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[Nikitian]

Oh. Oh.
Now this is how it feels when an amateur meets a professional.
Okay, my best chance now:
In your opinion, is Dr. VonNost really our Doctor, or someone else (and half of the clues on their similarity were red herring, and the other - plainly misinterpreted)?

I am asking primarily out of two concerns: first, we've met Dr. VonNost in the ghostship memories, and yet nothing was mentioned to us of their similarity of appearance (past the glasses and the labcoat); and second, the time Lars found information about the Doctor, it was specifically about the Doctor and not just 'VonNost dude', perhaps stipulating that the Doctor as we know kept his original 'human' face - it's the only thing I can think of that could have connected him-in-the-memories and him-as-we-know-today - certainly not the name.

Also, in your opinion, is the last ER talk (which I haven't listened to, yet) to be considered 'common knowledge' in-universe, and thus potentially IC-available (like the 'footage' of past missions, and other petty things), or not? I am in need of purity of IC information for now. That'll help with the lawsuits (and ninjas) later

[piecewise]

I really should do a big question answering on the forums here some time. Maybe instead of a talk.

Anyone got questions for that kinda thing? Worth doing?

[Nikitian]

That's... cool!
There is a problem, though, as far as I can see: judging from the ER talk thread lack of further activity, I suppose that we've exhausted our supplies of short questions on mundane topics of ERverse and game-mastering, and would either want stories (which might be less-suited for Q&A), or 'forbidden' knowledge (which is, by definition, not meant to be available to us). The latter might work if you were willing to share 'slightly illegal' snippets of info, but happens only from time to time (like this tiny semi-Q&A session of yours you currently have been running for the last couple of nights) and is, frankly, far from being expected.
The story-telling could also work if you were okay with giving longer answers (and, once again, sharing somewhat obscure information), but I am not sure you had it in mind when you proposed that.

Edit: Upon checking the ER Talk thread, there actually might still exist a number of 'short mundane-ish questions' a few of us have, but my original point still stands. We want stories, and we want sweet forbidden obscure knowledge!

[piecewise]

That's... cool!
There is a problem, though, as far as I can see: judging from the ER talk thread lack of further activity, I suppose that we've exhausted our supplies of short questions on mundane topics of ERverse and game-mastering, and would either want stories (which might be less-suited for Q&A), or 'forbidden' knowledge (which is, by definition, not meant to be available to us). The latter might work if you were willing to share 'slightly illegal' snippets of info, but happens only from time to time (like this tiny semi-Q&A session of yours you currently have been running for the last couple of nights) and is, frankly, far from being expected.
The story-telling could also work if you were okay with giving longer answers (and, once again, sharing somewhat obscure information), but I am not sure you had it in mind when you proposed that.

Edit: Upon checking the ER Talk thread, there actually might still exist a number of 'short mundane-ish questions' a few of us have, but my original point still stands. We want stories, and we want sweet forbidden obscure knowledge!

We can talk forbidden knowledge. Well, minor mysteries at least. And I can give hints at more major stuff.

As per stories. Whadaya mean stories?

[Lenglon]

Forbidden knowlege? here's one for you:
what would have happened to Lyra if I hadn't actively resisted and expunged her "roll to not cat" symptoms? would it have been stable at the same level it was, or would it have progressed further and further the more I either A) didn't resist it or B) failed will rolls? until she was pretty much mentally all cat?

[Parisbre56]

Oh. Oh.
Now this is how it feels when an amateur meets a professional.
Okay, my best chance now:
In your opinion, is Dr. VonNost really our Doctor, or someone else (and half of the clues on their similarity were red herring, and the other - plainly misinterpreted)?

I am asking primarily out of two concerns: first, we've met Dr. VonNost in the ghostship memories, and yet nothing was mentioned to us of their similarity of appearance (past the glasses and the labcoat); and second, the time Lars found information about the Doctor, it was specifically about the Doctor and not just 'VonNost dude', perhaps stipulating that the Doctor as we know kept his original 'human' face - it's the only thing I can think of that could have connected him-in-the-memories and him-as-we-know-today - certainly not the name.

No idea. I just make the conspiracy theories, I don't believe them until I have enough evidence. For example, maybe the Doctor is a being that chose the disguise of VonNost or possessed him through an experiment. That way, they are both the same person yet also different people. And it also helps explain how he could had been seen in many different places after he was executed. They were clones or something like that.

Until enough evidence is found, everything is open. Right now all we know is that the two have a very high probability of being related or being the same person. Therefore, if I had to make an assumption in order to make a decision, I would I assume he is Von Nost. But I do not have any evidence to support that.

Also, in your opinion, is the last ER talk (which I haven't listened to, yet) to be considered 'common knowledge' in-universe, and thus potentially IC-available (like the 'footage' of past missions, and other petty things), or not? I am in need of purity of IC information for now. That'll help with the lawsuits (and ninjas) later

I believe there are 5 levels of OOC information:

• Things that would be IC knowledge to everyone, even the biggest idiot from the most backwater world. One should note that these are probably much different than what we know, since nobody (or almost nobody) is from Earth. But things like the existence of the UWM, space travel, the altered wars and similar should be known to everyone, even if they do not know the details. There are of course exceptions to this, caused either by backstory or by stasis dementia.
• Things that are related to a character's backstory. Only the characters themselves and  anyone they share that info with should know that, with some exceptions. For example, one could have heard about Simus' world in the news or happened to watch one of Flint's B-movies late at night.
• Things that are more refined knowledge but probably still publicly accessible, if one searched online, read a book or paid attention in galactic history class. Things like "The Battle of Hexbarax happened" or "The Shadow Walkers were created by that guy" or "Ceres was considered a heaven for exiled political extremists in the 2150s" or other things from the internet, the news or Storeroom 024. You could say your character knew that, but it might clash with your background a bit. Flint for example has an (admittedly quite wrong in places) knowledge of old Earth movies, just enough to make some jokes that nobody else should understand.
• Things that nobody should know unless they were at the right place at the right time. Hints and info gotten by talking to the AM, Steve or the Doctor. Knowledge about space magic. The super secret info you get when you join the spec ops team. The things the AM shared with Milno. Unless the character that made that discovery has shared with you, you are unlikely to know about it.
• Things that nobody (no PC, anyway) should know. Things that come from piecewise and his talks and have no indication of being public knowledge.

So in the end, one should probably use their judgement to decide where the info there belongs and how much metagaming they think they, their co-players and piecewise would be willing to put up with.

I really should do a big question answering on the forums here some time. Maybe instead of a talk.

Anyone got questions for that kinda thing? Worth doing?

Sort of like general background info, like Storeroom 24? Essentially an ability to browse the internet from our Wrist computers?

Ninja:

Forbidden knowlege? here's one for you:
what would have happened to Lyra if I hadn't actively resisted and expunged her "roll to not cat" symptoms? would it have been stable at the same level it was, or would it have progressed further and further the more I either A) didn't resist it or B) failed will rolls? until she was pretty much mentally all cat?

That also sounds good. What ifs and such.

[renegadelobster]

Stories of events that may or may not be pivotal/important before, during and after the altered wars? Or so called "myths", events that have happened but may have been embellished and/or changed? Maybe like the little text museum you put out a while back explaining the early parts of the universe. Or hell, just some of the HMRC's early missions.

[piecewise]

What ifs we can do.

Lyra's catisms would probably have increased. Probably never reached full cat, but she'd have to fight the instincts a lot more.

Stories of events that may or may not be pivotal/important before, during and after the altered wars? Or so called "myths", events that have happened but may have been embellished and/or changed? Maybe like the little text museum you put out a while back explaining the early parts of the universe. Or hell, just some of the HMRC's early missions.

*scratches non-beard* Hm. Any particular subject matter?

[renegadelobster]

I...hmm. Give me a bit to think about that. Um...any other major wars before the altered wars? Any accounts of altered trying to communicate besides eating someones head? Accounts from individual planets of extraordinary events happening? More unusual myths like the eater of cold? That's what I got off the top of my head. Some else smarter help please.

[Nikitian]

As per stories. Whadaya mean stories?

• Let's say, a story about the Sword's maiden voyage (unless it's a major mystery).
• Or how exactly things went to hell with the previous research team on that anomalous planetoid.
• Or, hell, a description of that crystal civilization we xenocided in the very first mission!
• Or maybe something about the predecessor unit of the Bastards - you know, how things were before the first mission for those other inmates, and especially those that remained for some time, but then slowly faded out of picture as new players joined.
• Maybe a story of that last mission of the AM - I hope it's not a major mystery?
• A story of that 'hero guy' she mentioned to Milno and maybe his last mission in greater detail (unless that's a mystery too).
• Who was "Bob Hardman", what crimes did he commit and how was he captured (if I guessed it right and he was a very minor NPC).
• Juicy bits of the career of that murderer-disemboweler the original owner of the psychoknife - without disclosing his name or other important facts, the mystery would remain safe!
• Or, damn, just that original inmate-medic and the nine notches on the oversized scalpel of Maurice.
• Maybe a biography of 'JANE' inmate (or what was her name?) who nearly killed Faith in M2 with the monorazor - up to the point of why she decided to do so.

... and so on. I say 'story' because it's not just a simple answer to a question, possible to sum up in a single sentence. It's a gathering of sentences that gives a rounded and fleshed-out picture of the events - something that encourages immersion in the setting, and not just gives specific knowledge about it. And it takes way more effort than mere answering of a question, I'm afraid.
(Though, on the second thought, about half of these stories above would not suffer much if the focus was greater on the facts, rather than immersion. Still, a little of that would be very appreciated.)

[Xantalos]

Actually I think I've a thing that could be interesting. Hey PW remember that one thing that the Doc did to get the anti-shapeshifting implant out of Xan's head? The special method? Mind if I post it here or want me to keep it secret?

[piecewise]

Actually I think I've a thing that could be interesting. Hey PW remember that one thing that the Doc did to get the anti-shapeshifting implant out of Xan's head? The special method? Mind if I post it here or want me to keep it secret?

You can say, if you want.

[piecewise]

As per stories. Whadaya mean stories?

• Let's say, a story about the Sword's maiden voyage (unless it's a major mystery).
• Or how exactly things went to hell with the previous research team on that anomalous planetoid.
• Or, hell, a description of that crystal civilization we xenocided in the very first mission!
• Or maybe something about the predecessor unit of the Bastards - you know, how things were before the first mission for those other inmates, and especially those that remained for some time, but then slowly faded out of picture as new players joined.
• Maybe a story of that last mission of the AM - I hope it's not a major mystery?
• A story of that 'hero guy' she mentioned to Milno and maybe his last mission in greater detail (unless that's a mystery too).
• Who was "Bob Hardman", what crimes did he commit and how was he captured (if I guessed it right and he was a very minor NPC).
• Juicy bits of the career of that murderer-disemboweler the original owner of the psychoknife - without disclosing his name or other important facts, the mystery would remain safe!
• Or, damn, just that original inmate-medic and the nine notches on the oversized scalpel of Maurice.
• Maybe a biography of 'JANE' inmate (or what was her name?) who nearly killed Faith in M2 with the monorazor - up to the point of why she decided to do so.

... and so on. I say 'story' because it's not just a simple answer to a question, possible to sum up in a single sentence. It's a gathering of sentences that gives a rounded and fleshed-out picture of the events - something that encourages immersion in the setting, and not just gives specific knowledge about it. And it takes way more effort than mere answering of a question, I'm afraid.
(Though, on the second thought, about half of these stories above would not suffer much if the focus was greater on the facts, rather than immersion. Still, a little of that would be very appreciated.)

Some of those might work. Though getting those as a coherent story has a lower likelihood than me just gossiping about them.

[Nunzillor]

If you are answering questions, what were the urban executor's coordinates pointing to in the mission with the laser fence?  Is it the origin point of the foreshadowed coming darkness?  Also was wondering what the significance of the vision was that Lars received on Hephaestus that mentioned the Kardashev scale.  Are these questions related?  Sorry if these have already been answered.

[Hapah]

Gossip-y question: What's the most work you've ever put into something (place, encounter, etc.) only to have the players sidestep it entirely? What was it?