[disc] Megatokyo Campfire 2: School Days, Plotting, planning, and general mayhem

Well folks, we have had several people mention a discussion or OOC thread, so I figured I would go ahead and try it out, since no one else was volunteering.



Lessee....

Um....

umm...


my character is about to bring this up (rather angrily and sparkish) but we have no chain of command, roles or anything even a Militia as...

we should sort that out...

who is what (IE scout, heavy weapons, ECT) and a chain of command

You have to understand, this isn't the military, this is a group of highly idividualized people attempting to work together. Rather like trying to make a group of cats work together when they have just met.

Junko is the Leader, with everyone chiming in when necessary. Or borrowing Junko as I did recently.

Miho, Mami, and Yuki all function as scouts, though Gabriel can as well. Mal is our main Medic, though if necessary and hopefully when no further fighting is expected Gabriel can squeeze out a few healing spells.


Oh and it is etc not ECT. The original phrase is et cetera, meaning "and others".

(Had to edit my edit because I could not write etc incorrectly. Go figure. )

*Sets out a pot of tea and some cookies*

Edit numero quatro:

DB, I'm going to say the same thing to you that I said to Dragon, because you seem to have missed it. How did David hear both those pieces of conversation straight in a row? Maldrul spoke, then left, then Junko spoke, then left, with both going to the kitchen. How did David get from outside to the kitchen? He could not hear Junko's statement and yet immediately confront Maldrul. You have managed to completely ignore an entire conversation. And mess with the time-continuum.

Be very careful. Read. Do not rush posts.

That goes for everone. And if you do miss something, hopefully you will catch it and be able to edit.

For example, me completely butchering my comment on the time-continuum, then then making a fifth edit to fix it.

This post has been edited by Elven Bookwyrm on Sep 30 2009, 09:00 PM

I messed with the space time continuum? cool.

I edited my posts as best I could to fix them, so yeah.

My plan with the Order is to have it turn out that some faction within it has gone rouge and plans on going evil Overlord one everybody, connected to whatever is currently going on with the Principal and whoever keeps attacking us (either from knowing about them, or actually being involved with them). They're after us because they want to poke and prob and dissect us, or just eliminate us to prevent any interference.

yes... i aware of this but even so we have no plan

everyone does what ever they want in a fight and then when we meet just do WMG, not intel work no working together.

and everyone keeps abilties and skills secret from each other.

We should be like a group of freelancer mercs or something like the crew of the Serinty from Firefly

-Everyone has a role in a fight
-Someone is more or less in charge by group consensus
-Everyone KNOWS their role
-We try to find stuff out
-Everyone knows their role- Seriously you don't want the guy you where excepting to provide long range cover fire suddenly rushing into battle.



Currently we have no planning (everyone WALKED to the meeting that was just ok we meet here, even after we had been attacked several times before) no means to gather intelligence no plan on how to fight.

We either work together well or not at all, since otherwise we get in each others way and hinder ourselves.

Or act like a combined arms team.

Individual and teamwork don't work together. we plan on wear to meet, we orginze transportation. We are all more or less being hunted like high level VIPS we should plan as such.

but Davids rant as underlying issues (including me reading on war by Carl Von Clausewitz.. but most are IC)

we need radios, Frequency hopping ones...

off the top of my head:

Junko-Command... hmm something due to her armor
Yuki- Scout, infiltration (due to her speed)
Miho- Offensive Magic specialist, suppressive effects (Magic skills), plus recon with Kuro
Maldrul- Medic/Magic support (Due to pockects and magical skills)
Linfia- Marksmen (sharpshooter)
Memi- Intelligence (sensors on the gun)
David- Support
Jacob- Heavy weapons experts
Rachael - Covert kills
Gabriel- Close in weapons expert, Door knocker

i can't remember everyone elses skills


On post: I thought Mal made everyone walk in... plus I was the next one posting when i started to write that! i took to long

This post has been edited by DB_Explorer on Sep 30 2009, 09:07 PM

I think that it is strange that there isn't that much suspicion among the group. I mean, it may be somewhat counter-productive to the entire situation, but really, there should be quite a bit more infighting at this point, especially since nobody truly knows what is going on (on the whole, I mean). Smith is suspicious, I think. I mean, he looks like some kid, but both Miho and Maldrul saw him earlier when he was 30 year old man. Now he's a teenager fighting with a talking electric guitar? And he certainly isn't acting like a 30 year old. He's acting a lot like a weird teenager.

Don't forget the fact that everyone in the room who has any empathic or telepathic abilities really ought to be lighting up to the fact that while he has obvious magical powers, his mind waaaaaay wide open.

I think the main problem is that we are forgetting that our characters (a) aren't us and ( have far more limited knowledge than we as the writers do. Smith really can't be really all that suspicious of the others (he's brand new to everyone but Miho and Maldrul and even then Blue Smith is completely new to them), but you'd think that the "veteran" members would be asking a lot of questions.

On organization: I agree that making these people organize really well is a case of herding cats, but at the same time, everyone who has any experience in fighting in groups is going to realize the same problem and want to find a way to establish a chain-of-command.

Also, Smith seems to lend himself well as a "blitzer" or tank. He's pretty decent against one decent enemy and at small groups of mooks. He can take plenty of damage (explanations to everyone when Smith really begins to understand why he's like that himself) and deals significant damage against single opponents. He's got some sweet "stun" skills that make him pretty good at locking up single large enemies while the others dump damage in, and while he doesn't have the best range (close and mid-close at best) he's fast enough to mostly make up for that.

I think that if we think of the group more as two or three "parties" with the members of each party taking a specific role in the survival of the party they are in, we can work more efficiently. "Lances" (mechwarrior term; roughly the same as squad) should be formed of three or four man groups. We could have a scout lance, assault lance, sniper lance, etc, with a healer type in each one. Also, those who have more "mundane" abilities should form the command, communication, and supply group who stay in Maldrul's world (or some other highly defensive spot) and watch over the action.

The characters should arrive to a similar conclusion themselves since several of them seem to be paramilitary or at least good warriors who would know how the big guys do things. Junko, Maldrul, and Gabriel being the smart and strategic ones (as well as being the leaders in their own ways) will probably be the ones to come up with the big plan. The others will most likely just have to deal with it or break off into their own smaller groups.

While not very constructive from the viewpoint of an out of story strategist, the splintering of this group at this stage in the proceedings seems very likely and would certainly add a few new elements to the role play. Really we have too many people in one big lump right now, and it only makes sense, both in context and from a meta-story view to break them up into more easily managable (sp?) chunks.

Re: Everyone walking to the last meeting. It was a trap. Sorry if I did not make that horribly obvious. (I belive my main hints lied in Gabriel's thoughts and a "predatory grin") Gabriel and the rest had already established that they were fairly sure 'They' would not kill them (pulled out Jack before he could, etc), and it had been suggested that they meet someplace where they knew any fight would not be a simple accidental run-in. Gabriel told the Coalition via thought in an attempt to control who knew the location of their meeting, but we had a number of people mention it, so Grim had plenty of opportunities for his people to hear.

It all goes back to the conversation about controling variables. Gabriel and I really aren't quite stupid enough to simply have a meeting when we knew something was going to happen without figuring out a way to learn something.

Also, much of your last few post have talked about gathering information. We have tried. I am not sure if you have been here for that. The kids have only been attacked four times now, and have been attempting in these informal meetings afterwards, particularly the dinner, to pool their info to figure out what was going on and what to do from here.

And we had a plan for the last attack. It was just necessary that only a few writers were aware of what was going on, and RL kinda ate it slightly.

*Deep breath* Sorry if I come across as confrontational. Very tired, and I have a hard time with ideas which appear to function on incomplete information.

Junko-Command, Close quarters fighter (not on Gabe's level, but pretty darn good)
Yuki- Scout, infiltration (due to her speed)
Miho- Offensive Magic specialist, suppressive effects (Magic skills), plus recon with Kuro
Maldrul- Medic/Magic support (Due to pockects and magical skills)
Linfia- Marksmen (sharpshooter)
Memi- Intelligence (sensors on the gun) Long range and short range combat, marksman, variable and adaptove attacks
David- Support
Jacob- Heavy weapons expert
Rachael - Covert kills
Gabriel- Close-in weapons expert, Door knocker, Scout (empathic abilities and Senses, as well as Ninja-like training (remember the story about hunting convicts?)), long range (mostly bows, but not terrible with a gun)


Edit to respond to Magic

I agree with a great deal of what you are saying. Especially the herding cats thing. Also with people leaking OOC info into their characters. I am probably guilty of it myself, though I try not to.

And gah, I keep meaning to write a bit about Gabriel and Smith's mind, but keep getting sidetracked! My orignal post where she sent him a message I missed the mind wide open bit until it was too late to edit.

Regarding the suspicion, or lack thereof: I think part of our problem lies in that whenever the group gets together, we end up getting attacked, and then after the fights have been too interested in trying to walk our characters through figuring things out. Part of it could also be that before we had Smith and Jacob, and Rachel, etc jump in, everyone involved was thrown in because of themselves. Even Kiyo and Maldrul, though obviously associated with groups, were also obviously in the Coalition because of themselves. There was not much time for suspicion in a few days when everyone had been thrown together in the same way. Jacob and Smith, however, are involved more for their organizations, and as such will (hopefully) be regarded with more suspicion.

If we do organize, I find the idea of groups to be more likely. Part of what must be acknowledged, and I will harp on this, is that this is essentially a group of teenagers (excluding Gabe) who are all naturally suspicious and highly individualized, who don't particularly want to form a team, and who definitely don't want to fight. They are still figuring out their powers, they barely even know each other. Try and put yourself in your character(s) position. You would be doing the same thing they have: trying to figure out what the hell is going on. We still aren't past that stage.

Oh, and a point on Gabriel. She has studied history, and strategical theory, so I will be bringing in ideas through her. But she is very much a lone fighter. All of her training and experience rely solely on herself. Which is how she likes it; no one to worry about or to get hurt. So she will probably take a guiding position in any leadership discussions.

This post has been edited by Elven Bookwyrm on Sep 30 2009, 09:36 PM

No problem

BTW-
by Door knocker i mean the person who breaks done the door when entering a building, the point man, the tank.

we have enough people to make squads or fireteams (fireteams make a squad)

a fireteam normally has four people but for us id go with:

One offensive magic user (think... walking Anti-tank gun, or the AT dude in a modern squad)
One weapons expert (hand to hand/swords, they are like the infantrymen)
One Heavy weapons (in this case guns, since their 'heavier' then swords, they provide long range precision fire and or heavy firepower)
One scout (infiltration and Recon)
One medic

Artillery, Close air support and Aerial recon are done on the coalition level

This post has been edited by DB_Explorer on Sep 30 2009, 09:40 PM

I know what Door Knocker is, thank you. I was just pointing out a few of her more flexible areas. She is a highly trained warrior in her own right, beyond the Berserking. Falling back on the Mt-verse, think ninja.

Oh, and check the massive edit above.

This post has been edited by Elven Bookwyrm on Sep 30 2009, 09:39 PM

*looks at edit*

David the char is very much my self turned up to 11 in some areas, and that included interest in military history SO i guess i would be the only one advocating a close knit almost combined arms style way of doing things. Because most of his knowledge is for warfare ww2 onward, with basic theory and strategy on top of that, of course ideally we would be like a special operations force.

Highly modular
Each member is highly skilled
Highly adaptable due to wide skill sets of members
able to quickly disappear against greater forces or uses some type of edge to win.
Can work together very well

First thing I notice is... There's no Smith! D: Why do I keep getting left out of posts, remarks, lists and considerations? It's enough to give someone a complex. I know I just joined, so you may be skipping over my posts a little... but still.

Anyways, aside from Smith's "position" in the team, aren't there a few other members of the Coalition who are more... Normal? I seem to remember a name, Kuro, and a few others and the spiky haired one who ran off to another section of Japan for a week. While they aren't there right then, they are still involved with the Coalition. They'll need some kind of protection/position/responsibility. Even the spiky one. Once we get talking about positions and team-roles, someone should bring him up and assign him something for when he gets back. Or something.

My biggest point is that there are other members of the Coalition who are not present who may still be in danger as well as several "mundanes" who are in severe danger simply by being normal and around us. We need a plan to protect them or give them powers of some kind. Or something.

This post has been edited by magi_wildcard on Sep 30 2009, 09:49 PM

power armor?

i'm serious David owns a company that does construction AND Robotics.. kinda obvious.

that or we inject them with some of Miho's blood

sorry about smith, it was off the top of my head that list i forgot myself in the first version!

This post has been edited by DB_Explorer on Sep 30 2009, 09:56 PM

Gah! Lo siento. I knew I missed someone when I was trying to edit DB's list, but I could not think of who it was, and then I was trying to reply to your post.... I swear we are not ignoring you. Especially since your posts are nice and edited, with correct grammar and everything.

The 'spiky one' Kiyo, is far from normal. (can't believe I missed him too. No more posting so late at night) He has two enchanted/ soul weapons, and has some emotion related abilites that seem slightly similar -- though not vampiric -- to MIho's. Wayne, who has a Japanese name that I can never remember, has some weird kind of training and equipment that I never have been able to understand. Seems like speed is his main thing.

Taro is really the only mundane, and I am not entirely sure how mundane he really is. Amnesia is suspicious.

Also, I just realized I did not attempt to add in Akito. He would probably function more as a tank. But, he might not actually fully join the coalition. You will certainly get your full dose of suspicion through my boy.

DB: your description of a special opps team will be workable, but I think we will all have trouble with having assigned "YOu do exactly this" especially because most characters still have a good bit to reveal. It might have been months for us, but it has been eight days (less if ignoring days with little interaction) for them.

Also. *broken record* This is a STORY. Not just an RPG. Things work differently. Do the books you read sound like RPG forums? No, of course not. Characters are revealed a different way, and no matter how important beating the bad guy is, it is not the only thing. The big thing is character development and interaction. Everything else just sets up the characters.

This post has been edited by Elven Bookwyrm on Sep 30 2009, 10:04 PM

.. well sorry! I suck at proofreading since my mind fixes it in my head!


also i guess my character starts the group fragmenting depending on how Mal reacts

This post has been edited by DB_Explorer on Sep 30 2009, 10:06 PM

Not a big deal. It's my way of teasing. Now if it starts interfering with my ability to understand your posts, then I will actually make a fuss.

Okay

So Mal is finishing up refreshments and then we are moving into a more formal meeting area. My suggestion/prefference would be that we try and all just let our characters react and share what they know, and then worry about trying to pool things here and/or assign roles later.

Also, this is my last post for a while; not til tomorrow evening (maybe sixteen hours, maybe more)

This post has been edited by Elven Bookwyrm on Sep 30 2009, 10:28 PM

1.) And most importantly: New Page. ED scares me. He is no longer funny. He must die. Also, he must stop smiling like Ichimaru Gin. It makes me hate him more.

2.) Powered Armor. Ah, mobile suits. Not Smith's style, of course, but all the same.... Aaahhhhhh.... Being the huge Mecha Fan/ Mech Head that I am, I am most appreciative of your addition to the madness, Explorer. Can't wait for it.

3.) While I don't say it as much as Elven, I do in fact think it a lot: Story. It's what makes the role play interesting. While this is a collaborative work, this story is still a story. As such mean, complicated things like character development and plot take precedence to "but my character is soooo cool! He's just like X Y from Z Fantasy Game A!"

I too enjoy playing RPG's. I too watch Bleach with it's pitiful excuse for character development and plot entirely because of its ABSOLUTELY AWESOME MUSIC AND FIGHTS... But that is no excuse for me to write fan fiction (or anything at all) without some degree of... professionalism. Obviously, I'm not a pro writer, but I try my best to keep in mind two things:

A.) My character has a story that I am trying to tell. If his being awesome gets in the way of that story, he must stop being awesome.

B.) My character's story is not as important as the story as a whole. If his story gets in the way of the big picture, he must stop pushing his story ahead.

These things are by no means easy to do. Well, okay, I'm a masochist and a sadist, so I admit is quite fun to me to allow my character to trip, slide twenty feet across the pavement and lay in a broken heap for a few minutes trying to figure out WTF just happened... But for most of us, it's not easy to force ourselves to let our characters be themselves and not puffed up versions of ourselves. It's tough to let them be and sound stupid, to make them do terribly misguided things, to cause them to, right after receiving a sweet power up, lose some other seemingly vital ability and learn to cope with it.

I guess what I"m saying is: BEWARE OF THE SUE. She comes in many masks, guises and forms. She may be Pure, she may be God Mode, she may be Stue, she may even be Dark, but in the end, she is still The Sue and she will ruin this role play/story just like she has ruined so many before it. She is a bottomless pit, a ravenous beast, a black hole for awesome, funny, and plot. Where she walks no characters can develop. Where she treads, plots wither and die. She is merciless and tireless and she is in our hearts and minds as writers all the time, suggesting that we do things that will allow us to take center stage, to grab the story by the reins and steer it to our heart's true desire: the glorification of our character, and by right of origin, ourselves.

But Sue is a siren calling us to our doom, the Pride of our hearts manifest in our art. Should she ensnare you, trick you into helping yourself and your character, you and a good portion of the story will ship wreck on the razor sharp rocks of Criticism before falling into the breach of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief you have created.

Also Grim will probably glass your character in a creative and embarrassing way...

What was I talking about?

Anyways, looking forward to

4.) The complete list of characters and their proposed "assignments."

This post has been edited by magi_wildcard on Sep 30 2009, 11:20 PM

Fun times in the ok corrale~ I'll be making a collaboration section for the wiki and any who have not joined are urged to do so. The image in my signature is a link to it.

In the game "mist" when a more important or secluded event is going to take place we typically use our wiki to make the collabs before one of the members post it. You can check the mist info from Kemindul's signature or from the forum rp forum on here.

I've been trying to get you to realize how easy you make it for me, such as Rasputin's little lecture to Gabriel after this confrontation. Also you seem to be forgetting Isa and Kira (who no one even thought about! poor little banshee~) She isn't going to be happy you know.

Edit To Magi: ED IS NOT DOM DAMN IT! STOP THAT! God >_< Dom is the guy with glasses that is after Kimiko and Erika. He is a manipulative bastard who will do whatever he wants. Thats why I love him so much~

Ed is the guy that Dom locked in his trunk to get the job at sega~

This post has been edited by Grimblaze on Sep 30 2009, 10:55 PM

Yeah... sorry. I get their names mixed up a lot for some reason... Apologies. I feel bad now that my awesome post is marred by that ridiculous mistake... >.<

Maldrul thinks nothing of Smith's transfiguration because he can morph into a tree! He has seen other Agents change their looks to fit a mission. Maldrul simply thinks that is one of Smith's abilities. and I have stated clearly what Maldrul had been trained to do by The Agency.

1) Disable the enemy with an area of effect spell or device

2) Mind weapons

3) Heal the injured

In classic RP terms, he's the group cleric.

This post has been edited by maldrul on Oct 1 2009, 06:44 AM

ok... you may yell

THE POWER of <insert religious entity here> compels you

No one else..

also for you Magi-- Clancy verse/Battlemech cross over

it is also written as a collab, people write up sections post in one section get critiqued and then when done post in the story section.

But the current idea is to make it so ...

in between major events:

Everyone writes their character and reactions

Major events:

One giant Collab post (i like to call it writing by committee)

unless im missing something..

Well i have several 'projects' in mind, most are small (IE solar powered UAV to recon meeting sites) but one or two are large, including a APC i can carry in a chinook and a persocom/assistant/body guard/ means to even out high schooler to middle schooler ratio

some may not be made

Hey, DB, what about a K-9? but with better ATV mobility.

.. k-9?

like this?

EDIT: BTW i was planning on David making either a knightmare frame or a Mech (likely a mad cat)

This post has been edited by DB_Explorer on Oct 1 2009, 09:02 AM

Yes like K-9 from Dr. Who, but more mobile like AMEE from the movie "Red Planet".

... well my general design philosophy was going to be... There is no 'overkill.' There is only 'open fire' and 'time to reload

due to the regenerative abilities of the enemy..

So either light and fast to do hit and run/recon like the spiders or my UAV's

or 8 ton, 8 legged walker that looks like a think tank armed with three railguns or Gatling guns and a 155 mm howitzer or missile system like the MLRS.. working IN TEAMS

The above walkers have their own theme song

This post has been edited by DB_Explorer on Oct 1 2009, 09:23 AM

Maldrul's theme music.