The new Five Coils announcements thread. From now on I'll use this instead of General OOC to post game-wide announcements, such as new (or leaving) players, Storyteller absences or game hiati, special chances to get extra xp and so on.

[Moved from General OOC]

Hello players. :) Starting to get toward the final stretch of the purge/Water District plot.

Since the "Lower Residential" thread tended to have more frequent posters, they're actually just about to make it to Floor B26. They'll likely pause a couple days (real time) to give the "Hymn" thread some time to catch up, since I do want the two threads to get to roughly the same point in game time. The "Hymn" group still has a few tough spots left to work through.

My hope is to get everyone through Water District before the holidays, but I'm not totally sure we'll make it. If not we can just save the finale for afterward, that's fine too. In the meantime, I've started the 'Player-Contributed Creativity' thread to give those who are paused (or waiting through slower holiday posting) something to do.

Extra experience earned from each creative contribution will be anywhere from 2-4 xp. Good way to build up some experience for stunt-learning or upcoming training time.

Upcoming slow periods:

Dec 17 2008 - My 4th wedding anniversary. :) I will be gone the entire day.

Dec 22 2008 to Jan 2 2009 - My sis is visiting my husband and I for the holidays. I WILL still be posting, but posts may come slower than usual during this time period.

I won't expect posts during Christmas/New Years Eve of course (though if you do post that's fine too. Hey, not everyone likes or celebrates these days.)

However, if you know you'll be gone for an extended period of time during the holidays, post in General OOC or PM me. Thanks. :)

Apologies. Posts may come late, I am having RL issues.

I will try to post at least once in each thread before the 17th though. Just giving a warning in case I don't follow through posting tonight.

Ok, next posts from me coming on Dec 18th evening most likely unless I sneak one in before bed.

On December 22nd (starting next Monday) I will be slowing down the posting speed until after New Year's Day. That means the fastest I will post is every other day... but I may go even slower if I see that people need the time for holiday activities.

Since we're still in the countdown time, that means everyone will have to slow at least a little. (Can't really have any idle chat when you're trying to beat the count, sadly!) When January comes around, I'll be back to regular posting speed, and we'll finish off the purge plot. I'm pretty eager to allow PCs the chance to stretch their legs, take in their surroundings and interact without all that immediate danger in the way.

If you've not yet written a First Age incarnation for your character, I may end up writing one for you into the game at some point -- so you might want to take the time to come up with that before Jan, if nothing else. Of course, maybe you DO want me to specify it. That's also fine! :D

Merry Christmas for those who celebrate it! :)

Hope you are all enjoying time with family and friends. I had hoped to get posts done last night, since all the threads are ready for input from me... but I just had absolutely NO time to do it, and I have my sis here to entertain.

I dunno when I'll get to post next, probably not until late on the 25th or when I wake on the 26th. we'll see!

Christmas bonuses for all: Gain a free Charm, any Charm that you have prerequisites for.

Or if you prefer you can gain a free Combo made with Charms you already have.

Let me know in PM which you choose. :) And note it on your character sheet.

Apologies everyone, I am not going to be able to post again until January 2nd. I'm very, very exhausted. Not used to sharing space with relatives, as much as I love 'em. So it's been a huge challenge to get any inspiration to write at all.

I'll TRY to slip in a post for B26 earlier than that, because that group already got skipped over several days (sorry!) But after putting all my effort on moving the other thread and coming up with detailed visuals for them, I don't want to end up writing something half-assed for B26. I promise you're top on my priority for next post though!

In any case, happy new year to all, when the time comes! :) hope you all have a grand 2009.

P.S. Just a reminder, don't forget to tell me via PM what your Christmas charm and/or combo is. That offer is good whenever you're ready to choose it, so if you end up waiting months for a 'I need a charm, quick!' moment to use it, that's fine. Just don't wait till next Christmas to do it. :D
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:04, Wed 31 Dec 2008.

My sis has left and hubby and I have the apartment back to ourselves, whew! Still really tired, but I'm starting to work on posts now.

At the latest, posts will be done by tomorrow, but after that I can definitely keep up with a 5 posts/week rate. Let me know via PM or OOC posts if you will still need more holiday/vacation time. :)

A rare game announcement (which I will try not to make a habit of):

My other game, Outcastes on the Open Sea is currently seeking players. It is a Dragon-blooded game in the West, as the name suggests, but I've recently opened the game up for god-blooded or half-caste characters if anyone finds that of interest.

The premise is a lot more open-ended and generally lighter-hearted than Five Coils -- it's something of a seafaring adventure. The problem I've had with Outcastes on the Open Sea so far is mostly that it's rather sandboxy, and it's hard to find self-motivated players to take all the hints and hooks I try to give to inspire new goals.

I'm currently looking for 2-3 active players of:
- Dragon-blooded (I already have at least one of each aspect, so whether you are accepted as as DB in the game really depends on how unique your concept is)
- God-, Elemental-, Demon- and Ghost-Blooded
- Half-Caste Solars, Lunars, Sidereals

May not be able to post today, worn out from some work I've been doing.

But if not tonight I should be able to get back on track tomorrow.

Stress seems to be getting to me and I seem to be falling ill from it. :( So the new thread may not get posted until the weekend, though I will post to finish off the other ones, and distribute more experience.

So... we're entering the final stage of the Water District.

Because groups are not entering the Gatekeeper Core at precisely the same moment, I am going to *gradually* open access to the thread to a broader group of PCs.

The order will be something like this:
Higura, Nanaret
+Third
+Tycho, Saffron and Turtle
+Danae, Dashu, Denu and Xurizu (who are last not because they did poorly, not in the slightest, but they had the most fighting in the way. They've also got the most loot, so be nice to 'em. :D)

Yes, that means there will be a huge amount of people in the same thread at once--unavoidable, because passing the Gatekeeper is the ONLY way up to the next floor, anyway. I will try to keep things in order by giving specific goals to be done, since after all you've got something like 3 minutes to do what you came for.

Because of the specific order, though, you might have a little while to wait to post. I apologize! But if you guys post promptly we'll get things moving along. :)

Everyone but the final group (Danae, Dashu, Danae, Xurizu) has access to enter the Gatekeeper Core thread. There's no more than 30 seconds before they enter, and people are generally doing dramatic actions, so it shouldn't be more than a couple more posts.

Also, I've gotten word from Tycho's player that he may be unable to post for a time due to RL obligations for the next several days. So, I will be posting for him (in general terms, mostly, though I have permission to use my judgment as to what he might help with) if necessary to move the plot forward.

Thank you for your patience :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:24, Tue 13 Jan 2009.

Next post may not come till Fri! We will see :)
(edit - mostly because bad headache is bad)
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:46, Thu 15 Jan 2009.

Further posts may be coming late today, or tomorrow!

As Loremaster said, I've been ill. I'm starting to get my energy back, though. I will be updating this weekend.

So the end of Water District should be this coming week. I'd hoped it'd be last week but my body thought otherwise, apparently! I apologize for the slowness. I've been really pushing to ensure this is one of the faster moving Exalted games out there, but it doesn't always work out that way (particularly since I am mostly working alone. Loremaster assists me with brainstorming, but I'm doing 95% of the writing.)

Next post will be late tonight, I'm RPing in a game I recently joined.

And it's real time (on OpenRPG) so hard for me to concentrate on both that and writing the monstrous post I will need to make to resolve all your actions right at this moment. :D

(It's a Dark Heresy game, BTW, run by a very good friend of mine. Not that anyone needed to know but I'm playing a hiveworlder assassin and am pretty excited to start!)

Rewards for Water District are in. +20 xp to all.

I've still got to post the finale for the Water thread, of course, and open the new thread to everyone. But that should happen by Midnight EST early morning sometime.

When you start considering what you'll train, also let me know your total training time. For a while, events will be posted in an dramatically sped up time scale (quite a contrast from 30 minutes played in 4 months! :P) but there will be an upper limit as to how much time you can spend resting without proceeding upward (likely 1 or 2 in game months).

More details will come as I think of them.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:56, Fri 30 Jan 2009.

I've started putting old OOC group threads into group E -- if for some reason you want to see them, let me know and I'll add you to E.

For a little while (because the group needs to be idle a while, both to let the Water District stuff blow over, and to let Danae do her crafting), we'll try a method of play in which goals are set weekly and determined by you. The abandoned mining facility will serve as a sort of base for everyone. The 'Floor B25 - District of Earth, The Lost Corridors' thread will be the main thread for this part of the game, and any tasks that I deem require a mini-thread will branch from and rejoin to that one.

Once tasks for the week are decided on, acted upon and resolved, I will post a summary, and the next week will begin similarly.

Tasks that could be done.
- Danae's (and anyone else's) crafting projects
- Search for food/supplies/shelter/workshop
- Search for civilized areas (and interrogate citizens)
- Scout ahead for the way up to next floor/district
- Figure what to do with the refugees.
- Anything else you can think of.

So for each game week (this would be Week 1) you...
1) If necessary, discuss what tasks need doing and how the group will split up for them. (edit - you could arrange this OOC too, I just like seeing IC planning/interaction as well)
2) Post a summary of task(s) your character intends to do that week. Training also counts as a task, since if you use up your whole week just training, you can't do any other activities that week.
3) Do the task(s). This will invariably require interaction from me, since rolls and narrative will be involved. If a task will take more than a couple posts to resolve in the main thread, we'll use a separate thread to complete it (otherwise it'd be too cluttered... 10 people acting separately in the same thread is confusing!)
4) Once everyone's done what needs to be done I'll post a summary for the week. Then increment to the next week and start again.

Also, if there's particular PCs that want a thread just to talk with one another, that can be arranged -- I definitely encourage interaction between characters on a personal level if that appeals to you to play. Social threads like that will largely run independent of main tasks, so they can be written and finished at your leisure.

If this system works out, this is roughly how I will handle long rest periods throughout the rest of the game... so if my insomnic ramblings here need clarification, let me know.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:19, Wed 04 Feb 2009.

BTW this week postings may come less frequently from me.

So I'm not sure I will be posting at all on Monday or Thursday, just to let you know.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:08, Tue 03 Feb 2009.

Now that I've erased my last gloomy announcement, let's go for a not gloomy one.

I probably won't be updating much today (that was supposed to be yesterday, but I posted a few times after all, last night and this morn).

However, should be able to 'officially' call the next game week by this weekend (Sunday, maybe?)

P.S. Give me ideas on how to work in plot points for your character (either related to your previous lives, or other interesting things.) Ideas for future training regimens, or neat artifacts/manses! Or more Five Coils ideas in general! More material for me and more xp for you makes happiness all around. (I try my best to work in what I can. But I am only one poor ST.)

Time skip should come by this Monday afternoon! (the 8th) Try not to do anything 'new' until then, though do think about what goals you'll want to cover.

Also, I am blessed to have this group as players. Thank you.

OK, finally updated everything. I ended up messing around with thread names a lot, too, so sorry if you came in during the confusion :P

There should be 5 game threads open to all players.
"Floor B25 - The Lost Corridors, Mining Settlement" is now the main thread.

The other open game threads are optional ones, your participation in them depends on how you decide to involve yourself, basically.

As for the name changes: thread names including "The Lost Corridors" are those that are within the offline region, meaning there's no chance you'll be found by the Gatekeeper of Earth or any of its sentries or officers. Those including "District of Earth" are not exempt from regular patrolling or sensor sweeps -- though it's not so dangerous as the Gatekeeper of Water's control floor, traveling through them requires more caution.

The "Building a Revolution" thread is also assumed to be within the Lost Corridors region, I just decided I liked the name as is. :P

Here's hoping this all isn't too complex!

Forgot to mention this, since we entered a new week:

Every week, WP is fully refreshed. If you ever need more WP between days though, you can roll Conviction for it as normal.

Virtue channels, however, will only refresh at a story end, so don't overuse them.

As for Essence, you'll regain it all back daily, as long as you get at least 8 hours of sleep.

OK, I don't know if I will be able to update till late tonight or Thurs, mostly because I am dealing with the horrific frustration of having lost 10+ hours of posting work I was doing for my other game. I am now rewriting but it is a pain to do so, and is pissing me off to no end, so I don't know I can concentrate on this game tonight. I also have Dark Heresy on OpenRPG Wednesday nights, so that will also take my time :(

I apologize because this is a completely unplanned delay, I just got screwed over losing my data. Unless you're waiting for me to post Saffron's results, you could probably still continue posting on your own, though.

edit - I'm up to date with my other game but now I need to rest. :( look for updates here this afternoon (gmt -5)
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:47, Thu 12 Feb 2009.

No posts from me on Saturday, it's Valentine's Day and that means time with hubby. :3

Also, today is FRIDAY THE 13TH!!! Woooohh spooky. Here's a fun prompt for player contributions: Five Coils Superstitions. If you've got any ideas, post for some extra xp.

I'll see about speeding things up more in the future so poor Danae can be free to post again. I just tend to think the PCs would at least try to explore their immediate surroundings while she is toiling. I do really like the character interactions going on in the meantime though, I'd love to see more of that. (And again you may always prod me to make threads for chatting in small groups as Xurizu and Dashu recently did.)

Reminder (moved from General OOC): If you're going to do something specifically with the refugees as a whole, post it in the Revolution thread. I had wanted the exalts' business to take up the main thread, and refugee training, counseling etc. happens in another thread... if that makes any sense :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:04, Fri 13 Feb 2009.

I'll probably not post again till Weds. afternoon. :( Sorry about that. If we can I'd like to try to speed up again starting next week. But I expect this week to be a little slow. (Partly due to some RL obligations of some players)

Please let me know any suggestions to give those of you with little to post something to do while the hive/conclave people do things. I have my own ideas but more are always good!

Hope you're not all too idle, I've just not had much to reply to lately. :( Just hope things aren't so slow it's killing interest. I did get Danae involved in something so that's nice. :)

Hive thread is just waiting for Third.

Revolution needs more from Tycho, though I believe he may be away for the weekend. Turtle posted something more long-term than the current conversation in that thread, so I'll have to wait a bit before posting his results (which should work out, since Turtle's player is RL busy. Just wanted to mention that so he wouldn't think I missed his post.)

Conclave is ready to go, though since Dashu player is also busy, Nanaret/Xurizu may have to carry out most of the work for the next RL week.

My next posts will be, at the earliest, late Sunday night. I'm going to be out most of Sunday is why.

I'd like to make a special request of those of you in the Conclave (Xurizu, Dashu, Nanaret) and Hive (Dena, Third) threads. I really need these threads to move faster. I know Dashu is busy until Friday-ish, so I've mostly been abstracting him for the time being. But I really need Conclave/Hive to finish, preferably by next week. I want to move the entire game ahead in time, and I really can't until those threads reach a conclusion.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:58, Fri 06 Mar 2009.

Our new Zenith is Dreams-of-Light, a healer and preacher who has been pressed into service of the Immaculate Monks, but harbors a strong belief in the Unconquered Sun. Her purpose, she believes, is to bring the light of the Sun to the Five Coils. In the meantime she endures great amounts of pain in servitude, believing that one day she will be free.

Obviously... she'll need some help to get free. I hope to introduce her soon, probably in the coming week. :)

Also, if you saw some threads disappear, they didn't, I just decided to put some of the threads in different groups. Conclave is now Group 2 and Hive is Group 3 (though Hive is all but done for now, it makes more sense to make it group-private since Dena and Third will be reporting on things there anyways!)

Monday may be lacking in posts from me. I'm hoping to at least get Loremaster to post more Conclave though.

Mining Settlment: you can fast forward a bit once you think you've talked things out enough. If you want to train among the refugees, or involve them somehow, do it in the Revolution thread, otherwise you can spar in the main thread... whatever works for you. Though it's a little time-convoluted, I'll allow you 2-3 days training (except for Danae, she can't train any more this game week, she's technically supposed to have been crafting the entire first 2 weeks. ^^)

The way things may end up working, Dashu/Nanaret/Xurizu may be left in Conclave for a while. In any case, I'm still hoping to fast forward by the end of this week.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:04, Tue 03 Mar 2009.

Absences (some of these I've already mentioned before)

Saffron has left us for RL reasons, though she might be back in May.
Tycho has told me he's busy again for at least part of the week.
Turtle is still busy with RL, as far as I know this is not permanent.

Another new character?

We may be getting a second Twilight. One that covers a more broad range of abilities than Third. This one may serve well as an assistant crafter and healer, but I've only been given a basic concept thus far.

Idle idle idle...

The rest of you not in Conclave or preluding, let me know if you need some sort of prompt from me to work with. I'll also take requests for new threads. I thank you for your patience during this relatively idle time; I am doing all I can to keep the game going until the opportunity for more action comes.

Coming up!

Just to give you an idea of how I plan to do things in the near future (again, I'm probably repeating myself):

1. Conclave will reach a point that someone can return to report, or they will opt to stay for several days.
2. Game Week 3 begins. At this point Conclave PCs should be able to come and go and arrange on their own how they get info.
3. Revolution thread will start the new week with a general refugee meeting.
4. Hive Queen visit will occur towards the middle of the game week.
5. Anything else PCs want to do this week can be covered (further explorations, crafting, training...)
6. By Game Week 4, Dreams-of-Light should hopefully have had some sort of contact with the main group.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:11, Wed 04 Mar 2009.

Finally we have our second new character, Talia Zerith. She's a Twilight Caste, a dilettante that's dabbled in many different fields. Particularly Craft (Fire and Air), a bit of healing ability, some Socialize, Martial Arts... and so on. The player wanted her to be someone who could 'fill in the gaps' of the party.

Unlike Dreams-of-Light, Talia is starting uncollared and should actually encounter everyone pretty soon. It'll be more complicated to nudge people towards saving Dreams, but we're working on it.

I won't be posting any more for today (Friday), but there will be a time skip on Saturday and Talia's entrance.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:45, Sat 07 Mar 2009.

Help!

I would really appreciate if all of you could resend via PM the experience you've spent so far and the bonus charm/combo you got for Christmas (if you were around then). Don't create a new thread if you already sent me an XP expenditure thread before, just bump it.

Thank you so much. I'm just having a hard time wading through the PMs right now, so I really need all of you to do this. Those who do this in a timely manner, I will find a way to give you a small reward.

People who have PMed me (or bumped) their XP expenditure / Christmas bonus:

1. Dashu
2. Dena
3. Nanaret
4. Higura
5. Danae
6. Xurizu

People who haven't yet... please don't be lazy? ;.;
- Tycho
- Third

(note: Dreams-of-Light and Talia are exempt to this, obviously, since they haven't spent any xp yet. And for now Turtle and Saffron are considered on hiatus.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:32, Sun 15 Mar 2009.

I might not be able to post again till Tues. Possibly Weds. Sorry for the inconvenience. :(

New (or old but active) threads for you Mining Settlement people... for now that means anyone who's not Dashu, Xurizu or Dreams. (They are in Conclave and/or the Temple.)

Floor B25 - Building a Revolution (group 1)

I've started the 'after battle meeting' here. It's also for Nanaret to make her Conclave report and Talia to get a proper introduction, or so I hope. Pretty much everyone in Settlement can be involved here.

3 Immaculates - A Chance for Redemption (group A)

This is the thread for those of you who will be dealing with the Immaculate prisoners. I put Third and Higura in that group for now, since they seemed the most interested in their fate. Anyone else who wants to be involved should let me know (PM or OOC thread is fine) so I can add them to the group.

You can be in the above meeting and also be involved with the Immaculates, playing both simultaneously is an option. Or you could start in one and join the other if it is still going on.

Anything else that isn't part of the above scenarios just stays in Mining Settlement thread.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:00, Fri 27 Mar 2009.

Happy weekend all! Postings from me may come slower until Sunday.

Grr, due to various obligations and errands that need doing, slow period may continue through Tuesday. Apologies.

I'll just be replying to what I can when/if I can snag the time to do so.

Wow... April Fools' colors are UGLY! :D

I'm back, but I'm still kind of out of it, this has not been a great week for me :/

I'll try to keep things up at the usual rate, but the last couple posts I did (which had a great deal of PMed info that hurt my brain to come up with, heheh) took me hours to write. ;.; sometimes the mind just gets tired.

Settlement: I would like to move to the Hive queen visit, so we should try concluding Nanaret's meeting in the next couple days. Those of you speaking with the prisoners (Higura, Third), we can finish it concurrently with the beginning of Hive visit, if necessary.

Dreams' thread: I feel this battle's gone long enough and Dreams deserves some freedom! Xurizu's gone for the weekend and I don't really want the NPC to do too much so it's likely there will be a convenient conclusion soon.

However Dashu can still act, but it's kind of an 'obvious kill', it's a weaker acolyte with 1 HL left. Nonetheless, it's something to pose! :)

edit--turns out Xurizu is actually not gone this weekend. o.O I misunderstood the PM! But I'm still gearing toward ending battle soon.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:44, Sat 04 Apr 2009.

Ugh, sorry for the delay with Dreams' thread. I was dealing with some serious writer's block for another game, ack! That's done now so I'll be posting there shortly.

Also, correction, Xurizu is gone from April 6-10. I'll be NPCing him until he is back.

Apologies, I'm not in the mood to post more tonight. Things have happened that have me completely in the wrong mood to even so much as THINK about making a post.

I should be able to do so tomorrow, but if not then probably the weekend.

Sorry about that.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:00, Fri 10 Apr 2009.

I am going to start weeding out inactive players in the next couple weeks. So please if you are still interested in playing, start stepping up the posting speed (3 posts a week bare minimum, 5 posts a week preferred), or give me your explanations as to why you're slowing down, if you haven't already.

This is always an unpleasant time for me because I tend to feel at least a little bit of guilt at dropping players, even if it's for the sake of better game flow. Also, it takes some thought to work in new ones mid-game, especially with this particular premise. But... it has to be done!

I thought I'd be able to update tonight, but not sure I can manage it for a little while longer. Hopefully it won't be a problem, since it's a holiday for some today.

Thanks to people who posted today though.

I invited 2 more players in because I had anticipated losing more players. Seems like most of them want to stay, much to my amazement. But I'm not going to keep the others from joining.

The two joining are two great players from my other games.

One is taking an Abyssal role (directly inspired by Third's Player Creativity post. The player really liked the premise, too.)

The other is taking the Eclipse role vacated months back by Saffron. Also incidentally means the group can have a full circle of Solars plus all 3 types of Lunars. Plus a Sidereal and an Abyssal. An interesting spread which I hope will endure through the rest of the game.

Anyway I'm going to sit down soon and update some threads here and write some PMs. Apologies if it comes a little late.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:02, Tue 14 Apr 2009.

The new characters:

Broken Eternal, the Day Caste
Veldygar Arhandor, the Eclipse Caste

They will be starting separately from everyone else, obviously. (Neither has completed a sheet yet so I'm waiting until they both do to start'em off!) But I still added them to story group 1 so they can read what is going on.

Feeling pretty ill... not sure there will be more post until Monday.

Though I may at least post for the Hive Queen. How much I do depends on how I feel tomorrow. o.O

All right, starting to feel better. May still turn out to be a slow week, though, but I'll give it my best shot :)

My birthday is on April 23rd (it's my 30th in fact.) I am planning to take a couple days away from the computer. So that would probably be the 23rd and 24th (Thursday and Friday).

Veldygar and Eternal should have their intro by late tonight barring any unforeseen circumstances on my part.

edit - more Hive Queen will also come late tonight, as what she'll say will have some relation to what Veldy and Eternal are doing. :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:55, Mon 20 Apr 2009.

OK, I'll be back either late Friday night or Saturday morning. :)
Please keep posting in the meantime, at least until you'll need my input again.

Hey all, I'm back. I will start updating again this (Saturday) afternoon.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:27, Sat 25 Apr 2009.

It should be becoming apparent how I'll be trying to divide things here. So here's a peek into how the game will be progressing.

After the virus affects the automaton sentries, I'm envisioning something like this... barred anyone who would rather take time to scout and explore first. I am flexible, and the neutralized sentries will make movement easier.

- 1 group invading and/or infiltrating the inner temple (this group will likely encounter Veldy and Eternal)
- 1 group to help cause a diversion (Tycho and his men will be implied here as NPCs)
- 1 group to attempt to incite laborer revolt (they'll also end up meeting Free)

The Hive Queen's Ruby caste warriors, and the half or so of refugee troops with Drachma, will support invasion or diversion efforts if directed toward this.

There will be another downtime once people move into the builder bug hive, too.

Of course some things still need to finish before I can move the game onward, namely Hive Queen thread (which needs to get posting again!) and Conclave. So those threads will definitely come to a conclusion this week.

Whew, sorry all, I meant to update here earlier than now. I'm working on it.

OK... I've updated all but Conclave because I'm waiting for a post there. I've more or less determined I'll just skip you guys out of the area by my next post, I've given you enough of a runaround. Can just assume you have a lucky day in terms of stealthing (gasp!) and Mockingbird makes up a significant distraction for you to get away easier.

I'd like for Conclave people to enter at the tail end of the mini festival with the Hive Queen so all of you minus Veldy and Eternal can move to the next thread together.

New character (who I dearly hope will be the last I accept for a while; I will be happy to have our group of players stabilize) is shaping up to be someone who is currently working with Free. Heh, Free and the Abyssals idea Third came up with are among my most used bits of player creativity. I will definitely be incorporating both of Danae's Fire District ideas as well. Fun stuff.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:53, Thu 30 Apr 2009.

I may be absent most of Saturday. So. Weekend posting may be slow... Not that I don't post faster than most Exalted games I've seen, anyways (life? what life?)

By beginning of next week I will be starting to move us ahead plot-wise and prompting people to divide up for tasks.

Also, just to mention it officially here, I have had to move Dreams-of-Light to inactive status as her player is having RL rear its ugly head, and such. So not sure when/if she will be reacting again.

Dashu's player will also possibly be slow due to RL things. We will find a way to cope without our handy night caste in the meantime. :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:08, Sat 02 May 2009.

Excuse any potential delays, I've been working on other things and now I am completely drained, and I haven't had a full, proper meal in nearly an entire day. It is getting very hard to write right now but hopefully I will have something for Veldy and Eternal's thread in the next couple hours.

Time skip for the settlement will start either late tonight or on Saturday afternoon at the latest!

(Sorry, I deleted the last announcement I made for this by accident. Anyway this is just to cover myself in case I end up resting for tonight.)

Just made a rather large post to begin what ought to be a *brief* Hive stopover, at the bottom of this thread:

link to a message in this game

As stated in the post, everyone (except Veldygar and Eternal) has 9 days of downtime for training, crafting etc.

I'll leave the Mining Settlement thread open to finish what last bit of conversation there is there, but it'll close soon.

Ugh, I wanted to write but I'm currently too tired... I stayed up really late for a friend who was having some bad times. I need to get some rest and I'll post some things I intended to get done (particularly in response to Danae and Higura/Nanaret) before I go out for the day. if you haven't posted yet in the Hive thread since my last big post, please do, I would like to know what everyone does in the 9 day gap.

Also, if I don't get response from Veldygar in the Republic Mission thread by tomorrow I'll just proceed with posting results for Eternal's sneaking.

Thanks for patience...

While I sit down to do some writing (trying to kick my inspiration :/) I also thought I'd point out the PCs' collected or crafted equipment list. It's the last post of the Experience/Rewards thread.

link to a message in this game

Those of you in Builder Bug Hive have access to these items right now.

Nanaret has already let me know she wants to trade out her exceptional wood-enchanted breastplate for the green jade breastplate as part of her 'Immaculate disguise'.

There's still a couple unclaimed things on that list. Inform me via PM, IC or OOC at your discretion if you want any of it. Discuss among yourselves if you wish, otherwise I will assign items in the order people ask for them.

You can of course claim anything that the refugees currently hold, as well.

I'm really tired, feel like I could rest for longer... I've been so exhausted it's made me ill. But I will post something by tonight. (At least for settlement, as I told Talia I would.)

I'd like by the weekend / beginning of next week to start picking up on the posting speed again. I'll be moving onto game week 5, which will be when the meat of your plans for the Earth District begins.

That also means I have to nudge Veldygar and Eternal's thread to start moving as well, though I have gotten word from Veldy's player he'll be slower for a month or so. Just means I'll figure a way for some of the other PCs to meet Eternal sooner than later so he keeps getting interaction.

I feel the small downtime, while allowing to plant the seeds for some story elements, has slowed the pace to a point I'm not happy with... so hopefully we can get back toward the action soon. I've generally found interaction works better in smaller groups so the next immediate goal will be to divide people up by tasks and get moving on those.

Ahhh... despite my comments about speeding up, I realized Xurizu's player has his birthday today (the 17th!) so I probably won't update till after, so he can have a chance to catch up.

In the meantime, Hive people can make a choice as to what group they will accompany, and Veldygar can post his surprise attack (now that one of the monks is splattered on the wall...)

I may be away from the computer (gasp!) for the large part of the day Thursday and possibly Fri. Doesn't mean I won't update, just that I won't be at the comp. to watch the game as closely as I usually do. I'm pretty determined to getting us moving on the new threads, after the group spent so much time in preparation.

This is happening just in time, too, as our latest new character, a Zenith Caste named Kares Perian, is nearing completion. As I may have mentioned before, he will be in the company of Free -- or at least the gang that claims to follow him, the Freerunners. (I hope I will do justice to Free when it's time for me to RP him, assuming the group can even secure a direct meeting with the man himself, that is!) So the PCs will be divided 6 and 5 when everyone gets together. Only one out of the few I thought would leave ended up leaving the game, so we have an odd number of players now.

It's ok though! we may lose one some day. or I may gain one to make 12. I'm not sure about that, though, as it does take a lot of work to keep this group entertained, something I am not always sure I'm succeeding at. (If I did recruit I think I'd be most interested in someone playing a Dragon-blooded defector -- someone who'll start at higher Essence than the Solars.)

Water Republic thread: I am waiting for Eternal before moving on, but if I don't get a response in the next couple days I will assume he's holding action. Just gotta keep the combat moving, is all. If Veldy ends up alone too long I'll figure something out so he can meet up with the other 4 coming his way quicker.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:35, Thu 21 May 2009.

Once again some updates/prodding...

Builder Bug Hive - needing some interaction with the prisoners from Higura/Third (this should be happening in the past now, concurrently with main story threads, to keep from lagging the plot)

Inner Temple Infiltration - waiting for Dashu and Third to arrive, I'd like to move on Sunday evening if possible

Freerunner Meeting - could use some attention from Talia but if none by Sunday evening I'll move on

Water Republic Mission - waiting for Eternal's defense and next attack (can put 'em in the same post to save time). Hoping this battle won't drag on too long... you guys are going to be in a lot of battles from here on.

In the next couple days I'll also be working on starting Kares Perian's short prelude which will involve a peek a couple floors up! for once! I feel pretty crazy watching 5 threads at once, but they should merge in the next couple weeks I hope.

Hope you all had a good Memorial Day.

I was reminded in another game that it's Memorial Day in the U.S. I haven't been in the states for 4 years so... I tend to forget about its holidays. So I assume that's why it's been so quiet yesterday.

Kares Perian's intro, start:
link to a message in this game

The thread name is actually pretty similar to the Freerunner Meeting one (featuring Higura, Nanaret, Talia and Xurizu), so if that confuses people I can change it. I had my reasons for the similarity, but player comprehension is more important.

I'm now running four threads concurrently, which could be quite a strain for a single ST, but I'll try my best to keep it up until the groups can merge. I may at times post less detailed, in favor for going more quickly, depends on the situation and my inspiration.

I'll do my best to update more tonight/tomorrow, but I have a bit of a family emergency going on as my sister's cat is being put to sleep. Poor kitty. :(

My apologies if this week continues to go somewhat slow on my part, my mind has not been in the best shape lately for creativity. Also, along with many people being slow/distracted lately it seems best to not push things too hard. On the other hand, I fear going too slow because that tends to lead to players losing interest as well, so I am still trying to post as much as I can given my current limitations. After how long I've run this and how much time I've put into it, it'd be such a disappointment for my player base to drift. :(

Also I apologize for my ugly ascii maps (another in Veldy/Eternal thread and I added one for Dashu's scouting as well). I'm doing the best I can, given our medium, to give people as close a description of the surroundings as to what I see in my head.

I have Sims 3 now, and I am the biggest Sims fan I know(you do not know how big!), so this will have an impact on my posting. >.> I haven't said this on every one of my games, mostly because this one is the only one at the moment requiring the largest amount of my creative output.

Also because it makes me look like a HUGE DORK. :(

Though I am pretty sure I should be able to post for most threads by tomorrow, if not tonight. :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:54, Wed 03 June 2009.

... And it's a bit sad to have to follow this announcement with something more serious, but well, here goes.

Because of various reasons, Gatekeeper will need to take a few days off, and thus will not be able to advance her games until she returns - which will be next Monday or Tuesday. Accumulated fatigue has finally taken its toll, and it's not until she's taken a moment to breathe that she's realized how sorely she needs to catch up and rest. She's not going anywhere though, and will be right back after a few days to advance things and get back in the fold, revitalized and rested. Until then, consider the game on a short hiatus.

Thanks a lot for your patience and understanding, and we'll be seeing you soon!
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:25, Thu 04 June 2009.

Hi all,

I've rested quite well so far but I'm realizing it's not enough yet, so my hiatus must continue. I hope for your continued understanding in pausing at the brink of action. If I do lose players during my hiatus, I'll do my best to make up for it and keep things going, including fast forwarding some threads to bring more people together, and so forth.

I will try to explain to all of you a bit about what it's like being in my situation, not because I'm looking for sympathy, but because I respect my players enough to explain in detail. This is the only game I'm placing the full explanation in, mostly because it's the only one I've addressed my health issues in detail before. And this game also takes up the largest amount of my creative energy!

But if you don't want to read it, just skip the rest. I will check in again in another week or so, assess my health/mood, and see if I'm ready to post then.

---

I am a person with an unfortunate affliction. I have been diagnosed with major depression, something that has likely been with me since my teenage years (I am now in my early 30s). For about four years now I have been going through a difficult process of immigration to my husband's home country, and due to unforeseen complications I have been unable to continue my depression treatment for four years.

This means that I do not currently have much control over my illness, which is compounded with strong bouts of anxiety, paranoia, and cripplingly low self-esteem. Most of the time, I hardly even leave the apartment. My games are all the 'work' I do for now, which is why I've had so much time to post at an incredible rate in multiple threads.

One of my biggest problems is that I have a difficult time putting my own needs and concerns above others. Besides my illness, I was also raised in an environment that enforced perfectionism, high expectations and frightening, shameful consequences if I failed. I grew up believing that mistakes were to be punished, not a learning experience. I grew up thinking that as long as I was still conscious and physically well enough to get up and work on whatever needed working on, I had to keep doing so until my body failed me. My stress level, my emotional state, these were never considered good enough excuses for resting. Mix this up with the fact I had a severe mental illness (unknown to me until recently) and you end up with the person I am today. More often than not, my thoughts tell me that to gain people's respect, I have to work at it constantly, even at the cost of my own health and sanity.

Before I even found out about my depression, I ended up leaving college not because of my mental state, but because my body had developed an autoimmune disorder (myasthenia gravis). I had to leave school because I was getting double vision, I could no longer talk for long periods because my mouth would get fatigued, and worse yet I couldn't even swallow food properly so I was losing weight at an alarming rate. It's fortunately not an untreatable disorder (I'm in full remission right now), but still, that disease was what started me on the slow and painful path of realizing that the mindset I grew up with could eventually kill me.

Now, fast forward to today. I left the difficult environment that taught me to push myself so hard. I had to leave the country to even have the chance to survive, as the man who is now my husband loved me enough to take the often exceedingly difficult burden of caring for a person like me. Unfortunately, simply leaving was not enough to cure me, because my mind has carried with it all the bad habits I grew up with, and my instinct is still to apply those habits to every new endeavor I attempt.

In the case of my RPoL games: I have essentially pushed myself posting day by day, out of fear I would lose my player base, out of a complete mistrust that my talent alone was good enough to keep people's interest. I believed (and still believe, for the most part) that the posting rate of my game was the biggest attraction that my players liked. But to deliver that, I have let my health suffer. I have given hours upon hours of my time to posting that I could have used to tend to my personal needs. Because it's not like work or school, I don't have set hours for posting, so the only limit for my pace is myself -- and I don't know how to pace myself in a healthy manner when I think that slowing down will mean disappointing my players expectations.

The sad thing is, I actually do enjoy writing, and involving people in my stories. My creative urges are one of the few things that's given me a reason to live, and my RPoL games are by far not the first time I've ever done something like this. But because of my depression, it's hard for me to enjoy these things purely for the sake of enjoyment, without somehow turning it into an obsessive urge to prove myself to others. My ability to have self-worth without that is broken, and that's why I'm in this position now. I'm burned out.

My hope is that my long wait for treatment and medication will be over by this fall, but even then that won't guarantee a quick recovery. Mental illness is never a simple procedure to 'fix'. All I can do is try to learn to heed my limits in the meantime, when my body tells me it needs rest, my mind is too fatigued to create and my emotions too tense to deal with people's concerns. Right now is one of those times. So I will be attempting to take another week of break and see where that takes me. If I don't rest now, I will be forced eventually to shut down all of my games, so this is the only compromise I have. :(
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:14, Tue 09 June 2009.

As mentioned in OOC I'm starting to slowly get back to posting, though I will start at a reduced post rate. I've posted in the threads that were easier to start with (i.e. non-combat scenes) and will post the others tomorrow (Sunday) ish.

More PCs being worked on by players... one who has been waiting for some time for the chance, another who's a returning player.

There are others who've asked to join, so if you've been passed up, I'm sorry. I'm more or less going in order of who's asked, or in one case, who's played before. Even so the game is *quite* full at this point!

Kilani Sorune (first name first in this case) is something of a walking contradiction, a Chosen of Battles who wishes to be pacifist. She is an archer and a healer and may well have a hand in recruiting a larger force for the group... assuming she will be freed... and want what that freedom entails.

And the player whose character is a former PC turned NPC, Saffron, will be returning to us with a new concept - a rebel Dragon-blood. We are as yet unsure if it will be a permanent character or not.

I'll be figuring out in the next week or so where these new characters will enter; so far my intention is to have Kilani join the Freerunner Meeting group and the new DB to encounter Veldygar/Eternal. we will see!

Well, the two new characters are complete now. :)

Kilani will be joining Higura, Nanaret, Talia and Xurizu in... a few days, I hope. I would have put her with Perian, but the circumstances right now make more sense putting her with the larger group, considering what I'm planning ahead.

While Harue is now joining Veldy and Eternal (this trio has some volatile potential, but also has some great potential for character development, I hope.)

So eventually B25 will have 7 people and B23 will have 6. Yow! How did I get 13 characters. It'll be pretty chaotic when all of them meet at once, though on the other hand... many of the characters tend to be asocial. And not everyone can post at all times. I guess having more rather than less ensures at least some activity at any time.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:35, Sun 05 July 2009.

My apologies to Perian and Kilani. I may not be able to start you on your new threads today. If not I will do so tomorrow. It depends on how I feel because I'm a bit under the weather right now so my creativity is at a low point.

Okay, I am going to be sitting here all evening and will push forward every thread I can, but am also playing Dark Heresy on OpenRPG shortly so the posts will come in stages.

Water Republic and Freerunner Meeting threads are temporarily closed.

I have been told something recently that makes me seriously doubt my judgment as a ST, therefore I need to sit and resolve that. It may take some time and thought for me to work everything out (as I feel seriously discouraged right now, it's not anyone's fault but me for being so embarrassingly bad at taking criticism).

edit - handling it as best as I can now that I've talked things over a bit. There should not be any noticeable gaps in play (well other than me not wanting to overdo my posting rate!)
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:39, Mon 29 June 2009.

Current thread status

Inner Temple: Going smoothly, soon the number of enemies will likely increase exponentially. >.> consider it a stress test after all that resting you got to do! Also don't forget you can stunt learn. I know you guys have tons of XP banked. *nudges*

Water Republic: I've PMed some things to Veldy because I need input from him before proceeding, we'll continue after that. Thanks for your patience!

Freerunner Meeting: once I get another defense from Talia (poor Talia) we'll move on here as well.

Kilani: I'm at a point I have to start moving your thread more, to sync with other thread(s). So once you can post again there may be some hurrying along. :)

Perian will be away soon, for the weekend, so his thread will pretty much be on hold till he returns.

Regarding recent additions to the RTJ/Character Sheet thread:

If you are a Lunar there are some immediate changes here. You can now add ONE non-Caste/Favored Attribute dot. It cannot raise an Attribute higher than 5.

Also, you can now have one more Favored Ability.

When you decide what you will add please PM me and let me know before you add it to your character sheet.

These changes are due to the fact Lunars are Attribute based, but given the sparse training time in this game it is hard to raise Attributes. Also, Lunars are disadvantaged in the first place for not starting with Heart's Blood and there being few animals to hunt so far in Coils (this will change by the time you reach Wood District, though).

Sidereals:

I feel that Sids are also similarly inconvenienced due to the lack of RDs and Astrology use. However I could not at the time think of a concrete, number-crunchy advantage for the Sids. There are, however, some story advantages that may eventually crop up, as mentioned in the Chargen post.

I am also considering a specific, alternate advantage for Sids due to the oddness of Fate in Five Coils, but... this is something that is pending me having a flash of inspiration (though Sidereal players can feel free to give suggestions).

Special Training:

There's a new one for the Freerunner Meeting group. Look under Experience / Rewards, Special Training Regimens.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:57, Sat 04 July 2009.

I am just... worn out of writing atm, so I will have to save writing for the Infiltration for later. I really ought to be slowing down a bit, but I feel kind of bad to do so right before a major battle. :)

My next series of posts should hopefully be by Monday or possibly Tuesday night.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:25, Sun 05 July 2009.

That was rather unexpected... I woke up to finish posts I started. Then I got distracted. And then I got *tired*... and woke up just now. o.o;

Well I'll get to it now in any case.

btw--I'm giving just one more day for more people to respond in Sector 5. I really have to move that forward due to new character(s?) coming in. There are some people who haven't posted since the weekend.

If you aren't interested in the scenario, then I'll just leave your character behind :) I have others that are more than willing to come in and play.

Same goes for any others that lag, I am going to start moving things regardless of a response. The exception is if players explain to me OOC why they can't post and that they'd like me to wait.

South Sector 5 is possibly going to get pretty busy soon. The thread will have to maintain multiple POVs for a bit, as new characters get introduced there. So! don't feel like you're 'interrupting' the other POV(s) when you post. :) you'll all convene eventually.

I made the decision to put more PCs in that thread, because more than one character in it is GM run, so having more 'regular' PCs may help progression there (I try to avoid making the decisions if possible).

As for Water Republic thread I do still intend for you to get together with Inner Temple Infiltration. So that should pick up the slack on your end when it happens. I hope it will be soon, but again that depends on time and on the other players!
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:16, Thu 09 July 2009.

Hello everyone.

Gatekeeper was pushing herself hard to try to move the threads along, but she's at the stage of her illness where she needs to get some rest and recover. I've managed to convince her to get some rest and let me make this announcement, so here it is: Gatekeeper will get a bit of rest and try to get better before moving the threads forward. She feels bad having to do this, but the sickness was just bad timing, so there's not much that can be done...

Thank you all for the kind words and the understanding, Gatekeeper will be back shortly and in better shape to continue along.

My husband makes it sound like I'm dying or something... ^^ It's really not that bad.

That said, I'm going to be sitting here doing some thread surgery soon. I decided it's way too confusing to stick too many points of view in a single thread... so I'm going to separate them. So Sector 5 will briefly be closed while I rearrange this.

Also, Water Republic is just... sitting there. I know Harue is busy until Wednesday or so. So I will wait until then, since I also know Eternal's player is worn out from work. If at least two people were posting there, I would have just moved on and posted for Harue as she suggested me. But right now it's 0 people so I am not inclined to post.

If that thread doesn't start moving at a more regular pace, I'll likely just have to close it. :(

Ok... I was hoping not to have to do it this way but here we go.

Operation Earthcalm is Kilani's thread. Higura, Nanaret, Talia and Xurizu will be headed that way very shortly. I originally had it happen faster, but felt awkward doing it all at once. Too wordy, vaguely railroady, etc. Plus side, means I already have things planned ahead and stuff will go faster.

Riot Zone is Immaculate Kestrel and Number Twenty Three's debut. I *tried* to make it as succint as I could but, so much needed explaining. :(

And now I will try to get the other threads moving. My apologies for the delay but the logistics issues with this latest scenario really gave me a headache. *shudders*

There, most stuff answered. Except Water Republic (which I think will need at least one other person posting) and Perian (I want to take more time to think through it before answering, there's a lot to address! :) )

I will be away for about 24 hours. Then I should be available for people to ask questions to, to make posts etc. again.

Actually, never mind. I'm here again but it's mostly to answer for other games that got neglected.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:02, Tue 14 July 2009.

I am going to continue on with Sector 5 and Earthcalm by tonight (that is Wednesday night GMT-4) regardless of who posts.

I should be posting for other threads needing it by then, too.

As for Water Republic I've given some hints for people and I know Eternal has something planned, after that, I am going to have to speed things up. Which means I may start rolling for people to expedite things, cause I would like the thread to be at a certain point by next week.

I am about concentrating on Coils posts. Special apologies to Perian, Danae and Third who've waited the longest for a response.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:12, Thu 16 July 2009.

I may not be able to get to posting this Sunday.

Monday evening/night is more likely.

But it could also happen I'll be inspired at some point during the day between stuff I have to do. We'll see.

I'm working on that last thread needing an update (the Inner Temple) right now, sorry to keep you folks waiting!

It's sad but my writing is just so slow lately. Nearly gave up on finishing tonight but I'm just supremely stubborn!

Getting just a little sick again! Flu part two with a side of infection, though fortunately it's milder.

Nonetheless I should be working on posts here by tonight.

I've posted in other game(s) that I may be slow posting this weekend (RL stuff going on)... most of the posting I DO manage to slip in ought to be in this game though, so you probably won't notice much of a difference in speed/response.

Whoops. Couldn't get to posting tonight, will start it when I wake.

If there are threads by Monday night lacking PC replies, I will just continue them anyway, assuming players guard and/or wait passively while the scene continues around them. I may make assumptions to allow scenes will come to a conclusion faster, particularly ones that have dragged on for a while. I am doing this so that the game does not stagnate, not because I like to railroad people.

Exception is Perian's thread which will pause once his player is on vacation.

A quick heads up for everyone - Gatekeeper will not be able to update the threads tonight. Instead, she'll take care of them tomorrow during the day.

Thanks for your attention!

Harue is leaving the game indefinitely. No hard feelings, just wasn't working out.

Also, Veldygar/Eternal should be within a couple days (RL) of encountering Inner Temple Infiltration PCs one way or another. I can't always be sure 'when' because it depends on the players as much as me. But this is definitely what I am pushing for.

A little tired to churn out more responses tonight, so they will very likely come when I wake.

Edit, and now I'm delayed again because of other issues.

Edit 2, I've done what I could with the Riot/Earthcalm. Hopefully it is not too confusing, but it probably is. This is due to my error in not just combining the PCs together from the start. I will just try to salvage it the best I can, please bear with me.

Inner Temple folks will get an update before I go bed, hopefully. Again sorry for delay.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:04, Sun 09 Aug 2009.

Slow weekend is slow! (for me too, honestly)

Just to let you all know, I may not be posting as much from Thurs. August 13th to Tues. the 18th as I'll be visiting inlaws. Will have internet access but I'm not totally sure I'll be able to access it consistently.

Would like to get threads moving forward at least a couple times before then. :)

And speaking of moving forward... (ignore if you have already posted, or addressed lack of posting in PM/IM)

Please note that I will continue posting in approx. 8-12 hours from the time of this announcement, regardless of who posts.

This is a PbP game. It is already slow by default. I do not want to take 10 years to finish this game. The official posting rate is 5 times a week, assuming there are posts to respond to. In practice the rate is closer to every other day for many players; however, any slower than that starts to be unreasonable. Understand that I do not want to continually have to nag my players to post. If I find I am doing more nagging than playing, this game just cannot continue.

Some explanations for lack of posting will be considered reasonable. (RL business, lack of information, issues with my Storytelling, etc.) Or if you just want the game to move on (you're not inspired or your character wouldn't contribute) you could just as easily say that OOC. However, I cannot read your mind. I will assume a lack of interest, or dissatisfaction in my performance as a GM if you say nothing.

Looks like I won't be at inlaws after all, but I do still have weekend plans. So it's more likely then that I'll be scarce starting Saturday, and on through Monday night.

(That's August 15th through 17th, roughly!)

I should be able to move Earthcalm onward when I wake, but that will probably be my last post for a couple days. Gah sorry couldn't find the time to do it, unless I can squeeze in a bit more online time tonight.

If not, all threads will move again when I am back and able to sit and post late on Monday night. (Unless there's enough people questioning what to do next that they needed to wait for me to answer questions first!)

Seeya then!
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:39, Sat 15 Aug 2009.

Hello everyone,

Just a quick heads up to say that due to unforeseen circumstances, Gatekeeper will be back Wednesday (the 19th).

Thank you for your time and understanding!

I may be able to post before I head to bed tonight (though that may still be Wednesday, just *really early* Wed.)

Few notes though:

Inner Temple - I doubt you will be able to bypass all the monks with a secret way up. Maybe with an extremely good Int+Lore roll, you'll find possible less-protected routes! But from there, there will still be difficulties/opposition. The questions are more about who, how much, and how combat-oriented.

Part of this is meta: I would like Earthcalm and Perian's threads to resolve before you actually reach the Gatekeeper. The rest is because even if the monks may be remiss about particular details the Gatekeeper of Earth is not. It would be aware of obscure breaches and how to deal with 'em

On the other hand I will likely allow you to get a couple more hours' rest -- Third is right that the monks aren't going to move hastily whether there's screaming demons or not. Anyway you'll see the results of that when I post later. :)

Earthcalm - I need more people to post in Earthcalm before Wed. please? :/ Xurizu, you may be waiting for Kilani. I understand and will post something short on her behalf right now.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:02, Tue 18 Aug 2009.

There may be some delay with my new posts all around -- though, it seems to me everyone is generally slower. I apologize if it is due to any fault of my STing or writing ability.

Now for a longwinded ramble, these are thoughts that came up after a discussion I had with someone, but not necessarily related to anyone directly. It's just something I feel I have to say.

Not everyone is keen on how gritty I make this game or how I handle the mechanics. Coils is probably the least 'Exalted-y' Exalted game I run. I am harsh on the rules because I feel I need that to back up the scenario of 'Celestials enslaved by Dragon-blooded with advanced/experimental technology, who have prepared for decades if not centuries to specifically fight/subdue Anathema'. Running this scenario with Celestials has been a gamble for me due to the fact Exalted caters toward players who want to do big, epic story shaking things. In Coils the situation is reversed. You're supposed to be at the disadvantage. You WILL be Epic, but the buildup is purposefully slow, even stunted, until you've built enough of a base in the Coils that you can conceivably abstract most of the bad, and take on only the leaders and powerful folk left to defy you (hopefully with some challenge still remaining to it after you're all Ess 4 with 200+ exp). I want that Epic to feel like you worked your arse toward it.

I do my very best to make the rules support those disadvantages--so I am not put down as 'ST who makes life miserable for players on a whim'. That is probably the main reason why I am so rules-conscious in this game. Especially at a point where I truly *believe* the opposition ought to be at an advantage, not because I am sadistic or hate players to triumph, but because the setting and scenario I have created lends toward that.

Note for example that Immy* when she sang and spoke to the workers, did not need more than a post or two to get them fully on her side. They wanted to be led by a Celestial in the first place. Now take the elite soldiers of Burning Feather, who are part of a Force regularly trained to resist and subdue Anathema, at least long enough for the Immaculates to do it properly (because honestly, DB charms rarely cut it all alone unless you've got a huge group of 'em and THEN I have to break out the Mass Combat, wince). They're going to resist as long as they can with all the Willpower they've got, as long as their chain of command is unbroken. They've got Intimacies toward their own group and cause, their commanders likely even have Motivations against Anathema.

Jedevra trying to survive long enough to at least complete the Shock Matrix charge, is also something that came out of "if she could, she would." I had her spend all the energy she had. In the end she will probably die to Xurizu's spell. But she didn't think "you know, I think I'll just die rather than use all my essence, charms, virtues and WP" when faced with a superior opponent she wasn't prepared for.

I never just make strict rulings because I feel like it. I have a reason, I judge based on the story I am trying to tell which the players have signed up for. I run other games, I am capable of a very casual and lenient mode of storytelling. But that is not Five Coils. I am sorry for now, before and any time after in which my ST style for Coils is found stifling, frustrating or just plain unfair. The only thing I can say is, bring it up. Write a PM (this is the most reliable way to reach me about RPoL things as I have said in the past). I will try my best to work with you, but it is completely and totally possible that the game may not be a good fit for you. I understand that and am willing to let anyone go who feels that way.

Yes, I do make mistakes of judgment at times, or of omission (I can think of one in particular in Earthcalm that has bugged me for a little while and will likely retroactively alter). I am not infallible, but I cannot read minds either. I admit I take criticism hard due to my various personal issues (this is not anyone's fault). But I also take criticism seriously. I would rather know than not know.

* used only as an example! Sorry Immy!

Very likely will be more delays with my posting. I am not in the best of shape for writing. I always feel bad about taking breaks, even small ones, due to the fact I try to normally keep at least an every-other-day posting rate (and more if I can manage). If I cannot keep up it's hard to get others to do the same.

However, I cannot force what does not come, I simply do not have the energy or inspiration to deal with this game at the moment.

For now this will last a day, possibly two. The possibility of a longer hiatus for Five Coils exists, but I am still in the stages of considering this, how long said hiatus will last, and how much further I will advance before temporarily freezing the threads.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:30, Tue 01 Sept 2009.

I think the current impromptu hiatus may continue through this week. After that I'll see how I feel about continuing, and who is still interested in doing so with me.

Of course if there is too much attrition I am not so sure if I can keep the game going. But I'm reasonably sure there'll be enough of us to continue when it's time. *crosses fingers anyway!*

To explain a bit, my interest is starting to waver when it comes to running a game that seems to cause a select few people more grief than fun. Having to deal with the OOC repercussions the few times I had to was comparatively quite draining, and also lessens my fun. It takes me time and effort to keep a game of this scope and size going; it's the fun that kept me going, and the desire to tell a story I thought people might enjoy. These later two things are starting to be in question, so this requires some thought and reflection on my part to confirm for myself what needs to be done, whether it's to change some of my methods or to retire the game altogether.

Believe me I have had moments where I wanted to knee-jerk just give up; but I have been advised not to be too hasty, and I *want* not to undervalue the efforts that my players have put into the game. Therefore, I will take my time -- hopefully for the betterment of this game.

As always I am grateful for all of you who have given kind words, and are willing to wait this out. Also note that (should we be continuing, and yes I am still leaning towards that) there's a pretty big xp bonus in store for Earthcalm for all you've played through, and something for the Inner Temple and Perian for having to wait all this time.

Just checking in. I am tentatively putting the continue date for this game on Sept 13. I will be posting at an "every other day, minimum" rate from then on.

In a few more days I'll either confirm that date, or give a new one, should I need a bit more time to get in the mood. I do regret pausing in the middle of scenes rather than bringing them to a conclusion first, but I really, really needed to step back from running for a while and think about what I'm doing here.

At some point I'll also open up a roll call for those who are sure they can continue, and are comfortable with the way I run things in this game. I'll be weeding out those who do not answer (or answer negatively, unless it's for a RL reason) by the time I'm ready to start again, so keep attentive if you're really wanting to stay in.

Thanks all for answering the roll call, please expect a post in each thread somewhere around 13th-15th of September. Just giving a wide berth here since I may not do every post on the same day, rather try to stagger the posting so I don't have too much at once!

As stated above each thread should get an update from me every other day unless for some reason I am delayed (I will inform of this). I expect those who answered to be able to keep up with the pace, if not I likely won't wait for you, and will just assume you don't act / speak.

Ok, all posted (finally sheesh, some of those I was working on since Sunday). The Inner Temple in particular took a lot of 'winging it' and I'll be trying to figure out how to make the process less awkward later. x.@ Other stuff just was hard to write from being away from posting for a while.

As for players lost: 23 and Talia, one didn't like how I run things (fair enough) and the other just had a hard time fitting in :(

We're down to 12 now. Kinda 11 and a half really, since Eternal is consistently slow (has a good RL reason for it) but really wants to stay - as it stands he may end up being kinda relegated to things that don't require quick posting.

I will endeavor to put no more than two days between posting from now on so next posts should be Thurs, and so on. Experience for Earthcalm is coming soon.

I just got word that Dena's player is having a RL emergency so will not be posting regularly for an indefinite period. I'll see about figuring out how to give Dashu something to do and probably just abstract the big battle with the bugs, I figure!

Expect next series of posts from me on Sunday. I may be able to get to it earlier and will certainly try at it, but we'll have to see!

Unfortunately had stuff crop up outside rpol that needed attention, then some big (as in, take hours to write!) posts that needed writing, so I'm now facing a slight rpol backlog. :)

Update! Finally edited my post in Inner Temple to be more in line with Dena's plans. I've got an hour or two of time possibly, will see about updating what I can in other threads - but Inner Temple doesn't have enough for me to work with yet.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:17, Sat 19 Sept 2009.

Status per thread
- Earthcalm: posting here is easiest right now as we're in a battle aftermath, if I keep up here faster that's why :)
- Inner Temple: will update here probably Thurs Sept 24. Admittedly hard to get inspired for this as it seems to be very uninspiring for everyone else involved, may try to find a way to speed things up. If your thread stalls long enough, you guys will just end up merging with others when Earthcalm people and Perian get things together enough to send you backup.
- Perian: I hope to write for you tonight (Wed Sept 23) should time and inspiration be aligned.

Note I've only gotten ONE person interested in the 'learn one Charm or Combo with xp and no training time' offer in the XP Reward post. Is there really no one else who will take the offer? I'll give till the end of the month for people to use it, after that will assume no one else wants it.

I've been working on calculating the Mass Combat stats for Danae's group, so excuse the delay. If I don't finish tonight then tomorrow I will post for them.

Calculations done but inspiration is not ;.; so likely tomorrow still.

Annnd now I am stuck calculating stats for the enemies. I'm starting to get a hefty amount of writer's block for this game, honestly. :( I feel that others are getting the same way. So, I am reducing post rate to every 2-3 days.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:12, Mon 28 Sept 2009.

Argh, sorry. I will try to post again by Tuesday night at the latest. I hope sooner than that.

Looks like it may be closer to Wednesday, unless I can get in the update before I sleep! Look at the Rules for Play for my modified Mass Combat Rules I will soon be testing in this game.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:08, Wed 30 Sept 2009.

Sadly, you may all get more time to rest, consider your next posts, etc, as I'm not sure I can even post until Sunday, now. I will certainly try...

(Will definitely be gone Saturday in any case!)

Whew, managed to get some last posts in this morning.

Am waiting for Danae (leading the warparty!) and Dashu (who needs to report to Dena so they can make a more decisive plan) in Inner Temple.

I will be gone rest of the day and possibly part of Sunday, as mentioned above, so earliest I can post again is Sunday night / Monday morning.

In case you're wondering, I'm not necessarily waiting for someone before posting again - just have been busy lately.

Tonight I should be updating most threads though.

Weekend may be slow for me! Though it seems to be the same for others, too.

I'll at least try and get Perian moving and the Inner Temple group ahead a turn by Sunday though!

Oohh, sorry, I was unable to post last night. I have to sincerely apologize for my slow posting in this game lately, but besides impaired inspiration, I've also been super busy with a major event in my Academy game that's required me to play an unprecedented amount of NPCs simultaneously!

I still VERY much intend to keep Coils going, it'll just be slower for a bit longer. I do think we'll eventually speed up, with a few plot shortcuts, once my circumstances are better. As long as there's enough people still sticking around, Coils will still be here.

Now for the very rare ad for Academy, as I've recently opened up recruitment for it...

link to another game

Academy of Celestial Learning is a Dreams of the First Age game where you're all Celestial students, a time period where magitech is mind-bogglingly common, the Second Solar Deliberative is still in its height, and one can easily obtain instruction from Celestials that have lived for centuries, if not millennia. Right now we're not in regular class time, but in the midst of a city-wide event: the Festival of Journeys, which of course celebrates Mercury, but Vanileth has been invited as a guest of honor.

Anyway, I envision I should be able to post for this game either tonight or tomorrow, but I will do my best for tonight :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:01, Mon 12 Oct 2009.

*sigh* I had SO much to write for the Academy event that I just had no time to devote here. :/ (I should reiterate that the inordinate time I spend with the Academy is TEMPORARY, the event sucking up my inspiration will be done by next week)

I have most of what I need to update the other threads besides Perian's, I wrote out stats and all that. Just lacking in time.

So, assuming I don't get a burst of energy right at this moment, next posts should happen sometime in the next 24 hours.

Ugh, had to do another big barrage of Academy posts for the Festival (I've got just a couple more days to really push things), so I am still not done with the South Sector 5 ones. :( :( It may have to come tomorrow! Let's say Monday sometime... or early Tuesday as the case may be.

And thank you all for your patience, as usual. I know it's discouraging from my perspective to be on such a slow pace, even temporarily.

Broken Eternal will be NPCed by me until further notice (if you didn't notice already)
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:19, Tue 20 Oct 2009.

Plans for the near future. (Note we're still at a slower rate of about 1 post ever 5 days but as my Academy posting tapers off and my inspiration improves this ought to get faster.)

Free will enter Sector 5 with Perian and all the people he recruited.

Sector 5 group will thereafter arrange to invade Inner Temple from Floor B23.

I'd like to see the combat in Inner Temple reach some sort of conclusion (I want to start paying a lot more attention there), but once Sector 5 is ready to move, I may have to do some fast-forwarding if things have dragged too long.

The intent is that the various forces from B23 along with the Rubies will combine to keep the Immaculates at bay while the PCs make the climb up to the Gatekeeper of Earth.

Once this is established, PCs will split into two or three groups.

One group will be fighting whatever guardians the Gatekeeper may have. (Physical)
Another will be the group that will negotiate with the Gatekeeper. (Social)
And a possible third group to deal with non-combat security measures. (Mental)

Note, Physical group will likely NOT be mass combat but rather vs a small but highly trained group.

Anyway, that's the tentative plan so as things come together I will probably ask OOC how people want to split (this is because arranging that IC with 10+ people will be a pain in the arse).

Posts shall continue by start of November, at the VERY latest the 4th. I hope earlier than that.

By then the Academy should *FINALLY* settle down enough for me to have time to even look over here. :( The big event I mentioned took a couple weeks longer than I would've liked. But, pbp is always hard to time and schedule to perfection.

Because of how extremely slow the Inner Temple is getting I may just plain fast forward the conflict earlier than I thought I would. It just doesn't seem to be inspiring any of us. But not right away, I'd like to at least see Danae get another post in and do another round of combat maybe.

South Sector 5 will also fast forward slightly for Perian's arrival. Also Free (gotta get myself in that bombastic FREE!! mood)

Just a message to show I haven't forgotten the game yet but unfortunately my updates will be delayed.

In the case that I don't make it by Fri/Sat then I'll cease posting 'really, I'm going to update this time!' I'll just post when I can, and PM folks to see who's still around, when I do. :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:30, Fri 13 Nov 2009.

Now that I've returned to giving attention to Five Coils, I decided to write a lengthy "story so far" summary to bring everyone up to speed - both those of you lost in the plot, and those who need a refresher after our hiatus.

You will find that summary, as well as notes on how I plan to move the story forward from there, in the General OOC 2 thread.

link to a message in this game (msg #16)

I'm giving until nighttime (GMT-5) on Tues Nov 17 for everyone who needs it to read what's written there. Then I will start writing the rest of our fast forward toward the Gatekeeper of Earth. I wanted to post that right now, in fact, but after some thought -- and a PM from one of the players that got me thinking -- I decided I should post the summary first.

I hope it helps!

Ok, we're ready to roll--except, I have less time than I thought tonight. So there may be a delay of a few hours (I was out for a good part of the day running errands). Thanks for all your efforts to participate!

Current groups for Gatekeeper of Earth scenario.

Assault Group       Negotiation Group       Backup Group
-------------       -----------------       ------------
Immy                Perian                  Dashu
Dena                Higura                  Xurizu
Eternal             Third                   Kilani
Danae               Nanaret
                    Veldygar

I would like to see everyone decided by Monday, if at all possible. You may change groups during the course of the game if that becomes necessary, so don't feel 'stuck' with your choice.

Concerning experience, let's make Tuesday the absolute last day I'll be accepting experience expenditures free of training time. Once Tuesday the 24th passes by, you can only spend experience with training time or stunt learning again.

As far I know, Dashu is the only one who hasn't bothered with spending experience, free of training time. That offer is, unfortunately, now closed. :)

This post will be bumped as decisions are made / experience spent.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:10, Tue 24 Nov 2009.

One more thing, make sure you're updating your character sheets manually, as well, once I've approved of your XP expenditures. Thanks.

My post today for Central Column may be delayed slightly. But no later than tomorrow.

I also see that Control Floor is ready for an update. Also will come later after I've gotten some sleep!

Central Column is updated now (sorry for the delay, but infodumps always take more thought from me...) and I just need to finalize some things regarding the encounter up in Control Floor, so that update should occur... within a few hours, I hope.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:09, Tue 24 Nov 2009.

Apologies for the delay with the assault group. I actually sat down and did some statting for the Immaculate Masters.

Also, I decided that the Dragon-Blooded Errata changes weren't as bad as I originally thought. I will be testing them with future encounters.

Since it is Thanksgiving holiday time for some, I am not going to expect prompt posting till, say, Monday-ish. However if people aren't busy and keep posting that is totally cool with me too. I will do my best to keep up.

Posts from me will still be on the slow side over the weekend, I do have a lot to move forward here but I'm lacking the time and energy sadly :( I hope to rectify that by tomorrow or Monday.

Given that it took me the entirety of the evening/night (thus disrupting my posting speed in other games!) to make the updates for the three active threads, I've changed my posting rate to one post per thread every other day. Note that this is a *minimum*, so if I manage to get inspired and post sooner than that, I will. :) Conversely if I get too busy it may take me a bit longer, but as you know I usually announce that when I know it will be the case.

As I've written in some other games of mine I totally had a bad day today, got sleep deprived and slept weird hours (try 2-8 pm! ack!) so that may affect our update schedule here a bit since I'll need tomorrow to right my sleeping patterns.

Kinda hate to say this so soon after saying 'every other day updates', but believe me you don't want me to post when my brain is all addled, heheh.

Updating today, but later tonight. Sorry for delay!

...and now that I made the huge combat post I have to be away for about an hour longer. Then, more posting! I don't sleep for a few hours yet. :P
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:14, Thu 03 Dec 2009.

Slowness continues for a bit. A lot of us are December-slow! That's ok. I am too.

Danae will get a response within a few hours.

The rest... I'm mostly waiting on others. :)

And more slowdown, sorry. I screwed myself over by oversleeping yesterday, I'm behind *everywhere* now. I hope to fix this by Monday so we can have a more regular posting rate (I would still like to stick to every other day posting, once I'm back on track. But some people may have trouble with this during December. Please let me know!)

Ok guys--I really hate to be disappointing, but I think that this week is going to continue being slow for me.

I do think once I get caught up with posts AND sleep this will be easier. Right now, a few things came up that keep me from being focused here. Soo... try to bear with me, I will get to you soon. (It could be as soon as tomorrow or as late as this weekend. :) )

Happy holidays everyone :)

I feel pretty bad dropping the ball yet again with this game but I kind of lost my way with things here for various reasons, some of them game related, most of them not. Got busy in RL, stress factors, etc.

Because of this we're still in the middle of a big part of the game and I don't feel it's appropriate yet to award a Christmas bonus. So let's just say I will postpone any extra bonuses till after the Gatekeeper stuff is settled. :)

I do plan to start posting here again in January. To ensure things go smoothly I will set mid January as my date to continue. So by January 18, 2009 I will once again send a PM that we're continuing, to see who's ready and willing.

Thanks and I hope to hear from you then.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:51, Thu 14 Jan 2010.

Just a quick note.

I'm away from Jan 2 through 4.

I still plan on trying to jumpstart this again in mid-January.

Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year's!

Back, but some unexpected RL stuff put my updating schedule into shambles, so... instead of Friday the 15th let's put the 18th as our "Let's see if we can return to posting in Coils?" day.

Just a heads up for everyone.

I am in a bad state lately, due to circumstances in life beyond my control. Stress keeps me awake more often than not. That gives me very little energy for creative endeavors due to the fact I am in a constant state of exhaustion.

Suffice it to say I need some time to really get back on my feet.

I will make another announcement by February about when I will start posting again. Please bear with me during this difficult time, and if you have any questions about the future of the game, your place in it, etc. just send a PM my way or post your concerns in the OOC thread.

If you lose interest enough to leave the game I hope you will at least tell me first, though. Thanks very much.

We're not dead. Just impaired... ;)

Due to being involved in a project that is taking up almost ALL my writing capabilities, I'm going to try for a more realistic date.

So let's go with one month later at March 15.

At this point, I don't even care if we lose almost everyone. I'll just figure out some way to explain it if we only have like, 2-3 players or whatnot. :) All I'm interested in is continuing the story and setting I had created here.

If you're still there by mid March, and wanting to see more of the Coils, I'll write you then!

My life is still incredibly busy right now. :( I pretty much just got caught up in a whirlwind of work after volunteering for something and that work has become so important to me that I've had to shift rpol lower in my priorities for now.

However, I thought I might as well say that my current plans for this game may not roll in for a couple months still.

First of all, I intend to get a lot of use out of the Alchemicals book when I return to this game.

It's possible that since we have yet another gap in play I will skip things forward to Fire District and narrate the rest--but I may change my mind about that (mostly, I was hoping to still play out the conversation with Gatekeeper of Earth, which got entirely neglected by me, but it may or may not be feasible at this point.)

Also, I already have one person who wants to switch their character to a Starmetal Alchie--basically, same character, just different type (can you guess who? Heheh.) I will therefore be allowing people to either switch characters entirely, or possibly rethink their current character. However! I don't see myself allowing more than two Alchemicals, and I'm still up in the air about using Infernals in this particular game. If you have a way to justify it feel free to but do it in PM please.

If you're up for keeping your current character though, that's all well and good. :) You've got plenty of time to think about it in any case. Just let me know in PM your thoughts.

Other character news: Sadly I am going to drop a couple people from this game, and another one of them is going to become a GMPC. Those of you affected will be notified in PM. The people who I am dropping are folks I feel don't really mesh very well with my Storytelling style in this game. Doing this is also partly out of my desire to streamline the game a bit--fewer players means more updates from me.

Making my rounds here through my sadly neglected games. Boo at life!!

I am looking at May as a time to start drumming up activity here... mostly to tie up loose ends, to help explain how we are going to proceed, and give people a chance to switch characters if they would like.

The true 'continuation' will come up at the start of Summer. (mid June)

Again I'll be doing this no matter if we have 3 players or 10, so assuming you've not been tapped to leave, or already told me you're leaving, keeping interest in the continued lull of posting is up to you. :)

Just a nudge here.

We're still on the timetable for a reboot/continuation by June. Possibly even as early as mid-late May. By then, you'll hopefully have a stronger picture of my plans for the game, given various updates and background posts I'll be making over the next couple months.

Hope to see at least some of you back by the time we get things going again. :)

I've been through a great deal of stress these past few months, then put through the emotional wringer due to an uncomfortable work situation. It's not been fun. I wasted a lot of time and energy on something that was completely not worth it. So I'm looking forward to returning to writing and GMing as my free time opens up again.

Hi :) Summer's here and I will have some time to start thinking how to pick up this game again. I wouldn't expect anything significant till July, just know I am thinking of it.

BTW, I've started an IRC channel... If you would like server/channel info, PM me. :) The channel isn't currently rpol-centric, it's mostly just a friendly chatter sort of place with friends of mine who game (video games or RP or both). I may end up opening one specifically for my rpol games, though, that depends on how much interest I get.

Well, July was kind of a failure for getting things started here...

Honestly, this entire year has been a failure in terms of my rpol involvment, so far :(

Inspiration is one of those fickle things that just don't come when called. My life has gotten difficult and complicated this year, too, and lately I've had a chronic headache that may be a sinus infection or migraine or who knows what, that's really crippling my online time. I still don't have a doctor... so it's really hard to know how to treat it. :/

Part of what's sticking me with the Five Coils restart, besides the above, is how I want to proceed from here, i.e. should I just narrate end of Earth District, or continue with some PC involvement, or move on straight to Fire District beginning?

The other problem is the Exalted burnout that's reared its ugly head in the past months. I've been finding Ex. combat too clunky for my style, and dealing with rules lawyers and other unpleasant issues over the years has compounded that.

I will continue to post reports on my status and that of this game, but I understand if people lose faith. Given all the problems I'm facing right now, it might take me longer to recharge fully as a GM than folks have patience to wait. But that's fine; I accept that as part of the come-and-go nature of forum gaming.

Hopefully you'll all hear from me soon, though.

September update... well, life has taken another pretty big dump on me with financial problems at the start of my first university semester.

This entire year continues to be so difficult in terms of me keeping up with any sort of roleplaying. :/ These circumstances are completely beyond my control.

I will post again by the beginning of October. Assuming things finally calm down into some sort of regularity in my life I should have something to offer you people here.

I just really miss GMing. :(

Hi guys. :)

Having analyzed my schedule up till now...

I think it'll be more accurate to say this game will have to go on hiatus a while longer. The absolute limit will be until next year.

I don't want to promise more than I can give, and I have some pretty hard hitting classes so I'm thinking it's prudent I limit myself to two games (the ones I'm running right now are Academy of Celestial Learning and Outcastes on the Open Sea... if those sound interesting to you, feel free to look 'em up).

But, if there's anyone interested by the time I've unstuck things and gotten going again, by all means we will keep going. ;) I do know we'll keep at least a couple, though. Thanks for your loyalty!

I will be time skipping us all the way to Fire District by then. I had some experience just recently doing a major time skip for another game of mine, and it worked out okay. So I have confidence this will work out, even if we have all new players.

Hello to all who still have this game on their lists, if anyone.

My life has once again taken a weird and complicated turn. I've explained it in more detail in my more active games, but basically... immigration difficulties led me to be served with an exclusion order, forced to leave my husband's country for a year. We are physically separated by 3000 miles now as I had to return to my parents' residence while I figure out a new plan.

I'm in the process right now of applying to United States universities, in the hopes I can complete my degree state-side while the immigration stuff works itself out.

Once all the apps are done, I'll have a good amount of time on my hands and very little money, so guess what I can do for free? Roleplay online! :D So that said, 2011 may well be the year for a Five Coils revival! I hadn't specifically planned for it to take me 2 years to find the time, but that's how life goes.

At this point I am sure we will start immediately in Fire District, hopefully with some old faces and some new ones too. More info coming soon.

Short post just to keep the game from deleting.

Still holding hope I can do something with it, even if with an entirely new group of folks. :) I have just been dealing with immigration and other stressors that seriously eat up my time.

But I still am fond of the concept of Coils! So will not let it die... I will just need to keep it up in RL until I have a stable enough life to enjoy my free time again.

A brief update :)

I am now both a full time student and a part time intern.

Immigration is progressing... After over 6 months of processing, waiting, paperwork and more paperwork, I finally completed and sent the affidavit of support for my husband. Once that is processed all we really need is for him to get a medical exam and an interview date, and then hopefully he can cross the border! With luck, before the end of this year.

As far as the future of Coils I have many ideas and the more I think about it, the more I am wondering whether I even want to deal with Exalted rules for this concept. I'm still conceptualizing though, in the little free time that I have!

Anyway that is just a small post to keep whomever still has this game on their lists (if anyone) updated on my situation.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:36, Sun 18 Sept 2011.

Hi, just another update... Being eaten alive by assignments, papers etc. in the last month of my semester!

I think I will keep this an Exalted game, and just learn from the mistakes from the past. Again, it will be a little while before a reboot occurs due to my many and heavy obligations lately. But, it's all for my financial independence and reuniting with my husband! things can only get better from there.

Just a placeholder...

I believe that this particular iteration of the game will be deleted soon, though, as my new concepts for it are rather quite different, I think.

Of course, if old players wish to retain their characters I would be happy to allow it, but my time is still very limited at least till I graduate in the summer. :(

Another bump... Not ready to let go of this yet.

Sorry again friends... I've been struggling with the imminent unemployment and a lot is going on right now. I just recently finished my resume, and need to start submitting it... Writing cover letters... Reviewing for potential interviews etc. It's not an easy time for me, and happened in the middle of the busy holidays.

I DO still want to get back to this game and others, but sadly, I need to keep my priorities straight. :( However, my last day of work is January 7 and I suspect I will have a lot more free time, at least for a while. If you're willing to be patient (yes, I know... again...) I will definitely get back to you.

On more festive news, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

The concept and steps toward a Five Coils redux.

1. Find out who is about and willing to play.

2. Allow people to rework their character sheets for Exalted 2.5. You may have a one time chance to make more radical changes, subject to ST approval. If you can give a compelling reason that doesn't break the story so far, I'll probably be totally cool with it.

3. Everyone will start in the Fire District after an exposition fast-forward. I will also put together a list of important NPCs encountered so far.

4. Those who want to also write exposition for what their character did in the gap can do so. Extra xp awarded for writing, as is our old tradition.

5. Fire District will have a map with which people can plan their escape from the Coils. It won't be as exact as a D&D map, but since the group has access to much better intelligence (via the Freerunners, Allyster and others) you won't be stabbing in the dark and hoping you hit something interesting, or waiting for something interesting to happen.

6. The nature of the game still makes it rather "sandboxy" but the ultimate goal is still escaping. Along the way I'll come up with clear obstacles to overcome, and goodies to capture. The Fire District is where the Peacekeepers and the main military force of the Coils are trained and armed. Expect this to mean fighting groups of well-armed DBs and collared Celestials; access to artifact forges, armor and weapons; new revelations about the DBs' military operations and political machinations.

Please note I am interested in people taking what path most interests them. If you aren't going to keep up with the Freerunners / liberating the Coils, don't. If there's something you really, really want to do in the game that you want to remind me of, let me know. As long as you are generally working toward an escape, I'm willing to run whatever you want to try (within reason). This is why I'll be keeping the game smaller, ideally around 3-5 players.

Drawing a map and preparing game content is going to be my first step. The rest of you need to start with steps 1 and 2 above :)

It may still be some weeks before we start in earnest but, so far, I intend to make it happen.

Bumpity bump. Keepin' the dream alive!

Ditto.

Hoping that this year will be the year!

http://pyromancers.com/dungeon-painter-online/

I have been looking into online map makers and am going to test it out with a Pathfinder game that I am setting up right now. Whatever I use will end up used here as well for the Fire District and up.

I'm back from a long hiatus! It's been a while since I've run any Exalted, much less played any forum RP (I've been getting a lot of face to face RP, which is an entirely different thing).

So, in order to give me a RPoL "warm up", so to speak, I've created this little game called Final Fantasy: New Horizon.

link to another game

It uses the Final Fantasy d6 rules by Dust, free to download online, and some custom setting stuff from yours truly.

I hope to see you there. Once I've got the creative juices flowing, I will see about reviving some of my Exalted RPoL games, or even starting new ones!

It's really been over 5 years since this game got anywhere. Wow.

I've been experimenting with some map generators and I may finally have something I can use for generating maps in this game. Tech has finally caught up to my ideas, I guess.

As before, the idea is to fast forward to Fire District and restart the game from there. I will recruit new players.

I've had some success running other games lately (including one that is a dungeon crawler / escape game, kinda like this one but more D&D-ish) so hey. It could still happen.

So far we have Danae about ready with her sheet, woo!

I'm sure Broken Eternal's player would love another chance at this game. I have a tentative yes from Yaishin Higura, while Nanaret is relegated to NPC status.

I may also recruit a couple new, but after the pain I went through recruiting people willy-nilly, I'm going to make the RTJ process a fair bit more stringent. This game has a quality of storytelling and player creativity I'd like to keep up in our 'second coming'.

Anyway, once we have at least 4-5 ready to go and I've refreshed my Exalted knowledge, we'll have at it.

Everyone who hasn't answered my PM yet was relegated to NPC status.

5+ years IS a long time. But we have 6 who have replied.

Danae Adela - Dawn Caste Solar (and already completed sheet, at that. Woo!)
Kares Perian - Zenith Caste Solar
Peleps Dashu - Night Caste Solar

Tervila Dena - Full Moon Lunar
Ledaal Xurizu - No Moon Lunar

Broken Eternal - Dusk Caste Abyssal

I'll wait for a few more to be done with sheets before I (re)start but I would like to mid to late next week if possible.

A couple of you seemed kinda 'maybe' ish so if I decide I need more people, I'll be recruiting a couple more after all. Specifically for the Twilight and Eclipse caste positions but if I get good concepts for other Exalt types I might go with those.

Just a note to let you all know our status here.

I have 1 updated sheet from Danae, thanks!

Kares is being worked on.

Waiting on 4 more.

I'll start again when at least 3 are ready to play!
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:35, Thu 26 Mar 2015.

Oh hey! This is still here, huh.

I never forget ANY of my game ideas, and this is one of my favorites.

Just happy to see the posts are still here in case I decide I want to do something with 'em some day. And to look back at the story we wove together all those years ago. :)