Seems to me like if we could move the two newbies out to one of the existing, empty threads, then we could turn the IC Chat back to it's time-free settings. The problem then seems to be that we wouldn't be in the same "room" as Eri (does Eri = Ericka ?) and we seem to need her for exposition?
This message was last edited by the player at 04:35, Tue 27 Sept 2022.

In reply to Sysling (msg # 928):

I second allowing the main IC chat to be timeless again, I think a place where people can just go back and forth in character without a need to worry about timing or turns quite as much would be nice for developing character interactions.

Adding new players is also probably not advisable (though I am freshly added so maybe I'm not in a place to say)
This message was last edited by the player at 04:25, Tue 27 Sept 2022.

Well honestly the character chat was going so fast even I was having trouble keeping up with it. I'm super happy that we have some post limits now as it was getting really chaotic before.

Oh, and as for adding more players, at the very least, I discourage you from thinking about that too much right now with the 55hr week you have coming up. :)

There are too many players already.

As someone who's been on RPOL since 2003... even on my best days, I think the maximum number of people I've ever been able to juggle as a DM was five or six. I've seen some DMs handle way more, but I don't know how they managed it.

You guys have to know that our GM is insatiable when it comes to wanting to try, implement, and sustain new and exciting ideas. He's great at that and formatting, etc.

But this means he potentially opens himself to burnout if he's not careful so I need everyone to help me reign him in a bit when he's becoming overly ambitious. :)

I like the timeless free to talk nature of the IC Hearth thread.

But that is because I like to talk with people.

I am just waiting for [Euphoria] to enter the Ratworks, since I am following her. Then I will bounce on in.

Oh, sorry for the confusion, Grim! In my posts, I intended to stay behind and have you go in my place with Haloise. Since we are telepathically linked, she can always call on me (and Domonkos). Euphoria didn't think it would be a good idea to have everyone barge in, and voted you most neutral as well as adorable for the situation.

Oh ok will do.

I have worked 34 hours in 3 days.

I had to do some things tonight (packing etc) and I'm getting up extra early tomorrow (feeding a friend's cats) so I don't have time to update today, however I am taking a paper notebook with me on vacation and I am going to do a lot of brainstorming :) so writing quality should improve when I return.

Would anyone be interested in taking on a Co-GM role, specifically to help keep sheets up to date? Later on when the rules / lore are less mysterious (after the two current quests are resolved) I would ideally also like a co-gm interested in running extra quests.

All of you are excellent writers and I am highly appreciative of your efforts and patience :)

I'm not the greatest creative writer, however, mechanical stuff is absolutely my ball game, if you wouldn't mind having me despite being so new, I would love to do sheets and other mechanical elements.

If it's just mechanical stuff like updating sheets I'm also fine with helping out.

I still don't know enough of the systems to design encounters, but I'm a decent tend at writing. I can help with quests. :)

Since we were given the ability to edit our own sheets, I did try my hand at updating my own sheet last week. Mostly by combing through old threads to where I know we gained xp, evolved, or picked up an item. It's probably no-where near perfect and needs to be reviewed. But like in DND where players are expected to keep track of their own sheets (with GM double-checks), that is always a path we could go down, so it takes more off your plate.

It has, at the very least, helped me a lot to compile all the notes and abilities/skills either you've mentioned in-game or explained over pm. That way, I know what 1) I can already do and 2) what abilities I need to activate in rp before I can properly use them. As well as what items are in my inventory, or not useable at the moment.

Could somebody who already has a sheet please post it, sans details, for the rest of us to work with? I just feel weird and incomplete without a sheet, even if I haven't actually performed an action yet :)

SUPER take my sheet with a grain of salt bc I'm not the gm. But it roughly looks like this:

---

Species:

Apprasal description goes here.

Evolutions

List of evolution paths will go here.

LVL: 1 (Evolve @ 10 and revert to LV 1)

XP Earned: 0 XP Spent: 0

SKL:
BLD:
STR:
VIG:
INS:
ADP:
DEX:
INT:
MND:
FAI:

Titles

Born of the Lost House
Effect: Retains memories of a prior existence, granting the Metacognition talent.

Other titles will be listed here as you collect them. I color-code abilities based on what title they correspond to/originate from. For all Species specific abilities, I color my Species name my dialogue color and color-code accordingly.

Example:

Spouse-Bearer of Prydwen
Effect: Soul-bound to the living weapon Prydwen, granting the Living Weapon and Haemomorphic talents.

Talents

Metacognition: Perceive the game system for what it is: an artificial constraint on reality. Prerequisite for initiating the Constrained Apotheosis Protocols.

Skills

Skill, LVL X: Description.

Equipment

Equipment: Description. May grant new skill so I color-code accordingly. I use grey for items in my inventory and lavender for armors/weapons/etc.

Equipment Unequipped for Now: Description.

---

Thanks! That's super helpful, just seeing that I had all the categories we've discovered so far straight in my head.

No shade directed at our overworked GM, but one of the things that's been making me twitch is that I do not know if my character starts with Born of the Lost House and/or Metacognition.

Given what The Fool said about Sysling having two sires, and the picks I made, I could see it going either way with that. Like, if Alkanite & I get titled as Children of the Lost House or something, then that sets up this distinction between the metaphorical immigrants and the first generation natural citizens, to abuse a metaphor.

Of course, when I run ttrpgs, I love trying to work the scheduling quirks of reality into the narrative of the plot. So that kind of long-term machiavellian planning is the honey on my bread & butter.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:45, Thu 29 Sept 2022.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edii3cGhPmg

Apparently "TheFatRat" is an actual musician... and their music slaps XD

Also a lot of the lyrics of the first song on this compilation weirdly fits the theme of this game :D

It's official: this is what's playing in The Ratworks.

Also, Barry Andrew's Awake Too Long goes well in there, if only because the first line talks about the Rats of Invention, and I feel like Sarolt is prone to manic episodes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppLaWizudek
This message was last edited by the player at 16:02, Fri 30 Sept 2022.

I mean, when you're small and you have mild PTSD, can you blame them?

Bout to head out!

You are on the money with the new kids being a second generation. I knew exactly who I wanted Alkanite to be, but she can still pick any two characters to be her sires.

Interestingly, Sysling, since one of your sires is Emendaemon, technically Prydwen and Sarolt are grandparents.

In reply to The Fool (msg # 950):

Awesome. Now I just have to go back in time and sire both of them. +Nods seriously+

edit: how the hell did I miss that typo? I couldn't even figure out what I meant to type for like 5 minutes
This message was last edited by the player at 23:22, Sun 02 Oct 2022.

Whippersnappers. We need a thread 2 for OOC soon, GM.