Staff Complaint - lavillastrangiato

[Miracae]

BYOND Key: Miracae

 

Staff BYOND Key: lavillastrangiato

 

Game ID: I did not catch the Game ID for that one, but it was Rusting's event on passing of 30th to 1st of July

 

Reason for complaint: Contesting refusal to retcon my character's death (Zofia Warzyszczak)

 

Evidence/logs/etc: Attached as a file, though it isn't as important, my character died, there is that. I do not blame anyone in specific.

Additional remarks: The reason as to why I am contesting this decision is not in the fact I find it wrong. I do believe LVS' and Trio's decision is sound and they have a right to it. On the other hand it is very hard for me to let go of this character just yet. I really feel the storytelling as a whole could benefit from the fact of Zofia's survival. True I believe she should be incredibly messed up after this, both physically and mentally. What I aim exactly towards is the same capturing that has happened to Eris, perhaps barely surviving being shot, losing a limb or such.

Thank you for your time.

ss13-chatlog-20240630-015305.html

[La Villa Strangiato]

Howdy,

For the sake of record-keeping and for an appropriate judgment, I'd to explain why myself and Triogenix (and in part Melariara) decided that Zofia Warzyszczak's death would not receive a retcon. @Miracae, please correct me if I make any error in my understanding of the events; I am supplementing what I knew from my in-game perspective with your logs best as I can.

Zofia left the general area of the shuttle to go and find her girlfriend, Eris Wyvis. Prior to this, there was an announcement that a large convoy of arnoured vehicles were approaching Izilukh. As well, command staff and the general chatter over the radio was encouraging people to return to the shuttle for safety and evacuation. Zofia knew that Izaku's guard was approaching the shuttle and that this was a dangerous situation, but was also made aware Eris was lost and not near the shuttle.

In the mines, Zofia was shot at several times by a member of the "Izaku killsquad", and died quickly because she bled out and suffocated. The logs of yours show that there was no dialogue from Rairokoh Hazusk before firing.

Let's go over the points of contesting:

1. In your Discord messages to me and Rusting, you expressed the sentiment that this was a no-RP kill.
2. The volunteers were strongly discouraged from shooting on sight and were generally expected to act like sapient beings. This also means no "dead-checking", e.g. confirming a kill on someone by shooting them while they were downed.
3. I also think the amount of bullets exchanged (well, exchanged one-way) was unnecessary and not exactly what we want to see from volunteers.
4. When I brought your Discord message to head staff, Trio noted that he did not feel this was an attack without "build-up", and I agree with him. For the past few hours, it had been clearly telegraphed that the Izilukh guard were willing to maim or even kill if they thought the crew was stepping out of line, and the announcement of the armoured convoy (as well as the previous fire exchange that contributed to several injuries and a death) showed to players that the guards were no longer fucking around.
5. With this in mind, Zofia's attempt to find Eris was incredibly dangerous, ICly and OOCly. I do not think that this was an unreasonable decision for a character to make. It is not unreasonable at all that someone would put themselves into danger for a loved one.
6. Ultimately, there was weight and consequence to this decision, and that led to a storyline death. While I understand your reservations with the volunteer's behaviour, that was not enough for myself and Trio (and kinda Mel) to consider this something that should be retconned. It is what we would consider a "shit happens" death.

The decision to uphold or overturn the Lore Team Administration's ruling falls to Arrow and/or Matt. In my opinion, this depends on whether or not they view the volunteer's behaviour as sufficiently out-of-line to warrant a retcon. I am not married to either outcome, and will leave the decision in their hands.

[MattAtlas]

Staff complaints are inherently for contesting a wrong decision. When you say that "Villa and Trio's decision is sound and they have a right to it", and following that, "the storytelling could benefit from Zofia's survival", this comes off as a matter of personal view rather than any procedural mistake by the loremasters.

In that case there is little to contest, and I'm not sure if there is much we can investigate here. Just to be sure - is this what you meant with your complaint?

[Miracae]

It is true that volunteer who killed my character no-rp shot me about five times successfully, when I ran off my character collapsed, but due to, I believe so, my character's condition it did not register in my own log there were additional shots (I saw gunfire light) I do not believe these were kill confirming. Space was dark and these were more blind shots. I do not blame the volunteer. Although after I was driven over by a bike a couple of times according to the volunteer. I am not sure it did any damage? My character was not moved at all, and nothing on log came up.

 

And in regards to contesting, then I would like to contest it on the view of volounteer's behavior was out of line. LVS' post has made me realize that there is a fault in that. I hold no grudge to the player, but I would hope to have the death, taken in this information, retconned. Mistakes happen and I'd rather not be, could say, victim of it if it can be backtracked.

 

[MattAtlas]

Looking at your logs, what was going to happen was clearly telegraphed. A few relevant lines:

Quote

 Prior to these logs, Command had been ordering people to run for quite a while.

[Common] Skalazr Etakuu says, "The Retinue iss here!"

 [Common] Skalazr Etakuu says, "Your death lay within our grassp!"

 [Common] Skalazr Etakuu says, "Lord Izaku'ss finesssst have come to kill you all!"

 [Common] Skalazr Etakuu says, "Run while you can, foul sstrangersss!"

In our rules, killing someone without roleplay is not necessarily a rulebreak. There are situations where it's acceptable. A common example is a security officer happening upon an antagonist killing someone - in that case, the antagonist is well within their rights to "shut up" the security officer. Another example is a hostage escaping and trying to run - the antagonist can always mow them down without mercy at that point.

In your case, the relevant rule is that the amount of roleplay needed depends on the escalation. By this point in the round, someone had already died (Clarity Beck) and it was said over Common many times. Their death was basically announced by the Unathi on the planet and, well, the Retinue clearly spoke about killing everyone when they landed. This was at almost (if not past) the 2 hour mark with plenty of prior roleplay beforehand. I don't see a gank here. I think your character took a risk in going to find Eris and it didn't play out to their advantage. That's totally fine, and these risks are what make events fun, in the end.

Looking at the logs I don't really see any deadchecking, which would have been a real problem. The volunteer seems to have shot you quite a lot, but I think it's within the bounds of someone who is actively trying to kill you, pretty much - it looks like you were hit 7-8 times with what's essentially a .45 bullet, equating to about 210ish damage not counting damage that gets halved due to penetrating into your organs. For reference, 7 revolver bullets would be 315 damage, 7 7.62 bullets would be 245, and so on.

I think the decision made by the loremasters is fine, in the end. What also factors into my decision is that there needs to be some sort of risk during events - risk that cannot be felt if event volunteers cannot feasibly shoot-to-kill like in this case.

[Miracae]

I understand. I thank you for looking into my complaint and taking your time to formulate this response.

[MattAtlas]

I'll lock this, then. If you have any further questions don't hesitate to reach out over Discord.