TRP is fundamentally a dnd table where players are constantly joining and leaving the table. The dungeon master(s) are constantly being replaced aswell. The story as a result is also constantly changing, and a coherent narrative is very hard to maintain, as its a case of more cooks, bigger mess. The dms have struggled to bring cohesion back, but all attempts are patchwork at best. Luckily the world seems to have settled into a comfortable limbo, where no matter what crazy hijinks and adventures we get up to, it all eventually returns to us, enjoying time together in a secure bunker, while the machine threat is out there somewhere we can't see it.
Guerilla style, unorganized resistance roleplay is great for creating fresh, organic rp, where due to the players being spread out all over, forming ad hoc groups. Instead of concentrated at one point as the united might of humanity. The machine threat is ever looming, horror style villains. That spells doom to each tiny little group if somebody fails their stealth check. The roleplay is most similar to one shot, quick, organically formed rp with high stakes, high rewards. And seeing as it’s a one shot, you dont really feel bothered when your char Crit fails and becomes machine paste. You stumble upon people to roleplay with around the map, and the meetings and happenstances that follow, feel more organic.
The issue is that what started as a one shot, will quickly become a grand campaign for people. The hero's journey from rags to riches, bullets to plasma, recruit to captain. From barely surviving, to taking the fight to the machines. People are invested in their characters, character death is now rare, and memorable.
The nature of the table now plays against the players wishes, they want to return to the table and pick up their story again, but find the story keeps changing, and the disparity between their characters story and the tables grow. All these chaotic resistance groups, and all these ever-changing bases, hideouts and so tire people. The players remember the story being that they were in a cave, but now we are in a machine prison?? Is it too much to ask to just be able to pick up from where we last left off?
And so eventually comes the bunker into existence, this limbolike never changing hub, where no matter what happens the bunker remains the one constant. It has been destroyed, relocated, rebuilt, reshaped. But it always returns, fuelled into existence by the players desire for a semblance of normalcy, and the ability to reconnect their characters story to the tables.
Outside everything constantly changes, we beat the machines, the machines beat us, we are on a submarine, we are in a mountain range, we are in the ruined cities of man. But the bunker is always there now, no matter what whacky adventures we get up to in the outside. Ready to return us all to its familiar hallways.