Fade Rift Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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faderiftooc2019-03-03 09:20 pm
faderifting) wrote in faderiftooc2019-03-03 09:20 pm
Entry tags:
MOD POST ↠ MARCH UPDATES
MOD ANNOUNCEMENTS: MARCH
OOC & ADMINISTRATIVE UPDATES
Upcoming OOC dates:
Please make sure you add any player plots with plot impact/wide relevance to our Calendar so everyone knows when stuff is happening!
Rule & Policy Changes
We don't actually have anything new this month, but we made a lot of changes in January, so we just want to remind everyone about them.
IC & PLOT UPDATES
Mod Plot: Month 2
TIMING: First, we want to apologize for the delays this past month in getting things rolling. A confluence of minor RL issues slowed us down, and honestly, has February ever not just sucked? Why is it even a month? What's the point?
But here we are in March, finally, and we are doing our best to get things back on track. Our delay in getting division and project info posted means that instead of having about six weeks to propose plots for this cycle, you instead have just the month of March.
We're open to extending that March 31 deadline if people feel a month isn't enough time to develop/organize/submit the plots you want to run in support of this plot, but it will mean pushing back the Divine election date and the end of this plot cycle as well. We don't want to drag things out unnecessarily but we also don't want people to feel too rushed, since (spoilers) you're not going to get another chance to elect a Divine.
So what we're going to do is hold a poll on March 15, once people have had a chance to dig in a bit and figure out what all they have going on or would like to have going on, to see whether you all feel you need a couple extra weeks or not. And then we'll either leave the dates as they are or adjust them accordingly. So keep an eye out for that! In the meantime, the deadlines will presumptively remain as follows:
HOW IS THIS GOING TO WORK: First of all, we'd recommend taking a look back at our original plot post for a reminder of how plots will impact which candidate ultimately ends up elected as Divine. None of that has changed!
What has changed is how we're handling the Month 2 War Table. Last cycle, we had a lot of excellent assignments posted on the War Table, but we probably went a bit too wild and had too many assignment options for the time available to actually do them, which left people spread too thin and ended up with a lot of things never quite getting finished. This cycle, we're trying a different approach that we hope will decrease the amount of up-front work by IC leaders, make it easier for players to control the amount and type of plot they're taking on, and give everyone a bit more say in what work the Inquisition in Kirkwall focuses on and how exactly its goals are achieved.
The way we're doing this is that instead of having IC leaders write up specific assignments, we've instead had them choose 3 or 4 objectives that they ICly want their project (or, in the case of Division Heads, the Kirkwall base as a whole) to focus on over the next couple months. These overarching priorities indicate what the project leader or division head characters feel are the most important things to focus work on.
As you'll see, these objectives are fairly high-level. For instance, for the Other Powers projects, you have general objectives like "gather information about the Qun's current plans" or "gain access to dwarven routes into Tevinter" rather than a specific assignment to "steal Qun battle plans from a Sten in Kont-arr" or "meet with King Bhelen on this date to discuss access routes." These objectives will be posted on the War Table. It will then be up to players who have characters working on a project to decide how they want their characters to be involved in working toward those objectives. This can be a mix of background/handwavey work like research and resource-gathering, on one hand, and player-proposed plots on the other.
For example: MJ might post to the Other Powers comment on the War Table to say that Jehan will be researching historical instances when the dwarves and surface have worked together so that diplomats can sprinkle references to those old battles into their negotiations. If the IC leader agrees, that's something Jehan can then be working on in the background, and MJ can mention he's doing it in her threads. Cass might say she wants Freddie to plan an expedition to Rivain to help the Qunari there locate an artifact and try to make connections with some of the Thedosian converts who might be willing to provide insight into what's going on. If the relevant IC leader agrees that’s a good idea, Cass can write up her own plot request and submit it to... herself. Whatever. You get it. Meanwhile other players with characters on that project can propose their own ideas, offer to assist with things others have suggested, etc. Ideally it will lead to more IC conversation and brainstorming on how to tackle those objectives, rather than IC leaders deciding both the goal and the method of attacking it.
It will also hopefully let players focus on the sorts of things they want to RP the most. If you like action scenes, you can find a way to make an actiony plot to further an objective! If you want to force your character into a particular moral dilemma, you can probably find a way to incorporate it into a plot connected to an objective. The Power Is Yours.
IC leaders are still, you know, leaders. There may also be situations where your ideas or your character's preferred courses of action aren't something that the IC leader in charge of the relevant project/division would approve of. Maybe they don't believe in assassination, or they don't think throwing a party to butter up Noble X is a good use of funds. In those cases, as always, you can hopefully find a way to make things work without anyone having to stretch characterization. IC leaders may propose alternatives or tweaks to your plans (instead of killing Whoever, can they be blackmailed instead? Instead of throwing a party just for Noble X, is there a way to get Nobles A-F there, too?) and in any case, the clash of approaches and priorities between characters is great fodder for RP.
If your character feels strongly enough about something that they would ask forgiveness rather than permission, awesome! Or if an IC leader is being a stick in the mud about an idea that their boss might approve of, you could potentially have your character go over their heads for permission, then deal with the CR fallout of that. But as always, if your character does want to go rogue in some way, especially if they plan to do something without formal Inquisition permission, you must make sure you're okay with the possibility of IC consequences and/or prepared to have your character do whatever it is they want to do subtly enough that it's realistic for people not to notice or tie them to it. Any plan that does not have the permission of IC leaders should be submitted for mod approval, so we can make sure you're being realistic about and are prepared for potential consequences.
There might still sometimes be more traditional assignments, too, if the folks in charge of a division or project have something specific they need done a particular way. Those will be posted on a rolling basis, and we'll make sure we link them on plurk and discord so they aren't overlooked. But we can't make any guarantees about when, what, or how many assignments there may be, so we would advise that if there's something you know you want to do that you take the initiative yourself rather than waiting in hopes that an assignment is eventually posted that relates to it.
We will also be including a section in this month's CR meme (coming very soon!) focused on plotting, so we encourage you to use that as another way to see who shares your interests and solicit others to work on plots together. In the meantime, you can check the War Table for the objectives and start thinking about them! They're still being posted, so we'll also post/plurk/etc. another link once they're all up.
Other Leadership Positions
Some months ago we added a number of leadership positions beyond the Division Head and Project Leader roles. We wanted to provide a bit more guidance on how we imagine those roles working and what those characters are empowered (ICly and OOCly) to do, so there's a post here with some more details!
Leadership Apps
First, congratulations to the following new appointment:
The list of current leaders and vacancies is available here, and there are a number of open positions. We'd particularly be interested in applications for Project Leader for the Other Powers and Red Lyrium projects.