Alright, I'll break this down into sections with headings so hopefully it makes it easier to read. There will be a summary in the next post too if this is too much. Please feel free to ask me any questions or make any suggestions.
Order of contents:
- General continuation of the game (Peronsel/Wealth, The War and Esty characters).
- District conflict resolution (Supplement rules if required, otherwise as agreed by players)
- Beach Episode (Fun little piece and time to regroup ideas/direction)
- Aid Crisis round (minor story impact event)
- Me in this situation (An unexpected turn of events)
The beach episode will not acquire anyone Wealth or Personel as it is an out of character event. The end of the Aid Crisis round will continue standard play and I'll maintain the 0'th post in terms of Wealth and Personel income. (Unless agreed otherwise by players).
Regarding the war. In my mind it does not feel right to play out Estylwen's characters (Ezra Blackheart, Antonia Franchesca, Vincenzo “Vincent” Accardo) when she has worked so hard to build them and establish their presence in the world. For this reason I think it best to hold the war and interactions with Esty's characters for that of a month (longer if we can easily manage it). After this period we will decide as a group what to do moving forward, voting on options we place on the table and failing that I'll make the call. I propose two options at this point (and welcome others to propose solutions as well):
Option 1: We classify Estylwen's area's as locked down. Writing this should be easy, @SporkoBug's monsters overrun the area, military assumes martial law and occupies it etc, the lock down cleared once Esty returns.
Option 2: After a wait period Esty's territory becomes free game. I'll write resistance but otherwise it'd be like acquiring any empty territory. Once Esty returns those territories or some territories of the strongest players would undergo a "revolution" of sorts to return Esty's characters to the game with land to fight from.
In my opinion, option 2 would be best but relies on the good will of the strongest players to accept the loss of some territories to allow @Estylwen's return when she gets back. This would ensure that the territories don't get left behind through no upgrades or lack of geopolitical activity. Option 1 is easier, but leaves swarths of area inaccessible in stasis.
I propose these options so everyone can continue playing until her return. In my experience, projects like this that go on hiatus for extended periods rarely pick up again, so I hope my options allow Nocturnia to continue while keeping the seat warm for Esty so to speak.
Regardless of what is decided, Esty's characters will be written aside so they are free to return with her and free characters currently locked in interactions with them (Example: Ezra holding Adel, will PM @Yankee and @ERode about that. Anyone else locked in Esty interactions let me know and we'll figure a route out of it if necessary).
With that being said, onto that of faction vs faction conflict.
My experience so far with fighting for districts has been that so long as the aggressor has the manpower/wealth to invade, they can initiate the event. From there the two parties write the battle and more or less amicably agree who the victor is through the writing (Esty explained it as a gacha game, but with no notes on actual mechanics, this is my best interpretation).
If this does not work moving forward, I'll propose a ruleset to roll for district victories so they can be rolled for and settled that way. Otherwise players are more than welcome to continue writing battle conclusions as they agree outside of dice and chance.
Draft district dice roll rules in hider:
The above rules are only there for players who wish to use them or settle disputes in battles if required.
I propose we take two weeks minimum to develop this (9th March - 23rd March) as both a well earned fun break and time for Esty to return. If anyone has direct contact or alternative details it'd be a really nice piece if they could send it to her as a PDF for her to read in her spare time.
I've also contacted an artist friend to hopefully commission and help co-create a beach portrait of all the current major characters. Something of a "Best Wishes/Get Well Soon" postcard and little gift for everyone for putting so much into this so far. Worst case we'll have the PDF at the very least. Once it's done or close to finished we'll decide if it goes in the IC posted clearly as an INTERMISSION - ALT UNIVERSE piece, in the OOC or somewhere else entirely.
In terms of the beach piece. Here's the setting:
Martin Luthin is a lifeguard, but he's better known as a dick who kicks over sandcastles. He likes the rules, and it's time to ruin Martin's day.
You get 3 points for every rule you break. I'll decide which player gets the points if multiple people break the same rule based on creative and comedic value with runners up for 2 and 1 points. The player with the most points at the end earns the honor of having ruined martins day.
(Or you can just write your characters doing whatever they want, interacting with whoever, however. Enjoy~!)
RULES TO BE BROKEN:
1 - No open fires/flammable sources.
2 - No loud music/noises.
3 - No firearms/weapons/explosives.
4 - No hunting.
5 - No vehicles.
6 - No camping.
7 - No Animals.
8 - No drugs.
9 - No surfing.
10 - Do not feed the wildlife.
Also, PM me or post in the OOC mentioning me with what your main player character would wear to the beach and me and friend will get to starting the art piece for the beach episode to be sent along with the final piece for Esty and everyone here. We can get char refs from the portraits but further detail is always appreciated~. A character brief should include:
- Character clothing.
- Character pose.
- Character activity (optional).
For example: Khor wears a full wetsuit with a scuba rebreather and purple/magenta stripes. She's intense in a comedic sense with her pose. She's throwing Adel into the surf.
If Esty isn't back after the 'beach episode' round, we'll continue with the Aid Crisis IC to keep things rolling. The aim is for this to be a significant event that doesn't alter Esty's overall plot but provides players the opportunity to continue their dominion of Nocturnia. The reason for this is to avoid a long Hiatus (unless it is agreed upon by all players) to avoid the RP from dying out.
At this stage I'll likely PM all players at the start of it inquiring any plotlines they had with Esty and where they'd like their characters to go/what plots they'd like to ensure the RP is tailored to peoples preferences (to the limit of staying in the lines of Nocturnia's setting).
Ultimately for me this would mean my characters would also take a background role and my territories would be up for grabs by anyone as if they were free so I can focus on maintaining the world's reactions to or supporting player's actions. Khor, Antonio and Akir will still play their roles due to their place in the story now but can assumed to be 'factionless'.
This would also begin deviating from Esty's ultimate vision for Nocturnia. I'll do everything I can to respect her work and ideas but I simply just don't know everything she had planned and my additions will inevitable change the course somewhat. My efforts will be in the best of faith, but even my style of writing compared to hers is going to make things feel different, so I apologize in advance if that becomes more noticeable over time.
Finally, my position in this!
Me and Esty have discussed deep plot points, no complete reveals but I have a general idea as to the source of power and how to make that a wild good event should players go for it (it'll shine best as players pooling resources and going together to find it). As for leaving the city, that's at least fairly self explanatory and pieces writing for the military have left me well equipped to handle that one.
On this though, I have no notes, no over arching plot, no idea outside what is mostly posted in the OOC first post about what and how Nocturnia is. It'll take me some time to develop some basic framework to follow (the beach episode will hopefully be long enough) but I'll also reach out to players for plots/developments they'd like to see to weave in.
Moving forward I'll coordinate the game/story according to arcs/chapters. This arc being The War. Once it concludes I'll see what direction everyone is going in and decide the next crisis/challenge to overcome until players are satisfied to write an ultimate ending or exit for their character/s. For example the next Arc could be Finding the Source of Power, if the prerequisite is paid for.
Finally, my own situation. I've been working a bit back and forth with Esty on this and have committed a fair amount of effort, but in open honesty I'm not currently sure if I'm in the position to run this indefinitely. I can do this for a month without impacting myself in the foreseeable future but beyond I simply won't know until we get there.
At that point, I'll either confirm myself able to continue or at least hopefully hold long enough to pass the reins again should it be necessary.
Well this was a long damn post wasn't it? Don't worry I'll have a summary below.
Order of contents:
- General continuation of the game (Peronsel/Wealth, The War and Esty characters).
- District conflict resolution (Supplement rules if required, otherwise as agreed by players)
- Beach Episode (Fun little piece and time to regroup ideas/direction)
- Aid Crisis round (minor story impact event)
- Me in this situation (An unexpected turn of events)
- : Peronsel/Wealth generation, The War and Estylwen character territories : -
The beach episode will not acquire anyone Wealth or Personel as it is an out of character event. The end of the Aid Crisis round will continue standard play and I'll maintain the 0'th post in terms of Wealth and Personel income. (Unless agreed otherwise by players).
Regarding the war. In my mind it does not feel right to play out Estylwen's characters (Ezra Blackheart, Antonia Franchesca, Vincenzo “Vincent” Accardo) when she has worked so hard to build them and establish their presence in the world. For this reason I think it best to hold the war and interactions with Esty's characters for that of a month (longer if we can easily manage it). After this period we will decide as a group what to do moving forward, voting on options we place on the table and failing that I'll make the call. I propose two options at this point (and welcome others to propose solutions as well):
Option 1: We classify Estylwen's area's as locked down. Writing this should be easy, @SporkoBug's monsters overrun the area, military assumes martial law and occupies it etc, the lock down cleared once Esty returns.
Option 2: After a wait period Esty's territory becomes free game. I'll write resistance but otherwise it'd be like acquiring any empty territory. Once Esty returns those territories or some territories of the strongest players would undergo a "revolution" of sorts to return Esty's characters to the game with land to fight from.
In my opinion, option 2 would be best but relies on the good will of the strongest players to accept the loss of some territories to allow @Estylwen's return when she gets back. This would ensure that the territories don't get left behind through no upgrades or lack of geopolitical activity. Option 1 is easier, but leaves swarths of area inaccessible in stasis.
I propose these options so everyone can continue playing until her return. In my experience, projects like this that go on hiatus for extended periods rarely pick up again, so I hope my options allow Nocturnia to continue while keeping the seat warm for Esty so to speak.
Regardless of what is decided, Esty's characters will be written aside so they are free to return with her and free characters currently locked in interactions with them (Example: Ezra holding Adel, will PM @Yankee and @ERode about that. Anyone else locked in Esty interactions let me know and we'll figure a route out of it if necessary).
With that being said, onto that of faction vs faction conflict.
- : Game battles and District wars : -
My experience so far with fighting for districts has been that so long as the aggressor has the manpower/wealth to invade, they can initiate the event. From there the two parties write the battle and more or less amicably agree who the victor is through the writing (Esty explained it as a gacha game, but with no notes on actual mechanics, this is my best interpretation).
If this does not work moving forward, I'll propose a ruleset to roll for district victories so they can be rolled for and settled that way. Otherwise players are more than welcome to continue writing battle conclusions as they agree outside of dice and chance.
Draft district dice roll rules in hider:
The above rules are only there for players who wish to use them or settle disputes in battles if required.
- : Beach episode : -
I propose we take two weeks minimum to develop this (9th March - 23rd March) as both a well earned fun break and time for Esty to return. If anyone has direct contact or alternative details it'd be a really nice piece if they could send it to her as a PDF for her to read in her spare time.
I've also contacted an artist friend to hopefully commission and help co-create a beach portrait of all the current major characters. Something of a "Best Wishes/Get Well Soon" postcard and little gift for everyone for putting so much into this so far. Worst case we'll have the PDF at the very least. Once it's done or close to finished we'll decide if it goes in the IC posted clearly as an INTERMISSION - ALT UNIVERSE piece, in the OOC or somewhere else entirely.
In terms of the beach piece. Here's the setting:
Martin Luthin is a lifeguard, but he's better known as a dick who kicks over sandcastles. He likes the rules, and it's time to ruin Martin's day.
You get 3 points for every rule you break. I'll decide which player gets the points if multiple people break the same rule based on creative and comedic value with runners up for 2 and 1 points. The player with the most points at the end earns the honor of having ruined martins day.
(Or you can just write your characters doing whatever they want, interacting with whoever, however. Enjoy~!)
RULES TO BE BROKEN:
1 - No open fires/flammable sources.
2 - No loud music/noises.
3 - No firearms/weapons/explosives.
4 - No hunting.
5 - No vehicles.
6 - No camping.
7 - No Animals.
8 - No drugs.
9 - No surfing.
10 - Do not feed the wildlife.
Also, PM me or post in the OOC mentioning me with what your main player character would wear to the beach and me and friend will get to starting the art piece for the beach episode to be sent along with the final piece for Esty and everyone here. We can get char refs from the portraits but further detail is always appreciated~. A character brief should include:
- Character clothing.
- Character pose.
- Character activity (optional).
For example: Khor wears a full wetsuit with a scuba rebreather and purple/magenta stripes. She's intense in a comedic sense with her pose. She's throwing Adel into the surf.
- : Aid Crisis round : -
If Esty isn't back after the 'beach episode' round, we'll continue with the Aid Crisis IC to keep things rolling. The aim is for this to be a significant event that doesn't alter Esty's overall plot but provides players the opportunity to continue their dominion of Nocturnia. The reason for this is to avoid a long Hiatus (unless it is agreed upon by all players) to avoid the RP from dying out.
At this stage I'll likely PM all players at the start of it inquiring any plotlines they had with Esty and where they'd like their characters to go/what plots they'd like to ensure the RP is tailored to peoples preferences (to the limit of staying in the lines of Nocturnia's setting).
Ultimately for me this would mean my characters would also take a background role and my territories would be up for grabs by anyone as if they were free so I can focus on maintaining the world's reactions to or supporting player's actions. Khor, Antonio and Akir will still play their roles due to their place in the story now but can assumed to be 'factionless'.
This would also begin deviating from Esty's ultimate vision for Nocturnia. I'll do everything I can to respect her work and ideas but I simply just don't know everything she had planned and my additions will inevitable change the course somewhat. My efforts will be in the best of faith, but even my style of writing compared to hers is going to make things feel different, so I apologize in advance if that becomes more noticeable over time.
Finally, my position in this!
- : Flux the accidental show runner : -
Me and Esty have discussed deep plot points, no complete reveals but I have a general idea as to the source of power and how to make that a wild good event should players go for it (it'll shine best as players pooling resources and going together to find it). As for leaving the city, that's at least fairly self explanatory and pieces writing for the military have left me well equipped to handle that one.
On this though, I have no notes, no over arching plot, no idea outside what is mostly posted in the OOC first post about what and how Nocturnia is. It'll take me some time to develop some basic framework to follow (the beach episode will hopefully be long enough) but I'll also reach out to players for plots/developments they'd like to see to weave in.
Moving forward I'll coordinate the game/story according to arcs/chapters. This arc being The War. Once it concludes I'll see what direction everyone is going in and decide the next crisis/challenge to overcome until players are satisfied to write an ultimate ending or exit for their character/s. For example the next Arc could be Finding the Source of Power, if the prerequisite is paid for.
Finally, my own situation. I've been working a bit back and forth with Esty on this and have committed a fair amount of effort, but in open honesty I'm not currently sure if I'm in the position to run this indefinitely. I can do this for a month without impacting myself in the foreseeable future but beyond I simply won't know until we get there.
At that point, I'll either confirm myself able to continue or at least hopefully hold long enough to pass the reins again should it be necessary.
- : PHEW : -
Well this was a long damn post wasn't it? Don't worry I'll have a summary below.