October Midmonth

[moustre]

Midmonth Mod Post: October Hello, Aefenglom! Here's your monthly midmonth mod post. First, as always, some reminders. They're pretty brief this month: • Going on right now is our October special: Fright Night! End the Geardagas year as something you're not, or watch your friends despair and celebrate their new parts (or lack there of) instead! •Our activity check also begins on October 24th! While we'll have the requirements on the activity check itself as a reminder, here they are right now so you can start figuring things out: 10 comments minimum from you across two threads OR one network post/log made by you with at least 5 comments from you and a second, separate thread with at least 5 comments from you. In addition, players are allowed to take a strike if they have at least half of the necessary activity; Inbox threads and personal overflow threads also work - they just have to be from the current month! • The calendar has all these dates as always, so check it out! Now then - onwards! The Aefenglom Journal It's been an eventful end-of-year for Aefenglom. We are proud to welcome refugees from Dorchacht into our fold, and we thank all the citizens that have given up their time and cunes to help them settle in and become part of our fair city. So too do we thank the Mirrorbound for assisting during that mess over the days of the full moons. The perpetrators using experimental alchemy to torment our citizens have been brought in and are being held until trial. The Coven and Parliament together plan to crack down on the illegal trade of goods that allowed such mischief to occur in the first place. We face difficulties, but we pick up and move on. Preparations for Samuin at the end of the month continue as scheduled, alongside clean-up efforts. There is much to make amends for now, and it's best to do so before the end of the year, lest it poison the next. When Samuin comes and the moons wane, the use of magic is still greatly discouraged during the celebration, as it is during all holidays. The well of it is much stronger, and the draw to use it is more potent. Those who fall to its temptation will be pelted with balls of seasonally-appropriate colored paint. Make sure to catch the fireworks display on the eve of the 31st, and hold your loved ones close. May the new year be bright! OOC Updates • The results are in and have been looked over in regards to closing applications -- we thank you for your time and words, as well as your understanding regarding the matter. Applications will be closed until January, as per the end result, with no caps on it; however, future application rounds will most likely have one, which we will let you all know about well ahead of time so that you can plan accordingly. • In response to some of your suggestions, as well as our own notations of growing casts, we'd like to ask your opinion on canon and franchise caps! Our thought would be 10-12 per canon, and 20-24 per franchise, so let us know what you think below. • For those who've been wondering about switching their roles, from Witch to Monster and vice versa, there will soon be a way to do so implemented ICly into the game! More information regarding this will be given going in November. • Lastly, we are looking for helper mods to assist with list upkeep and activity checking! For the first, you'll be in charge of keeping the Taken, Player Contact, Reserves, and Quest Board updated. The same with the activity mod: You'll be in charge of checking through AC at the end of each month, and only that. We'll be assisting with both so you're not all on your own about it, but it really would help us. For those interested in either position, please PM the mod account! Feedback We're here again to offer everyone the chance to give some feedback, if there's anything that you've noticed or would like to possibly seem implemented! Talking Points: • Info posts that you'd like clarification for. • Quests. In general, what kind of quests would you like to see more of? How can we improve with these? What's working, and what isn't? • Plot investigation feedback. We've gotten quite a few good investigations, and honestly it's been fantastic seeing what everyone does with their information. • Events. What type of ones would you like to see, what ones are working, what aren't? • General feelings on: the game, the timing of posts, how events and such are set up, etc. • And more! Tell us what's on your mind. We honestly appreciate all kinds of comments, and we want to make Aefenglom a wonderful, fun, and comfortable game for everyone who joins. This post will remain unscreened, so if you'd like to take something to a more private venue, you can either PM us or comment here.

Comments

[krihnnges]

That'd make far more sense to me if that's how franchises are broken up!

The numbers will be a bit trickier, given how franchise sizes can vary drastically. For example, Kingdom Hearts and Marvel Comics vs Final Fantasy X / X-2 or Final Fantasy XIII.

[fiddlestick]

YEAH. It's tricky trying to figure out a franchise/cast cap because there's so many canons/franchises that are weird exceptions to any one rule you come up with - so judging by a case-by-case scenario is probably the best bet.

To me personally, the biggest issue about big casts/franchise casts is not about "oh no how dare this franchise be popular" and more that characters with similar canon worlds have a tendency to team up and if there's a lot of them - it can overwhelm plots. I remember being in a game where we had 20+ superheroes characters from various comics/movies/shows, and it was hard to do things in plots because good luck competing against all those superheroes working together like one big cast. So in situations like that? I'm all for a franchise cap to help keep that in check.

Meanwhile I'm less worried about there being a lot of FF characters because good luck getting a unified front from the shared experiences of "yellow ostriches" and "Cid's a surprisingly popular name". That's just me at least.

[tinyfood]

Agreed on this! With superhero stuff especially those characters are also frequently used to interacting with people from different-but-similar universes, so it's a lot easier for them to just gravitate to each other in ways that make it hard for characters whose whole deal doesn't slot so neatly into that to get in on.

I definitely think handling it on a case by case basis would be the best approach to this, though, provided the mods are transparent about their decisions (I totally trust them on that front though!)