Pre-Game Mod Announcement: Greetings!

[simpathis]

— HELLO, HELLO! —

Hello, everyone! This is Laena, the head mod of empatheias, writing the game's first official mod post. The game doesn't start until August 1st, but with applications now officially open, I felt it best to give our incoming playerbase a heads up on what's going to happen next week, as well as give a bit of an introduction of ourselves.

OOC Player Intro Post
But first, I'd like to let everyone know that upon acceptance, rather than flood the OOC community with introduction posts, we will be creating a player intro post that everyone will be able to tag into. We will also include links within the entry to everyone's thread so no one is left out. This should help keep things a bit tidier and help players meet each other better! We will link both these posts within your acceptance notices.


Modly Greetings
First of all, right now we're a two-woman mod team, but depending on how intensive the game gets, we'll likely open up mod applications after seeing how stable the playerbase and the game is after a couple of months. At the very least we may look for helper mods in the future just to help with some maintenance and application work. Until then, your mod team is compromised of me, Laena, and my co-mod, Jade. If you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns, just visit the Confidential Contact post. It has all the ways to contact us, including the mod plurk, simpathis. And now for some introductions!

Hello, I'm Laena! As mentioned before, I'm the head mod. A few of you may recognize me as one of the original founders and head mod of somarium, which just recently officially closed. I've modded for about six years and one would think I would have retired. Truthfully, I had thought about it, but instead Empatheias was born. So looks like I'm back for round two of some serious modwork! It should also be said that despite my experience, I'm by no means some expert. I'm always learning and adapting and hope to continue to better myself. That said, I can guarantee you that I will remain fair and will try to work with anyone who has any problems either with the game or with each other. You'll quickly find that I'm fairly approachable, so don't hesitant to come to me either privately or through the contact post. I am also fairly open to ideas for the game, be it serious plots or just simple little events to bide the time. At the very least, you shouldn't feel intimidated by me, and remember—just because I'm a mod doesn't mean I don't want to have fun with you guys! I'm really looking forward to playing with everyone here!


Hiya!! I'm Jade! I'm the co-mod, and I'm brand spanking new to this whole modly business, but with someone whose been one for over 5+ years, I believe I'm under good instruction on how to help out best! That's right, if you met me before at all that was probably when I was just a casual player at a number of games messin' around with whatever and pulling out goofy plots with some characters. I'm pretty chill about a whole bunch of things and believe everyone having fun in a game is super important for a hobby like this! So if there is any concern or idea for the game at all, I'm here for ya through e-mail, plurk, or the mod contact post. Game plots and suggestions = helpful and awesome! Also since I'm new at this modding business don't hesitate to give me any critique on how to be a better mod. Even if that means telling me to ditch hashtags. I'm going to do my best to be there for everyone as a mod and player, and I hope to have fun with everyone. #yolo


Opening Day Details
All right, with the introductions out of the way, it's time to tell everyone how the opening day will work and what to expect. The following items are important, so please read everything thoroughly!

There are two dates to be aware of: August 1st and August 6th. Two "event signal" posts will occur on these dates, each signaling a certain "phase" for the game start. Below is a brief outline that hopefully will help explain how everything will run.

August 1st - August 5th

• First intro log. On August 1st, we will make a giant intro log. This is mostly for plot purposes as you will soon see. As a reminder, use the entry tags for your character! Although the intro log will only take 1 IC day, to allow for maximum threading, the log will last 5 OOC days.
  
  
• How characters arrive. All characters will arrive at roughly the same time. However, they are not appearing in the city, Verens. They will appear outside the city in some old ruins. Characters will either be around others or somewhere by themselves, but everyone will be roughly scattered about. The log itself will have a full description of the setting as well as some prompts to help inspire threads. Characters will also arrive with not only their personal belongings, but their amulet will already on them somehow somewhere.
  
  
• Exploring the ruins. In this main log, characters will have the opportunity to meet others as well as explore the ruins. This will be the first opportunity to find something that may be of use in the future. We will create a short list of things that can be found at any given time and by anyone. Multiple people can find the same thing. How the information is then later spread is up to you players.
  
  
• Networking. Although it's primarily an action log, the intro log can also be used as first attempts to use the network. Thus network tags will be allowed in the log—just be sure to label. Since everyone will likely be panicking, it shouldn't be too surprising if a few accidentally make some mental call outs.
  
  
• NPC interaction. ICly, the characters will be on their own in the ruins for an hour or two. But some archeologists from Verens will arrive and boy will they be surprised! These NPCs will bring the group back to the city, but prior to that there will be a prompt for players to choose for their characters to meet and speak with them. These NPCs won't be able to tell them everything, but enough to get some basics.

August 6th

• Arriving into Verens. That same day, the characters will arrive into Verens close to evening. On August 6th, we will make a mod event post that will describe everything. For a smoother "info dump" transition, this post will depict the basic information that the characters will receive about the island and how emotions work. After this post is made, players will be free to make their own logs and network posts. Characters can also leave Verens at any time, however they will need a (handwaved) NPC escort, which can of course be ditched/killed off. But the local authorities will not be too keen about anyone venturing out so soon as they will be suspicious.

Later

• Speaking with the bigwigs. Finally, after a few days to allow both the characters and players to start settling in a bit, we will make a large NPC network post featuring a few important NPCs. It's through this post that characters will be able to fire off whatever questions they might have. This will likely be around August 9th or 10th.

And that should be it. It's a really basic timeline and we'll make another post on opening day with any added details, but this should give everyone a decent heads up on what to expect. It might feel a little plot-oriented at first, but the characters are part of the game's story. After all, they'll be a complete mystery to the inhabitants! So feel free to pre-plot meetings and figure out what kind of things you may want to do for the first couple of days and weeks.

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If you have any questions, feel free to ask them here.

We look forward to playing with everyone!