Wrighton: Strange Memory OOC thread

[Gelquie]

Elcie - Thanks. I was wondering if it was shared on the side and not actually posted and I was going "wait, what? D= D= " ...But now on my third attempt to look back after you've posted it, now I see Tiger's link. Oops. xD;

[Thundy]

I've got a question about the bubble. Since I'm having the Post Office deal with telephone communications (much as the British one used to do way back when), how would lines to the outlying towns be affected? Mostly I just want to know, did the lines get cut completely, are they sort of passing through the bubble (and if so are they still working)? Just so I know how many stress-notches I need to add to Randy's day at work.

[Shinko]

We're on our way to a solution, so lets catch up our characters! \ o / *Makes Holly start to bring the puzzle pieces together IC*

EDIT: Thundy Tiger's post establishes outside radio signals at least aren't getting in, so one might safely assume that wireless signals are cut off. Not sure about landlines but they are a dying breed these days. =D

[Twillie]

Jun 20, 2017 19:08:51 GMT -5 Elcie said:

Only three pieces left! Draco Kyn Twillie

Color me intrigued. I'm so excited to uncover what it all means =D

Ohhhh boy so much catching up to do x'D Looks like I missed out on all the puzzle solving, but I can give my piece at least:

SPOILER: Click to show

I.... don't trust myself to successfully put it in the google draw doc since I've never used one before and it looks completely foreign, but I'm 100% sure that that's the top right corner. 
If so, looks like it completes things to say "prog() so" "regularly" "this" and "contemporary"

[♥ Azzie]

I've just got home and I am squealing. This is super awesome! Eeeeee I'm so excited! Time to make more posts!

edit: the problem with the new profile is that now I get to read my own excited flailing in Atif's deep voice. XD

[Twillie]

I'm catching up on posts right now and also preplanning one of my own, but before I get too far on any ideas and potentially make myself fall behind, I just want to make sure of a couple things. Are other characters already meeting and discussing the note pieces that they've found, and have they cracked as much of the code as we have irl?

[Tiger]

Jun 20, 2017 19:26:04 GMT -5 Shinko said:

We're on our way to a solution, so lets catch up our characters! \ o / *Makes Holly start to bring the puzzle pieces together IC*

EDIT: Thundy Tiger's post establishes outside radio signals at least aren't getting in, so one might safely assume that wireless signals are cut off. Not sure about landlines but they are a dying breed these days. =D

Also Thundy, just as a note I left it up to possible faultiness with Harper's phone that the radio signals aren't being picked up, so if the goderators want it to be otherwise, they know better'n me XD If they want to roll with it, that's cool, too \ o /

[June Scarlet]

Jun 20, 2017 20:22:14 GMT -5 Twillie said:

I'm catching up on posts right now and also preplanning one of my own, but before I get too far on any ideas and potentially make myself fall behind, I just want to make sure of a couple things. Are other characters already meeting and discussing the note pieces that they've found, and have they cracked as much of the code as we have irl?

Looks like Ani and Holly just noticed that they each have pieces, and the same with Beatrice and Anise. And Bearice was able to pick out the word "YOU'RE." I figured that was okay, because I could when I read my note, because I really lucked out getting a piece with something easy to pick out.

[♥ Azzie]

I can send Atif over to some people with his piece, I just don't quite know where everyone is
I was going to send him in the general direction of the market, but I can send him wherever!

[Twillie]

Ah alrighty, thanks!

I'll try to send Liz somewhere opportune for interactions as well, or to a specific spot where people already are if it makes sense ^^

[Avery]

*crawls out of the shadows*

Hello I'm Troy McClure, you may remember me from such--

... wait, no, not that.

So uh. I've been lurking and generally keeping up from the background. And it seems cool so far, and I do want to NPC. Because I hate feeling left out, and as I said, this all seems pretty cool.

But I guess that leads me to... a concern I'm sort of having.

I can totally understand, and respect, keeping all pertinent plot development and coordination on-forum. However... as a past goderator and participant in a whole lotta forum events, I also know that a lot of organic character development - not plot relevant stuff, necessarily, just... feeling out your character and dynamic and assorted confidence-building when it comes to feeling okay posting in the RP - develops a lot easier with quick back-and-forth on a medium like Skype, Discord, etc. This becomes especially useful in later rounds, once momentum starts to die down. It keeps people interested and their attention captured if there's space for rapid-fire back and forth when the whim strikes them, or they have that weird 3AM idea when no one is lurking on the forum, or they're just like "Waah, I am not sure about this post" and need a quick "I'm sure it's great!". If they can comment off the cuff with a simple 'enter' instead of going through an entire loading of the forum, post process, second-guessing what they're saying, etc. It allows characters to develop into more than just props in an RP, but veritable living breathing beasts that live on well past the game's expiration date. The more you practice with something, the better you get at it, you know? And a lot of people just do not feel comfortable with characters until they've put in a lot of that... brainstorming and OOC chat-play and whatever else people do.

Which brings me to my related point of... I also know that a lot of people - myself included - have severely, severely limited access to Proboards/NTWF during the workday. The app is wonky and doesn't play nice with my phone, it's extremely easy to miss notifications, and hard to have back-and-forth in a rapid fire way that fosters organic development and brainstorming - not, again, plot relevant stuff that will affect everyone, but just the personal nuances and whirling-dervish thought process and all that jazz. Basically, becoming comfortable with your characters. Figuring out how they fit into the broader picture. How they interact with others, their motivations, all of that.

I know that in the past, there were 170-page OOC threads and it worked fine. But I also think the forum demographics have changed. A lot. Many or most of us work full-time, with offices that maaay not be NTWF friendly - but we can access an IM on our phone and it pings with notifications, and still allows us a level of interaction/participation. Maybe this is selfish of me. But... if we're basically not allowed at all to talk about characters and brainstorm and geek out on IM... that basically precludes me from participating. At all. Keeping up with reading the RP on-forum is a task enough for me - if I must also contain all of my assorted, pointless, inane character development and chatter to the forum - it's just... not going to happen. I won't know when I get a reply unless I'm obsessively refreshing on my phone; this thread is very easily buried when posts are made on other threads; if I do notice the response, it's a heckuva lot more intensive to flail around in mobile on a forum like this to post a reply, than it is to reply to an IM.

Again. I respect keeping everything plot pertinent here. So that if there are things people will be out-of-the-loop if they don't see, then they dang well see it. I also respect, and think it's awesome, if people do want to throw around things here. But I think it would do a lot for general sustained activity and allowing more people to participate if OOC chatter that is not related to the puzzle/logistics/pertinent info for gameplay was allowed to flow organically on programs like Discord, Skype, etc., for people who would like to, with the caveat of course that if anything plot-crucial were to develop, it gets shifted here. Heck, chat logs can even be copy-pasted verbatim.

Also... as a general aside, Discord is stupidly easy to set up - you can use it in your web browser, or on the desktop program. You don't even really have to sign up - just enter a nickname.

So. Yeah. I know I'm but a lurking fogey, but - that's my humble request. X'D; For what it's worth.

[Gelquie]

I'm about to send Alexis through the market as well, and though she'll probably eventually want to check out the edge of the dome, I'll probably just have her search the marketplace first, for people she saw earlier or anyone who has a slip of paper in their hands.

Depending on if cell phone coverage is working under the dome, if anyone shows their cryptogram paper to Athene, she may call Alexis to let her know.

(I'll describe Athene getting to her stall and thus describing what her stall is about later, once I've narrowed down final things about her. Sorry; I'm indecisive.)

[Rabbit ♠]

Random thought: Now I wish I gave Ani a hard to pronounce first name so people would pronounce her name wrong and she's silently go along with it because she doesn't speak so she can't tell them the correct pronunciation but on the inside she could be seething with rage thinking, "That's not my name."
(I don't know how I came up with this, either.)

[Birdy]

I'd just like to comment on some of the things Carrie brought up.


I, too, agree and respect that anything crucial to the plot and such should be kept on-forum (or even copy-pasted over, if something happens to tangentially spring up elsewhere). But Carrie also brings up an excellent point that a lot of character growth tends to happen in casual chats in IM. (I know it has for me - it helps me keep in the groove of writing the character (or even get back in the groove if it's been a while), without the pressure of a formal RP. It's just more casual and relaxing (and allows room for mistakes/growth), with less pressure to be sure things are "perfect" before posting. (Since at least to me, I feel that the forums are more... permanent? than IM? and so random/inane/short comments are/will be there for all time, for anyone to see. While in IM, it's easier for it to get buried in backlog and forgotten. (Which comes in really handy for times I feel like I said something stupid and embarrassed myself.))

So... yeah. I'd also be in favour of an IM chat, but again, I agree that all plot-crucial things should be kept here (or copied over if it springs up).

I mean, I'm willing even to copy-paste such a chatlog to the OOC thread here daily, if need be, so no one misses out.


But yeah, just some of my thoughts.

[♥ Azzie]

I would like to chime in support for what Carrie and Birdy have said. I'm just super embarrassed about posting silly inane things here where I feel like they aren't necessary, because people subscribe to threads, and they didn't subscribe to threads just to hear silly inane chatter or observations
But it feels less embarrassing just blurting stuff out in a fast-moving chat where you aren't annoying anybody
I'll respect the rules no matter what! And I hope you goderators don't get upset with us. I just wanted to voice my support for what these lovely ladies are saying. ^^;