General Discussion

[Umiushi]

Use this thread for comments peripherally-related to The Unquiet Lands game. Chatting between players will be allowed. I ask that observers constrain their posts to those related to the game.

[Umiushi]

From the Player Guidelines:

7) Players should have and use a working grasp of spelling and grammar. I'm not asking for perfection, because all I have is a working grasp, too. Certain misspellings and other errors are pet peeves of mine, which is to say that I respond negatively to arguments about them or attempts to justify their use. Also, I don't mind if you point out my own errors, but I will not accept using that as the basis to justify other errors. Anyway, I'll try to be as reasonable as I can in light of being admittedly thin-skinned about this set of issues.

Let me state plainly that this isn't an issue, right now. In fact, you've exceeded my expectations. It simply occurred to me that, in the flurry of preparation leading up to the start of this adventure, I neglected to mention exactly what these pet peeves are. The only reasons I'm posting this now are because I feel an unacceptable length of time has already passed without me expanding on this, and I'm concerned that as time goes on, we may get newcomers who start chatting without reading the old guidelines.

A. For starters, some spellings really drive me up the wall: alot, alright, definate, independant, infinate, gaurd, lightening (when used to describe lightning), noone, seperate, and villian. Research will easily reveal that a few of these spellings can be justified. However, please don't try to use reason with me when it comes to a pet peeve! If it was completely rational, it wouldn't be a pet peeve in the first place. Also, I've already done the research; I doubt that any further arguments will change my perspective. Please avoid spelling these words in the ways I've listed.

B. Using apostrophes to pluralize a word is like nails on a chalkboard to me. The original Dungeons and Dragons boxed set was published in 1974, during the '70s, not the "70's."

C. This isn't so much of a concern, especially for the other threads, but for the Acqua Alta thread specifically, please remember punctuation, use capitalization, and pay attention to homonyms: it's, its, their, there, they're, to, too, two, your, you're, and so on.

D. Try to keep the "txt" or "1337" speak out of this. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then don't worry.

Clearly many or most of these haven't been a problem at all. For example, I can't recall any instances of txt speech in this group. I just want to make no secret that this is my weak point. However much I may make mistakes myself, seeing other people do it rapidly exhausts my patience. Therefore, in this one area, please be patient with me in turn, and humor my hypocrisy a little.

McKean's Law: Any correction of the speech or writing of others will contain at least one grammatical, spelling, or typographical error.

[yukonhorror]

is it ok to use abbreviations like end for endurance? Or atk for attack? Or dam for damage? In the descriptive text I wouldn't do that, but in the OOC text I might.

[Umiushi]

is it ok to use abbreviations like end for endurance? Or atk for attack? Or dam for damage? In the descriptive text I wouldn't do that, but in the OOC text I might.

Yes, you may use abbreviations. Doing that won't feed my pet peeves.

[Umiushi]

This group has been set to Moderated since its creation. It recently came to my attention that the forums of moderated groups are invisible to non-members. Since it was never my intention to hide from the population of this site, I am planning to change the group setting to Public.

If this becomes a public group, people will be able to view all of our threads whether they are members or not. Also, people will freely be able to become members. Presumably, they will be able to post in our threads, too.

As the moderator, I will retain the ability to control threads and posts. I will also be able to remove memberships. The group can be returned to a moderated setting at my discretion.

It has been my observation that the public play-by-post forums do not appear to get disrupted.

If anyone would like to discuss moving to a public setting, please post here or create a specific thread for this topic.

In the absence of opinions to the contrary, I will change the setting of the group to Public at some point on Wednesday, May 6th. Otherwise, I will consider the matter further and announce my decision on the same date, whereupon I will either change the setting to Public, or let it remain Moderated.

[Umiushi]

I have now set the forum and group to Public. Welcome, any observers and new group members.

[Myn]

I decided not to clutter up the OoC thread with this, but I thought it was worth attention. Amusing at the least, and be sure to check out the Performances if you do read it.

[Umiushi]

I forgot to mention it when it happened, but last Friday is the actual date in the year that your characters are experiencing right now in the game. In our calendar, it's still technically spring; but in Aucothia, the solstice is near the middle of summer, rather than marking the beginning of summer, so "early summer" is an apt description.

[Umiushi]

With the recent archiving of inactive games in the PBP forum, The Unquiet Lands now has the highest post count among all the remaining active games. At the time of this posting, we have exactly one hundred more posts than the second-highest game.

This is not to say that we are expected to maintain this feat. Some of the newer games, such as Reclaiming Daven, are hotbeds of activity, and only trail us by virtue of being younger. We will always go forward at a pace suitable to the consensus of the group, so the only reason to either rush or slow down is because you wish it to happen. Therefore, let's enjoy this moment while we're ahead, even if it's temporary!

[Myn]

Just a reminder, any combat tools we use will have to be Macintosh compatible.

[Umiushi]

The Situation
How times have changed. Just over a month ago, we had six players and a waiting list three deep. Now there are four players, and nobody in line to fill the fifth position. Numbers like this don't particularly concern me, but the possibility that there is an underlying cause does. Hoping that this will not be repeated too often, I am instantiating a casual policy that I will spend some time reflecting on the course of the campaign whenever I lose three players.

Diagnosing any problems presents a challenge because all of the three lost players disappeared in the same manner: they simply stopped posting in the forum and didn't reply to any private messages I sent their way. Therefore, I have very little in the way of feedback.

However, I have heard indirectly that in at least one case, it may be because the game is moving too slowly. This is a reasonable contention, and one which I will focus on, here.

The Issue
The game is moving too slowly in that, if I project our progress at our current rate of speed, the party can expect to gain a level of experience every odd-numbered year, starting in 2011. Now if the issue was one of simply gaining levels of experience, I could easily tweak that by lowering the xp requirement to gain a level, or increasing the xp reward per challenge. The trouble is that a superficial fix such as that would do nothing to increase the rate at which the game flows. I think it's reasonable to gain a level every eight to ten challenges, so the real question is how to allow you to experience those challenges in a shorter period of time.

Discussion of Options
I do not think shortening the posting cycle will address this issue. Please correct me if I'm mistaken, but I believe that the four of you are already posting at your maximum rate to move the game forward. If that's true, shortening the due dates will only give rise to more missed posts. There is also the question of whether I would be able to personally keep up with a shortened posting cycle.

One way to increase the flow of the game is for me to delegate some of the opt-in/opt-out authority to a player. This isn't something I would do unless the party was in favor of it. The exact method is up to you: whether you want to have a leader, or a party caller on a rotating basis, or even a first-in policy where the first player to post can decide the party's general approach, and let the other players opt-out if they wish. If you are interested in pursuing one of these options, now is the time to discuss it. I don't have any real issue over the party's decision-making, by the way, so this is not something I want to press upon you; it's only one option out of several.

Another option is to employ technology. There is, however, a line I will not cross, and that is voice chat. I am very fond of the written word, and that is where this game's medium will remain.

Is there any interest or opposition to making this game a hybrid post/chat game? If there is interest, is there also a point where everyone's availability will synch up?

Is there any interest or opposition to using an online realtime application to aid play? I am admittedly not familiar with what's available, but I'm willing to study them...if people are willing and able to download and use them.

Are there other tools to consider? Yukonhorror previously mentioned Google Docs, but it appears to have a bit of a learning curve, and requires everyone to sign up appropriately. For those reasons, I chose not to use it, but I'm willing to revisit my decision depending upon what the rest of you have to say.

In consideration of what technologies to employ, we should remember Myn's use of the Mac. Anybody with similar limitations, or even just a distaste for certain methods, can make themselves known.

Other areas to discuss, either on this thread or in new threads:
1. concerns about the nature of the adventure itself
2. how the forum and social group is being employed/can be employed
3. are the guidelines appropriate; are they creating an oppressive atmosphere; should they be changed or added to; is it difficult to post either in or out of the game

If you're enjoying the status quo right now, feel free to say that too. I think there's some change that's in order, but I don't want to change merely for the sake of change.

As usual, there are some areas I'm not willing to change. I think the four of you should be familiar enough with this game to know what they are, but if you're uncertain, it doesn't hurt to bring the matter up. The worst scenario is that I'll state I'm unwilling to change.

Right now, I consider the four of you to be my core players. Therefore, I do not want to take this game in a direction you are uncomfortable with. What I am doing is taking this opportunity, before the size of the group grows again, to open a discussion about where we are, and along what path we wish to be moving.

[Myn]

I second the idea of a chat/forum hybrid. Forum posts would work great for RP, and chat is probably the best way to take care of combat.

I suppose the main issue would be finding a time that everyone is free, assuming we're all willing to use a chat format. I, personally, have very few restrictions on my time as of right now, so I'm willing to work with about anyone's schedule.

In terms of gameplay and such I'm quite enjoying myself, and I don't really see much that is needed to change. Most of the friction comes from my character's supposed desires than my own, as I think I've stated before.

[Cocoa]

Chat isn't too likely for me. My time is limited and unpredictable. Furthermore, I have a slow rural internet connection. There's a limit to how much bandwidth I can use, and my connection can be very unreliable. It's not impossible for me to join a real-time online format, but you wouldn't be able to rely on me to do it on a regular basis.

I think the game is moving at a reasonable pace. PbP is slow compared to real-life. It seems to be the nature of the format. Losing players without any notice also seems to be the nature of the format. Losing DMs without any notice seems to happen, too. I'd much rather lose an occasional player instead of our DM!

Our main issue as a potential fighting group is that we don't have a defender. You could always NPC a defender for us if we need one before you can recruit a new one for the game.

[love2readking]

Chat would work for me as long as I was given enough notice of when a chat was going to take place and I also think that some combats, especially those with lots of participants would be quicker and easier handled in chat. As far as the pace of the game I'm okay with it...the only two problems I really have with the way the game is going are minor ones. I mention them only because we were specifically asked...
1. Sometimes there are words and phrases used in dm posts and I have absolutely no idea what they mean. They are either from an old-time/fantasy vernacular that I don't know or maybe just words that are used in this game-world. For example recently the word "woerd" was used a couple of times. I didn't know what that referred to so I tried to look it up in the dictionary and go nadda. I still have no idea what "woerd" refers to. I tried to figure it out with what context it was used in and couldn't come up with a definition that satisfied me. Anyway this resulted in me spending time trying to figure out what a word meant instead of working on my post. This could be simply fixed by me asking when I'm unclear on a word or phrase, if that's okay by you Umi.

2. This is more character/player related and I want to preface it by saying it in no way is meant to be criticizing anyone. I just think that in the past couple of weeks as a party we have been awfully picky about the hooks we bite on. I mean Umi obviously spent time and effort working on a couple of options for us here in the Mound and most likely with our varied backstories in mind and we just blew by them like our collective a$$es were on fire. My pc didn't want to rock the boat too much as she is the newest party member but as a player I'm wondering why our group of heroes/adventurers would want to leave a place so obviously being troubled by "bad guys"....I mean how do we know that after we helped out with the "matchless gang" the piast of the (can't remember the name of the battle church) wouldn't be so grateful he would give us information to help us on one of our more personal quests....for that matter we could find information on the body of the leader of the gang, after we bested him of course. Just some of my thoughts.

Anyway take all of this with a grain of salt, as I said I wouldn't have brought it up but I was asked other than these minor things I am quite happy with the way the game is going. I plan on sticking around. I have been absent alot lately with some crazy IRL stuff going on....my son broke his arm tuesday and we spent all tuesday and most of wed in the hospital. since then we've been busy taking care of him but he's feeling alot better so I'll probably be around more.

[Umiushi]

...

In terms of gameplay and such I'm quite enjoying myself, and I don't really see much that is needed to change. Most of the friction comes from my character's supposed desires than my own, as I think I've stated before.

I hope my recent suggestions in the OOC thread can assist Myn in aligning his goals with the current situation.

Chat isn't too likely for me. My time is limited and unpredictable. Furthermore, I have a slow rural internet connection. There's a limit to how much bandwidth I can use, and my connection can be very unreliable. It's not impossible for me to join a real-time online format, but you wouldn't be able to rely on me to do it on a regular basis.

...

Our main issue as a potential fighting group is that we don't have a defender. You could always NPC a defender for us if we need one before you can recruit a new one for the game.

It sounds like an occasional chat is possible. I will explore that possibility further. I appreciate the pitfalls of an unpredictable schedule. Here is one question: if a chat was provisionally scheduled, would you be able to give 24 hours advance notice if you couldn't attend?

I have a fondness for lopsided parties, but if the lack of a Defender becomes a serious deficit, I will take steps to address the situation.

1. Sometimes there are words and phrases used in dm posts and I have absolutely no idea what they mean. They are either from an old-time/fantasy vernacular that I don't know or maybe just words that are used in this game-world. For example recently the word "woerd" was used a couple of times. I didn't know what that referred to so I tried to look it up in the dictionary and go nadda. I still have no idea what "woerd" refers to. I tried to figure it out with what context it was used in and couldn't come up with a definition that satisfied me. Anyway this resulted in me spending time trying to figure out what a word meant instead of working on my post. This could be simply fixed by me asking when I'm unclear on a word or phrase, if that's okay by you Umi.

You are welcome to ask questions. You may use the OOC, Question and Answer, or General Discussion thread to ask them. At the same time, I appreciate the fact that you made an effort to research the answer, though I'm sorry it resulted in a delay for you.

If I use a made-up word, I will define it in context (ortalan, from the image on the sign of the tavern), explicitly in the OOC thread (calismus), or in one of the other discussion threads (some of the currency names). Exceptions are of course proper nouns, like Krushevx, and words that are part of D&D and rpg terminology.

Any other words definitely exist elsewhere, though they may be obscure. As I'm sure it's true for many of us, a portion of my vocabulary was informed by fantasy fiction, so I may inadvertently use a term that's unique to some author. Apologies for any past or future cases like that.

Also, just because a word exists (or I think it does), doesn't mean it wouldn't be easier to simply ask what it means. I know I wouldn't have a complete grasp of all the words in any of your vocabularies, either. There's also the chance that I'm misspelling the word or using it improperly, which could create undue confusion if it's not clarified by someone asking a question.

Now let me address the specific example you brought up. A woerd is an artificial dwelling mound. In this case it is the "Mound" part of Beilston Mound, so "woerd" in context refers to what's below your characters' feet.