Second session

[wingedWatcher]

Ive heard several people say that the second session, when your already exhausted from all the bullshit and shenanigans that the game threw at you the first time and just coming to terms with the awesome surprise that is the ultimate reward, is the hardest.

How were your second sessions? How did you deal? Any upsides?

[musicalDecay]

downside: The fact that you have to play the game AGAIN. It's really straining on you're sanity. especially since you have to do it without you're close friends.
upside: You have the chance to get an aspect that isn't shit for you. The first aspect you get is always the hardest because sbrub MAKES it the hardest for you. With you're second aspect you're still likely to get a shitty aspect for you but it's still less shitty then what you had. You may even get a title and aspect that actually FITS YOU. and that can really help with all the other shit.

[zephyrIce]

My first session went to hell right at the end when we lost three players to a PK and then had to off the PK so the remaining two players (myself being one) could live. So, as I'm sure you know, I was grief-stricken, all beat up, and pretty much sobbing on the other survivor's shoulder when we opened that damned door.

Then, boom. Witch of Mist. Went from Scout of Space (a title with lots of "you must do THIS" and minimal glitches) to one that causes messes all over the place.

My server player had to talk me into getting into the game. Gave me a deep appreciation of what a Might player can do. In the process I managed to prototype a handful of Pokemon cards. In my server's words, "Well, our Imps now have the powers of a fictional god, but that could have been way worse." Once I got in and got stuck with another player in a UU, I managed to deal.

The upside to this? The other second-session player in that game became a good friend (who I lost touch with after the session ended, as I hadn't found this place yet). And my server taught me what it means to keep going: Being able to save other lives. Helping new players. Stuff like that.

[ExtropianDreamer]

Maaaaaan. My second was one helluva trip. Mostly because it just sort of built off my first.

My first session was all about me learning how to stop talking about the things I was going to do, and actually do them. Stop hesitating and worrying and just do it, let all the colours and mayhem I had bottled up inside and paint the world in rainbows and moonlight. Once I'd managed it though, I was still all over the place. My second session taught to me to focus that mania, how to turn it into a tool and a fuel and, if need be, a weapon. I went from being the Page of Rain to being the Knight of Dreams with a pretty seamless progression. So my role wasn't so bad. It was hard, really damn hard, but it was something I needed to learn and one I eventually came to like. Dreams is still my second-favourite aspect.

The rest of the session was total bullcrap though. My first session only had one other survivor, and loosing her was just... fuck. All that work? All those sacrifices? Even my freaking brother!? And for it all to just add up to... nothing? I just didn't see the point anymore. Suffice to say, I got hit by Knight Syndrome pretty damn hard for the first part of that session. But I had bro's crowbar, the weight of it in my hand just kept reminding me whenever I had to strife (like fuck was I going to lay down and die). I'd promised him I'd keep on going, so eventually I picked myself off the ground. Just doing nothing wasn't a trap I was going to fall into anymore. And as I kept moving I realised... however pointless it may be, these assholes I was playing with were still people. Sure, I wasn't half as close to them, but they were still people. And that meant I couldn't just do what I wanted, because their lives depended on me doing my part in the session. I had lives to protect (and life is something helluva precious) and memories to honour. So I kept going, threw myself into things and haven't stopped since. The old wounds are still there, they don't ever go away, not really, but you learn to live with them, learn to use them as just more fuel for the madness.

Everyone you loved may be dead, but that don't mean you can stop moving until you've raised a fitting tombstone for them. Way I see it, only thing that would do my bro justice is to make this game's corpse into his memorial. Just gotta survive until I get the chance to make it happen. 'Till then, I'll be damned if I'll let anymore folks die when I can do something about it.

But yeah, second sessions are the worst ones, for all the reasons you listed.

[tungstenTinkerer]

I don't know why you guys are saying such things about your first session. That role is supposed to challenge you, true, but is also what you were pulled from the lime for. My first session as a Sage of Mist was a blast. I also was was really wonderful coplayers, they told me what we were in for early on and the fora helped to keep us in touch, so the end-of-first-session whiplash wasn't as strong. At least we had time to prepare for it.

The second session? Yeah I got Heir of Time. I will be honest, a fair portion of the sickness came from not being Mist anymore. It took time to adapt to it but... Mist made sense. Overwhelming, sure, but still by the end of the session, I learned to look at the world in a certain way and then, bam, I lost that magical connection along with all of my friends. There, have some dead yous instead.

Yeah it sucked big time.

[genesisArtificer]

Heh, second session.

The thing with my second session is that I barely remeber it. What I am sure:
*I was a Mage of Space, and that was the high point (rolled my Native Aspect, that always gives you some foundation)
*our Witch of Time prototyped a living T-Rex (HOW)
*our Bard of Rain murdered everyone sans our three, cause Witch had to abuse Time Shenanigans to complete most of the Quests that were assigned to other Players while I was needed to Breed a Frog.
So at the end of the session our Bard kinda hugged us, and told us that we did great job and he loves us, the Witch was crying in the corner, cuddling her corpses and I really really wanted to vomit the whole content of my stomach.

Also IMHO Space Replayers have it worst.
A person dreams of Prospit or Derse the whole time, they tell you that you are a Great Hero (or Heinous Heretic) that will make a Paradise World for yourself and your friends to live, and then BAM, no Reward.
The worst of the worst part is that I always wonder if it was my fault?

[specificNihilism]

genart
it isn't your fault
it isn't
:<

spenih rolled [ti e] her second
that was
not fun
at all

[genesisArtificer]

Hey. Can I just. build a large monument in the huge respect of people that rolled Time on their second playthrought? Like, their deal was basically "Hey guys, I am Sburb and I really really want for you to suffer those million deaths just now, when you are the most emotionally vulnerable"

Like I am a Time Player for the first time now, after more than twenty years in the game, so I know how to deal with the CorpseFest, and it is still hard for me, so you guys had to be really strong.

[repentantPrimogen]

I am sure that I am at advantage here

not everyone was mentored by two Veterans, like myself

I know more of the Game that most second time Players thanks to Their tutelage

thus I was ready for the fact that Reward itself is a deception

armed with that Knowledge, my second session seems not that bad, even if my Heroic Title is Knight of Hope

[chaoticVoyager]

It was really bland. I think.

I don't know. I was pretty numb throughout.

[detrimentalRequiem]

i just finished my second session.... i'm not sure how to feel about it. i guess it's different for everyone.

[enturbulatedOccupation]

The most disconcerting part about my second session was that I went into it with a wiped memory. I knew I'd played Sburb before, (because I have about an hour's worth of memory of my First Session) but I had maddeningly few specifics. There were veterans in my First Session, though, so they made sure to warn me that I'd be playing again.

Skaia saw fit to give me Muse of Fate for my second Mythological Role, which was nerve-wracking. I had pretty much nothing but Faith to go on, because I couldn't remember having played the game before! I was with other replayers, but noone who had been accquainted with Sburb.org yet, so we were all stumbling around on various levels of knowledge and personal experience about how the game worked. Lots of arguing.

My Role was to be the Muse of Fate, and that was...interesting. With no specific memories, but a lot of Deja Vu, submitting myself to the Faith of Fate wasn't easy. Have you rolled Fate before? Not having any idea why you're doing something that you're doing, or what's going to happen on the way way to your goal is scary. It's legitimately terrifying, for you, your team-mates and unionists. And while a Muse isn't -required- to be cryptic like a Witch, I still...I couldn't explain why I was doing things the way I was. I didn't know! But a Muse inspires action in others, and a Muse brings people together, so...

First, I had to learn how to trust myself, despite not knowing anything about myself.

Then I had to be able to rely on other people, and that was the hard part. A Muse is nothing without those she can inspire to action. I couldn't bond over the horrors and joys of past sessions, or the losses of old Earth, because I didn't remember those things. I had to be able to persuade my co-players to trust me, and I in turn had to be able to trust them. It didn't really work until I spent a couple weeks synching myself really deeply into my Role and grinding dungeons and quests for revelawesome.

[societalFlame]

[Rrangoon warrning]

My second session was a trrial. Forr my firrst, everryone knew eachh othherr orr at least of eachh othherr. It was an easy matterr to deterrmine whho hhad to listen to whho and whhen orrderrs could be rreasonably disobeyed. Forr my second, none of us hhad met beforre and worrse yet, thherre werre mixed chhildrren and adults.

Eventually and afterr two fatalities we orrganized ourrselves withh me, thhe only militarry officerr, leading the adults whhile thhe rrustblood veterran led thhe chhildrren. It was only whhen none of my chharrges werre arround thhat I would allow myself to thhink of thhe implications of thherre even being a second session. Thhankfully, thhe veterran was on thhe othherr side of a computerr scrreen whheneverr I starrted to fall into despairr.

[toxicHistorian]

I'm in mine right now. It's full of aliens and the red blob mastermind is a cagey little know-it-all. I'll let you know more as we go along.

I miss my family. Whatever happened, we were in it together.

[wingedWatcher]

You know, once you get into it, the second session isn't that bad. You just have to keep on moving forward, right? Things don't stop happening just because you want them to, so you just start wanting life to go on! It's all about maintaining a positive outlook.

I love the aspect of sand so much.