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@ Hikaro
It would be the basest stats, like your intelligence and your strength, but it would also show your training, and natural talent as derived units. Like someone with 5 str would automatically get a +1 to the taijutsu and Kenjutsu stats. Someone with higher strength could outmatch another taijutsu user who has less in raw power, but should they use a taijutsu style based on leverage, the weaker would be victorious. So it's a guideline, but the abilities themselves could serve to even the playing field. This, Ability and Skills, rather than simple stats.

No no no, you wouldn't roll dice. That wouldn't work in this setting. You've got people running around at speeds that they could break bones if they tripped and fell. So, rolling would be a bad idea. [One of our enemies botched a roll, and botched the confirm roll so his axe broke mid swing and split his head in half. That will not be tolerated, even by me.]

I'm not saying it is bad for the story, but just starting out, we're not all that powerful. So I was thinking of using that as a tactic to not get attacked if someone found the symbol, or using it to infiltrate some places.

@ Hinote
If we start out as Ninja, then we have to adhere to a code of honor, which is going to inevitably be broken, but we'd have to have originated with a different group of shinobi and when we do that, they'll be hunting us down. That'll give us enemies, but if each of us leaves from one organization, there'll be one group of enemies per person. If we start off as "bandits" then we wouldn't have people targetting us specifically right at the start. I'm not saying all of us. Maybe some of us were old shinobi, maybe some of us were cut-throat executives of a company who got out because someone else hired a ninja to cut their throat so they decided to hide with their own shinobi and learn a bit while they were there for a nice hostile take-over later in life, the possibilities are pretty wide and grand, but claiming everyone is a shinobi just starting out is going to lead to holes when you take into account that ninja will gut you for deserting, and that's if you're lucky. I'm just trying to avoid everyone saying they were all shinobi to begin with.

@ general public
We're going to need a lake or something in the country.

Location: I'm still operating from the basis of a future region/district setup. Surrounding the entire village in bamboo would just be odd, as would keeping the whole thing in a forest or on a mountain. It's intended to eventually be a very large build, self sustaining even once we've attained everything to make it so. Having the start in the bamboo region works. I rather like the idea of starting with our backs to a mountain range/ridge, surrounded in bamboo. Extended further out, into the next subforum over, we'd have the terrain shift to normal forests, or plains, or we could have a sub that goes further up into the mountain. The further out we go, the more the terrain deviates, blending into other styles of terrain to form other countries. I'm certainly not suggesting we need to design the entire guild world yet. That can be done gradually as we spread.

Aaaall that said, it seems that with the poll, and conversation here, we've pretty much settle on a bamboo zone backed by a mountain for our starting area. Further world dev can be taken to another thread, perhaps simply modifying the poll thread. Points on that from now on should just be on positioning, as well as thread and subforum design. Also in that other thread, to clear this one up for the next topic instead of going in circles.

Political: On Timmy's points, there are other ninja groups around. Most, however, are going to be clan groups, or bloodline groups. There are few if any true ninja organizations yet, because our setting is during a time when the clans were all fighting each other. The purpose of the village is to create a place where ninja from different backgrounds can come together without worrying about another clan attacking them in their sleep. None of us have to be evil underhanded people, nor deserters from another group unless we want to. In fact, anyone with that sort of background would be highly distrusted, most likely, by anyone in the village.

Daimyo: We don't necessarily need to have a full profile for him yet, but even that is something worth considering. Do we want to hold off on him and let crew work out his role later on, or have some idea of his involvement before starting so people can work it into their backgrounds if they want? He's eventually going to be a fairly big part of the story, and it'd be a good idea to have him figured out ahead of time so it's not like he was just randomly injected as random enemy #5.

Jutsu/Economy: Admittedly jutsu are the largest part of the economy setup now. Something we should work out a way to fix when we start on that. However, the suggested method wouldn't hurt that much, if at all. I never suggested that finding the scroll and learning from it should be a right for everyone. The scroll would be added to the village library, where other players would then still need to buy the jutsu for themselves. It'd just be the ONE who did the work of acquiring it that got a free shot at it, and there would be no two copies of the same jutsu out there. One free copy of each jutsu being given to the one who did the work to attain it doesn't exactly hurt the cash flow. Not to mention we could still use my previous suggestion of using various methods to keep people from being able to use the scrolls they find for free if we felt it was taking too much out of the system, or just becoming too easy.

I propose the village have access from the start to: Up to B Rank Universal, up to C rank of the five main elements, and up to D rank of combination elements. In addition, the village can have copies of any jutsu chosen by autoranks or transfers that do not already fall under those parameters. Medical and Sealing, being sub-sets of universal, should have access to C and D, respectively. Sealing, with it's sheer levels of awesome, should be harder to master thus have rarer scrolls. Styles should be available in limited number, starting with those the autoranks choose to start with, and perhaps one or two more. Those numbers can be filled in as we fix up the styles, and scrolls are located for them. A style though should come in it's entirety, not split into parts.

That gives everyone plenty to work with, while allowing us to expand the lists gradually over time through trade, missions, outright theft, and various other methods. Autoranks joining after the start would be given the option to write scrolls detailing any jutsu they bring to the table that we don't already have, utilizing the jutsu scroll system type thing that I have not actually remembered to release anywhere yet... Should do that sometime.

Hidden Village Seal: It'd be fairly simple to intrude actually. Just steal an insignia, or simply follow a ninja, and then monitor the movements of ninja, locating where they all seem to go. If you have the insignia, walk right in. If not, follow a ninja in. The idea isn't to make a perfect defense, but to make it more ninja all around. It's just, weird, to have a ninja village anyone can find and wander into. The cost is certainly a fair point though.

Summons: While I'm not overly attached to them, there is a lot of potential to be had, both in their purpose as combat assistants, and some interesting story if done right. If we can't balance them well, fine, but I certainly want to give it a good try before that.

With Location done, for the most part, we should focus on Subforum Layout, as that is the only thing stopping us from starting thread creation. It's been decided by way of direct chatting that village name, symbol, and most details thereof can be decided in game by the characters, as a natural stage of village creation. Though those of us who discussed it do think we could have an organization insignia to start, since even without being a village yet, the group does exist. Three out of three votes agree that the following option looks cool.



I'd like everyone to keep thinking about the other points brought up for discussion, but for the time being, keep the thread focused on one subject at a time. For the moment, layout.

We are open to new subforums being suggested, as well as old ones being removed or combined with others to save space. However, every subforum should have a purpose which is likely to actually be used for something. Duplicate subforums should only ever exist if we expect crowding, so suggestions of subs with purposes that could safely be merged should be left out.

Again, the layout I have posted a couple times previously.


Most of the options I provided that we don't already have I included explanations for directly, but for the sake of discussion, I'll go into a bit of depth now.

Project Workshop: The Crew Workshop exists to house threads the crew are working on, but which do not generally require the full attention of the entire crew. Single person projects for the most part, where the Crew forum usually is used for those that multiple crew members are involved in. The Project Workshop is intended for crew to use for projects that take up too much space in the other two forums, but need attention from all crew, which is often lost if the subforum is untidy and threads aren't easily found. This is mostly for projects such as our recent revamp of the professions, or the ongoing bloodline edits. Projects that require multiple threads to complete.

Recycling Bins: This is a bit different from our current setup. We currently have several different bins, dedicated to specific areas of the guild. The "Old World Archive" would contain all the threads dedicated to the current PotS world, in one place rather than five. Due to the world design, we shouldn't need multiple bins to organize the world, and in fact should have many less wasted threads. For that purpose though, the "Main" bin is there. As always, all bins but crew will most likely be open for public viewing.
(@Crew: We need to go through and delete some of the more ancient threads in some bins. We like saving them in case of future needs of past decisions, but a lot are just taking up space. We don't need three years worth of old check ins.)

User Workshops: As I'm sure many can attest, having your own thread to post works in progress is infinitely useful. Both for testing formatting, and for storage for those who don't want to keep copies on their PC. However, currently, everyone uses their customs vault for that. This makes it difficult at times for the crew to tell what is an approved custom, and what is something you are still working on, or even something that was denied. With the addition of user workshops regular members each get one thread they can do all that stuff in, and the customs vault thread remains, as it should be, reserved for approved customs. Needless to say everyone would need to make a new customs thread, but most current vault threads could be retained for the workshops.

Non-Canon RP: This subforum is for when you are bored, and want to do something you can't in the main guild. From the original purpose of the OFA, fighting other characters without risk, to the purpose of the RP Academy, teaching less skilled RPers to improve their writing, and anything else. You could use this for a private forum style single thread RP with your friends in the guild if you wanted. Basically, the thread is outside of guild canon, so anything goes, within the realms of guild rules. (But we won't be cracking down on you for breaking combat rules unless you ask us to.)

OOC Events: Like the previous one, this is for RP that doesn't take place within guild canon. However, where the "NCRP(?)" is for private player made threads, this one is for guild sponsored events, such as a battle tournament or some such thing. There is a good chance that events in this sub would include prizes and things that overlap with the main guild in some way too, such as winning a tournament giving you exclusive access to a rare jutsu or weapon.

Mind Realms: It's already available to hosts, but I plan to introduce the ability for players to utilize meditation to enter into a "Mind Scape". Basically a realm within the character's mind which they can control at will, designing the terrain in whatever way they like and, well, doing whatever they like. I haven't determined much use for the realms beyond that yet, but even that is a fun ability to play with, since you can do whatever you like there, even recreate a scene from memory to review it, if you're the type to do that sort of thing.

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Potential subs or changes to subs
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Summons&Demons: Hikaro has suggested merging this sub with the bloodline sub, and I honestly can't fault the idea. Both only contain a few threads, and the purposes are similar. The only issue is the name... Though, if summons were just moved to jutsu we could use the same "Bloodline Clan or Demon" bit we do in the profile.

Character Backgrounds: With the introduction of spoiler tags, the purpose of this subforum is lessened quite a lot since spoilers can be used to shrink away the massive lumps of text in the profile. At the same time, that enlarges the profile quite a lot when editing, so may not be the best change to make. As a side note, if we move to a stat system we may want individual threads for each character to track their stats in, in which case background could simply be added to that thread as a single post. Just something to consider.

ADT: While the ADT idea never really took off, it might not be a bad idea to set it up as a subforum here. Especially if we want it open to regular members as the original idea was. I'm unsure on this though since it seems we have a good stockpile of story ideas to use for some time yet, and player involvement in story planning always ends in the player enjoying it less, knowing the ending.

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In Closing: Again, as I've stated several times previously, if you have any ideas for new subs, changes to subs, or think other ideas or current subs should be removed, you should state so now, and explain your reasoning clearly. Moving subforums around is a major task that can take several days depending on how much has to be moved. I don't want to have to redo it after we're done because someone forgot to make a good suggestion.

we could call the village the First International Shinobi Hideout (FISH for short)

Layout @Hikaro: The problem with reformatting later is mostly in adding new subs to the upper sections. If we want/have to do that, every single subforum below them has to be moved down, manually, thread by thread. So even a one or two sub edit would mean moving pretty much the entire guild.

That said, one or two spare subs in each area, while annoying in that they have no purpose yet and thus are a useless blot on the format, could save us the agony of doing that later.

If nobody has any more input on format, I suppose we're ready to get that moving. Do I have any crew volunteers to move ridiculous numbers of threads around?

@Luo: We need to look at the old recycling bins and decide what old threads to keep, and which to outright delete. We don't really need three year old crew discussions anymore.

Guild Name: I'm still partial to "PotS: Birth of a Village". "First of the Shinobi" just lacks flair, and isn't quite accurate to the guild either.

ADT: Thinking on it, and not having liked pre-made storylines much in the first place (They have a tendency to force themselves along on their planned route regardless of player action or inaction, even if that means a rather weak NPC antagonist becomes nigh on undefeatable.), this new design is such that most stories will develop themselves along the way. Luo, Hikaro, and I are apparently the starting members of the council, and while we've been discussing lots of ideas, we've also been making sure to keep each other in the dark as well, which, seeing as the council are the ones you will go to for missions, could lead to some excellent story bits. Pre-designed events will definitely still happen, but I don't think we'll need them on the scale that the ADT would be needed for. That would effectually reduce the ADT to just NPC designs/requests. That could be it's own sub still, but the ADT is unnecessary in it's original state.

Transfer: That 2nd RPC rule feels off. I mean, normally we award second RPCs for consistent recent activity. Giving players who only had one RPC in the first place two because their character was active months before the guild died (Three months being 3/4ths of the time needed to earn a second RPC, thus they wouldn't qualify normally.) doesn't mesh with the rule design. We know, hopefully, they can handle a single RPC, but know nothing about their capabilities with two. And the activity data is months old to boot. I think I'd prefer shortening the time required after the reboot is complete and working off of new data over the method described.

I don't mind the acronym FISH. Could be misconstrued by passers by.

The ADT will more than likely handle no more than NPC designs/requests. As mentioned its original state isn't needed when we're operating under a unified council.

Guild name: Create a poll and get this wrapped up.

Transfer: I'd honestly just make an application. More than likely we can tell who among those still here can operate two rpcs off the bat and who can't.

@Hinote: Well as we've found out these past two days our schedules seem to be oddly timed. We'll figure it out and get that knocked out however.

Ooooh, moving threads. Should be fun.

Cool as it sounds, the theory behind that name becomes a bit awkward outside of theory. Why would we feel the need to call ourselves the "True" village, when we're already the "Only" village? Calling something the "True" version is only really done if there's more than one, to set the original apart. We also somewhat decided awhile back that we want to avoid "Gakure"ing. Since there's no other villages, there isn't a theme we have to follow for the name. We're trying to set ourselves apart from Naruto and Naruto guilds, so choosing a more unique name for our village is another good step towards that goal.

I don't think anyone else noticed the similarity there. I still don't see it, though that's probably because I can't remember any Avatar Air symbols other than all the arrows at the moment. It was a random symbol I found while googling, and it looked cool, so I offered it as an option. Certainly open to any you might have to offer, but I still like that one myself. I like that one for it mainly because it nicely entails the three stages of chakra. Mind, Body, Spirit, combined. Course technically I'm pretty sure Spirit isn't normally included...