-1 tiny captain :(

[abweichend]

Ugh this is the worst, but at least for the time being I'm gonna be dropping Levi.  It was amazing playing him with everyone for the past year and however many months, but I'm feeling a little bit burned out and haven't been able to give him the attention I feel like I need to do him justice.

I may bring him back eventually, but until then I'm still here & getting Worick settled in.

STAY CLEAN, SNOOD!!!!

December State of the Game Roundup!

[powersthatbe]

INFILTRATOR IDEAS
So, there was all kinds of vigorous discussion on this, too much to sum up every idea proposed in our available space here, but some ideas that had a lot of support or that we feel deserve special consideration are as follows.

Dramatis Personae
Almost universally, the idea of specific plot infiltrator profile forms was rejected. Also almost universally, people liked the idea of having a post or top-level which listed every infiltrator, what name they were using this Jaunt, if it’s changed, who was playing them, and a sentence of basic information about them. In a disorganized way, this has happened before, but it sounds like a great idea, and starting with our next plot we will be instituting an easy-access Infiltrator Directory.

Plot Infiltrators
Plot-important roles should receive information more in advance, and be cast quickly so that they have time to plot. The information given to them should include at least some details about the shape of the jaunt and its goals, and how much participation will be expected from their role (that one, we may need to list before casting them…)

These are good ideas, some of which we’ve been trying to phase in already, but we’ll be sure to pay attention to them in upcoming Jaunts.

Other Infiltrator Roles
A list of what roles would be particular assets to the plot was suggested. Again, this has happened informally before, but we can make it regular and systematic in the future.

Certain types of infiltrator role being limited was also proposed. While it’s surprisingly difficult to know in advance what will have the potential to break a Jaunt, and thus any sort of hard limit might be impractical, this is a concern we understand. We don’t want to limit our players’ invention and creativity, but we do want roles not to overshadow one another. For the moment, we’re simply going to encourage players to bring concerns to the mods the moment they see a plotting comment that seems to over-extend, and the mods will work on a compromise that satisfies all players involved. If there are other suggestions, we’re open to them, but this is a tricky thing to find a straightforward solution for.

Plotting Posts
It’s been suggested that because of how overwhelmingly big Jaunt info posts can get, we separate the world and jaunt information post from the player plotting post. We’ll try that next Jaunt and see what happens.

It’s also been strongly encouraged that we go back to the old once-a-week plotting posts on the OOC comm we made for our first few Jaunts. This might be as simple as plotting on the summary posts (if summary posts go up before or simultaneously with mingles), or there might need to be a new post for this. having discussed it with our summary mods, we think it’s worth a try to post summary/plotting posts simultaneously with mingles next Jaunt, but if that turns out to be putting too much pressure on our summary helpers, we’ll post them separately.


METAPLOT & TRUMP IDEAS

Trump Information
Over the next two months, with the help of interested players and helper mods, we’ll be compiling a timeline of metaplot events, complete with links to threads and notes about which Trumps appeared where and when. There will be a table of Trumps, their aliases, their appearances, and who they’re known to have marked (and who else they marked). We’ll also try compiling a database of which characters know what, so that new players getting involved in the metaplot know where to look. While logistically challenging, it’s better than the current system of hearsay and plurk chatter, and we can streamline it over time to work out the kinks. There will be either a separate post, or a toplevel on this post, for tracking rumor and speculation about Trumps, as well as hard facts.

If you’re interested in getting involved in organizing this database, comment under the toplevel below and let us know.

Metaplot Involvement
There’s a lot of contention about this subject, and with that in mind, we’re going to try to take a holistic, something-of-everything approach, and continue discussion regularly about what works and what does not. The balance between organic development and accessible structure is not simple, and we don’t expect to get it right every time, but we’ll keep listening to feedback and tweaking our approach.

Later this evening, we’re going to post a metaplot opportunity for December. Involvement in it will be RNG-based, to give that approach a try, and because of the nature of the event, there’s no particular reason any characters would be privileged over others in their chances of encountering metaplot here. We’re not switching to RNG as a default, and we will continue to find ways to reward players who dig into the metaplot on their own. This is simply a test-run for a minor event to see how incorporating RNG would work.

Discussion of how this is or isn’t what players had in mind when they suggested these approaches is absolutely welcome.

HMD, MEMES, & SOTG
There was barely any discussion on whether we want SotG posts, CR Memes, & HMD memes to be scheduled on specific, regular dates, or to continue being arranged as they are now, in a more free-form fashion. Five players expressed five variations on different opinions. So, we’ll bring this up again next HMD, or you can weigh in below right now. Let us know what you think!

With that said, an (optional) HMD Meme will go up around the end of this Jaunt, and a CR Meme in early January, just before the next Jaunt starts.

NEW DISCUSSION
If anything new we should be taking over has come up in the last couple weeks, or you have questions or concerns to air, please do so under the appropriate toplevel below!

Thank you as always for helping us shape the game to better suit your needs!

DECEMBER METAPLOT EXPERIMENT (Jaunt & Walkabout Alike)

[powersthatbe]

While the hunt for the dragon continues uninterrupted, in the last week of the Jaunt magic on the Walkabout will open up an optional side plot that anyone in the game, no matter their current location or status, will have a chance to participate in.

In the world of the Walkabout, the revived Illuminant mages will attempt a direct challenge of the powers of the Trumps, trying to break into Liminal Space. This will partially succeed for a time, leading to the following developments:

-A private confrontation between the Illuminants and the Trumps, which the Trumps will win, ejecting them from Liminal Space once again. As it was the players participating in this side of this plot which enabled this to happen, the players who brought this to us will each get a chance to thread in a closed log for 5-10 comments with a Trump.

-However, the release of energy will also lead to the Trumps manifesting directly, if briefly, in both the Jaunt & Walkabout worlds. While they will absolutely not be making themselves conspicuous or interfering in any ongoing plots, anyone, infiltrator or investigator, can stumble across them.

In the recent State of the Game it was proposed that randomized Trump encounters would be more fair than first-come first-serve threads. While there’s still a lot to discuss about this, it’s definitely worth a try, so in the comments below you may sign up with a character who has no previous Trump CR for a Walkabout Trump encounter or Jaunt Trump encounter, and we will select a total of eight people to have threads 5+ comments long with a Trump during the month of December. These may or may not result in Trump favor marks being given. Please only sign up with one character per player at this time - if we don’t get enough sign-ups, we’ll expand this.

Characters with marks or previous Trump CR may sign up as well under a different header, and four of these characters will get their own threads of ~ 5 comments with a Trump, for a total of 12 randomly selected Trump threads (8 new CR, 4 old).

Because these encounters will be isolated and personal, there’s no reason to believe they’ll disrupt ongoing plot events in either setting, and so no-one should be worried that the endgame of either Jaunt or Walkabout will be displaced by this. We’re not going to let that happen. Trump tags in these encounters, given their volume, will be spaced throughout December, at a slow pace, and shouldn’t be disruptive to anyone’s focus, we hope.

It’s our sincere hope and belief that this sort of player-driven development, masterminded by a few focused players but open to participation from anyone in the game, and not disturbing the existing flow of events, is in keeping with the wishes for new alternatives we’ve seen expressed. It won’t replace the old way of doing things, just give us new options to play with as we move forward.

Sign-ups will be open from now until 11:59 PM CST December 8th, at which point the random selections will be made and the relevant logs will go up. If you’re only interested in encountering certain Trumps, let us know in your sign-up comment and we’ll consider that - only a couple options will be made available here and now, but when we know what you’re interested in, we can work with you to make it happen in the future.

Feedback and Discussion and Questions are very, very welcome - but we’re going to link you to the toplevel on the SotG recap that just went up, rather than putting them here, so we can more easily reference them in the future.