[?] A Certain Masked Man OOC

Okay, I'm having to step in for activity and communication reminders more than I like to, though thankfully it seems some of the players are growing the better habit.

Due to the inherent slower pace of set-up phases for threads, it's only natural that things would slow down compared to when the heat of the action occurs, but please don't forget that, being the only GM here, Guy can't drive this thread on alone if you're not diligently remembering to participate and communicate and need to have someone reminding you to do so every four or so posts.

Deadline has been broken for the latest post, and while I don't necessarily mind that since shit happens, I'm however hoping to see some activity for tonight and if not, Mura, some communication. I'll be posting myself to give Miyako one last thing to handle during the day before the skip, and that way it should also give the thread a little more boost of activity.

(Guy, mind if I talk to you about something when you're free?)

So, I guess that means the reunion between the blundering Judgement member and the drug-fueled cripple is over. And you know Kita, Turtle and grabbing Koyoko...

Hi all, apologies for my lack of a presence. But I bring with me good news.

My latest post signals the end of the thread's set up phase. Now, I don't mean to rush people, but I figured it best that we move things on so that you all have a definite goal to aim for. You should all be getting your characters ready to converge for the main event as previously discussed. Whether that happens in one post or 3 or 4 is not a problem, as long as there is movement towards wrapping thigns up. I should hope by now that everyone who's participating has their plan for getting involved in the encounter between Koyoko and the Masked Man.

I'm not aware of anyone we've left behind, but if that is the case or if there's any issue please let me know.

From now on, I'll be intending to move things on at a steady pace, meaning that if you fall behind too much on your posting, your character will be written out of the thread (in as graceful a manner as possible, of course.)

I say that Mirai, Taichi, Jin, and possibly Kita are there with Koyoko. Likely after the offscreen run-in, Koyoko spills enough about this upcoming encounter that they would be interested in being there with him for it. We can discuss what items or other things they've brought with them to it, if you'd like.

Well sounds like a perfect idea. I mean in Oda's alpha male dominating ways, Koyoko has no possible way to resist. This has suddenly become a Judgement sting operation!

Guys, the subject of interrogation torture has to be here to give his opinion before you engage in extortion.

Warning: Wall ahead.

So I'm writing this post to indicate I have the intention to write Oda out of the MM thread. It will only take one post, but I thought I'll give a heads up before it happens. There are many reasons why, but it's mainly the decision to skip ahead despite the planned interaction between the other characters. Were we taking longer than we anticipated? Maybe, but considering some people in this thread, and the general thread deadline to post this should've been long expected.

We were left in a position of 'freedom' to act and find our way to the plot continuation. Despite that not only had Oda been left in a state of indecision, which was in my mind going to be solved by the reunion of him and Mirai. But Kita never got the chance to get involved with anything or anyone properly. And this is also ignoring Jin who was following Mirai.

Now if we decided actually to go along with this time skip, many things have to be considered. How exactly is Oda's state of indecision is solved, since tagging along with Koyoko seems like a real commitment? We also have to consider Mirai's motivations and the effect her reunion would have on Oda but also herself. Both strong characters personality wise and yet vital interaction needed to push each other forward. Then we also have to discuss with Mura about what goings on with her and then also Jin. Because each and everyone was in arms distance of meeting with Koyoko and Me. Since I'm not going to accept they 'were' going to meet but never happened as we ran out of time.

And there is Koyoko; we now have to consider the many possibilities of what happened after Oda grabbed him. Which happened in front of Mirai and the others. You see what happened here or what I'm getting at? This is too much to skip without not only breaking peoples enjoyment, but also the feeling their involvement means anything.

I mean we could just ignore Guy's post and carry on, or maybe not and try to summarise in a few paragraphs what happened. But then that will only feel disjointed, wouldn't it? And not only that it doesn't solve the whole our involvement feels unimportant. You left us in a field of freedom, to find our way to the plot continuation and now it has been taken away unresolved.    

So, to be honest, the cast seems to have been far too big for what was planned, the large cast has left for things to take longer in planning between the individual characters. And it has lead to this moment of what is classified in my mind as 'Railroading'. Not all instincts of 'Railroading' is wrong as long it has a purpose, but this has killed the progress we were building on. And yet I'm not going to directly blame you Guy, how things have been managed so far I can understand. You were busy so you couldn't have a hands-on approach and Natsume isn't exactly the GM.

But the communication has been lacking from you, sure you have encouraged us to wrap things up, but that was impossible in the first instance considering the size of the cast. And as you know being busy yourself, not all of us had the time to keep posting one after the other to get these scenes completed. So I didn't blame you for your lack of personal involvement as GM. I defended you in private conversation regarding the lack of direction from you for being too busy. Which I took upon myself to drive the others forward and to forge a clear path to reach the night events. But now I hope you can understand why this looks bad here?

Now that you had time to post, we're being punished because one 'lacked' the time to post and only just broke the deadline. And I say punished as I consider this scene very important for our continued involvement. The fair action to make here was to go basically...

"Look, Mura broke the deadline, so we're skipping her post. Can sheepy now continue the scene?"

And not just basically wash over everything we were all building upon. And to be honest it had left me furious, but I took the time to calm down and now just left disappointed.

And so to conclude I'm quitting. Not only because I was disappointed with the decision to skip, but because I also feel for what you seemed to want from this RP, the cast is far too big to be managed properly in your current position.

Now I apologise if I offended anyone, that isn't the intention nor is arguing about this decision. The GM made the decision; I'm not happy with it so I will prepare my character to exit the thread. I have a clear direction to how and why Oda will no longer be involved. But I will not post my exit until this has been acknowledged.

So to give you or anyone the time to possibly respond with a sort of compromise if you so desire. Or to at least give you a chance to explain why this happened.

Again I have no intention to argue Guy's decision and either the decision on my end to leave the thread. So also please respect the fact I used the OOC to communicate this here and keep any responses to this post on this thread.

Oh boy. I'm going to interject here, even if Guy probably does need to speak up a little, namely because this is frankly an unreasonable stance to bear towards him and the thread.

Let's start with the actual situation: Guy has been warning for quite a while now (we're going up to a month in real time) that the timeskip would be coming and that things needed to be wrapped up so that the actual plot could get started. This wasn't an abrupt thing where you guys were left with no choice and no prior warning, though I'll concede the transition could've been better on Guy's part and better communicated (as in warn them before you send the post in, not after ).

The problem here is that despite the actual warnings to try and give everyone a tie to Koyoko to get involved so that we can then move on to the actual meat of the story, what you guys were starting to engage in was potentially an entire day's worth of content on the idea of "character bonding and development" which should come during the thread as Guy gives us more and more to work together on to stop the criminal, and not as its very beginning on the prerogative that everyone knows Taichi and therefore there's a group interaction that should happen with him and the plot gets put to the side so that everyone's interaction with everyone is fleshed out all of a sudden out of nowhere.

That wasn't the point. The point was bringing people with different goals in their attempt to find the Masked Man and have them work together as they dug deeper in their investigation. The point wasn't to make Taichi and Koyoko the central points where everyone would meet, interact, and bond, and then later on they'd be facing the Masked Man and help each other because "we met today so now I have the shounen protagonist syndrome to risk my life for you!" rather than because they all happen to be individuals with a common objective.

This isn't an SoL thread, either, so if the GM decides that we're not exactly focusing on the task enough, then ragequitting the thread because "character development" wasn't considered when we're only a few IC hours in is more than a little unreasonable. That's basically saying "my way or no way".

Not to say the fault is on the players for the lengthy situations their characters ended up being in, but if you understand that Guy can't handle everything, then that means you understand all facets of that statement and not just the ones where things don't conveniently work out. I won't deny it, this is railroading, but railroading isn't necessarily a bad thing in the first place if it's meant to help the thread back on track where it should rightfully be and sometimes cutting out the fun some players are having for the sake of the plot is also a GM's role. It's not just accommodating what everyone wants and when they want it, as it is also a player's role to know how to compromise and perhaps elaborate or establish later than intended.

Because, as you're complaining about this, you're not pondering the fact that neither I nor Iva have much to post about since, again, we're waiting on everyone to have ties to Koyoko to night-time so that we can begin actually pursuing the Masked Man rather than play Cluedo while the guild of Koyokaichi merrily walks through Academy City trying to catch No-Pants-Pervert. And you're not pondering the fact that there could've (and have) been a fair amount of complaints coming towards both Guy and I that it'd be nice if things actually got started rather than lingering on the lesser important SoL lunatic interactions.

So perhaps this decision didn't just come from an inability to handle the problem and more because it was a necessary action before the thread went too much off the rails in terms of fairly unrelated content?

Now as for the communication between you lot and Guy, that has been very lacking, but before he replies to your post I want to make something very clear.

The problem isn't only coming from one side which would be Guy not making enough steps forwards towards you. Yesterday alone I received three prompts asking me what they should do in Masked Man for their merry SoL times even though Guy was visibly online and browsing the forum and could've very well either been asked directly or PM'd if he was away.

It's nice to remind people that I'm not a GM and that concerns should go towards the OOC or Guy directly, but so far I've honestly only seen Lemouri act the part.

The lack of communication isn't just born from the fact that he's busy and that must therefore mean he can't handle it, it's also that you guys are nurturing bad habits and not actually making a move towards him on the assumption that because he's a GM, he has to be the one to make the first move and that if not then it means he doesn't want to so I should be the alternative.

So honestly, the idea that you're leaving the thread because a post decided that it's not exactly time to all merrily walk around Academy City with lunatics and pseudo pregnant parents feels more like you're irritated and throwing a tantrum because your scene didn't come to a natural end (which I can understand, but surely those things happen and you should aim to either discuss them with Guy so that they can end more smoothly or simply concede them rather than decide to leave the thread out of nowhere?) moreso than because Guy isn't able to handle his current cast based on nothing but circumstantial "evidence".

That's all I have the say, the rest rightfully goes to Guy to speak up.

Right, so it seems I've gotten my wires crossed.

First off I want to make it clear that the intention was not to punish anyone for 'missing a deadline' or being slow to post. Quite the opposite, in fact.

To be honest the only reason I made my post jumping forward was that I was getting the impression (from speaking to people privately) that you were all getting bored/restless with the lack of direction. I was happy to leave you all to your own devices but from that feedback, I figured jumping into the next scene would be preferable for most people. Clearly, I was wrong.

Now, as you've rightly stated, this comes from a lack of communication on my part, and that's pretty bad considering I've been urging all of you to communicate, so I can only apologize for that. Perhaps you're right when you say I've not got the time to run a thread but I felt that I owed it to the forum to try and get one running after having spent so long away. As for the number of participants, again you might be right.

So with that in mind, I'm happy to remove my post so you can all carry on as you were before.

That's very considerate of you Guy. I want to make it clear that I mean no insult by post, it just felt like my efforts to try and push the scene through with the others was shot down without any prior warning. Maybe I came on too harshly, so I apologise to you for it.

I do want to mention, personally, it was not an easy decision to post what I did above here. But I thought you at least deserve honesty, rather than people playing along despite feeling disconnected. And I can probably understand the feeling of expectations falling on your shoulders considering the previous long absence. But I think its best to throw that aside, don't feel like you owe us just act what you consider right for your roleplay.

The very least I was grateful for this freedom to explore our characters reactions before we get into the meat of it all. This isn't the defining moment for our characters developments, but more building the motivation for us to move forward and I thought that was completely vital. And I thank you for offering to reverse your post and save it for later.

As in fact speaking for myself I'm grateful since I have been enjoying what has happened so far in the roleplay.

Disclaimer: I haven’t caught up to MM yet, so I’m a bit in the blue about what exactly was posted in the last 10 days.

From taking a glance at what has been said in the OOC (I’ve only looked sparsely because textwalls), I can see that everyone is trying to clutter around Koyoko and stuff. Which is fine for me. My problem is…how do I give Mugino anything to do then? I made it clear many times during my stay on the forum and I will say it again now: I hate large groups. If it is more than three people I am forced to post with, I back out, no second thought minded. Logically spoken this entails that I will not have Mugino go after Koyoko, if the condition is that everyone is chilling out around him.

My question now is: What should I do?

Oh boy that was a bit to catch up on. On my end, I pretty much has gotten part-way through writing the post and was going to finish it up that day, seeing as it was day three of three. I didn't post yesterday because of the timeskip, so if it's reversed I can actually post and get this show on the road again. If the timeskip sticks, then I can improvise to stay on track. Either way I have a solution to the problem and I'm willing to keep going. As for which option I would prefer, I see logic in both and am unfortunately kinda stuck in the middle. Sorry if this wasn't exactly conclusive, but that's kinda my attitude towards this. What happened happened and I'm ready to move on, one way or the other.

So I've given things some more thought, and after sleeping on it, I came to some conclusions.

First off, with factors such as Dark Side involvement and not wanting non-Dark Sides to get involved, this already creates a split in the 'party' of the plot from the outset. Then we have the individual issues within this, such as Koyoko not wishing to spill any information he knows, Mugino not wanting to work with others, Taichi not wanting to get other people involved, etc. I don't think these clashes could have been foreseen without extensive pre-plot player interviewing, so there's no blame or anything intended here.

Secondly, there's the issue of limited avenues for involvement in the continued plot, particularly for those outside of the Dark Side. Regardless of in-character reasons for wanting to get involved, if anyone misses one of those trains, they're screwed without GM intervention. This is why we have been gathering around Koyoko, as currently he's one of the few trains left. If it departs with nobody else on board, then we're stranded, and require the GM to show up to give us some other means.

We're already well aware of the stumbling there was around the first plot hook of bodies being discovered. Since that was, for those with characters involved at the time, the only avenue for continued plot involvement, everyone gathered there all at once. Immediately, the problem of individual characters not wishing to get anyone else involved became apparent. There was the whole fiasco with Mugino being said to probably kill any other character who got close. This resulted in Mirai and Taichi basically sitting around waiting for their 'turn', so to speak. I won't lie; this created some frustration, even if I could see the in-character reasons for it to turn out that way. Even Taichi didn't really want to get Mirai involved with things, for good in-character reason too; Why would a Judgment member allow a random student to poke around a crime scene? And wasn't it past curfew?

So, put those two things together, and we have this situation:

1) Player-characters wanting to get involved are required to go to singular, very centralized plot hooks
2) This results in everyone crowding around them, wanting to board the train to the next stop in the plot
3) ...But due to various reasons, it's not feasible to have everyone board the same train (Dark Sides not wanting non-Dark Sides to get involved, people not wanting civilians to get involved, people not wanting to work in groups, etc)
4) This creates further splits and leaving the leftovers wondering where the next remaining train is
5) Those who have already boarded a train get impatient waiting for those who haven't

Again, I don't think this situation could have been foreseen, so there's no fault to be thrown around. But that doesn't change the fact that it's there. And it certainly doesn't help that there's been a lack of communication from people in general, as well as something of a "Not my problem" response from some when symptoms become aggravated. In reality, it should be our collective problem. The point of an RP is for everyone involved to ultimately have fun. Nothing more.

It isn't about fault, blame, or pointing fingers. Just identifying problems when they happen and working together to fix them. One common thing about RPing is that if something isn't working, you just change things until they do work. Clearly, there are problems going on here concerning direction, certain players struggling to find avenues of involvement, and splitting. One solution could be to create more plot hooks tailored to those who are struggling and being unintentionally left out. I realize this is putting more work on a busy GM, but it's something that could be discussed between all of us at some time, anyway. Lots of us have ideas, so it's best we lay them out.

Concerning the latest post in particular, I was using Mirai primarily as a vehicle to get from plot point A to B to catch one of those trains, with some flavour along the way. Said trains were either with Koyoko, or by investigating the item Taichi took. Two birds with one stone. I don't mind the timeskip, so long as involvement in further plot is secured, and we're afforded some means of figuring out what transpired before said skip to ensure our continued involvement as a group. The only thing i'd ask is to have a talk with the GM to figure out exactly where Mirai and the others are in relation to plot events, and what to look forward to so we can get them in a position to be there when it happens.

Speaking for myself anyway, I work best when given a clear, distinct thing to do something about. A problem to solve. Some thing or person to respond or react to, or plot against. Those who have RPed with me previously either in other plots here or in outside places can sure attest to that~

OK, I'm gonna step in for a few words.

Please don't be so rough to Guy. This is the first thread he's GMing in years, so it's a bit unfortunate to flood him with expectations or flame if something goes slightly wrong. I'd personally love to see everyone try to contribute to the thing and help him. He's still human, not the highest entity there is~

So try to approach this like you normally would, yes? I know you're way tamer than this.

While most of what I would say in this situation has already been said, I'll try to keep my thoughts to things that may or may not have been discussed, because walls are scary.

In terms of everyone trying to use Koyoko as their hook for involvement, I don't really mind it, but when it kind of gets to the point where not only everyone is doing it, and expect him to spill something about the package when the point of his job is discretion and secrecy...Yeah, I can't really follow through with that.

Like what was said, ideally everyone was supposed to get motivations and goals toward figuring out who the masked man is, and if he is even real. Expecting everyone to get nosey about one kid who potentially goes out during curfew isn't exactly a hook to get people involved, and spilling all the information that is sensitive and note worthy, is a definite no. Why would anyone outside of Oda even bother with Koyoko unless it was forced?

I do think the lack of communication about how each of us are getting involved, because for instance I talked to Nats about how to get her involved and we managed to figure something out and acted on it. Trying to mash everyone together expecting something to happen, is quite stressful on my behalf as I can't figure out anything logical to hook everyone into this in general.

What I can have Koyoko do is MAYBE say things about the masked man, being that he hangs around not only students, but thugs and delinquents are a regular basis, and since these rumors primarily come from those most afraid of him, Koyoko can shed some light on these rumors like noting some key details such as:

- His supposed victims are only ever attacked and killed during Curfew, when the public should be in their homes.
- His targets appear to be essentially nobodies, not specifically students, public officials or anything, just the lowest tier of this society. (People abusing their powers or level 0's or basically nobody very nice)
- Koyoko CAN mention that he heard rumors that the man in question attacks criminals such as smugglers or thieves. That doesn't connect him at all with his jobs directly, and doesn't spill what he does at night.

In essence, what he will be telling you AT MOST, is that the Masked Man seems to only be active at night and targets criminals while the criminals themselves are doing something. This can motivate people to break curfew to do some investigating on their own, at their own risk. And if Mugino's little rampage doesn't grab their attention, then aaaaaaah!

Those were some ideas I've had, but what I'm saying is communication and imagination I've felt have been lacking a bit. Not that I'm blaming anyone specifically or blaming everyone for this, but in my opinion, it shouldn't be THAT hard to get involved in this without doing something extreme like torturing a poor innocent young delinquent about what he does to make money~.

That's my 5 cents! Time to disappear from the OOC.

Yokkun, Yokkun, Yokkun...

If you don't want to be a plot hook, then give (or at least help) people plot hook ideas that don't use your character. That, or accept being the bait and be happily devoured by all the fish. 

Not to mention you're the only one who will meet the Masked Man, so it's reasonable there'll be a bit of meta going on to ensure other people can encounter him as well.

Speaking on a personal level, I'd fancy we roll with the timeskip and actually get things started even if it means we have to spend a fair amount of time (both IC and OOC) crafting a day-time "summary" for everyone that would justify where they are and why it pertains to the plot. It could also very well be an opportunity for everyone to get on the same page and explain their stances both in terms of personal sentiments and in regards of their characters and what they expect or want to make of them during this thread so that Guy actually knows how to proceed moving forward.

But if you guys want Guy to retract his post, then it's best you openly come up, say it and work things out so that the scene(s?) can be peacefully wrapped and then we can proceed with the night-time incident. The above was simply my personal stance as I've already got my plot hook and further involvement reasoning secured, so it'll mainly boil down to those who don't have it just yet, but in the event you guys decide to have him retract his post to ensure you guys can get involved at night-time then I will ride the concerned group hard so that we stay focused on giving everyone a plot hook and not head into absolutely unrelated, sudden SoL-thread territory like we were about to before Guy skipped ahead.

If we want to facilitate communication both to and from Guy, communicating (and not turning towards me when people are unsure) will be, I think, a rather vital part going forward. I don't know where all your "we must always give feedback and do our best to help and encourage the GM" enthusiasm for other SoL threads went, but let's get that back, because Iva's right, you guys have been cranking down on him hard for someone you acknowledge can't single-handedly manage everything after not GMing for so long. He needs support in the form of cooperation from you guys too.

(Though I won't deny I should probably give you a handful of advice on stepping up your communication game towards the others in ways that should normally not hinder you too much, Guy.  )

Anyway. For now, let's simply settle on the decision of whether we head back to day-time or stick at night time, and then set up a character order to organise discussion for everyone's plot hooks so that no one gets left or drowned out by posts. It may stall the thread a little, but assuming we discuss efficiently then it'll help it on the longer term once everyone knows what to expect of one another.

Since, Lemouri's right, this is supposed to be a cooperative effort~

Mugino Shizuri wrote:OK, I'm gonna step in for a few words.

Please don't be so rough to Guy. This is the first thread he's GMing in years, so it's a bit unfortunate to flood him with expectations or flame if something goes slightly wrong. I'd personally love to see everyone try to contribute to the thing and help him. He's still human, not the highest entity there is~

So try to approach this like you normally would, yes? I know you're way tamer than this.

I don't know, I think they have been pretty tame, so I'm not taking any offense to what's said. As Lemouri has said, the best thing to do now is figure out how to resolve the situation we're currently in, as I feel confident that the next phase will run a lot more smoothly once we get there.

That said, at least the OOC is doing its job at last and hosting discussion.

Without quoting Lemouri's whole post, I can agree with most of this. And again, can admit it as a failing on my part that all the plot hooks were so closely linked to the bodies initially. That said, I will say in my defense that efforts were made to diversify these hooks (the suggestion that Kita could eavesdrop on Anti-Skill communications for instance).

But in any case, discussing what went wrong won't get us any further so I propose that we decide where to go from here. I'm struggling to see a consensus here, but it seems that the most obvious way to avoid ruffling any feathers would be for me to roll back my post and let you all continue on as originally planned.

HOWEVER. Given both Lemouri and Koyoko's posts I might suggest you discuss between yourselves how best you can organise things so that you're not all hinged on following Koyoko or Mirai to the next scene.

Does that sound like a good plan to the rest of you?

Okay, so, most of the stuff I wanted to say has already been said, so this'll probably be quick.

My issue with the time skip was mostly that it happened in the middle of a scene, with no warning beforehand other than half a month ago when Guy said that once our characters met up with Koyoko, the real fun would begin- Which sounds more like the Masked Man will show up in midday than we'll be skipping to the future.

Honestly, my problem wasn't ever so much with the cutting off as with the lack of planning for the cut-off- None of us had reason to expect it, so none of our interactions were geared towards setting up for a time skip. It leaves the scene hanging in a way that throws off the flow of the thread completely. Being given 1-2 posts to close off the interactions in a meaningful way and be ready for the time skip would have meant a lot in terms of perception.

Now, I know I've been particularly poor about communicating, especially through the OoC. Honestly, most of that's just me not feeling like I have anything to add. I usually just take things as they come, and beyond some confusion at the beginning where first I thought that I was going to be introduced during the first night phase, and then thought that Koyoko would be picking up the package during the day phase rather than the second night phase and thus based my plans around that, I haven't had much in the way of problems. And that can't really be blamed on poor communication, since it was just communication being misunderstood.

As for what to do next, I'm pretty ambivalent. I wouldn't mind having a post or two to wrap up, but Jin's one of the most flexible characters on the site, so I'll always be able to work something out for him- And Nacchan's right that her and Iva have been left without much to do while we're trying to sort ourselves out- In hindsight, there are so many ways that we could have handled this whole thing better, but we can't exactly go back now so we'll just have to roll with what we have.

Well, Guy has kindly enough reversed the previous post for us to finish up the last scene. So let's try and bring this moment to a satisfying conclusion. I suggest either Mura or Sheepy now post to get this going again.

But I also want to mention that I have the intention not to follow Koyoko but to investigate the apartment. That had been my intention all the time, so if anyone wants to tag along let me know so we can actually sort something out.

Suffering from a migraine tonight, so I'll edit this post once I get some sleep with plans and ideas for moving forward.

Edit: Okay. So, if some of us are going to leave Koyoko to go investigate the apartment (Say, Taichi and Mirai), it'd be ideal if Koyoko could find a way to blow them off without an extended discussion, while still allowing for, say, Jin and Kita to want to follow him around knowingly or unknowingly (They could get suspicious of him, and/or Mirai orders them to keep an eye on him while she and Taichi are busy with the apartment?)

In that case, whatever the two will find in the apartment will be tied to the upcoming event, whatever that should be. Something leading them closer to the masked man or to other (future?) victims so they can try to plan around him. There could even be something in what they find that implicates some Judgment or even Anti-Skill members in a conspiracy, leading to Taichi and Mirai not being willing to trust and leave it up to law enforcement to solve the case. (One annoying problem in RPing in settings with effective and competent law enforcement when playing as civilians is trying to find a reason to not just leave it to them, so this could be a way to get past that.)

Thoughts? Things to expand on? Let me know.

...Turtle, that is literally, literally, literally a you problem. Not even a communication one.

Because we've been saying the encounter would happen at night-time... Since the thread began.

It was the point made every time Koyoko was mentioned as a plot hook.

And even putting that aside, I've been reminding that the time skip would happen eventually almost weekly. It bothers me that you're not actually listening to us, the other players, when we're talking about the thread's plans.

I don't mind if you have issues understanding what's going, but unless you don't actually listen to what people are saying, then the problem doesn't come from anyone but you. Especially if you constantly decide to just assume whatever it is you're thinking, act on it, and decide not to pay attention to the actual plans or at least checking with everyone else to make sure everyone's on the same wavelength, which are the only things I can assume you're doing considering you were the only one who thought the Masked Man would strike during daytime (though that doesn't even make sense even from a plot perspective).

Not paying attention like this could have some much worse lasting damage on the player dynamic than you realise.

In any cases, seeing how Guy removed his post, I'll have to ask that you lot make sure that you keep your scenes to plot hooks and later involvement, rather than delve into SoL territory again. It's best if the plot stays focused as much as possible rather than only focus on slapstick comedy and derail from the main point of getting everyone continually involved with the Masked Man, so, does anyone need assistance with how to set up their character for lasting involvement?

I've been discussing recent events with Iva and Natsumi. For now I'm going to be straightforward with you all, seeing as being diplomatic has gotten me nowhere thus far.

Things have to change here.

I've been looking forward to this thread for a long time. But as it stands all I'm feeling is intense disappointment and frustration towards it now.

I do not believe I set you all an impossible task, or even a particularly difficult one. The aim of the thread was simple. A little investigation pointing each character towards a group encounter with the antagonist. Plenty of opportunities were provided to get people involved. I specifically went out of my way to ensure that everyone would have enough MacGuffins to lead them in the right direction.

This should have taken a couple of posts per character. Most of the effort would have been on my part as I wrote out the individual scene setting.

You simply had to communicate with one another and put some thought into it.

I even offered suggestions for how characters could come into possession of one of these MacGuffins. I left it at that because a large point of this thread was to give you all a taste of Rping in a more organic, free way. Where you could all make choices spontaneously without having to plan each detail weeks in advance. Any more on my part would have been the kind of railroading I've been accused of and would have defeated the point of the thread entirely. Bear in mind, you know your characters better than I do, and while I could have come up with a number of different ways for them to get involved, only you can really decide which ones make sense for that character.

Again, all it would have taken was communication.

Instead, we got derailed into yet another SoL thread featuring wacky hijinks and belabored conversations that continue for pages while other characters are forced to sit by.

I admit, perhaps I was overzealous allowing as many players to join as I did. But had people kept their eyes on the goal of the thread and been proactive coming up with a way of involving themselves we would have been able to progress far quicker and more smoothly.

Despite his initial misgivings, Iva is a perfect example. Mugino found her MacGuffin at the crime scene, took it and investigated it her own way, coming to the delivery office and finding a piece of evidence that pointed her towards the rendezvous point. Instead, because the other scenes are lagging behind he's had to wait. Natsumi is the same.

So I made a decision to step in and progress things. Was it handled as elegantly as it could have been? No. But I followed the feedback I had been given by those willing to give it and made the call to advance the plot back in its original direction.

What I don't expect is for someone to call me out because I made a decision to move things along. This is my job as GM. But clearly, there's little confidence in my ability to perform it.

My first thought upon seeing Alex's post was to let him walk out, but I decided to be diplomatic, swallow my pride and walk back my post against my better judgment. After all, I don't want to look unreasonable. But the discussion since then has given me the distinct impression I should have followed my instincts and taken a hard line. Be assured that should problems arise in the future, I will be doing just that.

Opinion time…

Looking at everything from beginning to now, I must admit that I as well am slightly disappointed by the cast’s performance in this thread. We’ve been through a lot of RPing here and I have seen a lot from you guys, and yet this is probably the worst performance I have seen from you. Bitching, complaining and not delivering at the same time.

This is a mystery thread, the GM has been running his ass to give you something to do and encourage conversation and what do you do? Follow the same old SoL routine, sticking to the easiest path for you; a path that most certainly dragged the thread off of its goal more and more and more, leaving it to stumble in some overly drawn out comedy nonsense.

This should be about the Masked Man, mystery and suspense…not about some SoL bullshittery where people gather to have a fun time.

But that’s not all. What I am seeing is disrespect towards the GM. It’s Guy’s thread. Guy’s story. As he said, he’s been working years on it. And here you stand, going on about how he’s blocking off your scenes and your bonding or whatever? Really now? You were told the daytime scenes would be short. Just as short as the nighttime ones were. It was made so clear, everyone should have known…and yet you insist on continuing, basically grinding the thread to a halt, while even attacking Guy for deciding to finally enforce the time shift?

To be fair, it may have come too sudden, however you could have simply communicated this in a friendly way, instead of jumping the trigger immediately.

Anyway, what I personally want to see here is an apology paired with behavioural improvement.

I'm glad this matter isn't being brushed under the rug, because it's merely a sign of a deeper underlying issue since the thread began, and one only loosely connected to the management issues Lemouri spoke of.

I will make this as clear as possible: you all have been abnormally childish approaching this thread since Guy declared his different approach at GMing than what you're normally used to, and I'm more than disappointed in the way you're acting since I trusted you would at least be more mature than this. Perhaps I was wrong. It almost makes me wonder if some of you took advantage of the fact that I'd decided not to step in and take a backseat to be even more unreasonable than what you usually are when threads are in their beginning phase, and that childishness included being aggressive whenever pointed out flaws or simply uncaring and deciding to carry on unchanged.

Not to mention how absolutely rude you're being to Guy. Rather than try to communicate and approach him precisely because of that lack of habit for his playstyle, you instead decided to either completely hide yourselves in your comfort zones and bubbles by approaching me despite my repeatedly repeating that he was available if you called out to him (something only Lemouri bothered to do when having concerns or issues), or throw childish tantrums when displeased, only to always reason that Guy had to be in the wrong for not being communicative enough on his side.

That is a point, he does need to learn to approach others individually more, but that's a two-way effort and if you're not making it in turn (going to complain to other players rather than share your concerns with the rightful person, the GM), then you're losing the right to complain about what Guy does or doesn't do since you're evidently not doing it either.

This thread was not written in the intention of adapting to every character and ensuring everyone would be on track in accordance to or against their will; if you want to be a part of this plot, you have to work for it, and so far only Lemouri and Koyoko seem to be understanding this while the others are running, subconsciously or not, on the assumption that because Guy accepted so many players, it has to mean he'll deal with it whether he wants to or not.

This thread is a rumour where if you want to get anywhere, you have to do things to get somewhere and if you're really struggling then you'll be helped out as long as you show the will of wanting to be truly involved in it. It is neither a SoL thread where suddenly you decide to take time off plot for slapstick comedy with potential “character development” without consulting anyone prior as to whether it's a good idea for pacing thread-wise, nor a thread where Guy is forced to constantly make sure everyone is happy and magically has plot hooks without having to do anything, and especially not if they're going to repeatedly ignore the ones they're given down to giving so little fucks about helping each other out for the plot's sake that they're interfering with some people attempting to tie themselves in to the actual meat of the story.

You guys may say that you've been trying to communicate and the whole shebang, but what I've been seeing in these past couple pages was simply and purely gravitating around Taichi and Koyoko because “it made sense to do so” at the detriment of the plot and then letting loose a fountain of diarrhoea when Guy tried to correct that, something that even Koyoko admits doesn't even make sense any further than when Natsumi interacted with him so that I could ensure my own plot hook. No one actually stopped and ensured Mirai, for example, had long-term connection to the plot and a concrete reason to go after the Masked Man (and not Taichi, because the Masked Man is supposed to be everyone's mystery focus here, not a secondary element to mindless bonding) despite trying literally all thread to get one, they simply assumed that things would work out as long as those two were the centre of things without ever confirming anything with anyone.

Because, surely, things would work out even if they're not worked for and cooperated with.

And I agree with Iva's post, it feels like we've strayed from the rumour of the Masked Man to the fun adventures of Oda Taichi's and Company's Existential Crisis and, you'll have to excuse me, but that's not really what I registered to. I don't want to see the main element of why I registered to this thread relegated to a side-plot because people have issues with the idea of giving the reigns to Guy and not trying to take control of the thread's pace.

And the fact that people reacted so childishly to Guy's timeskip tells me that it's more about that precise lack of control than any kind of good will towards him, as if you stopped and thought about it, you'd realise that what would help him more would exactly be communicating so he can get back into the GMing bath easier, so don't give me any of this goodwill bollocks we've been served since this issue was brought up.

Right now, this isn't just a matter of Guy skipping ahead when he should've communicated it before or whether or not he's apt at taking criticism for the management or initial decision to accept so many cast members, it's also a problem where the thread is becoming a demotivating element to those who were really looking forward to it for years, including him, because it's getting bloated with unrelated content and unmotivated actions, only being scarcely cared for by the people in it save for some exceptions like Lemouri who, again, was the only one giving any active shit about helping us get everyone on track the best she could even if the methods weren't as efficient as they were hoped to be.

The more I see this childish nonsense occur each time you guys screw up due to your lack of communication, the less I want to play in this thread with this cast at this point, simply because it's growing unpleasant to wonder what kind of drama will arise if Guy dares act against expectations. If you guys are truly so bothered by the fact that Guy is seemingly incapable of “handling a large cast” (which he's done in the past, so I doubt that's the only problem at hand) then as far as I'm concerned what I'd ideally prefer to see isn't just an apology from the people who've been acting like entitled children since the beginning of the thread, but also considering cutting back the cast (though there are some very interesting players/characters that would be definitely worth keeping around amidst all this trouble) so that what remains is truly motivated to keep going forward without making life so much harder for every player, but that's Guy's prerogative, not mine,.

I want to be able to play and enjoy my goddamn reward fun thread for having busted my ass off for three years non-stop without having to stress over or manage shit just because people can't keep in their PMS syndromes (even though, ironically, the only person here who could have such syndromes is the only one actually being reasonable here).

And believe me, you're not going to stop me.

I hope i'm not overstepping my bounds as a mere new player among a bunch of mostly staff members and older players, but...

Everyone. Back. Off. For now anyway.

Tensions are high. Emotions going into overdrive. Everyone is feeling attacked and therefore feeling justified to counterattack their enemies right now. But this is not the way forward. Right now i'm seeing a lot of accusations being thrown around based on the presumed malice behind actions taken ICly and OOCly.

However, throwing these sorts of accusations around with such anger and hostility does literally nothing but exacerbate the situation all around. At best, it will make the other person shut up and just not voice their resentment at all, until things boil over again. I understand that when you feel wronged and attacked unjustly, your first instinct is to call that person out and see to it that they get their just desserts.

It's even easy to look back at things that were said and done (Or things that weren't said or done), while still feeling hurt and wronged, and see them as all part of a coordinated and deliberate effort against you personally all along.

Now, with all this righteous anger and antipathy toward the other person, are you in a state to actually look back on and solve the underlying problem?

...No, you are not. Anyone arguing otherwise is delusional at best.

There are clearly problems here, that everyone very sorely needs to discuss. But this can't be done while everyone is angry and demanding retribution.

So...take a break. Cool off. Eat some potato chips. Sleep. Do whatever it takes to get out of the red zone of fight or flight mode.

When you're all ready to discuss issues without the anger and the hurt, get to it. I even offer myself as a mediator if you think you need it. Even if not, I'd at least recommend that you guys stick to things actually said and done, rather than what you interpret their ulterior motives to be. This is a much more constructive means of actually working past issues. From what I've seen, there were a lot of mismatched expectations from all sides, and as has been said all thread along: Talk. About. Things. To. Each. Other. Preferably when wringing the other person's neck no longer seems appetizing anymore.