The Powers That Be ([personal profile] powersthatbe) wrote in [community profile] synodiporia_ooc2015-10-02 12:02 am
Entry tags:

State of the Game Revisited

First, poll results. Then, discussion!

--All skills will remain teachable as second skills, and plot-important infiltrators will always receive exclusive second skills.

--The cast cap is set at 10 characters, or 10% of the total character cap.

--By a two-vote margin and a last-minute upset, Children of the Night, an urban-gothic Vampires & Werewolves Jaunt, is our next destination.

--Overwhelmingly, reserves will not be returning.

--The black two-column layout is more popular, although most people seem to prefer it in grayscale - we’ll be doublechecking this below before we implement the change.

--An HMD meme will go up, but it will not be mandatory, and players will be allowed to link to HMD posts on their journals, which may or may not be anon, at their option.

There was a lot of good discussion, and we got 100% participation! Which is a big deal, that’s 50% more than we’ve ever had in the past. Thank you all for pitching in.

Speaking of pitching in - we’re announcing four new AC & Skills Helpers - Birdie, Bookie, Quinn, & Thomas; two Summary Helpers - Gowa & Jill; and two NPC-players, Hina & Bii. We got more volunteers than we could feasibly use at this time, which is great, and we want to give a big thanks to those players whose help we’re holding in reserve for the time being. Over the next month, we’ll be easing everyone into their new roles, and we’ll revisit our needs at the end of the next Jaunt, and add or trim people as works best for the game.

For our other points of discussion - opinion on Jaunt density was really mixed, so we’re going to continue treading a middle ground with most jaunts, with occasional ventures towards more worldbuilding or more free-range improvisation as seems necessary.

Likewise, there was a wealth of differing opinion on skill leveling, powercapping, and power imbalances - too much to reach any definitive conclusions, but we’re listening, and will continue to leave the subject open for discussion and new options or suggestions in future SOTGs.

Our Summary Helpers, as per player suggestion, will try to put up smaller OOC summaries before new mingles go up, as well as at the end of each jaunt, so everyone can have a brief news bulletin of what’s going on. Likewise, we’ll work recap details into the mingles as we can.

Finally, both here and on plurk we’ve seen a lot of conversation about the Jaunt vote, and we’re aware it’s a contentious one. Rest assured we’re listening, we’re trying to write a Jaunt that will be appealing to as many players as possible, and we’re going to make sure the Walkabout options are robust and interesting.

That brings us to our last section - walkabout voting! As always, the voting period will be open for seven days (until 11:59 PM CST 10/8), there’s a discussion toplevel below, and we’d like you to rank, from favorite to least favorite, the listed options. Please don’t vote unless you think you’re likely to send a character on walkabout, but we don’t need a firm commitment, only a preference.

Cursed Kingdom: The Missing Dragon. When an elder wyrm flies north from the Ash Wastes, an embassy of diplomats, dragonslayers, griffon knights, and hedge-magicians heads to the nearby frontier city-state of Misericordia to track it, but finds themselves under suspicion from the moment they arrive.

Labyrinthine Shoal: Siren’s Song. When more outcasts and castaways come ashore on an island ruled by pirates and renegade mermaids, the fledgling colony struggles to remain stable - especially in the face of a new outbreak of pestilence and vice.

Doki Doki: The Exhibition. A select group of students and teachers is selected for an S. Tech performance at a cultural festival, and rampant teenaged drama both threatens the day and is the only hope to save it (as usual).

Ivory Tower: Field Trip. Postapocalyptic scholars attending a conference near an irradiated city find there's more to worry about than academic politics when local warlords make trouble. It may be time to test how much mightier than the sword the pen can be...

Poll #17005 Walkabout Voting
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 17

Please vote for your first-choice Walkabout.

Cursed Kingdom
10 (58.8%)

Labyrinthine Shoal
5 (29.4%)

Doki Doki
2 (11.8%)

Ivory Tower
0 (0.0%)

Please vote for your second-choice Walkabout.

Cursed Kingdom
4 (23.5%)

Labyrinthine Shoal
5 (29.4%)

Doki Doki
5 (29.4%)

Ivory Tower
3 (17.6%)

Please vote for your third-choice Walkabout.

Cursed Kingdom
2 (11.8%)

Labyrinthine Shoal
5 (29.4%)

Doki Doki
1 (5.9%)

Ivory Tower
9 (52.9%)


Post a comment in response:

This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting