Ashdown Crier
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- Posted: Wed, 30 Mar 2016 00:10:20 +0000
Dearingest darlingest whombuses and popsicles,
the first meta is now over!!
(trumpet fanfare)
Thank everyone so much for participating! Thank you so much for your patience with me as I figured out this 'GM' nonsense!! Thank you going forward as well. (see what i did there? i thanked you for something that might not happen, thereby making you feel guilty if you don't do it, for i have already thanked you, and thus you are disappointing me.) I had a lot of fun, and I hope you guys did too, even though it was short and a little low on the action front.
Let's reminisce, and go over what we now know!
THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT RUNNING EVENTS:
WAYS EVENTS WILL IMPROVE IN THE FUTURE:
So our event began with three missing Ashdown teenagers, all three of them loners and close friends. In their attempts to investigate, Zac and Jeremiah joined them in other ashdown, trapped as heck. They might have remained there forever, had an unknown force not called the sum total of every person to awaken their abilities (so far!) into the otherworld.
The dreamers converged upon the town green, and a strange booming voice called them to come and see. Despite some arguing on the way and the revelation that neither Rider-Waite nor the high school seemed to exist in this new reality, they made it to Waite State Park. Asiya found a bloody shoe with a foot still inside, prompting Jeremiah, Finn and Leila to do Forensic Science to it. They determined that it was cut off Heliodora Winters while she was still alive. This was confirmed when Algernon did book magic with a book that had belonged to Heliodora, showing that shadowy creatures cut off her foot with her consent.
They continued on, still seeking the source of the voice, and found instead a tiny clearing with an enormous six-eyed monster nearby. Though things were tense when Alexis wouldn't give up their knife, the encounter passed amicably thanks to the intervention of Autumn, with the Peaceful One (or 'Pax' as it prefers to be known) teaching the characters involved to see truth. Once the spell was cast, the group found themselves standing in a meadow near a small grove of mangroves, which aren't native to New England and thus were very out of place. Heliodora was there, looking quite a bit older, and attended by the worgi Smol.
Things got along quite peacefully, and Heliodora was just about to have Smol send the dreamers home when Sunny arrived and Jeremiah said Heliodora needs to leave. This enraged Pax, who surrounded Jeremiah with a ring of cold fire and threatened to kill him. Autumn rushed in and tried to calm Pax as Sunny told Jeremiah to think of water. With a hearty shove from Sunny, Jeremiah cast deluge and doused the fire... and everything else.
After a few rounds of questions, Heliodora directed Smol to send everyone home. Though they all arrived at different times and places, all of the dreamers arrived where they were meant to be, somewhere between an hour or a day after they disappeared.
Many questions remain, but it is up to our intrepid travelers to ensure that those questions get answered! Our next metaplot event, 'School's Out', will begin May 28, but fear not: there's plenty of events and things to do in the meantime.
So, that's what happened this past meta! If anyone has any questions, critiques, or comments, I'd love to hear them! Please post them in this thread or PM them to the mule, as your heart guides you, and keep an eye out for coming updates, including:
I probably forgot something! Please ask some questions if you know what I missed. And thank you all so much for being soooo lovely, let's have some brilliant fun at Ashdown!!
PS, Please welcome cibarium to staff as our wonderful new Meta Roll Manufacturer, he who thinks of even more exciting powers for your characters to randomly game! More welcomes are coming soon, so keep an eye out.
the first meta is now over!!
(trumpet fanfare)
Thank everyone so much for participating! Thank you so much for your patience with me as I figured out this 'GM' nonsense!! Thank you going forward as well. (see what i did there? i thanked you for something that might not happen, thereby making you feel guilty if you don't do it, for i have already thanked you, and thus you are disappointing me.) I had a lot of fun, and I hope you guys did too, even though it was short and a little low on the action front.
Let's reminisce, and go over what we now know!
THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT RUNNING EVENTS:
- If players aren't meant to wander, the GM should say so and make an ORP right away. Also, provide a map, as well as state all off-limits areas ahead of time, or somehow people will make it multiple many miles to an area you were trying to save for a future meta, where there will be teen wolves.
Be specific! If there is weather, I need to be clearer about it. I should also tell people ahead of time where the gathering point is, and be very plain about who is where rather than getting caught up in my neato typing quirks.
Large group RPs with one single goal don't work so well. I should spread people out into smaller groups in the future, with multiple different goals, so more people can get a moment in the sun.
WAYS EVENTS WILL IMPROVE IN THE FUTURE:
- I will encourage the small groups mentioned by having several different objectives and several different available paths.
I will cater to slower playstyles by announcing when I will be DM posting, and also possibly by designating one or two threads as the slower adventure paths for people who may not be able to be as active.
I will encourage players to take risks by rewarding people who do, such as when Autumn took a chance and ran to soothe an angry Pax! I will also be clearer that, unless I say otherwise in the post, any action taken is a legitimate action and I shall react as such!
I will encourage players to ask questions about the area they are in in the RP threads, so as to help them come up with out-of-the-box ideas.
I will come up with more stuff for civilians to do, although the focus will remain on dreamer characters.
So our event began with three missing Ashdown teenagers, all three of them loners and close friends. In their attempts to investigate, Zac and Jeremiah joined them in other ashdown, trapped as heck. They might have remained there forever, had an unknown force not called the sum total of every person to awaken their abilities (so far!) into the otherworld.
The dreamers converged upon the town green, and a strange booming voice called them to come and see. Despite some arguing on the way and the revelation that neither Rider-Waite nor the high school seemed to exist in this new reality, they made it to Waite State Park. Asiya found a bloody shoe with a foot still inside, prompting Jeremiah, Finn and Leila to do Forensic Science to it. They determined that it was cut off Heliodora Winters while she was still alive. This was confirmed when Algernon did book magic with a book that had belonged to Heliodora, showing that shadowy creatures cut off her foot with her consent.
They continued on, still seeking the source of the voice, and found instead a tiny clearing with an enormous six-eyed monster nearby. Though things were tense when Alexis wouldn't give up their knife, the encounter passed amicably thanks to the intervention of Autumn, with the Peaceful One (or 'Pax' as it prefers to be known) teaching the characters involved to see truth. Once the spell was cast, the group found themselves standing in a meadow near a small grove of mangroves, which aren't native to New England and thus were very out of place. Heliodora was there, looking quite a bit older, and attended by the worgi Smol.
Things got along quite peacefully, and Heliodora was just about to have Smol send the dreamers home when Sunny arrived and Jeremiah said Heliodora needs to leave. This enraged Pax, who surrounded Jeremiah with a ring of cold fire and threatened to kill him. Autumn rushed in and tried to calm Pax as Sunny told Jeremiah to think of water. With a hearty shove from Sunny, Jeremiah cast deluge and doused the fire... and everything else.
After a few rounds of questions, Heliodora directed Smol to send everyone home. Though they all arrived at different times and places, all of the dreamers arrived where they were meant to be, somewhere between an hour or a day after they disappeared.
Many questions remain, but it is up to our intrepid travelers to ensure that those questions get answered! Our next metaplot event, 'School's Out', will begin May 28, but fear not: there's plenty of events and things to do in the meantime.
So, that's what happened this past meta! If anyone has any questions, critiques, or comments, I'd love to hear them! Please post them in this thread or PM them to the mule, as your heart guides you, and keep an eye out for coming updates, including:
- Plot hooks galore! Need a nudge? Here's three!Creature compendium: share what you know about the denizens of the other ashdown!Quest Request, where you get quests and prompts for things!Last, but not least, Election Week and Fashion Week are coming!
I probably forgot something! Please ask some questions if you know what I missed. And thank you all so much for being soooo lovely, let's have some brilliant fun at Ashdown!!
PS, Please welcome cibarium to staff as our wonderful new Meta Roll Manufacturer, he who thinks of even more exciting powers for your characters to randomly game! More welcomes are coming soon, so keep an eye out.
