That Time of the Year

Marie also had the bright idea of making 1 general account for whoever the rotating admin is. Think that would go a long way towards simplifying things.

This guy.


Also, I skipped the middle four pages of this thread, but I'd like to point out that you guys complaining about always playing the same type of character is why I've never played the same type twice.

I would like to say not it. Also, Not gonna do it.

Yeah, I started RPing with a few of these guys in September 2008 but LOW was born in 2007 and I know there were quite a few games that existed before I showed up on one of Flex's games.

The characters are going to be around unless they die during their player's turn as Admin, and will be needed in the next contract. I think the Contract Admin would be justified in playing them alongside the Captain. The thing is, this will be a more communal system with us working together 90% of the time (barring company infighting). It's not like the Contract Admin is going to be promoting their personal character's interests to the detriment of other characters. Plus it gives the Contract Admin that bit of extra freedom if they want to split the company into 2 groups. They won't need to create an extra character to be their voice on a mission that excludes the Captain as they will already have their character to do that.

We're used to RPing in a different way and often relying a little too much on admins so I think this system will encourage cooperation and group responsibility. I think we just have to trust each other to play fair and not abuse the Admin role when it's our turn. I don't think anyone would do that.

The most important thing is that we'd need to share the Admin account and agree on a Captain that everyone willing to take a Contract is happy to play.

I don't think it makes sense for the captain to be controlled by anyone other than the Admin, because the admin is in charge of the contract. Remember that it's not so much about solving missions as fighting our paymaster's enemies.

I think it gives too much responsibility to one player to be the captain, personally, particularly when they don't have an admin's power to match it. Anyone who has ever played a monarch in a game in which they were not admin will know what I mean.

"We're an anarcho-syndacist commune..."

I thought we had decided that we have an admin captain for the first mission, who then dies at the end. From then we can have player captains.

I would personally not be ok with my character having to die after I had gone to the effort of designing and running a contract. I think that would put off other people from taking the admin role for a time too because most of us design characters with the expectation they will last a little while. Of course being mercenaries characters are going to die and probably more often than in some other games but I wouldn't want that to be a necessity element of taking the admin role.

I did think about the rotating captain thing but wasn't sure how realistic it would be. For our OOC purposes it makes a lot of sense, yes, but in realistic IC terms it could lessen the continuity for the company as each officer would likely have different relationships with each of his/her fellow officers. In ADWD the army attacking Meereen rotates command between its generals but that's a whole army so it's a bit different. Jon is correct that it would be harder to justify a rotation for some roles than for others and it would be a shame to restrict character creation based on who is and isn't willing to take the role.

So, yes, I think the captain should be a designated character.

Ok so a new question. If the captain's role is separated from the admin role, who would be willing to take it? I would happily play the captain if he's linked to the admin role but I don't want to be the captain if I'd always have to be the captain.

And if the player captain doesn't feel like doing the mission that the current admin is running, then what? The Captain should be played by whomever is admin at the time, and that character and either die, or be deposed, or be rotated out through gameplay over the course of the mission, when we transition to the next admin. I don't see how that could possibly be an issue for anyone.

Make it an IC thing; the company can be formed in such a way that we have this system of rotating command, and the problem is solved. If a player wants to become the captain of the company, OOC they have to step up and be the admin for that mission.