OOC - Ramblings, Insights and Ideas

[Starhawk]

I don't have a favorite party makeup. I like all the characters. That being said the closeness of the background between Fleur, a technician from an illegal marijuana enterprise, i.e. drugs.. and Jaxon, a biker whose gang is in the drug business, do seem pretty close. So, that's my one proviso.

[Laird_Thorne]

It's definitely going to be a difficult decision for sure. But that's a good thing, right?

Two days to go. I'm still getting a couple of inquiries too, so may go down to the wire. :)

[Laird_Thorne]

I'll be going over the Apps today and tomorrow.

There's definitely some interesting submissions and I hate to have to exclude anyone, but as this will be my first time really running any YZE-based games I've got to keep it neat and clean for now so I can do my best as a GM and make things interesting and fun at least. :)

[Laird_Thorne]

My apologies to all!

I forgot setting the game to closed meant folks couldn't see what was going on. I's now open so folks can see... I hope.. LOL

I'll be making the final selection of players by this afternoon. At that point we'll expand on a couple of things, and get the ball rolling for real. :)

[Laird_Thorne]

Ok, it was a tough decision, and I wish I felt confident enough to take averyone, but I had to do some paring down. As such, I would like to welcome the following:

Cassius Clay III ( @sxeBUDDHA ) - former Correctional Officer
Cadence "Cadey" Sawyer ( @BuyCrom ) - Kid
Deano Alexander ( @JagrHunter ) - former Paramedic
Alexander Boone ( @dbcowboy ) - former Politician
Fleur LeBlanc ( @Starhawk ) - Scientist
Jaxon Josef Goss III ( @Neopopulas ) - Outlaw

@Pangea, @NorthOfOrdinary - You all are definitely alternates for when I'm able to open up the game a bit, or need replacements for some reason.

There are a few details to still flesh out as a group, so I'll change this to a straight-up OOC thread, and open a new Session 0 thread.

[JagrHunter]

Thank you @Laird_Thorne Flattered and humble to be accepted.

[sxeBUDDHA]

Thank you for including me/Cassius Clay III among the 6 players, Laird_Thorne. I also appreciate taking 6 players and not less. I'm excited and hope everyone accepts their invitation.

Cassius would likely choose Jaxon as his PC anchor. He needs a +1 that will have his back like brothers but stronger than blood.
I doubt anyone will choose Cassius for their PC anchor which would be a difficult task for him. #Indifferent

I'm dreading the introduction of less moral humans into the story. So far, I don't think anyone in our group has crossed that line.

[Starhawk]

Thanks for the invitation. I imagine there was some coin tossing in the selection. Fleur would choose Jaxon as her anchor as well. Just too much common ground for it to be anyone else.

[sxeBUDDHA]

Jaxon may be the most popular guy. Maybe he should be leader. lol

Cassius Clay III's relationship to the following pc:

Cadence "Cadey" Sawyer - Cassius sees Cadey as just a "kid." Fond of dogs just like him.

Deano Alexander - Even though Deano's a former paramedic and not really a doctor, Cassius calls him "Doc" impressed about his medical knowledge.

Alexander Boone - Cassius knows a politician when he hears one. Cassius tolerates him and his foolishness. All he hears are big promises. Cassius sees this pc as the fall guy to take the blame if things go wrong should he be chosen as official leader. If Alex is just a face guy for the group, then Cassius still has lots to learn a lot from his social skills.

Fleur LeBlanc - Cassius is certainly fond of Fleur. But he's set his boundaries with everyone. He had revealed his feelings once, but he has since dropped the matter. Everyone knows about it. Cassius acknowledges that Fleur is a wealth of information. He asks that Fleur provide answers to a list of questions he gives her once a week. He has asked Fleur to craft a riot shield for him; he is making payments in trade.

Jaxon Josef Goss III - Cassius regards Jaxon as his brother. Cassius admires strength and straightforwardness. Jaxon may be the closest individual that Cassius has had ever considered family which Cassius has confided to Jaxon several times already.

Cassius Clay III - Likes to keep busy and productive. His daily regiment is structured. He writes in a survival journal - tidbits he learns from everyone to better survive these uncertain times. Despite being a former correctional officer and a young black man in USA with no criminal record, Cassius is familiar to being first to blame when sh*t goes wrong. He keeps his distance from the women and children. Everyone knows his dream is to have a Korean wife with at least 3 children (2 boys, 1 baby girl). And a dog for each child sired by Butch. Cassius still believes that normalcy can be restored; it's not going to be easy.

Note: If anyone has any issue about my ideas infringing on your agency as a player, please let me know so we may attain a mutual solution.

[JagrHunter]

So Deano will take Hall as his NPC anchor for obvious reasons and Boone as his PC anchor.

[Neopopulas]

Jax graciously accepts leadership and promises to make you all into outstanding biker-outlaws lol

NPC anchor will go with Denise Carter, mostly because he likes the idea that someone can be home, out of the way, that he can trust to keep his interests when he's not there. He's not expecting her to be his advocate, he just thinks she's too sweet and too gentle to not help him, if he's nice to her. Its a little self-serving and a little manipulative, but its instinctive to him. Also his whole family dynamic growing up was that you're supposed to be doing all this 'bad' stuff so that the more vulnerable family members are safe (from other bad people) and cared for, and she sort of epitomizes that image.

For PC anchor, I'd go with Cadey. Jax is very rough around the edges and he's not what you would call a 'good guy' but that doesn't mean he's a bad guy either. Where he grew up, it was as much about protecting your own as it was 'getting yours'. Even from a young age, most of the crime and violence he would be involve with, and his family would be involved with was about protecting his people, whether that was literal family or "family"

Cadey, to him, is someone that deserve to be protected, even though she's not like a child, to him, she's still just a kid and because of that sort of escapes the requirements everyone else has. Even family has to pull their weight, but she might get more leeway than others.

Deano is a great member to have, actual doctor or not, he's probably got some of the most useful skills - to Jax's mind - that they could have, and he respect that knowledge and the skills he brings. That expertise puts him in pretty high esteem to Jax and offsets the fact he's not what Jax would consider 'tough'

Cassius is enough like Jax that he sort of 'gets' him, they have similar opinions on things, and they have similar outlooks on things, Jax's only concern is that Cassius might not be "That guy" when it really comes down to it, no matter what he thinks, but thats okay, because Jax is that guy and he can respect Cassius' desire - and ability - to protect the group regardless.

Jax doesn't have a ton of respect for Alexander. He's soft and pampered and represents 'the man'. He also knows that government figures are pretty easy to corrupt so he's not totally sure where Alex falls, but at the same time he sort of represents everything Jax hates, and he sort of expects him to be the first one to break.

Fleur is a tricky one, because she's useful, has useful skills, knows the right sort of life, has the right sort of survival instinct and it doesn't hurt that she's hot as well. But a lot of those things also make Jax suspicious because all of those things could be reasons she might not fall in line or want to find something better. He's just a little worried how ambitious she would be, but she clearly can be a team player and her moral compass is aligned right so he has high hopes.

 

 

[dbcowboy]

Happy to join everyone, my 1st game on this site. Looking forward to it

Cassius Clay III - Cassius' no-nonsense attitude sits well with Alex, he's someone to count on to get things done and his size is, frankly, reassuring. But it does seem best to be careful not to antagonize the man

Cadence "Cadey" Sawyer - Her drive to make sure the group doesn't fall apart would appeal to Alex, but when he's around her he can't help but think how his own daughters will never reached her age. Too soon

Deano Alexander - So my 1st thought was imagining Alex repeatedly trying to connect to Deano but to date the man's distrust of strangers just hasn't been cracked. Could be some occasional fun, awkward moments. But if Alex is Deano's Anchor maybe they've gotten past that and Alex sees the man as one of the protectors of the group.

Fleur LeBlanc - Alex wants to believe that life can go on...desperately. Here's a woman who lays out the breadcrumb of things that will make that possible. Need X so we can have Y? That would be great, we should do that! She's someone who can be a big source of hope for Alex. Her past? Seriously, he's dealt with politicians, CEOs, billionaires and religious charlatans. The Cajun and her kin were kind of amatuers.

Jaxon Josef Goss III - Jaxon's past doesn't bother Alex, this is a new world, the old one is dead. But Alex gets the feeling Jax is holding on to some the old social class resentments. So he gives the man some space but that could be misinterpreted...

Wow, I think Fleur's going to be Alex's PC Anchor. Daniel Perez will be his NPC Anchor.

Edited April 2 by dbcowboy (see edit history)

[Starhawk]

Fleur tends to take people as she finds them.

Cassius Clay III. Fleur would be suspicious of anyone who made their living in what she calls The Injustice System. She despises plea bargaining, innocents in a rigged game forced to gamble away their liberty. She despises the bail system, despises the punitive nature of the 'corrections' system, despises civil forfeiture, despises the war on drugs (when it comes to marijuana), despises minimum sentencing directives, despises 'three strikes and you're out'. She'd fit right in were she in Scandinavia. However, now all that's gone and the Wild Goddamned West is back, she's got Cassius' back 100%. He doesn't work for 'The Man' anymore, not since the Man got ate. That he's an African American is neither here nor there for her. Hardly surprising given that a fair percentage of her own tree is the same way, even though she looks more latino than anything else. She's politely rejected his advances as she has all the men in the group. She imagines she'll have use as a kind of princess, married off to create an alliance, to bring someone needed into the community. She sees him like Oenomaus, the black gladiator trainer in the Spartacus TV series.

Cadence 'Cadey' Sawyer. Fleur's intially believed she would almost certainly come to regard Cadey as a little sister. This was dispelled after spending a little time in the teenager's company. Fleur is creeped out by Cadey's calmness which she percieves as cold bloodedness. However, she is of the opinion that every community fighting for its survival benefits from the inclusion of a psycho and that Jax will have no problems relating to her. She thought she would be Ripley to Cadey's newt, only to find she's Ripley to Cadey's 'Alien'.

Jax reminds her very strongly of her brothers, all of whom were regarded as dangerous criminals by law enforcement, and all of whom died to a man getting the women and kids of her own family tree to safety. He's clannish, like her, with a 'to her mind' laudably pragmatic 'them and us' mentality. Where they differ is in Fleur's desire to recruit people of the 'them' group into the 'us' group. She sees Jax's role as the war captain, her own as the matriarch. If he were a Deadwood character, he'd be Seth Bullock.

Alex, she sees as King Rat, the ambassador. She's of the opinion that there'll come a time when things need to be traded for, where someone who can talk a rat out of its cheese is necessary. There'll also be a need for someone outsiders see as bribeable and whom they'll approach, whereupon Alex will, hopefully, tell Jax what's going down... turn the tables on their enemies. He's the spy, the secret police. She imagines he may need constant reminding of which side his bread is buttered on. She sees him as the Malkovich character in Empire of the Sun.

Deano.. She sees him as the best kind of soldier. That being said, she tends to regard good soldiers as unwitting dupes to corporate interests channeled through Washington. She's sympathetic and admiring of his medical abilities. For some reason she also sees Deano as Brad Dourif playing Doc Cochran in the TV show Deadwood alongside Jax's Seth Bullock.. more than likely this is due to their New Wild West reality.

This would make her Alma Garrett, the rich widow in Deadwood.

Fleur's habit of drawing parallels between real people and fictional characters makes her 'odd', or if one were charitable.. 'quirky and offbeat'.

NPC Anchor Betty Hall.

 

 

Edited April 2 by Starhawk (see edit history)

[JagrHunter]

@sxeBUDDHA  please don't write for my character unless I have given permission.

[JagrHunter]

So Deano is pretty matter of fact. He has experience leading and training with guerrilla forces from his time in Army Special Forces, along with medical training that would place him just under a college educated Trauma surgeon. This said, he isn't looking to lead anything or anyone. He will offer his medical training but won't force it on anyone. If asked to provide services he will gladly do so, but if someone would rather deal with the holistic "feel good" alt culture remedies, he won't argue or attempt to stop them. If asked he will offer his expertise as truthful as he can. He is also not the group's fitness coach. Once again, he will offer assessments if asked, but once he says his piece it's up to the individuals to use or not use his advice. He will have a personal regime that he will use just like he did prior to the fall modified for a lessened caloric intake. He will look to bring Hall into it as he plans and taking her under his wing, based on their shared culture.

Bottom line, he will assist if asked but he has little use in less "experienced" persons putting their two cents worth into his work, other than asking questions and offering to help. Has no use for whiners, ghosters, slackers, bullies or those that take advantage of less fortunate for whatever reason.

BLUF, he will help anyone that asks and help how he can, but he won't force anyone or bother with anyone that doesn't take his professional opinion on certain matters.

As far as family, he as no immediate family. He has army buddies, somewhere, He has his extended family of the Cherokee nation. But no one else. He also likes it like this, at least currently. Doesn't say he won't build one or find someone but right now it's about survival.

 

As far as his relationship with Boone he is willing to give him a chance. he has dealt with leaders with ulterior motives all over Afghanistan. one is as bad as the others. He will see what Boone suggests and help it play out.

 

Edited April 2 by JagrHunter (see edit history)