In Darkness - OOC

So the game is now officially arc'd out. The alt-comm remains open for your using pleasure, be it back to canons or just random character runs or narratives you want to put up.

We have postponed the opening of Even Darker until RL settles down for everyone. If you haven't signed in but are still interested, just keep an eye on the OOC comms. There'll be an announcement when we're ready to start the ball rolling again, and advertising and whatnot. I think though with the holidays coming up, it's a good time for there to be a break, and we may just wait until the new year to see where everything stands.

Keep in touch though. Through twitter or mails or IMs or whatever, and hopefully we'll see each other again in Even Darker :)

It really was an amazing run. A few bumps along the way but I definitely enjoyed playing with everyone, and definitely hope to see you around again -- if not in ED then in some other game.

Thanks guys. :)

Okay, okay. I didn't do maintenance earlier this week 'cause ... whatever, I was setting up the new game.

That said, would everyone who is continuing to Even Darker please sign in here with the specifics of your character's weaponry? For guns, name and bullet caliber. Any blades or anything like that should be signed in as well. When we kick off v2, no one has any weapons or conduits of magic. If they can do magic with just spell books, those were confiscated too, and should be on the list.

It's just so I know, when plots roll around for weapons to hand-back, to be able to be a little more specific about what caliber of bullets are on the island, and who, exactly, can do what kind of damage.

Also, if you are continuing over, please make sure you join the three new communities so we have an accurate journal-count. Just signing in isn't enough.

'kay guys. Just a reminder!

Phobias start tomorrow and will continue through the week for our lucky contestants. :)

If you need anything clarified or anything like that, hit me up.

First, disregard the journal. Login/out isn't worth it with the connection at my desk. (Is not a good connection; takes forever).

That said, as some of you might have seen yesterday, I was kicking around an idea on twitter of introducing a wild-card element to the island. This would be in the form of a boat of some sort (likely not a large one) stranding on the island with crew native to the world.

Since this has potential to radically alter the course of the game (like, if it goes the way where some people escape and call for help and bring more rescue boats), I thought I'd see what your thoughts on the matter were.

I don't have much by way of details (it's a rough sketch, honestly), so if you guys want to build on this or run by some if/thens, I'm cool listening.

If you'd rather not introduce the element at all, also cool.

The other ways it could maybe go:

- the crew are integrated into the experiment
- some people do escape (characters are dropped) but can't send help
- we prematurely move to the land of ice and snow (instead of doing it later in the game)
- ???
- profit!

So, totally up for discussion. Yay, nay, yes if, no but, lay it on me.

First, I'd like you to meet my good friend phobia list!

Second, please see the relevance to next week's plot: The following characters get a week of phobia.

I know this is a little far in advance (it's not this Monday, but the following one), but I wanted everyone to have a chance to think about it if nothing immediately springs to mind.

This is a select plot, which means the characters were generated by random rolls. If you don't want to play this round, lemme know ASAP so we can replace your kid with someone else. Or if the one that was rolled is someone you weren't comfortable playing with a phobia, we'll swap them out for another one of yours.

Dave Stutler - Fear of circles/rings
Arthur Pendragon - Fear of self / being alone
Faye Valentine - Fear of England/English culture
Ichabod Crane - Fear of Books
Trini Kwan - Fear of Plants
Lily Evans - Fear of Doors
River Tam - Fear of Sleep
Salem - Fear of Food
John Allerdyce - Fear of Bathing/Showering

The details:

Monday (11/1) the above characters will wake up with a phobia. The phobia will vary in degrees at random throughout the week. So perhaps at times they'll be able to confront their fear with just a case of the shakes, and at other times the mere idea of their fear has them huddling in a corner trying to hide (unless they have a fear of corners >:D ).

The fear can be anything, though it's suggested it be something they're likely to encounter on the island (for example, a fear of dragons ... isn't going to do much to them).

If you have questions, hit me up. Once you've figured out what phobia your kid's struck with, comment away.

Okay, so:

1) Communications cut out at 11:59:59 PM tonight between the islands. AS people can network each other, and Barren people can network each other, but one island can't reach the other. Edit They can try to send messages across the island, but will be met with a "communication failed" response.

2) Webcams are going away during the night.

3) Tomorrow before I go to work, I'll post up the video write-ups >:D They're written, but ... you know. Patience and all that. Please be aware that while YOU know the videos were staged, your character doesn't. They can assume it, hope it, etc, but no one's going to know they're faked. 'cause the editing team is that awesome.

4) One of the stores in the Algul Siento Mall is now a Halloween store. It has decorations, candy, costumes, etc. It is active as of now.

5) I'm starting a new tree in the Jaime-armor thread, so we can get to finding the armor instead of bullshitting around with small talk. You're all very encouraged to hop into that post; new tree or join an existing one. you're also encouraged to find some armor around the island in your own threads ('cause hey. Great chance to do narratives that count for activity checks, eh, eh?) Body pieces and helmets only; no ... paw-mitts or anything like that. And remember, it'll take a group (or magic) to move the body-pieces.

Any questions, comments, suggestions, etc. hit me up.

So, as I was describing with my words, I thought "this is something I have a very clear mental picture of, and I bet not everyone's going to read this awesome Kyle post, so maybe I should exercise my artistic skills today."

That said, this is what our suites look like. Furniture wasn't placed because it's all able to be dragged around and what not.

(So yes, before you ask, if your characters are super ambitious, they can put both beds in the same bedroom. It just seems easier to me to share one, but I'm lazy).

(also, mandy, omg, the maze-maps were in the graph paper pad. I was all "awww, I remember drawing this at work and coloring it at home". XD )

Hello, and welcome to our lottery-plot writeup!

As promised, I am doing this before clicking tiles.

Since we are very anti-bear death (Sam petitioned very hard for this and overrode Matt's "shoot 'em up" plan), this is going to be a hide-and-seek sort of plot.

You can read about the bears here, and Isadora has the answers people need; she's networking with Didymus but will do a post later to educate the masses so the IC bit's covered.

What's going to happen is this:

The armor is going to be scattered across the old island, and some will be in the buildings. Jaime's power is going to be half-crippled for this so it won't be a matter of her being able to find everything, but she will be able to point the search parties in the general direction of the armor pieces before her brain breaks. None of it will be across the white line 'cause that's just cruel.

The armor is heavy, because it's made of "sky-iron" and is used by very, very large bears. Like, Hulk could probably haul a bit of it around by himself, but for most everyone else, it's going to be bare-minimum 2 person job to haul the larger pieces. One Jayne-sized man can handle a standard helmet (and might struggle with a more elaborate one), and someone slightly smaller could probably drag one with pauses.

We're going to have fifteen pieces scattered around on Monday, and that will give a clue as to what's going on when the first piece is found. I assume it will be stumbled on by accident, so if someone wants to call first-find, lemme know; that way we won't have all of us finding the armor first. XD

To the ice bears, their armor is like their dæmon or their soul. They are nothing without it, and they will kill whatever stands between them and it. They forge it themselves (they have opposable thumbs) and it's very personal to them. They will not be pleased upon learning that their armor was stolen.

In regard to powers to neutralize the bears ...

They are sentient and can be reasoned with.

Stunning spells, binding spells, and confunding spells will work, but not for very long.

They won't be felled by human physical attacks because ... uh. They're giant polar bears.

The Force can be used to slow them down/trip them up.

There's still no ammunition for the firearms, so shooting them is right out.

If people get clever and try to rig some traps, those may work on a mod-discretion basis.

I'm not angling for any casualties on this one, but they are certainly capable of killing characters, very easily. So it's an option if you want to take it >:D Matt's hoping they knock down the hotel, and I hope they'll be incited to damage it, but is not something I'm going to force. Characters will be moved either way; this was just the convenient IC reasoning.

If you have questions or your character's power wasn't covered on the list as will/won't work, go ahead and hit me up for clarification. Or if anything else needs clarification. I'm here for you, yo.

We're having our first-ever mod's-choice mini-plot, woo!

Since bears aren't 'til Thursday (omg omg omg I swear I'll get that written up before I start clicking paradise quest tiles again), I thought we should have a little something to do.

Also, I want to see how long I can make Lily glare hatefully at me before she gives up and moves into someone else's head >:D

So, Matt has decided to have his minions place items in people's rooms over the course of the weekend (today or tomorrow; take your pick)

Jaime is getting Mal's unloaded gun
Lily is getting the Grimhold
Ichabod is getting one of Katrina's necklaces, splashed with blood
Luke is getting Vader's helmet
Lizzy is getting something of Saul's (your call)
Remus is getting Sirius' wand
Aang is getting Katara's necklace

To the players whose characters didn't find something ... I didn't know any of your kids well enough to make any trauma-calls, so you are welcome to comment with an item and I'll add it to the list.

Also, we may or may not be hasing a Dug soon. After I write up the bear plot. (Also, one of you lottery people needs to do a network post with the clues. You can fight over it but it can't be me 'cause I draw the line at commenting to myself. That, and Chase doesn't care. XD).

Okay. For this weekend's lottery:

Bruce Banner
Sir Didymus
Ichabod Crane
Chase Collins

will be participating. and oh dear god do I ever not look forward to Chase in a social scene. XD he might bring out the Hulk. idek. ::Dead dead so dead::

I don't know what it's going to be yet. Riddles, probably, as soon as i figure out which way I want the clues to go. Then someone's going to have to take responsibility for posting it in the network.

... or posting the riddles themselves in the network ::amused:: because really, what's to stop them from doing that? ahahahaha. ::cough::

um. so right, tradition stands. Lottery post will go up late night friday, though the actual meeting's saturday at noon. but a lot of us are nightowls or some junk? idek.

if your kid isn't going to show up, drop us a line so we know not to wait on you for threads.

Does anyone need a writeup on how the lotteries work or do we all have that down by now? I guess for reference you could click the "!lottery" tag and lookit the other writeups. Same deal. Friday morning there are tickets, and the "winners" have instructions to meet in a room (Different room though since this hotel is shorter; I'll address that in the header when I stick up the post) Saturday at noon, and we thread from there. >:D

All right. Not quite the disaster I imagined.

The current cast list for the old island's still in place in the mod journal. The new cast list for post-move is here.

Both directories reflect the entire "cast list", regardless of which island people are on. For example, the old!island directory still has Lily in 214, even though she's not actually present. The Algul Siento directory has everyone listed in the rooms they're going to be moved into. >:D I fully expect moved people to tattle to the others. "Oh yes, you're in a room/in a suite/across the hall from so-and-so" XD

If you need anything changed (or notice something wrong, someone missing), please speak up so I can fix it. I'm so about to start on move!reaction posts. I wanted to get 'em done last night, but i was so bombed when I came home i just ... hit what tags i had, showered, and crashed. So, yeah. ::Nods:: yeah.

Lottery is Friday. Eeek. Prepared, I am not, but I don't have work 'til Monday, so I'll try to work something up that isn't puzzles. I'll have Nate roll when he gets home from class and post the list tonight so people can tell me if they aren't going to be here this weekend so we can reroll. It'll just be moved people eligible since the lottery part is being held on Algul Siento, so if you know already you won't be here this weekend, pipe up. =P

Okay. Off to start posts I am. ::winds up for angst liek whoa::

'allo, 'allo!

Just touching base to report on our activity status.

We did lose one player who ... didn't do anything all last month anyway. People are welcome to notice Dana Scully missing as of right now, if they are at all inclined.

Everyone else did sign in, and everyone who wasn't meeting the new requirements is aware and has promised to improve.

There is a very small but growing chance Mandy might be returning to us. She's checking the stability of her muses in our other game (or will be), and seeing where things are going from there. If she thinks there's a good chance things will go well, she'll shuffle back over here.

And if she doesn't, I'll eat her soul.

As for the move plot which is Wednesday (as in, the characters signed up for the mid-week move are being swiped to the new island Tuesday night/Wednesday morning), is everyone pretty clear how that's going down? The small group is being relocated, but will still be able to network with the people on the old island, but can only thread with people on the new island. New applicants will be sent to the new island as well. The lottery will be held on the new island, but the plot will take place on the old one, but not until Friday (the 22nd), because Matt does love screwing with his captives.

There will also be webcams while the groups are split, so have fun with that. >:D Once everyone's on the new island, no more webcams.

Once the groups are merged (the 24th, 'cause the moon's on the 25th XD), the new writeup and cast list will be put in the mod journal and the faq will be updated.

If anything's not clear or you have suggestions/comments/questions/concerns, hit me up.

I ... feel so horribly delayed with this write up. I mean, right? I usually have them done a week in advance and junk XD (whatever. I've been busy and stressed and I kept breaking the internet and ... and half of us are on hiatus and junk).

So right. This week, we are hasing earthquakes. For those of you who don't live in California or have never felt one ... I don't know how to describe them. The ground shakes or the ground rolls or buildings break or the world falls down. Things rattle, fall off shelves. Sometimes if they're deep quakes, the world just kind of heaves and rolls.

These are going to be all sorts of quakes. From tiny little 2-second tremors to building-shaking 30-second monsters. They will happen at random, so if you set up a post just try to skim the other posts set around the same time and if an earthquake was mentioned as being one thing, try to keep continuity in your post. Like, if Jaime has a post and is like "omg 9.0 at noon" and your pup has a noon post, please don't make yours a "i barely felt that" 'quake.

Edit If you could drop any quake-notes in the header, that'd be killer.end edit

The quakes will be starting Monday at midnight (so, way late Sunday night), and will be ending sometime on Friday.

Also! We have the move on Wednesday. So there's a variety of things to react to this week. I want to say I'll clarify the move later, but since I'm flying home on Tuesday night, I guess not so much with a later clarification, huh?

The characters listed on the move list will be relocated to the new island Tuesday at midnight, so the missing persons reactions can be posted Wednesday morning (or ... Tuesday late-night, dated to Wednesday morning).

Everyone else will be moving after the bear plot, so ... in a couple of weeks.

I have probably left out something vital, scattered as I am right now, so if you have questions about any of it ... go ahead and comment and I'll get back to you on the confused point.

Just so everyone is aware and we're all on the same page:

Halo is on a daytime slowatus. (Family stuff/hospital visits are in the daytime)
Mandy is on a full hiatus until further notice.
Sorcha is on a hiatus until further notice.

I know most of us know this as we have seen the back and forths over twitter, but for those ... two people who aren't following us all ... ;) Now it is all official.

Hello, and it's that time again!

If you could all kindly sign in with your name in the subject line, and use this form:

<textarea> <a href="THREADLINK">Character Name</a> (# of threads for character) (date of thread)

in the body of the comments, that'd be fantastically appreciated.

Failure to sign by Monday night in will result in removal from the game. Lack of threads with all characters or excessive dropped threads will result in us asking you to reconsider how well you fit into this game. If you think you can meet the new requirements, great, we'll see how things stand next month.

My apologies for the lateness of this. I had adventures on airplanes yesterday and I'm still adjusting to east-coast time. =P

( Met New Requirements )

( Did Not Meet New Requirements )

( Exempt )

Hey guys --

Just wanted to give everyone a heads-up that we'll be doing checks early (yes, because of the move plot) and ending them earlier. Honestly, most everyone signs in within the first couple of days anyway, and .. consider this your week-warning.

That said, we'll be using this form:

<textarea> <a href="THREADLINK">Character Name</a> (total # of threads for character/# dropped) (date of most recent thread/complete or in progress?)

for sign-ins. We are asking you keep the one textarea box in the comment to make the copy/paste into the "safe" category easier on us. You can totally put all your characters in one box; just c/p the html part over and over and over ...

THIS IS NOT THE SIGN-IN POST. Checks will run from the 7th until the 11th. Anyone who hasn't signed in by Monday night will be removed.

This is just for those of us with a lot of characters that want to start getting our ducks lined up, so you have the form. Put it in a notepad document or something ;)

Since we did change the requirements mid-month, as previously stated, anyone who has only met the one thread minimum will pass checks, but will not be allowed to app further characters until their activity rises to the new requirements.

The only person exempt from this round of checks is our newest player; everyone else will be required to sign in.

'kay guys. If you have any questions, fire away. Otherwise, be ready for Thursday. Bwahahahaha!

Edit

If you need an example, you can look here

First, I meant to do this ... a while back (like, a month and a half ago. Where did the time go?) when the discussion first arose in regard to acceptable fandoms and abilities. So my apologies for the timing of this particular rule.

And without further ado ... we have added a rule in regard to accepted fandoms on the rules page. It is as follows:

Fandoms, Realism, and You

While we do accept most fandoms, there are some characters (predominantly anime and comic characters) whose abilities cannot be translated as realistically as we would like. Therefore, all characters from anime, comics, and cartoons are reviewed a little more critically in regard to their abilities and the translation into the level of realism we desire for this game.

At this time, we do not currently accept webcomics or rock-operas/musical albums as playable fandoms.

If you have any questions about this, don't hesitate to let me know.

Monday (10/4)

Corrine Fisher - Pollux's necklace
Balthazar Blake - Veronica's necklace

Tuesday (10/5)

Ichabod Crane - Father's bible
Faye Valentine - Julia's lighter

Wednesday (10/6)

Harry Potter - Tom Riddle's diary
Daniel Peterson - New World Order badge

Thursday (10/7)

John Allerdyce - Wizarding pictures of LilyLu and Noah
River Tam - blue gloves (on floor)

Friday (10/8)

Sir Didymus - Sarah's vest
Isadora Raleigh - bottle of perfume from an ex-lover/former victim

'kay. If the assigned day doesn't work for you, let me know and I can swap you out for a day that works better, but most of you were on the 'no preference' side, so ... yeah.

Happy Effing Friday!

Edit Also, the music's cutting off at Noon rather than Midnight, so they get to have a peaceful afternoon and evening. :)

Part IC will follow this weekend. Bwahahahaha. Along with the cast list. Probably. I should have time on the weekend.

Right now, I have the following characters paired into Doubles (meaning one bed):

Ichabod Crane/Katrina van Tassel
Jaime Davies/Malcolm Reynolds
Simon Tam/Kaylee Frye
Lily Evans/Balthazar Blake

Is anyone missing from that list? People who've coupled up in-game that the Heads would think would be sharing a room? (Mandy, are Lily and Balt room-sharing or suite-sharing?)

The following characters are in suites (two bedrooms, one common area):

James Potter/Sirius Black
Roland Fisher/Corrine Fisher
Lily Luna Potter/John Allerdyce
Cheshire, Lizzy Miles/Ariana Dumbledore
Spike Spiegel /Isadora Raleigh
Tristan Moore/Hugo Weasley
River Tam/Kyle Trager

Is anyone missing from this list? There are four five suites left. Or five, if Lily and Balthazar are sharing a room. Idk yet which way that one's going.

Also Mandy, unless you had someone else who was taking him, I gave Dug to Swan so Mal doesn't have to put up with him XD

Um. Okay. Think that's about it. And we're probably starting checks on Wednesday instead of Friday so I can have them done for the move so I know what my final cast list looks like.

Good evening!

Is time to set up the next plot, and I wanted to give people ample time to reply.

This next plot is a select plot rather than a group-wide one, so only the following ten characters will be directly affected by it:

Sir Didymus - Sarah's vest
Corrine Fisher - Pollux's necklace
Isadora Raleigh - bottle of perfume from an ex-lover/former victim
River Tam - blue gloves (on floor)
John Allerdyce - Wizarding pictures of LilyLu and Noah
Ichabod Crane - Father's bible
Daniel Peterson - New World Order badge
Balthazar Blake - Veronica's necklace
Harry Potter - Tom Riddle's diary
Faye Valentine - Julia's lighter

What I need from you guys is an item of some significance to the character. Be it something sentimental (...yeah. you know where I went for Balthazar =/ ), something that would alarm them (something belonging to a left-behind significant other that said SO is never without), some relic of their past they thought they'd buried to forget, something that reminds them of a painful/traumatic time, etc. Something to shake them up, give them a startle, etc.

We're looking for smaller-ish items, books, jewelery, CDs if there's a significant song that would unnerve them, etc., something that can be left on their nightstand next week.

It will be a dated plot (2 items per day) so if you have a day preference to post your character's reaction, indicate that in the sign-up. :)

If you have questions or need suggestions, hit me up and we'll see what we can work out.