Well, we're in the final stretch of the final stretch. Before I jump into what I really want to talk about, I just want to take a moment to thank all of you.
Merlin was just an idea in the back of my mind about a year and a half ago, because I was getting frustrated. Every roleplay me and my friends tried simply kept dying out. We stopped talking as frequently. Life's stresses somehow increased, and there wasn't any alternate reality to escape to. The more I thought about the other RPs I'd been in, the more I realized the worlds had been too restricting with little room to grow. With all this in mind, I decided to make a challenge out of it and make a world that would grow as the players required it. The world had to be defined enough that people couldn't go absolutely haywire and destroy the dynamics with incredibly Suish OCs, but at the same time undefined enough to be added to as necessary.
Not only that, but I wanted to make it as close to unproblematic as I could from the beginning. I knew that problems would arise from other places, but at the very least I wanted to avoid the mistakes that brought about several other guilds' downfalls. Looking through older guilds that had thrived and fallen (GEIOW, Commonsky, Gallagher) really helped. Making all the teachers NPCs, the nobility/pet register, the element system, the allowed races, and making four hub areas to explore were all planned to avoid the mistakes that led to massive problems in older guilds.
(In case you're confused - making the teachers NPCs keeps classes from being professorless, the nobility register prevents a massive amount of Sues, the pet register keeps people from hoarding pets, the elements allow more versatility/prevents someone from using all aspects of an element, the allowed races prevents Sues/things like angels, demons, demigods, etc, and the four hub areas provide a wide range of places to explore and keeps the area from feeling restricted.)
And so far, it's been successful! Merlin's lasted nine months with no sign of slowing down. And it wouldn't be possible without all of you. Some of you helped me behind the scenes when I got stuck (I was not the one that came up with the specific classes, that was all someone else), and others eagerly contributed to canon and expanded the world. Merlin would not be nearly as exciting, detailed or diverse without all of you. So, thank you. Thank you so much.
And now we get down to the real reason for this post.
As a lot of you know, I'm a member of the SYM (Society of Young Magicians) and I attend a meeting one Friday a month. (That's magic as in stage magic, not Merlin magic.) At the meeting there's a time of the night called Chosen Ones where four randomly selected members perform a piece of magic they've been working on. Afterwards, the rest of the group goes through the Goods and Bads - what the performer did well and what the performer can improve on. That's what we're doing here - talking about what went very well, what didn't go so well, and what can be done to improve things.
Like I said before, I wanted to make Merlin as unproblematic as possible, but problems did obviously arise. In case the above wasn't clear, I'm a big believer in learning from your mistakes, so let's stop talking about what makes Merlin great and talk about what makes Merlin not so great! Here are the questions to be discussed:
What elements in Merlin worked well? What elements didn't work so well? What elements can be removed entirely? What elements can be improved? What elements should be added?
I was going to just discuss this with crew, but I decided that I'd prefer input from the whole guild. So, let's talk about what was great and what sucked!
Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 7:39 am
I'll start us off with some the ones I've been thinking about that I think are the most obvious.
EDIT: put into a spoiler for ease of scrolling.
Journal Database - The Towns RP Archive was a good idea in practice, but executed poorly in theory. It might've been how I set up the thread, or it might've been that people were just too lazy to use it, but for whatever reason it didn't work. It's been replaced now with the Journal Database, but since nobody's posted in that at all I'm not entirely sure if that's working or not. You tell me.
Lessons - Yeah there are almost no lessons and I'm sorry about that. Crew's making it a priority to get these done this summer, but if anyone has any ideas for classes those would be hugely appreciated. Coming up with lesson plans for twenty different classes (most of which have two/four different years to make plans for) is no easy task.
Forums - it's no secret that as a guild we need to use the forums more, and hopefully starting next plot all major plot events will take place in the forums so they're accessible to all. Like it states in the rules, posts don't necessarily have to be three paragraphs long. They can be pretty short to keep things moving quickly. Also, there are lots of threads with no posts - I'd go so far to say the majority of area threads have gone unused.
Plot - Actually, this is a question for my own benefit - what did you guys think about the plot? Were the characters interesting enough? Were there some points that it grew a little stagnant? Feelings on the Blood Pact in general?
Weekly Parchment - more like the Thread That Gets Updated When Plot Relevant Parchment. In all seriousness, this is probably going to get changed to just the Parchment and will only be updated when the plot calls for it or just monthly. I'm thinking it might be fun to allow player-submitted stories or story prompts, though, because if there's one thing I've learned from Merlin it's that multiple heads are better than one.
Chat - let's talk about something really good for a minute. In case you didn't notice, there's now a Chat button in the Gaia menu bar. A couple people and I checked it out, and long story short you can lock the chat so it won't scroll, so if you have to leave you can come back right where you left off. Not only THAT, but you can save the text logs. Personally I think it'll be really useful for RP, but what do you guys think?
EDIT: put into a spoiler for ease of scrolling. -- Jenn
I REALLY LIKE THE IDEA OF SUBMITTING STORIES TO THE PARCHMENT!! I think having users contribute to the library sounds fun, too, since there are only like three books in there? Like ppl could write fiction and shove it in there, whether to allude to chara stuff or just for fun or whatever else. I think it could help with world building too if anyone was dedicated enough to write for their subject of choice // passed it by you ofc.
I think the new Chat feature in Gaia is a gr8 thing for people who cant access skype. While at the same time I think it would be great for RP, I'm a little doubtful about how much we'll actually use it seeing as we tend to just stick to skype if one of us cant get on gaia for whatever reason. LOL. Though I think Chat is just a thing that we're gonna have to try out/put to use and then call judgement on.
I REALLY LIKE the whole interelement concepts and over all think it would be nice to have some focus on elements in general! Celestial/Astral in particular, because it seems really interesting but it isn't really an easy element to bullshit the same way Stone or Fire is.
Honestly I do wish there had been a bit more focus content-wise on the villains tho b/c as it was they didn't really seem to develop much past the plot events that were set out & so people weren't really interested in their personalities past all the jokes we made in Skype. Vivian completely doesn't count tho as far as this goes bc she did develop a lot and I personally thought she was really interesting.
I think learning about Project Dawn in general would be really cool too! Seeing as they seem to be a huge main antagonist force.
(( I WOULD also like to go further with the whole ~~~Secret Organization~~~ idea and have them become more than a thing that only really pertains to Marianne (who is a fairly minor chara) and a cool place for future charas to go seeing as the whole concept of their existence became bigger than I actually originally intended, but I guess that kind of hope is a little selfish? :'DD ))
UHHH School field trips would be super tubular imo. School outings I think are generally just a good way for characters who dont tend to interact with other characters do so//socialize past their little cliques that we've sort of set up for them ooc, yi. I think doing them in forums would encourage people to post more and allow rpers who don't do rrp to interact with everyone else more.
I THINK clubs/electives would be a cute idea but I think getting lessons done and out of the way are of more importance. Maybe they could be a user based/run thing? Like a chara has to actually make it and get a required amount of other charas to sign up, and that brings up opportunity for club events or club vs. club stuff in the case we get enough, idek. I think this sort of idea really heavily depends on how much the rp'ers are actually interested. LOL.
I ACTUALLY DIDNT KNOW WE WERE SUPPOSED TO POST IN JOURNAL DATABASE OMFG
uhh thinks that it. for now. yeah.
coughs
edit: I REALIZED LIKE 95% OF THIS IS JUST SUGGESTIONS SORRY ABOUT THAT
Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 6:39 pm
Plot: I think the plot events were really cool and interesting but could've been dragged out just a little while longer (this is probably because I'm not on as often as I used to be so a lot of the event progresses before I get to post and I feel slightly behind (this is probably a personal preference thing...)). I would like announcements telling me how many days there are until an event ends, or when a main plot event is starting and what's happened so far too, that'd be cool, granted quite a bit of work, but cool. This way the whole guild is aware of what's happening.
Journal Databases and The Towns RP Archive: I think a revamping of the towns rp archive would be cool so if any character or sub/mini plot events were developed, everyone would know. And a journal database could be added here too. I think it's really helpful for keeping people in-the-know.
Lessons: I may be able to help with lesson plan suggestions over the summer but having the lesson plans be minimal would be good. (y)
Misc. I want more people actively participating that I don't know from anywhere else (I should be more active soon ;n; )
Zeriari
Dedicated Mage
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Jennalaia Captain
Salty Sleuth
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Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2015 11:48 am
EDIT: put into a spoiler for ease of scrolling.
Siyaahi
I REALLY LIKE the whole interelement concepts and over all think it would be nice to have some focus on elements in general! Celestial/Astral in particular, because it seems really interesting but it isn't really an easy element to bullshit the same way Stone or Fire is.
Yup, the Elements curriculum's actually going to be reworked a little bit. First years are gonna learn the basics, second years start getting into more detail about the elements, third years are gonna cover interelement stuff, and then fourth year will be largely independent study, as I'm thinking. I gotta write it all out but I think that would work pretty well. And don't worry - I plan on going into the Celestial aspect in more detail because it's definitely the fuzziest aspect.
Siyaahi
Honestly I do wish there had been a bit more focus content-wise on the villains tho b/c as it was they didn't really seem to develop much past the plot events that were set out & so people weren't really interested in their personalities past all the jokes we made in Skype. Vivian completely doesn't count tho as far as this goes bc she did develop a lot and I personally thought she was really interesting.
They actually do all have backstories that were going to be explored in their journals! But that never really happened because I got a little lazy oops. :'D But yeah, most of the antagonists ended up pretty drastically underdeveloped, with the exceptions, I think, of Lara and Vivian. So far with the new Unit I think I may be able to split the screen time more evenly so they all get development.
Siyaahi
I think learning about Project Dawn in general would be really cool too! Seeing as they seem to be a huge main antagonist force.
I'm pretty sure one of the professors actually worked in Project Dawn! I'll definitely see about getting more information out into the public, though. Maybe older newspapers in the library, or a record book? Not sure where the latter would be though...
Siyaahi
UHHH School field trips would be super tubular imo.
You used "tubular" in a sentence. Nice. But yeah, those would be fun! There are plenty of places that have been established over the last nine months that can be visited, too - the Ivymeadow Forestdweller Preserve, the Museum of Magickal Artifacts up in England, the Forest and the Catacombs... it would be fun for little mini events in the forums too to keep activity going. I'll put it on the list of things to discuss with crew.
Siyaahi
I THINK clubs/electives would be a cute idea but I think getting lessons done and out of the way are of more importance.
I'd have to agree with you, though if anyone WANTS to help out with electives I have a few ideas and resources to get you started! As for clubs, in my experience clubs tend to gain a lot of interest and then very quickly die out. I do like the idea of them being user-run, but like you say it depends on how much the RPers are interested. Also, with the way the school is looking for post-timeskip I doubt a lot of clubs would get approved anyway, with all the strict Council regulations.
Siyaahi
I ACTUALLY DIDNT KNOW WE WERE SUPPOSED TO POST IN JOURNAL DATABASE OMFG
Yeah, well, you know how you posted an update in your journal every time you updated someone's journal? Same thing sort of, except everything is in one place so people know whose journal updated when and so on.
x_Reflective Memories_x
I would like announcements telling me how many days there are until an event ends, or when a main plot event is starting.
I don't think the first one is actually possible - events end when they end, though they usually last for a couple of weeks each. As for the second one, there are actually announcements made when an event is about to happen or is happening! The Halloween event had maybe five or six announcements in total, and there was an announcement at the beginning of the Black Dragon and the current event. There's even a link to the proper thread/forum in the event announcements.
Personally I think they're all dragged out long enough - the Halloween event alone lasted a month, the Black Dragon lasted around two weeks and the current climax is looking to be a month and a half.
However, I will acknowledge that we didn't have as many events as we should've. Like I said before, all main plot events for next plot are definitely happening in forums so everyone can keep up on what's going on.
x_Reflective Memories_x
I think a revamping of the towns rp archive would be cool so if any character or sub/mini plot events were developed, everyone would know. And a journal database could be added here too. I think it's really helpful for keeping people in-the-know.
The Towns RP Archive basically got trashed because people actually sending in summaries of those events were really rare. However, journals do the same thing so that ended up getting replaced with the Journal Database in the main forum. There's a list of all the journals (I would recommend Muna's for the most up-to-date events) that are linked in any of the SIDs.
As for sub/miniplots, we have a forum for that! There's even a thread in there with a form to keep up with all the information made by the fabulous Reilas, and I'm going to add a link to it in the FAQ so hopefully people will start using it once timeskip hits! (Nobody uses it at the moment but I intend on fixing that.) I actually really like it; it'll be much easier to keep track of subplot events this way.
x_Reflective Memories_x
I may be able to help with lesson plan suggestions over the summer but having the lesson plans be minimal would be good.
I think they're already pretty minimal actually! But any help would be massively appreciated. Crew's going to crack down on some of the curriculums this summer, but don't expect any miracles because there are a lot. Let's do the math real quick:
There's four core classes with four years each, so that's 16. Then there's another four classes with another four years, so that's another 16. Then there's the second year path classes, which is another four, and then there's the eight final path classes, comprised of two years each, and that's another 16. 16 x 3 + 4 = 52, so that's 52 curriculums to plan. Each semester is 14 weeks, and there's two of those so that's 28. (Technically 24 since the last two are usually used for review and exams, but let's call it 28 anyway because that's how many there are per class to write.) 28 x 52 is 1456. That's one thousand four hundred and fifty six lessons to write in total. There aren't exactly that many since Charms is basically complete (I'm having serious writer's block for the final) and Healing is at least partly complete, but still. That's a lot of lessons.
So yeah! Any and all help would definitely be appreciated! There is a curriculum already for some of the subjects, but a lot of them are big blanks. If anyone's got some ideas for one of the subjects, shoot me a PM on here or Skype and we can talk!
This is already getting incredibly long so I'll shut up, but one more thing I forgot to mention in my last post: I think the points and point database are going to get removed, for the simple reason that nobody really seemed that interested in the points, or at least not enough people.
Okay I'm done! For real!
Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2015 1:53 pm
I know that you just replied to a bunch of these, but being crew, I have my fair share of input. (Which is delayed cause I worked at 7AM this morning and felt like absolute death)
So, without further delay:
EDIT: put into a spoiler for ease of scrolling. -- Jenn
Forums: •I am happy that it has been announced that forums will be used for all main plot events. Having been one of those people that hasn't been around as much as I'd like (college, now working post-grad), having the forums be updated for, at minimal, important plot things is super for me. That way, me (and the others I know who occasionally lurk/sometimes can't get on skype) can at least be in the know about what's going on.
Recruitment: • This is beyond important to me: AoM currently has recruitment threads in the forums. These should be more active - we've been starting to pick up members; but if people keep saying that they want to see more people outside the main 'group', per say (Sana, Cielle, Kira, Holly, Niv, and myself, Chi, and Jem sometimes), we should be actively trying to promote the guild. (I in fact have created a promo post if anyone wants to use it - just lemme know; it's in my test forum.) And this doesn't necessarily have to be crew's job either; if anyone wants to help out that'd be cool too. We are on page 3 or 4 of 30,000 RP guilds on Gaia (congrats to us) but active recruitment and promotion will definitely benefit us.
Plot • With full knowledge about where the plot is going; I think that everyone will enjoy the second 'arc' of the plot. IMO, it's more developed than this first Vivian arc because we have a feel of who the active RPers are and what their styles are + what direction we can take to please people. I do agree with Sana when she says that some of the other members of BP were slightly neglected; I do agree. Publicly they should have had a bit more development, and that is crew's fault for being lazy (myself included)
Lessons • Send me your resources and I will start writing up lessons. I have some time off ahead and will be able to get some stuff going on Crew Evernote. I think that the lessons are fairly minimal as they are, as they do include the teacher's teaching style, the prerequisites for the lesson, an idea what the outcome looks like and does. There are just a ******** metric s**t ton of lessons we have to write... and as Kira mentioned, it is a goal of crew's to keep going with it.
Parchment • I don't mind offering to set up a student-run newspaper/Parchment thing. I can set up like a Google website or a Tumblr for it and have people be able to submit things IC. That way we can get more student involvement too - not just using it for announcement of plot stuff. Hell, we can even put lost cat ads in.
I'd be more than happy to do that if anyone was interested in a Parchment Tumblr - I enjoy coding blogs so yeah.
Chat I think that we can most definitely use the new chat feature. Since all of us clearly have Gaia and not all of us have ready access to skype (and towns can be slow/laggy/consume a s**t ton of ram/forces people to use two or more accounts) this option will maybe be able to allow those who can't access flash spaces or skype to join in our RPs. 1x1s will be easy to do here and record (Thank god, I ******** missed Meebo)
Student Run Clubs Yes, yes yes I think this is an awesome idea and we should consider opening the option to include this hopefully for next arc. House Reps would likely need to approve clubs, right? Gives them a little more purpose other than having a fancy title and a leader role. Students could then have a chance to (as mentioned) interact with people outside of their houses/social groups too based on interests.
One of my new characters (probably Aery too) would happily run clubs so if this goes ahead, I'll see what I can do. Of course, as mentioned as well, lessons are the primary focus. However this shouldn't be too hard to implement and trial run.
House Points Agreed on removing them - nobody seemed to give a s**t tbh.
Announcements I am kind of between the fence on this. Chi brings up good points however it is very hard to predict when plot events are going to end. Crew does have a slight hand in this, as we do push the completion of plots, but in as natural as a way as possible. That being said, I do think a few more announcements should be made pertaining to everything else going on in the guild. However, I do believe most of us use Tumblr fairly often (if not all of us tbh), so if my idea of a Tumblr Parchment is used (which may be easier), this nullifies.
Major plot events do get announcements, but I think what Chi is trying to get at is that she would like announcements for mini-plots and sub-plot events. In a way, I agree with her? I mean, there are some things that just shouldn't be bothered with, but if a group of characters plans to go and do something that could have importance with the plot in any way, maybe we should consider letting the guild know that it happened, or is happening. That way, everyone's on the same page about where we are in the storyline. I often fall behind about what's happened in the skype RP as it always freezes my laptop if anything has occurred when I was offline.
Journals I think a post is due to people, especially if we intend to use the Journals as the main database for past plot events. If I miss more than a week at at time, I usually try to catch up in Muna's journal.
I'm lazy as s**t and busy as hell so I likely won't frequent journal entries unless it's very important for my characters. (It's enviable being able to do it tbh)
And there's my ridiculously long two (more like ten) cents. Being able to have an active RP guild in this group for 9 months is incredible. I'm glad that this guild has gotten some good roots and a good direction and a great leader who actually gives a s**t about whats going on and is actively involved.
Expanding more on Lily's idea of school trips, i think we could expand on the merlin universe (quite literally) by going outside of wales and its vicinity. Might be a little difficult but i think we'd benefit if we stopped being euro-centric (or atleast outside the UK) We've got a lot of people from other ethnicities and we've already explored a few of their homes and backgrounds. (looking at u desert nerds) so i wanna broaden that more and see how other countries are doing cause we are all aware of the existence of council (and secret org coughcough) branches in there as well as their own mythical creatures. Also how their magic communities work. Also we could explore the variety of fairies cause we know they're huge in terms of biodiversity. Also dragons, i demand this place has more dragons.and mermaids.
Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2015 7:06 pm
Goods and Bads! Which shall go first? Ah, I'll make a compliment sandwich, thats how you're supposed to do it, aren't you?
EDIT: put into a spoiler for ease of scrolling.
The guild has been active, and that is one of the most positive things, really. We can have a successful guild without activity, and its also really rather handy to have the staff and owner of the guild being active as well. You've done a really cool job thinking up overarching plotlines for the school, and I like the way you've enacted a lot of them in forums.
Things that you could improve... errr, yeah, I share some of Chi's concerns about accessibility and awareness. If you're not in the skype and towns roleplaying group of regulars (within which are usually crew members of the guild) then you get completely left in the dark on topics about everything. Literally everything. Like, sure, kids going off on adventures and playing hooky would learn /some/ things, but theres a massive disparity between the kids that are knuckling down attending school and not going on fancy overseas trips to break up some childhood marriage or steal from the mafia or whatever the heck it is that you guys do.
Take, for example, Mahoire's post just then about expanding to other overseas trips, and more about fairies and such. There have actually not been any school related trips overseas, and there are very few resources on mythical creatures. Is there a book on fairies in the library? No. There's actually not much of your mythos recorded in the forums, which means that anyone outside your regular chat group is creatively restricted- they can't say if something does or doesn't do anything, because we actually don't know if you've all just decided on a certain thing and not written it down. How does taint work? How does sol work? These things actually seem plot relevant, but I can't seem to find any canon resources. It puts an imbalance in, where kids who have gotten into more trouble know a great deal more than the others- because you explain how it works, and if you dont know, you figure it out as you go along. Sure, thats cool to have a reward for activity, but it makes the roleplay into a sortof all-or-nothing deal, where if you're not heavily involved, its much more difficult to join in and know whats going on- or whats allowed.
Then again, not having much reading to do is actually more attractive for new members- I know a few friends of mine have been put off simply by the amount of text in the handbook, so having as little as possible is also good. Its difficult to keep things updated, especially since the more text you have, the more stuff you have to look through and check that its not out of date. Blaaaargh!
I actually don't care about set curriculums, since its not like the students have in character homework or assessments. It seems like the whole classes setup is just a backdrop, not something we can actively interact with (even though we're a school, right? We're not an adventurers guild?? Just checking--). I feel like we have far too many different classes, even though variety is good, I feel like they're way too much work, and very little payoff- the curriculums are probably going to be used like lists, like reference sheets (well, thats what I do with charms, anyway) so that players can check what their student should know. Not like, for exams or anything, but so they know what to do while idk plundering a dungeon or something??
Similarly with the amount of teachers. I'd encourage you to make as many as you use, and fire the rest. Maybe that can be something the council does if/when it takes over the school? Downsizing? Because, ontop of all of those teachers that hardly ever say anything, theres a plethora of background characters that many people in the skype group or chat have come across/made up/interacted with who don't have profiles /anywhere/ on the guild. During the dragon attack a few adults posted that I had legitimately never seen their names before and I know they weren't registered students or registered teachers. Argh, that comes back down again to the whole 'if you're not in this place with us then you dont know it and theres no way for your character to find out'
Ok, time to write up some stuff but I'm probably going to end up rambling but that's just how I work. Also, some of this stuff I may have mentioned on Skype but, yeah, it'd be good to put it here so people who aren't a part of the Skype group can give their opinion on things.
EDIT: put into a spoiler for ease of scrolling. -- Jenn
Plots and Roleplaying
So, it's become a thing that a lot of character interaction happens in Towns or on Skype, with next to no recording of what's happening. This is really good for just quick interactions that don't effect EVERYONE (like main plots do, so it's pretty great that they're in forums, but I think I'll type more on that later), but there probably should be a way for other people to catch up. The journals are a good idea, but it kiiiiinda only works if they're kept up. Now I understand that's hard to keep up on writing, I myself am a very lazy person, and that's why I sort of had this idea. Because we've ended up having 'groups' of characters, only one character in those groups need to keep a journal. So, for example, Muna's journal is probably the most up to date, and in it you basically have everything to do with End and Shanta as well as Muna, so you have a record of three characters in the journal of one. So once sort of rp groups have been set up (because I have no doubt that groups will form with the new lot of characters), one character will be elected to be the journal keeper of that group.
And... yeah, that's all just for people who weren't involved in specific rp sessions to catch up on what happened with other characters if they want. Like, some people may just want to know what their character knows and won't look outside rp for character information, but others may want to check in so they don't feel completely left out as a player. And the journals are just one suggestion based off what's been happening too. There's also that good old Character Plots Thread I started but no one used (including me because, as previously stated, I'm lazy).
Oh, and yeah, main plots. I think it's really great that they're in forums so literally everyone can see and interact if they please. And honestly, they do go on for a while, but I think what Chi said leans back on the thing with most of the rping happening in towns or on skype.
I think the plot events were really cool and interesting but could've been dragged out just a little while longer
Honestly the main plot events are going on for about a month each, if not longer. However, I can see how they can be perceived as really short, because it's literally a month long rp and then- for someone not involved in much rping in towns of skype -nothing for 3 months except of ooc stuff like art. So, hmm, there could be more effort put onto forum rping so some people aren't left with nothing for long stretches of time.
Field trips and Clubs
I think both of these are a really great idea. First onto field trips. For one, it might be good if these were outings for single years at a time. Partly because that's just how it works most of the time in real life, partly because there's not enough interaction between students of the same year, at least none without students of other years being involved.
Secondly, I agree with Cielle that we sort of need to get a more global view of Merlin, outside the UK at the very least but the idea would be to explore magic within other cultures besides the anglo-western one that we've mostly got going on. And, yeah, field trips to other places around the world are a good way to start that off.
And maybe these can be our little in forum rps, just so there's something always running that isn't just... people sitting in common rooms.
And clubs would also be great. I sort of think this would be more interest based clubs than anything else. Cooking clubs, writing clubs, photography clubs, creatures clubs, obviously a few more magical suggestions than that, but maybe not dropping those more mundane suggestions because I think it'd be really good to have those in a magical space. Characters who've grown up in magical communities learning about mundane things from people who grew up in mundane places, that'd be cool.
Aaaaand yeah. That's what I have to say. I still haven't 100% completely read all of the posts above this one (mostly Itchi's recent one because it was literally posted while I was typing up this one) so, yeah, if someone else has already said something I said here, just ignore it ohoho.
Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2015 11:01 pm
Itchigotchi
I feel like we have far too many different classes, even though variety is good, I feel like they're way too much work, and very little payoff- the curriculums are probably going to be used like lists, like reference sheets (well, thats what I do with charms, anyway) so that players can check what their student should know. Not like, for exams or anything, but so they know what to do while idk plundering a dungeon or something??
During the dragon attack a few adults posted that I had legitimately never seen their names before and I know they weren't registered students or registered teachers. Argh, that comes back down again to the whole 'if you're not in this place with us then you dont know it and theres no way for your character to find out'
I just wanted to say that I really agree with the whole curriculums thing and was going to suggest that if possible we could maaaaybe cut out a few classes? Idk how possible it is but I think merging a few together or something would be a good idea if the daunting tasks of doing all those lessons is really hard. LOL.
ALSO I'm really glad you brought that point up Jem!! I know there is going to be an Adult Info Database or w/e for the more bigger minor charas, but I think maybe there should be sort of a smaller thing for smaller minor charas?? Like ones that go unnamed but also rarely appear. Holly's 'Mechanic', the organization members I made up, etc. etc. LIKE I hope it doesnt seem too pushy pushy seeing as I was the one who suggested the Adult Info thing too but IDK ITS REALLY LONG AND THERE ARE A LOT OF MINOR CHARAS THAT I DONT THINK PPL WANT TO DEVELOP THAT FAR AND YEAHhhh coughs
ALSO I'd like to mention that a point was brought up to me about having people reading other people's journal entries to like, catch up with ic stuff, and actually I was thinking about it and it seems a bit tedious for people who wanna catch up in retrospect? Like I try to keep up with Muna's journal as often as I can but honestly it's really long and a lot of it is chara centric stuff then what actually goes on.
I know the towns archives thing didnt work but I was wondering if maybe if it was just a matter of people not wanting to fill out the form?? Like maybe doing short dot summaries would be better or something, and the rpers of the day/event could decide between them who was going to do it. Something simple/concise for people who missed out to look at instead of having to slug through journal entries that in my case can be really long and are just generally updated pretty slow because we tend to do a lot of stuff.
AoM currently has recruitment threads in the forums. These should be more active - we've been starting to pick up members; but if people keep saying that they want to see more people outside the main 'group', per say, we should be actively trying to promote the guild.
I absolutely agree; we do need to advertise more. However, it's my personal opinion that we should hold off on that until we're right on timeskip - we're still a few weeks out and I don't want to force people to wait for their characters to be approved. (There's already one person in my inbox like that.) I don't think that keeping the recruitment threads active should be one person's job; the entire guild can help out. If someone can think of a good place to link those, let me know and I'll do so.
Eloquent Melodies
Some of the other members of BP were slightly neglected; I do agree. Publicly they should have had a bit more development, and that is crew's fault for being lazy.
Yeah that's honestly crew's fault that they didn't get a lot of development. I'm actually amazed we managed to pull off the five-bad band at all. Like I said before, all five members do have written out backstories, but those are in the crew forum for crew's reference back when I anticipated more than one person playing a single NPC. If people want, I can move that information into a public forum - perhaps a trivia thread?
Eloquent Melodies
I think that the lessons are fairly minimal as they are, as they do include the teacher's teaching style, the prerequisites for the lesson, an idea what the outcome looks like and does. There are just a ******** metric s**t ton of lessons we have to write...
Yeah, in all honesty I think lessons are going to be a thing that are gonna be in a work in progress for a long while. A lot of them don't have full curriculums either, I'm a bit embarrassed to admit. However, I do think doing all of them will be worth it, and I'll explain why a bit later.
Eloquent Melodies
I don't mind offering to set up a student-run newspaper/Parchment thing. I can set up like a Google website or a Tumblr for it and have people be able to submit things IC.
I'm... not really a fan of going off-site, to be totally honest. Everything Merlin should be accessible from the forums, including the Parchment. Making a tumblr for the Parchment just seems kind of unnecessary to me, especially since we already have a Parchment thread. (It's just... you know. Dusty.) I am a fan of player-submitted stories, though, like I said. We could set up a form in the library and have them sent to the Headmaster account.
Eloquent Melodies
Yes, yes yes I think this is an awesome idea and we should consider opening the option to include this hopefully for next arc. House Reps would likely need to approve clubs, right? Gives them a little more purpose other than having a fancy title and a leader role. Students could then have a chance to (as mentioned) interact with people outside of their houses/social groups too based on interests.
Like I said before - I'm not too sure about clubs because those seem to lose steam fast in most RPs. I guess I'll set up a poll for it and see what you all think? (After the current one's been voted in, but I'll get to that at the end.) Or I can set up a Google survey to get all the answers at once.
Also, in timeskip Merlin, ultimate approval would lie with the Council, I think. House reps wouldn't have anything to do with it, since clubs would probably be interhouse and reps are only responsible for their students.
Eloquent Melodies
Major plot events do get announcements, but I think what Chi is trying to get at is that she would like announcements for mini-plots and sub-plot events. In a way, I agree with her? I mean, there are some things that just shouldn't be bothered with, but if a group of characters plans to go and do something that could have importance with the plot in any way, maybe we should consider letting the guild know that it happened, or is happening.
Okay, that makes more sense, and I know how to respond to this properly now that you clarified.
Not really sure what I can do about announcing people's subplot events - that's more of a user thing, and announcement privilege lies with the vice captain and up. (I should probably extend that to crew //coughs) However, here's what I propose: if someone's planning an event, they can definitely shoot me or Soulstone (preferably Soulstone as my inbox is getting pretty cluttered) a PM asking for the event to be announced. I do know that some Towns events had little notices put up in the Bulletin Board forum, but I can see how those would be lost.
So yeah. A little weekly announcement about planned events with links to more information, we can do.
Makhoire
Expanding more on Lily's idea of school trips, i think we could expand on the merlin universe (quite literally) by going outside of wales and its vicinity. Might be a little difficult but i think we'd benefit if we stopped being eurocentric (or at least outside the UK) We've got a lot of people from other ethnicities and we've already explored a few.
Hell yeah I'm down for this! And we can definitely have an overseas trip or two - maybe discuss some possibilities for "sister" schools? Like, I imagine every major country has a magick academy hidden somewhere, so there's probably an academic network going on that we could exploit. Or going on a field trip to see the creatures from Creatures class in their natural habitat. Or, you know, just for kicks. My school, for example, plans a Europe trip every year that some kids go on during April break. (This year they went to Italy and Greece.) So, like, a culture trip during a school break.
(For the record, Merlin is also most likely the most ethnically diverse magick academy on the planet.)
Makhoire
Also we could explore the variety of fairies cause we know they're huge in terms of biodiversity. Also dragons, i demand this place has more dragons.and mermaids.
jeez what's the point of making your text that small cielle
Yeah, we really should explore this. One of the books I'm planning on working on adding to the library is a dragonology book, because dragons are one of the most prominent fantasy creatures. And fairies too, definitely. I think it's safe to say Sana's developed the canon for desert fairies, so maybe we can have a discussion on some of the major fairy types. (I'd say they're grouped by biome rather than region, but we can talk.)
And you have some headcanons for mermaids, I know you do, so feel free to toss those into the discussion thread.
Itchigotchi
The guild has been active, and that is one of the most positive things, really. We can have a successful guild without activity, and its also really rather handy to have the staff and owner of the guild being active as well. You've done a really cool job thinking up overarching plotlines for the school, and I like the way you've enacted a lot of them in forums.
Why thank you. cool I don't actually have anything to say I just like rolling in praise.
Itchigotchi
I share some of Chi's concerns about accessibility and awareness. If you're not in the skype and towns roleplaying group of regulars (within which are usually crew members of the guild) then you get completely left in the dark on topics about everything. Literally everything. Like, sure, kids going off on adventures and playing hooky would learn /some/ things, but theres a massive disparity between the kids that are knuckling down attending school and not going on fancy overseas trips to break up some childhood marriage or steal from the mafia or whatever the heck it is that you guys do.
That's actually pretty close to what goes down in Towns to be honest. Other things include: getting attacked by giant baby moles, taking a trip to the Seventh Circle of Hell, and exploring underground ruins that still have a few death traps active.
We discussed this in Skype but I'll definitely reiterate here: This is one of the most prevalent problems in the guild and rectifying this is one of crew's priorities. There will definitely be steps taken to ensure people aren't left out of the loop - a modified version of the Towns RP Archive maybe? The biggest problem that arose was that people were simply too lazy to fill it out, so it's not just a problem with how it was structured. (Although it was structured badly, I'll admit that.)
I've set up a poll in the thread about the Journal Database vs. the Towns RP Archive, by the way. I'll check back in a few days to see how the votes are falling and that'll be one official decision made. Democracy!
Itchigotchi
How does taint work? How does sol work? These things actually seem plot relevant, but I can't seem to find any canon resources.
There's going to be a book written on this in particular, but I see your point. There's actually a lot of canon stuff written down that never made it onto the forums. This is definitely a problem, so over the summer it'll be one of crew's goals to get as much information into the library/onto the forums as possible so it's accessible to all.
Itchigotchi
I feel like we have far too many different classes, even though variety is good, I feel like they're way too much work, and very little payoff- the curriculums are probably going to be used like lists, like reference sheets (well, thats what I do with charms, anyway) so that players can check what their student should know. Not like, for exams or anything, but so they know what to do while idk plundering a dungeon or something??
Similarly with the amount of teachers. I'd encourage you to make as many as you use, and fire the rest. Maybe that can be something the council does if/when it takes over the school? Downsizing?
This is probably one of the few points I'm gonna be a stubborn jerk on. All of the teachers are staying. Personally I feel the classes are important to worldbuilding, and yes, like you said, they're helpful as reference lists. Not only that, but the teachers aren't supposed to be prominent characters - they're living props, essentially, that exist in the background and have basic personalities in the event they DO need to come forward.
There's probably more I need to say on this subject but it's 1 AM and I have a lot more to get through, so I'll leave that for later.
Itchigotchi
Ontop of all of those teachers that hardly ever say anything, theres a plethora of background characters that many people in the skype group or chat have come across/made up/interacted with who don't have profiles /anywhere/ on the guild.
The Adult Information Database and the Minor Character Database (the latter of which just went up today) should fix this.
Reilas
So once sort of rp groups have been set up (because I have no doubt that groups will form with the new lot of characters), one character will be elected to be the journal keeper of that group.
Personally, I love this idea - setting someone as the official journalkeeper. That person, I think, should be the one that goes most in-depth with whatever the group gets up to. Other characters can definitely keep journals, because I think seeing the same event from different viewpoints is really interesting, but the journalkeeper should definitely go pretty in-depth.
I won't mention the character plot thread since I already did and move on.
Reilas
I can see how they can be perceived as really short, because it's literally a month long rp and then- for someone not involved in much rping in towns of skype -nothing for 3 months except of ooc stuff like art. So, hmm, there could be more effort put onto forum rping so some people aren't left with nothing for long stretches of time.
Most definitely. Mini-events like field trips, club meetings, or character events can all be held in the event forum - possibly more than one at a time so people can have multiple characters in different places, if you can keep up with it. The name of the forum can be changed to reflect what's going on in there, too.
Reilas
Secondly, I agree with Cielle that we sort of need to get a more global view of Merlin, outside the UK at the very least but the idea would be to explore magic within other cultures besides the anglo-western one that we've mostly got going on. And, yeah, field trips to other places around the world are a good way to start that off.
And maybe these can be our little in forum rps, just so there's something always running that isn't just... people sitting in common rooms.
Yeah! There's a lot to be explored in the world from a cultural standpoint - like I've mentioned several times, the world's only partly complete for a reason. I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on every culture on the planet, so if someone wants to put a magick spin on their on culture and take us there in an event, I'm 1000000% on board. (Personally I want to explore more Judaic magic myself!)
Reilas
And clubs would also be great. I sort of think this would be more interest based clubs than anything else. Cooking clubs, writing clubs, photography clubs, creatures clubs, obviously a few more magical suggestions than that, but maybe not dropping those more mundane suggestions because I think it'd be really good to have those in a magical space. Characters who've grown up in magical communities learning about mundane things from people who grew up in mundane places, that'd be cool.
I... didn't think of that actually. Mundane clubs mixed with magic clubs, and maybe some of the mundane clubs don't have a magic twist on them at all? So the mundane-born kids feel more at home.
Like I said before, I'm not too sure about clubs, but if people want to try it, we do have an extra forum that can be repurposed.
Siyaahi
I know the towns archives thing didnt work but I was wondering if maybe if it was just a matter of people not wanting to fill out the form?? Like maybe doing short dot summaries would be better or something, and the rpers of the day/event could decide between them who was going to do it.
The main problem with the Towns RP Archive is that people were literally calling to not do it at the end of an RP. (I probably said this before but it's 1:15 in the morning.) It was kind of disheartening to see it, but hey, if you guys are willing to put in the effort I'm willing to whip up a form.
Jeez, I think this ended up being longer than the last one. That's it for now from me! Don't forget to vote in the poll up above! (And goodnight OTL)
Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2015 8:06 am
Quick update because this thread hasn't gotten any love in a while!
So, results of the poll are in. (I did not vote, for anyone wondering.) The Journal Database won, surprisingly. I'll make sure that thread's as up to date as possible.
I like the idea of assigning one person/character to be the journalkeeper of each "group", so we'll work that out once the groups have ended up forming. Those characters will get a star next to their journal link so you know who to catch up on first.
I'll take down the poll, so let's talk about some other stuff: the library!
The library, I think, can actually be used very easily for things like important canonical information, worldbuilding, and just basic fun stuff. I know one thing mentioned earlier was user-submitted books/stories for the Parchment - personally I think it's a great idea. However, there's a lot of other material that should be in the library but isn't. Crew's working on some of that right now, and here's a quick list:
- a summary of the Vivian arc - a book on sol, fade, taint, luna, and how they're connected - a pamphlet about the Secret Organization - a glossary of general magick terms
Are there any other books/reading materials you'd like to see that would be helpful/interesting in the library?
Jennalaia Captain
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Itchigotchi
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Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2015 6:34 pm
Information on fairies, dragons, mermaids, and other mythical beings that some students have encountered thus far.
I'd like to read something more about potions (at least the theory of them in the merlin universe.... if we have one? So far I've only seen potions spontaneously appear out of pockets, not get made)
I'd actually really like a house history kind of book, because the names (are they the founders?) don't have very much relevance, and I'm sure, like most schools, the houses are named after important people.
It'd also be really good to have a book about Nimues forest, or at least some sort of maps of the sites around school-- I feel sure that places and scenes, obstacles and whatnot, have been established in your rapid RPs. It wouldn't have to be any sort of prescise thing- think oldschool pirate maps, with almost no scale and a really rubbery outline on everything, where landmarks are the most important.
Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:23 am
Itchigotchi
Information on fairies, dragons, mermaids, and other mythical beings that some students have encountered thus far.
I was actually considering a book on dragons, using Dragonology and this other book I found (the Dragon Hunter's Handbook, which is basically an Ology book on steroids) as resources. Fairies I'll talk with Sana about, since she's basically made the canon for desert fairies, and mermaids I have a few ideas for...
Itchigotchi
I'd like to read something more about potions (at least the theory of them in the merlin universe.... if we have one? So far I've only seen potions spontaneously appear out of pockets, not get made)
Yeahhh, potions are one of the more underdeveloped parts of the world. This might be a good topic of discussion in the canon discussion thread actually.
SPEAKING of the canon discussion thread, if someone prods me after my finals are done I'll set an hour or two aside to start adding important stuff to the canon thread that never got used.
Itchigotchi
I'd actually really like a house history kind of book, because the names (are they the founders?) don't have very much relevance, and I'm sure, like most schools, the houses are named after important people.
Jeez, I didn't actually think of that. There aren't any house ghosts (mostly because I didn't want to rip off Harry Potter to that extent, so it's probably easily bullshittable, which actually could make this a good user-submitted book. Any takers?
Itchigotchi
It'd also be really good to have a book about Nimues forest, or at least some sort of maps of the sites around school-- I feel sure that places and scenes, obstacles and whatnot, have been established in your rapid RPs. It wouldn't have to be any sort of prescise thing- think oldschool pirate maps, with almost no scale and a really rubbery outline on everything, where landmarks are the most important.
There actually WERE going to be maps of all the hub areas, but due to time constraints/me being lazy they never ended up getting completed. I DID buy RPGMaker VX Ace recently, though, and now that i think about it that's a REALLY good tool for creating maps. I'll add that onto the crew goals and get on it once I'm out of finals hell. (five more days................)
