OOC Black Knights/Byakuren Discussion

Want to reply so bad; don't have time right now. WANT TO REPLY though because that woman is gonna get some shit.

Suffering same thing, will reply soon as can, too busy

WORK DONE, ON THE REPLY

Status update:

I'm on the verge of fast-tracking things onward, but it occurs to me that I've had signs of activity from a very few people.

I've had something in the last week from @Doshii Jun, @Tom, @Nyton and @Khasidel in thread 1.6

I've not seen @Kokuten, @Soresu or @Abwehran Commander contribute to it. Kokuten's about to leave us in December, so, I expect I might have to set up a graceful exit point for Rolf. Masako and Ruri, on the other hand, haven't shown me a good showing. I've tried to be lenient, hoping I'd manage to give the chance for Masako to look like she has seniority, but the opportunities continually get squandered due to lack of activity. Not in the immediacy, since I got something Oct31/Nov1 from you guys, but looking back, Soresu/Abwehran Commander haven't been consistent. As far as posting frequency goes, Tom is at about the lowest I'm willing to tolerate - that's once a week, but at least he's shown me consistent presence even if it wasn't a whole lot of it.

So, here's what is going to happen. I try posting around 3 times a week - as player activity allows me. If some people cannot keep up, I'll do damage control and focus on those whom can.

"Oh, Fred's being an hardass" - perhaps that crossed your mind. Well...
It might not look it, but we're a bit pressed for time. Had I been a bit less tolerant about pace, we might have been done sooner with the entire 1.x threads by now, and Kokuten being about to leave kind of rubs salt into that. But that's not all, Doshii's about to be a father. We have no idea of how present he'll be able to be once that happens.

If you're interested in roleplaying together as a group and amounting to cool stuff (infiltrating a casino to stage an heist looks adventuresome enough...), something will have to change. The more active participants I have, the less waiting around there is, and the more progress we'll make. This sort of stuff kind of snowballs and gets more entertaining as momentum builds (and if Kotori being bashed over the head is not a catalyst to that, I don't know what is), but there's going to be little of that if I'm the only one whom has to push you guys to want to roleplay your characters.

Think about it.

Translation: Poast, you communist bastards.

> Busy with becoming a Surgeon. Posting is irregular. yeahs.

Can I get your permission, @Fred, to merge the 44th Fire Team topics into the Byakuren forum? I have labeled them with a separate forum prefix so they would be easy to tell apart from the Byakuren ones. The reason I'm asking is because the stories tie together and I'm also trying to cut down on the number of subforums that the board has.

My first impression is "Not really" - mostly because this feels like awkward I don't need.

It would be rude of me to take such a decision without Doshii chiming in. The 44th is a complete story - even if it was abridged. There had been less successful plots than it that got their own archives as well. I don't see why the 44th would be the exception, even if there's a tie in.

It's kind of like me telling you that the Sakura and Eucharis stories tie together and that their forums should be merged together. Oh, hey, you can add the Nozomi to that too. They're all pretty tied together.

If I say "Yes", does that mean that - under the same "stories that tie together" theme - I'll have the Miharu archives merged in too?

As far as thread nomenclature goes, I see no way this won't messy, or confusing to new readers. I fear it might promote the image of 'islands' separate from the goings on in Yamatai at large too - whereas before they're disparate puzzle pieces that are part of a whole, with the active plots being the stand outs.

Is the gain as far as 'cutting down subforums' worth this?

Basically what I'm doing is dissolving the archive subforums when I have time to do it. Before each forum gets removed, I prefix its threads and move them to the appropriate faction forum. The forum prefix can be used as filters. For example, if you use this link only the YSS Asamoya posts will show.

I fear it might promote the image of 'islands' separate from the goings on in Yamatai at large

Click to expand...

This is exactly why I'm deleting subforums and putting the posts into the faction forum. I want to show Yamatai as a whole.

Your link doesn't work for me, Wes. (actually, I can't find the Asamoya anywhere anymore)

Like I said, it's not something I want to decide unless I get Doshii's input on it. Though I'm growing to suspect we might ultimately have no choice if this is something you want to do site-wide.

Are you sure you didn't just forget to scroll down? I tested the link and it even works for logged-out users.

Anyway, we can address at some other, later time. I have plenty of other forums to work on in the interim.

@Wes
I was sure I didn't see an Asamoya subforum.

Trying again and scrolling down, I do see the Asamoya threads. With a kind of title header called "RP: YSS Asamoya".

So, I'm going to ask. If you're a newcomer to the site, how are you supposed to figure out that there was ever a RP like the Asamoya or the 44th Fireteam? Is the wiki plot page the only spot where such a thing might be in evidence past forum browsing? Where are the Asamoya post located/can be found if you're not using a search engine, even?

I'm planning on making a directory post at some point and also linking the posts from the wiki pages.

If you're a newcomer to the site, you're probably not interested in starting by reading the RP of old forums from 5 years ago. You shouldn't have to. The RP is already (supposed to be) summarized on the wiki in easily-digestible format.

I think you're wrong. Easily-digestible summaries, as shown on the wiki, would never have earned me as a roleplayer. When I joined way back then, it's because I bothered to read plots like the Ongaku, Nozomi, Mikomi and Sakura. Summaries and roleplays that would've been hidden would not have won me over.

Basically, I'm critical of you changing something which is not broken. But you're the boss - if this strikes your whimsy, you'll make it happen ~_~

@Doshii Jun - answer the man, regarding the 44th merger.

No. I'm proud of what my players did, and it deserves to stand alone.

Yeah, 44th should stand on its own.

Sorry for the conspicuous lack of posting but its been a busy week.

I guess that settles it for treatment of the 44th.

Status Update:

Now, we're going to have a planning session. Kotori's set assignments. However, I understand that things may be rather nebulous as far as the building is concerned - I said I gave you floorplans, but there's no exhaustive description. Part of me wants to keep this loose since there's no way I could credibly create or deal with a very concrete floorplan of a highly secure facility. But I at least want to even the playing field with you guys in order for you to be able to depict your characters as competently preparing.

Before I started this, I talked a lot with Moonman, and he gave me references of how the Lady of the Oceans, narrative-wise, was described. That's what I have to go on to draw inspiration from in this scenario. I'm making the same available to you here.

Also, note that this is the exit point for Masako and Rolf. Kokuten leaves us in little more than two weeks, and I've already made a point of how I'd deal with lackluster activity before. I'm not all bark, and this is it.

Wow, I really must apologize. I've really let myself go on keeping up with this and I really don't have an excuse for it. I'll catch up and get something up as soon as possible (hopefully by tomorrow at the latest).

I'm still waiting on replies from you guys since I last did mine. Much of the planning you figure out now will likely greatly help you later. We can push forward if you guys are weary of this and want to get to the cloak-and-dagger right away. I'm just hoping you guys will take the initiative and drive this so that your PCs look as competent as possible.