The Round Table | KoL OOC

This is a brief PSA re: acquiring lots of bonus experience so that you can level up faster!  

Now that I have your attention...

Re-evaluating the slow going of leveling in the game, I'm going to start treating Experience Point handouts in the same manner I do with players in my actual tabletop games.  While the cash-in system for threads, logs, etc. remains unchanged, I highly recommend also making use of the summary/list system that I've talked about briefly before.  The basic gist is to drop a list of things your character has done that were productive/interesting/funny/important or fun roleplaying, and I'll liberally dole out XP for all of those things.   I started doing this about 2 months ago, but was being very tight about how much XP I gave for each thing, but now I'm going to give out XP awards in the same quantity that I do when I'm regularly gamemastering.  

So what this means is tell me what you've done lately that's cool & get a huge XP bonus.  These lists go on the Experience Point bank page, just like regular cash-ins.  A great example is Shana's recent list, which is computed with the new high yield reward system.

I'm going to start handing out XP rewards for all monsters slain in combat, whether you remember to cash it in or not, as well as mission completion points (and mission leg completion for people on super long missions, like Team Failboat).  

Something I would like from you guys as well, is to please tell me what level your characters started the game at, (in this post is fine), so that I can adjust their 'character experience total' to include their starting point experience.  This will make it easier for you to consult the leveling chart if you started with a character at a higher level than one.  

Sorry for the super-delay / slow roll, guys.  Your patience is mega-appreciated.

† If you have any questions on what you should be tagging / doing, drop them here or in a private message to me.  I definitely don't mind helping direct traffic so no one feels lost.    A quick at-a-glance:
       New Orleans main plot group:  Should still be backtagging museum break-in log or NOVA record log ! 
       Japan group:  Can still be tagging here, but I am going to post a new log for you guys to kick things in the butt a bit.
       Unassigned newbies:  Are at the castle and free to make logs there as you choose!   Watch TV with Faye, or make your own!  Don't forget that your characters are allowed to roam free, as well, so if you want to do logs of travel into London or beyond, you can do what you want.  

†   All unassigned characters should have responded to this post, and I have the new missions and groupings worked out as a result.  Briefings will be up for these soon!

( REMINDERS (REPEATS) )

COMING UP:

Next week: Open dinner log at the castle; mission briefings for squires; training post; new Japan log; New Orleans socialization log

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

† Attention NEW SQUIRES: ROOMS are posted, so come check out what your character's digs look like. Apologies for the delay.

† PRIVATE LOGS: Reminder once more - if you want to do a log with another player character that involves secret information (either information gained in a log with an NPC on behindcloseddoors or information about your character's background that you want to keep semi-secret), you are free to request a log to be put up in behindcloseddoors ! Just drop a request on the Mod Contact page with a <textarea> of the top post that you would like, and I will create the necessary filter.

† Sunday Stats will hopefully go up next Sunday with info on talents and action points.

† If you would like help setting up stats in order to do optional rolls, feel free to IM me! I will walk you through it step by step. :)

† If you DO NOT want to receive Plurk pings from me when a log gets put up for your character, please let me know and I will refrain from doing so.  

† SENSE MOTIVE: For those of you doing rolls, keep in mind that sometimes NPCs will lie - but I will never indicate this directly in a tag. If your character has reason to doubt them, you must announce that your character is making a sense motive roll in their tag (and indicate what # you rolled!), and then I will roll a bluff check for the NPC if necessary and respond with whether your character finds them believable or not!

IMPORTANT MESSAGE RE: GAME PACING, ETC.

I've been considering doing individual check-ins with game members about this since the game is small enough to, but figured I would put up a public message about it first!

Mostly, I wanted to give people a clear idea of what the thought process is behind my pacing of logs and plot things - hopefully to put your minds at ease if you feel "behind".  I am all about transparency, and know that... some people might be interested.  If you aren't, you don't have to read all this!  

First of all, it's important to note that I do track every single post in the community, so I have an eagle eye view of people's activity and personal pace. Don't panic! I'm not doing this to keep track of who's the 'weakest link' or anything like that. I really want this game to be customized to each player's individual pacing as much as possible, and so everyone's current speed is PERFECT. Breeeeeeathe.

However, what this does allow me to do is try and space things out to avoid overwhelming those who have less time for tagging, or are super bogged down in back tags at any given time. If I know some players are still doing a lot of backtagging, I'll put more buffer space, for example, between when they are briefed and when they actually leave for the mission. Slower groups are more likely to get single tracked posts, where all players are concentrating on one scene, even if it takes weeks to complete. Whenever this kind of thing occurs, I will build in buffer time after these events that will include easily hand-waved 'clean-up' or cool down scenes before the characters return to the castle, that will cover the time in between. You should never find yourself in a situation, therefore, where you don't know if your character is back yet! There will always be a return log posted on the day they come back.

I try giving groups with more fast taggers lots of options for things to tag into, on the other hand. For example, the Chicago group has a number of logs and NPC threads that can be tagged into if a player wants to do more, but do not have to be. I am just as comfortable with a player assuming their character was in the background, or talking out what they've been doing OOC. This does not put your character "behind" at all, and I try to include necessary info in the top post and top comments so that a skim of mission logs will give the player a good flavor of what kinds of things are going on around your character.

This is a huge work in progress, and people's schedules and motivation levels change all the time, so I'm grateful for people keeping me up to date on where they're at. I'm always glad to accommodate - and don't be afraid to ask me to wrap up NPC threads at any time. I prefer RPing for 'scenes', instead of just aimlessly meandering, so I try to steer to the heart of things and then wrap towards a close, but if I get the sense someone wants to keep going, I also will go until you're done. So do not ever feel like you are putting me out by asking for conclusion on a thread - if we still haven't gotten to the actual thing I wanted out of the thread in the first place, I will let you know. Promise. :)  Also I love feedback, so talk to me if something is stressing you out!  If you want NPC tags to come faster or slower, I can try to do that too.

Basically you're all perfect and beautiful and make my dreams come true.  And I want to make this fulfilling and fun for everyone, so I am here for you all.  (~._.)~  One thing I really think differentiates this style of gaming (tabletop) from open forum gaming is that you should never feel totally aimless in terms of having something for your character to do, so if for some reason you don't feel like you have enough options, I will gladly help provide a million of them.  The pressure's on me to find things for your character to react to, and I'm totally okay with that.  It's what a Gamemaster does.

♥ Arden  

COMING UP:

Tomorrow: Russia arrival log!
This weekend: Japan group travel log! Chicago group's EPIC PLOT MISSION yeahhhhhhhhhhh \o/

Questions, comments, concerns? Drop 'em here! If anyone is feelings lost on where to tag / focus, ping me and I'll gladly help you out!

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

† The actual Global Dispatch cover might not come this week, due to your mod's new job.  But you can still have weekly announcements!

† PRIVATE LOGS:  I've had players ask about this, so I thought I would open this to everyone - if you want to do a log with another player character that involves secret information (either information gained in a log with an NPC on behindcloseddoors  or information about your character's background that you want to keep semi-secret), you are free to request a log to be put up in behindcloseddoors !  Just drop a request on the Mod Contact page with a <textarea> of the top post that you would like, and I will create the necessary filter.        

† Sunday Stats will hopefully go up next Sunday with skills, feats, and talents information. For those already familiar with the system, a couple House Rules in effect:

      No Threat Crits:  There is no need to reroll after 'threatening' a critical.  Criticals automatically hit.
      Penetration:  When rolling damage, if you roll the maximum number on your damage die, you get to reroll that die and stack the totals.  For example, if your damage die was a d6, and you rolled 6, 6, and then 2, it would stack for a total of 14 damage.

† If you would like help setting up stats in order to do optional rolls, feel free to IM me! I will walk you through it step by step. :)

GOSSIP HOUR:

Buffy almost killed King Arthur.  Apparently these two are all the gossip rage.
Jack Chessing is off on an important Dragon's Claw mission, but Sir Bancroft is still around.  

COMING UP:

Tomorrow: Travel log for Chicago group will go up.   Probably arrival log for Slovechnia group too...?  
This weekend: Alainn and Mark are planning a castle wide scavenger hunt that will actually be backdated to before the Chicago group leaves.  
Early next week:  Next mission briefing for group #3 goes up
  
Questions, comments, concerns? Drop 'em here!

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

† The actual Global Dispatch will have to come late this week, due to your mod's sudden new job (!!) But you can still have weekly announcements.

† NEW PEOPLE: If you haven't already, please introduce yourself over here on the Meet and Greet post, if you haven't already! (Rather than put up an OOC intro) I recommend all players track that post for incoming players/characters!

† I'm attempting to pace putting new logs up to tagging speeds of players, so please bear with me as I strike a balance!  Since I'm stalking all the threads, I'm trying not to overwhelm people who are still backlogging older important scenes with characters before throwing new stuff with the same characters at them.  Feel free to talk to me about logging/tagging speed if you want adjustments. 

† Reminder to link your threads to start building up Exp Points!

† I am working on the castle map still, but as a reminder, I have a crude version finished of the first floor, but a) it's not properly scaled, b)it is missing some rooms that I know exist on the ground floor (a small auditorium, breakfast room - which is located inside the dining hall, several bars, parlors, numerous baths, etc.). Those are all located in an additional hallway beyond the library hall.

† If you would like help setting up stats in order to do optional rolls, feel free to IM me! I will walk you through it step by step. :)

GOSSIP HOUR:

Obviously there was the hubbub over King Arthur and Merlin's arrival, but anyone at the feast would also have gotten to witness Lan and Buffy's epic standoff and the singalong to follow, since the whole room joined in.

COMING UP:

Tomorrow (instead of Monday): Weapons Training as a group officially begins.
This weekend: Mission Assignation begins. Missions will take place in four groups that are already selected. Two are shorter term, two are longer term, and one of the long term includes the plot group. Mission briefings will be staggered by group.

Questions, comments, concerns? Drop 'em here!