Charter of Reinvention

[Admin]

(This is CK)

What kind of shitty mutant doesn't evolve?

Here's the deal: The board is dying. I don't want it to die. We've put a lot of hard work into this thing, and I'll be damned if we sit idly by and let this mug sink.

So what are we gonna do about it? How can we stop this slow decay? The answer lies in evolution. What's happening right now isn't working anymore, so we need to change into something that DOES work. There's a few steps to this process, in my humble opinion.

#1: Recruit. We've been insular for a while, afraid to let others in. What were the downsides to that? Well, there are about six to ten of us, and between us we have about 50 characters. A lot of them are core characters, that people who would want to apply for now don't have the chance to play. That brings us to...

#2: Clean house. Some of us don't even play our canon characters that often. We're taking up completely vital spots and doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING with them. I'm completely guilty of this, with Logan. The main character of the movies and he's F'n nowhere. That's the opposite of what should be happening. So, I'm asking once, politely, to everyone here: If you really don't think you can put time into a CANON character, PLEASE drop the character. These are valuable slots. If you don't want to drop them, and you still won't post... well, time for a new rule:

#3: Post once a week. The majority of board players had a talk, and we agree that the new rule should be that if you have a canon character, and you don't post with them at least once in a seven day period, you get a strike. If you get three strikes, you no longer get to play that character and it goes back into the pool of available ones. Honestly, if you have a canon character, it's your responsibility to play them. Why do you have them if you're not playing them? If you can't play, then put it in on the absences board, and obviously there are exceptions. But if you're constantly absent, isn't it only polite to give up the character for a more active player? To show that I'm not an exception to this rule, I'm giving up Logan. I don't play him enough.

#4: Bubbling. Again, I hate to pull “majority rule” here, but again in the talk, we've decided that bubbling can ONLY improve this board. It isn't that difficult, and it will allow the maximum amount of RP available for everyone. I can't tell you how many times I've had to freakin' WAIT for people to get out of scenes so I can be in them with them. Why should I have to? Why can't we simply be responsible players? So we're going to roll by month. The month will be non-linear, and bubble. Everything you RP will happen in that month, and it will be up to the players to be responsible as to how it runs out. When we all agree we should move on to the next month, we will. What's most important about bubbling (if you even need to call it that) is that it allows slower players the chance to play. A slow person can play with a fast person, and that fast person can still play elsewhere.


I know these are pretty big changes, but times are hard, we need to evolve. These changes are very adaptable for people's time. Especially bubbling, as it actually allows slower players to play. If you are a REALLY slow player, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't play a canon character. See rule #3 above.

(Special Note For Admins and Mods: We have the authority around here, so we should set the example. If we can't keep up, then we shouldn't have the power. If I see that I'm becoming one of the slower players, or not pulling my weight, I'll give up the admin power to someone who does. It's only fair. We're a community, and honestly I think we've grown with each other quite a bit. The board has to survive, and I'm willing to sacrifice my personal authority here to make that happen.)

[maddy]

Well. Is this effective immediately? Because if it is, I'm going to have to give up some characters. Unfortunately, I just won't be able to play all nine of mine if we're speeding up the board and imposing posting rules.

I've got a bit of a conundrum though. Firstly, I have plans for some of my canons that can't necessarily come into effect straight away. Major example: Madelyne, who I'd kinda prefer to keep her big plotty stuff until Rob's back some more, since she's become quite involved with Nightcrawler. Also, unfortunately, she's not the kind of character that everyone wants to play with; you yourself have said that you don't like her being involved in certain types of plotlines because of her power level, CK. So there aren't necessarily things I can do with her every single week until almost two and a half months from now when Rob'll be back on a much more regular basis.

Secondly, I've got some OCs that are entwined with other people's. Example: Ana, who is the only person that Magneto currently has to interact with. Eos, who is one of twins. Gracie, who is twined up with quite a few characters and can't just disappear without some kind of explanation. I simply wouldn't be able to play them much, if at all, if I'm going to have to concentrate on my canons - so it seems pointless having a bunch of OCs if they never get played either.

As of right now, I would say that to make this work, I'm going to have to drop most of my OCs (I'd be keeping Angie if I kept any of them) and possibly a couple of my Canons. Not that my shit is important to the board as a whole, but I'm just trying to explain what this makes me think.

Now, as for the rest of it.

I don't think we've been insular at all. Becka may not have been actively advertising anymore, but I don't think any of us have been trying to discourage people from joining the game. I don't know about everyone else, but I bring it up to people plenty, trying to get them to come over here. But you can't force people to join, and I think the only person we've actually rejected recently was the one person who had never RPed before (Becka's rule) - the other guy who submitted a bio never came back to respond to it. Hardly seems like we're turning down newcomers; but we don't have that many, and I think that's more because of the fact that we haven't been advertising and coming into an established game can be quite intimidating.

Every single player here has been guilty of not posting every canon they have every week. Sometimes, I think, it's that we don't necessarily have the opportunity to play them - given that we've been waiting on people to finish up threads so that plotlines can be run, it's been hard to have all of them involved in something, IMO. I think a grace period would be nice, to let people get used to it and guage their activity levels and figure out what can be done with their characters. But yeah. Just me once again.

A month long bubbling period seems like a REALLY long time. I quite liked what we came up with about the fuzzy weeks, I don't see why we need to change from that just yet. I've seen no-one fill up their entire week, so I personally think that it's probably a better idea to continue with a pre-determined time change so that we DO keep moving forward, and if people ARE using up their whole week within a single month, by all means, think about speeding it up. But again, that's just my opinion. The bubbling isn't my issue, I'm fine with the idea of bubbling - just the length of time we're planning on running it within. A month that doesn't have a determined end date (so could, theoretically, go on forever until we decide it's time to change over) just seems like a bit too long to me for everyone to be able to keep track of where everything is. Or maybe I'm just retarded and won't be able to keep track for myself. Again, my shit isn't important to the whole board, so feel free to disregard it all.

[mystique]

Just my three or four cents as a counterpoint.

We have been insular, we've had the discussions. Not wanting to just invite any old yahoo in, and having had it become a problem when we have. Talking about how we like our little group and don't need it to get bigger. And we DO Like our little group, and it might not NEED to get bigger, but a few more players(particularly ones we know we like playing with already) can't hurt and might be fun.

I think we could all do with dropping some characters and that's also part of the point. Both because when so many canons are taken by one player it leaves less for new players, but because when one person is gone, a large hole is left in the board. Spread the lurve.

I do think she has a point about the characters that don't have anything to do on a particular week. However, I also think that if you don't have anything to do, find something. See what the board can do to help you out. Why AREN'T you playing every week? It's an RP board. That's what it's here for. Theoretically you shold be in a thread with every character all the time. If that would be too much work, maybe we need less characters. So we go back to the beginning.

[Pyro]

Every board, even the most active board I've been on has natural ebb and flow. There are periods - like when we started and (I don't mean this disrespectfully) some of our younger players were out of school and around all the time when you can hardly keep up. Then there are periods when people have out of character reasons to be slow or less enthusiastic about playing. I know, for example, that both Ben and I have totally crap jobs that burn us out like you wouldn't believe. There's been days of late when I've got home and wanted to sit and cry all night.

Another thing that took a bit hit for me, and I was one of the most active players, was losing my ability to post from work during the day. This may not sound like a dramatic thing to most people, but it hit me hard. Anyhoo, I apologise for most of this being about me, but it's from my point of view.

I'm not bothered by the 'post once a week' rule, however I know that on other boards where they run an activity list, it causes the admins more grief than anything. There are times, as has been said, when people simply can't get to the board/can't muster the energy etc., etc., etc. I have no problem with dropping characters, however, let me see:

Pyro - definitely keep as he's moderately crucial.
Colossus - I could drop big Pete in Russia but unless Reineke has plans on dropping Sibyl, that seems unfair.
Gambit - There were plans afoot (ahead, ahand, atoe, etc.) to Do Stuff with Wanda. Again, unless Reineke is going to drop Wanda, that would seem unfair.
Cannonball - Well and truly tied into the Paige/Warren/Bobby situation.
Bishop - Already released back into the wild.
Airlock - I'm going to put my head on the block here and say that I'm annoyed about what's happened with Lars. Becka was all about running some plot with him and for her own various reasons wasn't able to post very often and maybe wasn't interested in writing with him. I LOVE Lars as a character, but I'm in a difficult situation. I don't particularly want to drop him, but given the circumstances, it looks like I have to.
Zephyr - Never posted for her anyway, so she can go.

So out of 7 characters, I can definitely lose 2.

The only way to ensure these characters are posted for at least once a week is to ensure that they're in active threads constantly. Which can't always be guaranteed.

Bubbling. I've never had a problem with bubbling. I also propose we ditch the 'can't be in more than two places at one time' rule. When you have so much going on, continuity is a big no-no. I think as long as you keep the general gist of what's been happening and don't allow stupidly long periods to lapse between posts, it's cool. Again, my opinion. I propose a header on the board that says something like "Current game time: July" until the universal agreement comes to move it to August, or September, or December and let people just post.

Now that there are two official admins, I feel we need direction and official plot. At the moment, the majority of stuff going on around the board is personal plot. This is cool - for the people who get directly involved in it. However - and I know Sombra is lined up - we need global plot and that is everyone's responsibility - to come up with something that everyone can get involved in. In my opinion (again!) Baltimore rocked - because everyone got involved.

More of the same, please.

Right, enough of my wittering. I really should go get dressed...

Edited to add:

I'm in agreement with Kaybo on the insular thing, mind. I know that I have certainly invited, mentioned, talked about, etc., etc., the board to many people.

[mystique]

Okay it's me agasin. I'm just doing devil's advocate because I'm up, CK's not, and we'll be gone most fo the weekend and I was privvy to his decision making. THat being said these are my agreements and perspective with his decision, not speaking for him.

No one's goign to be keeping a log of activity. This is meant specifically for the players who abandon their activity for a month and never say anything to anyone about it. People who have way too many canons, don't play any of them, and aren't trying to drum up plot. AND, it's meant to spur us on to FIND things to play. It's not hard. Just think gee, who hasn't my character talked to latey. We have like, 50 active characters. This shouldn't be a problem.

Characters like Maddie have a harder time of it but I believe, being a player of a similar character, that there's a way to work with that for the betterment of the board.

And I think when we have burnout times or changes in schedule, rather than letting that slow down the whoel board, we need to say something about it, and volunteer to make a change rather than taking the board with us. We all know we have ebb times, but we've been struggling since late summer. It's now January. Time to get a move on.

Guys I really don't think these changes are as major as you think. You both have agreed at seperate times that these things are problems but no one has stepped up to do anything to change it. CK wants to try this on; I support it not as his wife or anything like that, but as a player who's willing to see if it works out to our benefit. If it doesn't work for all of us, then we change it back or find something else. It's not a death knell.

Change is good, change is inevitable. Let's give it a SHOT at least, huh?

[Pyro]

OK, well I'm going to take the following very bold step.

Keep

Pyro
Gambit
Cannonball (on the borderline)

Drop[/u]

Everyone else.

Piotr is in a position to be written out in Russia. Anybody who comes along and picks him up will need to understand the back story.

Bishop's already been cut loose.

Lars hasn't been terribly active and much as I love him, he's on the cull list.

Zephyr's never been posted.

Cannonball's borderline because again, he's not critical to anybody.

There's my starter. If everyone agrees, I'll write the other characters into a holding situation and drop them.

[mystique]

Keep

Mystique
Scarlet Witch
Impact
Husk
Conduit

Drop

Dead Girl
Phase
Gemini
Dharma

Though I might request Dharma as an NPC- he's clicked with the island and seems to do people some good, I like him as a sort of duet with Gill. *suddenly thinks of a really awesome thread*

[maddy]

CK himself said that these are pretty big changes. I think the main reason that this seems to be a problem to me, at least, is that we've now been playing for more than six months with things being done a certain way.

Question re: those characters who ARE being dropped - also relates to those who've been relisted :- are we going to retcon some of their history to make it easier for people who do come and want to pick them up? For example, someone picking up Morph may not want to play him as having been in politics. Just wondering there.

Anyway, as for my characters...

Angie - I'd keep, simply because of all my OCs, I think she has the most potential things she can actually be involved in.
Dani - is craploads of fun, but would be easy enough to drop if I find that I simply can't continue with all of my characters.
Angel - He's pretty tied up in things at the moment, but is popular and I'd understand if people wanted someone super active playing him.
Maddie - I have Big Plans for and don't particularly want to drop her. But I think she'll be harder to find something to do with every week, unless I'm just posting solo threads while I wait for it to be long enough for the Big Plans to be realistic. I'd like to know your ideas, Ren, on how to play some of these Unaffiliated characters for the betterment of the game. Actually, could you clarify that thought for me? I just want to be sure exactly what you mean.
Ana - hasn't really been played. But she's the only one Magneto has to play with. So, it kinda leaves Ben high and dry. Maybe the group ought to rethink Magneto's placement in South America?
Gracie - hasn't really got a lot to do. Craploads of fun, but easy enough to drop, though I'd prefer to give her a proper death.
Eos - hasn't been played much, easy to drop since Ren is dropping Selene also.
Heather - again, not difficult to drop. Could easily become an NPC if we still need a teacher.
Pietro - hasn't been played much, so I could probably drop him more easily. I do have Plans for him, though, which I've been waiting for the end of the birthday party for, so time to kick those into action.

So here's my keep/drop list.

Keep
Madelyne Pryor
Nightingale
Angel
Quicksilver

Drop
Dani Moonstar
Gracie
Eos
Ana
Heather

I think Dani'd do best being called an OC and dropped, so that if someone chooses not to play her as cured they don't have to.

Gracie, I'd like to give a proper death, but the others can just fade into NPC-dom/obscurity. Were we still planning on doing the legacy virus sometime?

[Pyro]

Personally, if Ben's up for it, I think the time might be ripe for him to jump into Genosha and throw things awry - Pyro, certainly, would be gobsmacked and struggle to reconcile the fact that he sincerely believed his idol was dead with the fact that 'ZOMG, here he is!'

Could be a good kick start.

Oi, Benster! Whaddya reckon? *pokes him even though he's at work and I'm not*

[Iceman]

Wow I missed lots of conversation in the last eight hours I was sleeping. Okay, I may drop some, but I haven't thought about it yet. But it does seem to me like there is sufficient arguing about the month bubbling or whatever that we should maybe not instate it yet. People are definently taking initiative, dropping characters (at least Kay and Rah and Ren are, so far, but I'm sure a lot of people haven't had the chance to see it yet since it was put up last night and now its morning).

So just a thought, but maybe we should hold out and see if things work better with the character dropping and such.

And I think we can agree that while some of us have been more actively inviting other people in, we obviously haven't been looking in the right places or something. I know I've only successfully got one person to come over - Izzy, Rogue. But I think fresh blood is a very good idea, now that we've got some more open spaces. I think I ought to give up one of my canons, because I've taken up a lot of well-known ones, and people are less likely to want to rp if all the characters they've rped before are taken.

I'll think about it...It'll be hard...

[Iceman]

So far (I may drop more later but upon listing my characters and wincing in my head at the prospect of dropping each one, I decided only one for now) - I'll drop Lewis. Because since Phase is dropped, and there were only three kids to start with...And I don't really think that kids have a place in the mansion. They're fun to rp, and rp with, and Phase was ADORABLE (OMG I JUST REALIZED...BOBBY!!! His little Hannie!! Aww...)

But I don't want to just say he went back home, because that'll mean he couldn't handle being away from home, and I like to think that he's able to grow up and be a bit independent away from home. So I'm going to say that Lewis is still at the school, and release him to wreak havok (ahahaha pun) in the halls in his NPC-dom. And Ren, for Bobby's sake, can you say Phase was adopted to a nice mutant couple or something? That'd be cute. Cause he needs to know a reason she's gone.

[Shadowcat]

Thoughts: I only have five characters. But I'm also one of the least active players on the board, despite the fact that I hang around chat an amount of time only second to Katie. So... I don't know what I want to do.

At this point, I could drop everyone but Domino, because none of them have plots. Jane has her thing with Isaac and Dead Man, but because of whatever reason (generally speaking my fault) she's been floating around the base doing nothing for months up until the party. Sam just wanders around the mansion, and while she has potential... she just wanders around the mansion for now. Mickey's practically in the ether already, though I do love him so and it was suggested that he could hook up with Deadpool's band of misfit toys. And Kitty... it goes back to the canon thing. I took a canon character and I play her inconsistently, both quantitywise and even in her as a character.

But I only have five characters and I do loff them so. I think I can handle five, I just need to get my rear in gear. I think I am going to take a test period, and because my situation is somewhat unique, I feel justified in a somewhat exemption from yon purge.

This is wanktastic and somewhat pointless, but I figured I should chip in my two cents anyway. Yay!

[mystique]

I don't think it's necessary for anyone to drop characters unless they want to. I'll convince you to keep Lewis around not because he's young and cute but because he's a Guthrie and I think having them around is definitely worthwhile. However, being so young can kinda be a pain in your butt. I'm sure you could potentially get permission to change his age and retcon him a bit. If he were say, 12, he'd have more students to play with and be adult enough to relate a bit better to the other people at the mansion.

Personally I still say the bubbling will work, just because I've seen it done on another board and it's so very very nice. I think we should at least give it a try- it would resolve one of the biggest problems we've all gone over and over since last summer.

[forge]

Awesome, awesome, I'm glad pretty much everyone is willing to give it a shot.

Also, the main reason we ended up with so many characters is that we didn't bubble. When you had three RP's lined up with one character, and you had to wait, you might as well make another one.

As for OC's, keep them around if you want and finish them off how you'd like. I think a proper death for Gracie would rock! Just as I'm going to give one to Guardian... OOH!!! Should we do both? Guardian kills Gracie, Lucas kills Guardian?

Though you could really just keep OC's around indefinately. And really, this is a movie!verse game, it's the movie!verse canon's that are more important, so there's no reason not to discuss random little OC's that just happen to share a name with a comics character - like you said with Dani. Bigger comics!verse slots are a different story. Again, this change is not only about getting the game moving, but also about opening characters for new players to play.

Truthfully, bubbling will solve a LOT of our game's current problems. I'm really excited about these changes.

OH! Pretty much every other board out there has a posting limit rule. We're archaic in that we don't. It's not about ruining fun, it's about opening fun up for other players.

[Storm]

I've been talking this over with CK a bit over email now, although actually none of this was ever discussed with me before it was posted here.

Some of these ideas I think are quite good! I like bubbling. I think we should look for/welcome more new people.

I don't like a three-strikes-and-poof-goes-your-canon-char rule. That's getting a little too personal for my taste. I would have lost Storm long ago, and that would be a pretty big blow.

On that note, I'm keeping all of my characters, I'm afraid. You may flame me for keeping one of the most important characters in the game when I don't play her very often or very passionately. But honestly, I love my girl, and I'd leave the game before giving her up. I DO, however, think that she needs to have less importance in our in-game heirarchy, and I'll be orchestrating that soon. I think all of the businessy-type playing that I've done with her has kind of sucked the life out of her and me, heh.

As far as what Sarah said about direction and official plot, that kind of makes me twitchy, because I have always enjoyed the really personal sort of playing, the way life actually works, where characters just get to know each other and have their own little dramas. I know we can't do that all the time, though.

To that end, and now that we're bubbling, may I make a request? May I suggest that we severely limit logging, except in the case of flashbacks? I would be far, far more in favor of overarching plotlines if I knew Baltimore wasn't going to happen again... it was a huge plot but its climax was here and gone within a few days. I think bubbling and not logging would be a great help to that.

Anyway, that's my two-bits' worth at the moment...

[Maggott]

Itty bitty input from me.

I agree with not logging if we're going to do bubbling. The idea behind the bubbling is so everyone can always be playing, while logging remains a completely exclusive thing.

Bah. That's all I have to say, cuz I like the rest of the rules.

[Nightingale]

I have to say, I disagree with the idea of not logging.

Firstly, it's something that often happens because people can't necessarily get on the boards. So what you're doing is actually taking away their ability to play, not opening it up at all.

Secondly, the example of Baltimore - most of the logging done there was because Katie was going to actually be away and unable to take part in the plot. I agree that quite a bit was posted probably far too quickly, but I think it's unfair when we make plans to do something and a person then has something come up at the same time to say that they can't then take part, too bad, piss off.

I'm more than happy to say yes, let's limit logging in large, board-wide events unless it is absolutely necessary, but I firmly believe that saying people can only log in flashbacks is totally unfair. If, as you say, you're all about the interpersonal stuff, why shouldn't people be allowed to run that kind of thing over email? What's the difference?

[Pyro]

I'm with Kaybo on logging. When you post a two-way thing in threads, it can take *forever* to get it written. At least logging allows for more fluid movement. Agreed that logging should be minimal during big board-wide events, but for more general usage, I see no problems with it.

The other thing with logging is it that it gets a specific scene sorted. It can be all kinds of frustrating to have a two-way thing going on, have someone else jump into the thread (not a bad thing in itself) and then hold the thread up due to posting order.

To that end, if we don't log, then I propose we start putting "Open" or "Closed" in the subject title.

[Juggers]

I am Ballistichimp, hear me roar!

Err ... yeah ...

My bag'o'pennies worth (that I meant to put up yesterday but didn't because work computers suck the ass of the devil).

Yes, to all of the above.

The problems I have had recently with posting are due to several reasons, the first of which is that I KNOW I have overextended myself. To that end, the dropping of characters is an ace in the hole as far as I'm concerned.

I'm also feeling a general sort of directionlessness that has set in since the aftermath of Baltimore. I am the Juggernaut, I can't be stopped ... unless I have no direction to go in.

As far as I'm concerned we NEED plot arcs. That's not to say that personal plot should be squeezed out, personal plot is great, it's what gives depth to the characters, but without a story arc they are just a bunch of super-people having a chat.

Time. Due to my own overextension of characters Panacea was taking up ALL of my free time, which for awhile was fine, we had direction, drive, a story arc. Now we have lost that, and the idea of Panacea consuming all of my free time annoys me, so I do other stuff at home and do posts when I'm at work.

With the loss of characters, that issue should be cleared up, I can strike a happy balance.

Finally ... and stick with me here, A while back I asked Becka if I could play a character from outside the X Universe (Bullseye actually) and she said it would be fine. Ultimately I decided not to, but I think the idea is sound as long as it is still kept within the confines of movie-verse and adheres to the reality rules (no magic/aliens etc.) and Admin approve.

The potential character base would be much expanded, there are after all only a finite number of interesting mutants in the X-Verse.

Additional:

Discussed last night with Sarah about the non-X Verse characters and a stipulation could be that everyones first character should have to be an X-Verse one in keeping with the theme.

And after a quick review of my characters I will drop Simon since when Rogues Place burns he will not want to go to the mansion and that would rather leave him out on a limb.

That leaves - Juggs, Trask and Magneto.

[mystique]

Okay I wasn't going to say anything but now it's been brought up twice.

I, with the help of CK's characters and several others who have hopped on here and there, have tried desperately since the outset of Baltimore to get people involved in several overarcing plotlines. Repeatedly, no one has jumped on them.

Yes Sombra is a personal plotlnie for Mystique- but the creation of the plotline was linked to Phase and Sabretooth, and can involve everyone. It's not wrapped up with X-23, and the NPC Isaac for Jane. People can come along and have been invited to get involved in this, but people seem to just let it go.

This isn't the only plotline people have tried to drum up interest for- and anyone can run anything they like with just a little imagination.

You kicked up a plotline with Trask and everyone leapt on it. That's all it takes is a few posts. I don't think Admins or Mods need to be running anything. Not that it wouldn't be great if they did, but it's perfectly within our control to run large plotlines. What has stopped us? Nothing.