Updates 2015 - 2016

[DivineST]

Hello everyone!

There are quite a few things that I need to update around here to help get things on track. I wanted to go over some of them publicly to try to get some help with a few of them, if you guys would be so kind.

‣ History

• I am currently writing a synopsis of the history of the game and the events therein. To assist with this and because of our periodic breaks, this is thusfar broken down into two 'seasons', with us currently in the beginning of Season Three.
  • Season One begins with the beginning of the game, midseasons with the Bloody Baron incident, and finales with the disappearance of Dhagia Sanctuary (part one) and the aversion of war with the dragons (part two).
  • Season Two opens with the first appearance of the White Rabbit/the death of Maggie Magpie, midseasons with the werewolf encounter/White Rabbit at the hospital, and finales with the August 31st Resolutions.
  If anyone would like to help me with writing these synopses, I have some more detailed outlines of each season, and I would appreciate the help! These synopses will be posted in the History section here, as well as on the attached website under Story.

‣ Character Profiles

• In fitting with the reference of 'seasons', I am going to be updating the character profiles to have 'recent history' reflect areas for 'Season One', 'Season Two', and 'Season Three'. This is so that general public knowledge about your character at a given point in the game's history can be quickly refreshed, namely for those with keen memories, as we have a couple of those around, but also for some OoC reference too.
  
  In this vein, please, please, please update your character profiles! This game is entering its fourth year; character's have changed, as has information about them, so please consider those and reflect them within your character's description.

‣ Rules Changes

• I am writing up the outline for establishing character goals in different areas, which will allow for sheet growth as the story progresses, in the place of experience points. Any and all experience points you currently have will remain! You may spend them as normal.
  
  I am also revising the timelines post to reflect a shift away from 'literal time' to 'relative time', which will allow for some time-forgiveness in relation to plots due to how the written medium tends to necessitate more time than face-to-face/tabletop.
  
  I have been attempting to put to paper some guidelines for the three types of Quiet, which would include some general examples of common symptoms of Quiet of a specific type, common causes, and such. However, Quiet is very personal, and it can be very trying to play. As such, this guideline will most notably include a series of questions to ask yourself about your character as their story progresses, just to establish potential 'breaking points' unique to your character's experiences so that if you encounter such a breaking point, you can consider whether or not Quiet could result from it.

‣ Flavor Posts

• On and off, I have been working on trying to construct some flavor posts to help with establishing the overall feel of certain aspects of the game. Things like balancing life as a mage with one's mundane life; Resonance and how it affects both magic and social interactions; Quiet; mage politics; paradigm; things of that nature.
  
  If anyone would like to contribute any Flavor posts, either from their character's perspective or from a player stance, please feel free to do so! They can be PMed to me, or if they are from your character's perspective, they can be posted as lits!

‣ Forums

• I am working out some forum changes, as in adding or consolidating locations, so if you would like a new subforum - or if you want one of your forums removed or changed - please let me know! I will be redividing character forums, most likely, but I may do this to one or two of you at a time to ask you to play with them/test them out for me.
  
  Private forums will remain such. If you need or would like a private forum for some reason, any reason, tell me what you want it called, where you would like it, and who has access to it, and I can add it for you.

‣ Map

• I have also been constructing a map of locations on the boards, to hopefully help with things like space and travel times, but also to provide a visual aid for those who need them. This map will ultimately have ley lines/nodes; properties owned by cabals/individuals; neighborhoods; forum locations when it is finished, but it is a work in progress currently.

ALL of this is in addition to plot! I have a couple of things in motion, and there are some personal/social plots afoot as well, but with a more lax timeline, I can spread things out a little so that no one gets overwhelmed with things.

I just thought I'd let you all know where I am with things, and to ask for some help or volunteers in some areas.

Thanks!

[DivineST]

‣ Quiet

• The general guideline for Quiet and how it can/will be determined within this game has been posted here. I am still working on genre notes for the three types of Quiet for more available information on the states and the symptoms thereof.

‣ Rotes

• I have almost finished a note about Rotes, elaborating on what they are and how a character has them. Currently in-progress with this is how one can acquire new rotes, but given the changes being made, this is less a priority, and you will understand why once the Rotes note has been posted!

[DivineST]

‣ Request

• Can everyone please PM me a short blurb about your character? Something that describes them/their personality and their focus/drive within the game overall. Thanks!

[DivineST]

‣ Request

• Can everyone please PM me a short blurb about your character? Something that describes them/their personality and their focus/drive within the game overall. Thanks!

Bumping this!

[DivineST]

‣ Rotes

• An elaboration about and rules for rotes have been added! Please review this! If you have any questions, you may post them in your Out of Character subforum within your character's forum!
  
  Note: While this is new and being sorted out between players and staff, please continue to use your existing list of Effects for the 'yes/no' question of whether or not a spell is a rote when using the spell-casting template.
  
  Because Paradigm is complicated and not everyone is on the same schedule, players will have until May 30 to submit a rotes list in the above fashion. If you have not started one by April 15, I will PM you to remind you, but if one is still not submitted by the end of May 30 then it will be assumed that your character does not know any rotes and fast-casts as a situation calls for rather than having any tried and true practices.

‣ Templates

• For the sake of ease, I have added some of the recent things to the Templates area. Some templates are still being reviewed with various changes in mind, but if one is updated, a note of that will be made.

‣ Character Forums

• Everyone has a better-sorted character forum, and the various subforums contained within are all explained here!

‣ Write-Up Reviews

• I am currently still going back through various write-ups to see what still needs to be updated. If you are looking at something in one of the creation, rules, or system forums and it seems contradictory to something that has been posted more recently, please let me know so that I can clarify the matter and update or correct what needs such.

Thank you!

[DivineST]

‣ Rotes

• An elaboration about and rules for rotes have been added! Please review this! If you have any questions, you may post them in your Out of Character subforum within your character's forum!
  
  Note: While this is new and being sorted out between players and staff, please continue to use your existing list of Effects for the 'yes/no' question of whether or not a spell is a rote when using the spell-casting template.
  
  Because Paradigm is complicated and not everyone is on the same schedule, players will have until May 30 to submit a rotes list in the above fashion. If you have not started one by April 15, I will PM you to remind you, but if one is still not submitted by the end of May 30 then it will be assumed that your character does not know any rotes and fast-casts as a situation calls for rather than having any tried and true practices.

I have bumped those of you without lists via PM, AIM, or OoC, but here is a public bumping of this. Remember, you have until May 30th!

[DivineST]

And into 2016 we go!

I have posted a question regarding character descriptions and the template, to gather opinions and see if there is a more useful/useable option. Feel free to tag the thread with your own thoughts, be they yea, nay, or more specific; or you can send those thoughts to me via PM, whichever you're more comfortable with.

[DivineST]

‣ Rules

• I have rewritten and updated the dice rolling post! This details how to use the dice roller we use, some details on when you can use it without staff, and so on. The dice roller is really neat! Feel free to check it out, and this better enables you guys to do some more social rolls and such without bogging things down waiting on me to get around to them.
  
  I am also going to be rewriting the Timelines post, as that needs to be revised to reflect our shift in how we maintain timelines here, as well as taking a look at some of the other existing things in the top section of the boards to revise things that need to be redone to be consistent with changes that have been made in the last several months to a year, as I might not have gotten to all of them before.

‣ History

• I am working on Season Two's synopsis, and then I will do Season Three's synopsis. If any player would like to help with these, please let me know! For a refresher, here are the season breakdowns:
  • Season One begins with the beginning of the game, midseasons with the Bloody Baron incident, and finales with the disappearance of Dhagia Sanctuary (part one) and the aversion of war with the dragons (part two).
  • Season Two opens with the first appearance of the White Rabbit/the death of Maggie Magpie, midseasons with the werewolf encounter/White Rabbit at the hospital, and finales with the August 31st Resolutions.
  • Season Three opens with the immediate fallout of the August 31st Resolutions, midseasons with Nomios' appearance at the Bloody Baron, and finales with the December 2015 narrations.
  • We are currently in Season Four, which opened with reaching the chantry to learn of the takeover following the December 2015 narrations. We have not quite hit the midseason yet.

‣ Character Profiles

• The question of a new profile template remains! You're welcome to sound off, either there or via private messages.
  
  I have been working on filling in this new template for each of you, both so you can see what it looks like with information filled in and so I can have a headstart on these for if we change over to it. Primarily, this has involved porting the information from your existing profile, adding the History information, and a rough idea of additional notes unique to the new template. This can be found in your character forum's OoC subforum, for you to reference, edit, adjust, or query in regard to whether or not the template works or is usable.

‣ OoC / IC Threads for Groups

• If you have a private forum, either for pairs, cabals, or shared residences, I have been adding threads for General Knowledge of those involved in the private forum. These threads are specific to each forum, and they can be used to add routines, information gleaned from time together, and so on. This is to help simulate the time these groups/individuals spend together, without attempting to force every detail into scenes, while allowing you to be able to search for this information for later reference, unlike with private messages.
  
  As such, information in these threads can be taken as in-character knowledge by those involved in the group or private forum. Temporary access to a private forum does not allow use of that forum's OoC / IC General Knowledge thread. However, players in the group or forum are welcome to add things to it at any time, under the assumption that the added information would be able to be considered in-character knowledge by other members.
  
  Cabals, if you already had one of these, I just tagged it to add it to my list, if I hadn't done so already.

‣ Forums

• And in the vein of the above, I have been adding and/or consolidating locations again.
  
  People who live at Tripp's house, I have added a forum and group for you, and I have moved the threads that I saw took place at that location. If I missed one and need to move others, please let me know!
  
  If you need or want a forum, either for a home, business, frequented place, or private between specific people with no specific location, drop me a request in your character forum's OoC forum and let me know what you'd like it to be called, who should have access to it, where it should be, etc.

Yay, updates!

If you need something specific, lemme know!

[DivineST]

‣ History

• I am working on Season Two's synopsis, and then I will do Season Three's synopsis. If any player would like to help with these, please let me know! For a refresher, here are the season breakdowns:
  • Season One begins with the beginning of the game, midseasons with the Bloody Baron incident, and finales with the disappearance of Dhagia Sanctuary (part one) and the aversion of war with the dragons (part two).
  • Season Two opens with the first appearance of the White Rabbit/the death of Maggie Magpie, midseasons with the werewolf encounter/White Rabbit at the hospital, and finales with the August 31st Resolutions.
  • Season Three opens with the immediate fallout of the August 31st Resolutions, midseasons with Nomios' appearance at the Bloody Baron, and finales with the December 2015 narrations.
  • We are currently in Season Four, which opened with reaching the chantry to learn of the takeover following the December 2015 narrations. We have not quite hit the midseason yet.

‣ Character Profiles

• I have been converting existing profiles to the new template. If I have not reached yours yet, then that means I have questions for you!
  
  Please take time to look at these, both your own and others'. If your History section hasn't been filled out yet, you're welcome to do that - or generally to change colors and update information, if you would like. I hope to have at least the gist of everyone's history done by the end of the month.

‣ OoC / IC Threads for Groups

• If you have a private forum, either for pairs, cabals, or shared residences, I have been adding threads for General Knowledge of those involved in the private forum. These threads are specific to each forum, and they can be used to add routines, information gleaned from time together, and so on. This is to help simulate the time these groups/individuals spend together, without attempting to force every detail into scenes, while allowing you to be able to search for this information for later reference, unlike with private messages.
  
  As such, information in these threads can be taken as in-character knowledge by those involved in the group or private forum. Temporary access to a private forum does not allow use of that forum's OoC / IC General Knowledge thread. However, players in the group or forum are welcome to add things to it at any time, under the assumption that the added information would be able to be considered in-character knowledge by other members.
  
  Please take a look at this thread in the involved forums and add things to it for your character.

‣ Forums

• If you need or want a forum, either for a home, business, frequented place, or private between specific people with no specific location, drop me a request in your character forum's OoC forum and let me know what you'd like it to be called, who should have access to it, where it should be, etc.

‣ Cabals

• I need to review the chantry hierarchy, and cabals with an informative post in the Hierarchy subforum should review their post to ensure it is up-to-date. If you have recently joined a cabal or changed your membership, please let me know so that I can add you to the appropriate usergroup so you can participate in the cabal's forum.
  
  And on that note, I have copied and moved IC threads in cabal subforums to involved members' Archives to refresh cabal forums, since it has been a while since that has happened. In-progress and general information/project threads were not moved.

[DivineST]

Time for updates!

‣ Character Profiles

• Please take time to look at these, both your own and others'. If your History section hasn't been filled out yet, you're welcome to do that - or generally to change colors and update information, if you would like. Please ensure all information here is accurate and up-to-date!

‣ Halloween Shenanigans

• I am doing some pre-planning for Halloween things this year. Please see the related thread here and ensure you've done as asked in it by 23 October 2016, or else you will not be included in the Halloween goings-on this year!

‣ Forums

• If you need or want a forum, either for a home, business, frequented place, or private between specific people with no specific location, drop me a request in your character forum's OoC forum and let me know what you'd like it to be called, who should have access to it, where it should be, etc.

‣ Cabals

• I need to review the chantry hierarchy, and cabals with an informative post in the Hierarchy subforum should review their post to ensure it is up-to-date. If you have recently joined a cabal or changed your membership, please let me know so that I can add you to the appropriate usergroup so you can participate in the cabal's forum.