Yeah I'm just now starting to get back into PbP and gaming in general after a year+ break. The slowness of PbP works with my schedule, in fact work's decided to crank it up to 11 leading up to our 4/25 deadline. To parody Fallout: "Work...work never changes..." I agree, hoping Laird_Thorne's just swamped. I believe I recall a post about schedule being hectic at times and I can definitely relate.

I have 5 PbP games not including this one. I finished a weekly live text Chronicles of Darkness/God-Machine game last night after 36x 4-hour sessions. I got a happy ending; it is rare for me that an online game has a formal conclusion. My Buffy the Vampire Slayer PbP is almost 2-years old started before the OG to new myth-weavers format has finally reached the first boss encounter. It's been the equivalent of 2-3x 4-hour live sessions. That game is really slow; we had only 2 players drop from the get-go. I try to keep occupied. I love zombie survival setting games. Online games are normally aren't as reliable unless you pay for them. Hopefully, Laird_Thorne is okay and just busy in RL. They haven't been in communication with any of their games here on myth-weavers since April 4th. Today is April 17th. They visited myth-weavers less than a day ago. Well, I wish everyone is doing well in all their endeavors until we get to play together soon. Thank you for letting me share my gaming experiences.

Would I be correct in saying that this game has exploded on the launch pad?

For internal conflicts; Maybe there's some disagreement about contacting another group of survivors? Like we've seen a few signs but not actually met or seen anyone, downed Walkers that we didn't deal with, a revving motorcycle in the distance that nobody actually saw that kind of thing. Now some people want to seek them out, others want to wait until we shore up our defences some more, maybe a couple of people want to avoid them all together. There could also be some tension between Samuel and Daniel; Denise's bio says she's pretty withdrawn and Daniel used to have a high-stress job and kind of gives me former Finance-Bro vibes. So he could be the type who isn't used to hard physical work, and got resentful of Denise not pulling her weight in his eyes, leading to a confrontation with her dad. I'd also put Nicole forward as Alex's NPC counterpart on the leadership/discussion facility front. She's like 10-15 years older than Daniel, which makes me imagine them as a power-couple pre-apocalypse. He was the ambitious younger spouse/trophy husband with a brain and financial connections, she was a high-powered CEO/Judge/Mayor just starting to think about acting on grander political ambitions when the world went to crap. She could be a someone who's not satisfied with the "listen to the person with the most relevant expertise/" group decision making approach we've got going, wanting more control to "do it right" when it comes to rebuilding society etc. It might also be fun if the group did have a hero-style leader who pulled the group together because everybody liked and respected them, but they died like a month ago. The current set-up is what we came up with to fill the gap they left.

Checking in - I think people were a bit unsure/stumped where to go next. I know I was. Let's do this :)

Fleur's got a foot in both camps, the upright camp and the criminal camp. Indeed now unjust law and illegitimate order has disappeared, she's fully upright... moreso when she's married, being made an honest woman 'n all.

Internal conflicts are for sure going to be between the more upright members of the group and our more criminal types but in the apocalypse, those things tend to matter less.

Here as well. Threw out some questions in the session 0 thread if anyone has any ideas

Anyone have any thoughts on the above Characters & Relationships? Based on our discussions in the OOC thread, decision making sounds more group than individual. Maybe Alex (or Daniel Perez) organizes the discussion but in the end it's majority rule. Any thoughts on rivals? Sounds like Alex is at least a little resented for his position before the end. Maybe he needs to prove himself to others in this new world? Any ideas on either internal conflicts or external ones that might be interesting to deal with? Or do we want to see what troubles come up that could lead to those issues? is there anything here that would be especially helpful to you in starting off the game?

Checking in.

Are we waiting on me? Is there anything I need to do?

I reckon everyone imagines a montage for their character in different ways and yeah, for me, no-one does Montage music like Morricone, may he rest in peace. This one sticks.. most of the tunes have a low tragic bass at the bottom of them. Some tunes are romantic, some jaunty, some laments. My montage would be a series of reminiscing scenes.. A barge on the Mississippi, floating past gutted towns in the dark of 'no more lights' with Fleur lying on the roof next to her husband of the time (there's been three so far), looking up at the Milky Way, passing a bottle of moonshine back and forth between them, while running her fingers through his mop of hair, displaying her childlike 'just lean into it' 'no regrets' personality. The juxtaposition of human emotion atop utter ruin, like a flower growing in the wasteland. Her husband of the time, holding her hair out of the way, while she throws up into the river, having overimbibed, while he chuckles ruefully. In between bouts she comes out with barf jokes. Her husband laughing out loud, head thrown back, as she tells some extremely off colour joke.. which she later confesses to her priest, while holding her crucifix. Her tongue sticking out of her mouth while she fixes something that can't be fixed with a screw driver, a pair of pliers, some bubble gum and a hairpin. Her taking the ring from off her dead husband's finger and looping it into the silver necklace around her neck. All told there are six rings there now, while the pale circle around her wedding finger fades. Her holding her hand onto a woman's mouth, silencing her, as zombies walk trudge past mere feet away, not pushing her out to use a diversion... because she's the last of someone's line too. [Just came across this in the 3 Body Problem, where it's 'if one of us lives then we all live'.. even if it is memory. The first tune you could call The Fall... this merging into Remembering Sleepy Drunk Slow Dancing when your heart not your head was doing the talking. This merges into the jaunty notes of playing pranks on one's brothers, now dead, and getting thrown into the Bayou. Suddenly into all hell breaking loose with father and brothers fighting with knives and baseball bats 'Swing away Merle' in the house while the women and kids run to the pickup truck. Then the discordant tones of nightmare of the Men are all Gone, as the defences do not hold.. which leeches into the quiet horror of it all.. don't move, stay quiet. Then medicine.. as in the lulls the whisky comes out to combat PTSD in comradely sipping. Into the acceptance that the zombies you kill now are not the friends and loved ones you once knew. You kill them and give them a proper wake.. in memory. Until at the end you are the last one standing of your group, meeting others who the last one standing of their group... each one all that remains between folk whose lives will be remembered and those consigned to oblivion. Into a hand clutching a rosary chain, littered with rings, jacket badges, good luck charms.. a chain of civilian dog tags, a graveyard as jewelry.

Awesome, so are we ready to start adding all this on the Session 0 thread?

Alex's political connections snagged him a spot on the 2022 Caddyshack Charity Golf Tournament where he actually got to meet Bill Murray. Caddyshack was always one of his favorite movies; he watched it at a friend's house when he was 12, his father would never have allowed him to see it at home. He got a picture with Bill there, dressed in an outlandish golf shirt, that Bill signed afterwards and has always kept it in his wallet Cool that opens up some opportunity for an out-of-the-blue Bill Murray movie quote just to make folks pause and think, "What the...did he just say that??"

Hell YES it is!

Cassius has a talent that he can choose any or all NPC. Wallflower

I have found the most popular and least popular NPCs. It seems that the most popular NPC is Betty (Deano and Fleur) and then Daniel with one (from Alex) and Denise from one (Jax). Poor Sam and Nicole get no one. I put a little something together for myself more than anything but let me know if anything is wrong. Also i think Cassius still needs to pick a NPC anchor.

If it's Bull Murray's autograph.. no thinking necessary.

Perfect. I'll try to remember to work those mannerisms into my in-character posts every now and then. On the group leader thing: I think the group is small enough who is "in-charge" could be situational. For example; contact, negotiations and general relations with other survivor groups that come along? Then it's Boon. Working on the haven, what extra things do we need and should look for scavenging, that kind of stuff? Probably Fleur, although on the NPC side Samuel is a construction supervisor so he'd likely at least helping with the organisation of this kind of thing as well. Outside the wall or things get violent? Then Deano or Jax both seem like good candidates to me in terms of personality, skills and background.

Scavenging roll Scavenging roll 113 -> Celebrity autograph Hmmm, might need to think about that one

Hehe I'm imagining something along the lines of: Alex - "I...I'm sorry I thought I could...they said either we send a weekly shipment of food or they'll come for us." Jaxon, patting Alex on the shoulder (dismissively honestly), "Okay Daniel," as in Daniel Boone, "your way didn't work; we're gonna do this the hard way." <Cassius cracks his knuckles in the background /> Nice idea, let's say there's just something small she does, maybe tucking her hair behind her ear occasionally or how she tilts her head and squints when she doesn't understand what someone's saying. Nothing that anyone else would think twice about but it's something that triggers a memory in Alex of one of his daughters having a similar mannerism. Betty and Denise don't do it so Alex doesn't get the same around them. I would say he hasn't talked to Cadey about it yet, at best she's noticed his face falling after they've talked as he's turning away....just that split second so maybe she's not even sure if she's really seeing anything or not. Maybe something will happen and he'll share more with her; possible bonding moment.

Its a little column A, little Column B. Jax isn't comfortable in the casual group of strangers, he doesn't really trust them so a 'sitting around the fire chatting' situation doesn't really mesh, he feels better when he's doing something. In the past he liked a party or a drink up but thats when he was safe, he's never safe anymore. Jax more certainly encourages cadey, maybe more than he should. He's all-in protecting 'kids' but he also thinks they should be able to protect themselves (they just shouldn't have to), and he'd be the first person teaching kids younger than cadey to stick a raider in the back the first chance they get, so the fact she can and doesn't fall apart when things get messy is a mark in her favour.

Duly toned down.. and it was the disillusioned talent. So, perhaps the assessment hasn't come into play as yet.

Within that context I think the interactions between them would be awesome. Plus, I think her, and Hall would kind of fit within that framework also. Hall from a cultural standpoint and Cadey from learning needed skills. Welcome to the tribe!