OOC Layola's Diner (The Reckoning OOC)

https://www.google.de/amp/s/amp.cnn...navirus-outbreak-hnk-intl-01-25-20/index.html

Okay, the Hong Kong part of the game suddenly is so damned topical I am scared! Life imitating art! How scary is that?

 

Yeah, thought the same. When I came up with that idea it was sci-fi.

 

Watching the finale with great interest!

 

24 hours update warning

 

It's a wrap!

Thank you everybody for playing and especially @HanSolo29 for the creation of the game and @LordTroepfchen, @RachelTyrell, @galactic-vagabond422, @SirakRomar @Mitth_Fisto and @TheSithGirly for staying around until the very end (of either the game or your character).

So also with respect to the Corona virus I decided to close down the game a little earlier and not have an epilogue going into how to fight a deadly global virus ... I wanna say it was great fun having all of you! Comments, critic, comparison to The Crossing, party or banter ... the floor is now yours.

 

Congrats to the GMs and players that have brought us to this point. There is a slight smile to my face thinking of a Last of Us style story that could revolve around Jane and Kawin but that can be left untold...now is not the time for it.

 

Certainly the most topical zeitgeist game these boards had! It was a great pleasure to play!

So will this become a trilogy? I am not even sure if we got loose ends Will the Crossing ever happen?

Anyway I loved this game and Anna will always hold a very special place in my heart! Great job to the GMs.

 

You really did it! I must confess I did not believe we would make it, but you actually did it @DarkLordoftheFins

Lovely ending and nice to see time manipulation for once working against the villain.

Great game! A very surprising sequel to The Crossing. Same universe, but distinctively different feel!

 

I would love to see them again. June/Kawin and Sebastian/Maria were incredible couples.

 

Okay ... Quit pro quo, my dear players. Quit pr quo!

You wanna hear about a potential future of Crossingverse? What are the thoughts, ideas, plans played around with?

I tell you, but first you gotta answer me something.

Seriously I am a movie buff, even unsuccessfully tried to make a career in the field about two decades ago. These boards feel to me often like I am living out my Hollywood dreams in written form. This game was special though. I never did a sequel to a game where I did not do the original. Neither me nor @HanSolo29 were GMS in The Crossing. When @HanSolo29 decided to do this, I can tell you that we discussed at length what made The Crossing actually The Crossing and what we would copy or do differently.

So here is my question. No praise, no fishing for compliments. I am seriously interested in honest impressions!

How was The Reckoning as a sequel to The Crossing?

Did it feel like a sequel? Did it work? What worked and what did not? What surprised you? What disappointed you? Especially those guys who were in both games (but everyone else who is familiar with The Crossing of course too), you spend months with LordTroepfchen‘s game and then months with us. Please let me know what you think.

 

Oh well, here we go. Wit pleasure I let you know what I think ... be warned, this is gonna be a long one ...


My sequel categories

1. Sequels that outshine originals by becoming superior extensions of them (Empire and Godfather Part 2)
2. Sequels that are masterpieces by themselves yet totally different (Aliens, Captain America 2, From Russia with Love, The Dark Knight)
3. Sequels that are great but ultimately not quite as good as the original (Iron Man 3, Blade Runner 2049, The Dark Knight Rises)
4. Sequels that are quite okay, but got nothing new to tell (Iron Man 2 or Avengers 2, Batman 2)
5. Sequels that are okay, but inferior to the original (Bad Boys 2, Godfather 3)
6. Sequels that were better not made as they are annoying and lack the quality of the original (Rise of Skywalker, Jaws 2)
7. Sequels that are simply disappointing by themselves and as sequels (so many ... Dumb and Dumber To, Rocky V, Batman VS. Superman)
8. Sequels that are terrible. (Exorcist 2, Blair Witch 2, Cloverfield Paradox).
9. Complete crap (Superman IV!, Batman & Robin)
10. How did that get made? (The Fly 2, American Psycho 2)

In this category I'd say The Reckoning was a Number 3. It had amazing moments, great ideas, high stakes, a deeper mythology (that felt like another author written it nevertheless), great action and an amazing cast. Felt like a new chapter! So totally worked as a sequel.

You totally avoided the trap of doing more of the same. Alpha and the new breed of Gifted were amazing bad guys. Anna Talbott showed us the journey to Godhead from a very different perspective than the brooding dark existentialist LEGO. All characters from the original got their moment to shine. New additions too. Steven, Gates, President, Angel and Ambrose and Malcolm were all very good. Hong Kong was amazing! A very dark masterpiece by itself! The best RPing I have seen in years!

The mood was very different. It was not as hopeless as the Crossing, but it was a fight this time. Not against fate, but against a brilliant opponent who was always a step ahead because he outsmarted us and not because he knew the future.

Alpha was a smart move. Less powerful than Ayshe or The Source, yet so much more dangerous in his irredeemable, psychopathic fanatism.

I especially loved the interaction when characters from the Crossing met again. Sebastian and Maria were heartbreaking and in a dark way sweet.

Some returning NPCs felt a little more flat than before. Cale and Taylor were seemingly reduced to obvious evil doers. Especially Cale was probably not living up to his potential. Loved him in the original.

So yes! You made a sequel here and a very very interesting one that was unpredictable and plotted well. The Crossing was a masterpiece in it's cinematic style and twisty plot though. There was probably never a real chance you could outdo that. But there was enough cinematic style and clever plotting to feel we were in the same world.

For a sequel it is not necessary though to be better than the original. It always is a bow to the original! I feel you two did a great job!

 

So I did not play The Crossing, but especially for that reason I can say Infelt like I was in a sequel quite often. I never felt in any way left out or not GMed well, quite the contrary ... but also I skipped over the Crossing, truth was sometimes I read scenes and was like "WHOA that was cool, wish I had known what it was all about!"

Especially the Alpha reveal ... some players seemed to instantly regcognize him and found joy in that fact. I had overread or forgotten his short appearance in The Crossing and therefore was completely in the dark (until SirakRomar's excellent flashbacks).

 

First things first ...



Congrats to both GMs, but especially to Fins who again has shown to be the GM who sees his games through to the end.

And if you wanna talk about sequels, sure ... I am game.

So I lurked the game passionately and I'd say this is an interesting question. Actually it is a couple of questions ...

Did it feel like a sequel?

Totally, but that was probably less the GMing, but more the characters. Same players returning as the same characters was key here. The Opening did not make me feel at home right away ... but Kawin at Anna's house now walking with a stick? Jane as a mercenary in the desert? LordT being Matthew Andrews right opposite of me jumping back into Maria Liang? Oh I felt quite at home and it was quite powerful to see where everybody ended up a few years later. Brilliantly set up scenes by @HanSolo29.

Once LEGO returned to the plot, also unseen for a long time, it truly felt like a sequel. Alpha being the villain and those brilliant flashbacks to Ayshe and him, ... I think that interlinked the games on a very deep level.

Created Gifted. The Virus as a new threat to the world. TARC. All that felt like natural extensions that were new yet fitting to the world.


What did not feel like a sequel?

The Crossing had this Bourne Identity feeling, while you went more into a Watchmen or Batman feeling. Action was more epic and grande ... yet less tense and you lacked the feeling of remorselessness. Once Fin took over a third style appeared, which was closer to LordT's, but lacked this sense of realism. It was more ecstatic and descriptive. Also I could tell he tried hard to imitate this "outburst of violence" style LordT had.


The NPCs were hit and miss. I loved the new ones. The President and Gates his Chief of Staff. Everyone in Hong Kong. Chad was great! Farmer was a despicable minor villain! Wonderfully balanced guys. Prof. Cale I must say was a standout in the original and quite different here. I did not like him. Angel was having too little screentime. Just when I understood who she is and where she came from, she was gone again. Taylor seemed his old self, but in both games we saw little of him.

Last but not least, the style. LordTroepfchen was incredibly cinematic in pacing and scenes, which you were in the best moments, too. But not always, sorry. Often the game lost speed to catch breath. The Crossing remains the benchmark for me there.


What worked that did not feel like a sequel?

The Crossing was an amazing clever origin story. The Source, Ayshe, BETA, they all worked so well to naturally establish the limits and possibilities of the world!

This game was about a war between Gifted. An army of Artificial Gifted against a number of everyday people with powers who got drafted into service by the Government! Totally worked for me especially in shape of @RachelTyrell's Anna! Super powered against super powered with highly trained professionals this time on the side of good.

The Government was mostly the good guys this time around! That worked surprisingly well.

Alpha was a very unique opponent and totally fitting. His short intro in the Crossing helped a lot to feel the continuity.

The plot about the Virus gave a great sense of pending doom. A shame reality quite literally catched up on it.

What was better than The Crossing?

Actually I feel the White House worked better than in The Crossing! More 'West Wing' than the Crossing '24' take on it.

Many of our players could dig a lot deeper into our characters. Jane, Kawin and my own Maria Liang all worked perfectly fine. That was probably the advantage of slower pacing.

The powers worked very well. I felt Kawin VS. Farmer was heartbreaking! Anna discovering hers was funny. The battles of powers vs. powers was like games of Chess. Battle of L.A. was a stand out. Alpha and his power was amazing.

I felt my storyline was better in this game! Maria Liang turned from a villain with a conscience into a full blown anti-hero. Hong Kong was amazing and probably the scenes where your game gave the Crossing really a run for it's money!

Summary: The game was very much a sequel, yet by different authors. While the Crossing felt dark and blue and fast, your game was bigger, more epic, desert yellow!

A great game by itself, yet not entirely an undisinguishable extension of The Crossing. Pretty much a sequel that was it's own beast. An Aliens to Alien.

 

I certainly agree on Hong Kong. A standout storyline. So Fin, you own them an answer

 

Yes, you do Fin

 

Yes, I do.

Well, to quote my favorite song by my favorite British band ... the word is on the street that the fire in our heart is out.

Seriously, I think most of you have already heard about me having a hard installment ready to go called „The Divide“. It is not a sequel per se as it actually describes the same time period as The Crossing did, just after Anna‘s intervention things take a completely different spin. But: I got my doubts we need that game to get closure and I got my doubt we all got the fire in us to jump straight into another sequel.

So I will not do it right away, but have a little wait until the hunger arises again. If it never happens I believe we had quite a conclusion with both possible best endings: 1. The Gifted prevail at high cost and are finally victorious also at a price. 2. The Gifted ultimately use their power to keep all the events from happening that lead to the two crisis situations of both games. They are also robbed of their future histories as time-bending heroes of course.

I can live with that . . .

But what do I want?

Honestly . . .

I would love to hand the torch to someone with fresh ideas, a fresh start and fresh voice. I would like to conclude the Crossing anthology by having a third (counting HanSolo29 and me as a team and second) auteur in the mix to bring this trilogy to a close.

Recently I know LordTroepfchen and a certain interested party have had some brainstorming sessions. If anyone wants to step up to do part 3 and gets LordTs approval, I would love to step back again and join any third game as a player.

My thoughts on things . . .

 

Well, let me use this chance to raise my hand and say that I would join any kind of game in that universe, if a next chapter was coming up. It is a long story, but The Crossing kinda made me come to these boards. So I always regret having missed both games.

That being said, congrats to getting this wrapped!

 

A question to everybody: @Mitth_Fisto, @galactic-vagabond422, @DarkLordoftheFins, @HanSolo29 @LordTroepfchen, @RachelTyrell ... would you guys be technically willing to reprise your roles in another game I would GM? If you like the premise of course. LordT and me have been throwing around ideas, but it would make little sense if you guys were not on board.

So please be honest if you would not be interested. There would never be hard feelings. Promised.

 

@SirakRomar I'm always up to bring Jane back for another go around.

 

I would certainly support you in any way you feel appropriate. Including reprising Matthew Andrews or taking up any of my other NPCs as a character.