It's My Birthday, So I'm Making the New [chat] Thread

ElJeffe

Happy birthday to me, bitches.

I am an awesome dude, so I get an awesome cake:



(Note: Not actually my cake.)

I hereby christen this thread with my awesomeness.

Go forth and [chat]!

y2jake215

you're my hero

Captain Carrot

RiemannLives wrote: »

Captain Carrot wrote: »

RiemannLives wrote: »

Captain Carrot wrote: »

Here is an outline for the plot for my Mass Effect campaign. Please give it a look, though only if you're not playing.

Open with Shepard, Kaidan, and Ash talking to Udina and Anderson. Wrex is at Chora's Den, Garrus is investigating Saren, Liara is refusing to heed the rumors of incoming geth, and Tali is struggling on the Citadel trying to get the recording somewhere useful without dying in the process.
The game goes pretty much as we know from there until Shepard is made a Spectre, at which point Admiral Kahoku, director of Cerberus, invites Shepard and her crew to come by the lunar base and check out their operations.
They pick up Liara first, because otherwise her player is going to be hell of bored until they do. Then they head to the moon, where Operative Lawson introduces herself, and talks about their research, including the black ops AI work that officially doesn't exist. At that point, the AI becomes self-aware, and starts messing with things over at the training range. Story there is normal, but afterwards Miranda doesn't seem fazed, and says they'll see what they can learn from the whole incident.
Then to the Citadel, for R&R and meeting Conrad Verner.
After that, Noveria/Feros, with the plot pretty much the same; Cerberus will invite Shepard back after visiting the Citadel to discuss the work they did on the materials she brought back, where they'll be introduced to Security Chief Taylor. Loyalty missions for Garrus, Wrex, Tali, and Kaidan will be fitting in between here, along with further encounters with Conrad.
Then we have Virmire, where it may be possible to save Ash (Kaidan is a PC, so I don't see Shepard sacrificing him), but not without consequences.
Shepard and company give Rita a hand, then take back the Normandy, though the Council will be more amenable to reports of the Reapers; it's possible that they'll allow Shepard to pursue Saren, but I'd have to think of a way for that to work as well narratively.
Udina will become the human councilor after the battle of the Citadel, because Shepard really shouldn't be the one picking that. However, Anderson will be heading a covert anti-Reaper effort, which Shepard will be working on once the remnants of the geth fleet are taken care of. The Council, if it survives, will take their heads out of their asses, look at the debris, and agree that action is warranted, but they are adamant that it must be hidden, to avoid mass panic. Various species begin highly-secret projects for unconventional warfare and fleet buildup, the latter ostensibly to cut down on mercs and pirates in the Terminus systems threatening Citadel space.

And then 2 begins. There's an attack on the Normandy, which sustains heavy damage before Joker manages to flee. Wrex leaves for Tuchanka, Garrus decides to put what Shepard has taught him into action, Liara resumes her archaeology work, Tali returns to the fleet, and Kaidan asks for a transfer, citing inappropriate feelings for his CO. Wrex's player switches to Zaeed, who comes onboard immediately. Kaidan and Liara are less clear, but Jacob and Miranda would work. There are signs of Collectors, and Cerberus suspects (with Anderson backing them up) that something is different from their previous encounters; Shepard recruits the other PCs, and they go to work. Grunt and Jack are both remnants of Cerberus projects under Director Harper, Kaidan still isn't over Shepard on Horizon, which will probably be combined plot-wise with Freedom's Progress. Shepard is fully aware that the derelict Reaper is still alive, because Anderson trusts her and the crew to be sensible about it while aboard. Probably cutting Jacob's loyalty mission, because it doesn't really serve any narrative purpose, unless the PC playing him objects. Still the Reaper IFF, still Legion, still loyalty conflicts, possibly no crew kidnapping. Suicide mission has different roles, but the same overall structure, including the possibility for cutscene deaths. Cerberus overall is much more concerned with the intel to be gained on the base to use against the Reapers than the missing colonists.

Shadow Broker at some point, with pretty much the same structure. Might do Arrival with Shepard and Overlord with everyone else at the same time. Shepard goes to jail for it, Cerberus does not become an opponent. Reaper and possibly Collector forces will be the opponents most of the time, though mercs may be hired through indoctrinated agents on Mars and the Citadel to keep those intact. Probably no Illusive Man, definitely no Kai Leng. Thane dies saving the salarian councilor because that's badass and he deserves a Mace Windu-esque death. The Crucible is the culmination of the research done in 2, rather than an ass-pull on Mars, and is a semi-understood method to weaken the Reapers greatly and make a conventional victory possible, coupled with significant preparation over the two and a half years between Sovereign and the invasion. The mission on Thessia is successful, not sure what to do with Sanctuary, and it ends with another suicide mission because that's what should have happened, dammit. War assets will mean something there, and they'll be several distinct forces rather than hundreds of little things.

I am usually wary of planning more than a tiny ways ahead when running tabletop RPGs. Cause one of two things almost always throws a monkey in the wrench of the best laid plans.

1) Players never do what you think they will or should
2) Sometimes the dice go against the intended plot. An atmosphere of tension requires the real possiblity of failure. And making failure just be an end condition is easy but not fun. So you want the game to be able to "fail forward". EG: letting the [whatever it is that involves a random component] fail without fudging the results but making that move the plot in a new and unexpected direction as opposed to "you die, roll up a new character" or "you fail try again"

I've actually been doing that a lot in the campaign I'm running now -- someone failing means that something interesting happens, and the plot progresses, not just them being unsuccessful. I'm not sure where that's lacking in my outline, though.

I just thought the outline assumed a lot of "the players will go to A after B" and "the players will succeed in all the combat implied here".

There is kind of an element of that to the first one, in the sense that I don't think they'll want to do all the plot worlds and then all the sidequests, primarily for the sake of variety. It's okay if they don't, though. As for the combat, yeah, I'm assuming that they won't all go down, but if somehow they do I'll roll with it.

Cinders

Happy Birthday ElJeffe

bloodyroarxx

Whos got 2 thumbs and a company of heroes 2 beta invite

This Guy!

Quid

I dunno.

I've seen awesomer cakes.

RMS Oceanic

My Intra[chat]inental Ballistic Missile remains in its draft silo.

Happy birthday!

evilbob

Happy birthday ElJeffe

ElJeffe

Also, @spool32 and @RiemannLives are being troublesome fartbladders in [chat], so they can sit out this chat thread and sit in the corner and think about what they've done.

Geth, kick @spool32 from the thread for sucking.

Geth

Affirmative ElJeffe. @spool32 banned from this thread for sucking.

Kagera

Happy birthday el jeffe!

I got you a sweater!

Also this hilarious Emma Watson gif

http://25.media.tumblr.com/9610f0bcc9a21bd4250a07467ee3d467/tumblr_mkmzyaVo021qeyw5mo1_500.gif

RiemannLives

a fun video of the Shut up and Sit Down folks playing the board game Resistance: Avalon. I have played the original Resistance and it won me over a bit despite my rather disliking the hidden role genre. Very well designed game.

ElJeffe

Geth, also kick @RiemannLives from the thread for blowing.

Geth

Affirmative ElJeffe. @RiemannLives banned from this thread for blowing.

Abdy

'appy birthday, milord

Quid

RMS Oceanic wrote: »

My Intra[chat]inental Ballistic Missile remains in its draft silo.

Happy birthday!

Your draft silo is a keg isn't it.

Sarksus

bloodyroarxx wrote: »

Whos got 2 thumbs and a company of heroes 2 beta invite

This Guy!

Did you...preorder.

surrealitycheck

terrible thread

what happened to spool and riemann btw

RMS Oceanic

I hesitated and lost on getting a 500GB PS3 for £145. I have too much faith my PhatS3 will make it back from the repair shop.

bloodyroarxx

Sarksus wrote: »

bloodyroarxx wrote: »

Whos got 2 thumbs and a company of heroes 2 beta invite

This Guy!

Did you...preorder.

Naa got one from a dude on NeoGaf

Elldren

Happy birthday eljeffe

surrealitycheck

i mean

wat they do

ive been in space

surrealitycheck

and by space i mean eating pizza and dough balls and chocolate fudge cake with ice cream

Cinders

Omar is out of prison! Yay!

matt has a problem

surrealitycheck wrote: »

terrible thread

what happened to spool and riemann btw

Political slap fight.

Chu

jeffe my life has been remarkably cold and empty since i stopped hearing cute stories about your daughter

Thomamelas

Happy Birthday El Jeffe!

evilbob

surrealitycheck wrote: »

terrible thread

what happened to spool and riemann btw

arguing over the incredibles.

RMS Oceanic

Quid wrote: »

RMS Oceanic wrote: »

My Intra[chat]inental Ballistic Missile remains in its draft silo.

Happy birthday!

Your draft silo is a keg isn't it.

No. I think of the four D&D mods Jacob is most likely to appreciate it, but hopefully everyone would like it.

But now is not the time for discussing my hypo[chat], it's for pining for a piece of Jeffe's cake that I shouldn't touch due to the beetus!

STATE OF THE ART ROBOT

ElJeffe allow an anime thread to be made and lock it after 8 posts.

Shivahn

Happy birthday!

Tav

on another forum, I answered a thread with "don't take legal advice from the internet, don't post about legal matters on a public forum" and people are responding as if I acted like I personally offended them

RMS Oceanic

Organichu wrote: »

jeffe my life has been remarkably cold and empty since i stopped hearing cute stories about your daughter

Did you see my latest picture of Jack?

Quid

Cinders wrote: »

Omar is out of prison! Yay!

Well

Just don't leave Puerto Rico

Variable

happy birthday jeffe

Abdy

emma watson is good at having hair

Thomamelas

And Matt, at one point last summer you could get Lobster at $2 a pound if you could buy from a source one or two steps removed from the boats. For my brother, it was cheaper to get lobster then ground beef at one point.

surrealitycheck

o shit lol birthdays

thats real

Solomaxwell6

evilbob wrote: »

surrealitycheck wrote: »

terrible thread

what happened to spool and riemann btw

arguing over the incredibles.

Dude, Pixar is some serious shit.

matt has a problem

Tav wrote: »

on another forum, I answered a thread with "don't take legal advice from the internet, don't post about legal matters on a public forum" and people are responding as if I acted like I personally offended them

Threaten to sue.

Atomika

Deebaser wrote: »

Neat experience and glad I can say I've been there. The prices are a little high. $4 for a Red Stripe is steep considering we got it free on the catamaran. the lobster was good but $12. when you pay $170 per couple to get there, spending another $20-30 is not what we wanted to do!

Fuck you lady.

You should really read that National Review Cruise article where people paying $5/min for WiFi access on a day excursion are bitching about Obama destroying their wealth.