OOC The Breakroom: Unit Six-Sixteen OOC Thread

Need a cup of caf? Need a glass of water? Need to ask your fellow player what they were thinking when they wrote that last post? You are in the right place.​

Welcome to the Breakroom, a place for OOC/OOG discussions by the players in Unit Six-Sixteen. Ask your questions here, respond to other players, figure out your next moves, etc. Any Unit 6/16 game related out-of-character/game discussion is fine, but remember, no meta-gaming (using OOC/OGG information for an in-character advantage).

Links

• Unit 6/16 Game Thread
• Unit 6/16 Resource Thread

Enjoy!

 

As a reminder, we start the game this Wednesday!
​

@DarkLordoftheFins @HanSolo29 @BLemelisk @KraytDragon90 @supermatt6 @galactic-vagabond422 @Master Vo'Un'Var

 

All: To get things really going, would you like to keep going with the back-and-forth meeting throughout the briefing, or would you like me to speed through the briefing in one or two more post, so we can get everyone paired up and prepping for the missions?

 

Should we post our CSes here, to get to know each other?

 

Character sheets go over in the Resource Thread

 

Working on a combined post with @galactic-vagabond422, and then ready to kick some doors

 

A shame this game kind of died.

 

*pokes head in*

Hey, uh, I know I vanished without a trace there, but I still exist. It has been an absolutely crazy couple years.

I was very disappointed that the game foundered myself. I felt it had a lot of potential and a lot of effort was put into it by all involved, so I am still quite sad that it died. I know some players felt too railroaded by me and dropped out for that reason and that one is completely on me.

I know this was literally two years ago, but I would like some feedback from those who played on what went wrong and how I could have done better. I'm here because I am helping someone develop a social RP game in Discord and was pulling notes from some old RPGs I played and checked back over the old threads. I'm considering adapting this story for a TTRPG, as a lot of the mystery building and puzzle solving I'm sure will work as well in that medium.

I hope everyone is well!

 

I personally thought it was fun, lots for my character to get into. Though yes, the single track it felt like was better suited to a TTRPG not a freeform RPG like this one. How to fix it I'm not entirely sure...

I would be interested to see what you're planning with the TTRPG, have a system you're using for it?

 

I do not yet. Last couple years I've played both Fate and Pathfinder campaigns, and I have a history of playing World of Darkness (V:tM). Suggestions?

I really like the larger story narrative that online forums bring to a game, but I was trying to run it much closer to a mystery/puzzle TTRPG with "quest" for each player and scenario-based party missions; and clearly missed the mark for the forum here which is more amenable to the larger open world/sandbox games.

 

If you want to keep it in Star Wars I can recommend looking at Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars RPGs. They play a little like Fate in that they are skill based and more narrative than straight yay you pass or oh no, you fail. There's some real interesting things that can be done in the system.

Scenario based party missions can work if you've got a good tight group to do it. Look at Havoc Squad and Black Sheep for how to do that on this kind of board. I think just the execution was off.

 

I think that's key and what makes the other games work well is having that tight knit group of players and expectations from the start. If I thought I had time and wouldn't vanish again (happens from time to time) I would loved to tried to revitalize this one, but I don't see that happening.

Checking out FFG's system and it looks pretty straight forward and as you said, very much like Fate. Less of the "thee who stacks the most numbers wins" of Pathfinder which forces you to hone your character for combat prowess, vice more open ended creation and imagination.

 

You sure you want feedback in a pubic forum? Would this not probably be better suited for PMs?

 

I mean, what ever you would like. I mean, to me, as long as it's constructive, then it's valuable to have out in the open. I know you were one of the ones who felt very railroaded by the way I ran the game and that's perfectly fair. As stated above I was trying to run it closer to a tabletop where the party is moved from quest to quest and clearly that missed the mark.

So, if you have feedback, post it. It only makes us all better in the long run.

 

Okay, so it has been a while. But in short I remember that this meeting at the beginning was not working (never start a game with a meeting, as it locks players for weeks in a situation where they mostly got the job to listen and not do anything). I felt character conflicts were cut short (I was trying to wrench some sort of drama out of the scene and it was quickly ended) and I began to feel a little of the „NPC-protagonist-syndrome“. The officer running the show seemed to be the main character with us all as supporting cast. That is what I remember. Generally you should probably have kicked this off in media res on a mission. Would have been a so much more interesting start.

Great game with great potential though. I would have loved to see it take off! Fantastic OP!

 

In my head the meeting was to allow everyone to introduce their character without a lot of exposition required, and then everyone was going to go out on their assignments and missions. I didn't realize it would drag down the narrative as much as it did. All of those missions which were going to open up into a more freeform experience with me dropping notes into your DMs, but the rest up to you. I didn't realize it would drag down the narrative as much as it did, though.

Big plot: what all three separate parties would find would lead you to the next objective, so bringing most everyone back together so no one is alone by themselves too long. Tat was my intention, at least.

@DarkLordoftheFins If you were running the game, the opening sequence, where would have you started?

 

I do not remember all the specifics of the set-up, but there was some attack and it lead to some sort of extraction of a person-of-interest from our side. So we played basically between two interesting plotpoints. I would have started in media res in real Star Wars fashion. Either 1. We are present at the attack (or multiple attacks) and get a first hand idea of what is going on. Scenes like arriving in orbit and being told to NOT LET THE FRIGATE LEAVE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES! Or the doctors getting wounded shouting strange stuff about GREY MEN, GREY MEN (which turn out to be their armor), Anyway, right into the terror we are fighting. Or 2. The Extraction. The meeting did not give us anything except we planned an retty standard extraction, so why not start with the soldiers nad spies diving in, as the others in orbit see something going wrong and then we gotta fight for our lives.
Well 3. I personally would have designed the whole thing probably differently, but that is because I am usually a very decentralized GM. I would have everyone start in the midst of the action, all following trails and have the UNIT form at the Jedi f act one, when everyone has something to bring to the table. By then we might even need some downtime and be ready for a month of meeting (but I would cut this short, short short) and we would have actual info from the game to bring to the table.
There is also a satisfaction when people meet finally. I felt it recently in a game, when we got five players together on board of a ship escaping a Warzen, that felt surprisingly rewarding.

Anyway, my take on how to start. Not the end of all wisdom, but I think as a player I would have enjoyed this more.