Mask Is Off [Moyr Ahaya's Q&A]

[Moyr Ahaya]

Double entendre for an opening because why not. Ask away.

[Nekoinu]

I wonder how Moyr would react to Sath's identity. I doubt it'll ever happen but my curiosity burns.

[Sylvain Torsin]

It's not like I chat with you in discord or anything about the game...

Loved Moyr again my dear. You always put so much into your characters.

*hugs*

[Moyr Ahaya]

I wonder how Moyr would react to Sath's identity. I doubt it'll ever happen but my curiosity burns.

She'd be cool with it. I think she could touch base with Mr. Bothan how corrupt and hopeless the Republic is and how old regimes should be brought down. She has always been more loyal to her ideals than to institutions, and like-minded ruthless revolutionaries come from many strange places. I think they could develop a partnership if Sath was so inclined. Not that she wouldn't like to hose the Hutts some more, especially that Trolokos decided they got away quite nicely out of it all.

It's not like I chat with you in discord or anything about the game...

Loved Moyr again my dear. You always put so much into your characters.

*hugs*

Same and same, dear. There's a lot to love about Syl from OOC perspective I cringed not being able to bring into IC because of reasons. ^^

[Zanebry Varliss]

I'm going to wait until after day 11 to ask anything.

[Moyr Ahaya]

I'm going to wait until after day 11 to ask anything.

I am returning that courtesy. :*

[Remmington Thalalas]

Really didn't get a chance to talk this game. Though hopefully we can talk about our new Mando friends.

[Baesal Zyn]

Highlight of the game?

Biggest regret?

Moment of desperation?

Dirtiest in-character thought?

[/quote]

AH!

What impression did it leave when Baesal was coming up in your conversations with others?

Was the relationship what you more or less expected, or did it go wild and unpredictable?

Did you enjoy the kind of contribution Baes made to your story? Did you want something to go better?

Some key turning points in your story?

What was the most inspiring/positively challenging part of our joint role-playing, and when was it the opposite, dull and tedious?

I'm preparing IH by stealing your questions YO HO HO!

[Moyr Ahaya]

The horror! I am never prepared to answer my own questions.

Give me an hour or something like that. I need to get some food.

[Moyr Ahaya]

Highlight.

This game was damn rich. There were many big things happening for Moyr so I will go by the strictest definition of highlight as something that both kept momentum and ended in a way that didn't leave too much bad taste once it wrapped. As such bringing Durasay to the Dark Side is a top contender. It was a real challenge, required both thoughtfulness and great roleplaying effort, and there was a fantastic partner to do that on the other side. That makes Aphr's case a very close second, but I feel here Moyr had less to say and it was more a result of how things turned out for Aphr on their own, so my agency in this was smaller. Hence while a solid highlight, I wouldn't exactly call it mine, but primarily Aphr's. In slightly similar vein the tense dynamics between Moyr and Baes over the nature of their respective regimes and the Force in general against the backdrop of a deep relationship was a solid highlight.

The meta-arc plot of opposing Zash proved to be very thrilling with sudden twists and turns. It had moments of satisfaction and exasperation, and it was also the key project and the foundational commitment of team Yulo. We collectively tried to make headways from day 1 but it stalled by latter mid-game and some of its turns were taken out of our hands. The amount of people popping by the lake just like that while it had been so super hard to get to in the first place later on somehow cheapened the effort. The finale was very well executed as far as storytelling goes but in the end I lost something that had been a cornerstone of my roleplaying experience for this game and couldn't really do much about it so the sense of agency was gone. I guess I just need to reconfigure my thinking about it and just look forth the new story opportunities the changed situation provides. In the end it might turn out better than the story of the Yavin's Red Wraith, but for now I am a bit lost.

Mandalorian stuff was big in my head but it sort of wrapped up quickly and there was little follow-up. Working on it with Hala was very rewarding because hey, it's Hala. Its resuscitation by tying them to Project Evolution didn't fly enough, so it stopped having momentum after Vora Nodd where I set things up but didn't participate enough in the finale because it was resolved by combat. This, and of course Acklay and Dynos Val's confrontation, got me self-conscious how much of a faulty glass cannon Moyr is and how little I can immediately do about it with Shadow tree not really being about combat.

It did in turn affect my obsession with sabre modding, gun buying, getting extra dice via Enhance etc. Modding crystal was basically cray cray at the point I chose to roll against daunting on two unskilled dice, so actually making it through was the rolling highlight. I think Orokos awarded me one more meaningful dice success of that magnitude when I a) tried to save fallen team from acklay b) entered the temple on my own. Some of those carried similar satisfaction as stealing Zash's datapad and lying to her face in Korriban.

There were other notable things but watering it down blurs the answer so I think I'll stop here.

Biggest regret?

Choosing Linked over Critting in the fight with Dynos Val. I later mock rolled that crit with my Vicious 3 sabre and it was staggered. It would have totally incapacitated him and changed so much! Because I did him 10+10 with breach and all that was left from it was... 5.

Story-wise I have few regrets. Maybe agonising about the whole temple stuff where in the end it proved to be an arduous search and a very mixed blessing of a reward.

Am more general big regret is with the plot/causal balance. I feel I devoted too much time to the former and to little to actually role-playing for the joy of it with people in the standard meet and chat and hang out fashion. By this I didn't meet many awesome people I found very enjoyable to read from afar.

Moment of desperation?

Several. Acklay. Deciding to go it alone into the lake. Dynos fight. Trying to turn around the loss after the Dynos fight. - That's Moyr. For me directly, some plot development dead ends. And a ton of minor issues. Obviously I despair a lot. Fortunately for the sanity of all I do it mostly on Discord these days. ^^;;;

Dirtiest in-character thought?

That's the funniest thing. For most the game any kind of dirty thoughts were of tertiary importance. I mostly de-emphasised romance as a trope for this game and I think early involvements suffered from it for what I am deeply sorry to the people involved. I did try to make an honest effort to make the struggly romancing of Hala, frivolous feel of romancing Baes and Jane Austen-esque feel of romancing Zane enjoyable for those players, but I might have failed by not having enough pizzaz in me for this. That's mostly because of channeling Moyr's romantic trauma from the last game and because of preoccupation with the plot. Of those, probably some thoughts of where lekku can go with Baes and Hala was the most dirty.

And then the seduction of Durasay happened, but in this plot really less is more. The kiss was powerful, then much tension of just talking and observing, the simple things. In my mind I didn't get anywhere close to going all in with Moyr having very dirty thoughts about the Pantoran, precisely because it started to get serious, and getting serious is a loaded issue for Moyr (thus paradoxically Zane would be a more ready recipient of dirty thoughts). Clearly there's a great story to be told later on, and I am actually quite happy that the grand opening is closer to the end of the game - long downtime will award some graduality and maturation no two IC weeks-PbP can award. Jo'ren might have been somewhere in here but his racial prejudice for serious stuff makes it hard for Moyr.

[Moyr Ahaya]

What impression did it leave when Baesal was coming up in your conversations with others?

Moyr's mind is pretty set on who Baes is and who Baes isn't. Most controversy was coming from their own talks not from someone else talking. Moyr didn't allow anyone to get her disappointed with Baes or to stop believing her. That only Baes could do. She also sheltered their relationship so it barely ever came up in talk with anyone in any detail. So the impression when/if someone tried was mental: "You know shit about her".

Was the relationship what you more or less expected, or did it go wild and unpredictable?

More on the expected side. I believed it would be hard to maintain a cross-partisan bond and it was. Moyr honestly doesn't believe in the "I am Jedi but not really" story Baes sometimes cultivates so in a sense she was mentally prepared for some tense scenarios.

Did you enjoy the kind of contribution Baes made to your story? Did you want something to go better?

Yes I did and no I didn't. The trope we share is great and I don't think it needs much more improvement. It even had a dramatic finale of us fighting against a common enemy and suffering losses, being together in misery. Once set up, this story practically writes itself, what we need is to do the role-playing!

Some key turning points in your story?

Meeting sis! Contacting Jadus via much effort. Fighting Acklay. Gas attack. Bringing Durasay & sis to the Dark Side. Alone in the lake. Zash strikes back.

What was the most inspiring/positively challenging part of our joint role-playing, and when was it the opposite, dull and tedious?

It was rarely dull. The fight of light and dark against the backdrop of love and friendship. I mean we were doing plenty of infosharing and weaponmodding and moneyfinding too, but not all can be superhyped.

[Aphr Ahaya]

Thank you, for making this game for me. Not as Moyr, although Moyr was one of my favourite characters in the game. You, as your amazing self, made this game not only actually playable for me, but helped me so much when I was unsure and dithering. So thank you.

*Literally all the hugs <3*

Now, revenge of the sis! Except Baes beat me to it

What impression did it leave when Aphr was coming up in your conversations with others?

Was sis-sis relationship what you more or less expected, or did it go wild and unpredictable?

Did you enjoy the kind of contribution Aphr made to your story? Did you want something to go better?

What was the most inspiring/positively challenging part of our joint role-playing, and when was it the opposite, dull and tedious?

[Remmington Thalalas]

Oh wow! Moyr sure was busy on Nar Shaddaa.

[Galen Sol]

How foolish does Moyr think Galen is?

[Nekoinu]

I wonder: what would Moyr have done if Ralnorrei had not fallen unconscious after the possession attempt?

[Moyr Ahaya]

How foolish does Moyr think Galen is?

She doesn't think he is foolish, but misguided. She blames the Jedi orthodoxy and the higher-ups for imposing their dogmas on discourse about morality. She thinks that reviling individualism, self-interest, emotional commitments and drive for personal freedom is the prime cause of unequal social relations in the galaxy. The Empire is no better in this regard, but it at least gives Force-sensitives an opening to assert themselves and fight for their way to freedom. The Jedi discourage it. So she mostly pities Galen rather than decries him as a fool.

In the end, however, she has convinced herself into being tolerant about other paths through the Force, because that's the essence of her beliefs: people can earn to have a choice about stuff. In this sense also she finds her interpretation of the Sith Code superior to Jedi Code, which has its philosophy of getting rid of everything that makes one human, the audacity to make choices included. Baes has been and is instrumental in shaping this approach - Moyr let her go from Yavin, and now lives with seeing her on the other side.

Those who read the pull of Durasay to the Dark Side might have noticed that Moyr was often very dismissive of mainstream Imperial propaganda and was actually sceptical about skipping steps or stopping at any with regard to the Sith Code. It's not about power, it's about freedom, so those who call themselves Sith have it wrong in many ways if they just stop at power accumulation, not on breaking chains. Funny how it makes her neoconservative or neoclassical Sith that could touch base with Thanaton even though she considers herself a Radical.

I wonder: what would Moyr have done if Ralnorrei had not fallen unconscious after the possession attempt?

She would probably try to reason with her and hit the button "You wanted me to insult you by questioning your strength to cope with it?" Once she would calm down Moyr probably would bargain for terms of co-use of the artifact, not keeping Ral in the loop of her specific plans. If it came to violence, she might just surrender it in the end. IDK. It's all highly contingent.

[Durasay Mixo]

Thank you. For everything.

I'll have questions. Later. Promise

[Shaisha Vreysk]

Didn't mean to intrude upon your hard work by popping in at the Hollow Lake later myself... Shaisha was just following the Force/her past and that's where she ended up.

Then again, Moyr seemed to be involved in almost everything that was going on, I'm surprised the character even got some sleep.

Was there a particular reason the Sixth Sense broadcasting stopped?

What kind of fellow Sith will Moyr be reaching out to to deal with Zash?

Does Moyr intend to play the political games with the Sith and rise to a higher position, or will she be staying off the radar in that regard?

[Moyr Ahaya]

The Sith Sense stopped because I got busier with the plots than anticipated, I discovered side-jobs are not worth it if one can gamble, but probably the most important factor was that I saw no feedback from the players, either IC or OOC, so it looked like it's not really contributing to anyone's experience and as such is redundant. It's not like I wasn't thinking about doing it any more, it just dropped in importance.

--

To counter Zash, Moyr is probably willing to reach to almost anyone who can get behind an agenda of stopping her. Especially after Thanaton dies and Zash breaks loose. She has already reached out to Conservatives while being a Radical. The core group are those Sith who have their own strong reasons to see Zash fall, like Jo'ren or Rum... or Zeno. Jug'tih emerges as Zash's staunch enemy too, though she's not technically a Sith.

--

On Sith politics, I think she has pretty much got outed/outed herself already in the wake of Dynos' attack and I feel there is no going back. Zash has forced her hand. Unless there is a strong counter from her master, she will play the game now. It's at least two years of downtime, more as she's not getting reprised for Game #3, she might get herself busy with a number of things, disappearing for a time to do some Shadow job included. Lordship is somewhere down that road.

--

Plot engagement:

I had four pre-game priorities: Hazzan plot (Nal Hutta --> Hollow Lake Temple) Mando plot (because powerbase), Revolution plot (because morality - Emancipation/Subversion) and Master stuff (which got mostly hijacked by Zhorrid shenanigans). Of those, the latter three were mostly sorted out by mid-game, with Revolution plot popping back after the gas attack mostly because of Magpie.

In-game, the primary involvement was in Project Evolution and Azanak plot, not by deliberation but by virtue of where Day 1 threads went. However, both were stepped away from either by my own choice or by circumstance. I kept tangential involvement through primarily involved PCs or NPCs but did not participate in any actual event threads for either after first two IC days or so.
To the Pirate Queen plot I got invited by Zeno to help and I just helped apprehend the Rodian but while I was kept in the loop a bit after that this is where my practical involvement in that ended. I think I had a pretty good sense of how much I can chew and was not keen on hogging plot slots that could go to players with less crystalised personal agenda. I also tried to connect others into the things I had on my plate, to share or to relinquish entirely, both other Imps and neutrals, though admittedly not Pubs (Baes being an exception).

On the other hand, I had the lowest event participation since I remember from any game as I kept staying away from peace negotiations despite having the skillset most of the time. Not taking part in Huttcon either, and played only one Huttball game. I think I didn't engage too many carded NPCs either.

The rest were bounties and player-induced storylines like with Aphr or Durasay or Hala or Zane or Baes. And the thing with the Shadow Hand Neko designed as something Forcey for the Dark Siders when Zeno and I reported a lack of such stuff but it wrapped up quickly without much bearing on the game.

So in the end it may have looked like much and certainly it wasn't too little, but in the end it amounts to my pre-declared preference to have a plot-driven game with this one if possible, with less emphasis on structured events, romancing and casual role-playing. Star Wars DD- (and now also Neko-) style offers a chance to actually have an adventure arc and I have considered it too good to pass by the moment I realised how DD rolls during the Korriban game.