JULY ACTIVITY CHECK

[groundrules]

Heya! A couple of items this round, starting wiiiiiiith —

ACTIVITY CHECK

To pass activity requirements, you need to have produced one of: 1 network post or 5 log comments or 10 network/text-style comments in the month of check. Activity can be carried out in game communities or in character inboxes.

In June, insufficient activity was found for:

Lilah | alterare &dmash; swept as a result of two consecutive AC strikes
Okita Souji | deathcough — RECLAIMED
Su Xunxian | topoiran — RECLAIMED
Diego Hargreeves | gladiokinesis — RECLAIMED

Check in here by 23:59 on 5 July to reclaim a character, or if they have activity that may have been missed. You will be required to meet regular activity requirements this month, if you reclaim.

Don't hesitate to PM by the same deadline, if you have any extenuating circumstances you don't feel comfortable disclosing publicly.

ADMIN

■ UPDATED: the July calendar.

■ Activity is waived for July except for those who reclaimed in June. This is just for one month, because of some mod upheaval.

■ APPLICATIONS: our next applications cycle will take place between 24-30 July, on an invite-only basis. It will be the last one for some two months after, and we may need to see how comfortable we are with numbers and whether we want to implement any kind of caps after.

■ YE OLDE ENABLING: ahead of the app cycle, do you folks want an Enable Me / Characters I'd Love to See Meme? Chip in here.

■ SMALL REQUEST: it's been a bit more the case recently that characters obtain NPC or plot information, but don't get around to sharing it with the group ICly — in turn, this can create bottlenecks for those who are trying to uncover the mystery of the day. As usual, A+ if we can please try to post ICly about these items.

Also, if anyone has an idea for how characters can relay information more efficiently, we can brainstorm here.

Comments

CHARACTER RECLAIMS

[groundrules]

[topoiran]

Xunxian reclaim, please. Sorry about that.

[groundrules]

No trouble at all, that's done for you!

Re: CHARACTER RECLAIMS

[deathcough]

reclaiming soujiii

[groundrules]

That's done for you!

[gladiokinesis]

Reclaiming Diego, covid got the best of me

[groundrules]

So glad you're better! And, of course — reclaimed!

ENABLING MEME

[groundrules]

Just +1 if you'd like a classical 'Enable Me / Characters I'd Love' meme posted before the application cycle, or comment with any other suggestions!

+1

[traaaaaash]

always

+1

[reparo]

+1

[somebadnews]

+1

[weifinder]

IC INFO-SHARING

[groundrules]

If you happen to have any ideas for how to make IC info-sharing easier, drop them here!

Ideally, we'd like to avoid OOC info-sharing posts, since those often tend to devolve in handwaving that doesn't generate juicy CR — but if that's the preferred way, we can try them out too.

Floor's open!

[reparo]

I think it's something that takes getting used to. The first time I enrolled for a plot roll, I thought it was most important for me to get the log dealt with and reaching the conclusion to offer it up as proof, before I could do any sort of announcement. That said, I'd do things differently now - when it comes to revealing info that comes from plot rolls anyway: I'd talk out a course of action for the log thread, set it up. You usuay give us deadlines with plots (do this by xxx date at latest) so I'd take that into account and then put up a network post for red thread connecting with the gang.

For NPC logs/interractions, I think it might be about timing too. I feel like I'd prefer bit plot arcs to last longer than they do so I can get all my logs and threads out there - but I appreciate this might just be a me thing.

PS I could live my life in network announcement posts, I know I'm a weirdo. Embrace me.

The most life hack tip I'd give when it comes to sharing info IC would be: lean into the Nancy Drew effect and share the red string with others, because wild speculation is fun!

+1

[northerndragon]

Oh, no, definitely big +1 about wanting plot arcs etc to last longer than they do, in an ideal world. They’re not bad now, but a little longer would be a little better. I don’t think the majority of players in this game are “get on it the moment it goes up” types.

On another note, I’ve noticed that some of the “this log’s events are a foregone conclusion” effect can make stuff harder or less desirable to thread out, esp where it involves a group thread, but that’s all right; it was already that way. That’s just the nature of this kind of RP.

Re: +1

[groundrules]

Hey guys! Definitely not trying to stifle this and am happy to revisit feedback in a bigger State of the Game type post — but if we can keep it to any suggested info-sharing mechanisms for now, please, just to keep this thread focused.

[blackscales]

I agree that more time would help, it seems like things aren't getting finished and part of that might be that people feel they need to drop things and move on? I would have gone back and done more in previous plot rolls, but everyone just sort of went to the new content!

Lily used to post an info-sharing mingle type log under the guise of a 'study group' -- would anyone else be interested in this still? Personally, I much prefer logs to network stuff so this appealed to me but it seemed to not get much activity last time it went up, so I might be the only person left who would want it I guess. But if there is interest, happy to have Wrathion revive it -- secretive information sharing meetings are his kind of thing.

[groundrules]

I did wonder whether the engagement on those info-sharing posts wasn't on the lower end because people felt a bit overwhelmed logging something that's by its nature more dialogue/communication-heavy — but I don't think we've had enough study group logs to identify a trend, and this is 100% purely my speculation. But my initial read would be that logging is typically viewed as more energy-intensive than network spam.

[chosenbylight]

I would 100% participate in secretive information sharing-type meetings, they are MY jam.

What I will say is that I didn't necessarily enjoy the OOC information dump that the previous study groups became, I much prefer getting to thread this out ICly. I do recognize on those posts there WAS very little IC threading that happened, but that might have been because there was the option given to just give the OOC infodump, perhaps?

[chosenbylight]

I think one piece of the issue is that some of the pieces of plot information are not necessarily worthy of making a post, and/or most of them are hardly earth-shattering on their own. They need to be pieced together by the various characters who have been given them before they start to seem more mysterious or intriguing, and it doesn't make sense for each of our characters to post ICly about each individual bit of information.

As I said above, I'm BIG into having characters chat about these things ICly rather than having some OOC infodump somewhere. I think it might be interesting to have some mechanism within the game between the characters to encourage this sharing of information between themselves though. Like rather than just randomly posting a "study group", Wrathion (or someone else) were to establish themselves as the main InfoGatherer, or several characters are the InfoGatherers, and there is a structured meeting log as well as an open invitation to message fellow members of the Study Group for Theorizing, or SOMETHING LIKE THIS. Just to encourage more structured IC interaction about the plot, especially for those of us who are really looking to get out our red thread and go wild

[groundrules]

So — bear with my, just want to make sure I'm grasping correctly — your suggestion is having those who are interested in the mystery plot take a proactive role of ICly asking for any information people have obtained recently, from time to time?

[blackscales]

Just to say I understand this problem with regard to something worth devoting a post to, sometimes it's hard to discern what is or isn't a valid clue both IC and OOC, and making a whole post with something that feels small just isn't IC for Wrathion. He'd only bother to post if he felt like it was going somewhere. When the lead feels 'real' there's incentive for him to dig more, so maybe if clues were less disparate it would help people have more reason to talk about them and bring them together. Otherwise it feels too much like becoming neighbourhood watch and posting random things for gossip.

[inferus]

I worry it can feel difficult to have multiple IC conversations that are essentially the same thing/answering the same questions over and over especially when the character has no further information so it's a lot of 'I don't know'. It'd be nice if there is a regular 'sharing post' where people could comment: "Here's the new things my character learned" or "Here is what my character investigated" like a bullet point list or a sentence, which is OOC, but use that as the starter. And then characters can ICly comment to that starter if they have anything to add, anything that connects with that information, anything of interest to say, any more in depth questions to ask, but that starter lays it all out on the line up front so all basic questions are answered.

I think that would be easier to digest and organize. On top of that, it would still allow IC conversations and connections to happen, but it can also help if people are busy that month and can't thread as much. They could quickly look through to see what their character could learn.

Otherwise, there's just a lot of information to try to absorb and trying to thread out everything would be very time consuming. I think before there was an OOC portion above and an IC portion below, but maybe just combining them in a network post could help streamline and allow people to engage more easily.

And I agree I tend to only network post if it's a Big Thing like the couple of times Wrath has done so - he had a lot to share, and the information would affect the entire group. Otherwise it's hard to make a network post for every single thing learned cause it's hard to know how much it matters in the grand scheme of thing.

[groundrules]

I think your idea does a good job of compiling what everyone's been throwing around!

Everyone seems to like the thought of a discussion fixture to communicate what they've learned. I worry a little that if it's done exclusively OOCly, it could devolve into joyless hand-waving. However, I'm really intrigued by this idea of a hybrid you're suggesting — all top levels into that post can be very short OOC-style summaries (either of discoveries or of what's been being undertaken as investigation), and characters can ICly comment with their reactions, their questions, their speculation.

That could be a prospectively very elegant solution to keep things compact (through OOC summaries), responsive (with IC interaction) and timely (through a regular fixture). There's an inevitable danger of 'what if something is discussed ten times over in various subthreads,' but I admit I don't think that's ever going to be 100% avoidable.

I guess the one thing is: if characters aren't... really compelled to post ICly about their clues, would they submit their information to the compilation post? And who'd run it? I guess one easy answer would be having whatever NPC is in charge of them do it. Presumably characters would feel a tiny bit more compelled to answer the call of that 'authority.' Or enough so that it could give players a plausible reason to say they did.

+1

[rumorate]

I know that this is supposed to be in favor of more IC options, but I really don't think that the OOC options should be neglected? Because as much as I want to try to engage with as many people ICly as possible, if we are receiving these small, disparate clues to the bigger picture, a better OOC forum might help for people to realize that the clues are connected, and discuss how to bring those characters together ICly.

At the speed with which the game moves at times, trying to find the pieces to fit together organically through IC conversations can be difficult. If it's not something big enough to warrant a network post, it's harder to figure out how to share. Perhaps these two pieces together do warrant a post, but the characters have to connect to realize that. We need to be able to tell who has what and sometimes the most efficient way to do that is with an OOC portion.