www.ditl.org

damn someone here beat me to the punch, plotwise!

I think either Seafort or myself must be the highest ranking people who actually give a damn!

Hey, everybody.

I've been out for most of the day, and I just got back and witnessed what had happened to our little RPG over the last few posts. I was very disappointed, and I can't even be sure whether to continue.

I had kind of thought that we were developing a role-playing game, with the interest and enjoyment being derived from role-playing - not from shock value. Acting in character, even when it doesn't make sense to us outside the story (I've done that!); engaging friendships, allies, enemies, and love interests (I've done that, whether I wanted to or not!); and using our CHARACTERS to advance the story - all of that is what I signed on for. Definitely NOT running into Founders when the crux of our story was SUPPOSED to be about finding missing ships, and the cause, in Tholian space.

Some people here have provided me with enjoyment and interest, not by creating monsters, but by playing their roles to the hilt and making me think, "How would Mikey respond?" To those people, I'm sorry if I sound peevish.

I've spoken to a few people about the direction the Daystrom is heading.

In my opinion it has just got ridiculously absurd in the last page. We have someone killing off someone's OC which shouldn't be done with out permission and thus ending a story arc that should have lasted for quite some time. We have a founder showing up from god knows where and causing a bloody massacre. Now a bin of nano bots or something and that's all with in about 10 bloody posts.

So I want to know what everyone thinks. If that's the sort of thing you want to do I'll hand the reigns over to someone else because I really want no part in playing in a Space soap were people discover they are really long lost twins and have amazing shit happen to them every second day.

Everything from Mikeys last post on just spiraled into insanity. Thorin tried to pull it back to something normal but its hard to recover from that.

We were doing well. We had several mini arcs going on. Our main mission was ticking along. We have several mini story arcs. Cardinal and Mikey have there thing going on. Rochey is exerting his strict discipline on the ship. The shuttle project was going nicely.

The phantoms both the ship and person were a nice touch which I did not see coming. But they fit nicely in with the Tholian mafia we are going to come across. We had good character development happening which is what an RP is about.

This is just my opinion. I want to know what you all think but I'll say now. I don't like what's happened and think it makes for a very boring stupid story.

i concur.
Also appoligize if any one took my post as part of the issue, as it was not my intention, but a fast and easy way to integrate my chariture without damaging anything already set up. lol fade to black.

I'm not sure I even know what's going on really. This RPG is going a little wacky. Nanobots and Founders are not what I signed up for. I have never seen an RPG quite like this. I thought this was going to be more about character development with the occasional battle. Was Cardinal replaced by a founder or was he always a founder? Wouldn't that be picked up by transporters or something? I think I have one of the more normal characters here.

Nah Minnsky your fine just unexpected lol.

This is and was a proper RPG up until the last 10 or so posts when it went haywire.

Lets wait and see what other say but if this just seems to be a clow up we'll edit out the last posts until Mikeys last and carry on from there. It was going well until then.

I guess it was kinda my fault too... all of a sudden i had apparently a changeling in my sickbay that i had to deal with ... sorry if it took a wrong turn.

I think the problem stems formthe fact that there was suddenly a changling on the ship at all and a random fire fight in the jeffries tubes for absolutly no reason. From there it just spiralled.

Ah... it's mainly my fault. I'm not really experienced with these kind of things and I guess I got a little carried away. It's fine with me if you want to delete all the posts and start over...I had fun, and it really doesn't matter to me.
So let the good ship USS DITL continue!

I guess that's what you get for having fun...

...from Mikeys last post...

Yeah, I'm sorry I even entertained anything about what had just started. I guess I was just trying to get "cooler heads" involved in-game before it got to, well, where it got to.

To use myself as my own example: I have tried from the outset to truly roleplay. I have tried to act as my character's personality and personal history dictated, and to add cultural touches both from 'Trek and those which I have suspected might be normal to a culture living on the icy moon Andoria. You have all noticed that I use Andorian-specific vocabulary, oaths, and exclamations - all of which either come from 'Trek info or from common-sense anthropology; doing that, and staying true to character - along with respecting my fellows here and portraying their characters as I guessed their "owners" have intended - has been done not merely for my benefit, but to make this a little more enjoyable for all. I guess only the rest of you can say if my attempt has been successful.

After all that - research, note-taking, and all - we end up with wild tangents introduced solely for shock value. Sure, a little twist can be a good thing, but not for its own sake. Our goal should be the advancement of both our story and our characters' development; anything with any other goal simply detracts from the experience.

I expected surprises... I just didn't expect any of them to lessen this game rather than enhance it.

P.S. I was composing my diatribe there while Teaos and few others responded - I don't really want to chuck it if we can salvage it, so going back a bit and restarting there is A-OK by Mikey!

P.S. I was composing my diatribe there while Teaos and few others responded - I don't really want to chuck it if we can salvage it, so going back a bit and restarting there is A-OK by Mikey!

Again; I'll be the first to admit that I really have no experience whatsoever with this kind of thing; so consider this my 'experiment' in the manner of RPG...and if what I've done doesn't really match up with the idea of this project, just chalk it down to my ignorance. So, ta-ta, cheerio, and all that. I'll see you in the discussion forums.

But please do try to kill off a Ensign Peabody at least once...for me.

I'm absolutely NOT saying that anybody involved here is a bad person... just maybe you could have checked in with someone first.

I for one would like to see you stay on if you want to develop a lasting and coherent character - we are, after all, down one security team member...

Responding to Teaos' request, Mikey just couldn't wait to hear how that zabathu of a science officer wanted to berate him now. Entering the science lab, Mikey stood at attention. "You asked to see me, sir?"

"Yes... Mikey," said Teaos, sounding somewhat uncomfortable using the Andorian's nickname. As he handed Mikey a PADD he explained, "These are the coordinates of last contact with a sensor probe we had sent. It seems to still be intact, just no longer transmitting. I would like to have it retrieved. I believe a Danube-class-"

"No problem, sir," replied Mikey. "I have recon Delta-6 due back in 25 minutes. I'll just transmit these coordinates, and have her pick up the probe on her way."

Teaos steeled himself for a sarcastic remark or an "I told you so" from the ops officer. When he found none forthcoming, he simply said, "Thank you, Mikey."

"Not at all, sir. In fact, I'm dying to figure out what the hell is going on around here myself."

That post was the last one in the continuity of the story that flows with the established plot. Peabodys first post was before that but we need to ignore that for continuity.

Since most seem to be in agreement we'll iugnore the posts after this one. It's part way down page 6.

SO... Mikey is about to go fetch my probe which disapeared momentarily in the area of the annomily, I'm working with Thorin on tracking our tailgater. Our new guest Minnsky is going to intersept our shuttle fleet soon. We're about ot work him into the plot. Metalhead is fitting into his security role. We have the shuttle project our intruder and several small character stories which everyone is working on. I recomend that everyone go read the last few posts. The ones we work from are at the top of page 6 until Peabodys post.

Remeber. If you want to have some random fun we have a holodeck where anything can happen.