Temi states, "Alright, our agenda for today, as usual: 1) Staff Updates, 2) Player Heartbeat, and 3) Player
Topics. Would anyone like to get their topics on the list to start off with? Unfortunately, Kin's got a
holiday today and didn't think she'd be able to join us."
Sparkles says, "I have a topic to bring up."
Temi nods at Sparkles.
Temi queries, "Got you. Anyone else?"
Kuzco claims, "Not me"
Temi states, "Alright, let me know if you think of anything else and we'll get you added onto the list"
Temi claims, "So, staff updates. I'll start since I'm chatting already"
Temi says, "I've been hard at work trying to expand chandlery through the full set we've been planning."
Temi claims, "So, the new crafts this week are a new set of colognes, and a corresponding oil in herbalism."
Temi states, "So, fellows may want to keep an eye out for a new sea-themed scent."
Kuzco pontificates, "Well done!"
Temi claims, "Thanks to those who have given me some ideas to work from - still some other more feminine ones
planned to come."
Temi says, "I've also continued to work a bit on the skill mini-quests, and we have this little troublemaker
here today, as a sneak quest. "
Temi points over at a cloaked damsel seeking to avoid her mother.
Ghed dances happily.
Ghed says, "They are worth helping"
Temi grins.
Temi asks, "Alright, Ghed?"
Ghed nods.
Ghed claims, "This week I was rather busy with RL work, but I managed to cover all bases. Food prices keep
going down, the hunger plot is pretty much over. I hope you guys had fun! You won't have to see any more
people begging for food and blocking exits."
Ghed pontificates, "There haven't been a lot of recommends or requests but me and Leta handled them all! "
Temi declares, "Thanks! I think everyone is happy to have been able to help get everything back on its way to
normal! Good plot"
Ghed declaims, "Thanks!"
Temi asks, "Alright, Leta?"
Leta nods.
Leta says, "I also had a busy week in real life so my staff time was limited. I did answer player questions,
process recommends and handle a few requests. I am beginning to update skill helpfiles. I want all the
categories to be up-to-date and for there to be helpfiles for each current skill. I will also be retiring some
helpfiles that are obsolete."
Leta states, "For example, I will be retiring individual instrument skill helpfiles and
1. Listing instruments under the current skill categories and
2. Making a help instruments helpfile instead."
Kuzco says, "Hell yeah"
Temi declares, "Thanks! I think that will help folks out"
Murrmurs claims, "Awesome stuff."
Leta grins.
Temi claims, "Alright, I think that's everyone we've got here today staffwise. "
Temi has transferred Anonymous. [OOC]
Temi gives a little cream tartelette topped with a golden, wafery roll to Anonymous.
Temi wonders, "So, all the rest of you! Player heartbeat. How's RP been this week?"
Trajen says, "Pretty good. Surprisngly quiet, but real life happens"
Kuzco says, "It's been alright. Kinda quiet, yeah."
Murrmurs claims, "Wee little here and there things."
Kalana says, "A little on the quiet side, yeah. Though I haven't been contributing a whole lot,
unfortunately."
Ghed has transferred Trajen. [OOC]
Ghed has transferred Trajen. [OOC]
Murrmurs pontificates, "---But enjoying having the time to get any writing in!"
Ghed has transferred Violet. [OOC]
Temi asks, "Hopefully what's been available has been good? Is there a reason for the slowness, or just real
life hitting hard?"
Temi gives a little cream tartelette topped with a golden, wafery roll to Violet.
Ulvor claims, "Good! Not going to lie, I was hoping to see some full on bread riots before the Hunger Plot
closed out, but probably best that we didn't, lol. Looking forward to more plots like that in the future."
Trajen points at the penguin, "It was you wasn't it?"
Violet waves.
A short, stocky penguin with a yellow crest clears its throat.
Gaiseric facepalms
GeeBee states, "Been busy on the RL side of things, unfortunately; I've fallen into inactive status a couple
of times. But I'm glad to see the rumor mill is still going pretty strong and I enjoy whatever writing I can
squeeze in."
Ghed states to Ulvor, "Some players managed to avert it, but it was on the menu. Pun intended."
Temi says, "Alas, now food is on the menu again."
Murrmurs declares, "It was fun playing hungry freefolk!"
Sparkles says, "I would give the usual PSA about folks considering being out and about when they are on. Where
being empty can feel as lonely as a short Who list."
Temi nods at Sparkles.
Kuzco nods at Sparkles.
Violet declares, "Agree With Sparkles. Also consider keeping whereRP on! Even if you're behind locked doors,
it's nice to see that scenes are going on"
Temi says, "Good reminder to folks. If folks don't see places to go on where, it can be tempting to just log
back off again, whereas it can be easy to move to somewhere others can come find you"
Temi muses, "Anything bothering anyone that staff ought to know about?"
Ulvor states, "To that end, is it acceptable to send a tell to players you get matched with through
matchmaking to try and meet, or should both players just head to a public space if they're interested? Not
sure if there's a protocol there that I'm not aware of."
Deedee states, "I think it's fine, though maybe check their whois info first"
Temi claims, "Matchmaking is only on one side, so if you don't feel like taking it up, there's no pressure to
do anything"
Temi claims, "It's fine to send a tell, or a notify, or an invite. Though yeah, check the whois - they may
have their own preference."
Ulvor declaims, "Good to know, thank you!"
Temi wonders, "Any other thoughts or concerns from people for player heartbeat?"
A tumbleweed rolls by.
Temi queries, "Alright, Sparkles, you had a topic?"
Sparkles asks, "Earlier this week someone asked on Visnet about making a mage and seemingly at present that
isn't an option given active numbers. However I admit that I find that slightly surprising given how quiet
things are on the spookiness scale. As such I want to potentially talk about a touchy suggestion but ... other
'limited option' slots have expectations of activity, etc. Mages don't have that. So I ponder - should they?"
Temi states, "That's an interesting question."
Ghed claims, "They have expectations of RP, not necessarily mage RP"
Temi nods at Ghed.
Ghed says, "They aren't in a guild either, which involves some basic level of 'flavor of RP'"
Ghed claims, "I mean, they aren't in the SANCTUM"
Ghed eyes around warily.
Temi muses, "What do people think of having additional requirements for mages? What would they expect?"
A male voice muses, "WHAT?"
Ghed declares, "NOTHING!"
Edgar says, "But they wouldn't lose their slot at it as a noble might. The amount of cyan mages I see putz
around and never log in again for weeks/months is generally pretty high. Just a shame because that could
instead be a slot somebody active uses."
Ghed nods.
Ghed says, "They scared of you, boss"
Edgar states, "Shit I'll go away then, we're falling asleep over here"
Anonymous states, "Omg tasker."
Temi claims, "There's not actually so much a slot for mages, as a proportion at which things switch from
awakened available, to only latent"
Temi says, "There is a limit of total mages on a per account level"
Sparkles muses, "What do mages that go inactive and then return do to those numbers?"
Temi has transferred Souless. [OOC]
Temi gives a little cream tartelette topped with a golden, wafery roll to Souless.
Temi states, "If they aren't active, they shouldn't count towards the ratio, and if they get active again they
would"
Souless wonders, "No crate of food chocolate box? 
"
Trajen says, "Lol"
Temi claims to Souless, "We had grasshoppers already the other week"
Souless nod nods.
Temi states, "So, things could go from eligible for awakened to not quickly, if several mages came back active
- but they should be active at that point."
Murrmurs claims, "I will note... when the game is less busy, it is more challenging to play antag mage and to
produce spooky content."
Souless claims, "Oh, sure."
Temi states, "What do people think of something like a new option for mages with higher expectations - you can
be a mage when they aren't otherwise available, but you have additional trouble-causing expected"
Kuzco asks, "How would staff enforce that?"
Souless ponders. "Would have to come with some form of like... You're expected to die after a certain
duration, maybe?"
Souless questions, "Like a six month thing, maybe?"
Kuzco claims, "That's not bad. I think."
Temi nods at Souless.
Souless wonders, "With a higher starting death xp rate?"
Sparkles claims, "Mages already get that."
Temi says, "That could be interesting, potentially."
Murrmurs muses, "Hillbeast style app-in conflict generators?"
Souless says, "Higher than normal mages."
Souless nods.
Anonymous claims, "I'm very leery of attaching a requirement to be a troublemaker slash bad guy for mages."
Souless states, "I like that."
Trajen questions, "What if it goes far in the other direction?"
Anonymous asks, "What do you mean?"
Temi says, "We were talking about having a villain contest again, which is where the hillbeast came from"
Sparkles says, "You don't have to be a 'bad guy' to be a 'troublemaker'"
Murrmurs says, "Would love a villain contest."
Souless nods.
Souless claims, "Villian contest could be interesting."
Temi says, "However, most have not been quite as successful as that"
Temi finishes abruptly, "That was a particularly memorable one - though not necessarily opposed to trying
again"
Trajen says, "Oh I read about that Hillbeast in lore recently that was cool"
GeeBee states, "My reservation lies in 1) how would one even quantify what 'mage RP' is or is not, and, 2) I
agree with Murrmurs that seems it would be quite hard to make waves as a mage in a small pbase. I don't think
mage activity (or a lack thereof) is necessarily an isolated problem, but rather one of the many symptoms of
going through lulls in activity."
GeeBee declaims, "Ohhh, I love the idea of a villain contest!"
Gaiseric is idle.
Anonymous says, "Mage RP is, from my understanding, RP with mages. That has magic in it. Or talking about
magic. Stuff like that."
Temi states, "We've got some staff interest in running it - we'll look at the possibility and timing."
Murrmurs claims, "One take-away from the famine and recent events that I have liked has been the presence of
PvE and conflict avenues which emerge to engage with"
Temi says, "So, maybe expect to hear more soon"
Leta steeples her fingers.
Ghed claims, "It was the idea, yeah"
Ghed nods at Murrmurs.
Murrmurs says, "As opposed to mage conflict which tends to be much more slow burning, and even when it's
present is largely individual."
Temi states, "I would love to see more ongoing conflicts that didn't require staff to work themselves ragged
for it."
Murrmurs states, "<3"
Temi queries, "So, do people have ideas on how to create more PvE that isn't PvStaff?"
Ghed states, "The daily mini quests are badass"
Ghed gestures at a cloaked damsel seeking to avoid her mother
Sparkles questions, "Maybe an ability to spoop NPCs?"
Temi asks, "What do you have in mind?"
Sparkles says, "NPC gamblers trying to buy good luck charms? And maybe it gets reported to the Order? But some
less direct conflict might give both sides something to do that isn't a guaranteed death match."
Temi queries, "I more meant - who is doing what?"
Sparkles states, "Sorry I might have confused myself."
Kuzco pats pats pats
Trajen sympathizes with sparkles
Temi states, "We do encourage players to run little stories and things"
Ghed claims, "I'd be happy if people did more STs"
Murrmurs states, "The spiciest concept that I love to float all of the time is to have the Holy Order
transition to being an NPC / Antag guild instead of being player-driven. >.>"
Ghed states, "I'm not running npcs just to chase y'all when you're having trysts, mate"
Murrmurs declaims, "---WITH non-staff implementors available to run gaggles of angry Knights when called for!"
Ghed wonders, "Why not just keep it the way it is then? Legit question"
Sparkles asks, "I think my short conclusion is ... mages are given a pretty hefty death XP benefit with the
idea that their RP comes with 'risk'. But if you have a mage and they never do spells, never talk about magic,
never engage in that type of RP, are you fulfilling that expectation? "
They aren't here.
Kuzco nods at Sparkles.
Temi claims, "They do have additional risk, though I would argue that the death xp benefit adds no benefit if
you never die."
Sparkles wonders, "You get that death XP if you liquidate even if you aren't caught, yes?"
Temi claims, "Maybe that's something we need to look at."
Kuzco states, "Being executed gives bonus xp"
Temi nods at Kuzco.
Murrmurs says, "I am glad you ask! Order membership being hollowed-out and largely non-present has been a long
-standing issue. The game's theme has them being much closer to being the 'water' everyone lives in than an
organization that should have faces-to-names. The characters tend to have high turn-over for well-discussed
reasons I don't need to dredge up again."
Murrmurs says, "--But they're never supposed to lose or actually go away; a Mage's win-condition is never
'successfully killed the named Orderites', though that happens in the game."
Temi questions to Murrmurs, "Who would do the NPC antagonism on their behalf then?"
Ghed nods at Murrmurs.
Murrmurs says, "....I've had it in my head that the same folks who would want to play Orderites would run
guild characters, but no longer have the added layer of 'make and maintain a character who generally sees
limited role-based play'"
Ghed claims, "It's true that at the end of the day, a mage player can go on for years without doing a single
magic command and we have no system to enforce a change of behaviour"
Ghed nods at Murrmurs.
Ghed questions to Murrmurs, "You mean, you wish for an added layer of NPCs to bolster Order PCs?"
Deedee says, "Perhaps witchery could have something like um"
Sparkles says, "I mean this might be really spicy but ... maybe if you don't cast magic often enough you just
forget it. "
Deedee queries, "Withdrawl symptoms?"
Temi asks, "So, essentially just admitting that the characters they are playing are just for the game benefit
and not their own characters?"
Violet states, "That would be cool. Make it have tolerance like a drug"
Temi claims, "Interesting thought"
Violet claims, "The more you do the harder it is to stop"
Ghed claims, "That might make people not do it at all"
Ghed peers at Deedee with interest
Murrmurs claims, "Yes; having Order PCs be a choice but not the full guild. Conceptually... It would allow
mages/heretics of all stripes to get into street fights with Knights or Inquisitors without it being a PK;
could allow there to be a wider variety of Order types who show up in the world---and relieve the stress from
an individual Order player that they've got to carry the whole world on their back."
Ezra claims, "As someone who plays in the order currently I do not feel stressed out at all. In fact I wish
there was MORE to do sometimes."
Sparkles says, "That does seem an Order specific issue. Where it's often discussed here how PCs are the only
representatives of their Guild ICly but ... with the Order if folks aren't active/available there's a lot of
onus on the players to find solutions to that."
Murrmurs states, "I do suppose that an important addendum is that I haven't played an Orderite in the last
half year. 
"
Ghed nods at Murrmurs.
Souless is idle.
Souless is no longer idle.
Souless has returned from AFK.
Ghed claims to Murrmurs, "Thanks for your input. It's interesting."
Souless states, "I do like the idea of making the Order more of a PvE concept, than a strict PvP thing."
Violet says, "I do feel like there's a massive disconnect between "The Order is the big brother watching you
at all time, we live in an oppressive theocracy where the vast majority of people are religious zealots" and
"The Order guild is tiny, religion doesn't feel all that present, actually devout Davites feel like a minority
on grid""
Souless states, "I like that a lot, Murrmurs. Really smart idea. <3"
Anonymous says, "Thematically the order is supposed to be oppressive and/or everywhere. In reality... people
don't like playing heavily devout or religious characters in general, it seems like."
Anonymous states, "And most people don't like being the bad guy."
Ghed states, "It's true that by implementing the NPC physician healers we tried to put a plug to 'players are
the only representatives of their guild'"
Anonymous claims, "In most IRL culture, being religiously oppressive is generally seen as evil and bad."
Sparkles says, "This isn't RL."
GeeBee declares, "+1 on Violet's point!"
Deedee says, "I wouldn't mind things being shaken up a bit"
Anonymous states, "It's not no, but players are always going to bring RL viewpoints into things."
Gaiseric has left the game.
Murrmurs pontificates, "Thanks Souless!"
Souless beams!
Temi says, "I do worry there's not people interested in helping take that up"
GeeBee says OOCly, "(Have to leave, but interesting discussion this afternoon. Thanks all and bye!)"
GeeBee begins to descend.
GeeBee leaves down.
Temi questions, "But, we're up to our full time. Any final comments before we send folks back?"
Trajen scoots back from the hole he hadn't noticed
Edgar states, "I don't necessarily think the Order carries that much weight on our back tbh"
Murrmurs declaims, "Thanks for considering!"
Deedee wonders, "How would we feel about letting the Daravi win, and doing sort of a guerrila thing with
knights and order in hiding?"
Edgar claims, "It's more that we're just... stand-ins who try to find things worth poking at while we wait for
actual shit to happen"
Souless states, "I personally love that idea. "
Anonymous claims, "That'd kind of flip thing son its head, sounds like."
Temi says, "We have had plots like that before, though I think we were concerned about it being a longterm
shift"
Souless asks, "Why concerned?"
Temi says, "It's not the game we've billed ourselves as"
Edgar claims, "But aside from the maybe weeks worth of RP I've had in relation to anything Order related, the
majority of the rest is spent doing things I'd probably have more fun doing on a non-Orderite character"
Souless queries, "Okay?"
Souless queries, "What's wrong with a change if it changes things in a positive way?"
Ezra says, "I am inclined to agree with Edgar honestly. "
Souless nods.
Souless claims, "At the very least, consider Murrmurs idea fairly heavily."
Temi says, "I don't think we're convinced that it would be positive for most of our players"
Ulvor states, "Maybe a plot where Farin falls to the Daravi and the front ends up on Lithmore's border? Might
embolden current mages and give them some cool sabotage opportunity without drastically changing the game's
theme."
Ghed claims, "I mean Farin already fell to the daravi once, it's why Farin City no longer exists"
Trajen claims, "Hmm, very interesting"
Temi says, "Though, I think we'd be up for discussing this again, maybe when our owner is here"
Souless queries, "Post a poll, Temi?"
Murrmurs declaims, "Gotta scoot. thanks for the talk yall!"
Ghed questions to Edgar, "You mean to say, 'most of my RP is not Order related'?"
Murrmurs begins to descend.
Murrmurs leaves down.
Temi states to Souless, "I'm going to defer to Kin."
Ezra says, "I've been playing this game for four months and I have never seen a spell cast once lol! I don't
even know what it looks like when it happens."
Souless nods.
Ghed states, "It's sinful"
Edgar claims, "Generally speaking, yes. I can probably count on one hand the amount of Order scenes I've had
that I could onlyt have had as a GI or Orderite of some kind."
Souless claims, "It usually involves nudity, honestly."
Ghed nods at Edgar.
Temi states, "But, I think we'd better wrap up, get people back on grid. We can discuss further in the
future"
Souless nods.
Temi trails off, "Sending folks back...."