[OOC] STOMP Remembrance Project

[Zamuel]

While "mistakes were made" was a thing, I've realized two things recently:
-Over in the Mey Hem campaign, it was realized that the major themes have wound up being life and mortality (and humanity). For STOMP, it feels like the major themes are either "failure and teamwork" or "teamwork and dreams". For the former, there was a lot of coming together to bounce back from mistakes while with the latter, there was a lot of seeing where aspirations led people to either to improve or to obsession.
-While I quite specifically never wanted Brisk Iron to be this perfect GMPC that could do everything, an early recurring blind spot for her was expecting the team to just work out as opposed to needing actual training. It's a bit of a major fallacy that ties into her own experiences. It's sorta interesting to watch this play out. As much as I didn't want things to blow up like it did at the time, it sorta makes sense that it happened.

 

[Shadewing]

She smiles softly to Amber. "I'll tell you what I told Static, I don't have to like somepony to do my job. Even if I hate them, even if they are the enemy; I don't want to see ponies dying if I can help it. That wouldn't change if I were to be leader, I am sure he can be useful... somehow... Maybe find away to put it ability to run from everything to good use..."

I realize re-reading this, that Rhapsody did attempt to follow-up on this in the next mission. She tried to have the same faith in Night Cap that others did, and give him an important task to do. Something she felt he would excel at, since fighting was never his strong point... see every encounter ever. And his not being able to do that, seems to be what permanently cemented him negatively in Rhapsody's eyes.

Like Rhapsody is harsh, but she's always focused; and I sorta regret how she turned out because RL jive started to make angier and seeped into her; though of couse I don't think losing Amber and Snowy help, losing the two on the team she was closest too; Amber just sorta straight up leaving, and Snowy's betrayal. Neither of those helped when Maple was revealed. My idea was that she'd soften up in the final mission, her Hospital stay having given her time to think and reflect. But as explained RL basically made it so that never happened.

 

[Copper Bezel]

For STOMP, it feels like the major themes are either "failure and teamwork" or "teamwork and dreams". For the former, there was a lot of coming together to bounce back from mistakes while with the latter, there was a lot of seeing where aspirations led people to either to improve or to obsession.

I think it would have left less of a spot if we'd had the space to make those mistakes on the player side. And if Barometz had TPKO'd the ponies on the surface before the others caught up, it might have at least felt organic. But nothing was going to make the screaming match in the OOC that was happening alongside the game events feel okay, and then once we were through with that, our party was explicitly punished IC rather than just having to deal with the direct consequences of their actions. Nobody was doing any bouncing. It was just a bad time. Maybe Fnu can make it a satisfying series of events in the comic. OOC, the only payoff is those lessons learned about how not to do that again.

 

[Zamuel]

Copper, one question before I respond (which sadly might be a few days since I'm busy Thursday and Friday this week), have you been keeping up with the Mey Hem campaign?

 

[CoffeeHorse]

At least the training mission we ended up doing after all of this was fantastic. The camaraderie building between Static and Rhapsody was a lot more meaningful because of how bad things got here. And Amber got a moment that I hope is as fun as I remember it.

 

[Copper Bezel]

It was! I agree, that felt good for everyone, and Rhapsody and Amber especially. I remember that being a *lot* of fun on my end. I like the parts where the nets came down, and Maple jetted out of the way and Amber winked out of the trap, and they had a moment of looking cool having evaded the dastardly nets, before remembering Night Cap and going back to let him out. XD

Copper, one question before I respond (which sadly might be a few days since I'm busy Thursday and Friday this week), have you been keeping up with the Mey Hem campaign?

Sadly no. = [ I know at one point you suggested I come over and catch up, but I kinda never got around to it. I'm sorry.

 

[Caldwin]

At least the training mission we ended up doing after all of this was fantastic. The camaraderie building between Static and Rhapsody was a lot more meaningful because of how bad things got here. And Amber got a moment that I hope is as fun as I remember it.

I did really like the training mission. For one thing, up until then the line between Caldwin and Static was pretty blurry and things that went wrong for Static I IR took way more personally than I should have. The training mission where Rhapsody and Static worked together was, iirc, the point where I at least started to be able to poke a little fun at Statics expens and have fun with it.

For another thing...there were quite a few issues between me and Shadewing as well as the characters which is, more than anything, what makes me cringe re-reading this. We've worked through the issues now and I consider Shadewing a good friend now, and I think the training mission really helped settle some IRL issues. But going back and reading something where we were at each other's throats as much as the character...yeah, it makes me cringe.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

For what it's worth, the OOC blowup was actually really short in real time. The thread hit absolute warp speed for a bit. And the ferry ride OOC talk wasn't that bad. I think Barometz made it seem harsher in hindsight.

It was! I agree, that felt good for everyone, and Rhapsody and Amber especially. I remember that being a *lot* of fun on my end. I like the parts where the nets came down, and Maple jetted out of the way and Amber winked out of the trap, and they had a moment of looking cool having evaded the dastardly nets, before remembering Night Cap and going back to let him out. XD

And it made what happened in Petrichor funny because we specifically trained for it.

 

[Zamuel]

Sadly no. = [ I know at one point you suggested I come over and catch up, but I kinda never got around to it. I'm sorry.

No problem. Reason why I asked was because the comment on themes in Mey Hem was about the whole campaign so far and the comparison was being made to STOMP as a whole instead of just a scene. Yes, I dropped the ball a lot of times but Fnu seemed to be a mind reader in noting the that the stuff after the swamp did well for repairing the group. That was the bounce back I was talking about.

Though I will say, "talk to your players" is something I learned from both my mistakes and it being more overtly noted in GMing advice elsewhere. Advice available has shifted over the years.

 

[Copper Bezel]

Yeah, that all makes sense. And sorry if I seemed aggressive or like I was really pinning it all on you, because I don't think there's much you could have done about the player tension and I think that magnified what would have been a much, much smaller issue. And yeah, I can tell how much better you've been communicating and preempting those problems, especially after I was out of the game. And I like to think I've matured myself since then at least not to be the kind of player who creates OOC drama in the first place

 

[Zamuel]

Think of it this way, while there's arguments after the bank robbery and some butting heads in the cave, we've passed the worst of the campaign. With Fnu posting roughly weekly, life is imitating art and we're getting a weekly show like the original campaign premise. There's a lot to look forward to.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I don't know if anyone's noticed, but sometimes I break up the posts with minor cliffhangers if I see an opportunity I can't resist.

Sometimes I can't. Sometimes I have to post a chunk and move on because the editor starts getting glitchy if there's too much text formatting. Like I'll apply a text color and it will go back and apply that color to anything else that has a color.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Night Cap no longer crits on a 19. Night Cap rolls a 19. Invisible Castle is the biggest troll ever.

All of my victories are tainted.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I either overlooked Static taking the camera back, or Night Cap quietly stole it back while the group was walking.

"Go on you two... smoochy smooch!" Maple might have been happy for Mr. Static and Miss Away, but she was still a little filly and thoughts of romance just made her all sappy.

See, Maple was trying to act on her changeling instincts the entire time, to the extent that she understood what she was feeling.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Night Cap's post is lost, but he used this.

Saddlebags (Enchanting) (2+1) – 3/Day
When you select this ability you may choose three of the following enchantments for free. When you activate this ability, you may activate one of the enchantments you chose this way. You may choose additional enchantments for 1 point each.

Stepping Stones – Enchantment [Created by Kajisora]​

Preparation time: 5 seconds​

You may summon up to eight magical stone discs anywhere within 100 feet of you that you can see. The discs can between 3 cm to 1 meter in diameter, and are 1 cm thick. You can keep them suspended in place so that they cannot be moved (including by gravity) except by 2000 lbs or more of force. You may end or resume the suspension effect at will. These disks vanish after 1 hour.​

I drew a goofy Paint picture to illustrate the plan but it's lost too.

 

[Shadewing]

Oh the 'Static relay' was definitely a bit of much needed levity for the group. I'm sure Static woulda been fine if we went through with it...

 

[CoffeeHorse]

This mission was such an amazing journey for the characters. Night Cap ends up being useful and level-headed and Rhapsody ends up talking about tossing Static.

In this scene we also see that Anchors Away has no fear of heights. It's somehow surprising but makes so much sense. Her instincts are made for living in water where the concept of falling doesn't really exist.

 

[Zamuel]

There was accidental foreshadowing in that Anchors was looking out the window for most of the air ferry trip there.

Oh the 'Static relay' was definitely a bit of much needed levity for the group.

I have noticed I sometimes get extremely zoomed out to the overall story of the campaign as opposed to being ground level. The break in tension was badly needed for the upcoming segments to work.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I found something else. I didn't save these but gmail did.

 

[Caldwin]

And this is the same Static that leaps from a helicopter without a parachute later.