First arc thoughs, comments and rantings.

[Anastasia]

They survived.

Despite Kunzite, Endymion, Beryl, Metallia and more youma than I can shake a transformation stick at, they endured and won.  Congratulations, girls. You earned it at least twice over.

So, onto the GM's commentary. Since most of the comments on the first episodes are rules and figuring out the system related, I'll withhold those. No need to beat a dead cabbit.

Sailor Moon - At first, she was an NPC due to no one wanting to play her. Jeram showed interest, but he couldn't make the times, so he was out.  To further this, I wrote her out of the first 10 sessions or so with her mother being attacked at the hot springs. (That also served to speed up the timeline AND introduce Prince Endymion off camera, but I digress.)

Honestly, I found playing her depressed and angsty was easier than her normal persona. I find that I tend towards playing darker characters and circumstances, and relating to Usagi was rough. This is when the game got lucky. Halbarad, who had been lurking in several sessions, mentioned he wished he had gotten in on the game. One GM fast talking later, we have a PC for Usagi!

Hal has taken the situation given and essentially had Usagi grow up a bit. Under what happened, I can see it, and seeing the past Queen really drove home the nail in that coffin. Also, out of the Senshi, she was really the only one besides Herb to accept her old life and destiny, versus Rei, who constantly focused on her Rei Hino persona instead of Princess Mars.

I'm interested to see how Usagi develops, especially now that (OOC knowledge spoiler warning) she's lost her Crystal for good.

Sailor Mercury - Played by Panda. A twist on Mercury, with Ami being a thief as well as the soldier of Mercury.

That said, this goes straight to the heart of the problem Mercury has had to me: Not enough screen time. This Mercury is somewhat of an alt, like Venus, but unlike her she has not had the screen time and development like Minako. I'd really like to see some more time for Panda, so that Mercury can grow and fit into her role better.

Especially the thief part, I'd love to see that worked into at least a one shot one on one adventure. (Clue stick coming your way.)

Sailor Mars - Played by Ebiris. Mars, with weaker Senshi powers and more pyschic powers than in canon. A good idea, as it allows her temple maiden persona to be more dominate than her Senshi persona.

Essentially in canon personality wise(At least at first), Rei has been the same fire girl we came to know and love watching Sailor Moon. Things changed notably, however, as she more and more favored her human identity, even calling herself Rei in her Senshi form. This is an fascinating contrast from Usagi, who has stepped into her Senshi role, which almost reserves the views in canon of the two.

Secondly, her relationship with Minako has bloomed. While not really a lesbian in the sense of being out of the closet or not shaving her armpits, Rei has fallen into a loving bond with Minako. I say that because I felt Rei fell for Minako, not Minako the woman or Minako the man. Draw from that what you will.

Finally, Dark Kingdom General Rei. As you know, Rei was tainted by Metallia and finally subverted completely near the end of the arc. This really...ah, shoved some humility into Rei, and it will likely temper her character a good deal. For better or for worse. Now, despite the fact that Rei's actions were reversed by the Crystal and/or Metallia's death, the fact remains is that she did commit mass murder and destruction.

Factor in all this and Rei should be good to watch next arc.  

If she ever gets out of Minako's...*Gets stabbed*

Sailor Jupiter - Played by Merc. He took Makoto and extrapoliated on her fears and loniness for her background, keeping a nearly canon Makoto on the frontend.

I don't have as much to say about Jupiter as the others, as she's been very close to her canon personality(Except for the next) and she lets herself get overshadowed in the more emotional scenes. I like what I see, though, but I'd like to see her desires of having a good group of friends come directly into play in a tangeable manner.  A bit of Panda's problem too, although it's more about the metioned overshadowing than lack of session time.

Sailor Venus - Played by Corwin. You know the Sailor V Minako? The one iwth the disguise compact and a mess of other powers that didn't make it to her Sailor Venus stint in Sailor Moon?  Well, she's....baaaaaaaaaaccccccccckkkkkkkk.

Yay!

Minako was an interest character from the get go. Corwin didn't hold back with her forceful personality, playing her up from the first session on. However, due to seeing a person die in a youma attack, she fell into a bit of a angsty depression. This was furthed by the Artemis incidents, an unlucky critical energy drain, and a few other bad bits of luck.  She's been a roller coaster, but it's been a helluva ride so far.

Of note is her feelings for Rei and how she acted on that. OOC, she was at least bi from the start during character creation, and well...if anyone was paying attention to how she was looking at Rei by the sixth or seventh game, you'd have an idea. Despite two timing with a water park worker, she seems dedicated to Rei, and will hopefully find happiness with her. Or make alot of hentai, whichever.

And on a final note, I'd like to do something with her singing background sooner or later. But since she's already very fleshed out, I'm not putting that on the same priority level as Ami and maybe Makoto's stuff.

Sailor Dragon - Played by Herb. Will be commented on later, as I wish to get the cats out ot the way first. I tend to think in order of the 5 senshi, the cats, the outers and then the originial characters. Blame the way my head works.

Luna - NPC. To start with, Luna was really a non factor. Being Usagi's cat, she was written out along with Usagi in episode 2, and didn't come back until then. At that point, Artemis was very well defined, and she fell into her basic role.

She may have gotten a bit of flack from the anti Mooncat sentiment floating around, but she'll live and I plan on working with her in the next arc while I give Arty some downtime.

Artemis - NPC. Pretty much the main comedic foil for the group, Artemis has bought up his 'big mouth' defect. While still a loyal friend to the Senshi, he wisecracks, provokes and generally just has fun at Minako's expense.  This is all well and good for lighthearted scenes, and I've had a blast playing Arty during these.

Now, in fairness, Artemis has gotten some flack for things he's done. The Minako bleeding incident was purely Minako's fault for changing him, as was the lying incident for Minako remembing what he said. >_>

Seriously? Despite his much ballyhooed troubles with Minako in the middle of the arc, he's still mainly meant as a bit of comic relief.

[Anastasia]

I'll be finishing this later, but comments are welcome now.

[Halbarad]

Just because I like to hear myself talk, I figured I'd post my take on my own character as the story progressed.

I picked up playing Usagi/Sailor Moon just before she was returned to the main storyline from the week-long hiatus she got in the hot springs trip. At that point, I knew from reading logs that this Usagi had been through the wringer emotionally; from the kidnapping at Starlight Tower (which devastates her in canon) and quickly followed up by her mother being seriously injured while she stood by and watched.  Of the two main options available at that point-depression or determination-I decided to go the determined route.

I didn't have a lot of time to work out the background of the character since I entered the story rather late. My main idea was to play off the idea that Usagi saw herself as a complete or near-complete failure in two of her three personalities (Usagi failed to be there for her mother, and Sailor Moon had, to that point, been somewhat of a joke compared to the other senshi.) Since all she had left at that point was the princess, she decided to do what she could to make a success of that role-but the main problem was figuring out what that entailed. Her main in-game effort as far as that goes was talking with Herb about what the life of royalty was really like...  *stabs Dune to post more logs*

Sort of as a consequence of this, Usagi emerged more as a leader figure than she had previously been.  I'd say the first "real" evidence of the changes-that was evident to the other PCs at least-was when Usagi created the shield over Tokyo with the ginzuishou. I got a couple of comments from the other players at that point that they were rather impressed with that little trick (although Rei never got around to complimenting her on it, thanks to Usagi's teasing later the same day. ^_^)

The last major change to turn Usagi into a stronger leader was the meeting with the old Queen in her sanctuary. While Usagi was a bit shamed by the queen's words at the beginning of their little chat (hearing that you're not good enough from your own mother's lips isn't exactly easy to take),  she got a bit upset with Serenity when she started badmouthing her other friends-mainly Minako. Her anger at that let her stand up to the queen and that in turn helped to give her the determination she needed to stand up against Metallia (well, it sounds better that way than saying that she had ungodly luck with her rolls in the last two fights. =P)

From here, I'm not exactly sure where Usagi's going to go. She's still got the same determination to improve herself; the end of the Dark Kingdom isn't changing that much. She still has quite a few internal flaws to overcome, but she is much more set on overcoming them that the Usagi of canon was. The biggest adjustment for her will be learning not to lean on the crystal's power, since she no longer has possession of it. I'd also like to spin Princess Serenity off as a variant transformation/personality, as opposed to someone who just shows up when things are really looking bad-but we'll see how that idea pans out.

[Ebiris]

I think I'll join in here with my thoughts on how I've been playing Rei.

When Rei first showed up in the RPG, I was basically using canon Rei, since even with the changes (her being a more skilled miko as oppossed to a more powerful Sailor Senshi - though her senshi powers are still very respectable), we were running off of all the canon events that had transpired previously. Although you can bet my version of Rei would have seen through Jadeite's bus ploy a whole lot sooner...

Anyway, she started off in a fairly stressful situation, having had a vision of Usagi's mother dying, and then racing off to join the Tsukino's on their hot springs trip. Because of a mix up about time zones, we didn't actually RP the attack, so I was left to simply explain previous events to the other senshi when they showed up. Back then, Rei was rather subdued and depressed (nowhere near as much as Usagi, though) at her failure to protect Ikkuko using only her miko skills.

Probably the biggest driving force for Rei, throughout the entire RPG, has been a desire to inspire her teammates, especially Usagi, by constantly pushing herself to never give up. Consequently, she recovered from her initial slump pretty quickly, and was ready to severely kick ass when we fought the water park youma. The death of an innocent in that battle really knocked the wind out of her sails though, but a cathartic talk with Usagi helped her to refocus and redouble her efforts to ensure no one would ever be killed by the Dark Kingdom again. This did make the end of the arc that much harder on her, but I'll get to that later...

Rei's reaction to meeting Sailor Dragon, and the 'Artemis leaking' incident? What can I say, I decided to make a teensy change to her character by investing her with a similar sense of humour to my own. And it was pretty funny.

Then Minako came to vist T*A to see about transferring... and was getting pretty blatant in her hints towards Rei. I decided to keep her steadfastly oblivious to them, though. At the time, Rei just saw Minako as her best friend, and couldn't really imagine the boy crazy Minako as being... that way.

The tengu youma wasn't really a major event. Rei was sorely pissed at Minako being drained, and just attacked all out from the get go. I understand that it wasn't actually a DK youma, and probably would have had an interesting story if Rei had been in a mood to listen...

And then the shit really started to hit the fan with gramps being kidnapped by Endy, and the senshi minus Moon and Mercury having to defend Urawa at the Shrine. It's probably a very good thing that Rei never faced off with Endymion, that's all I'll say. The battle with Kunzite was pretty cool (even though the bastard had Extra Attacks), and then being able to rescue Tux really turned around the previously bad events of the day.

This was also when Rei started to get really cocky...

The hints from Minako were becoming even more blatant, as well as comments from others (Luna), but Rei maintained her innocent naivete throughout.

And there was the Artemis situation... well, Rei didn't like putting her life on the line while those cats sat back to pick and choose what information she was worthy of recieving. And filling Minako's head with defeatist talk really rubbed the ultra-arrogant Rei the wrong way...

This was also where I started making the seperation between Sailor Mars and Rei Hino more pronounced. I was quite deliberate about Rei not having any past life memories as well. The Moon Kingdom is dead and Rei knows it. She doesn't want Earth to wind up the same way, so she tries to fight on her own terms, not as some reincarnated avenger of a doomed past, but as a protector of the future.

Then we got attacked by the D-point youma. And kicked their asses! Again, this just made Rei get even cockier. We were goddamned invincible, and it didn't matter if they knew were we lived! Sending the exploding youma back to the DK was the coup de grace... I really should have had her ask Beryl about that when she was evil... oh. well. One of life's little mysteries. ^_^

Rei and Minako effectively became a couple at this point, even if Rei didn't realise it and vehemently denied it to Usagi, the waitress, and Kotono.

Kotono... yeah, I'm not touching that subject. Move along.

Rei and Minako 'officially' getting together right before the portal attack? Well, the stressed situation we were in made that a lot less WAFFy than I planned. Probably for the best, really. I suck at WAFF.

After becoming tainted, Rei was pretty fucked up and she knew it, but she was also too sure of herself to ask for any help. Hell, OOC I never expected things to wind up the way they did, can you blame the poor, arrogant miko for thinking she could handle it?

The whole experience on the Moon was utter hell to poor Rei. Having Metallia invade her mind right at the start threw her completely off balance, and left her really rattled by 'Kunzite's' (was it actually him) words about her being one of them. Towards the end she had a pretty uplifting conversation with Usagi, which gave her a lot more confidence, but in the end it didn't matter. I mean, a +6 modifier? I never had a prayer!

DK Rei was actually pretty hard to play. Her first job of destroying the Shrine wasn't something I wanted to do at all, luckily Tux gave me an excuse to not stick around and revel in the destruction. After taking him out, I set the fire and left as quickly as I could.

Admittedly, I had hoped for a decent battle with the other senshi, but all the good vibes from Usagi and Minako really knocked the fight right out of DK Rei-chan. Then there was much angst, and Minako's declaration that she would kill a few hundred people for her beloved Rei-chan...

Even though she was talked out of her suicidal impulses, Rei was pretty much hoping she'd die in the battle with Metallia. I did come very close to trying a suicide attack when Metallia appeared, but IC and OOC I knew it would be a doomed effort, and our best chance was to join our powers together for the Planet Attack.

Rei has been changed a lot by her experiences. Before she was dead set on defeating the Dark Kingdom, and then enjoying a normal life with her friends. But now she has forsaken her dreams, replacing the driving force in her life with the desire to redeem herself by protecting others.

Personally, I hope the other girls can talk Rei into having some fun before too long, though. ^_^

[Anastasia]

(I'll get to your comments later, Hal. My thoughs on Usagi are alot more detailed and complex than mine on Rei.)

Rei's reaction to meeting Sailor Dragon, and the 'Artemis leaking' incident? What can I say, I decided to make a teensy change to her character by investing her with a similar sense of humour to my own. And it was pretty funny.

No argument about the leaking incident - even though it was hell on Minako, it was meant to be funny. I think her reaction with the ruined childhood kick was a nice cap to that event, and highlighted the comedic nature of the scene.  But anyway, I digress. I can see Rei laughing at that in canon, it is truly a funny scene, the sort of thing that can crack even a fairly dour person.

Yeah. I commented on this in the logs, and after thinking about it again...

I think the way you reacted to SD was just a bit harsh. It _was_ somewhat funny, but I had honest problems seeing the Senshi do that right off the bat. *shrugs*

Then Minako came to vist T*A to see about transferring... and was getting pretty blatant in her hints towards Rei. I decided to keep her steadfastly oblivious to them, though. At the time, Rei just saw Minako as her best friend, and couldn't really imagine the boy crazy Minako as being... that way.

The tengu youma wasn't really a major event. Rei was sorely pissed at Minako being drained, and just attacked all out from the get go. I understand that it wasn't actually a DK youma, and probably would have had an interesting story if Rei had been in a mood to listen...

Yep, things hit the 'clubbing you over the head with it' phase about then, didn't they?

The Tengu monster event really didn't go as I planned from the get go. Minako getting criticalled and KO'ed put the screws to the original encounter, which was going to be a bit longer and have more meat to it.  It took out the negotitation and talk options, which could have helped or at least bought time for the other Sailors to make it.  And it touched off a Minako angst storm and the appearance of Mineko...wow.

And then the shit really started to hit the fan with gramps being kidnapped by Endy, and the senshi minus Moon and Mercury having to defend Urawa at the Shrine. It's probably a very good thing that Rei never faced off with Endymion, that's all I'll say. The battle with Kunzite was pretty cool (even though the bastard had Extra Attacks), and then being able to rescue Tux really turned around the previously bad events of the day.

Yep. Should I have given him support youma like I planned at first?

And the only fly in the ointment, as brought up by a few people, was him helping Endymion so openly. Well, for what it's worth, Beryl read him the riot act on this one, as she could taste that last carrier and wanted him badly. Doing it over, I would have hinted at that before the battle. It's a samll hanging thread, but...ugh.

Kotono... yeah, I'm not touching that subject. Move along.

Awww. And on that note, do you have any comments on what happened at your last day at T and A?

Rei and Minako 'officially' getting together right before the portal attack? Well, the stressed situation we were in made that a lot less WAFFy than I planned. Probably for the best, really. I suck at WAFF.

Well, I didn't see it quite like that...I honestly though you'd put it off a bit longer. Or at least in private. >_>

After becoming tainted, Rei was pretty fucked up and she knew it, but she was also too sure of herself to ask for any help. Hell, OOC I never expected things to wind up the way they did, can you blame the poor, arrogant miko for thinking she could handle it?

The whole experience on the Moon was utter hell to poor Rei. Having Metallia invade her mind right at the start threw her completely off balance, and left her really rattled by 'Kunzite's' (was it actually him) words about her being one of them. Towards the end she had a pretty uplifting conversation with Usagi, which gave her a lot more confidence, but in the end it didn't matter. I mean, a +6 modifier? I never had a prayer!

Rei getting tainted...wow. The portal was something of a plot event, with the side effect of royally screwing anything that tried going through it, as it was a reasonably close gate to Metallia and Beryl.  Rei projecting her spiritual force to close it was pretty much a big, bright flare to Metallia, and the fact that Rei was both skilled at magic and psionics was a draw as well.  Rei's just lucky she passed the Soul check, or she'd have been fucked worse than she was post possession.  That said...I was hoping they'd pick up on what happened and not go to the Moon with Rei tainted, since it was not only a beacon to the DK of where they were on the moon, but an easy weakness to exploit.

Like much of what happened on the Moon, Kunzite was just a glimmering memory, a small illusion. I'd kept his status uncertain in case I really needed him later, but since Rei went to the Moon tainted, it wasn't needed.

And yeah, you were hosed when Metallia came at you there. Already tainted and shaken, you were pretty well in deep.

DK Rei was actually pretty hard to play. Her first job of destroying the Shrine wasn't something I wanted to do at all, luckily Tux gave me an excuse to not stick around and revel in the destruction. After taking him out, I set the fire and left as quickly as I could.

Admittedly, I had hoped for a decent battle with the other senshi, but all the good vibes from Usagi and Minako really knocked the fight right out of DK Rei-chan. Then there was much angst, and Minako's declaration that she would kill a few hundred people for her beloved Rei-chan...

Yeah. Tux was there for at least that reason and for the fact you'd have to go after him sooner or later. You should have seen what I had planned if he KOed you, Rei. >_>

And I had schemed to have Rei and her youma face off against the Senshi in a battle. Hell, I even had it set up so that if Rei was winning, she'd get order to take a Senshi or two and take them back to Metallia via teleport. But...the event really just didn't work out that way, turning into a pure plot event rather than a battle event. To that end, I even let Mercury nuke the youma in one go instead of having a real battle there. Not something I like doing often, but oh well.

And as for the current Rei...It should be interesting to see how she recovers in the long run from her DK stint. Even though Metallia's demise/the Crystal negated the effects of her rampage, it's still engraved on her soul. And it can always echo...^_^



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[Ebiris]

And the only fly in the ointment, as brought up by a few people, was him helping Endymion so openly. Well, for what it's worth, Beryl read him the riot act on this one, as she could taste that last carrier and wanted him badly. Doing it over, I would have hinted at that before the battle. It's a samll hanging thread, but...ugh.

Well, Kunzite's reaction as he departed, about not wanting to die for Endy, seemed on the mark. I assumed Beryl had forced him to help.

Awww. And on that note, do you have any comments on what happened at your last day at T and A?

Minako is very lucky that happened when it did. A few days earlier, and Rei would have gone utterly nuts at her for getting them kicked out. As is, though, recent events have given Rei a different perspective. If Minako can tolerate Rei being a mass murderer, Rei can tolerate Minako doing dumb things occasionally.

Although I did leave the room to talk to Kotono for a reason... Minako wasn't supposed to get involved there at all.

Well, I didn't see it quite like that...I honestly though you'd put it off a bit longer. Or at least in private. >_>

Well, it looked like things were reaching a climax. Even if Rei would never admit it out loud, she was scared one of them might die, so she needed to get her feelings out before going into the battle.

And I had schemed to have Rei and her youma face off against the Senshi in a battle. Hell, I even had it set up so that if Rei was winning, she'd get order to take a Senshi or two and take them back to Metallia via teleport. But...the event really just didn't work out that way, turning into a pure plot event rather than a battle event. To that end, I even let Mercury nuke the youma in one go instead of having a real battle there. Not something I like doing often, but oh well.

Well, I wasn't planning on using the youma at all. Dumb villian mistake, but with 3 levels in Positive Energy Deflection, I was hyped to take on all the senshi myself. But Minako just standing there and letting me kill her... well, that's the kind of selfless thing that always stumps a brainwashed villian in SM >_>

Although if I had taken a few captive, I really can't see how we could have won in the end...

[Anastasia]

Ah, Sailor Dragon. Our favorite transgendered Senshi, and we can tell those Starlights to go to hell.  ^_^

Now, I was a touch wary of using a Ranma character as the base for a Senshi. I didn't want to make this a crossover affair. But, as long as those elements stayed in the background, I could deal with it.

That said, I'm damn glad he took his own mooncat. Nian has been fun to establish a basic personality for, and it gives Herb someone to talk to/spark events. Goooooooood kitty.

And to Herb.

Admittely, this Herb has been changed by Nian to a degree and by his past memories. That's a given. I like the older, more mature approach he brings to the group. It's a different perspective, and it can help keep the more whimsical Sailors grounded. My only hopes are to user Herb more, and..

*Sailor Dragon decapitates Beryl.

Now, I don't object to the action, but don't just do it like it's a given in this case. Dress it up a bit, man.  There is something to be said about style.

[Anastasia]

Well, Kunzite's reaction as he departed, about not wanting to die for Endy, seemed on the mark. I assumed Beryl had forced him to help.

Yeah, but...meh. I still didn't like how that turned out. I would have prefered a bit more on that. Oh well.

Minako is very lucky that happened when it did. A few days earlier, and Rei would have gone utterly nuts at her for getting them kicked out. As is, though, recent events have given Rei a different perspective. If Minako can tolerate Rei being a mass murderer, Rei can tolerate Minako doing dumb things occasionally.

Although I did leave the room to talk to Kotono for a reason... Minako wasn't supposed to get involved there at all.

Point. After DK Rei, what Minako did was merely small apples. I still think getting kicked out of school is a big event, for good or bad. And I'm not done with the echos yet, young lady. ^_^

And further, CONTROL YOUR GIRLFRIEND, REI! *ahem* To be honest, maybe you should have taken her outside altogether, or perhaps got Minako in it from the getgo to keep her more balanced? Just my random thoughs.

Well, I wasn't planning on using the youma at all. Dumb villian mistake, but with 3 levels in Positive Energy Deflection, I was hyped to take on all the senshi myself. But Minako just standing there and letting me kill her... well, that's the kind of selfless thing that always stumps a brainwashed villian in SM >_>

Although if I had taken a few captive, I really can't see how we could have won in the end...

Honestly, as long as Usagi had the Silver Crystal, there was a chance. Usagi would not be captured, Metallia wasn't willing to allow her to live. So she would have still in play after a defeat at the hands of Rei.

And, if everyone had lost...well...heh. Perhaps a Dark General campaign with the five other Senshi as generals on a new world to drain?

Hmm, maybe that could be a fun omake?


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