@Decius said in Anomaly TrekMUX:
@Runescryer Oh, I'm totally with you about the road to hell and good intentions. There were a lot of things I feel that Gamma One did well, and that I'm proud to have been a part of... and I can also promise you very few of them have to do with reports (Stories like the one from @Three-Eyed-Crow make me want to throw something sharp through the nearest temporal vortex...)
With that said, I think there might be value for @goodstarbuck in looking at some the intended benefits, and trying to craft something that captures some of these without repeating the mistakes we made (not making RFD a 'mandatory before you can do anything' step is probably a good start).
Here's what I see as some of the ideals of what we were going for with +reports:
- Provide new players with a structured first few activities to get them engaged
- Provide an IC way for multiple people to track research on a topic (and for other people to view that research)
- Provide an IC way for people to 'tell their story' of plot events
- Provide a way for staff to know what information players are 'officially' sharing.
- Allow plot continuity in the event of a player absence
- Provide a continual source of RP hooks beyond hanging out in the bar/holodeck/fitness center.
- Allow players a way to express interest in engaging with a particular ongoing plot
And I can totally agree with those points.Now, I can only speak for the Medical side of things here, so I don't know how successful/unsuccessful +report was for other Branches. But, Medical tended to be the 'easiest' in for casual RP beyond the standard 'Ten-Forward/Coffee Shop/Kitchen' scenes on other games. You suffer a minor injury, you go to Medical and chat with the Officer on duty while they patch you up. We see it dozens of times from TNG onwards. The problem on a game like Anom/GO is, that you had to +report these encounters; or at least, the more serious ones. The idea was that +reports could lead to long term plot ideas, so even something as trivial as a cold had to (I was lead to believe) have a +report in case it became the basis for a station/ship-wide alien plague TP. If Lt. Player Character came in because they dislocated a shoulder in the Holo-Suite's Denali Expedition sim, that had to have a +report, if only to let the Lt.'s supervising officer know that they need to be on restricted duty for a bit to let things properly heal.
Like @Three-Eyed-Crow mentioned/hinted and I have said before, +reports became almost a second RL job...
Now, with all that said, I think that a +report system could work. The key is to make it less intrusive. Again, speaking only Medical Branch here...
-If it's something that could just be hand-waved, like the RFD Physical, just assume it was done.
-Use a +reports system for the things that are actually going on, RP/TP wise, instead of an RP/TP generator. Using the 'cold to alien plague' example, you shouldn't have to write up a +report for the Trek equivalent of handing out a Day-Quil capsule to a PC. But, if there is a pre-planned 'plague' event TP, then +reports to chronicle the TP are reasonable. Similarly, you shouldn't have to +report injuries that are used as an 'in' for casual RP. But, if the player is wanting to do a personal TP about struggling with an addiction to pain killers, then +reports can further that TP.
For me, it's all about the context of the scene. To borrow a line from Voyager, before requiring that a +report has to written up, it should be asked, 'What's the nature and purpose of the Medical RP scene?' If it's a casual/social scene, no worries; handwave that report. If it's a part of a larger TP/Event, then yes, a +report should be done.
My .02 credits
No apology needed. Being mostly on the outside of the RP until the 'event', the only thing I saw was that there had been a miscommunication/misunderstanding at some point that ended up...well...