Ok, as a GM I stink. I have been holding 1433 waiting for our sister continent to catch up. Because I am dumb, I did not realize that, while I was out of touch this spring, Ely. lost their GM and is on hold again. Ah well. They'll be back. One thing about this game--it goes dormant a lot but it always seems to come back. Now, on to business. It seems like every year (at least for the last two) summer is a tough time. School wraps up and eats all the time of our players who are student or teachers. Then there are vacations and an entire host of summer distractions until finally school resumes and the early fall sucks away our academics again. For my own part, I've greatly reduced my summer convention schedule but I'll still miss a few weeks (early August, for example. I have 3 separate places to be. I'm not sure where I'm headed yet but I know I'm off to somewhere.) Taking that into account, rather than fight and sweat to get turns done in two or three weeks and making people try to juggle their turns around their schedules, I want to try something a little different. I'm going to simplify things and, for the busy summer months, go to one turn per month. 1433 is May, 1434 is June, 1435 is July, etc. I'll resolve turns during the month as you get the time to send them in and I get the time to resolve them and then I'll start the next year as close to the beginning of the month as possible. It is my hope that this will make things a lot easier for all of us and avoid some of the confusion we had last year. Along with this, I get a decent amount of e-mail from players but when I look at the list itself, it looks quiet and empty. That can be really discouraging to other players and we aren't likely to pick up many new ones. Even though we're active, it looks like we're a nearly dead game. I would ask that, unless a message HAS to be private, go ahead and send it to the entire list. You folks put a lot of work and detail into your societies, share it with everyone. Speaking of new players, we have a few who want to join but don't know which societies are currently open. Rather than try to put together a list of who I think is open, I'm going to go ahead and say that any society that doesn't at least post a "Hey I'm still here" to the list will be available to them for 1434. I know it's a little harsh but I'm trying to find the best way to do this without making them wait too long to play. There are a few societies that either are not available to players or that I would prefer that new players not take: Mir (still played by Jason via the occasional letter, usually setting up long strategic actions, he was our primary GM for a long time and I think it's only fair to bend the rules a bit on this for him), Eerith, L'R, and Onagir (too powerful or confusing) and, although I would not forbid it, I would recommend that someone think long and hard about taking one of the war-shatter countries of the Raz. coast or the Wyr basin (just keep in mind, these societies are really hurting and will require quite a bit of rebuilding). With all of that out of the way (and feel free to disagree with any of it and suggest other options), the events of 1433: Cormenaera--The Grand Council agrees to accept an Eerithian advisor. Hria--Multiple children throughout the society report experiencing visions of the Bird Spirit. The Sangha agree that it is a portent but of what they are uncertain. Laria'rathi--Plague continues to ravage the L'R people. In desperation, they begin a fierce internal debate regarding breaking their usual isolationist stance towards the outside world and seeking external help. Morvali--The Wandering Shamans appeal to the Clan Matriarchs to accept Eerithian advisors, claiming that the spirit beings evidence no conflict with existing dogma. Parglug--A son is born to Laslo Fire-Eyes Saraa--To the shock of the entire Saraa, a second wave of "refugees" from the Dreaming arrive in the Shadowlands. They are lost and confused, having little memory of how they came to fall into the mundane. Vraa'al--Remember that little kidnapping? She's pregnant. (This is related to a somewhat secret action) Zelkor--The Ring of Gomel requests an Eerithian advisor. And thus 1433 begins. Where 1432 was a year of pain and loss, 1433 seems to be a year of omens and harbingers of change. M. Keaton ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
