Sorry to see you disappointed, Arui. After reading your posts I was really looking forward to interact with your character, but I also respect your decision. I know I'm new, but would be happy to help too if it meant keeping you around, but otherwise see you around the boards :)

Thank you for the game, everyone.

I wish you a good game

I'll have a post tonight then.

Took vaccine round 2 on Tuesday, and it laid me out pretty hard. Fever broke Wednesday night, but I was 2 days behind on work at that point and spent the rest of the week playing catchup.

Friday, so time to play!

Dig it, and congrats!

I'm still excited for round one.  One day...XD

Sorry to see you go, Arui, but I understand.  It's certainly not been aided by my own... disengagement as of late.  I -know- it all hinges on me being active and involved.  I am going to take that as a request to be removed.

I don't intend to let this setting die.  But the setting isn't tied to the rpol platform.  These games--the ones I've got going right now--were my last gasp with rpol, I think.  I appear to have been moving away from this platform for years.

So, really, it's Cara and Idle who are active at the moment.   I can rejigger things a bit to focus on you two.  I'll keep it going if you two are still interested in moving forward.

If you decide that you'd rather not... well, okay.  I get it.  I am also open to discussing other ways to keep the setting/story active.  Other platforms?  Perhaps a collaborative fiction approach?  (I mean, you write like that already)...

I'm still interested in moving forward.

My only issue is that, for this type of game, less people can mean significantly more work pressing the story forward. I'd personally like to keep this setting pretty gamefied (if that makes more snse), as I join these games more for the creative release as opposed to the creative work. I'm up to the challenge though.

Though it is funny that you mentioned moving to a new platform: I recently decided that once all the games I had on here ended, I would be done with Rpol. I've had a good run in the last decade, but it's about that time XD

Because you're already looking to move away from this platform, is that why you haven't put out an advert for more players?

Moving forward! Love this character, love this game, and Idle and I seem to be keeping each other entertained. Given how busy I am with grad school, I'm going to be play by post for the foreseeable future. I just don't have any room to add a new regularly scheduled event to my life.

What other sorts of platforms are you looking at? I know you switched to a Discord game recently. I've been looking at Talespire for my Discord group, and Virtual Table Tops in general.

Continuing on here will keep it game-like.

As to advertisements... the well-developed a nuanced world, like this, is that it actually becomes a hurdle for on-boarding new folks.  They fear doing something wrong or ot getting it.  Or, perhaps they simply feel that slogging through hundreds of posts (like you did) is simply too much effort for something they don't know that they're going to commit to.  Then we get folks who join up, then ghost after we get into some of the more detailed character development.  I'm just tired.

And I know this isn't helped along by my current mental state these days.  I'm deep in a depressive episode.  It's not a life-ending angst type.  It's simply a ennui-ridden "why-bother?" type.

So... I'm just now caught up.  I can scale this back and make this a lot more
episodic, a lot lighter on content and angle it more like a dice-game again.

And, since I"m caught up, I'll push us forward shortly.

Is there anything you'd like ot do or get done before we leave Stoltgard?

In reply to Control (msg # 538):

I understand, cool cat. We all know it can take considerable resources to output creativity, and I understand what you mean when it comes to the content. I'm actually working on a novel write now, so I'm always doing heavy reading if not with more coursework. In all honesty , to attract other folks, I imagine a summary of current events, a glossary of terms, and an emphasis on story-driven gameplay might help herd newbies in. If you wanted help with that I'd be happy to help (but of course I wouldn't discount Cara's willingness to help too. I just never try to speak for anybody but myself :))

Of course, I want to reiterate that you can only follow what you feel you'd like ot do. I'm all about this style of play, as I feel it really brings together free-form within a system, and an opportunity to world build and story build freely. You do you.

I'm also sorry that you're in such a deep depressive episode. I do have a good deal of experience with that, and send positivity your way.

I'll try to slap a post up sometime before the weekend, but don't think there's much else Idle-No-More would need done in Stoltgard :)

I'm sorry to hear that Jait, please let me know if there is anything we can do.

I'll have a post tonight, but Cara is done in Stoltgard, so I'll just indulge in a little world building and not worry about advancing the plot.

Okay.  I'm about to go into a couple of zoom meetings throughout the day.  So, probably won't update til later.

What I'm looking for at the moment is any basic plot contrivance to create drama.  So, since Arui is no longer with us, I'm going to make her magically ill...

I've in mind that the the shifting snows of the receding winter season has revealed a lost tower of a sage from ancient times... and that as it is deeper in the mountains, it represents strategic value to Pennryn scouts.    Perhaps we'll have the medics at Pennryn note that there's a potential cure, but they're going to need to head to that tower...

I'll take any help I can get to make this tenuous idea stronger.   Really, I'm just looking for any ideas that would give the PCs a reason to go there, because that specific mission is easily understandeable and more easily pitch-able to others coming in.  I can advertise that, rather than the grand scope of the world.

I'm kinda feeling tapped-out these days on creative brainstorming.  And I'm feeling overwhelmed with the idea of trying to codify and clarify everything we've built so far.

No worries, happy to help brainstorm.

So I'm working on a post, and I'm going to have Cara retreat to one of the wagons to do a bit of blood magic. How about I have her encounter signs of some magical misdeeds that can tie into Arui's sudden illness.

Considering Mondain means "nightmares," let's give them some sort of wasting sickness that is transmitted by infectious nightmares?  Have you read the Killing Moon series by NK Jemison? I am absolutely in love with the idea of infectious dreams.

Post got a little long because I got invested in Control's surprise.  I'll let Idle go before I keep pushing.

Apologies for the absence, folks. Real life took a big bite. Given this is the second or third time this has happened, it may be best for all if I drop out :(

As per their requests, Arui & Nathan been removed.


On the upside, I've started a wiki to try to gather and organize the volume of stuff everyone has generated through this project.   Even if we end up deep-sixing this game, I want to preserve what's been created.

If you'd like access as a contributor, I can set it up.
Aroen Wiki

Will have something out later today.

Buried in grad school today, but I do like wikis.

No familiar with geoectomy, but I imagine I'll want to do lots of stuff with Khune. Also happy to brainstorm with Idle, now that we have a second Khundari.

Oh,  I am geoectomy.

If there's a reference to geoectomy out there, it's about me.

I haven't used dokuwiki in many years.

So, if you'd like to get access as a contributor, let me know.  send me a private message with a username and email and I'll set up the account. Once it's set up you can change password, etc.

I'm back from today's errands.  Working on update now...
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:49, Sun 28 Feb 2021.

Hey cool cats, I'm still around.

I had to build some wireframes for the last two weeks, and now my instructor's going over them with me about 30 mins from now. I just finished them about an hour ago XD

So sorry for the lapse. Don't mind me. I'll be back :)

Take your time.  it's all good.

we're in a slow-period...

I am --also slowly--working my way through fleshing out the wiki information at:
https://aroen.geoectomy.net

Cool cats, I thought I could.

My heart was in it and I was all about it. But between schoolwork, housework, and my own creative exploits, my heart can't handle the time it takes to go on.

I will unfortunately have to bow out. Thanks for the great spirit of the story, Cara. Thanks for inviting me to a beautiful, imaginative, fleshed out setting, Control. I really am sorry for any inconvenience that me dipping out causes. It's really been a treat, and a pleasure.

Best to the both of you :)

Okay. we're done.

Thanks for trying.

Cara, I'll be in touch discuss world-building possibilities.

But for now, the game is dead.

Sad, but understandable. Too many drop outs, just me from scene to scene to scene isn't enough to sustain a game.

Let me know before you shut it down in full, I'm going to pull a bunch from it in case I ever get a chance to play Cara either here or anywhere else.

Please do.  I'll let it sit in deleted games for some time.

But, I also plan on mining the threads for the wiki, so I can continue to develop the setting.

This game was the second attempt at playing in this setting, and we developed a metric crapload more than the previous attempt.  Each iteration provides all sorts of fantastic grist for the setting.

One day--probably a couple of months down the road, I might try again with another variation on this setting.   I'll touch base with both of you if that time comes, of course.