Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo

[GF]

@ashkuri said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

good luck to them I hope they are having fun

This, really. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed the gossip and schadenfreude as much as anyone has! It just feels like they’ve made their choice that they want no outside input*, so fine, let them have it.

*I didn’t plan that but “outside input” is a very funny pair of words to me, what a strange combo

[Hobbie]

Four uses of the term “meant to”. This is standard fare, Cujo creates a blueprint and with it, usually without communication, comes the expectation that blueprint is followed.

As is tradition.

[Warlander]

@Warlander Well, I was wrong. I suspected Darth Omen was Banshee’s alt, since a surviving Mace Windu turned to the Sith sounded like Banshee’s wet dream.

But Banshee doesn’t play Darth Omen; Cujo does. I don’t remember this information coming up before now, but it may have; my memory could be a lot better. Just in case it hasn’t, I’ll re-broach the subject now.

[Jax]

@Warlander Cujo going to Cujo. Banshee got to Banshee. Hadrix is sexual harassing a couch. Aryn got to be the prettiest and most special. Everyone else are just NPCs.

Gawd @ashkuri and @Hobbie could build and run a better sw game if they it built out of the old Elendor database. Then for theme only read an issue of a Star Wars comic, saw half of Acolyte, and @Zephyr explain the Ewok movies to them with sock puppets.

"Note* Nothing wrong with Elendor, It’s just was Lord of the Rings.

[MisterBoring]

@Jax said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Hadrix is sexual harassing a couch.

Are you implying that Hadrix is JD Vance?

If so…

[Noraaa]

What’s crazy to me about the game is how difficult it is they make returning to it. I had actually had some weird itch to go and assemble a tiny crew of friends and ST some dumb Star Wars fun (since the coded NPCs are actually kind of neat) and then I remembered that I’d basically have to slog it through months worth of work before we could even do the basic stuff.

I’ve got a lot of complicated feelings about AoA. It was one of the first MUSH games that I really got to play in a shared game world. I learned a lot from storytelling for people there, too. But it wasn’t without its issues, some of them far more damning than others.

I hope those that left for good find something they love. I hope the folks who stuck behind still find joy in it. Kind of crazy that this thread is still so active, after all this time. I guess it really does speak to… well, something about the game, anyway.

Maybe we’re all just annoyed at how good it could have been.

[SpilledBeanz]

@Noraaa said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Maybe we’re all just annoyed at how good it could have been.

I totally get the impulse in thinking this, but I really don’t think AoA could ever be a great game. Having been mushing since the mid 90s, one observation that has seemed to prove itself over and over again is that great games are a beautiful dance between great staff and great players. There were some great players on AoA, but its staff situation was always a detriment.

It rode a wave after Ep VII because there was nothing to viably compete with, rising to become “the only game in town”. Looking at its numbers from 2001 to its first death in 2012, the earlier years being some of mushdom’s most popular as a hobby, AoA was never able to compete (~6-7 average connects, mostly staff). It never took off because it was an objectively bad game in comparison to other options out there.

We players sometimes take what we can get, though, and Star Wars little corner of mushdom has been in a very sorry state for the better part of the past decade. That’s what enables AoA to even have a single non-staff login, tbh.

I’m not really trying to argue, I do understand your underlying point, I just wanted to make mine… that AoA’s staff are the weakest link on that game and that has consequences.

[Noraaa]

@SpilledBeanz said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

I’m not really trying to argue, I do understand your underlying point, I just wanted to make mine… that AoA’s staff are the weakest link on that game and that has consequences.

I actually think that is largely my point as well, honestly. If I could just hop into that game, have its key systems, and do some storytelling stuff for friends I think I’d have a blast. I just sadly think that ship has largely sailed, and would just be too difficult to kickstart given staff policy and decisions on… basically everything.

Also I do think folks can have different perspectives on a thing like this. I don’t ever see folks having different thoughts an opinions as arguing, anyway.

[SqeakyClean]

@Warlander said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

@SpilledBeanz For what it may be worth, this hit the boards recently.

=========================<* 8: Game Updates - 221 *>=========================
Message: 8/221 Posted Author
Rise of the New Rebellion Aug 11 2024 Cujo

Greetings, all.

I’m tossing out a bbpost update on the state of the galaxy, as far as the Sith and the Rebellion elements go. The intention, following our previous time jump, was for the game to get a span of time where the clear presence of Sith Empire dominance was displayed. It had been 17 years since the fall of the New Republic, and we wanted to give a sense of hoplessness to the galaxy, that they were under that iron grip, and that the Sith Lords of this new era had refined the ideals that Palpatine and Tarkin had envisioned. We wanted to make it feel like this iteration of the Sith Empire was really pulling it off, with efficiency and intelligence. There are a lot of arguments that can be made that the Galactic Empire really screwed up in a lot of major ways, which lead to its relatively short downfall, and the desire here was to paint a more powerful edge to this Sith Empire, and give it a bit of that regal classic KOTOR-era Sith style too.

So again, the past year and a half of the game was meant to let the game coast on Sith Imperial rule. I’d hope it would yield some good fun for people, to RP staying hidden, staying in the shadows, being the ones on the run, if you are the ones pushing for the freedom of the galaxy from overlords and despots.

But, this is Star Wars, and we can’t stay in a position of total control for too long.

Because of this, if the past 18 years of the IC grid would be labeled something akin to the Reign of the Sith Empire, then my hope for the future going forward would be the era of the Rise of the New Rebellion.

The Rebellion has been building up its mobile shipyard fleet, a massive Mon Calamari shipyard on engines, dubbed the Organa’s Hope. This massive fleet factory is the focus of the future for the game’s story. Being that it is fully operational now, after nearly two decades of planning, and building, it should be considered fully in-play now. With its goal being to discover safe star systems, relatively speaking, that it can hyperspace in to, release its ships out… to go grab all the resources possible, bring them in and churn out a new attack force that can then head out to engage Sith Empire forces. Being that this mobile star base is the future of the New Rebellion, and that it is fully functional at this stage of the game’s story, then those players who wish to create stories around this are encouraged to do just so. We can tell you where the Organa’s Hope is located, and what its current goals are. It will be ICly producing fleets to attack Sith Empire forces, which will give the Sith Empire players something to react to as well, as they desperately defend their regions, while also trying to find the source of this growing New Rebellion. It is meant to be a high stakes game of cat and mouse, across the galaxy.

Additionally, at this stage, the New Rebellion is meant to formally request Jedi inclusion in their endeavors again. Not to be generals in a war, but to ensure as much of the galaxy affected by this war, are as safe as possible. The New Rebellion wants the Jedi to be there to help keep civilians, and innocents, safe from the Sith, but also from the splash back of war itself.

So in summary, the New Rebellion IS in full operation now. The wars across the galaxy are meant to be amping up, with word of mouth spreading rapidly that the reign of the Sith Empire is now facing its biggest challenge yet. It is the light, pushing back against twenty years of darkness.

I hope this helps, and if you have questions, or want to create stories based on this, just reach out to Staff and we can help you do that. We are here for you to do that. If you want to decide how to shape the galaxy, this is the vessel through which you do that. We want it to be fun, and we want you all to have great stories told here.

Reach out, and we will help.
------------------------------< +bbread 8/221 >-------------------------------

I predicted long ago that the Sith Empire will rule the galaxy until the game closes, so this post came as something of a surprise to me. Maybe the influx of new players was and is a lot lower than Cujo and his pets wanted. Maybe they’re wishing for more people to show off for, and/or they’re getting sick of each other’s company.

I don’t expect things to actually CHANGE there, since the Sith Empire is the favored faction, and the most active as well (not that this means much of anything, since activity outside of scheduled events is largely dead, and there aren’t more than a half-dozen scheduled events per month, at most); over half of all scheduled events these last six months have been ‘Sith Empire and allies’ events. With ‘allies’ meaning Sith subfactions, and mercs and similar independent characters loyal to them.

But this will make it SOUND like something fun and Rebellious just might be happening. Nobody joins a Star Wars game to play a tiny, powerless Rebellion.

Something I’m sure AoA staff and favorites are counting on.

Edit: For what it may also be worth, the post doesn’t actually change anything meaningful, no matter how excitingly and enticingly it may be worded. The supposedly now-fully-operational mobile shipyard was advertised during the timejump as being on the move and largely doing the same things it will be doing now, and the Jedi have been some degree of involved in the New Rebellion/Resistance for most of the time beyond the jump. I’m sure there’s more, but this tells most of the tale. As does the near-total lack of activity from the Resistance/New Rebellion these last few months. The faction is likely losing players and on the verge of dying. Can’t have that; the Sith players need to feel like they’re beating SOMEONE, after all, not a bunch of coded NPC stand-ups.

If you know a little of the game’s history and read between the lines, this post promises only more of the same of what is already happening. Nothing has changed.

(edited because I thought of something else and didn’t want to reply to myself…)

Reads

Wait what was even the fucking point of the sith take over then? (We know the reason) Why not just have a drawn out war between equal powers?

Sound like some old school back tracking.

@Warlander said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

@Warlander Well, I was wrong. I suspected Darth Omen was Banshee’s alt, since a surviving Mace Windu turned to the Sith sounded like Banshee’s wet dream.

But Banshee doesn’t play Darth Omen; Cujo does. I don’t remember this information coming up before now, but it may have; my memory could be a lot better. Just in case it hasn’t, I’ll re-broach the subject now.

Cujo is easy to pick out with his 3 sentence poses and bad spelling… Because he just doesn’t give a fuck.

@Jax said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

@Warlander Cujo going to Cujo. Banshee got to Banshee. Hadrix is sexual harassing a couch. Aryn got to be the prettiest and most special. Everyone else are just NPCs.

Gawd @ashkuri and @Hobbie could build and run a better sw game if they it built out of the old Elendor database. Then for theme only read an issue of a Star Wars comic, saw half of Acolyte, and @Zephyr explain the Ewok movies to them with sock puppets.

"Note* Nothing wrong with Elendor, It’s just was Lord of the Rings.

God damn Jax, this would be awesome. Honestly , I’d put time and money into this to make it real. Because it’s so god damn true.

[Zephyr]

@SqeakyClean said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Wait what was even the fucking point of the sith take over then? (We know the reason) Why not just have a drawn out war between equal powers?
Sound like some old school back tracking.

So initially the point was supposed to be digging Cujo out of the hole that he’d gotten himself into with the First Order not being defeated once we got past canon movie stuff. There was a push to try and make it restoring order against pirates and warlords and stuff, smaller scale story, but he didn’t want that. So we wound up in this protracted fight that no one was interested in fighting because, what was the point? Cool the First Order wins this, the Resistance wins that, there’s no point to any of it, this is the war that never ends.

It was going to be a clean slate where players could affect the story, and build a new resistance to eventually defeat the Sith. Except that Cujo drove out the people who actually generated roleplay. I don’t just mean the events, but the day to day scenes and little one off fun things that @Ashkuri was so fond of running.

Cujo never saw the importance in the day to day on the game. He and Banshee both argued with me that posts were enough in the main story and people should just be cool with those and RP off what they read, offering no avenue to actually participate in it. They don’t know how to deal with the social side of the game, because everyone on staff now is either antisocial, or hateful.

They poisoned the well, and now they’re shocked that everything is dying.

[Warlander]

@Zephyr You explained the game’s biggest problems in the best nutshell I’ve seen to date.

@Zephyr said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

It was going to be a clean slate where players could affect the story, and build a new resistance to eventually defeat the Sith. Except that Cujo drove out the people who actually generated roleplay. I don’t just mean the events, but the day to day scenes and little one off fun things that @Ashkuri was so fond of running.

Pity this idea was screwed from the outset, since we all know Aryn wasn’t about to let her pet faction get beaten, ever, and has alts in every faction in a position to sabotage every effort to change this even if Cujo wouldn’t give her whatever she wanted (which he would). This is likely the largest part of why all the activity generators left; in your own words, what was the point?

@Zephyr said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Cujo never saw the importance in the day to day on the game. He and Banshee both argued with me that posts were enough in the main story and people should just be cool with those and RP off what they read, offering no avenue to actually participate in it. They don’t know how to deal with the social side of the game, because everyone on staff now is either antisocial, or hateful.
They poisoned the well, and now they’re shocked that everything is dying.

Antisocial, hateful, or both. Mostly both. And for what it’s worth, it IS dying. I had a look at their logins tonight, and there were 50. But 30 of them were just alts, and at least ten of those were double-connected alts. I suspect at least half of the remaining 20 logins were staff, or staff favorites.

Not a lot of original bits for a supposedly very successful game. And this is AFTER an influx of new players over the last few weeks, at least a few of which were returning players. Once they see (or re-see) the light, I suspect they’ll be gone, too.

And staff will still have learned nothing except what they want to learn.

Edit: I’m sure someone will point out that roughly ten new player logins is a HUGE number of active players these days, and under ordinary circumstances, they’d be right.

But when you factor in players who were already there, that number shrinks to 5-7 new players at most, who most likely flocked to a game that looked HUGE just from its WHO screen.

Under normal circumstances, big WHO screens mean big games, lots of activity, and easily accessible RP. Big WHO screens on AoA mean tons of alts, stagnant activity, and little to no day-to-day RP. The kinds of places players tend to linger on briefly before leaving to find fun elsewhere.

TL:DR? Drain go gurgle, AoA still go round and round.

Edited 'cause afterthought, and didn’t want to reply to myself.

[Third Eye]

@Warlander said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

And this is AFTER an influx of new players over the last few weeks, at least a few of which were returning players.

I’m curious what prompted this. No shade to people who want to circle back to this…experience…for whatever reason…but I’m curious

[SpilledBeanz]

@Third-Eye

I imagine for some its simply the fact that it’s been nearly two years since everything went down, and they’re taking a look. We all know that itch can be strong at times, and distance can sometimes put a sort of haze over trouble we saw more clearly in the past.

I doubt it will result in any new long-term players though. The number of new player logins that were still logging in 3-4 weeks later was always very low (and has always been low on almost all games, of course), but in the absence of a community capable of pushing daily RP it’s probably even lower now.

[Jennkryst]

@Third-Eye said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

@Warlander said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

And this is AFTER an influx of new players over the last few weeks, at least a few of which were returning players.

I’m curious what prompted this. No shade to people who want to circle back to this…experience…for whatever reason…but I’m curious

Generally, any time there is new Star wars media, it re-sparks interest. But the Acolyte was too long ago for anything just a few weeks back, so shrug

[Warlander]

@SpilledBeanz Speaking of, this just hit the bboards today:

======================<* 7: Game Announcements - 182 *>======================
Message: 7/182 Posted Author
Old Guard Lounge Sep 30 2024 Cujo

Anyone in the Old Guard Lounge, who did not die IC, that can still log in to their character, can ask to be moved back to the IC grid.

Just put in a request. If you can still log in to your character, and you’re in the Old Guard Lounge, all you have to do is put in a request to get put back IC. If there are people who don’t even have their char passwords just have to ask for them to be updated, and you can get your character back IC then.

All you have to do is a request, and ask. Super simple! super fun time simple, big IC grid awaits.
------------------------------< +bbread 7/182 >-------------------------------

Better go get another carton of Morton’s salt to take this news with. I can smell the selective enforcement from here.

[Jax]

@Warlander Ha, ha,ha, ha!

For anyone who wants it, Jax’s password is jedi. His +sheet was super good. I salted the Earth and burnt bridges on the way out, So good luck with that. If anybody tries I want logs. I’ll be watching cat videos.

[MisterBoring]

@Warlander

When I read Cujo’s post there, my brain forced me to read it in Donald Trump’s voice for some reason.

[Ashkuri]

Obviously Cujo is Cujo, and various Cujo policies/decisions are always inexplicable. The ships, the cargo, the econ, the Stuff, the fairness or lack thereof, the BBpost Metaplot, the… whatever the deal with Aryn/Poe is, this weird “you can come back” moment, etc etc, you can pick on all of it.

I think it’s important to remember, though, that the whole debacle that started this was:

On this game if you are harassed, and particularly if you are harassed by a popular player who appears to generate activity, there is no help for you.

Cujo doesn’t need to be like “guyz you can have your toon back,” Cujo needs to be here saying “I won’t tolerate bad behavior, I’ll take it seriously, this is my house and I’ll keep it clean.”

But that’s never gonna happen, so. Oh well. Super fun time simple, big IC grid awaits, lol.

[Zephyr]

@Ashkuri said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

On this game if you are harassed, and particularly if you are harassed by a popular player who appears to generate activity, there is no help for you.

Cujo doesn’t need to be like “guyz you can have your toon back,” Cujo needs to be here saying “I won’t tolerate bad behavior, I’ll take it seriously, this is my house and I’ll keep it clean.

Especially since one of the worst offenders is on staff as Reverberate. The only people Cujo has ever treated harshly are people who have been critical of the game in some way. He’s also never going to clean house because he knows he’d have to take himself out with the rest of the trash.

[Anony Mouse]

@Zephyr said in Star Wars Age of Alliances: Hadrix and Cujo:

Cujo never saw the importance in the day to day on the game. He and Banshee both argued with me that posts were enough in the main story and people should just be cool with those and RP off what they read, offering no avenue to actually participate in it. They don’t know how to deal with the social side of the game, because everyone on staff now is either antisocial, or hateful.

They poisoned the well, and now they’re shocked that everything is dying.

That was as much Banshee as Cujo, and both of them are antisocial and hateful. They genuinely see players as a problem, though they behave differently about this. Being lazy and self-centered, Cujo tries to avoid dealing with PCs at all unless they’re kissing his ass, and then nothing is too good for them. Banshee’s different: Players cause him to have to actually do his job. Being a self-absorbed deadbeat of a coder, Banshee hates any work he doesn’t decide for himself to do, necessary or not. He also believes any PC is a potential cheater (like him), and the badly-written and incomplete help system on the game is in that state because he doesn’t want players knowing too much about how the game actually works. The way he sees it, they might become better cheaters than he is! So he hates them for being potential competition, whether they actually are or not (most aren’t).

A real problem with the First Order in the early days was that Banshee was plotting the arc for the faction, but not only almost never GMed for his own faction, but never told anyone else what he was planning, where the faction was going, or even what Outer Rim mudball everyone was supposed to be fighting on this week. Since nobody knew what in the universe they were supposed to be doing, there wasn’t much the actual players in the FO could do, RP-wise, not that this mattered to Banshee (or Cujo, either). Small wonder the faction rotted away to nothing, twice, when he was fachead.

Eventually they gave the Kylo Ren fachead bit to a different self-absorbed jerk (giving Banshee an equally twinky Knight of Ren bit so he’d let go of the Kylo bit), but it was still Cujo and Banshee who really ran the faction, mostly without consulting the actual fachead. The end result was that nobody really knew what the First Order (and its replacement for Stormtroopers, the Vanguard) was doing at any point in time. It was a terrible case of decision-making schizophrenia that ended up costing the faction players.

The fact that Banshee knows very little about the Force played into a lot of code and policy decisions. For instance, Ysalamiri, which absolutely wall off the Force within a certain distance of themselves, make Force use literally impossible: There’s no Force to use inside the Ysalamiri’s personal bubble. But since that would cause real problems for Banshee’s overpowered Force User bits, it only raises the difficulty to use the Force by 25, enough to nerf the average PC Force User but not even slow down twink-bits like Banshee’s, even if he isn’t spoofing the rolls.

How do I know Banshee isn’t exactly an expert on the Force? Well…

(:Public:) 1says, “I like Kylo Ren honestly because I knew he wasn’t a Sith going in. He’s not going to have the same control or mindset. For what he’s supposed to be, a dark Jedi TRYING to be a Sith, but isn’t being trained as one, and doesn’t have access to Sith knowledge. Naturally he falls short of Vader, Sidious, and the rest.”

(:Public:) 4 says, “It’s rare to see somebody where it feels like the LIGHT side is too strong in them, so they have trouble staying on the dark path.”

(:Public:) 1 says, “For what he’s supposed to be written as it makes sense. It’s like a Force user trying to self train as a Jedi. Assuming Snoke is dead, Kylo Ren has to train himself, and I don’t think Snoke was a Sith either.”

(:Public:) 1 says, “If Kylo Ren managed to find a Sith holocron capable of teaching him it could change everything. Maybe Darth Sidious created one, and finished it before his death. I doubt that Abrams wants to go in that direction but… without any Sith left alive there’s no other way for him to be initiated.”

(:Public:) Banshee says, “Thats the thing about the Sith. None of that is really needed. All you need is to stand up and say, ‘I’m a Sith, Harry’ and not be murdered immediatel.”

(:Public:) Banshee says, “Thats how Darths are born.”

(:Public:) 5 assumed they were born when one helmet loves another helmet very much.

(:Public:) 1 says, “Remember that scene in episode 3 where Anakin kneels before Sidious and literally becomes Darth Vader? That’s an initiation. That’s the only time where Sidious’ voice drops to a low growl and you here this other voice talking along side him in some “demonic” (for the lack of a better word) language. It’s not enough to call yourself one. There’s a real initiation into that lineage and tradition. Without it you have no conncetion to the “true power of the Darkside.””

(:Public:) 1 says, “hear*”

(:Public:) 2 says, “I dunno, I have a hard time believing you can’t tap into the dark side unless an old man calls you Darth.”

(:Public:) 1 says, “You can tap into the Darkside but to actually be a Sith you have to be initiated. Ventress tried to do the same thing and fell short. Dooku called her out pretty fast.”

(:Public:) Banshee says, “Nah, I mean, I’m sure people feel that way.”

(:Public:) 3 says, “The Dark Side isn’t exclusive to the Sith, but they have their own unique teachings and perspectives. Anyone who can use the Force can fall to the Dark Side. That’s the one enemy that never goes away: Yourself.”

(:Public:) Banshee says, “But there’s not really more to it. The Sith line isn’t some magic unbroken chain.”

(:Public:) Banshee says, “They’ve been murdered and extinct more than a couple times.”

(:Public:) 1 says, “Yes but every time it’s happened, someone found a holocron, someone found some Sith text, and it was reborn.”

(:Public:) 4 says, “The Dark Side will find a way.”

(:Public:) 1 says, “The Sith is a religion, the Darkside is not the Sith no… but it is its’ own tradition.”

(:Public:) 1 says, “That’s the tl;dr version”

(:Public:) 1 says, “I think with Rey it’s similar. She’s tapping into the LS but isn’t really a Jedi in the way that say… Obi Wan or Yoda was. I’m interested to see where they take this… I hope it’s going to be interesting”

The names of the players have been changed in case they’re still there (unlikely as that is), since we know certain unscrupulous people are reading this channel. Note the smug, condescending way in which Banshee tries to tell the other players they’re wrong without telling them they’re wrong, even though they’re not wrong.

The great revising (spelled n-e-r-f-i-n-g for blaster pistols) of all the blaster weapons also came out of this: Banshee’s bits don’t use blasters, so it’s no skin off his nose. But it made actual players miserable, and Banshee’s all about that.

Also, the new Kylo Ren refused to take part in any cross-faction RP if he wasn’t GMing it. And when he GMed, the First Order steamrolled everything, mostly because he insisted on some very heavy, ham-fisted caveats to make sure it happened. Actual PCs, especially Resistance PCs, were limited to what weapons and gear they were carrying. But First Order NPCs could twink anything into existence nearly at will, which ruined more than one Resistance plot.

In one plot, the Resistance only got their Acolyte Cannon because Kylo wasn’t GMing it. Even then, Kylo twinked his way into knowing the mission was going to happen, jumped the FO flagship into the system where it was happening within five minutes of the attack starting, launched a shuttle from the flagship and flew it to the station in two rounds (despite launching from much farther away than the Resistance capship did, and the way they did it made it essentially immune to attack from the Resistance X-Wings in the system), and within another round Kylo and a Knight of Ren PC who was just as twinky as he was were ambushing the boarding party and slaughtering their way through Resistance PCs and the one Resistance technician NPC present (the Telekinetic Attack power reliably one-shotted characters and allowed no defense, and it was the only one they used against PCs and NPCs, probably because it reliably one-shotted characters and allowed no defense). The only reason they didn’t twink-murder the entire boarding party was because one quick-thinking PC, the only one still standing, got a turbolift door open, guided the two downed PCs inside, and shut the door before they could TK her, too. With Resistance PCs off the murder list because the turbolift was already going down, and seeing the Acolyte Cannon being lifted away from its mountings by a Resistance ship, they tried to destroy the cannon out of spite. Ektor, the Resistance’s most active scenerunner, let them damage it a little. According to Kylo, they deserved that simply for showing up to a scene they never should’ve known was happening.

That’s the way Kylo was: He would actively try to ruin anything that might help the Resistance gain even a slight advantage, up to and including cheating, and Banshee and Cujo let him do it every time. With the Acolyte Cannon scene, they claimed there was a PC spy (who didn’t exist) who tipped Kylo off, likely via a scene run by Banshee, who wouldn’t deny Kylo anything. Cujo allowed the scene, and only told Ektor, the scenerunner, about it at the last minute. This wasn’t the first scene of Ektor’s that Kylo had crapped on, so he wasn’t happy at all.

After that, Kylo wouldn’t go near a cross-faction event unless he was running it. A few times, he had other players say they were GMing just so anybody else would show up to be murdered. For example:

.-============= Clash on Aridus - Thu Aug 29 19:30:00 2019 EST =============-.

The Jedi Order will learn the date and time that the Knights of Ren will be staging the execution of a captured Jedi, Angouri Dros, for crimes against the galaxy on the desert world of Aridus.

Jedi and Knights of Ren are invited to participate in the clash, as well as ONLY the ground forces of the Resistance/First Order. This will be on location at Aridus, and if you choose to participate, understand that this is a high-stakes event and consequences will be enforced.

GM: Rey (Ry)
Group(s): Jedi Order, Knights of Ren, Resistance, First Order
Signups: Oran Arcantael and Kylo Ren

`-=========== Clash on Aridus - Thu Aug 29 19:30:00 2019 EST - 2 ===========-’

Rey never GMed anything, to my knowledge, and would go along with anything staff wanted. Kylo was the GM. And the reason they wanted ground forces only was because all of the active Resistance FCs and the most active players were pilots; everybody else would be an NPC or a new player that Kylo and his twinky Knight of Ren pal could massacre without the slightest risk to their bits. The justification was that the FO didn’t have any pilots, but they actually had several; one of them had been idling in a starfighter cockpit for weeks at that point. Most of the Jedi PCs were very new bits, definitely not up to Kylo’s level. And ‘understand that this is a high-stakes event and consequences will be enforced’ is Kylo-speak for ‘If I twink-murder your PC, they’re dead. Boo-hoo, so sad, cry, little baby, cry.’

All this built up such a mass of hard feelings that cross-faction RP between the two military factions essentially died. Nobody in the Resistance felt they could trust the First Order leadership (for good reason), and I don’t doubt Kylo claimed the Resistance plotrunners were as twinky and dishonest as he was, simply because they wouldn’t let him run roughshod over their PCs.

The three of them pissed in the well, early and often, and now they’re amazed that nobody’s drinking out of it. But that goes along with all their other brilliant decisions.