Suggestion (poll) - IC forum Boards

[archonzero]

  I'd like to suggest a new thread for Within the Swirling Mists to be added or a change made to the Announcements thread to be broken up into sections.  Currently it's description means any IC postings or IC based communication through the forum is done in a publicly aware venue leaving no discrepency for personal use between players.  While I can agreeably understand that it could be reduced to PMs between players, I almost get a sense that it detracts from the readers wishing to get a better view of the player to player interactions of the community.

Announcements and Notices (IC) - The general IC board could be used by the community for public or private postings they can be postings or letters of correspondence between player to player, player to NPC, or NPC to player.  All letters sent to specific players should be regarded as private and only deemed usable by other players by a DM or by the original poster. 
subfolders
 

• Vallaki Bulletin Board - standard official board located on the western wall of the government building within Vallaki, due to subject and scrutiny by Vallaki guards posted nearby.

• Merchants Corner - A board setup within the market place of Vallaki as well, within Barovia are left for use by the local shopkeeps, merchants and tradesmen to leave postings for services offered and required.

• Religious entities - Postings in these threads would be private letters or public postings made to or at either church.  These should also have one senior player who is responsible and forum active to be added as a moderator to the respective boards. 
       Church of Ezra 
       Morninglord Church

   
new stickied threads

• WANTED! - A board sits outside the West Vallaki gates as well outside the Government Building, listing those decreed as criminal outlaws to the crown.

• Letters to the Red Vardo - IC letters and notices received by the RVT office or official represenative, letters are then placed into a secured and guarded safety deposit box and received and read only by RVT.
      - added moderator should be Red Vardo player of note (would say Captain or ranked officer of note)
  

• Decree's of the Count - IC announcements that are broadly posted and related throughout Barovian lands.  Found scattered from the Barovian vilalge and set upon the sign posts that dote the roadways, the inns, hostels and all that lays claimed by the Counts hands.

Note - if there are any other stickied thread/subfolder ideas feel free to add them.

  What I'm proposing that these can do to our IC forum usage...(I'm sorry if this is more work on your plate Delph.)  is in effect streamline and keep easier track for players to use, as well those players that come here either to take a curious look, or wish to simply be a reader interested in the stories or involvements between other players can read up and appreciate the depth of the IG RP.  Now this will also require in part responsibility by both players and DMs to maintain the IC policy of enforcing the potential misuse of privately written postings made public as a communities courtesy for adding a viewable IC player to player and player to DM RP depth of correspondence that wouldn't happen in game.

  Since not every player can manage the same timezones day to day, this can allow details and interactions done via written letters, inquiries with DM run NPCs.  I'm sure there's a few more stickied threads or subfolders that could be added in.  Diversifying the folder can lend a bit more support to the community giving them an effect public IC means of communicating IC with others, outside of PMs.  I for one would really like to see the player to player interactions through the forums as I'm currently only able to immerse into actual IG play at off times and rarity.  I'm sure there are a few more players spread out in differing timezones that could also benefit and shine on the forums ICly with using such options.

  Of course DMs have full use of these postings to manipulate as they would see fit, within reason and plausibility of course as fitting the lands and people in Ravenloft are apt to do.  I do trust the DM team are responsible enough to not misuse them.. just as I feel the Community player base overall are responsible enough not to misuse IC writings shared between players that hasn't been made publicly IC.  As well I would hope the DM team would enforce penalties to those that show consistant misuse of said posted writings.


 PS - if you vote .. do please share your reasons why it would or would not benefit added depth to character interactions for the InGame In Character community, maybe I didn't foresee something and it should be added in?  It is just an idea.. since I'm unable to play IG during most of the week.. and mayhaps once on the weekends I see it being of benefit.  PM'd IC correspondence doesn't have an audience to appreciate the depth or relations beyond the two players involved, and sometimes correspondence may be of the same accord yet multiple recipients.  It makes it easier for DMs to also be kept informed to the dealings and communications between players, allowing them to tailor plots more, get ideas on new plots or twists in their ongoing ones.  As well it allows players to display their RP skills that may not always shine in game due to either slower typing speeds or those being left in RP dust to players that excel in high WPM/quick thinking players who don't pause long enough to let others catch their breath and collect a thought. 

[Nefensis]

Personal correspondence like Vardo orders i don't see the need to have them spreaded on the forum, they can PM me or another vardo member. I dont see the need to clutter the forum so much but i do would like to see the Announcement forum a bit cleaned up.

[hi-di-ho]

Add in a "Ladies Rest and Bulletin board outside the city gates" list and we have ourselves the..


Most Constructive Idea of the Year

[archonzero]

Personal correspondence like Vardo orders i don't see the need to have them spreaded on the forum, they can PM me or another vardo member. I dont see the need to clutter the forum so much but i do would like to see the Announcement forum a bit cleaned up.

 The idea was to eliminate IC use in your PM folder sharing with the community the IC relations between other players.. adding to the ambience of the setting and minimalizing cluttering from your personal folder.  I would rather it be something in the RVT faction folder, these IC letters of correspondence do not have to detail the exact items of interest, but just be IC letters to arrange buyers and sellers.  The details of said item(s) can be PM'd either IG or through your PM folder should you or the player(s) wish.  Either way.. the information should be considered privately in the hands of the RVT unless a DM cares to intercede said letter.  I fail to see how IC postings is cluttering the forums.. more so than say the repeat OOC postings do.  Half the time I'll read 3-4 of the 20 postings on the boards most of which are the gossip boards/announcements ... otherwise I mark as read and clear it unless the post catches importance.

Add in a "Ladies Rest and Bulletin board outside the city gates" list and we have ourselves the..

Most Constructive Idea of the Year

yay.. though someone just made a crass vote with no remark. lol  probably an unregistered guest?

[Nefensis]

The idea was to eliminate IC use in your PM folder sharing with the community the IC relations between other players.. adding to the ambience of the setting and minimalizing cluttering from your personal folder.

And i see lots of metagaming alas.

[Bad_Bud]

I've already said I don't much like doing IC things out of game, I do agree and think some restructuring would help.

I vote has merit because I don't want to lie and say I would use it. 

[Ric]

Just have to bare in mind that about 1/3 of the community actually forum-browses as much as we do and another 1/3 only browses once in a while (the last third not even browsing at all).

[Aldabreck Stone Helm]

I vote has merit...It is always nice to know what is going on ig. I must be the one third that reads the forum allot because I am always reading new posts.

[archonzero]

Just have to bare in mind that about 1/3 of the community actually forum-browses as much as we do and another 1/3 only browses once in a while (the last third not even browsing at all).

  I can understandably agree Ric. 

  *bump*  Looking to hear some input from Delph, the CC and DMs on this idea?

  I can see an expanded IC forum for a great way to lend more immersion to ongoing events/plots both character driven and DM driven.  Even if the vital information itself is private (which can be excluded in all but the most detached circumstances) but the dealings and interactions can help draw more lines to a woven moving community instead of small pockets of groups that interact on chance of timezone overlapping.  Giving the readers (both player and DM) a sense of the PCs and NPCs personalities, mindset and interests.   A great way for players, both new and old, to appreciate the issues going on around them and give respectful OOC insights to a character that they may not or could not normally give a damn about.  Perhaps that characters presentation IG was completely misread by others in game and through a 3rd persons perspective lend something to a character who is more empathetic, prodding them to take that moment to engage an overlooked character.  Much like reading a comic or novel that moves in and out of 1st to 3rd person formats, it gives the reader that chance, not to necessarily gain insightful clues for IC use.. but an understanding of events going on, things that are in the works, adding a sense of more drama whispering within the shadows.  Most of all I think it's a great way for players to offer the DMs the insight to whats going on in their characters minds, how they could take the players plots, spice them up.  It'se always more fun to have a DM just drop in unexpectedly and start moving the chess pieces around, without the players (OOCLY) realizing it, obviously not at first.  DMs can do much the same, by playing up the interactions between important NPCs, or PC factions.  Again the finite details do not need to be added in, which still leaves a sense of mystery to whats going on, but it still conveys to the community that things are moving around them.  Something that even when IG adds a great deal to players creative energies when giving reason to why their character is doing what they set out to do (even if it's ridiculously unattainable) cause things -DO- go on around them.. even if there character doesn't see it. 

  The more it shows a relevance to use outside of in game RP for both DM plot and character plot/interactions, it can build a tapestry being woven, a larger reason to it's practical use is that the DMs benefit the most to utilize, adding creative inspiration outside of their own to draw upon, to see something missed in their own plots or observations, or a spin that could prove most entertaining.  The more this happens the more players may feel enticed to utilize the idea which in turn feeds both sides.  So long as the DMs are willing to ensure metagamed information that hasn't been approved (PC or DM wise) and to show that  these things would not be rewarded by being dismissed. 

  I do find it would prove to add a breathable mutable quality to the setting and lower those moments when stagnation can feel unchanging (even though the setting isn't intended to evolve.. Strahd and the Dark Lords would quite obviously extinguish such things).  Breathing a bit more life into both PC and NPC alike, without requiring DMs or players to be in game during their off time to get interaction with DMs or players.   I'm sure many of us in our off time whom plot or investigate things think up ways to address or inquire into things, both requiring either said player or DM to be available and online during the times one is in game themselves.  Many times these do not coincide, especially through differing timezones.  Which is why I see most often groups of players/characters sticking within their own time zone crowds, which isn't a bad thing at all it just keeps the community isolated to pockets of groups rather than an interactive persistant community. 

  Hope that made sense, I wasn't making this bumped posting to figuratively belittle or begrudge anyone, please do not take it as such ... I'm just looking to offer a perspective insight to something if given the chance or interest to expand on PoTM's great RP community, to add something both intriguing and fun for everyone for the character and the players to appreciate.

 

[Iconoclast]

There might be some ideas conveyed worthy of consideration, but to be honest, I'm not going to take the time to read the lengthy posts, since by and large, I think the ic section of the forum has been serving the purpose. 

I will say I would never post an ic letter in an open forum, unless if the letter was addressed to the ic community at large.  Nor would I want players who have a character wanting to send an ic letter to one of my characters, posting it in the open forum. 

Now there could always be a little room for restructuring the ic section, if the need arises.

There should be a sense of mystery, and I don't think we need to know oocly what is going on behind many of the scenes.  Things are already interwoven, via the natural role play and dynamics, though the connections and currents are not always apparent.

The dm team already ought to have hidden forum spaces, where they share insights regarding plots and characters, to help them keep a pulse on story lines, as well as to draw inspiration for ideas.

[archonzero]

  I can understand and appreciate those precautions and thoughts. 

  Just as much as those players like reading the journal entries or backstories behind characters we still are required to suspend such information as OOC, yet still appreciate the IC and IG qualities it has to offer as background and showing the evolution of a character.  Utilizing IC forum channels to arrange meetings through notary means, or inquiries through correspondence between non-faction entities, NPC and PCs is merely another form of it in a current state of interaction rather than a past.

  I think a few may be sensing I'm stating for players to use the IC boards to outline their plots, details and in person interactions.  That's not what I was intending to be exact, I don't see the fun or merit in that, when such things can be done in game (person to person persay).  What I was intending was to use the out of game time to show a 1st person perspective to interactions that can be done.. while allowing readers a peek to the workings going on outside of their perspective?  Still in this format, we do not need to necessarily read/present our hidden thoughts/agendas or details behind the interaction, but allow the reader some to appreciate how to utilize the avenues that can be taken or utilized outside of in game (especially when it's requiring a DM to be present in game to provide that quality) and still give that interaction back as a creative narrative to the community to read and appreciate is all.

  Speaking as one that can only actively play in game once maybe twice a week for perhaps 6-8 hours total.  OOCly I'm very well aware that there are multiple plots by both DM and player alike.  Public announcements while useful, tend to far and few, many of which are as you said a general update of political, religious or legal issues of the crown or public decrees of either church or faction.  Aside from my own ingame time, I tend to...   A) miss those who are hooked by plots... B) Don't have the time to act on hooks when presented (due to time constraints)  .. or C) time never seems to have allowances for aside from small functionary requests from DMs to assist much for any plots of my own... not to mention I feel selfish taking a DMs time away during the busy hours from working with larger groups, especially when a DM does have their own plots to work with.

  I'm not trying to say the DMs don't have their own ways, forum board or method to sound off on and brainstorm with.  What I was meaning by utilizing more IC forum use for notarizing interaction/arrangements between PCs and NPCs gives them an easier viewing for them to overlook, to grab up small/or bigger ideas to include or prey upon .. as well set up future catalysts for their own current plots .. future plot spins, or how such interactions may affect plots (for merit or flaw).  While a DM can be omnipotent in seeing what's going on in the server... they don't always have a way to empathetically understand the motivations, mindset or movements of PCs off camera, without PMs and that tends to becomes more of a personal one on one understanding, when there are multiple DMs.   

   Just as some table top gaming groups (DMs and players) will sometimes discuss OOCly about IG/IC things during coffee house outings, often the DM gains insights to the characters thoughts, motivations and avenues of choice, just as well the players learn something that should have been obvious to them about other players or a DMs response, get ideas, learn of a way to get involved or create new avenues by seeing a niche they could work into character where it wasn't seen before.  Be it a needed profession, a nurturing shoulder, a cruel pushing hand, a trade or a working spin to add to their concept that can allow a player to jump into a spotlight and make themselves useful, when once they didn't appear to be to others.  Maybe their character is the one in game hand delivering the letters for another PC to an NPC that wrote them?  Perhaps they were the scribe that was hired to notarize the letter for someone that couldn't read/write and paid to remain silent on pain of death.. or some such.  (Or chooses to write a different letter completely to screw with them) for someone that was lacking the writing skills but had a need to impart something to another.  This can also platform a player to better prepare their character for what is to come, to better fit in character work out their lines (not all of us are on the spot quick in our creativity to type out the best IC response) and reactions somewhat ahead of time, yet still not having a preset in stone narrative format of what is to come, since it is still improve when it comes to IG.