McKinley High - OOC

This deserves a post of it's own, so it doesn't get lost in the episode discussion: in the past, at the end of the season we do a soft reboot to allow players to bring their characters back in line with canon, if they so choose. This summer is going to be a little different from last: instead, the game will be going on summer hiatus as soon as we finish playing out the events of the season finale. ( Cut for spoilers from the S3 finale... )

Past experience from last summer shows that things usually get slow during the summer anyway, so hopefully the break will do everyone good -- I don't want to close the game outright, since we still don't know what S4 has in store, but if the format isn't conducive to a canon-based game, it'll be harder to recruit and retain members.

If there are any questions, however, let me know -- have fun playing out the finale, and here's hoping I'll see you all back in Season 4!

~Stacey

We have a Tina! Jamie is joining us with Ms. Cohen-Chang (tina_machina), so everyone go update your friends lists here and say hi!

Also, when you update your friends lists, you'll notice a new NPC journal (mckinley_npc); I am still hammering out details and guidelines for how to use it (discussion is here and includes spoilers for this week's episode, if anyone would still like to weigh in!), but this week's guest star will be our test run for this journal. We'll see how it goes, and I'll be working on the specifics throughout the next week.

I've had a request/suggestion for the coming week: a game-wide NPC journal, for characters that aren't around enough to merit a full character, but would be awesome to have for just one week/episode. I know this has been a possibility in the past, for main characters' family members and such, but it's always been handled between players (Michaela, Claire), or expanded into a full character (Diego, Marianne). Is this something you guys would be interested in?

( Cut for spoilers, logistics... )

Thoughts, suggestions? This is just a rough idea of how such a thing could work, especially in terms of next week and a guest star who could potentially interact with everyone for just a very short time, but is there an interest in this for the rest of the season?

As per feedback from my last mod post, I AM easing up on the character limits to allow players to apply for a second main character. This is subject to mod approval, since I still want to make sure that both of your characters aren't primarily interacting with each other. IF you are interested in picking up a second major character, please let me know before you start the application -- if it's going to be questionable, I'll let you know right away, and if it's far enough removed from your first character, I'll go ahead and place a hold for you. Standard rules still apply -- holds are valid for 3 days, two-week waiting period is still in place before you can hold/app a new character. (All current players are clear of the 2-week point, though, so that won't be an issue.)

(FYI -- We have special requests out for Puck, Mercedes, and Sebastian, so I will be trying to focus on them a little bit when I do my next round of ads this week!)

Oh, and the general consensus seems to be to stick with the one-week delay for the V-Day ep, despite the fact that it won't line up in real time, so watch the dates on that when the time comes!

No new episode this week because of the State of the Union address, but I wanted to get some feedback from you guys on a few things, nonetheless -- so consider this an open discussion post, even if it isn't paired with a new episode!

( Your thoughts/suggestions/comments welcome! )

Again, I want to hear what you guys think! I'd love to get ideas moving and people involved, so don't hesitate to make suggestions and throw in your two cents!

~Stacey

Okay, guys, I know it's been quiet around here with the holidays and everything, but we're back in action, and I'll be doing another round of (redesigned!) ads in the next few days. We've got a couple more weeks to kill until new episodes, again, but that also means a couple more weeks of wide-open plotting without having to worry about what to keep and what to ignore, :) And to motivate everyone to get back into the swing of things: activity check!

A recap of how activity checks work: I'll be working with our current roster and checking for all in-character activity -- journal entries, threads, even comments -- so if you have done something in the last month, you should be okay. If I haven't seen any activity from a player in over a month, I will email out warnings to let those players know that their character is in jeopardy of being recast. If I do not hear back within 3 days, the character in question will go back on the 'available' list, no questions asked, and be open for incoming players.

According to my trusty spreadsheet, the following players meet our activity requirements, and are therefore safe:

( Currently active players )

If there are any questions, please let me know!

...OMG, there's been a Sam app sitting in the mod email since the day I left, *headdesk*. Massive apologies to Jean, who will be joining us as Sam (oelngatikameie), assuming my week of limited availability hasn't made her run for the hills already... Friending button has been updated HERE!

I'm back at full strength tomorrow, I just wanted to get this addressed as soon as possible before I crash -- stay tuned, I am planning an activity check for the very near future!

No new episode tonight, so no discussion post, and plotting is once again wide open until next Tuesday. Remember, this week we're in the middle of the events of 03x06 ('Mash-Off'), with some pretty major plot adjustments to the episode itself, and there's a rough timeline in the discussion post for reference -- I believe the mash-off competition was announced today, and tomorrow should be dodgeball, despite our abbreviated roster of Troubletones, :)

New player alert!

Everyone please welcome Danielle, who will be playing Emma Pillsbury for us, :) Friending button has been updated HERE, and Emma has been added to the Character Meme HERE!

Modpost time!

With fandom tensions running high after last night's episode, now's probably a good time to address keeping character bleed to a minimum. There's a fine line between characters fighting and that carrying over into OOC interactions, so consider this a reminder.

( Cut for potential spoilers )

Just a reminder for everyone: not all of us are able to watch the episodes live as they air on the east coast, so PLEASE be wary of spoiling the episodes for people who haven't had a chance to see the newest episodes yet! It airs Tuesday at 8pm EST, but other time zones get it later, and some people have to rely on streams and downloads and later air dates, or DVRs for when real life interferes, so for the sake of all of our players, please keep episode discussion to the discussion post at least through the weekend. That way everyone has a chance to watch at their own pace without having to worry about plot spoilers.

I'll be updating our rules to include a spoiler policy -- unless anyone has any objections, I'm proposing no spoilers outside of the discussion post through the Saturday after the episode airs. Let me know if we should extend it further!

Aaaaaand one more: everyone say hi to Jay, who's joining us with Will Schuester (gleegoldenboy). Friending button has been updated, so head on over HERE to update your friends lists!

We have TWO new characters tonight: not only has Kat picked up Brittany for us, Lisa is joining us with Quinn, so welcome to the game, the Unholy Trinity is complete once more! Update your friends lists HERE, and have fun plotting with new canon, :D

Activity check complete -- we have some characters opening up, so we'll have another round of promo ads going out this afternoon to see if we can recast Brittany and Quinn (and Mike, Tina, Puck, Mercedes, Artie...) Plotlines with these characters can be assumed to be back to canon defaults, at least until we get new players and anyone with prior plot can discuss what to keep and what to toss with them.

With new episodes starting up next week, I thought it might be a good time to clarify how new episode canon and in-game timelines work, both for our new members and our veterans. It's been kind of a free-for-all so far, and I've been approached for clarification, so hopefully this will make sense and work for everyone involved.

The main confusion I've seen has been how to time canon events in game -- there's been folks who start posting about show canon immediately, and some who drag it out over the week until the next ep. Playing an episode Tuesday-Tuesday isn't very efficient, though, since it's not a standard school week, and assumes that everyone watches the eps live and immediately plots out character interactions that night. So here's the solution I'm proposing, and if anyone has any suggestions or additions, feel free to chime in. (I've clipped this directly from our FAQ and edited it, so hopefully it makes sense.)

( From the FAQ... )

It's been a month since our last roll call, so we've reached our first activity check of season 3! These will be happening much more regularly from here on out, to make sure we've got an active player base.

Since we haven't had a proper activity check in ages, I'm having to go by what is outlined in the rules for how to run this, so bear with me. I'll be working with our current roster and checking for all in-character activity: journal entries, threads, even comments -- so if you have done SOMETHING in the last month, you should be okay. If I haven't seen any activity from a player in over a month, I will be emailing out warnings to let those players know that their character is in jeopardy of being recast. If I do not hear back within one week, the character in question will go back on the 'available' list, no questions asked, and be open for incoming players. (FYI, after this check I will drop that response window to 3 days, to match the holds; for this check, though, I'll be adhering to the rules as outlined.)

The following players meet our activity requirements, and are therefore safe:

( Currently active players )

There should be at least one more mod post coming before new eps start back up again -- I'll be clarifying how episode discussion and timelines for canon events are integrated into the game, so keep an eye out for that, :)

If there are any questions, please let me know!

...We have a Santana! Jim is joining us with Ms. Lopez (pezbitch), so everyone update your friends lists and say 'hi!'

...It's a good day for new players, apparently -- we've got a new Finn, as well! Jon is joining us with the last available member of the Hudson-Hummel clan (classicrockjock), and the friending button has once again been updated for everyone's use, :)

ETA: Also, a slight adjustment to the rules to announce: due to some slow turnover on holds and apps, I've shortened the hold period from 7 days to 3 days. Any existing holds will be honored for the full 7 days under which they were originally granted, but hopefully this will make casting a bit less drawn out in the future, :)

We've got a new Rachel! Everyone welcome Lauren, who will be picking up Miss Berry (barbravention), and be sure to update your friends lists accordingly, :)

Wow, that was fast -- we have a new Kurt already! Rebecca's picked up the younger Hummel (greateststar), so everyone update your friends lists accordingly!

A round of promo ads went out tonight, so fingers crossed for some new blood, :)

Now that I've got everyone's attention... :)

If you're still with us, we aren't dead, we're just prepping for a bit of a turnover during hiatus. We've lost a few people, which has freed up a lot of characters, so we're going to be advertising heavily over the next couple of weeks to get our numbers back up before new eps start airing again, but the game is still a go.

Unfortunately, Melly emailed me last night to let me know she's withdrawing from the game, so that means you guys are stuck with just me holding the reins. For now I'm going to be concentrating on advertising and getting things running smoothly again, but I won't rule out tapping a co-mod after things get settled down a bit; I'll keep everyone posted and let you guys know if I need volunteers. In game, we'll proceed business as usual -- regularly scheduled glee practices and now rehearsals for West Side Story and student council campaigning (and hey, Halloween is coming up, too...) so feel free to keep posting! Since we've got so many major characters available, now would be the time to speak up if there's one you've got your eye on! I'm going to start recruiting in the next couple of days, so you guys get first shot at placing a hold and submitting an app, as long as it's within the rules, ;)

I know things have slowed down over the past few weeks, but I'm hoping to get us some new blood and have people interacting more.. If you have any questions or need anything at all, PLEASE don't hesitate to contact me, either through the mod email, the Contact-a-Mod post, or my own personal contact info -- I'll do my best to help!

~Stacey

ETA: Aaaaand already a hold on Kurt, that was fast, XD