Lechance

Hi guys,

Things have gone pretty flaily and guiding plot with the way the game is set up is getting nigh impossible.

That being the case, I'm going to go ahead and call a reveal here- respond here with who you play and have played. I'm leaving the comm open- if you want to keep playing in the universe by all means continue to do so! We're just going to stop on official plot and moderation


We love you all, this has been awesome.

Hi all. Um. I'm dropping Patrick. I'm just finding him really hard work and not enjoying playing him any more, so I'm sending him home to deal with a family emergency. There is a small chance he may come back if I get a sudden urge to play him again, but I'm not counting on it. :-(

The dead spider is in pieces. Each fragment is separated into other boxes, set on a wooden table. Each box is without a lid.

The limbs are separated into their own boxes, each needle thin and pointed, sharp enough to puncture. They're jointed half way down and one of them is jammed.

The body's tiny, but observation under the available microscope shows a detailed interior of gears and a tiny, tiny radio transmitter. That is no longer transmitting.

Hi all!

Thing the First -- Plot! So! Now that Jonas' thread has finished up (and thank you for running that Jonas!mun) we're declaring time "caught up." If you still want to do posts around that time, please make sure they are marked backdated. Since the patrol has come back and reported in to Leroy, Leroy has disseminated the information. Therefore, all the townfolk know that the patrol found the former sheriff's watch, went to the fissure and found it blocked. Leroy has asked the inventors and those with construction skills, etc., to work on a machine that will clear the rocks safely. He's also asked everyone to think of why those rocks might be hot to the touch and if it has anything to do with the various warm spots in town. Feel free to have any and all of your characters talking about, working on it, etc!

Thing the Second -- Spiders! (Dun, dun, dun!). There have been two spiders caught in the traps set earlier. They are both being kept under lock and key in an empty storage room in Leroy's salon. All of the townspeople know about one: It's dead and available for study under guard. The other, one that's live, is not known about. It's being kept in a solid glass storage box. (Ben!mun -- if you want Ben to have had a hand in this, please ping us). We will put up a post here in a minute describing the dead spider and what your characters can learn from it if they choose to study it. If you have any questions about what is appropriate to know about the creature, please ping us on that thread, do NOT just make things up. We've created them to achieve a specific goal.

Thing the Third -- Singles! There will be a singles "mixer" (think dinner dance) this week. All singles are invited to intend. There will be chaperones there. It's just a chance for them to get to know each other in a less formal atmosphere than a match visit. If a married couple or one of the Two Spirits would like to host the mixer in their home, please ping us. Otherwise it will be held at the hotel.

Also! Please remember to add the tags for your characters when you participate in a thread. We try to go back and add those that are missing before we do activity checks but we don't always catch every one. (We're only human!) We don't want to send out naughty letters to people have been active, so please help us not to do that!

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please holler!

P.S. Also, also -- Please remember that IJ doesn't send notifications when you send us a PM, so please let us know that we've got one coming in the mod OOC contact thread in Leroy's journal!

ETA 6: And we're home! See
HERE for details. Feel free to still play off any of Jonas' subthreads, including coming back into the square, if anyone wants to play out the return to loved ones. But you can assume that your charries are home safe after 4pm, and that Jonas will speak to the Mayor and the hot rock pile in the fissure. These details are known by everyone, so feel free to discuss what the patrol found out in their visit.

Thanks everyone for your help with this thread, it's been very much appreciated!

ETA 4:
Righto.. more plot, and we're at the fissure HERE!

If you want to stay out with the horses feel free to set up subthreads out there. If you want to come in with Jonas, then likewise, or thread with Jonas.

Thanks everyone for making this work so well so far!

Resources list for those heading to the fissure all in one handy place!:
LeChance Map
Example of what to expect from what the fissure is likely to look like

Reminder of what happened the day of Bill's disappearance
Plot updates so far

Patrol members list + extra bods coming along from the watch etc..

-----------------

I'm planning to run the thread al la a party type thread ie, Open to all to create subthreads. HOWEVER.. there will be plotpoints popping up along the way which Jonas and/or the NPC Deputy Andrew Charles will announce in game subthreads. These will require decisions to be made by the whole group, and so Jonas will require an answer to his query from as many different individuals as possible on those subthreads as they appear. This will become clearer the more it's played out, honestly! The first of these will occur after they reach the spot Jonas mentions in his speech.

For this to be fun and work well, we need good feedback from as many charries there as possible as we go along, to keep things chatty and natural.

I'll put updates in this post as we go, so if anything isn't clear leave a note here kicking my butt, or pop me or the mods a PM!

For the first bit, Jonas is asking if anyone has got any questions to holler out. If you want to ask Jonas a question there, just pop him into the subject line of your subthread. Of course, feel free to chat amongst other players in the gathering too.

As I said.. it'll all seem clearer once we play it.. honest!!

Whee! *bounces* Let's see what we shall find :D

I'm about to post it up now.. if things are as clear as mud, or I need to change something desparately, can someone poke me, and let me know? My brain has been a little foggy recently, and so I've probably done something wrong! Please also feel free to comment linking to other resources and/or threads of note.

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ETA:

Righto first update for people to play off:

Is here

If anyone wants to play the journey up to the shelter and the first break, now's the time to do it!

(For anyone still wanting to play in the square, please feel free to either carry on the subthreads already started, or subthread off Jonas' open, which is here or start off a new post. Whee! Any questions, leave a message here, PM me, or leave an OOC post on my journal, or PM the mods *g*)

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ETA 2:

Second update! Jonas needs opinions from his group. Do we head back to town with Bill's watch, or carry on up to the co-ordinates at the fissure? I'd like as many folks as possible to respond to Jonas, so we get a decent range of opinions *g* Whoo hoo! (Also feel free to keep playing through the journey up to the first stop, either on the subthreads already started, or off Jonas' open here) Any questions ping or pester :)

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ETA 3:

Results of the vote are in, and Jonas wants to press on to the fissure. I've left an open there, in case anyone wants to play off the decision, but I'm going to get the next bit up fairly quickly, to move things along! Also, please feel free to continue playing out other threads that you've started along the way if you'd like. There's also opens at each stage if anyone wants to start any new subthreads.

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ETA 4:

Righto.. more plot, and we're at the fissure HERE ! If you want to stay out with the horses feel free to set up subthreads out there. If you want to come in with Jonas, then likewise, or thread with Jonas. Thanks everyone for making this work so well so far!

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ETA 5:

And we're at the last major pointhere! The patrol will just straightforwardly make their way home from here, with no break this time, and no more major discoveries. Feel free to play off this, or indeed any other stage still. Otherwise assume that your character returned safely.

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ETA 6: And we're home! See HERE for details. Feel free to still play off any of Jonas' subthreads, including coming back into the square, if anyone wants to play out the return to loved ones. But you can assume that your charries are home safe after 4pm, and that Jonas will speak to the Mayor and the hot rock pile in the fissure. These details are known by everyone, so feel free to discuss what the patrol found out in their visit. Thanks everyone for your help with this thread, it's been very much appreciated!

Just to let everyone know I'll be putting the patrol thread up later on today. So far going out on patrol to the fissure we have:

Jonas (Sheriff)
Leo (Deputy)
Andrew Charles (Deputy, NPC)
Delphina
Santiago
Delilah
Jon Stanton

Going by Jon/Ben's thread, Ben is coming with too. Have I read that right, Ben's mun? Anyone else wish to come along? Especially any of the Neighbourhood Watch people, who are:
Sadie
Patrick
Ben
Hattie

If there's anyone from the patrol group who doesn't wish to go along, or be included in Jonas' post and/or the walk out please shout out here so we don't inadvertently mention your charrie as being there.

Jonas, Andrew and Leo will be on horseback (Or at least taking horses with them). Any other riders?

I'm planning for the post to be open to those travelling out. If anyone needs to let me know anything vital before I do so, please holler now! *g*

Hey hey,

We're being a little unfixed with time right now- just be sure you and your writing partner knows when a thread is set and call it dandy.

Any questions, poke the Mecca

Hi all! Karen here!

Just posted a round-up of all the "choose your own adventure" plot points in the comm. Feel free to react! Please don't get too far ahead. (For instance, patrols can talk about winds, shelter, running into other group, etc., but they have not yet been sent out to explore the trail to the fissure.) If you have any questions about details, please ask here.

Also, this one was posted a little slowly because the mods are still trying to figure out how it all works. We hope to get the next portion out more quickly and help things move faster! If you have any comments about the process, ping away!

If you have not yet voted on your group's plot point, you have 24 HOURS to do so! If you signed up for a group but cannot see the filtered post on Leroy's journal, holler.

Hi Folks!

All right, we're trying something new to move the plot. Let us know please if it works, it doesn't work, etc. In Leroy's journal there are, or will be, posts locked to specific characters: If your character is going to be patrolling that post will be locked to only characters that are patrolling.

In the post is exposition and choose your own adventure type ...choices. Inside the post's comments we want you to vote for which of the choices- you can say why and argue your case. Please read other's comments and change your vote if they've swayed you. We're setting a date for final vote and it'll move on.

We'll be moving PCs slightly for the purposes of play: if you have any problems with this what so ever, please ping us.

Any questions? Let me know!

Greetings citizens!

First, a reminder: Our first two-week activity period is drawing to a close. Please make sure that all your pups have been active.

Next: Now that Leroy has names of citizens who are willing to volunteer for duties, he's making lists and organizing. In addition to the watch and patrol groups, he's come up with two more groups that he is going to send out "invitations" to. (These are more like "We could use your help with..." invitations and each character can refuse if they want.)

Each of these groupings will have plot participation hooks.

The names in parens below are the characters who are ICly "reportable to" for each group but please feel free to cross report if it helps move things along/create a thread/create interaction. We hope that the plot points will breed cross-group interactions.

Not every character is listed in a group. This is *not* intended to be a slight to you or your character. The lists were created from the IC and OC volunteering list and then from obvious abilities in profiles (For example, the inventors). If you see a group that your character would like to be included in, please respond here! If your character is listed in one group but you think he or she would be better in another, please let us know. If we missed names from either the town hall meeting or OOC post, please let us know. We want to get everyone involved! (Although, at this time, we'd prefer that each character only be in one group so that we can spread the joy.)

If you think your character does NOT fit into any of these groups, please PM (and tell us that you have) so we can give that character a plot point of their own if you wish them to have one.

Patrol (Jonas):
Delphina
Santiago
Delilah
J. Stanton
NOTE: Leroy would insist that they patrol in at least pairs (which also sets up interaction!). You can also have them patrol with an NPC deputy (please be gentle, these are Jonas!mun's NPCs).

Neighborhood Watch (Leo):
Sadie
Patrick
Ben
Hattie

Inventors (Leroy):
Edward
Julien
J. Ibis
NOTE 1: Leroy figures there will be some crossover here with the town's craftsmen such as Delilah, Santiago and Ben as well as the group explained below.

NOTE 2: We'd love to have some more names in this list! Even if your character has family background with inventions, they could help here!


Research (Leroy and Jonas):
Jay
Mercedes
Amy
Charles
Paul
Daniel
NOTE: Leroy tried to choose people with different perspectives to do research, try to figure out reasons and explanations for what's happening, etc. We feel they could interact with the inventors a lot, feed and react to information from the other groups and things like that.

Once the groups are finalized we will create filtered posts in Leroy's journal, setting each group on their first plot point.

PLEASE RESPOND BY TUESDAY, FEB. 10, TO HAVE YOUR CHARACTER'S GROUPING ADDED/CHANGED/OTHER!

And as always, if you have questions or suggestion, please ping!

Um, I'd forgotten all about this, but in her thread with Effie, Hattie was planning to have a tea party for the Beloveds. I'll post an invitation later, but there's no real need to reply.

Unfortunately, neither Hattie nor Effie appear to have met Edward or Amy in-game. Would you two like to assume that Hattie has run into them at some point? (Really, she should have run into Edward by now, since they're both passionate about cooking!) Or would you prefer to get one of the Beloveds you *have* met to invite you along?

Anyway. Hattie was planning to have her tea party on a Saturday afternoon, so unless it interferes with something the mods are planning (in which case, let me know!) I'll stick up a thread for the party tomorrow.

Hi all!

The town hall open is up! It's long but if you read through it, you'll notice that Leroy calls for volunteers for a variety of things. If your characters would like to do so, please rep here (and IC if you can!) so that we all know who is doing what and so that your friendly neighborhood mods can more easily tailor plot.

So yes, rep here and say what you're volunteering for! If you have questions about what's what, rep here too!

Hi all, this is Karen!

Two things:

1 -- Dropped characters. These characters either did not respond to recent OOC posts, haven't played in a while or are being dropped by their players:

* Missy Lee
Michael Rickard
Catherine Lenoy (NPC)
Daisuke Shimada

*Missy!Mun -- You indicated in a comment that you were considering dropping Missy but haven't said anything further. Is this still your plan?

2 -- Courting! We *cough* took advantage of some things a few of you had already set up, but here are the matches:

Delilah Morgan x Edward Parsons
Patrick O'Sullivan x Amy Mias
Daniel Masters x Sadie Blackwood
Santiago de la Vega x Simon Belgrave

Please let us know if we've missed anyone. (Also, everyone say 'hi' to Daniel, he's new!) I'll be putting up the IC notifications soon; courting scenes can start Monday. Please remember:

-- Ascendant players: Set it up. PM your Beloved to arrange a time for you two to thread. If you don't get a reply within 3 days let us know. If there's no reply by the end of the week, the player's going to get a warning for not playing within that week.

-- Beloved Players. If you don't hear from the ascendant player within 3 days tell us! If nothing in a week, then the player's going to get a warning.

-- All players! If we matched you up with yourself- two options. 1- Thread with yourself. 2- don't thread, but don't ping us.

As always, if you have any questions, ping us!

And don't forget, town hall meeting tomorrow!

Just a reminder that if you plan to drop characters (or want to keep characters but haven't responded to posts or played recently) today is your last day to do so!

For more details, please see the previous post: http://asylums.insanejournal.com/lechance_ooc/20452.html

Hi all! We wanted to give everyone a chance to respond and we think everyone who is going to has, so!

Rules change: From now on, the activity rule will be every TWO weeks, not every week. Most of you said that threads were moving slowly and you needed that time to finish them out. In addition, we're starting the activity count clean as of this week and starting fresh next week. However, we also plan to keep an eye on those characters who have been warned for inactivity in the past. If they continue to be behind, they will not get second chances like people who have not been warned at all.

Plot: LeRoy will be hosting a town hall meeting sometime soon. Everyone is invited (with a side of "it'd be really good for you to come) to this meeting. In it, he will discuss all the reports he has heard. Those citizens who have *not* reported any odd incidents will be invited to do so (either to LeRoy, Jonas or one of the deputies). It will also be announced that he is forming a "citizens patrol/neighborhood watch". Participants will volunteer to either patrol the town during the day / keep an eye out for unusual / have more immediate access to report unusual goings on. (They wouldn't be allowed to enter private residences but they would report any strange goings on). Special emphasis would be placed on stables/ stockyards/ any place that has reported trouble.

Please note that for plot to work, people really should share this information with each other and with the authorities. There are still plot points in play from the very beginning of the game (hint! hint!) and this would be the perfect time for them to come out. We don't want to *force* people to tell things and we've been trying to nudge it IC.

The town hall meeting will be on Saturday.

If you need more concrete suggestions on things your character can do to be involved in plot, please PM or ask at our contact post. We have a few ideas that will work best if only one or two people do them.

Dropping characters: If for some reason (and we know it happens) you have a character that just has not gelled or has lost their voice, this would be a good point to drop them. You can have them move to "NPC around town" status or move them out of the town completely. If you plan to drop a character that is currently involved with someone else, please check with the other player first. If you are below the current character cap, you can bring in a new character through the normal application process. Again we urge you to keep an eye on the ascendant/beloved count.

Please respond to this post or PM us to let us know if you are dropping a character. You have until Friday.

Once we have all notifications we'll set up another round of matches to be played beginning Monday.

PLEASE NOTE!! If a character has not responded to either this post or the previous one, we will consider them to have dropped from the game. This is necessary to ensure that no one is matched with a character who is not in play.


And as always, if you have general questions or suggestions for the plot, we're open!

The Mgmt.
Mecca and Karen

Hi-ho, it's your friendly neighborhood mods here!

While we certainly weren't about to crack any whips during the holidays, we've done a quick activity check and nearly 20 characters are very overdue (about half of the characters that are supposedly in-play). Only eight have updated within the past week.

As mods, we're looking for input:
-- Would the players like us to ramp up plot (Send out massive activity cuts, have more frequent plot postings for remaining characters)?
-- Or has the game reached that point (as games do) where it's time for us to start wrapping things up to a graceful close and do a reveal?

Please respond with all your characters (separately, of course!) and give us your input.

Thanks!
The Mgmt.

W00T!!
Steampunk spiders FTW!! Actually, only 6 legs, so insect, but still v.v.beautiful
*bounces*

ETA:
I've found some gorgeous steamy insects from the same maker as wot did make the ones that seem to be invading LeChance: http://www.microbotic.org/SteamInsect.htm (Mods, please remove this post if it's spoilerly!)

Also: Some more Steampunk archnids: http://www.steampunklab.com/robots/Clockwork-Arachnid/88

And the v.lovely large steampunky/street art piece that was La Machine: http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/capital_of_culture/la_machine/