Don't Even Want To Write This Post. At All.

[Mysti]

So ... I'm not going to bother mincing words here. I don't know what gives - but I'm pretty well tired of being treated as persona non grata.

See ... here's the deal. As Flession can attest, I've been gaming for a long long time. Long before there was the internet much less online gaming, so I was able to get on the ground floor of that concept -- starting clear back when there were just BBSs, MUDs, and MOOs.

My point is this: In all the years I've played in RPG communities (rather than a small group) I've used the same tactic. I would write a scene and wait for someone to come along and drop into the scene with me. Didn't matter if it was one person or a hundred. I'm pretty certain I included the word "OPEN" unambiguously in every thread title. Think of it like a fisherman casting his line into the water -- then he sits back and waits until he gets a bite. Thus when i write a scene, it is like a baited hook aiming to catch another person to drop into the scene and do a little (or even a lot) of RPing.

And this tactic works. It always has. As I told another player here -- last October I joined an online "living community" for Shadowrun. Unfortunately, the RP there was dead. They still ran actual SR games, but the RP channels hadn't been touched since 2020. So I did the same thing there that I've done here. I simply wrote a scene in one of the RP channels. Within a day there were no less than seven people in my thread. Within two days, it was a veritible party with most of the playerbase shuffling in and out of the thread. It became RP central for awhile.

And yet -- when I do that here -- it's as if people have no idea what I'm doing. Except ... I think they do. Because the first open scene I wrote, I did have one player drop into the scene and we had some decent RP -- perhaps even having a business arrangement, after a fashion. So if ONE person understands what my scenes are for, I find it hard to believe that no one else does. What this tells me -- either on purpose or through neglect -- that no one is interested in establishing any kind of dialogue with my character. Which makes playing in this game --- well, boring would be a compliment at this point. Right now I just feel unwelcome, to put it succinctly.

In addition, I know people are reading my threads based on the view count. I often think to myself, "My god, they are right there! All they have to do is click the post reply button, have their character say "hello" and viola ... RP!" But instead, dozens of people have chosen to read my scene then simply walk away.

And if that weren't bad enough, when I do post, I get criticized. Eh? Wha? I find it somewhat ... well ... irritating that I can be criticized for how I do things when ... why? What difference does it make if I do this or that in my posts if you have no intention of interacting with me? Who cares? It's like complaining about food in a restaurant where you have no plans of ever eating. What's the point of that?

I wrote an "intro" scene for Mysti in the New Sensation thread -- and not one person even acknowledge she was there. No one looked at her -- or nodded or stared or smiled or drew their weapon and stabbed her or anything at all -- even by people who knew her on some level. Because she didn't have a "date." Thus she was essentially ostracized. Then I get criticized for not interacting. Heh. Savor the irony.

I really don't know what to do -- but it seems like all the RP here is "pre-arranged." It's all being done behind the scenes -- in PMs or maybe in the Fallen Ash server, I don't know. One thing I DO know is that no one has ever reached out to ME for any pre-arranged RP.

And believe me, I've clicked around looking for someone who, like me, may have written a scene and was looking for a RP partner. I've never found one. Not once. Every scene, every thread was prefabricated -- so it was impossible to just find RP out there. Because I just don't see any.

I was told I had to send out PMs and ask for RP ... something I've never had to do in any community anywhere for any game in 40 years. Those I have reached out to have essentially blown me off. I should say that no one has been overtly nasty to me. But aside from one person, no one is very inclusive, either. I deleted many of my posts and redacted the ones I couldn't delete. Except for a handful. Because it just seemed silly to me to have these scenes sitting there all by themselves with 25 or 30 views and no responses.

Now - I could sit here all day writing everyone an individual PM and hope someone is nice enough to let poor Rudolph play in their reindeer games -- or I could just post this on the forums so everyone can see it all at once.

You (collectively) can do one of two things.

1) Include me in RP. Consider this a PM to each of you since I was told that's what people do here. And that does seem to be true.
2) Bust my balls for daring to be direct and upfront and ostracize me even further --- not that I would notice at this point.

I would rather it be the first one. If you're interested in doing something, feel free to PM me. If you choose the second well ... I have nothing invested thus far so ...

Thanks for your time.

[Ikkit the Bastard]

I will state, for the record, that the playerbase seems very... siloed in this game, and not entirely sure of the why of it- but you're not the first to have this experience- and in general most inter-PC relations seem very... ad hoc. Case in point, Ikkit was in a combat thread with Thaddeus, Feature, and Fyne- none of whom he has directly or voluntarily interacted with since. Some of that is by in-character choice (my bridge arson specialist and Fyne have been at odds since Day 0 with just about nothing having happened in-character to merit any change), some of that is due to legitimate OOC hangups (Feature's player had to dial it way, way back for a bit due to spousal health worries), but some of it's due to... "why would my character go anywhere near these people?"

And I think we've all got dangling"task" threads that just kinda hang there, open, inviting, and unanswered.

None of which means anything you wrote is wrong, of course, but I seriously doubt there's any deliberate cliquing up, so much as just... a game that accommodates a few too many wildly disparate character concepts who have very little reason to interact.

(And the "Ikkit might call on Mysti as muscle" card remains in play )

[Cyprian Kircheis]

That and I mentioned in PM that these games are a little hard to get in to late. Not, again because of cliquing up, but more of what Ikkit said. And I know that the view count thing is easily explainable by your own views, page refreshes, and likely people clicking in out of curiosity from Fallen Ash - not necessarily active players. The best way to let someone know you're down to RP is the 'pop-ups' thread. I know a few players who would have loved to have met Mysti before now who more than likely have just missed you. Illiam being top of the list.

Also RP wise it might not make sense for someone's character to run into you at that junction of the day. I mentioned in one thread how home was literally on the other side of Sigil. Which is a LONG hike. So there's also that.

[Flession]

It's you mostly being unfamiliar with the stylization and the format we do things in FA, which I probably should have done better to make clear for you.

Anyways, your points are noted, but I will lock this thread to avoid any unnecessary drama. If anyone wishes to discuss anything else with you about this, they may PM you or hit you up in chat. I hope you can get a thread here and improve your experience before the game ends, if you are still willing to try.