OOC Info A Profusion of Rum and Coconuts - Syka's OOC

[Gossamer]

The info is in the old calendar thread for last season.

[Ashka]

The info is in the old calendar thread for last season.

Riverfall Summer Calendar

So what does this mean for Players?

It means you write. You write all about The Sakel haunting you. We started this new type of Season last season and frankly had a poor turnout in player base. I made some mistakes and planned a rather large reveal at the end. That reveal flopped and wasn’t allowed to work because it was going to be based on a player driven initiative that could only work with the cooperation of the whole pbase of Riverfall. And that cooperation depended upon at least a half dozen players participating. We did not get that number nor those added results. In fact when I opened nominations up for people to nominate thread winners and stand out PCs with the understanding people could nominate themselves, I got 5 replies and every single reply almost to every answer nominated themselves for EVERY awards. It was disappointing. So I decided to scratch the next phase until Fall because it’s absolutely designed to be player driven, and try one more season of active participation under a very wide open theme anyone can get involved with.

There will be a host of prizes offered at the end there will be a little voting contest and a grand prize will be awarded the player with the most interesting Sakel activity. That's the challenge. Potential prizes and rewards will be listed in a separate post at the end of this thread. I will help you with any and all scenarios you might need assistance or approval for. Just drop me a pm and I'll let you know what we can do to get started. Otherwise start for yourself.

If your thread has a Sakel in it or has a Sakel theme, you must begin your threads with the tag [The Sakel] at the start of the title.

The Summer Sakel Rewards! ❖


As I said PCs need incentives sometimes. We are going to best do this by having a little voting contest and have some awards. Each award winner will be able to pick from a prize below. Each prize can be chosen multiple times. I will let the entire game vote on who wins so it isn't just me deciding. Everyone has a chance.


❖ Here are the categories:

Best Male PC That's Portrayed The Sakel
Best Female PC That's Portrayed The Sakel
Best Combat Scene (multiple winners possible)
Best Dramatic Scene (multiple winners possible)
Best Romantic Scene (multiple winners possible)
Best Overall Thread Featuring The Sakel
Most Improved PC Through The Sakel

Syka Summer Calendar

✨What Does This Mean For Players?

It means you write. You write all about fire! The first time your character physically lights a fire, they are going to gain the ability to light a fire with just willing it into existence. This can be a gentle gleeful thing or a huge traumatic event. The decision is yours! At first the fires will need everything a normal fire needs to burn... heat (provided by your mind), fuel, and air. But as time passes, the fires will need less and less fuel and no air at all. They will just burn, and always with a rainbow of flickering flames that will provide warmth and act in all ways as a normal fire would.

Once lit, players will have no ability to control them with their minds. They must be controlled as normal fire is controlled. If they build them in a very sensible fire pit or ring, they will stay contained. If they light them where there is a lot of fuel, wind, etc... the same danger exists that exists with all fire. These fires must be put out like traditional fires.. meaning you need to bury them, snuff them, or drown them.

If you write 50K words for the season on your character (that's three months or ninety one days folks, far more time than a NaNo situation) then your PC will be able to keep this ability full time and not loose it like everyone else at the end of the season.

You will need to track your word count at the bottom of your posts if you are interested in retaining your firestarter ability after the season is over. I trust you all on the honor system as long as the word count is tracked in every post.

As far as I can see, Riverfall's calendar has info about nominations. Syka's calendar does not. Maybe it's another attack of the invisible posts?

[Karin]

Hello all!

Just quickly popping in to say that the open thread is now up: A Roof Over Your Head. It'll be fun, I promise.

[Karin]

Gossamer, what were we supposed to vote for in Syka? I think there's some kind of mix-up here... I'm in the dark. Also, I for one am interested in a calendar. I assumed that like most people, as you lead a busy life you may have been unable to put together something. We all get that. That's why we don't pester and nag. If you would prefer us to make a little more noise in that regard then here's me sincerely hoping that there is even just a theme for the season. That would do me fine.

[Gossamer]

Hi Guys.

No no you weren't supposed to vote. That's my mistake. It's been a long long season last season and I really felt I was getting no feedback (which I wasn't) on what we were doing in both cities. I took the voting option from Syka so we could award a permanent fire starting gift which I thought would be a nice compliment to Wilderness Survival, especially for the non-mages, and a reward unto itself.

The problem is no one communicates with me. No one lets me know that they finished (I heard several people did in chat but for the life of me I can't remember who because I was on my phone and couldn't access their SS threads at the time). I ask for feedback here and in other forums and forms and no one gives any so I get the sense that no one really cares.

I log on day in and day out and delete endless spam from the Russians (one day there was two hundred posts... I kid you not) and maybe answer a HD ticket or two and that's that. Its a hardcore case of burnout in the extreme and one I have no idea if I can get over or not because honestly I don't feel like even logging on the site anytime soon. Any time I get excited about anything, people vanish. They reappear like its no big deal, issue an apology, and then demand I set them up or help them reintegrate, and its killing me.

And when I ask for a tiny bit of feedback and everyone just ignores it, I feel a little... a lot... let down.

Again, its not everyone. There were two people that responded to the voting in RF. I am eternally grateful to them, but I can't give awards for 20 people based on 2 votes. And here, this OOC goes silent for months on end even though people are posting to threads.

In the old days these ooc threads, even with fewer people on the site, would spam for pages if I didn't read up on it in a day. Now though... now its silent. Everyone is in their own RP bubble. And its tragic to me.

There's so many demands and I just feel like I'm not getting anything from it anymore. And for years I used to feel like the pleasure folks felt at having a place like Mizahar to come rp at was enough... and it was. But its not anymore. I feel like sometimes its almost the same as writing for yourself in word... because its obvious to me that maybe I'm the only one reading other threads because often people have told me they don't have time to read other threads or keep up on other RPs that are going on in their cities. It's not about MY STUFF... its about all the good writers that are on here writing and no one is reading.

It's just not fun anymore. It's real work. It's such a downer its not even funny.

Anyhow... sorry for the mix up and yelling at you guys for not voting. I should have been saying ... "Hey, why didn't anyone turn in their word counts? Did you not care enough even though you spent a whole three months earning a gift?!?!" And having another ST tell me that I'm too generous, doing too big of things in my cities.... not giving other ST's a chance to have some of those things... makes me sad. Really sad. So I'm just not doing it anymore, not until someone starts giving a rats ass and really caring.... and not just one or two people but a city as a whole. And if you don't like that fact, there are other cities open that don't have ST's that are going through a sort of major downer burnout like I am. You are welcome to move.

Goss

[Karin]

The only PC that I can think of that completed the word count was Merevaika, to my knowledge. I tried, but then like always happens life got in the way (as you know) and I didn't manage to reach the word count. I think there were others who got close, but I'm not sure who. Obviously it wasn't for a lack of interest- I loved the chance and the idea to make fire like that. It seemed to me to hint of amazing things to come, vibrant, exciting stories on the frontier of Mizahar. I get this sense that Syka has a lot of hidden secrets that are bursting at the seams to release themselves again onto the world. There's a distant, fleeting idea of mine to grow Karin into a real-life, cliché adventurer to go with that, discovering what this place has hidden in it's depths just for the sheer delight of it. There's several people that RP here that I would love to team up with too...

Jen, Karin's not gonna leave any time soon. I'm just one person, and one person doesn't make a city, but I will do my utmost to drum up activity here. I'm probably not the best example, being such a patchy, no-show writer. But I think that this community, and by that I mean Syka in particular, could and can be spectacular. Come on guys, show yourselves! Let's chat plot. Let's chat about where we want our characters to go and what we want them to do and let's make stories.

Also... on the "too generous" thing (as I was that ST). Now that I realised STs can do something similar to RF too, y'know I completely get it? Please don't get yourself down about that. Be generous, be story-driven... be who you are. We'll chat and plot and set Syka a'buzzin' in the meantime.

~K

[Jade Laken]

Jade and Dina are sticking with you too Goss. I couldn't imagine them fitting in anywhere else. You will have to beat me off with a stick before I willingly leave. I didn't ask about a calendar because of my lack of activity personally. I just didn't feel like I had any right to ask you to put yourself out then something happen or my crappy management skills cause me to not do anything

Ashka - you up for a thread later this season?

[Xen]

I have to apologize also, Goss, for the idiotic Pm I sent you and the lack of activity in Falyndar Region which at one point I was the only active PC in for at least two/three months or seasons. And it isn't that I'm not interested, it's just that life hasn't been really pleasant and has been demanding and thieving at random intervals.

However, I'm slowing coming back to Mizahar with madness, monsters, and curse themed threads. Additionally, only one of my old threads remain and my free time looking slightly better, so I'll pick up my activity and lurker around as I did before.

[Jaylani Rae]

I also finished the 50k word challenge last season. To my knowledge it was just Merevaika and I that did, but I could be wrong. The only reason I did not come to you to let you know that I finished was that I did not know how you wished us to proceed and thought you would let us know when the season finished. That was my mistake, I should have just messaged you, I apologize for that.

I absolutely adored the chance to get the firestarter ability permanently last season. So much so that I pushed myself to do it in the month that was left of the season after I sorted Jaylani out despite being on vacation the first week the month and uni starting in the last week of the month. I made Jaylani for this city and for being really involved in whatever challenges that are thrown her way. I love this city and I love Mizahar as a whole. I can see the heart that has been put into this place and in response to that I put a piece of my own heart into near every post I create.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I appreciate everything you do here Goss. Both as a writer of your characters and as a mod. I am sincerely sorry for whatever part I played in causing this lull here. Jaylani is here to stay and therefore I, as her writer, am not going anywhere for as long as I can help it.

I admit that I am not always the best at being involved in OOC chat. I struggle to post in OOC threads, always have on every forum I’ve ever been on and I don’t really have a reason why that is. Slowly, so slowly, I am getting better about it. Each post is a small success for me. So that is why I’ve never been very active on this or any other OOC thread. When I get so twisted up with one post.. I’m rarely eager to make more. But I am promising now to be better. To plot, talk, and be involved as much on this end as I strive to be with my IC writing.

As for discussing plots, as I said in my post before I am open for threads right now and I am looking to get involved in any plots big or small. I do not have a lot of set plans for Lani at this moment in time. She can kind of go in any direction. I would love to build her up some relationships, play with her not understanding what love is in any capacity. This fear that everyone will eventually leave her. I’d love for her to go on adventure, get hurt, train her kitten, go through something tragic… everything! All of it! Feels and drama are my favorite!

[Jade Laken]

Hey Jay, I am in the process of getting our thread started. I had a hang up on how I wanted to get it going, but I think I got it planned out now so hopefully in a day or two it will be posted