behind using it as a sort of a roll call, but I don't think its a great idea. Roll calls in the OOC work better.

This I believe is Ellri's point and I agree with him here.

Unfortunately, very few people seem to care about doing much outside of the missions.

[Ellri]

Yup. That was our point, Echo.

Echo said Unfortunately, very few people seem to care about doing much outside of the missions.

If people are railroaded into the missions, then they don't have chance to invent events. Leaving things unsolved not only IC but OoC will inspire unexpected plots. Set up events where you have no idea of what the result will be. Don't decide everything yourself, and you hook your players even more.

Of the players we know decently in here, we know they are all fully capable of crafting unexpected events. When everything becomes waiting around or otherwise utterly predictable, it gets very boring.

To give an example:
Right now, the RP is Earth vs. Lucian Alliance.
Or rather, to be precise: A perfectly unified Earth against a perfectly unified Lucian Alliance. Neither of those two exist in true SG lore. There are countless factions on Earth, each trying to be better than the others. The IOA, while it holds Earth interests on top, is a political beast of people fighting to favor their country over the others. Its not clean. The civilians fight to take control from the military, while the military tries to keep control. Where the civilians have advantage in not needing to follow the hierarchy, the military have advantage just because of that; they are excellent at making up a crew because they have a clear chain of command.

In a DSC-304 that isn't owned by any single nation, that should be even more visible. Sure, the military officer on top can keep (in this case her) subordinates from open conflict, but there might still be some conflict of interest. The civilians might want to gain more power. Scientists will want to have less military shackles, to have their own interests first and only do what the military wants when it is truly important. And scientists tend not to have the same regard for chain of command that military people have. Many of them even scorn it.

Same goes for the Lucian Alliance. Its not a single unified whole. Even back when Netan lived, the alliance fought within itself. It started out as a rough empire of criminal factions. Those factions later developed into clans of sorts. Like the invasion on Destiny in SG:U, two such clans were involved. They believed something valuable was on that ship. Thus they cooperated somewhat. Not all Alliance clans feel that way.

The Alliance hasn't had a single leader since Netan's (presumed) death. None of the various warlords that took over at the time of his fall have become powerful enough to control all the others. One result of this is that although the Lucian Alliance has many, many times the number of ships as the Tau'ri, they cannot use them to full effect, as they always have to keep a few eyes on each other. That is, if they're not openly fighting each other.

The there are the other factions, like the Free Jaffa and the Tok'ra. They too have their own interests. For the Free Jaffa, the politics are probably about as convoluted as those of the Lucian Alliance. While they're more unified, there are many styles of behavior. Not to mention the age-old conflicts they had against each other while serving different Goa'uld.

The Tok'ra on the other hand, are potentially the sole faction active that is the least divided. But their disadvantage is the lack of numbers. Their interests in these times would lie in building a society, hunting down the goa'uld and in gathering information. You don't stop a tradition of eons of espionage overnight. These interests don't overlap fully, so there's probably factions here too.

The lesson we're trying to give out here is this:
There are factions inside every faction in the Stargate Universe. So long as they have free will, people will have conflicts with each other, no matter if they are human, Jaffa, or something else. Only hive minds and true slaves are exempt from that. Don't imagine that a faction is cooperating fully as an integrated whole. Its not. It never is. There are probably even factions among the Nox. It might not be all that apparent, but they probably exist.

Finally: Don't try to hold and control every rope, Sep. Either you lose track of them and they slip away, or you cling too tightly and what they are attached to is incapable of moving.

[Sep]

Mhm. I'm still learning the Episodic style of play. Not really what I've done before I usually work more freeroam style roleplays, though thankfully since I stopped travelling the activity has been picking up. So that is good. Also about the division in the Lucian Alliance it will become evident later when we meet non-Kane based forces.

[Ciphra]

Sundered Echo said
The ready room has pretty much the same problem as campfire, if the characters have established relationships and lots to talk about they'll probably chatter a bit and make it interesting, otherwise grabbing your gear and standing around makes for a rather dull post.I understand the idea behind using it as a sort of a roll call, but I don't think its a great idea. Roll calls in the OOC work better.This I believe is Ellri's point and I agree with him here.Unfortunately, very few people seem to care about doing much outside of the missions.

Personally I prefer putting a ready post in a pre mission section in a mission post just to establish it's existence slightly but not dragging my feet by just having it.