I have a few collabs to add to, but I really wanna get this announcement out before too much time passes.

First the obvious, as you know, the current operation phase is over. You can start writing downtime posts that take place between now and the next operation. I'll have more to say about that shortly.

To my knowlage, no one but Sofron made use of special notes being "free" this operation. I can kind of understand why, but I'm going to keep them free for the time being as something that comes up that infrequently probably shouldn't cost a precious note slot. 

Since the opperation has ended, you level up! [i][B]Everyone can upgrade a bronze glamor to a silver one[/b][/i]! The process is exactly the same as last time. Gold glamors will not be available to players until the completion of the next operation. We decided that an operation like this wasn't quite enough to justify getting a gold glamor. But yea, same ritual as before. Make your new glamors, submit them for approval, and VE-OH-LAH, you get more stronk. In relation to that...

Regarding the DoCS, I really wanna get to the updates I wanted to finish [u]last[/u] downtime cycle into the rp. Note speeds, keywords, and the backup system. In fact, some of you may wish to hold off on updating glamors for the moment if you'd be interested in taking advantage of mundane gear/ powerful once per operation specials. I know Klava wishes she brought a gun.

And a note on downtime...

So I don't think it's a secret that a lot of the collabs posted during downtime involve the GMs. I don't mind writing them, and most of the time, they are justified. If you want one of your characters to converse with an NPC, I'm never going to turn that down. Especially if I'm the one who prompted it in the first place! But when I look at the posts that happen over downtime, an overwhelming proportion of them involve myself or Erode. And while I'm sure he enjoys writing with you just as much as I do, that means I can't work on the DoCS to fine tune notes, add more systems, or all that other stuff. With an important operation on the horizon, I would really like to have more time to work on that stuff, but I don't want to leave you guys twiddling your thumbs with nothing to do.

Something I like about rule sets is that they ground things. I've been in an RP that wasn't quite like this one, but it was sort of the same deal and it didn't have [i]any[/i] rules to govern how its magic worked. You could keep casting spells until the GM said you were out of mana, everything was done by GM call and when GMs weren't involved, well, the sky was the limit. Combat was an incoherent mess, and battles were determined by judgements that were often inconsistent and seemed to serve the GMs bias more than anything else. Though one thing that RP did have was that the Players were free to do whatever they wanted. They could make laboratories, forge alliances, build their own factions, what they could do was policed as well as the combat was. 

That stuff was pretty cool.

I feel that when people encounter a rule system, even if it just governs combat and little else, the temptation is to feel like your options are limited by it. Even when I started using maps to show the landscape of more complex battle areas, I feel like this has limited people's creativity a bit. Does their character have line of sight? etc. I mostly use these tools to make sure combat is coherant and not a chaotic mess. If your character doesn't see something, they might [i]hear[/i] it or could simply move and become aware of what's going on.

But back to downtime, the world is really your oyster. You can collaborate with people outside your faction to get things set up. Maybe Finn wants to track down Justin, So he looks to Ashley for help, who brings along Marrie, as she's done research into his Chinese silk worm operation. You could do a collab deciding to form an alliance, and at a later date I could write what the group's findings are in a follow up post. You could also write solo posts trying to pursue other skills. Maybe Agent Leroux decides she wants to try her hand at being a magical researcher, or further her knowledge on blood magic beyond what Binky has told her. Stuff like this requires minimal imput from me, and lets you write posts.

Again, yea, there are going to be times I do need to write a post with you, especially for the crazier stuff. But I don't you to feel like your characters can't [i]attempt[/i] to do things without GM supervision. [@The World] pretty much had Marrie attempt to hunt down Justin with minimal imput from me. They just kinda did it, leaving me posts to respond to, and it wasn't until Marrie got High Priest's attention that we jumped into a collab to sort out the back and forth with the mysterious entity. 


And...

Yea, that's all for now, I gotta get to work!