State of the Channel Addresses (*Required Reading*)

State of the Channel Address (01-04-10)

It's time for another State of the Channel Address! We do these pretty rarely, but with some major occurrences in plot and some big character shifts lately, we figured it would be the best time to address a couple of issues that are on the rise in channel.

1.) Effective immediately, we will be changing the way that healing, particularly magical healing, works in roleplay.

As of right now, we have a system set up that uses Ness primarily as a healbot/walking Tent. He has been able to 'fullheal' people once they're out of combat so that the effects of injuries have had a very limited scope in roleplay. This system was originally set up due to the tendencies of some players no longer with us to over-dramatize their characters' injuries on a constant basis.

Now, though, we fully trust all of our players to believably roleplay injuries and we'd like to increase the actual sense of realistic risk and danger in combat. We still won't kill off a character (unless given permission by the player, as always), however, injuries will have consequences.

Healers' mana will now be more in-tune with offensive mages' limits, thus no more 'infinite' healing when a character is out of combat. Some of Ness's spells will also be generally more gradual instead of immediate, and characters severely injured will be expected to have a period of bed rest and recovery RP. Please remember that even WITH magical healing, an injury is an injury; your character's body will still have to deal with the trauma and system shock of pain and damage.

Also, the Marshalship is experiencing a severe shortage of already rare mana injectors; this will limit their usage to one injector per battle.

2.) Current crew positions and work for characters to do.

We've had some interesting feedback lately regarding certain characters that seem to do more 'work' or have more 'projects' than others, as well as characters that seem to 'do more' during missions, and we want to address this.

We are happy to give characters projects to do as well as give them jobs for you to roleplay with - we know that it can be difficult to sustain 'inn channel' RP all the time and in the context of the channel it makes SENSE for people to have work to do! This is what the Crew Positions are for. The positions are currently up to date and all open positions (except Command) are available to any characters interested. Either discuss an opening ICly with Ralf or talk to a GM.

If you have a character in a position you NO LONGER WANT, please let us know ASAP so we can open it up to some one else that may be interested and active. We want to spread as many RP hooks around as possible to those interested.

These jobs are excellent for giving your character something to do (personal extrapolation on duties and tasks) or getting involved in plot (asking a GM for information or possible projects). Characters that may seem 'more involved' with the plot are characters whose players actively ask us for things to do or come up with ideas to bounce off of us. We're happy to provide this sort of information and help to any player, but we're also not big on making any one feel obligated, so we won't push info or work on a player unless they ask us. So please do!

If you have an idea for a position that isn't on the listing, talk to a GM about it.

3.) The Void Arc

As we've mentioned before, the Void Conflict is not an infinite channel plot. We do want the arc of the war against the Void and the struggle with Reven to come to an end. With the in-game official declaration of war against the Void and the destruction of the Time Gift, this puts the Blaze of Glory on the front lines against the Void, no longer needing to hide or take care of other non-Void problems. From here on out, we'll be ramping up the action and the tone of the channel may grow both more serious and urgent. The Void arc will end WELL BEFORE the year is out.

-

We're very happy with the balance of powers and characters in channel right now; power-ups and loot distribution have worked out really well. People have given us some really great feedback and as we requested, you all have been way better about talking to us with things you have problems with. We're doing our best to keep the wiki up to date and expand it while we work on plot, missions and character approvals. Players have been amazing about stepping up and getting involved in the plot, and we're always happy to help anyone who feels they want more information or involvement to get just that.

Please do remember that Eric isn't the only available GM, and that Hannah is also happy to listen to constructive criticism and help problem solve. He gets PM slammed pretty hard!

As always, thank you all very much for RPing in DJ - things would be really boring without you!

State of the RP Address (02-05-09)

We're very happy that the channel is so fun and active - no one can say we're stagnant, which is more than you can say for a lot of channels out there.

However, there's a few things we'd like to bring to everyone's attention!

1) FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, NO MORE CHILDREN. It's getting -really- hard to justify having this many children, preteens and teenagers aboard the Blaze of Glory when it is in all actuality more or less a warship. Obviously people that have had their characters on since the Mark I (which was an independent vessel and not involved in a war) have a pretty good excuse, but effective immediately, we're not accepting any more character apps for people under the age of 18, or any non-combat PCs that accompany other PCs. It's too hard to justify, and to be blunt we've got a LOT of that niche covered. Try playing Cid or something! All of them!

2) Unlike a lot of other channels, we plan out plot well in advance. This means WE HAVE SO MANY MISSIONS IN QUEUE omg. From player missions to plot-specific OMGSEKRIT missions to just good old established dimension missions, we are currently booked until June-July at earliest. If Eric's already spoken to you, you're clear for at least discussing your mission with the ops, but right now we have to put an official hold to the queue. This means, please don't ask us about missions, just work on planning them, until we reopen the queue (which we will be!). The game stage will have changed considerably by the time the queue's clear.

3) We love you guys. You guys are awesome and you make the channel worth running. However...man guys, seriously, if you HAVE A PROBLEM YOU NEED TO TALK TO ONE OF US. We're both incredibly tired of hearing both vague snipes in channel at other players (WHICH IS A PROBLEM, SERIOUSLY, CUT IT OUT - well-natured heckling's all good, but if it just comes off as you disguising an opinion as snark, That's No Good and Eric will -kill- -you-.) and worse, hearing about vague things from other players about us or worse, 'other players'.

Please don't be passive aggressive and talk all around us about a problem you might have - we want to know what's wrong, we want to fix it, because GUESS WHAT WE WANT YOU TO HAVE FUN. This includes everything like plot issues, character problems and OOC personal interactions. If you've got a problem, be up front about it - hell, we'd even rather see it being talked about IN CHANNEL if need be, where we can address it. This falls under Channel Rule Number One - Don't be a Dick. Please keep this in mind - it's about the only thing that makes Eric violent.

4) The character cap is remaining at 4 and we have no plans to change this in the near future. But we do encourage you guys to app up characters that can be played just when the Blaze is docked on Gatekeeper - they may find themselves useful for missions in the future, though they probably won't be seeing combat. There's no limit on Gatekeeper-specific characters! Help us make Gatekeeper the bustling space-hub it is! UPDATE: There are now forums specifically for Gatekeeper-only characters! Please use 'em!