10/02/2025:

Due to a sickly kitty who decided that the best time to throw up was at around 1:10 AM in the morning, then take a big stinky dump that befouled the air of most of the partment, coupled with a strangely hectic monday at work, I'll be post-poning today's post until tomorrow due to fatigue and mood.

Thank you, please wait warmly while girls are loading.

And thar. Finally compiled muh treasure list.

gonna reply in the next day or two. Works been tiring

Due to the severe lack of posts this week, I won't be posting an update today. I'd also like to remind everyone that - apart from Rune-Alchemist who posted today (which is very last minute) - the rest of you haven't mentioned or stated any reason or notice about being late for this round. Which, of course, means that anyone who hasn't said anything and hasn't posted in the IC will get a warning

I've said it before and I've mentioned in the first post of the OOC; If you're busy with RL or personal matters, I'm more than happy to give you more time to post or hold off on advancing things, but you need to tell me about it. I get that sometimes we feel unmotivated, tired or like we don't wanna bother with things, but taking 2 minutes of one of your days from a whole week to log on and leave a message here or via PPM to isn't too much to ask I feel. You don't have to go into detail or justify why you need more time, just a note that you'll be late or something of that sort would do just fine.

I want to be a reasonable and fair GM who treats my players with basic understanding and patience. But taht can only happen if you talk to me. Whenever I have to make a post like this, I feel like I'm being a stingy, bitter old bastard who's cawing at people for being late and making them feel like I'm some heeartless, soulless machine, when that isn't the case or what I want to project at all. :(

So, in conclsuion, please, for both our sakes, don't feel like you can't ask for more time in the future if you need it. I guarantee I won't turn down a request to post later for whatever reason.

Dude, some of us are just trying to let others get in some posts too. Like I've had chances to post, but I don't want to make it even harder for people to jump in if they fall behind.

I figure that from a GM perspective, it's just kinda anxiety-inducing to have both a totally dead OOC and a mostly dead IC for a week. Especially cause if it isn't communicated, Xalt wouldn't know who's waiting on who.

That is true, but the issue is that not everyone has time to get on the site and say what's going on with their lives. I myself could've communicated better, but some people are genuinely very busy. Like on Wednesday I'm getting my wisdom teeth removed, all of them, and I'm heading to Australia in the beginning of March because I need to go help my family to sell my grandmother's apartment, remove the belongings, and do work on it like replacing carpeting and new paint. She's alive by the way, just going into an assisted living facility.

I thought I'd let Rune have their turn.

@Xaltwind Where do I stand on the schedule? I started a new job this week so I haven't been checking in as frequently, I'll try to catch up on what's been posted since my last Akitsugu-update.

ah, sorry boss man. this will be the 7th night in a row Ive worked. Got one more shift tomorrow too, but I'll be trying to post tomorrow morning when I get home.

I'm chill with that.@Rune_Alchemist

@Remram
I understand people being busy and having lives outside of the forum. I even mentioned this both in my previous post - and several ones I've made before that one - as well as the first post of this OOC; under the rules hider. I also explicitly stated that you're under no obligation to tell me what's going in your lives - I have noything to do with taht and have neither right or reason to, unless you yourselves tell me about it. However, I genuinely don't believe, for a single second, that people are so busy that they can't log on for 2 minutes of a 24 hour day, 16 if you account for 8 hours of sleep a day, in 7 days of a week, to post a simple:

"I'm gonna be late on posting this week."

That's all I want. That's all I need. I'm not psychic, as @ERode mentioned. If you don't tell me anything, I'm going to have to assume or gues, and going by past experiences of doing this hobby for over two decades, my experience tells me that people:

A) Have lost interest and aren't paying attention anymore.

B) Are being lazy.

Again, you never need to tell me why or give a reason or feel like yuu need to explain yourselves to me - unless you want to. I get it, RL stuff happens. It happens to me too. It has happened to me in this very RP at least twice. But I try to at least mention and kee you people posted and notified when it does.

If you're waiting on another person to post before you do, let me know that too. Because otherwise, again as ERode says, as a GM, I can only sit and stare at my OOC and IC and frown while thinking: Welp, guess everyone got sick of it.

And yes, if you're travelling abroad or visitng releatives who live out in the sticks and don't have access to the internet, I get it. You can't do this then. But hey, look at that! You informed me, ahead of time, that you're going to be away. And now I know.

Clarification: I'm not angry or upset with anyone, and I'm not trying to chide or chastise you or yell at you. I'm asking that, in the future, please try and do this so that I know, and so that I can move and operate the RP in accordance with that information. I honestly appreciate all of you taking the time to be a part of this roleplay and engaging in it, and I want to keep doing that, but when I don't know who is still around or when/if there'll be any response to anything, things can just stall out and hit a brick walll of never-ending "I'm waiting on him who's waiting on me"-scenario.

alright

Small post

Didn't quite feel right writing them arriving back in town here, so I'll let citrus do it.

Also gg on giving Yingmei a minor existential crisis, lol.

@Xaltwind

I know where you are coming from but from my perspective this is just not the right call to make. I’m not here to argue but sometimes you have to give people the benefit of the doubt rather than assume that people got sick of the game or are lazy. Communication can be improved on our part this is true but this is also a game where people are posting more consistently than others. Not perfectly on schedule but more consistent and that’s a lot more than I can say about a lot of games here on this site. Issuing warnings when people have mostly been consistent but now are waiting for others so they can contribute to the game does not contribute to a positive, creative environment. It alienates those who are trying to catch up and punishes those who have been giving them a chance to. Like when we got a Myrr post I was away from my home for hours and got home late after driving two hours through a blizzard. I didn’t even know there was a post until the next day when I was going to post and you posted your warning.

I would understand the warning if we haven’t been posting for a real long while but lulls happen even in the busiest of games. There are better ways to prod people to post, like letting them know you’re gonna move to the next scene and give us last calls to post because we certainly will post then, addressing an individual privately if they’ve really fallen behind, or just ride the lull out and have faith that your players are going to post and have a little bit leniency that they may not tell you everything all the time because they’re also human and make mistakes.

I can say for myself that I am enjoying the game a lot and hope it goes on. I’m not saying this to criticize or to be rude but to at least offer my thoughts on the matter because I don’t particularly see a problem that can’t be solved gently.

Well, we'll just have to try to handle things better in the future, on both ends then. If you wish to discuss this futher, @Remram, feel free to send me a PM, but otherwise, I feel that this discussion won't really go anywhere or really solve anything. What's done is done, let's just try and move on to more pleasant and fun things.

Like the neurotic farmer girl having a cool new pet. And Macintosh teaching little girls how to be graverobbers pillagers adventurers... *cough*

Might alos want to remind everyone; Unless your chaeracter had a big ol' hearty breakfast before coming to the town, or had lunch/a snack just before arriving, you might be getting a bit peckish at this point - as it's now around 4:00 PM, whereas previously it was around 10~11 AM.



@Rune_Alchemist
Also, Ms. Clucky is a stupidly cute nickname. I highly approve.

MacKinnon can exist off dust and water alone, so long as the promise of treasure is near.

@ERode
Akitsugu RN:

@Zeroth

Brom: May I offer you a slime in these trying times?

Just wait until he sees what happened to the smithy itself. We’re starting the “betrayed by my village” arc early.

I'm not sure if our imaginations are agreeing on the size of Niara's suggested "sampler crop" xD