[i]Greetings to everyone still with me. I have some formalities to get to but first a few words.[/i]

[indent]Thank you to everyone who has been with us through to this point, and to those who were only with us for a time. It has been my genuine pleasure to enjoy and tell these stories with everyone. ¬¬If you are reading this and suspecting that this is a patronizing lead-up to a grim announcement, you are unfortunately not wrong. I spoke multiple times throughout this roleplay about “the inexorable march of progress” without really understanding how difficult it would come to be to maintain. Inexorable, it ultimately was not. It has become far more work than fun to keep this project alive, and I have felt it has been on life support rather than thriving for an extended period of time now. We are all here to do this as a hobby, and a hobby should never feel more tedious or demotivating thank my intensifying university coursework. As a result, I have elected to bring this chapter of my time on RPG to a close, and formally end [i]Tear the World Down.[/i]

I apologize sincerely for leaving it on such an unceremonious note. It is with great regret that I came to this decision. The discord server for this roleplay will remain active for one week following this post for anything you wish to save, after which time it will be shut down. I have additionally edited the application status tag to reflect the current state of affairs. If anyone would like to utilize the lore or other content created here for any purpose, please feel free to contact me about such.

What follows is a more formal post-mortem analysis. In game development, these often follow the shipping of a release version of a title (though the term is often incorrect and outdated since the rise of extended post-launch support). Other members have taken responsibility when I make self-criticism in the past, though as with those this focuses exclusively on things within my control. That does not extend to other people, as there is nothing I can do as a GM to control other users. I can only take actions that influence my players to the best of my abilities.[/indent]
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[b]A Post-Mortem of Tear the World Down[/b]

[i]Done Right:[/i]
[indent]The recruitment process is a point of pride. Having a substantial amount of lore readily available in conjunction with reasonable summaries, and the request for character sheets up front prior to commencement made the process flow well. Seeking character sheets so early in the process I feel was a more accurate way to gauge player commitment and is something I intend to continue. Though the lengthy interest check post is time consuming to create, I would like to believe a more thorough picture of the roleplay in question is overall better for prospective players.

The community fostered between players was incredible to observe and be a part of. The narrative collaboration is another major point of pride. Though the process behind such collaboration was at times rocky, the diverse cast of characters and of players was enjoyable company both within the story and without.[/indent]
[i]Done Wrong:[/i]
[indent]The ultimate cause of death was a breakage of a rule I believe in upholding: the progression of a story must never be impeded by any one player. This is not the fault of that player, but rather my fault for failing to ensure alternate paths of plot progression were in place.

Pacing was slow through the duration, in heavy part due to my own actions. I delayed posting due to motivational limitations when I should not have. As GM, actions speak louder than words and if I can wait extended periods to post, so can everyone else. This problem snowballed slowly throughout the duration and after recovering the roleplay from an extended period of downtime (over four weeks), I do not believe it ever fully recovered.

Collaborative posts, while narratively brilliant, were a logistical issue. The attempt at doing these in real time was smart, but fell into a number of pitfalls, availability being chief among them. Doing collaborative posts not in real time (as some were ultimately forced to) creates an extended writing time for a singular post that contributes to the previous problem.[/indent]
[i]Future Ideas:[/i]
[indent]I would like to practice more at using a characterless GM post. I feel that the inclusion of my own character in such posts ultimately limited the creative tools at my disposal more than increased them. I also feel that it distracted me with my own narrative instincts kicking in ahead of the GM decision-making the situation ultimately required.[/indent]
If anyone wishes to add their own critique of the roleplay, me, or anything else, please share. Even if this chapter must come to an end, I am hopeful I may take meaningful lessons from it to do better in my future endeavors on the guild. Again I would like to extend my thanks to everyone for making all of this possible. You have kept me going for as long as I have. I wish I could have better returned your confidence in me.