Divsion Conference Etiquette

[Xavier]

I have started up another conference in Promethean station to get everyone up to speed. As I am going to be away from shift for the next couple of weeks, I personally don’t want to miss out on what is happening.

This thread though is to open up the discussion for conference etiquette. Basically laying down some general rules about the RP in the conference suite.

Things on my mind at the moment are people throwing “curve balls” i.e. inventing something that derails what is going on. Now, I don’t want to stifle good ideas, but there needs to be a certain amount of care and taken when coming up with something so we don’t get carried away.

When Blaze had his “incident” he did inform me of it (though I think it was after the event) and suggested it could be a good plot point. So I played on it and it turned in to a whole saga on the forums! We certainly need stuff like this, but at the same time, not too much. We need to moderate what is happening so that it plays out smoothly and doesn’t a) get written off, or b) cause major unexpected plot issues for the GMs.

From my perspective then ( and from the perspective of the GMs) it would be useful to give suggestions OOC via PMs or in the conference and have had some kind of response before carrying out any dialogue/ directions about what is going on. Note though, there can’t be a sudden flurry of suggestions… it will only serve to annoy people when their brilliant idea that they have playing out in their head doesn’t get adopted (I hope that doesn’t sound too negative! I just want to make it clear… in the past there have been overly enthusiastic people who had a million ideas a week, but we lost because only one or two were adopted and they got fed up.)

So, there are some initial thoughts. Any other ideas on etiquette and genera guidelines for the conferences. Consider what we have done so far. The next conference (that I have opened up) I am hoping will be more interactive and less me talking as there is more going on (i.e. the Manticore launch.. great place to update the CO on the goings on of the Division!)

[John van Leigh]

Agreed.

I think the fleet captain (ranking or acting) should moderate more than anything, having his staff talk, but setting objectives and ordering who talks and when. Characters should give some subtle cue (or just PM the organizer) when they have something to say.

About the Manticore, and as an apology, I kinda informed Fish because I thought it would be worse going off on my own or not passing the information only Aramond’s character and mine should know. That way I basically passed the ball to the GMing team. None of the involved parties actually expected this to be accepted this quickly, but we’re working on our side.

For our planning, we developed our plans in the dark, with just the information made public on the forums. We have a couple of ideas of what the GMs will come up with, but there’s no way to be sure.

[Xavier]

General layout of the conference –
use italics for “actions” e.g. Xavier scans the data pad in front of him on the table (tags <em></em>);
use bold for speech You know our situation at present. (tags <strong></strong>);
use the // symbols for OOC chatter.

In terms of the Manticore, I think using the GM forums to come up with ideas would be the best bet, so those who are running the missions can more closely direct the story line. This is where stories should be developed in the dark (i.e. away from general forums). It helps keep certain people informed of what is happening and allows people to chip when necessary, or when they have an idea too. I don’t mind opening them up for anyone to take a look and jump in (depending on what the GMs think too). I was considering how to restructure the GM department so that it is clearer about how it operates (e.g. a lead GM for a story arc, how other GMs should help out, how information is communicated to officers, how non-GMs can contribute etc), but it is something I need to discuss in more depth with Fish.

And honestly van Leigh, I know you love jumping on a ship at any opportunity! “Someone’s been shot? Quick launch the ship.” or “The toilet is out of order?! Quick, prep the Hunter!” Any excuse! 😉

[Xavier]

Now, the fleet conferences would be a great place for GMs to feed information to the Fleet Captain and other officers. For example, the thing Aramond came up with… it could have been brought to a fleet conference (after he had posted the initial post on the forums), discussed with all the officers, the suggestion made to launch the Manticore, someone assigned to plan out and lead the mission and then go from there.

I guess, if a fleet conference was guaranteed, then this would allow people to plan out ideas collectively beforehand. That in a way is my own fault for not really pushing forward with the idea (life was busy is my excuse), but now I have 7 weeks to really get them going. I should be able to do one each week, and will aim to start them every Monday (that gives time for the shift to end and GMs to formulate ideas on Sunday) finishing them on the Friday ready for the shift. Through the week, it should provide plenty of time for the ideas to come through and people to reply.

[Adele Mundy]

About suggestions and brilliant ideas in general: if we take our examples from TV, one could go with the standard police procedural style, where a problem (crime, in this case) is presented and solved in the course of one episode; or one could go with the long story arc style of something like The Wire. Or, in SF terms, Star Trek TOS as opposed to Babylon 5. Or a mix of the two, with minor events resolved quickly, and things that have a wider effect on the story universe taking longer to develop. Personally, I don’t mind waiting to see ideas come to fruition, as long as we don’t go the way of G.R.R. Martin and take decades, multiple volumes, a cast of thousands, and involve the horrific deaths of half our cast.

[John van Leigh]

Just what did you say about the toilet? ALL HANDS, BATTLESTATIONS!

[Xavier]

//I don’t know, I quite enjoyed nuking cessna and del Pino 🙂

[John van Leigh]

//Awww, I enjoyed nuking you as well. Like, the two times your engines went poof, and the time with the four nukes at point blank :3

[Adele Mundy]

Oh, who needs G.R.R. Martin, they’re on to nuking each other already.

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