Jig

Hogwarts World Tour

I'd really like to fire the portkeys by this weekend - this means be involved and ready - and by this weekend I mean 00:00 Monday AM GMT. If you're not ready for Portkey but are close to, let me know, but I'll want you to let me know when you expect to have posts ready for the portkeys to fire and I'll hold you to that - and we'll move on without you if you don't keep to your own deadline.

Those of you that super-desperately want to be involved but aren't involved yet, we can super-duper say that you turned up outside a proper post but you're there and can join in when you're ready, but I'd totally prefer to not do this.

Let me know where you are for posting. In extremis, I'm sure we can work something out, but, if you don't keep me abreast of what's going on, it's not happenin'.

Also:

I expect it to be fixed reasonably soon, but my internet access has gone a bit explody. This doesn't mean downtime from me, but it does mean that my usual prompt replies to stuff can't be counted on until further notice. Should still have daily access, though, so don't lose your shit.

GMing a large group?

In a large group, people will drop out. Absolutely. This is good and bad news: it's bad because obviously the more the merrier and you probably spent some time pre-IC planning stuff that isn't applicable with a different cast than you expected, but it's good because, frankly, you have less people to deal with.

You should basically allow for this. Allow no one character to be utterly indispensable (unless they can 100% be relied on, on pain of death, to stick with it) and don't cement any plots too far in advance. It's fine to pencil stuff in and make adjustments as things change, but nine times out of ten, roleplayers won't do what you expect them to, and nine times out of ten, you won't have all the players you expected by the time you hit the IC.

Chat rooms are a good way to keep many people involved, but this comes at the cost of people who don't share the most common timezone or who have as much free time - it's very easy for such people to get left behind in the frantic, excitable group natter that happens in chat rooms. These are people who're likely to feel like they have to 'catch up' and alienated. At best, it'll mean their characters are likely to be slightly disconnected from events that have been so meticulously planned. At worst, they're people who'll drop out. I would recommend trying to encourage as much OoC discussion as possible on the forum so, at the very least, there's a paper trail. Of course, if people want to work out specific things between themselves, then, by all means, chat rooms are an effective way to go, but information and discussion that involves everybody should be available to everybody.

My main horror in basically all RP's is the Mass Unguided Conversation of Doom - where a tonne of characters are in the same place and attempt to have an unstructured conversation. In my experience, just like chatrooms, this'll typically involve a load of waiting for people in awkward timezones/unsociable hours to catch up, or, more likely, their characters will be forced to be oddly silent during the proceedings that happen without them. If you have a super-good group that can all be available at the same time, then this isn't (such) a problem, but this is unlikely, so I recommend doing all you can to avoid MUCoDs. Depending on what your game is, I'd suggest trying to split your group into smaller groups and allow them to pursue linked but ultimately independent plots and then find a reason to shake it up when things start to get stale.

For me, character sheets are super valuable, and if I'm running a larger game, I like to insist on the importance of clear, easily-read sheets so that you can easily understand and compare information from them. In a game I'm running now, because the players have all submitted sheets in roughly the same format, it's very easy to get a grip on who the characters are and how they're likely to interact and knowing that information will help to steer proceedings.

Château de Lalune

k so everybody's been really super polite about how long it's taking greg to get on a goddamn plane but every time I try to put pen to paper pixels to screen, I'm just drawing absolute crap. Is there a way that we could just like say he turned up #fact and then once we're in the swing of things, I might feel a bit more like I've got something to go on? Don't mind leading a collab or it being said he turns up last and shit moves on before he gets a chance to natter but I'm really struggling for anything worth reading right now.

Hogwarts World Tour

No reason your first post couldn't be a collab. But, like, yeah, it'd be nice if we could look at firing off the portkeys by sunday latest.

GM official edict

The reason I go for portkeys is because in the muggle world, we norms have to travel with passports 'n' shit because apparently nations like to know who's turning up when etc. The wizarding world isn't tooooo different. Land borders are one thing, but just like teleporting into France via apparition with no prior warning is the kind of thing that'll piss governments off. Therefore, Floo Powder and Portkeys are the way to go.

also apparition is a total goddamn gamebreaker and having to hurry to each portkey gives the whole thing slightly more urgency

Hogwarts World Tour

Again, really sorry for taking up space and time!

@HalfOfLancelot

Don't sweat it. If you're gonna drop, now's the right time. :)
See you round. Also if you could plox remove Remy from the character tab for neatness, would mucho appreciato.

Guess who needs a buddy? I do!!

@ravenDivinity

Weeeell you'd be more than welcome to come chill with Beck, Will and Darren in what we've apparently decided is the world's greatest shithole. Since Will and Ross are pals-of-sorts and he, Beck and Darren should all mostly be chill, that's possibly the more natural fit than third-wheeling Siobhan and Kyle, but maybe you could also go hang with Elise and Mary? There's also @Gowi's Liza to take into account, although that's harder to call since somebody hasn't filled out their relationship section. D: D: D:

Hogwarts World Tour

By all means meet up at the portkey. :)

Hogwarts World Tour

You can still meet up at/find the Portkey up until then but we still have three characters not yet introduced, and it'd be unsporting to leave them behind. :P

Hogwarts World Tour

So, it sounds like we have moved on to meeting up at the Portkey, yes? Maybe a new post for Elise is in order...

@kittyluna45

There'll come a point where I'm like PORTKEY TIME and then they'll all go simultaneously. Up until then, knock yourselves out.

Hogwarts World Tour

Ohhhhhh yes it certainly does. I hope you've tried Series 8 of DW by now.

Incidentally, anybody thinking that

"Still, she had the portkey. And the two would have to learn to get on."

is me teasing a Bridget Jones-esque rom com between Beck and Will is sorely mistaken. Especially Will.

Character sheets - How do you like them being?

To the point, clear, and easy to compare to other sheets. When GMing, I like to be able to assess the group dynamic as a whole: easy access to compare and contrast information makes life so much easier when throwing out breadcrumb trails of plot and relationship arcs because it gives me an idea of what kinda bait people might go for. As a player, I like to distinguish my character from others, which is much easier to do when I can easily see who's running what.