Soon time for downtime before next story.

Ok instead of discussing thos on PM when it really are something that affect everyone. What do everyone think about the forthcoming downtime and then jump to October for the next story. The way I was thinking of doing is that when we finish the tying up lost ends from the first story, which should hopefully be at the end of thread 29, everyone describe what they will spend those two months on, and I will describe things that might happen and change in the background that the characters know about. I will give some exp for the downtime period. Do anyone have any opinions on that.

Sounds good, the main loose threads that I assume won't necessarily roll over into the next chunk of plot directly have to do with Carmon and we discussed that already to make a side thread. So we'd be picking up at what Oct 31? Nov 1? With Horizon?

There are the plot related to Carmon which can be done in a side thread, there is also Adey's first date with Narim, I do not just want to jump two months and assume they are together, ok he is set up as a ove interest now but we should have that first date roleplayed but that can also be a side thread. Colin will be facing a Tribunal in Chicago but there basically the assumed outcome is that he will have to help the Mercere find a new home. Most other things I think can be done as downtime. That and finishing up Tane's scenes.

Ok what if when we reach 30 pages on the current thread I make two new ones, one for finishing things up where we can play though scenes and things that needs sorting out and one for the new story after the downtime, do that work for you guys?

A Halloween jump would be around ~6 weeks, not a full two month. Yeah, a pedantic point. However, making it to lead on to the main point...

Again, with my ST hat on, there is one significant issue with longer time-jumps - more work for the ST. Let's say we jumped one week - to Sunday, 4th October. In that downtime, Nicole will [for example] going job-hunting, getting assigned a cabal / any duties for the Chantry, perhaps taking delivery of the rest of her gear and generally settling in. Of that, two can be handled with ease backstage and two could be RP'd or backstaged. Not much work.

However, if we jumped forward a month - Sun, October 25th - the amount of things ST needs to clear can become much larger. Dealing with this new hand she's been sent. Starting to fix the several cars she's got 'booked'. Perhaps going on a road trip with Fran + others to go and stock up the armoury at a gun show. Seeking out someone in Boston who can teach left-handed combat. Plus all the things from the above paragraph, and other things which may happen but I don't know of yet - like, utterly of the top of my head one of the NPC's starts flirting with her.

All this means it'll take more time to what I call 'shifting scenes' [which is fair work for an ST] and it'll be x5 for all players. Lastly, it'll be unfair to the player[s] who are not yet finished if their 'day' has to be guillotined just because some of us can respond quicker.

My idea is this. We let each PC's 'day' end in a natural fashion, and when it is done any Downtime XP is awarded, we quit posting in IC #29 and start chatting with the Great One about downtime stuff.

While we're sorting that out and waiting for everyone to finish IC #29, a series of little side-scenes are played of events which need to be done [Adley's date] or just for fun [say Nicole goes to a gun show, or even a PC-PC thread of her teaching Serge combat skills or something]. Then, when everyone's at the same point and downtime stuff has been completed, we can quickly wrap them up, and launch properly into IC #30.

Just thinking aloud, here.

Sounds like we've got the start of a plan, at least. Nicole's right, though, a timeskip like that is a bit of administrative work; I would suggest we let everyone finish up their day, regardless of whether we run out of thread first, and then we start figuring out in broad strokes what everyone does during the timeskip, and THEN, when everyone's got a rough idea of what they've been doing, we pick up with a new post-skip thread.

I like the timeskip idea and am up for any plan you guys come up with. Serge is mostly done with his day and I did have a few things I planned for him if there was going to be a time skip.

Would the stuff he has planned for tommorow happen in the time skip? Stuff like going to the library with Kyle, art lessons with Narim, and meeting his grand mentor?

like the timeskip idea and am up for any plan you guys come up with. Serge is mostly done with his day and I did have a few things I planned for him if there was going to be a time skip.

Would the stuff he has planned for tommorow happen in the time skip? Stuff like going to the library with Kyle, art lessons with Narim, and meeting his grand mentor?

Yes it would be done during the downtime unless you prefer for us to play through these scenes in which case I am considering if we should have a clean up thread for that. So that when we reach the end of thread 29 I make one new thread for after the time skip and one side thread for things like Adley dealing with Carmon, we can play some of the scenes you mention here in that thread if you wish.

Sounds like we've got the start of a plan, at least. Nicole's right, though, a timeskip like that is a bit of administrative work; I would suggest we let everyone finish up their day, regardless of whether we run out of thread first, and then we start figuring out in broad strokes what everyone does during the timeskip, and THEN, when everyone's got a rough idea of what they've been doing, we pick up with a new post-skip thread.

We could go to thread 30 to let everyone finish up their day, we might be able to do the Charmon thing and Adley's dinner with Narim there and perhaps run Kyle and Serge going to the library, the trading instruction with Narim might be better done during downtime as that will be several sessions of them teaching one another. One more thread migt prevent the need to have a cleanup thread we might fit what else need to be done before the downtime in one more thread, and besides the first story being 30 threads long is a nice even number.

A Halloween jump would be around ~6 weeks, not a full two month. Yeah, a pedantic point. However, making it to lead on to the main point...

Two calendar month jump, we are in September and will be in Noweber after the jump.

Again, with my ST hat on, there is one significant issue with longer time-jumps - more work for the ST. Let's say we jumped one week - to Sunday, 4th October. In that downtime, Nicole will [for example] going job-hunting, getting assigned a cabal / any duties for the Chantry, perhaps taking delivery of the rest of her gear and generally settling in. Of that, two can be handled with ease backstage and two could be RP'd or backstaged. Not much work.

However, if we jumped forward a month - Sun, October 25th - the amount of things ST needs to clear can become much larger. Dealing with this new hand she's been sent. Starting to fix the several cars she's got 'booked'. Perhaps going on a road trip with Fran + others to go and stock up the armoury at a gun show. Seeking out someone in Boston who can teach left-handed combat. Plus all the things from the above paragraph, and other things which may happen but I don't know of yet - like, utterly of the top of my head one of the NPC's starts flirting with her.

All this means it'll take more time to what I call 'shifting scenes' [which is fair work for an ST] and it'll be x5 for all players. Lastly, it'll be unfair to the player[s] who are not yet finished if their 'day' has to be guillotined just because some of us can respond quicker.

The reasons why we are jumping to November is that A I want to avoid the Once Upon a Time problem where everything happens in short sucsession with no pauses or skips in time and that just feel odd, in most novels, TV series and other stories events happens a bit spread out in time, so the next parts of the overarching story will happen at this time.

I do not think there are that much work to figure out what happens during two months.

A two moth skip allow Adley to recover so he do not have go go around with three health levels, and it allow me to bring Beatrice back into the game. From the start of the story, well from when it became a actual story and not a simple who done it, I always planned to have the Horizon arch be in November.

I agre though we should not cut things short, again perhaps one more IC thread would be a good idea before the jump, this will also give everyone some time to consider what their characters will be spending those two months on.

My idea is this. We let each PC's 'day' end in a natural fashion, and when it is done any Downtime XP is awarded, we quit posting in IC #29 and start chatting with the Great One about downtime stuff.

While we're sorting that out and waiting for everyone to finish IC #29, a series of little side-scenes are played of events which need to be done [Adley's date] or just for fun [say Nicole goes to a gun show, or even a PC-PC thread of her teaching Serge combat skills or something]. Then, when everyone's at the same point and downtime stuff has been completed, we can quickly wrap them up, and launch properly into IC #30.

Basically the two solutions I was thinking of was either once IC thread 29 is done, and after all we can stratch it for some extra pages if need be, I create two new IC thread. 30 which is after the time skip and which continue the story and Cleanup where some extra scenes and additional cleanup and needed scenes are done, like for example Adley's date or Nicole going to a gun show with Fran.

The other option is to make thread 30 and see if we can finish up all of what needs finishing up in that thread and then do the time skip.

I am not in any hurry I can continue basically doing personal interactions and cleaning things up for several threads I am more concerned with you guys thinking the game stagnates.

Not to add to the things to do, but I recall a party of some sort that Colin wanted to have, iirc. Maybe that would be a good starting point for the next SL idk how long in the future it was supposed to be though. And the possibility of a technocratic hit.

*copies list to other thread*

Thank you if everyone could make their own lists of what needs to be done that would be great and we can figure out together if we have fogotten anything. I know I have forgotten something important and I rememberd it a few hours ago but now it is gone. Once we have a list we can determine what should be roleplayed and what should be meta gamed during the downtime and then we can know if we need another thread.

What vampires are you thinking about? If it is Carl and Tylers's childer then the two others where helped out of Chicago by Hans. Only Carl asked to be hid so he could return to Chicago once everything blew over. There is Carmon though and the stoyline around him. The tortured Nosferatu girl who the Post Office Chantry have considered taking in as a Custos once they have a home again and then there is Mr Lenoe that will not need to be kept for long now that things went well with Tobias, he was kept since other mages would have killed him if it had become known he had killed an Avatar but now that his posion is out of Tobias he can be set free after a few days.

Ah, I forgot they let Tyler's childer go already! Thanks.

Oh no prob1em, I am sti11 wondering what that thing I rememberd and then forgot again was though.

- The dates are frankly irrelevant. I was mainly using it to illustrate my next point.

- You don't need to sell the concept of time-skips to me, Great One - I do it myself as a VtM ST. It's the reason why I did sound a slight note of caution - that the longer the time-skip, the more backscreen stuff you'll need to do. If we're looking at a 2-month skip, I'm going to have quite a few things I'll need to chat to you about [developments etc] and I'm sure that the others will be the same. That will take time.

- Again, not questioning length of skip. You end it where you feel it needs to end. I was just using the dates to illustrate the above point.

- Hmm... I'm thinking perhaps...

IC #29. Events of 27th Sept.
IC #30. 'Downtime' Events.
IC #31. Events of 29th? Nov.

Now, I know you like it 'all as one' [not moaning, but 'agree to disagree' on this] but in this case think splitting may be the best move so everything doesn't get jumbled up.

- I personally propose that as well as Adley's date, IC #30 should feature a 'cabal meeting'. Set a few days after #29, it can be when Nick's formally introduced [plus she can finally meet Tane]. This holds two advantages; #1 once NPC states 'Nicole's being assigned to you lot, no arguments' it wouldn't really require ST intervention and #2 as it's only a few days after #29, none of their situations would have changed.

- Suggest we make a separate 'downtime plans/wants/wishes' thread. Nicole's got a grab-bag of 'em, of which another of the cabal could help her with / she could help them - such as if say Serge wished to learn to drive [aka take a Drive dot as a downtime spend] which could also be run in IC #30.

- Has your 'l' stopped working again, Great One?

The dates are frankly irrelevant. I was mainly using it to illustrate my next point.

- You don't need to sell the concept of time-skips to me, Great One - I do it myself as a VtM ST. It's the reason why I did sound a slight note of caution - that the longer the time-skip, the more backscreen stuff you'll need to do. If we're looking at a 2-month skip, I'm going to have quite a few things I'll need to chat to you about [developments etc] and I'm sure that the others will be the same. That will take time.

We are going to need a thread for discussing what everyone want to do during the downtime, other than that there is not alot of work, everyone te11 me what their characters are up to and I write up what of re1evance have happened and that is about it.

- Hmm... I'm thinking perhaps...

IC #29. Events of 27th Sept.
IC #30. 'Downtime' Events.
IC #31. Events of 29th? Nov.

That works for me.

Now, I know you like it 'all as one' [not moaning, but 'agree to disagree' on this] but in this case think splitting may be the best move so everything doesn't get jumbled up.

- I personally propose that as well as Adley's date, IC #30 should feature a 'cabal meeting'. Set a few days after #29, it can be when Nick's formally introduced [plus she can finally meet Tane]. This holds two advantages; #1 once NPC states 'Nicole's being assigned to you lot, no arguments' it wouldn't really require ST intervention and #2 as it's only a few days after #29, none of their situations would have changed.

Wou1d not this be what we put in thread 30, a11 the scenes we need to run before the time skip. We can add a Caba1 meeting to that 1ist.

- Suggest we make a separate 'downtime plans/wants/wishes' thread. Nicole's got a grab-bag of 'em, of which another of the cabal could help her with / she could help them - such as if say Serge wished to learn to drive [aka take a Drive dot as a downtime spend] which could also be run in IC #30.

Sounds 1ike a good idea shou1d I make one or do you want to?

- Has your 'l' stopped working again, Great One?

Jupp, but now a o1d spare have been fixed up and a11 the data copied out of this one so now this PC wi11 be sent to the computer doctor.

- Well, 'a lot' is subjective term [after all, what's spending 10 years doing something to an elder vampire?]. Merely pointing out that it will eat a fair bit of your time/energy which may cause overload if you were also having to scramble doing new thread[s] too.

- Yes, 'cabal meeting' and any other downtime events in IC #30, then the start of the next 'full day' in IC #31.

- Don't mind, Great One who makes the 'Downtime Plans & Wants' thread, just thinking that producing one is an idea.

- Changing computers is horrid. I've still got my old one sitting here, awaiting my attention to do a 'final sweep' before it makes it's journey to the tip...

- Well, 'a lot' is subjective term [after all, what's spending 10 years doing something to an elder vampire?]. Merely pointing out that it will eat a fair bit of your time/energy which may cause overload if you were also having to scramble doing new thread[s] too.

Thank you for the concern I think it should be fine and if I do not have time to work on it one day it will have to wait until the next.

Yes, 'cabal meeting' and any other downtime events in IC #30, then the start of the next 'full day' in IC #31.

That works for me.

- Don't mind, Great One who makes the 'Downtime Plans & Wants' thread, just thinking that producing one is an idea.

I will get one made.

- Changing computers is horrid. I've still got my old one sitting here, awaiting my attention to do a 'final sweep' before it makes it's journey to the tip...

Yeah, hopefully they can just fix this one so I can get it back. The keyboard issue can probably be fixed but it also have odd sounds from the DVD player and at times starts overheating for no reason what so ever, I mean the processor is doing noting and the temperature keep rising so I suspect I need new fans.

It's, an design issue [I suspect] with laptops; there was an old assumption said things would be used 'only when user is not at their PC'. That many makers haven't fully accepted that there are now a lot of people who use 'em *instead of* a PC entirely. Plus, laptop makers being cheap.

I'll post Nicks' stuff in the new thread when I can. If we each start with a 'list of wants and plans', the rest of us can see if there's any tie-ups...

Yeah I have a old table top computer but is is very old I usually only use my laptop. Luckily it is under warenty so hopefully I can get it fixed for free.

Ok sounds good.

Oh one thing if we are doing a Cabal meeting we should do that while I am on the three day cabin trip I am going to in September, since then I will not have a chance to post allot and you guys will still have something to do, and they can then discuss whatever to accept Nicole and Serge to the Cabal.

That's part of the point of the cabal thread: it means we can still RP when you're asleep/busy/away.

Plus; PC-PC threads can be fun and allow to character development.

You where thinking a whole thread to the Cabal meeting or having it in thread 30?

I do prefer to have one thread other than Seeking other than splitting it out into threads for each scene and I think two player characters interacting belong in the main thread as well.

Thinking all events between 28th Sept - 28th Nov to be in the same thread [#30], then to kick off #31 when we start 29th[?] November. Which would include Adley's date, a full cabal meeting and any others you/the player feels really should be RP'd.

I see a pbp thread akin to a 'chapter' of a story; the end of an IC day is a clear, natural break [and the start of another day a natural start].