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Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM): In the Shadows of the City - Character/Game Status


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Ok so I know for a fact that Shin will no longer be joining us.

Current active Roster

Skye

Kenobi

Kaori

Kenichi

Keiko

Jim

Players who have gone inactive

Kazuo

Jo

Kage

For those of you still active, would you prefer further plot movement, or a chance to tell your own stories again?

Those of you who have been Largely Inactive as of late, Do you wish to continue playing?

Is there something I can do to help facilitate this?

Let me know and use this thread

This thread is for you to tell me things you'd like to see or do. I'd like responses from everyone Ideally one way or the other so I can adjust the game accordingly.

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Originally Posted By: Justin OOC
For those of you still active, would you prefer further plot movement, or a chance to tell your own stories again?

I find that the best mixture is personal stories and ST-directed plot. There are things that work better in solo or small-person stories, and some things that work only in the larger-plot.

For suggestions for Skye, I think that her current path is plenty right now. I'd like to see her attempting to find a balance between grief/revenge and being happy again.
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Kaori's been active.

She's pretty complex so working on her story would be kinda cool. She's not as fun to play now that she's been dumbed down so people don't whine because she's antagonizing them but what the hell, it seems as long as I use small sentences and shamble her around like an automaton no one gets too irritated. And that's what's important, right? That everyone else is happy and my character is played the way they would like to see her played.

I would like to know exactly what the hell is going on. I mean these students stay out all night, fight demons, go to school the next day, go home, fight more demons...

When do they sleep? Why doesn't the public notice storms of ice and building being sheered in two? All of the students at Kaori's Dojo were slain, brutally. Where were the police? The mothers, fathers, family of those slain? Are the bodies still there? Do they stink by now?

Does no one see or react to what's going on in this story, or is my mind to rooted in the 'real' and not in anime?

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Kaori, I didn't want you to dumb her down, I just wanted her to not react with Lethal force everytime someone insulted her or insinuated something.

Kaori has been one of my favoirite characters to be honest.

As to how the students stay out, the streets are largely deserted. There is a curfe in effect, and due to a dramatic decrease in the number of law enforcement agents they only respond to major incidents around Central Tokyo where most are left.

The Ice melts by morning and the general public does notice that their are blasted and burned streets, that a whole building was slaughtered. Most are just happy it wasn't them. You have to remember the other nations of the world have blockaded Japan completely. There is no getting out of Japan till everything is done. During the Day the police roam openly, bodies are gathered and buned. The self Defense force is nonexistent, between the intial battles with demons and trying to force the blockades..

This explains why alot of cars are left on the road. there's no gas. The US is supplying the bare essentials for daily life, but under very strict guard.

As to why everyone simply goes on as if nothing is wrong, there's the overarching feeling of "at least It wasn't me" and "What Else can you do?" panic and riots solved nothing, and at least there are no attacks in daylight.

Vivi, there's defintely a place for Jo and you in the game. I'm putting this thread here to give you all a chance to tell me things you'd like to see in the game. If you want something to happen and are willing to post regularly, I'll make sure it does.

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Alright...I'm feeling uncharacteristically forward today, so I'll try to lay out everything I'm thinking/feeling as tactfully as possible.

As of right now, I'm not too into Shadows. I could keep going; there's nothing about it that's actually pushing me away...but I am not feeling motivated to post to it. Here's why:

1) We never got to know this world. The setting was never developed. When we started, BOOM, demons came. Right away. We never got to RP what was normal, or develop normal relationships (or the lack therof). We, the players, have no emotional connection to anything really. As a result:

2) Nothing seems to make much sense. We have no background on any of this. Things seem to happen at random. Explanations come after the fact, when they come at all, and often OOC...which makes the game:

3) Hard to roleplay realistic reactions to. In most situations we have to choose between the realistic response (break down into useless panic) and the 'game-necessary' response (fight using weird super powers we didn't have a week ago). This creates dissonance both in ourselves, which reduces the fun factor a lot, and between party members who choose different paths to react to. To this friction add:

4) Irritating GMPC's. I know the cantankerous old master is a treasured staple of Asian fiction in general, and anime in particular, but it only works if he's loveable too. He has to make you laugh as he pisses you off. And despite his great knowledge, there should be vulnerability to him, so as to explain why he doesn't just go trounce the baddies himself. And most importantly of all, he needs to show a softer, human side too...and of course the best way to do that is to give us time to know him before the demons came...which brings us back to 1.

Shadows has a lot of the same problems that Nexus Earth had early in its genesis, in fact. Nexus Earth survived those issues, and is progressing to be a fun and fine game. I credit this to the mid-game slowdown, where you took some time to bring the characters, and hence players, into closer contact with the game world and gave them time to get to know people and get a feel for things.

Maybe something like that would work for Shadows. I dunno.

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I fully approve of and endorse the preceding post.

The biggest game-related problem I have with Shadows is a lack of connection. We didn't have a chance for the characters to forge any meaningful ties- either with each other, with the new students, or anyone else. For the most part, the brief moments of potential RP seem to serve as a way to jump us into more combat.

Action is fine and good, and I enjoy it. As Max said, though, we, as players, need to feel an attachment to our characters, and to those of other players. That's definitely been lacking so far, and I'd be a lot more inclined to post if the game was a bit more involved in a setting/character development way.

If there's something in particular you need from us to do that, cool- just let us know, and I think most are willing to help out in that regard, because it really would enhance the game as a whole.

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Originally Posted By: Justin OOC
Kaori, I didn't want you to dumb her down, I just wanted her to not react with Lethal force everytime someone insulted her or insinuated something.

She didn't, not once, use lethal force on anyone. Nor would she. She did twist Kens arm really hard, and I tried to make that sound as painful as possible, but she would not have snapped it, or seriously injured Ken. Adrian was kind enough to give me some leeway with messing up Ken a bit, I would betray that respect by seriously injuring his PC or killing him, especially not without his permission.

But everyone has this big thing about antagonistic characters where it's okay for them to act antagonistic, but not me. It's irritating and I find it best to just take drone along so I don't offend someone and be run out of yet another game.

Quote:
Kaori has been one of my favoirite characters to be honest.

Well, thank you. Your praise is appreciated. It's nice to know I've created a PC that people enjoy reading about.

Quote:
As to how the students stay out, the streets are largely deserted. There is a curfe in effect, and due to a dramatic decrease in the number of law enforcement agents they only respond to major incidents around Central Tokyo where most are left.

But how do they do it? Man, I'd be tired as hell going to a Japanese School on only a couple hours sleep.

Quote:
The Ice melts by morning and the general public does notice that their are blasted and burned streets, that a whole building was slaughtered.


What ice?

Good post Max, yeah... maybe we just need to slow it down a bit and get more in touch with the world. I like the game, I just think it was a little much a little fast and we just overwhelmed ourselves.

Personally Justin, I think you're doing a great job, so don't any of the above as a shot in the gut. Keep up the good work, I'm enjoying the game.
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What i'm goning to try and do between now and Wednesday is come up with alot mor einformation on the Shadows world.

I will end the current sessions, and give you all a chance to do your own thing once the new information is posted.

As always, Fictions are welcome, and they can be about just about anything. IF you wish to fight things in them, go for it, but you won't be fighting a Demon Lord.

I'd very much like to see intearction between the PC's, and I admit I'm somewhat limited in how I can do that as i'd prefer not to force anyone to interact with anyone else.

I admit the beginning of this game was not well thought out on my part. My Bad.

I want this game to keep going.

As for the Old Man, I will post some of the reasons he is the way he is, and make him available to anyone who would like to use him in fictions.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I am still planning on continuing this game as long as the players wish to continue playing. I am retooling it to take a reduced number of PC's into account, and will throw this out there as well.

If there is anyone out there who'd like to give this game a shot, then please send me a PM and let me know.

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