16 January 2014 @ 01:20 pm
ANNOUNCEMENT: Game closure & Endgame outline  
I think it's obvious by now that there simply isn't enough interest or motivation left to carry Zenderael through the endgame, especially on the mod end. I know I (Guindo) certainly dropped the ball on a lot of things that were supposed to happen because my motivation waned so badly during the Fall semester due to school stress and obligations, and several of us found ourselves in similar boats. In a game this small, when four or five people suddenly can't play due to real life issues, that ends up being over half the playerbase, and there's nobody to pick up the slack and keep the game rolling.

Basically this was the result of a variety of different contributing factors, and there's no blame to be laid. We had a two-year run and that's pretty good if you ask me; I've never had a game last longer than six months before, so in that respect we can consider this a success!


The truth is that Zenderael was on shaky footing from the day it started. It may have looked pretty on the front end, but on the back end it was held together with duct tape and good intentions, and it really is a miracle that it managed to last two months, nevermind two years. I've come away with some lessons learned as a mod, and some fond experiences as a player, and I hope all of you had some fun during its run as well.


We feel like it would be a disservice to our players if we didn't at least give you an outline of the proposed endgame. It sucks to make it all the way here only to never get to find out how things were supposed to end! So underneath the cut you will find our outline for the endgame (the details of which could have changed based on player choices).


Mod Endgame Outline )



If you'd like to weigh in and discuss how things would've played out in the comments, you are more than welcome to! I'm also available to answer setting questions on this post, since there's no need to maintain a mystery anymore.


The game will remain open as a musebox, so if you do find yourself wanting to come back to this setting and these characters, you can. The zenpc account has been given the power to accept join requests, and the login information can be found on the contact page. There will no longer be mod guidance and the mod e-mail is no longer being checked, but if you have any questions you need answered, you are always free to contact me (Guindo) directly by whatever means you like.


We are sincerely sorry for not being able to deliver a proper endgame. Hopefully knowing how it was intended to end provides some sense of closure in lieu of that.


It was great getting to play with you all for as long as we had together. Wherever you decide to go next, good luck and enjoy yourselves!
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17 November 2013 @ 10:53 pm
INFO POST: Blackguards  
On Sunday of week 39, someone calling himself the Mainyu will appear and announce that he is recruiting members for a new guild. This sacrilegious eleventh guild is the Blackguards, with power over death--directly.

The Mainyu is eager to expand his guild and isn't above coercion to make that happen. Blackguards may be recruited as normal, kidnapped and forced, or even blackmailed. The Mainyu will also be raising many people as undead, so if cleric resurrection is not an option, you can consider blackguard resurrection as an alternative.

Guild Info: )
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27 October 2013 @ 01:34 pm
 
As most of you can tell (and is probably the case for more than just us), the mods have been busy and we haven't had time to push the game we would like to. The mods need a hiatus until about early December, due to school. At this point, we will have time to do things again! Hopefully.

However, when they come off, given permanent schedule changes, we plan to wrap up the game. This is a little early and some plans may be cut; we think this is better than simply letting the game wither and getting no closure. We will be doing a full-disclosure plotting post when that time comes to figure out what direction we want to take this in.

We also plan to temporarily do away with weekchanges. The next one will be for Week 41 in early December. Until then, you're free to play without being restricted to the current week. Try to keep it relatively chronological, but don't feel you have to stop RPing or try to make week 38 the most eventful ever.

From now until then, assume a sort of status quo on modplot. No big events are happening (unless players make them happen), and the situation with guild leaders having nightmares and getting stalked by unseen things will persist without changes until week 41. Queen Omid is dead and Baldwin has become regent in her place. If you have any questions about the current state of things, please don't hesitate to ask!
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28 August 2013 @ 05:30 pm
Lisa at the Undertow!  
Hi everybody!

After talking to Guin some, we've decided that -- rather than have a backdated scene that's largely exposition with Lisa -- we would prefer to just do the screen off-screen and do an outline of what happened. That is the purpose of this post.

Lisa is going to be brought back to the Undertow. Once she is there, she will reveal the following information:

1) As Lisa said in the event post, she worked for X-DAV. She was hired as an event writer; some of what she wrote has happened. She isn't sure if she made it happen or if she was somehow chronicling things that would happen, like a prophet. She is honest about this and maybe a little guilty, hence all the donations to reconstructing Bastan.

2) Kandre Volcano is starting to act up because of a magma leviathan underneath it, named Kaga. Kaga is an immense fire dragon, whose awakening could cause Kandre to blow its top because he will wake up irritated.

3) The way to stop this is to feed him. Kaga is a fussy eater; he wants very good and high quality food, which means a feast is in order. She says that Kaga is supposed to reward whoever makes the finest dish with a treasure, but she was never told what it was.

Let's figure out the following: what people who were there did, what questions were asked, and anything else. Lisa will ask Rhys if she can stay in the Undertow permanently; she is scared that the Greycloaks may want to finish the job.
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17 August 2013 @ 06:37 pm
[Mod Post]  
We planned a pretty eventful week and WHOOPS we had several things come up that we didn't account for. There was a major convention which ate up three players for a full weekend, one mod moving across the country, and another mod also moving the weekend after.

So we're down to one mod for the moment with a second event post planned for tomorrow when the IC week hasn't advanced past Sunday because everyone's been waiting on the event post before we move on.

OBVIOUSLY going ahead with the week as outlined in the weekchange is, at this point, inadvisable.

Question #1: How is the event going to turn out?
• Does Lisa survive or is she killed?
• Whose hands does she end up in by the end of the chase (alive or dead)?

As long as we know those two things, we will be able to move on. How we get there isn't as important. Post discussion in this thread.

Question #2: How should we handle the week?
• Keep events as planned but add a week extension?
• Keep it to 3 weeks and push the other event (the Kandre Volcano landslide) to next IC week?
• Other?

Suggestions and alternatives welcome in the comments! Post your responses here.
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04 August 2013 @ 08:00 pm
AC Mod Post  
We ran the pre-AC for July and noticed that, because of the long weeks, we had ten characters failing it (including a number who usually pass). Obviously that was a unique situation, but given the new IC:OOC ratio, we have been re-evaluating the way AC is done. We don't want to get rid of it entirely; AC is an important part of the game, because it tells us who is active and where, which helps us figure out where to focus our ideas.

Now that one IC week is the better part of a month, it wouldn't make sense to keep AC on a per-month basis. We would end up penalizing characters for having slow weeks, which is not our intention.

We are considering changing AC to every two months and adjusting the scoring accordingly. Two months covers about 3 IC weeks, which allows for characters to have slow weeks but still make AC. The scoring would be 30 points per character, OR a total AC score per player that adds up to 30 points per character. So basically if one character is 10 points below the line but another character is 10 points above it, you will still pass. This allows for your more active characters to make up for your less active ones.

However, this idea is not set in stone and we would like your feedback! We also considered basing it on IC weeks (a certain number of points every 2 IC weeks, for example, and AC would roll out with either even or odd weekchanges), and the required point total is absolutely up for debate.
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19 July 2013 @ 09:13 pm
[MOD POST] - upcoming events  
When we posted our outline for the war, we felt that the ensuing discussion and player involvement went really well. In that vein, we're repeating that for the next steps of phase II. Our goal is to generate discussion and allow players to influence the upcoming plots.

This post will also be serving as a meme post, in a sense. We encourage you to build off the events listed, but we would also like you to post your goals for your characters or even just a general wishlist of things you want to do with them, and if you see something someone else wants that sounds interesting to be a part of, discuss it with them. Let's get some personal-plot and character-arc ideas rolling!

Upcoming events: )
 
 
22 June 2013 @ 08:51 pm
Super Week Extension  


We are extending Week 33 a lot.

Actually, what we're doing is saying Week 33 starts on Sunday. I updated the weekchange for this. The reason is that almost all of us had barely gotten to week 33 and we have a big event to do. We'd rather people not feel pressured to hurry up.

All the week 33 logs stand! So Malachu has happened, giving us the most adorable guild leader name. But, you have three weeks to get everything done.
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15 June 2013 @ 05:45 pm
Permanent Week Extension  
Hello, everyone!

We've been contemplating making a permanent change to IC weeks, where one IC week equals three OOC weeks. A majority of us have work and school obligations that can get people overwhelmed and sometimes badly matching schedules, so we'd like feedback on this idea. Does this sound like a good idea to you?

Please comment below! It isn't screened for the sake of discussion, so if you would prefer to just send your thoughts to the mods, feel free to e-mail the box.
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28 May 2013 @ 10:56 pm
Week Extension!  
I know we've said it in chat a dozen times, but so people know: we're extended Week #32 by one OOC week. We got a lot to fit in and most people are on IC Monday at best still.
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19 May 2013 @ 05:04 pm
Pakerion's Fate  
Guys, let’s discuss the fate of Pakerion.

No king, no king, la la la la la la. )
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10 May 2013 @ 07:48 pm
Week Extension + Phase II CR Post!  
Hello, everybody!

After some mod deliberation, we have decided to extend Week #31 by another OOC week. We mentioned this was possible, and we know several of you were against it, but we feel it is necessary. We do not quite have everything lined up to launch Phase II and would rather not have the IC events prompting it go up after it’s started. We also would rather get a few things out of the way. We’re sorry about this!

However, because it is so soon, we think this is a good time for this weekend’s meme: a new CR post! Since Phase II means everyone, whichever world they originated from, is on the same world, a lot of new CR has opened up!

So, it is time for planning and discussion! Feel free to tag in, explain what you expect your characters to do at the start of Phase II, and make ideas with each other.
 
 
28 April 2013 @ 11:59 am
Aerveas's Final Battle  
Let's talk about Aerveas and Mezzron's final battle! We should work out a few things so we know who's doing what and get the OOC logistics worked out!

> FIGHT )
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27 April 2013 @ 10:30 pm
Phase II Primer  
EDIT: We have some ideas on the merge in a comment below!

It’s a wild, wild world. )
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02 April 2013 @ 04:04 pm
[Mod post] - Crowdsourcing illnesses  
We're going to be HoMing out some illnesses soon, but thought it would be fun to give the player base a chance to get in on this. Many of the diseases that can infect characters will be from Zenderael and may contain unique fantasy symptoms.

You may use this post to list out any and every idea you might have concerning fantasy diseases. It doesn't have to be a fully detailed illness. Just symptom ideas are fine even if you haven't considered the cause for said symptoms. The mod team will sort through them and flesh out any incomplete ideas that suit our purposes. If you do have full disease ideas however, those are okay too!

Any specific disease or specific symptoms you want for your character should be emailed to the mod account so that we have that on record. (And when we do get around to HoMs, please remember you can contest anything you'd rather not play with.)

All posts will be screened for the sake of sneakiness. [Except Yoiko forgot; NOW they're screened. Say if you would like unscreened for discussion! - G]

Have fun!
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24 March 2013 @ 11:04 pm
[Mod Post] - Diseases and Warnings  
Attention!

When selecting diseases for the necroticorn plague event, please try to be aware of things that might be considered squicky and to put warnings for them when you post logs. If necessary, make OOC warnings for OL comm posts containing possible squicky content too.

List of known triggers/squicks under the cut: )

Thanks for your cooperation and feel free to comment on this post with anything you would like a warning for (especially if you think it might not otherwise get it).
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16 March 2013 @ 01:28 pm
[modpost] 2 of 2: god-organ removal  
Another concern that has arisen is the political and leadership aspect that comes with playing a guild leader.

Granted, there was no notice accompanying the passage of a god-organ saying your character would have to get involved with politics. However, as the leader of a guild, it is not far-fetched to think that they would be involved in politics, especially if they also hold a position of authority in a country.

Currently played guild leaders: if you do not want to play with the political aspect of playing a guild leader, you may opt to have your god-organ removed.

This is not a planning post. We will not plan the details of the how or when or why here, unless you want this to happen during the war. We will guarantee that your character will live. We will not punish your character for having this happen.

ALL guild leaders are eligible for this.

If you choose to keep your god-organ, you are agreeing to play any political prompt as it arises in the game. If you require assistance, you are free to ask us for guidance but we will not play your characters for you.

Feel free to ask questions/request clarifications. This post is for discussion only. If you would like your character to lose their god-organ, please e-mail us about it instead of voicing it here.
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16 March 2013 @ 01:26 pm
[modpost] 1 of 2: draft of aerveas' war  
First of all, thank you for all of the responses to the feedback post. We are currently going over them and will respond to them officially when a cohesive response is formed.

This post is in response to a unanimous concern about the war. Yoiko, Guin and I have agreed to lay out the draft of the war so that everyone can see where we’re at and plan together how they want to involve their characters and wrap it up. We are also including plots relevant to the war.

Aerveas' war )
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15 March 2013 @ 03:29 pm
[modpost] feedback wanted on WARRRRR  
Some questions for you!


1) Are there any specific directions and/or plots you would like to accomplish in regards to Aerveas' war?

2) Are there any specific directions and/or plots you would like to accomplish in regards to political relations between countries and/or guilds?

3) Do you have any other feedback in regards to how the war is being run?


Anon is enabled, IP logging is off, and screening is on! (If you would like your comment unscreened just lmk.) Comment anon or not anoned, whatever is more comfortable with you. Change up your syntax and typing style if you want, idc.

Be honest! Be truthful! This is not a promise to incorporate everything that might be said here. It is however an open ear because we WOULD like to incorporate player input into the war given that played characters are in positions of authority to alter the course of it.

A note: we will NOT guide your characters for you. If your character is in an IC position to affect the war but does not, that will be counted as IC inaction. If you are having trouble with the political aspect of the game, you are more than welcome to discuss matters with your fellow players and with us.

You may also use this post to ask questions regarding the war! But the mods reserve the right to not answer if we feel it is delving into spoiler territory.
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04 March 2013 @ 05:33 pm
[modpost] but wat abt bersunters  
On Friday, the Armaiti will approach the hobo bersunters and hobo league and offer them shelter with her guild. With supplies low, morale kaputz, and no base of operations for any of them, they accept.

What to expect. )

There will be a thread for this in the hunt post.

Please comment below if your character will be shacking up with the assassins!

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