Synodiporia OOC community

September AC will be going up later this afternoon, and with it will come one of the changes we mentioned when we announced Syn was rolling toward endgame: Namely, if a character is making Standard AC at this stage, there is no reason why they shouldn't be rewarded for their efforts with a skill. The thresholds for Skill and Double Skill AC are officially dropping!

What this changes: Characters may now learn a single skill at 30 comments, and two skills at 45.

What this does not change: You can still only learn a maximum of two skills per month; brand-new characters may still pick up one extra skill per month of their first jaunt; the second skill a character learns still needs to be taught or a Favor skill, unless they're in a plot role; all jaunt skills need a thread proof where the skill is being used to be claimed.

This change will be reflected on the AC post, when it goes up! We're keeping the first AC submission thread for hiatus and banked-pass reporting.

We're also very nearly done with the final skill rollout, and that should be going live before the end of the month. Thank you all in advance for your crazy, crazy suggestions - you're going to see a lot of familiar stuff in the rollout. Blue is still going to do skill spreadsheet maintenance, but due to RL on her end, that work will be a few weeks later than the skill announcement itself.

I. Next TWO Jaunt Votes

We’re doing something slightly unusual with this jaunt vote, though older players may recognise the move from this time a couple years back: tossing you two lots of jaunt votes at once. Not only is it time to choose the Travelers’ destination following Majesty’s, but our July-August plans are going to need some tinkering time, and with Matt’s full-time job, it seemed prudent to put the choices in front of you all as soon as possible. (Yes, we know this isn’t usually an ideal way to set up a jaunt vote, but circumstances dictate the need for it on this occasion.)
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II. Upcoming App Windows
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III. Profile Navigation: The Bannering
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IV. New Skills
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V. Psychic Upload Archives
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VI. Plotting Problems Redux
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VII. Old or New Business
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Over the course of Liminal Past and Future, a number of new skills came to light - some brand-new developments with Liminal Space and the network, some old talents that were lost during Moebius. In addition, we’ve broken the seal on a brand-new category of skills! More details below the cut.
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Due to the sheer size of this skill rollout, we don’t anticipate doing another until at least summer, but this should give y’all plenty of new and interesting things to chew on. Please drop any questions you have about the mechanics of these skills in the comments, and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Happy holidays from the mod squad!

I. Jaunt Vote Results/Walkabout Voting

Our next jaunt will be Showtime, by a considerable margin. The other two proposed jaunts made strong enough showings to come back up in the voting pool at a later date; keep an eye out for them the next time we feel in need of a game-wide vacation.

Walkabout options for June/July are the following, all on a 1:1 OOC time ratio:

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…

Escape from Junkworld: Shopping Trip: The motley inter-species band of Gehenna survivors keeping up their outpost on a distant moon are doing fairly well for themselves overall, but in need of a supply run to a nearby planet. Between hastily and poorly repaired outriders and the constant threat of officials from any number of civilised worlds bearing down on them, the mission isn’t without its risks.

Lightside/Darkside: November: As the elves of January gradually ease up the quarantine that’s kept their population segregated for so long, they also begin repairing the overland roads to the rest of the Federation of Hel - and their relations with their neighboring cities. A delegation from the nearby city of November is here to find out just what January’s been up to, these last centuries, and whether they’re ready to rejoin the Federation’s governing council.

Walkabout voting will close Thursday, May 18th, at 11:59PM CST, to give us a chance to put it together. As usual, votes are weighted so that first choices count for two votes and second choices count for one.



II. Jaunt Disconnect

Discussion of jaunt disconnect problems reared its head again during this jaunt, and we’d really like to organize that discussion in a central place, the better to get as much input as possible and see if we can figure out how best to help prevent the problem, especially on jaunts that don’t also feature a walkabout.

Suggestions have included making better use of diverse setting locations, or making it clear that some locations are only available for characters to Be From and will not be used as active parts of the jaunt setting. In this regard, the mods feel Code of Dishonor was perhaps the biggest success (three distinct regions, each with its own agendas and plots still woven into the greater whole), though no jaunt has been without its issues somewhere along the line.

We’re open to feedback of all sorts, both about problems players are having engaging with jaunts and potential solutions to those problems.

III. OOC Tensions and Character Bleed

As noted the other day, this jaunt has seen quite a bit of IC and OOC tension, as well as an unusually high number of player complaints. (The high number of complaints in no way makes these complaints less valid; every complaint brought to us merited and got an immediate mod response. Please, absolutely let us know when you see a problem.) We’d like to take a moment to remind you all that you’re perfectly allowed to take a step back for a day or two if you need to, even on a jaunt with as high of stakes as this one.

We’ve also learned a few lessons regarding the presentation of high-stakes jaunts, and will do our best to help prevent the tension from ratcheting up so quickly for the next one. If there’s anything else we as mods can do to help defuse these situations in the future, please let us know.

IV. Liminal Energy Skills
Recently, Riddick & Matthew, through some clever combinations of skills, have uncovered a portion of the Liminal Skill tree lost since before Moebius - Liminal Energy skills. Four new skills are presented here, and more can be developed - we strongly encourage characters to find clever, subversive ways to explore the possibilities of the network, Liminal Space, & the Travelers’ own pasts, & are always eager to consult any curious player looking to develop something like this.

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V. New Business/Questions & Concerns
If you have something to discuss which doesn’t fall under the above headers, let us know here!

I. Favor Skills

The long awaited Favor Skills are now available to be perused and taken by players! As part of one of the biggest skill rollouts in Syn history, Favor skills allow those fancy Marks to start showing some benefit to Travelers.

--All characters who were already Marked as of the beginning of the Liminal event may take one Favor skill for free with November’s AC, separate from the other free skill on offer for the month. ETA: Characters who were unmarked as of the beginning of the Liminal event are receiving the Mark as their free Favor skill (still separate from the other free skill).
--All characters may take up to seven Favor skills from the current list - four general skills, two Archetype skills available to those with one of a pair of Marks, and one Mark-specific skill.
--Favor skills count as a free second skill for the purposes of Double Skill AC, and do not require a teaching thread.
--For Favor skills that list ‘per Favor skill possessed’ in their skill description, your Mark counts as a Favor Skill.

II. Other New Skills

And then, of course, there’s the other half of this giant skill rollout, which is new Psychic, Liminal and Combo skills. These will be added to the main list just as soon as someone who doesn’t break tables can get to work. In the meantime, for easy reference, the new skills are as follows:
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Because of this massive rollout, we’re giving everyone until December 3rd to report AC, so they can consider new skills of all sorts.

III. Other Updatening News

The Great Page Updatening continues apace; in addition to old skill clarifications, the IC intro has been updated to reflect Phase Three arrivals. In the coming days, you can look forward to Liminal Space/dungeon page updates and work on the suggested destinations/revisits page. We’re also still taking glossary update suggestions, with an eye to rolling out the more accurate guide next week.

Exciting news, Travelers! As promised yesterday, we have a host of new skills for you - almost doubling the list of skills which are available! Nine new Telepathic skills, nine new Liminal skills, and nine Combo skills, a brand new, experimental category of skills relying on teamwork which give power-ups to other Liminal, Telepathic, or general abilities.

Meta is currently working on a slightly more organized link list for the Liminal and Telepathic skills which will separate everything into lines based on the number of prerequisites (so no prerequisites at top, 1 prerequisite following, etc.); in the meantime, if you notice any missing or broken links on any of these pages, please alert Meta at metathepanda or via PM to Leonardo’s account. (She has worked very hard on these skill lists and deserves a cookie for her efforts.)

Questions, comments, or ideas for new skills should go in the comments below! All skills are available immediately and may be applied for starting this round of Activity Check, which will be posted tomorrow.