Hello all,

Unfortunately, I've let you all down. I will be unable to continue GM'ing this RP for the future. As it has garnered some legitimate success, I am willing to pass it (and all my information on running it; game mechanics, etc) on to any one else who may be interested in GM'ing it.

I hope I haven't upset you, but I understand you are all wishing to play and I am simply holding up the process.

Issok mate, this is a GM heavy RP with you probably doing more work than us the players, ain't no one yellin' at you, nor should they be.

Yeah, it's understandable :)

@Theodorable
It's fine mate. Jumping in late into this probably didn't help. Hope to see another one of your rp's in the future.

Hello all,

Unfortunately, I've let you all down. I will be unable to continue GM'ing this RP for the future. As it has garnered some legitimate success, I am willing to pass it (and all my information on running it; game mechanics, etc) on to any one else who may be interested in GM'ing it.

I hope I haven't upset you, but I understand you are all wishing to play and I am simply holding up the process.

Darn. Sorry to hear that but I understand your situation.

I would like to say I would be interested in taking on the mantle and I really am, but I don't think I can juggle 17 players in order to keep this game going. I am still interested in your mechanics and concept of a sci-fi NRP like this, but I'm not sure if I can run a RP of this scale by myself without running into the same issues.

Thoughts on a compromise anyone?

Hello all,

Unfortunately, I've let you all down. I will be unable to continue GM'ing this RP for the future. As it has garnered some legitimate success, I am willing to pass it (and all my information on running it; game mechanics, etc) on to any one else who may be interested in GM'ing it.

I hope I haven't upset you, but I understand you are all wishing to play and I am simply holding up the process.

I totally understand. I'd like to know if it's us who've made this harder on you, or if something happened in real life, but either way... Seriously, it's no sweat. You do what you gotta do. Take care of yourself first and then start running games for folks.

I would like to say I would be interested in taking on the mantle and I really am, but I don't think I can juggle 17 players in order to keep this game going. I am still interested in your mechanics and concept of a sci-fi NRP like this, but I'm not sure if I can run a RP of this scale by myself without running into the same issues.

Thoughts on a compromise anyone?

I've got... a few ideas. The one I favor most is a simple one I refer to as the tried and true method of "delegation of power."

Okay, so there's the obvious solution of having co-GMs. But when you start getting a big, big group, you kind of need to be able to give the different GMs different responsibilities. In the context of this thread, imagine how much easier it'd be if:

• GM 1 was in charge of managing everyone's ledgers (and thus editing the OOC page),
• GM 2 handled rules-related decisions and updated the system as the thread went on,
• And GM 3 dealt with player relations (two players are arguing), dice rolling for events, the results of battles, and things like that.

Alternatively, the GMs could share the same responsibilities but split up the players they're in charge of. So, you'd have a main GM whose job it was to update the OOC page / ledger, but each GM/co-GM would have a pool of players (let's say 6) whose ledgers they handled. Disputes between two players would be handled by one GM (whichever GM had the most available time to handle things).

The problem is that each GM needs to know for a fact they have time to handle their respective roles, so there's risk involved there. Also, each GM needs to be comfortable / happy with the rules and such.

A great resource to a group of GMs like this would be a Google Document or similar shareable online file that could be edited at any time by any of the GMs. This would make a great rules document, or potentially a greater ledger; after all, it's way easier for three people to notice errors in a file than one person.

Another thing that could help is a set time - real time - at which to progress the turns. I.E., instead of progressing the turn when everyone is ready, the GMs could agree that they're comfortable with updating the turn twice a week or once a week. This takes pressure off of them when lots of people finish their turns quickly, and it incentivizes players to finish their turns before the end of the update period; if they don't, their turn is skipped. Simple as that.

I'm just spitballing ideas, but these are the sort of things I think would make it much easier to update a thread.

As an FYI... I really didn't want to GM a game until the summer, but I'm thinking about it and I might not mind being a co-GM of a game. The trouble is, as I've stated in every thread I've joined since becoming a member of this website, I can only promise to update big things once a week. Posting in OOC threads and answering PMs is no problem for me. Making a serious IC post for a thread more than once a week can become problematic once exams start marching into my life.

EDIT: Also, I actually love editing things. If you folks want someone who can edit an OOC post and keep it updated and answer PMs consistently, I ought to be good for that. I just don't know if I want to design any rules or dictate random events or make a lot of IC posts.

I'd... also have to give up being an actual player if I did this, and I think starting a new thread would be best. And if I were a GM of any capacity, I'd love to see some actually weird races because that's what I've always felt Sci-Fi should be used for. But that's just an opinion, and it's definitely not a deal breaker for me.

And let me repeat: CO-GMing, not solo-GMing, is on the table if I participate in any sort of GMing effort. I won't do it alone, at least not until summer.

Any of you that wish to take on the mantle(s) of GM, let me know and I'll get you sorted out!

Any of you that wish to take on the mantle(s) of GM, let me know and I'll get you sorted out!

I'm going to give a tentative "sure, send me stuff," but I'm not dedicating to this until I know who all wants to GM / co-GM and what sort of system we want to use (not rules system, but a system of how power will be delegated). Managing large groups of players is a rough task, and I definitely won't do it alone at this time in my life.

@Theodorable
If you have the rules and map all worked out and only a manager is required, I'd be willing to GM/co-GM as long I can still be the Fioliuns.

If one of you guys decide to GM, I will help out as Co-GM. I want to really keep this RP alive, and it was my idea for Theo to pass on the responsibility to someone else. So if worrying about not having anyone help you is the issue, you can always ask me. Also I recommend if you do take on the responsibility of GM that you have Co-Gms be responsible for your civilizations rolls, events, etc.

So, let's see...

@Skylar @Boop_Im_A_Dragon @Mardox it sounds like each of us are cool with the idea of being a Co-GM. We'll probably have to make a new thread with one of us as a chief GM at some point, but we also need to discuss who's gonna be the one to make the thread, who's going to manage what, and whether or not we're going to automatically accept everyone that was already accepted - stuff like that.

If you folks have time, I'd love to do a Chatzy discussion this Saturday or Sunday some time. Discussing things in real time = potentially our best option. If that's doable for you guys, just name the times you'd be available. I have homework, but I can schedule my homework around your guys' times.

If that's not good for you folks, we can start discussing this via a private conversation on these boards (since multiple people can be in a conversation).

Either way, once we've come to some decisions and have decided who all will be GMing, we can go ahead and make a new thread.

As far as what I'm willing to do, I'm very much alright with being a dedicated GM / dedicated co-GM that does not have any empire so long as I'm not the only GM. There are some notes I should make there, but I can discuss that either in a live chat or in a PM conversation.

I'm thinking we should start a PM for better recording of what's been said and organization.

I'll start one now then.

We are sticking to theo's ruleset right? The last time a RP lost its GM things fell out of thematic focus fast and I am a bit worried similar may happen here.

We are sticking to theo's ruleset right? The last time a RP lost its GM things fell out of thematic focus fast and I am a bit worried similar may happen here.

We're discussing things, but I think we all like Theo's ruleset, yeah. We're going to read it over and get an in-depth look at it before we decide what to do. We haven't gotten a good look yet (or at least I haven't).

There's a lot to discuss is the long story made short. We will, however, be using his system for sure. It's just a question of whether we're going to modify anything or not.

How goes the discussion? :)

How goes the discussion? :)

Decently. We have quite a bit to work out since Theo has yet to give us the system despite asking for new GMs.

@Shorticus

So we have a general idea for a system as of now?

@Shorticus

So we have a general idea for a system as of now?

A rough idea. I'm going to make a rough draft this Friday or Saturday and present it to the other co-GMs.

Essentially, we're going to be using a mixture of Theo's system and our interpretation of it. We don't have all the information we need to copy Theo's system completely, though I may see if there was just a communication error going on there. I won't go into more detail on what's happened exactly, but suffice it to say that we're looking at having to build a lot of our own stuff for this.

We're also toying with the idea of using a new point-based trait system rather than the old one. I'm going to give you an example of what I mean, but please know the point values involved are NOT set in stone. Someone's sheet may have a trait section that looks like this:

Traits

Fighters - Whether due to planetary conditions (high gravity) or an arduous lifestyle, your species breeds fighters who are highly capable in boarding battles and land battles. +1
Tough - Your species has a habit of not dying. You take less casualties as a result of combat. +2
Mineral Rich Homeworld - Your species lives on a planet that has surprisingly mineral wealth. Your homeworld has increased Labor and produces space-faring vessels much cheaper (Homeworld has 75% production costs for ships and +6 labor). +3
Underground - Your species is used to living underground and has techniques to create huge subterranean cities. This increases their max population on non-Aquatic, non-Gas Giant planets (150% max population) and gives your species a defensive advantage when being invaded. +3
Unique Biology - Your species is formed from somewhat different base elements than other species and breathes a different kind of air. Your species can live on Radioactive planets without penalty, but Terran and Tropical planets are toxic to them and cannot be settled without appropriate research. Your starting planet is considered Radioactive. -2

Note: these traits are just examples. We haven't looked at the possibilities of a trait system like this at length yet, nor have we discussed balancing. I hope to start doing that within the week.

Also note that the total number of points is +7. I'm basing this trait system off of one I saw in another roleplay where you had 7 points to spend to get traits you wanted. However, you're able to take negative traits (designated in red) to gain points for spending.

It's likely that certain traits will bar the purchase of others. Using a trait system like this also means we can consider having traits be something you can gain through the course of the roleplay... or potentially through gene-modifying research.

I should emphasize: We DO want to use as much of Theo's system as we can. Right now, though, all the information about his system isn't on the table / available to us, so we're going to work with what we know for now.

@Shorticus

It is looking good so far! Keep up the good work!