[quote=@WilsonTurner]
Well, because this is roleplay and not a game, as so many people say, perhaps the GM/coGM can PM the people that would be most involved, and talk to them about the disaster or somesuch, so that it happens in a very story-line fashion, rather than a more game-breaking fashion that might happen- more like an electrical circuit blowing an entire energy network out, between the solar panels and the batteries, a mere day before a solar eclipse in a colonization game, rather than an Ion Storm in Tiberium Sun right when you started.
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Aye. RPs aren't games, they are closer to books and stories. The fun comes from the co-operation and creativity rather than achieving a certain goal. When people run out of ideas, or no-one works with them, that's when they drop out. In a game, you can keep going by yourself, but in an RP you can't - a one-man RP is a story.