The Energon Pub

Neliz:
I love what you said, "Parenting in Disguise."

A Spot of Digression:
Yeah, to me, spending time with all of them is a no brainer. I love seeing what my son is going to do next, or interact with my daughters. Many workday mornings, not all but 2 to 3 out of 5, I'll have all three girls sit with me on the couch and we'll just hang out until it's time for me to go. One of the older two will fix me a simple breakfast, either cereal or chocolate milk.

My lovely Latina (wife) is just incredible with them, she has the older two (10 and 7) cooking already, rice, speghetti, eggs, cookies & bread.

When I leave most of them wave in the window; a friend of mine spotted that when he came to my place for lunch and said "Whoa," I inquired what was surprising, he said "That, that's just not something you see anymore. Me and my sister used to do that for our grandparents."

Why not still? What has changed in the world?

Next Session:
Session 10 will happen today, on Saturday 8/18/2007.

Session 8 I didn't write up - basically Skyblast flew (movie voyager) Ratchet and Downshift to Earth, and they all joined Optimus Prime and crew.

Meanwhile, Astrotrain secreted himself to the Decepticon side...

This will factor into the story later.

DavidBeoulve wrote:Why not still? What has changed in the world?

Although.. this is not the thread to discuss that... I have my ideas about that and I know I'll be upset if I don't see my fiancee (and my dog) wave out the window when I leave... just like it's the other way around, I walk my parents to their car when they leave and wave them goodbye, exactly like my dad does for me.

DavidBeoulve wrote:Next Session:
Session 10 will happen today, on Saturday 8/18/2007.

>.> *waits for the write up. These things take time.*

Transformers RP Session #10
Complete with the most photos seen since RP Session #5

I suppose every 5 sessions, I do a really detailed one.

If you don't want to see the photos outside of the story, click here now.




THE HIGHLIGHTS:





Edit:
I added this...

"This is our Weapon Class / Armor Class chart.

To make a ranged attack, first you take your Transformer's Skill and add 2d6 to it, then, if your opponent can dodge, you take his Speed and add 2d6; if the attacker's roll is better it connects and this table comes into play.

A Light weapon does no damage to Ultra-Heavy armor, as you can see from the chart, and Medium weapons (which most of Medium and Large Autobots had) do .25 to 1 point of damage.

To determine whether a hit is "moderate" or "severe" you take the attacker's Fireblast and add 2d6; the defender takes his Endurance and adds 2d6 - if the attacker's total is greater, it's a severe hit. In this way, Fireblast and Endurance matter.

Armor Class is based on height, but not written in stone. In general, Transformers 4" or less are Light, and the 4"-6" crowd is medium, etcetera. Optimus Prime breaks the rule, as his armor is considered Heavy. Brute, a mini Autobot, is considered Medium, though he has Light weapons. Recon, his friend, is a Light Autobot with a Medium gun, which is also unique amongst the little guys."

Telnarius: So splat went Recon

David Beoulve: Heh heh heh yeah he dropped to -1 HitPoints on the opening attack. The blast afterwards gave him negative hitpoints equal to or over double his Endurance, and he was effectively obliterated at that point. Only thing worth picking up was the Unobtainium.

So yeah, he won't remember that battle at all once he's rebuilt - he can either ask the others to tell him about it, view scenes from other's memories on Teletraan 1, or directly import memories from other mini Autobots who have the same type of processing core / brain.

Adjusting memories to work in different brains is like recalculating projections on a 2d map.

Telnarius: Last thing said by Recon..."Ooooo Shiney!" *POOF*

David Beoulve: No, that's Chip. His processing core had some flaw in production and well, it's not like the Autobots have a lab that can fix that.

It's not like Optimus Prime, who no longer held rank in Autobot Command, had access to GOOD brains to steal or however he acquired them.

Prime doesn't talk about who all was lost irrevocably - and he can't for the metagame reason of I don't know when someone might come back in a new body. In game, it's treated like a vet who just won't talk about that part of his past.

Note: Page 2 has the link to RP Session #10, but I also include it here.

Setting Explanation and Pondering:
In my story, the adjustments were mainly - adjusting the timeline to have things make sense - no way Shockwave would survive for four MILLION years, let alone the design of the decepticons there - so there was the whole "they exterminated themselves and only the stragglers on the far corners of distant worlds woke up and started the whole process of rebuilding again"

And that Transformers, given the fact that they can power themselves so well, have some kind of renewable energy source, so my toys weren't always fighting over energy as much as the upper hand.

And I excentuated the ideologies...

Autobots designed themselves with the belief that everyone working together to help one another leads to a better, more productive way of life.

Decepticons are designed to compete, compete, compete, with each other, with everything; the idea being that this creates the best, strongest form of life.

Problem being, of course, they keep shooting themselves in the foot, and where the Autobots can be taken advantage of for looking out for one another, they also work together better, so no side has ever wiped out the other, given their spread across many planets.

I think Maria must be cheating.
Noone 10 could be that good a strategist.

Though would Prime really use stolen goods?
Is being Moral and dead worse than being Immoral and not shot by a big robot quite possibly made out of Hot Rod's melted remains?

Gripping. Keep it coming.

Well, recall how bad she was about getting them IN to this situation in Session #9. She not only had no strategy, but she froze up and couldn't make a decision.

After a few days of cogitation over the results, however, she seems to have realized the meaning in what I told her "A poor decision NOW is better than a good decision too late."

When I talked about the missile priming, I explained called shots to her, and how bad the minuses were. She asked about Prime's sword since it was right on her figure, and I thought and said "You'd have to move into melee, but you'd have an easier time using that to hit the missile (which was poking out of the launcher) than you would aiming and firing your rifle."

So, she did.

I was quite proud of how well she is "getting it," used purposefully, Role-Playing Games can be good at getting kids to think about their surroundings, other people, and experiencing things from different angles.

I also failed to mention what a gem Dulce was - she played only half the game, roughly, on and off, because she kept tending to her baby brother and playing with him whenever he was bored of watching us; she never complained. Good 7yo girl. We kept filling her in when she'd come back.

Maria's dice rolls... I have no explanation. She doesn't always make them, she just seems to make them every time she really needs to. Just like some D&D folks I knew, she won't let anyone touch her dice now

DavidBeoulve wrote:Just like some D&D folks I knew, she won't let anyone touch her dice now

I am like that (er... was like that, haven't played in a while), I have/had two sets of dice that are MINE, and when one set of dice "isn't treating me well", I switch to the other... I don't know why, it's just a bit of a tradition with us!

Love reading up on the Role-Playing logs, keep up the good work. I can't help but check out this thread (and your blog) to see what's new in the game...

Ah, she''s going through the dice-protective stage is she? I remember when i...no wait i don't xD.

I never really got into RPGs, I enjoyed the strategies, but i feel that the dice rolls etc can get monotonous.
Then i found Airsoft.

Whenever me and my nephew play with Transformers, we can do basically anything. You can't be a god-transformer, you gotta have weaknesses, but it's kinda an rpg, but the damage etc is only taken if the players decide the character wants it to be (i.e. Lavatron won't get hurt by a big flame, but he doesn't have to be hurt by normal lasers, xD my nephew is stubborn and abuses this idea), or if it was something that would obviously cause damage (getting hit by a nuclear bomb, falling from space etc)

Keep it coming David. You ought to write a novelisation.

Unfortunately I didn't take pictures during the 11th and 12th sessions but rather the next day, so the picture blog is mostly good for seeing who was in the sessions. Problem? Wiimotes + Digital Camera = no rechargeable batteries. We'll return to our normal format by being sure to have batteries next time.

TRANSFORMER RP SESSION #11:

Doom-Lock, Nighthawk (Cyberton Soundwave) & Soundwave (G1 Reissue).
(see the picture blog)

Since Decepticon High Command forbade anyone from traveling to the Sol Star System (where Earth is), the (Armada) Megatron battle-clone that arrived was, in effect, a renegade. Not only this, but he created new Decepticons without proper authorization.

Decepticon High Command (DHC), however, is not without its internal spies & agents. My friend, Telnarius, plays DHC and AHC (Autobot High Command) as the "Setting-Game-Master"; while I GM individual games with my children, he keeps me in check by running what's happening in the galaxy, which forces me and my daughters to deal with the unpredictable nature of the forces outside of Earth.

So, DHC sent in the survivor of the Great Cataclysmic War of Earth-Year 1989: Lieutenant Commander Soundwave (plus Ravage & Laserbeak, who survived with him). Soundwave brought with him a battle clone of himself (Cyberton edition Soundwave) named Nighthawk, (Classics) Astrotrain and Doom-Lock.

Megatron failed to put sentry satellites into orbit around the Sol star system, so Soundwave (G1), Nighthawk (Cybertron Soundwave), Astrotrain and Doom-Lock all snuck up to Earth, entered Earth's atmosphere, and, using common sense and triangulating where the Autobot base was according to U.S. news broadcasts (Denver, Colorado), and where they met and attacked the Decepticons (en route to New Mexico), figured out where the renegade Decepticon base was and went to it. Megatron and crew didn't know they were coming until they were almost at the base.

Maria played Megatron, and elected to not shoot at the incoming Decepticons, and let them enter the base and land, at which point everyone pointed guns at each other, except the three mercenaries, Slipstream, Scalper & Driller, who refused to get into the issue.

Soundwave informed Megatron that he was no longer in command of the group, that he was going to serve as the battle-field commander, and that Soundwave was going to run things as a liaison for DHC. "Failure to comply will result in your termination." Soundwave intoned.

I told her that Soundwave wasn't revealing his trump card: in order to ensure loyalty, most Decepticon clones have kill-switches; figuring Megatron had removed his, Soundwave had brought nanobots that would infect Megatron's and, essentially, turn against him and eat his central processing core (brain); however, Soundwave didn't want Megatron to know this because he wanted to see if Megatron would attack, or acquiesce. If Megatron knew, he would simply not attack and stab them in the back later.

Maria said "I'm sorry, but it's not in Megatron's character to back down. He has 100% ego."

Megatron attempted to start combat, and simply turned off; brain death was almost immediate.

Soundwave assumed command and told Nighthawk to install the new brain they'd brought with them. He'd brought several, just in case others didn't fall in line. "You can be replaced" is a famous Decepticon quote.

TRANSFORMER RP SESSION #12:

(see the picture blog)

The Autobots, having moved their base to Antarctica, were a tad smarter; they installed a spy satellite to observe the Decepticon base, since they knew where it was. Megatron hadn't moved it because he knew it might lure the Autobots to attack him again.

Starfire (Classic Voyager edition Skyfire / Jetfire) was the 3rd incarnation of the original, who died in the Great Cataclysmic War of Earth Year 1989. He was smart enough to have another body waiting for him (the toy I left in its box) but, upon dragging Teletraan 1 home to Autobot High Command (AHC) with the memories of Optimus Prime and others backed-up on it, he was tried for treason and destroyed. The backup of his brain on Teletraan 1 was erased.

Unbeknownst to AHC, Optimus Prime kept a complete copy of his friend in his brain, a difficult thing to do, but AHC didn't detect it. When Prime was reactivated he was stripped of his command but allowed to live. Prime revealed to Ratchet (also rescued by Starfire by having his memories transported on Teletraan 1) that he had a copy of Starfire and Ratchet went to work creating the (Classics Voyager edition) new Starfire body.

Prime, it turns out, is wise and worldly; he knew something bad might happen with AHC, so he stored a copy of the backup of Starfire's memories that were on Teletraan 1 in his own mind. It gets more complicated here...

A huge gray Autobot space-jet shows up and plays cat-and-mouse; first, he finds the spy satellites Soundwave left as he entered the Sol System and spends a week observing them (making sure there are no more and finding their orbits around Jupiter and Mars) before warping to them both while they're on the blind side of their planet and destroying them.

He then came to Earth and found the Autobot spy satellite watching the Decepticon base, and tried to talk to it. (I seemed to be making great die rolls with this new guy.)

The Autobots weren't sure who it was, because he didn't say - all he said was "Where is Optimus Prime?" They turned the spy satellite to look at him and scan him, but a moment later, the cagey Autobot jammed their satellite's scanning systems. They were sure he was an Autobot, and that he was based on the (G1) original Starfire design, but for all they knew, he was an agent of AHC sent to investigate rogue Autobots.

Then the mystery guy started hacking their satellite and trying to trace the signal. Maria and Dulce's paranoia meters went off the charts. I explained to my firstborn the idea of having two satellites, so the signal goes from one to the other before leading to the base; since the first is supposed to spy on Decepticons this seemed like a good thing to do. Sure enough, the mystery Autobot found the relay satellite and started hacking it too. Prime turned it off.

So, the mystery Autobot went about disassembling the 2nd satellite and figured out that it was originally sending its signal to the Southern hemisphere of the Earth, and off he went to Antarctica. He was able to do this because the design was exactly the kind of thing he'd make...

Once he got there, he found the little Autobots, Harrier and Firefox, patrolling over the dark Antarctic sky and snuck up to them. Once he was sure he was safe, he started talking to them, but scared the wits out of Harrier and Firefox, who split up and took off. The mystery Autobot tried to close and tractor beam one, but Prime sent Starfire to intercept him.

The two Autobots were reticent to fire on each other and the gray mystery guy quickly transformed, landed, and said "I'm Starfire. I'm here because Optimus Prime sent a signal for me."

Maria said "But, he's already here. Who is this guy?"

I told her "Prime sent an encrypted signal that could only be decoded by the Autobot with the exact same brain and memories as Starfire; In about 125 years it can be decrypted but otherwise, no one else can read it."

Maria thought, and thought a bit more, and then an epiphany hit her. "Oh my, Papa, you know how my brain works, where it keeps putting all the pieces together, I think I just figured it out - this guy is Starfire, but he's a clone we didn't know about."

Sure enough, Starfire didn't know that Prime had a backup of him when he flew Teletraan 1 and the memories of his friends home to AHC. Starfire was naive enough to think they wouldn't do anything truly terrible to him other than remove his rank, but once he was put on trial, his brilliant logical brain thought otherwise, so he secretly set up a pool filled with nanobots, the materials needed for a new body, the schematics of the body, and a computer to run it, and just left it. If he returned he could turn it off.

Of course, at the end of the trial he was eradicated and his memories on Teletraan 1 erased. Prime woke up afterwards and lamented his friend, and talked with Ratchet about remaking him secretly.

Meanwhile, the hidden pool of nanobots, receiving no word, shrugged, and started remaking Starfire with a different copy of his memories...

So the (Classics Voyager) white Starfire only remembered life up until the close of the Great Cataclysmic War, and then woke up again (with Ratchet, who recreated him) to be told that he had rescued many of his friends, only to be destroyed by AHC for his deeds. He was a little bitter.

The (G1 Knock-Off) gray Starfire woke up remembering everything, and knew that the trial must have gone badly. He called himself "Nightfire" and quickly fled to the outskirts of Autobot space, which meant it took longer for the same signal Optimus Prime sent out to reach him.

Finally, the Autobot officers, Prime, Starfire, Nightfire (gray Starfire) & Jazz discussed who should be named what. Convention held that the clones always have a new or modified name, but Nightfire felt that, since the clone thought he was the only Starfire, and everyone called him that, and since Nightfire had been using a different name to disguise himself, and hadn't been socializing with anyone (he'd gone back to solo space exploration, his hobby), he would be called "Nightfire."

An interesting set of RP Sessions. I loved watching Maria's epiphany hit her the most.

Important Edit:
Nightfire was able to hack the Autobot relay satellite so quickly because - he designed it; or rather, a clone of him did. It was exactly the way he'd design it, it just took him a moment to see what had been done.

He was cagey because, knowning he'd been destroyed by AHC, he was wary of running into Soldier Autobots who would report him to AHC; he wanted to see and know it was Prime that sent the message before he revealed himself. Of course, not wanting to be found by AHC, Prime and crew were similarly paranoid.

I love the underlying complexity of your storyline.
I wonder what Soundwave will do, now he is in command of the Decepticons.

I gotta say that I love the congegated backstory of Nightfire, it took me a while before i figured out that it had to be him, purely because there was a photo of him at the beginning.

Also, I like the way you put "Maria and Dulce's paranoia meters went off the charts." I can just imagine them sat down, all worried with sweat on their brow, then Dulce suddenly pulling a huge handgun from under the table and firing wildly behind her, then Maria, startled by the gunfire, hides under the table and fires aimlessly at the roof.
Then, amidst the confusion Soundwave silently sends a warning signal to the DHC.

Keep it coming Mr.Beoulve

Clarifications:
I added some green text to Session 12's text: Nightfire disassembled, not hacked, the relay satellite. It was turned off, how could he hack it? He didn't.

Firefox & Harrier were already on patrol, so they were the first thing Nightfire found when heading to Antarctica from the ionosphere.

Pasky, I love your comments, they fuel me to keep these session logs coming. That goes for everyone who comments here, especially Neliz & slycherrychunks.

PaskyTheLad wrote:I love the underlying complexity of your storyline. I wonder what Soundwave will do, now he is in command of the Decepticons.

Even I don't know that, my friend, Telnarius, is going to have to fill me in. Knowing Soundwave, he'll stall for a while if word doesn't reach him immediately.

PaskyTheLad wrote:I gotta say that I love the conjugated backstory of Nightfire, it took me a while before i figured out that it had to be him, purely because there was a photo of him at the beginning.

con·ju·gat·ed - adj. (-gt, -gt) 1. Joined together, especially in a pair or pairs; coupled.

I learned a new use of a familiar word. Yes, their stories are conjugated Ratchet cautioned that, generally, Autobots don't keep clones together with originals because it promotes group-thinking, and the two "Starfires" agreeing on something will hold more weight in the others' minds than one Starfire positing an idea. Maria deliberated over this for a while with Prime, and finally assigned them separate duties; she worried one might feel "inferior" to the other, but I told her "Leaders know they can't please everyone."

She made Nightfire the Chief Science Officer and Starfire the Commander of the Air Group, which now includes Skyblast, Firefox, Harrier, himself, and of course Nightfire, if he's not already busy.

PaskyTheLad wrote:Also, I like the way you put "Maria and Dulce's paranoia meters went off the charts." I can just imagine them sat down, all worried with sweat on their brow, then Dulce suddenly pulling a huge handgun from under the table and firing wildly behind her, then Maria, startled by the gunfire, hides under the table and fires aimlessly at the roof.
Then, amidst the confusion Soundwave silently sends a warning signal to the DHC.

Little girls acting paranoid is, in fact, quite cute. They kept telling me "My Autobots aren't doing this," whatever motions they were making or noises as they talked to each other excitedly. I just told them "I figured Optimus Prime doesn't squeel like a girl."

Yeah. I got flogged for that one. *chuckles*

PaskyTheLad wrote:Keep it coming Mr.Beoulve

Thank you!

DavidBeoulve wrote:con·ju·gat·ed - adj. (-gt, -gt) 1. Joined together, especially in a pair or pairs; coupled.

Damn, I meant to type "Convoluted", but "Conjugated" works too.
My hands betray me.

DavidBeoulve wrote:My friend, Telnarius, plays DHC and AHC (Autobot High Command) as the "Setting-Game-Master"; while I GM individual games with my children, he keeps me in check by running what's happening in the galaxy, which forces me and my daughters to deal with the unpredictable nature of the forces outside of Earth.

I have one little question about this part, is your RP session one part of a larger group, or does Telnarius just brainstorm the 'rest' of the galaxy for your guys' game? How often are you in contact with Telnarius, or does he contact you through your gaming blog?

-Again, wonderful work... I can't help but keep reading to see what happens next!

Setting Game-Master Genesis & Process
Methusalen: Good question.

There are two GM's for our game - I serve as the home GM, dealing with what happens in the Sol Star System, where all Transformers are effectively restricted to barring rare exceptions, running various NPC Transformers (not the leaders, usually, Soundwave being an exception, because the catch there is that the girls have to learn how to deal with him).

Telnarius serves as the Setting GM, which is everything that is going on outside of the Sol System, yet can affect it. How and why new Transformers arrive (when we buy them or they are gifted) and ... well we still have yet to see all what he's going to do.

Telnarius is a real-life friend of mine who lives in another state. Typically we chat on IM and game from a distance; Neverwinter Nights, MMO's he's had me try (ADD is a great cure for MMO addiction), anything else that features cooperative play, that sort of thing.

Aside from gaming we know everything worth mentioning about our personal lives, which is just far too useful a tool for anyone who Dungeon Masters or Game Masters for you ... you have to hook players, find what generates an emotional response. Being a long-time DM I'm a harder nut to crack as I tend to distance myself, but not impossible.

Hooks:
In an RPG, if you illicit an emotional response, fear, anger, excitement, sadness, anything, players almost always come away feeling "The game was good, even though I didn't like what happened in it, it was a good session." Quoted verbatim from a player I had named Steve; never forgot that. So you mix up the good and bad emotions, but you can't trigger an emotional response without knowing what someone's hooks are, and you mustn't reveal what you know or they'll be on guard - after all, players are there to suspend belief. DMs/GMs have to maintain both realities.

Canon & Plausibility:
Well Telnarius reads these logs too and he still has all of his old G1 toys, safely in dry boxes. He has almost every G1 toy and, like me, stopped collecting after the 1986 movie.

He started by counseling me about certain personalities and Transformer canon I'd never bothered to keep up on as a child because - well, I made my own, and didn't collect enough comics to know what was going on there; in other words, keeping me within the bounds of plausibility in the Transformer fiction.

Setting Game Master:
Then I had an idea: Since Teln is always out of State, and Autobot High Command (AHC) and Decepticon High Command (DHC) are out of the solar system, why not have him GM the galaxy at large, and help us understand why (G1) Soundwave was coming back to Earth? He'd throw me and my kids some zingers and we'd have fun dealing with it.

Maria really liked the idea, and he and I couldn't figure out why, so I asked her, and she said "Because I would to have the full game, with Autobots and Decepticons High Command and with us being Autobots and Decepticons on Earth, and it would be cool[TM]."

10 year-old girls have a special, trade-marked way of saying "cool."

Anyway, that's the genesis of it. Teln reads the logs and talks to me over IM, or we share a phone call, and then he gets to watch out well we respond to that. It's just started, really, as Soundwave & crew were the first extra-Sol event.

Pasky: Heh; I'm 31 and my fingers sometimes cramp up.

Thank you for the reply David... I was obviously a bit curious how & what he'd contributed to the sessions... Now that I know a little history & backstory, it makes a bit more sense! So, while you run the 'main game' that your kids (and you) are playing, Telnarius will give you ideas about where new characters are coming into the game from, what their motivation is, and guide the elements of the game that you haven't thought of, or would have no control over...

Very cool... so even the GM has a GM...

Methusalen wrote:Very cool... so even the GM has a GM...

It's GMs all the way down!

GMs: Checks & Balances are often a good thing. Teln told me yesterday, after reading Sessions 11 & 12, "Well like I say, it's all about what you do with it next."

Well, he he no duh! That's every DM/GM's worst nightmare after a decent story setup... "don't muck it up, because you just raised expectations."

I've been getting my butt kicked at work from all the chemicals involved in the renovation, so all I could do last night was sit on the couch after taking some allergy medicine and play The Godfather on my kids' Wii. Dad has games too, right? My firstborn kept me hydrated.

Obvious Prime wrote:In this pic where did Prime's sword come from?


P.S. LOVE your RPG. Great way to roleplay and spend time with the kids. Can't wait to have kids like that.

That came with these guys, the three on the left...

Driller, Slipstream & Scalper. Herc and Drilldozer are the KO's to the right of them.

In Session #3, Optimus Prime lifted the Sword off of Scalper, who they had downed.

He was later repaired as the Autobots couldn't transport him home without drawing attention from humans.

I wonder if Scalper will ever get that back before Soundwave usher his butt back to Cybertron.

Pasky the Lad asked about the sword Optimus Prime lifted from Scalper after downing him in Session #5 (I think it was).

Pasky, interesting you should note that, because I bought copies of Scalper & Slipstream so Jose Francisco, my 2.5 year-old son, could run around with his favorite Transformers and we wouldn't have to worry if he broke them. We kept the swords that came with the extras. So yes, Scalper apparently had to just break down and make a new disruptor sword.

It's here!
Transformers RP Session #13


Learn more about Soundwave's plan and what he is going to do with Megatron. The answer may surprise you, but reaffirm Soundwave's character. Plus! What are the Constructicons up to? That's not answered, but alluded to...

It's here!
Transformers RP Session #14


Told from the Autobot's side; Once again there's no combat, although there are some dice rolls this time and the introduction of a new Autobot!

I apologize for entering a kind of "Dragonball Z" story phase where a lot of nothing happens, but little girls seem to enjoy things that boys would likely skip over until they're at the next battle or conflict.

I am also worried that the Cyber Spawn and other Todd McFarlane mecha character might be a bit much for folks to swallow, but there's a hidden truth to them and a reason they don't transform and appear to have... flesh! All to be revealed in the next episode of...

"Role-Play Action, my first since 1989; including a new generation, my kids"

David, your use of suspense is both frustrating yet amazing.
I'm trying to figure out the Decepticon's new plans, but seeing as we don't know Soundwave that well, I have no idea. Is Windrazor a male or female, you refer to him/her as both him and her?

P.s. Is Maria's head ok? D=

Apologies for the delay, Pasky.

Gender:
In our fiction, Transformers don't understand gender very well. Most default to male personas, but there are notable exceptions. Since they don't reproduce sexually, relationships are based on a need for community rather than procreation.

Question lead in...
I have a question to ask you, Pasky. Telnarius has been helping me on the Lead DM front, but he's also quite busy. He asked me a bunch of questions "What's going on and why?" which were really the 101 basics of DMing in D&D. I realized his point, which was simple:

Campaign Setting Goal:
Even in a Transformers RP game, you have to know your setting and what you are setting out to do.

In Dungeons & Dragons, my goal was always simple: Create a consistent, believable world and let the players interact with it and change it. At the end of the campaign, redraw the map of the land to show how things had changed. "Draco" saw 7 campaigns, 5 of which had proper endings. It accumulated enough back-history over the course of ten years to fill a small wiki.

Here, however, I found I have a different goal: Make my children grow and learn by putting carefully constructed problems in front of them; more specifically, encourage my firstborn's (Maria de Guadalupe) natural aggressiveness, nurturing and bossyness and hon it into learning to be a leader, of which she has all the natural traits needed; in constrast to Dulce Maria, whom is a follower and I want her to learn more decision making and discovering her identity outside of what her older sister does, and making her own decisions while keeping to the Golden Rule of Sisterhood: Always sticking by each other. This is something I have drilled into my girls since birth; no girls were ever on Papa's team, it was, and is, always them against Monster Zombie Tickle Papa, or whatever incarnation I take.

Campaign Setting Basics:
AHC = Autobot High Command
DHC = Decepticon High Command

Why is travel to Earth forbidden?

• Because Transformers have a real problem with being inventors, but humans don't, AHC and DHC were scared at how quickly the humans adapted what technology of theirs that they came into contact with, as well as human history of invention (ever watch "CONNECTIONS"?). This is the real reason AHC orbitally smart-bombed and used digital warfare against all human records of Transformer technology, and why AHC and DHC made travel to Earth or the Sol solar system forbidden.

Why are Decepticons Here?

• (Armada) Battle clone Megatron had an idea to gain immense personal power - since Decepticons had already broken an ancient Cybertonian law and melded flesh creatures into cyborgs (the Dreadlords, or "Meatformers" as true Decepticons call them), why not use humans to invent new weapons and technology? He came to abduct scientists and attempt to have a controlled population. Human history shows that no one can retain control of a vast breadth of humanity for very long, but a smaller group seemed more manageable to him.

How did DHC know about Megatron's plan, or that he came to Earth?

• Astrotrain betrayed him.

Why did Optimus Prime return? How did he know? Why not just alert AHC?

• The real answer to this might blow your mind. Optimus Prime got an anonymous tip (who it was may blow your mind); he knew that AHC's response could be a full-scale war, which would decimate human cities and possibly destabilize Earth's fragile ecosystem, or it could be more purposeful and better handled.
  
  The reason Prime chose not to tell AHC is because he has a different reason for returning: he believes that human beings, with their short lives and uniqueness with each individual, stand to teach the Autobots a lot about individuality, the value of freedom and life, which is something Autobots in general have handled largely by themselves and observing lesser lifeforms.

Who tipped off Optimus Prime?

• **SPOILER ALERT** If you really want to know - Astrotrain betrayed Megatron just after he left; he told Soundwave, a Lieutenant Commander, because he was a survivor of the Earth wars and worked in DHC. Prior to forming his group that would usurp command from the battle clone of Megatron, Soundwave sent a coded message to Optimus Prime and warned him. He then deliberately didn't bring enough forces with him to destroy the Autobots he calculated Prime would be able to bring. Optimus Prime doesn't know who sent him the message, only that someone from Decepticon space sent it.

What are the Dreadlords / Dreadbots / Meatformers?

• Ancient Cybertronian Law forbids any and all cyborgs and augmenting either alien races with Transformer technology, or grafting Transformers with living tissue. Decepticon High Command has, within the last 18 years (after the Earth wars closed and Earth was evacuated, only Starfire (G1 Skyfire) and Soundwave escaped), overturned this.
  
  Decepticons came across a planet long since torn apart by war; the surviving intelligent species had so drastically genetically altered itself that they have incredible powers of regeneration; however, they'd also nuked themselves into the stone age.
  
  Because Transformer brains are so difficult to make (the core of them are comprised of materials that are of extremely limited supply), DHC decided to create the "Meatformers", as true Decepticon soldiers call them, in order to augment their ranks and push back the Autobots.
  
  This campaign has been effective in areas that the Autobots do not have a substantial defense network set up, enough success for AHC to view these creations with a certain form of... dread. Autobot brains are still hard to come by, just like Decepticons, yet Decepticons are throwing creatures intelligent enough to handle their bodies (dumb computers can just be outwitted or hacked, these can't), but more replaceable than Decepticon brains.

What's with Windrazor? Why does he idolize Optimus Prime? What is AHC doing wrong?

• AHC has started to warp the phrase "For the Greater Good." Individuality, indeed the rights of expression and, of course, objection, are considered contrary to the greater good of the war with the Decepticons. This movement within AHC gained ground when, completely unrelated to the Earth-bound Transformers I grew up with, a treaty with the Decepticons fell through with drastic consequences that the current power-holders in AHC managed to stop (hence, their new found respect within AHC, and the willingness to accept a harsher way of doing things from other Autobots in general).
  
  Optimus Prime, like a Bishop in Africa, was completely apart from all of these changes, and when he returned from Earth with his memories and adventures, was aghast at what he found. AHC tried, convicted and destroyed Starfire (Skyfire/Jetfire) for being the Autobot who fired upon Autobots from AHC who attacked the humans; Optimus Prime never got a chance to himself, but Starfire could fly fast and get into space. It was just their way of making an example of him. They stripped Prime of his command and made him a citizen, which Prime found out is now considered a "lower class" from soldier Autobots.
  
  Optimus Prime dispersed his entire memory set, abridging only what he wouldn't want in Decepticon heads, as a way of making the Autobots remember what they stood for. AHC declared his actions against the war effort, and notified him that if he was ever destroyed, he was not to be rebuilt.
  
  Around this time, as Prime was continuing to be engaged in this new underground movement, he got the anonymous tip that Megatron was heading to Earth.

Why did Starfire show up?

• Ratchet remade Starfire with the memories Optimus Prime secreted within his own brain's memory banks. Starfire himself backed himself up before his trial (this one became Nightfire, and since it came from the source is, by Autobot law, the new original, not a clone). Both of them came for the same reason: their best friend called them. Starfire brought Jazz with him, an Autobot who has grown to know Prime over the last 18 years (I never had Jazz as a boy).

Why did Autobots Ratchet, Skyblast & Downshift come?

• Ratchet needed a ride, so he found a willing taker in SkyBlast. He left after Starfire because he wasn't anywhere near Starfire at the time, and received a separate message from Prime. Downshift was recreated from the G1 Omnibot on Earth. Nobody knows it, but Grimlock and the G1 Omnibots are all still alive, just in hiding, possibly deactive in hybernation. Camshaft and Overdrive didn't want to revisit Earth and all the painful memories there. These guys don't know they are clones, they think the originals died on Earth.

Why did the Decepticons call in the Dreadlords?

• DHC asked Soundwave what he needed to handle the Autobots on Earth without drawing attention from AHC, since DHC isn't dumb and figures that, if Prime's best friend was waxed by AHC, and Prime was stripped of his command, then Prime isn't there in an official capacity. Soundwave lied and told them he needed less forces than he actually did.

Clarification on Optimus Prime's Goal:

• He's there to counter the Decepticons, for sure, but he's also there to continue learning from humanity. He was confident that, even if peace couldn't be reached with human governments, individuals would help change things. Daniel's betrayal has confounded the Autobot leader for the moment; he has realized that he is still a machine, and reading humans is difficult for him.

What does the "new" Megatron want?

• To follow through with the old one's plan of using humans to invent new technology, only with the official sanction of DHC, and to crush the Autobots, especially Optimus Prime, since he's an Autobot folk-hero.

What does Soundwave want?

• Good question. He's currently relaying orders from DHC to Megatron and keeping tabs on everything that happens.

The Question:
Pasky, if you would like, you can throw me ideas here and we can run with them. Also, please help me clarify anything in the setting that I omitted or neglected.

I just read your RP sessions from one to fourteen, and I'm hooked. It seems you're having lots of fun with this, and your kids are, too. Can't wait for the next installment!