Post by Prince Christien de la Courcel on Jul 25, 2010 12:24:18 GMT -5
The Herald Issue #59
[/i][/center][/size]Week of July 25 – July 31, 2010
[/i][/center][/size]The Herald is meant to help keep everyone informed and up to date. If there is anything that anyone would like to include in future issues or if you have questions or comments, please pm me or any staff member.
In Character News & Notes
[/i][/center][/size]From the Crown
[/i][/center]The Monarchy extends the invitation to the nobles and peers to make use of the grounds, the Game Room, the Palace Library and other such public places meant for the enjoyment of our citizens.
Night Court News
[/i][/center]We would like to remind everyone that the Night Court has many wonderful adepts available for contract; you may peruse them Court of Night Blooming Flowers
Marques: This week, we examine the marque of Alyssum House:
Delicate rose-colored lines of knotwork in the shape of a four-armed cross wind their way softly over the adept's back. Small white flowers peek out from here and there, seeming at random, and the faintest splash of color is visible in the sprinkling of green leaves as rare points.
Upcoming Events
[/i][/center]The wedding of Justin de Rocaille and Avive de Mauvais is coming up in the spring.
Rumor Mill
[/i][/center]Rumors are abuzz when Prince Delauney and Princess Azabel were seen together at the L’Envers fete. Could this mean a reconciliation?
Out of Character News & Notes
[/i][/center][/size]Announcements
[/i][/center]The board is undergoing quite a few changes of late, please bear with us and make sure to read the following information to keep up to date:
The Council of 80:We want to hear your suggestions! If you have any comments or suggestions on any aspect of the board or rp, please post them here: The Council of 80
Board Changes:
OK, well let me apologize first for the lack of progression on the board in the last few months, it wasn’t out of lack of want, but lack of time… Though I’m sure you can all relate. But now that I’m out of school (at least for the next two months), I’d like to continue on with those changes that I sort of briefly talked about before my sojourn.
First and foremost is that over the last few months I had been thinking in great detail about what sort of changes I want to see on the board. I’ve thought a lot about what you the members have told me in passing or as a constructive criticism, I’ve thought about how things felt when the board was first formed, I’ve listened and contemplated and searched my mind for a way to bring this board to a place where we can truly call it ours and I think I’ve come to a conclusion.
So, after much thinking these are the ideas that I have discussed with staff and we have agreed should be changed.
1. The primary thing we’d like to see changed is thread counts. Effective immediately is the thread count per character will be increased to 10. Personally I feel like the thread limitations stop things from progressing at a quicker pace. So, no longr will there be a rule for only 4 threads with a floating thread. But there will still be a few rules.
- Players will be expected to moderate THEMSELVES. This means that if staff see you with 10 threads each character, and you’re not keeping up, or you have so many threads that other players start to complain… You will face punishment. If a player is starting new threads but is not keeping up with old threads, and management/staff begin to receive complaints, that player will also be asked to stop posting new threads till they can finish off pre-existing threads. If a player does not do this, threads will be deleted without warning, AND players will receive a warning. Should a player receive 3 warnings their accounts will be disabled and they will no long be able to post for a period of 30 days.
- Instead of having a rule that restricts the entire population of the board, we will enact a new rule that will only punish people individually, people who are not able to control themselves. Players will be expected to keep their thread counts at 10 and/or below.
- Should a player start more then 10 threads in more then 6 characters, they’ll be told to either bring their thread count down, or will not be allowed to post more threads till they bring their thread count down. This will be strictly enforced. If you’ve been asked to stop posting new threads and you go ahead and do it anyway, all your new threads will be deleted without warning. So don’t do it. This will only affect you if you’re unable to control yourself when it comes to starting new threads, so if you don’t have that problem, then don’t worry about it.
2. I think that we can all agree that the staggering difference between Real World time and Board time is something we’re all a little tired of. I’ve been playing Sabrina’s first year on the throne for the last 5 years! I know I’m not the only one that is not impressed with how slowly things are going. Basically there are three options that will be given that players will be asked to vote on to choose the new system by which we measure time in TdA.
- Option 1: A 1 to 2 ratio in time
- Option 2: A 1 to 1 ratio in time
- Option 3: A 2 to 1 ratio in time
-A 1 to 2 ratio means that every 1 month of REAL time will equal 2 months BOARD time (faster then real time).
-A 1 to 1 ratio means that every 1 month of REAL time will equal 1 month BOARD time (same pace as real time).
-A 2 to 1 ratio means that every 2 months of REAL time will equal 1 month of BOARD time (slower then real time).
Within the polls there are actually 6 more options then put here. Three of the options available in the polls are combinations of these initial options. Board time WILL be changing no matter what, we just can’t keep playing this way or we’ll all be in our 80’s before we see the board progress anywhere. When time drags, stories drag and then people loose interest when things become boring. So hopefully we can all agree on how fast we’d like things to progress.
3. A few of those on the board now are not familiar as to how it came to be this way; short story, the person who started the board abandon it and those of us that had been there longest just took over the duties in hopes that the board would progress. This is actually how Sabrina came to be, out of necessity really, it fell to me (mostly because I’d been there the longest) to keep things running and because I had nothing better to do. But at the time I had no real RP experience and no idea how to run a board; I created Sabrina mostly because we needed some sort of monarch. At this time, and even before this, the fledgling board had no real direction. There were no rules, no opinions about how things should be played, we simply picked up the pieces and pushed forward working on a basic level of just keeping things going but never really sure about WHAT we were doing. There was no major storyline to follow and characters were made a random without any idea about how they would fit into some form of plot. For the most part the board today isn’t much different from the board back then, in the sense that we have no direction, no major cause or purpose. Most of the changes we’ve made over the years have mostly been organizational changes, simply adding to the board to accommodate new players and the amount of RPing that’s being produced.
This is the part where things would potentially change a lot….
When the board started, it started very ambiguously, as a whole we never really decided on how we wanted to see the board or how we wanted to play it out. There were ideas posed about should we focus more on the Courtier side of things or the Night Court side of things… it was sort of vaguely decided we’d focus on both, but that was about as far as things went. The problem is that over the years many questions have cropped up having to do with some of the rules of Terre d’Ange as in the Terre d’Ange that Jacqueline Carrey made up in her books. And over the years we’ve just guessed at certain things based on what we knew of the book. There has always been an ambiguous nature surrounding a lot of our rules because we were guessing at things most of the time. We’ve always associated ourselves as being a spin off of the books, which makes sense, but here’s my suggestion. What if we create our own rules, what if we decide the specifics based on what we wanted. What if we;
-Agree on a date that could be paralleled to actual history (6th century, 12th century etc); we’d probably want to pick something no later then the 15th century and no earlier then the 5th.
-Agree on a style of language to use, or words that may not be entirely historically accurate, but that allow us to have some freedom. That’s not to say everyone could go out and stay saying things like “oh my god that’s like totally cool” or anything, it’s an historical RPG and part of its appeal is that it’s historical. But I think it would be nice to ease on some of the restrictions. This would probably mean compiling a list of terms and words that would be considered acceptable. If we decide exactly during what point in time we want things to take place, it would probably open up language issues for us since we’d know at what time frame to reference things.
These are just a few suggestions or ideas, but the concept is really to not just be like the Terre d’Ange from JC’s books, but to distinguish ourselves from them and make it our world. Keep in mind that we will still keep the structure or ‘bones’ of what JC has set out in the books. There are already rules set out that are firmly stated by the books and rules that we’ve continued to use within the board to date. For the most part, these particular things will not change, but what I’d really like to see is less ambiguity and in staff opinion that means filling in the blanks with our own rules.
The truth is that the world of Terre d’Ange isn’t completely historically accurate, though there are plenty of elements that are based on the real world (Alba was a name for Britain back in the day… Dauphin was a common term in France for the Heir Apparent to the crown… Aragonia was ruled by the House of Aragon… etc). This could really leave us some wriggle room when it comes to certain things. It would also allow us a hell of a lot more freedom in our writing styles as well.
Two polls have been created for the purpose of changing these things. One in regards to the time line and how fast board time will go with real life, the second will be about the historic time frame we would like paralleled to the board. These polls are now open and players should be sure to take the time to vote as these are potentially big changes and we want to be sure that everyone has a say. If you wish to post your thoughts on the subject, feel free to reply to the polls, are discuss the matter in the ‘Council of 80’ board. Once people have had a chance to make their choices and vote, another PM will be sent out detailing specific issues surrounding the changes that are being made. As always, should anyone have any questions, concerns or suggestions, feel free to send them in the direction of me or any of the other staff members.
Time Frame Poll
Board Era Poll
Happy Voting!
Staff and Management
Staff Changes[/u]
After continued conversations, Heather has decided to take a semi permenant leave of duties. Until a time when she's able to step back into a managereal role, she will be enjoying her time in a strictly posting position.
On another note, because of the unfortunate loss of Heather's qualified assistance on the board, we'll be needing some one to take up role as a second manager.
I'm pleased to announce that Nicole will now be available to approve bios, create, modify, and delete boards as well as alter member groups on accounts. Should you require any assitance in those areas, she will now be able to help you.
Congratulations Niky!
Gene’s Departure[/u]
As most of you may have seen, Gene has decided to leave the board, most likely permanently. Over the time in which he has been a member of this board, he’s been a valued player and friend to all. I know that we can all agree that his quick wit, flirtatious comments and unique writing style will be missed by all that knew him.
With this departure comes a task that is never easy, what to do with the loss of a player when it comes to their characters. After some discussion we’ve decided that the fate of some of his characters will be sealed by having them killed off, but there are also a few that we’ve decided to leave open. Below is the list of his characters and the recourse that will be taken with each.
- Pièter Kolcei- Open to being taken over
- Duc Jareth d’Aiglemort- Killed off
- Mathieu L'Envers de Montegue- Potentially Taken over
- Gadleon Shahrizai- Open to being taken over
- Uruz Teiwaz- Open to being taken over
- Gregoire de Morhban- Taken over by Nicole
If you have an interest in taking over any of his characters, please contact me through my raina account. If there are any characters I some how missed, let me know.
REMINDER: Please keep your avatar list up to date, it is really helpful when someone is creating a new character if they know which avatars have already been used. Avatars
Welcome New Players!
[/i][/center]Please welcome nyneve to the board
Current events
[/i][/center]A Binding of Hearts - Mala & Chris’s Wedding
The Beginning of Forever - Sophine and Erie’s Wedding
First the City, Then the Crown - A L’Envers Fete
Upcoming Absences
[/i][/center]Heather and Champion will be sporadic.
Tosha will be sporadic due to some personal issues.
Amy will be spotty due to some personal issues.
Ryan is off to Cabo, so will be absent (LUCKY!).
Reminders
[/i][/center]Don’t forget to keep your Character Threads list up to date. This is a basic rule of the board and all members are required to do so. It is also required to keep your Site members list and Avatars up to date. Any questions or disagreements should be brought to management.