The last 7 threads (sorry; the first 6 threads) have worked. (And W@RF 7 contained a
lot of big plots).
At the end of the day its the characters that carry the story. That doesn't mean having super-powered freaks or experiments or whatever; it mean giving them interesting or conflicting personalities and such; Dionysia and Skelter nearly had a brawl just cus of who they are for example. Rupture Farms is an odd place, where mudokons have rites and sligs caren't allowed to shoot them for fun. You put slaves and normal industrial sligs and such into the place and that's what makes it interesting.
Events build up on their own; they don't have to be sudden, random and pointless. At the end of the day incexplicable floods and fires don't have
any lasting effect, but, to take a favourite example, a while ago Anni (who back then controlled by T-nex) and an old character of mine called Stivik met; their relationship was originally not unamiable; Anni liked him, he at least wasn't bothered about her, but gradually conflict grew between them which has had a lasting effect on Anni (she was once
very cheerful).
Even before that there was a big-bro slig called Jammer who was irritable and nasty, unusused to Arnie's niceness law and therefore even more irritable, making him pick fights; eventually he nearly killed another slig and was nearly killed in turn by a mudokon protecting the other slig, and it caused big effects and changed the characters for the rest of their time in the RPG. There have been sligs more willing to accept Arnie's laws and they've also developed. At one point there was talk of flushing out the animals living in the basement and ruined part of the factory, and a slig found himself having to convince the people with him not to.
You aren't expected to just walk around but if other events are to happen they only work if they grow naturally; as I said, Dionysia and Skelter just came within an inch of flaying each other just cus of who they are. Then she coped with her agression by slapping the nearest person who she could hit without looking petty, and that led to this current entanglement (By the way, I'm waiting for SkillyaSlig or Ark, but Ark the mudokon could use the fight between Mola and Ophelia (awesome name!) as a distraction to dive for cover; say the kitchen, and from there to the warehouse, furthering the plot) which is giving half the factory a lot to do while the other half fights the fire. Where might this end with Ark is such trouble? What will it mean for the characters involved?
I think one of the problems W@RF has been having is just a lack of good characters; people join with their hippy muds and hippy sligs holding hands and skipping about and all lovey-dovey and there's nowhere to take them. That's why the RPG flounders.
Big factory-wide-disasters slow things down agonisingly (take W@RF 1 where the last three pages took place in a single afternoon cus of a big animal-breakout whereas the rest of the thread took place over about a week cus the plot was able to move of its own accord, or worse, W@RF 7 where the whole story took place in one morning cus a few animals got into the factory and caused havoc) and make character development difficult. Let events grow of their own accord through characters and the factory environment. That's what makes the story more memorale and the game more enjoyable. Trust me when I say a plot that builds slowly is more fun than a sudden thing; it takes longer and you don't always know where it's going which makes it mre exciting. When Anni hid in the shadows listening to a conversation between Stivik and RG-47 no one had any idea that Stivik and Anni would later be physically fighting each other; one of my favourite experiences in RPGing.
Venks, maybe you could look at having Doe settling as part of the factory to spy and such for a while, and so uncover more about the characters. Already I can see that going in an interesting direction, and it would help him aleviate the suspicion on him.
Plotwise, waiting for Ark and SkillyaSlig...
