Also, both of yesterday’s crashes coincided with a connection from a particular IP from which we’ve previously been getting routine connections. (Jonquil guesses it’s some sort of mud/mush checking bot for one of the MU info sites). He’s backed up both of the code changes he put in this afternoon. Should the next connection cause a crash he’ll take the further step of blocking the site, but he suspects we’ll be fine now.

1. +gossip
2. flagpole
3. +summon
4. +feed
5. +commune
6. +sense, +aura, +aura/emit
7. +scent
8. schedule and system for XP and focus points

Files

• Pard
• Rodere
• Lukoi
• shapeshifters
• merfolk
• dragons
• gargoyles (non-playable)
• anti-psychics
• faithful, including sorcerers
• witches, including familiars
• secret societies
• preternaturals in society, especially concerning nobility and the poor

Other

• build underground
• add more lores

• Fixed some bugs
• +conflict is mostly done
• Merfolk
• A lot of notes
• …

As you can see, we haven’t made too much progress. RL happens, but we’re back again. I’m back again, and now we’re working on:

• Overhauling current merfolk news files and improving them
• Faithful
• Sorcery, especially demons/familiars
• Witches, especially familiars
• Changing a few merfolk gifts
• Merfolk language
• the rest of +conflict

I expect to finish merfolk for the most part tonight, even if that means I don’t sleep. I’ve been toying with it for far too long.

For more information, check our recent changes to the wiki.

Progress on the game has slowed to a nearly static mode until recently– periodically relieved over the last few months by terse and mostly unheralded bursts. Jonquil faithfully handled code while I occasionally logged on to tend theme and setting. Despite our creeping, the game can boast more than a handful of regulars, all active and, for the most part, tireless. I am so grateful for their contribution, their ideas, questions and support. Without them, of course, there would be no game at all.

Thanks, guys!

We are, of course, still in testing. Just recently the game enjoyed its first merfolk application, so we have cultivated a tree of gifts specifically for merfolk. It shares a number of similarities between both vampire gifts and those of lycanthropes. We have not posted theme relating directly to merfolk, but we are working on it presently.

So, things to come pretty soon:

• merfolk files
• file on auras and how they work
• gossip system
• staff guide for character generation
• public XP guide
• setting information: independents and neutral territory
• so much, much more.

So we have the West End. A transit system hasn’t been written yet.

Still, London Underground is needed- sewers, trains, a few forgotten catacombs perhaps, and the vampire haven.

In other news, some of the players hit the grid the other night and started to RP their characters.

We’ve had more of a turn out than I expected, and that’s not a bad thing. It just means more work and some embarrassing moments where I’m thinking, I haven’t written that news file yet! Please don’t ask me about x, y, or z. It’s a horrible feeling because I know what I, as a player, would expect. I know what I as a staffer expect, too, and suddenly I’m not making either of my demands. Yet, I have the we’re-in-a-pre-alpha-phase-but-will-help-if-you-want-to-app-early flag to wave, so it’s not that bad.

I admit I wonder if opening our doors in preparation for the alpha phase was the wrong decision. Earlier today Jonquil and I discussed a possible moratorium on applications for the remainder of the test phase, but so far it’s only a thought. I wouldn’t do it because of the increase in my workload but because I’m worried that the rate of progress and the changes made may be more of a disservice to the players and thus the game than a help, at least from their perspectives.

We’ll see. So far, everyone has been really great about it, and we have some excellent players. It’s a pity there isn’t much play going on right now, but we’re just not in that stage yet. Perhaps in a few more weeks, once more files, gifts, and aspects of the system are in place, we’ll (or I’ll) run some events, start a small plot.

Perhaps.

We have three main shapeshifter groups, the werewolves, wererats, and wereleopards. Exotic shapeshifters are secondary in concern and (at any point in the game) require spectacular concepts. As an aside, we have a fourth group, too, that will come into play later – the merfolk. While they are not shapeshifters in the typical sense but are a different race altogether, the group will be handled much the same.

Group leaders can be PCs or NPCs, and each group effectively exists as a prop. (See +help prop.) OOCly, we treat it like a player organization, and the first players to establish a group should create a local history for the group to help other players and staff understand the situation and to increase plot hooks in general.

Exotic shapeshifter types are treated similarly, although the player should also contrive a culture for that shapeshifter type. Cultures and histories are subject to approval from staff.

Our most important concern, however, is how the were-types interact with vampires and what the different types’ relationships with the vampires are like. Pre-existing involvement with the vampires is not required, but an OOC intent to become involved with the vampires is preferred.

Since vampires call other animals besides leopards, wolves, and rats, we understand that there should be one or two animals of a vampire’s animal to call. Concepts that tie into existing vampires are currently more welcome than those exotic concepts that do not. We do recommend that players avoid joint-applications though, as the players may find they have little interest in RPing with one another yet are tied together via backgrounds. That’s un-fun, and therefore uncool.

As always, please talk to staff and other players for ideas on possible RP hooks for your characters.

PS: We have culture notes on jaguars and some on tigers, but we do not have a local history for those two groups.