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[Truean]

The DM for the game is gone. There's no more game and no more thread until we get him back.

Let's focus on getting the DM back instead of fighting with each other. The bickering is what drove him away. Continuing it will not bring him back. Bickering isn't accomplishing anything. If the thread is locked, then it's because the DM isn't here. The thread probably should be locked if Mal doesn't come back, because if it isn't locked, then all everybody is going to do is bicker. The more we bicker, the less fun this is for Mal and the less likely he is to come back.

We need to all sit down and figure out how to make it so this doesn't happen again and how to get Mal back.

Please come back Mal. You are an amazing writer and this has been an amazing game. I don't want to see it die in your absence.

[3man75]

As someone pointed out I think mal just lost interest with this story. He's had to update it for months now on top of everythingelse going on in life which I believe is to be a chore for him.
Since that period he got a bit lazy/lost track and made big plot hole we don't know about. I think it's best he take this break and then decide if it's still worth it plus I don't think thus story has a ending...so maybe we can say he (stone) died not giving another poo.

[Plato Play-Doh]

I can think of a couple of things you could apologize for, namely refusing to at least give Mal the benefit of the doubt, and getting caught up in "anachronism," when explosives, though not present in the real-world middle ages, have been used fairly often in medieval fiction, and seem plausible to anyone who hasn't decided to take "this is how it happened in the real world" like 50 steps too far.

I never said my objections were on grounds of anachronism. Merely that these specific people had no foreshadowing of this capability. Months of opportunity to use gunpowder at leisure to speed up their siege, then after a forced march during which they left quickly at night without most of their gear, we don't find any supplies of mysterious iron spheres left behind; we raid their rear where they'd be transporting these heavy things in wagons, and find nothing... do you see why this is not anachronism, but merely something that feels spontaneously contrived? Forget history, but at least enemies shouldn't tech up a few centuries over the course of two days. Suddenly, any foe can have any advantage without laying any narrative groundwork.

As for not giving Mal the benefit of the doubt, I think you should read my posts again, since the actual substance is not what people are calling angry and flaming.

They explicitly were said not to have much siege equipment. Gun powder is highly implausible from people who can't even build a mangonel, either, and it's odd to say the least that they wait until now to use it. This latest update is not really... well, I'm not sure what to say...

It still seems like something that is starkly... well... I'm not a fan of this latest update, to be honest to a degree that pains me, because a corrollary to Chekhov's Gun is that, if you have a man shot in the third chapter, then make sure your society has metallurgy and chemistry to make such equipment in the first chapter. A culture that can make an iron sphere can also make better than fur armour... eh..

I respect Mal's vision and don't want to discourage him too much. He has produced an continuous string of good ideas, and that creative process will eventually lead to a few bad ideas sneaking in. My intent is not to destroy his will to create more of those good plot twists, and I've regained a certain amount of curiosity for the next few updates...

If the above merits an apology, then I apologise. Mal will not sweep miraculously into this thread upon your ritual sacrifice of a victim to expiate his divine wrath. You have not summoned forth the volcano god by tossing me down into the caldera. You have bizarrely fixated on getting me to apologise for some reason, as if that really were the solution to something.

You present good points. I withdraw my complaints regarding your conduct.

To Truean: Their complaints (which are valid) do not seem to be about anybody owing anyone anything, and even before reading Gerv's response to what I stated, I wasn't entirely in agreement with your opposition to constructive criticism, and you WERE making use of ad hominem towards Gerv. Yes, I disagreed with their criticism, and felt that they were a bit overly hostile about it, that hostility exists on all sides, despite the fact that none seem to have any malicious intent. We all want Mal back, and I can understand why he would be unhappy with some aspects of his hard work being poorly received, but so long as the conversation is kept civil, (again, both sides of this argument have breached that much-needed civility) there is NOTHING wrong with admitting a flaw in something you admire. This game has truly become a work of art, with Mal as a masterful painter, but that doesn't mean he's incapable of making any mistakes. He's still human, after all, just like the rest of us. A genius? Yes. A diety? No.

As someone pointed out I think mal just lost interest with this story. He's had to update it for months now on top of everythingelse going on in life which I believe is to be a chore for him.
Since that period he got a bit lazy/lost track and made big plot hole we don't know about. I think it's best he take this break and then decide if it's still worth it plus I don't think thus story has a ending...so maybe we can say he (stone) died not giving another poo.

I must admit, this is likely true. I feel we should all realize that this is a very real possibility, unfortunately.

[Truean]

Go back and point out where I mentioned Gerv before he barged in. This is the only post I've made here for several months so it would have to come from here. It doesn't. He then directly accused me of trying to escalate things. I'm not talking to him and am basically ignoring him. I haven't posted in this thread in months and only said something after several pages of it blowing up and the DM being driven out.

People wanna talk to Mal about something in game? Fine. The way it was handled here? Well, the results speak for themselves.

there is NOTHING wrong with admitting a flaw in something you admire.

When the DM says he doesn't know what to say, reading our comments on the game is very difficult for him, he's not having fun, he doesn't need this level of negativity in his life and he's gone, that's a problem. There's a lot wrong with that.

I'm out.

[evilcherry]

I guess we should let Mal to have a proper chance to finish the story of Samuel Stone. After all his deeds deserves a good ending.

[kahn1234]

Why are people talking as if its ending?

Yes, Mal said he was taking a break. Doesn't mean he left. If I, or anyone else, have upset him, well I'm sure we all apologise.

I dont want this game to end. Far from it. Before people started escalating things by trying to justify a plot hole (which may or may not even be one) Garv had written a single post stating his opinion on the last two updates. He even said they made him more intrigued about where the game is going, although he didn't particularly like the last two updates.

And i said that i dont agree with the updates, but i would still watch.

The reason it got to this point is due to people blindly starting an argument where one shouldn't have started. People are allowed to have opinions. Gerv and I voiced ours, yet several people jumped on us and started using straw-man arguments, amongst other things, to put us down.

It was a silly argument. it wasn't Garvs posts that made Mal leave. It wasn't my posts. It was the argument started by the very people who were arguing for the sake of arguing and it led to everyone getting too rage-faced. That's why Mal said the pages were hard to read.

[Maldevious]

This will be my final post in this thread. After a night of thought and introspection, and an observation of the discussion that has taken place since my previous post, I have decided that continuing to pour hours into this story is not a good use of my very limited free time.

As I go, I must admit that speculation that I have "been hacked," "lost interest," or "gotten lazy" was hurtful to me, given the time that I have spent working on this story. The lack of trust in my ability to weave an intriguing tale, after this long stretch of gaming together, has frankly blindsided me.

For what it is worth, I can assure you that I had what I considered to be an interesting scenario coming up for you to tackle, but I now have no desire to continue it.

To those who were concerned about anachronism, I humbly direct your attention to this page. To those wondering where these weapons came from, I simply note that I had stated that the world was bigger than just your Kingdom in a previous post, and that Sam Stone has never been an omniscient narrator. The world is broader than he has seen, or it was and would have been, had we continued.

To address the concerns that your suggestions were not involved in this update, and that I had broken the compact of the game by doing so, I agree that you were not given a chance to suggest a different course of action in this post. I must point out, however, that I have had story events happen before that you could not "react" to until they were done. For example, Count Foles was found dead in Curbiston before you could act. That broadly affected the story, and precluded the players from suggesting actions that would have led to a vastly different outcome. In the next chapter of the story I had laid out, I needed to move Count Stone to a new set of circumstances that I hoped you would find intriguing and challenging as players, and I stand by my choice to do so.

However, the fact that the reaction to what was intended to be a surprising, even jarring, post was not "Let us explore this new situation as Samuel Stone!" took the joy out of this for me. Even if you disliked the post, I would have hoped that, given the length of time that we have all invested into this story, you could have remained immersed in the game.

Instead, the meta-gaming and critiques of my abilities, motivations and intentions that took place were exceptionally disheartening. It leads me to believe that I am best served by using my free time elsewhere.

So about that sums it up on my end. While I do feel a sadness for the loss of a story that I enjoyed writing, the issues I have addressed above have lead me to the decision I have made. Thank you all for your time and efforts in this tale; I truly could not have done it without you.

[Maldevious]

As a final farewell, I wanted to thank you all again, and point you towards two new games that are being run in this style.

The first one is The Lordship Spinoff, aka the Story of Baron Dominic Soan (Suggestion Game). Run by evilcherry, it is set in an entirely different universe, but the mechanics are similar.

The second one is Heirship: A Suggestion Game. Run by Gervassen, it is a continuation of this story told through the life of Isaac Stone, the first son of Count Stone. In this game, the final battle against the Sea Raiders resulted in the death of Count Stone, rather than his uncanny survival. Otherwise, the story and the universe are the same.

So check them out! See you all around the forums.