[color=ff7f50] [i]*Lick-smack-lick-smack-lick-smack*[/i] Octopus flavored chips aren’t bad either. I really like the smell. … Oh? Back again huh? Let me just set these aside… How did you want to proceed? Should we continue our talk or did you want the Patron Observation Station Transcript? [hider=I want to talk about the seasons] [center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019886bc-1bdb-7418-9dbb-e5f6307434fb.webp[/img][/center] Hah! I had an idea we’d be talking again. Where were we? [hider=Season Two?] Right. Bee Pee enjoyed the second season. But their co-Grand Magistrate responsibilities? Ehhhhhhhhhh… It was a serviceable season. The main story stagnated without a core villain, and it turned into a series of events with no clear throughline largely due to tiffs and time constraints among the magistrates, of which Bee Pee had joined the ranks of. This season marked a downturn in the Grand Magistrate’s mainline story but saw great opportunities for patrons to tell their own. Unfortunately, the lack of supervision would cause problems during the third season. Tell me what you’re curious about. [hider=What was becoming a Co-Grand Magistrate like for Bee Pee?] If Bee Pee wants to run a Reality Plenum, he will make his own. That said, it’s always a privilege when a Grand Magistrate trusts a patron to control parts of the story. It did feel like a natural fit. Bee Pee had been speaking with the Grand Magistrate here and there and even went out of his way to adapt the new magical girl module to work with the old system, as that wasn’t really something you could do out of the box. For his contributions and for accepting a role that he never asked for, the rest of the Patrons were… …Divided once again! CONTROVERSY TIME! Oh yes, there were a few painstricken butts that day. Half of them thought that having access to the extra content was really exciting, and the other half were upset that Bee Pee had become a Co-Grand Magistrate because it was [i]clearly[/i] a power play. There were all kinds of suggestions exchanged in the public discord from ganging up on the new faction Bee Pee had made to just boycotting the choice by threatening to leave. The outrage didn’t last a day, but [color=ff7f50]"heartfelt"[/color] wasn’t the words Bee Pee would have used to describe his christening ceremony. In fairness to the patrons, there probably should have been some separation between the new module dropping and Bee Pee getting promoted. They weren’t [i]really[/i] interconnected. Furthermore, the red coins did far more as a plot device than an actual mechanic. They went largely unused, and there aren't too many notable uses of them. Most of the cast was pretty happy with how their characters turned out and didn't want to re-roll anything. The Crimson Cradle Faction is also objectively weaker than most normal factions you can make. The cooler aspects of it like the corrupted weapon gimmick was never utilized by anyone. Like the red coins, most patrons were happy with what their character had been assigned. [/hider] [hider=No Throughline?] Just ask me about the infighting. I know you want to. [/hider] [hider=The infighting! Tell me about the infighting!] Well Skink and Bee Pee put their boxing gloves on, the Grand Magistrate was acting as referee, and when the whistle blew… Hahahahaha! I’m afraid there wasn’t anything quite that exciting. No Trump/Zelensky style blowups here. But that group was something of a perfect storm. The worst part was that it could have been avoided. Before I point out the problem, I’d just like to give you a breakdown of each Magistrate’s magistrate experience prior to season two. Bee Pee at the time did not have a lot of time logged in this corner of the omniverse. However, he had guided several reality plenums to their completion over the years. His batting average is very high, and it’s rare for one to fail if he hosts it. He also never used a Co-Grand Magistrate at this time. Skink was also experienced. I cannot speak of how experienced he was compared to Bee Pee, but I would be willing to wager somewhere in the [color=ff7f50]"less, but still adequate"[/color] range. As of now, he has a Reality Plenum that has been going on for almost ten years. There was a long hiatus in there somewhere, but it does show his ability to stick with a project and keep it fun enough that people want to return to it. Like Bee Pee, he appears to run his worlds alone without any help. Then there’s the Grand Magistrate himself. This is not his first rodeo, yet he tends to be a bit more hit or miss with his projects. That’s not to say he hasn’t had any success, as this Reality Plenum is proof of. But his successes are rare enough that this could be considered a fluke. He engages with Reality Plenums primarily as a patron and just occasionally runs things himself. That said he has had Co-Grand magistrates in the past, but it’s always been people he’s familiar with. Now, what do you think the problem was? [hider=No one was accustomed to working with other people they weren’t really close with?] GOLD STAR! GIVE YOURSELF A PAT ON THE BACK, GENTLE READER! THAT IS PRECISELY RIGHT! Even though the co-Grand Magistrates had enough experience to do fantastic work, neither of them had any experience working as a team. Answering to a higher power was not something they had experience with. The Grand Magistrate himself was accustomed to just letting their friends do whatever made them happy and gave very little oversight and shared little of what he was doing. As a result you had quite a bit of wasted effort. For Skink, he made over fifty Non-Patron Champions to be used as filler for fights. Very few of them were used. This was primarily because Skink was busy with their own Reality Plenum and didn’t write often for this one during season two. Skink also expected the other magistrates to keep these champions alive at all costs, but it was never clearly communicated. The Grand Magistrate had one of them die and ended up retconning it. The Grand Magistrate and Bee Pee stopped using Skink’s Non-Patron Champions afterwards. Aside from a few girls that fall directly under Mariette's control, the bulk of those magical girls never saw the light of day. Bee Pee was a bit more active in running things, and did manage to have all of the Non-Patron Champions that he created appear during season two. Where Bee Pee was less successful was when it came to suggesting changes for the CYOA. Like many of the Patrons, Bee Pee realized that the CYOA was flawed, had objectively over powered options, and left some girls feeling week and others too strong. But Bee Pee was looking to slowly create an entirely new system, which was not something that either the other magistrates or patrons likely wanted. Bee Pee ended up debating with Skink on everything. What few changes survived the debates were put through further scrutiny by the Grand Magistrate, and fewer still ended up becoming part of the rules for the Reality Plenum. In the end, lots of things were discussed, but few changes were made. Sometimes things worked out. During the CORE rule conversion, Skink raised some concerns about the anti-magic barrier power. He was troubled by the idea of a magical girl having the power to shut down magic in a large area, creating a magical void room of sorts. So it was workshopped until it was instead an anti-magic wall that dissolved magic that passed through it. Thanks to Skink’s scrutiny, that horrific power that could have existed in the world would never come to light. At least, not during this season… I don’t have the desire to go over every individual item that was discussed, but I may at a later date. Most of the agreed upon fixes were for things like people using buff magic to do absurd things, or how magical girls with regeneration seem to recover to perfect health in a single turn regardless of how damaging an attack is. These were easy fixes that just required a change of GM style and didn’t require editing the CYOA, so they were easy to implement. [hider=Was there a particular reason Skink was made into a Magistrate?] Originally Season Two was going to be the season that featured Mariette as the big bad. Though Skink's other responsibilities and other Reality Plenum called to him and he wasn’t around for very much of Season Two. [hider=...The Grand Magistrate didn’t have a plot of their own?] Nope. [hider=...Nothing?] He had a few themed ideas, but as for an overarching plot? Nope! That was all left in Skink’s hands. [hider=...Bee Pee had to have an idea, right?] When Skink mentioned that they couldn’t possibly help manage the Reality Plenum, Bee Pee offered to take steps to make Veronica the main antagonist for the season. I do not have their logs here for me to peruse, but according to Bee Pee, they said something along the lines of [color=ff7f50]"Veronica cannot be the antagonist for this season because she’s too green."[/color] I think Skink had plans to try to make more time for this Reality Plenum, it just never worked out. [/hider] [/hider] [/hider] [hider=Did Bee Pee do anything interesting?] Yes, Bee Pee helped run a few encounters. The coin accident and the escapee’s, well, escape was all something he did with the Grand Magistrate. He also did some NPC encounters, including a small fight between Vocab’s Katelyn and six other magical girls. This was supposed to be Skink’s season to have Mariette do things, so Bee Pee was limited in what he could do. But not the patrons! [hider=Patron to the rescue?] Yea! [hider=Who!?] A new but nonetheless important Patron in our story is the Lord of Crusaders, who shall be known henceforth as LoC, or Lock. They were a new Patron to this Reality Plenum and had a lot of… Um… Let’s call them [color=ff7f50]"interesting"[/color] ideas. They had a gender swapped jojo, but for our purposes we want to focus on Annabelle, their horror worshiping magical girl who was lonely. Very, very lonely. So lonely. Bee Pee did not have the Bates doing much this season. They appeared just frequently enough to remind everyone they existed. But Regina and Annabelle met and ooh lala! Love was in the air! Bee Pee typically isn’t for this shipping nonsense, but given Annabelle was literally the only Patron Champion other than Elroy to show Regina any kindness, they did hit it off hard and fast. Regina had no issues helping Anna’s dark lord collect corpses and other dark things to usher their dark avatar into this world. Those tasks were mostly done off screen. Now while Bee Pee had to contend with Skink to get anything approved, Lock did not. They were a Patron in the most Patron friendly time of this Plenum’s existence. They gave an impassioned pitch for an event to the Grand Magistrate, and he was so moved by Locks words that he not only shed tears of gold, but knew this had to be the the final battle of the season. Naturally, Bee Pee would be the one handling most of the combat. The Bates were their champions, and the [color=ff7f50]"Beacon Buddies"[/color] that they had stolen away would all act as minibosses. [hider=What did Skink have to say about this?] He was completely left out of [i]all[/i] discussions about the event. The Grand Magistrate, Bee Pee, and Lock were effectively running everything. Though he did participate in the capacity of a patron with his champions. [hider=Fair enough, so what happened next?] What happened next was one of the best battle sequences this RP has seen since, and possibly ever! No cap! The battlegrounds were over a giant graveyard. There were four outer battle areas that had a different Beacon Buddy defending it, then the mouth to Soth’s tomb was guarded by the Bates, which housed the main battle area where Soth was being infused into Amber’s body, or something. Lock was controlling Soth and Annabelle, the Grand Magistrate was controlling one of the Beacon Buddies, and Bee Pee was running everything else, which was the three other Beacon Buddies, the Bates, and a prowling miniboss that jumped people who tried to do sneaky stuff. Ohhhh that was a good one! And you know what the most amazing part of this entire thing is? [hider=No controversies?] I mean… [hider=Seriously? What was the matter?] Hah! I’m kidding! Some weren’t totally happy with how the battles went. Regina had escaped, because everyone was ignoring her and she was by herself VS the entire Reality Plenum at that point. But then everyone was okay with it when she got purified and Beacon became stronger. Because the only people who were upset were the Beacon peeps that wanted blood. But getting a +1 that’s also a -1 for their foes is better than killing someone, no matter how reprehensible their actions! Do you see what Bee Pee did there? [hider=You mean how this was a reverse Minnie situation where, despite everyone wanting Regina dead, she lived and everything worked out for the best?] Poetry in motion, is it not? [i]God[/i] Bee Pee is a good magistrate. [hider=You wouldn’t happen to be Bee Pee, would you?] Haha, careful, gentle reader. There’s plenty more room for that wall to break, and you don’t want to be the one who tears it down. But Lock was the real hero here. They were the one who thought it would be a big fun event and did all the promoting to the Grand Magistrate. By that point Bee Pee had given up pitching anything and was surprised that Lock was able to convince the Grand Magistrate to go through with it. That’s probably why Bee Pee felt so motivated to make sure it was the best fight of the season. [/hider] [hider=And after that?] There was a low stakes beach event that everyone had some fun with. Not much to comment on there. The magistrates all kind of took a step back and let everyone have fun. Skink also unveiled a shop which was good but a bit rough on its initial release. Few people purchased anything. The likely reason for its lack of utilization was because of how prohibitively expensive everything was. Skink had decided to use Penny as a template spender (Read: the richest magical girl in the Reality Plenum, by a large margin) and priced it out so that she could get a few upgrades. This made a lot of the cool stuff inaccessible to the average magical girl. Pricing was also wildly inconsistent. Some perks were 2 silver, and others were as high as 20 silver if Bee Pee’s memory serves. It would get reworked in season three and see a bit more use from everyone, but to quote a future magistrate: [color=ff7f50]"Haha stat boost goes brrrrrrrrr!"[/color] Shortly after the event, Bee Pee gracefully stepped down as Co-Grand Magistrate. While he didn’t cite his exact reasons, he ultimately came to the conclusion that he had more power as a player and half of the responsibilities. That, and working alongside Skink and the Grand Magistrate hadn’t been what he expected. Skink was also removed, and season three would see two new magistrates join the team. [/hider] [/hider] [/hider] [/hider] [/hider] [/hider] [/hider] [/hider] [/hider] [/hider] [/hider] [/hider] [hider=What’s this about a lack of supervision?] Later seasons, gentle reader. later. We will discuss this when it’s relevant. Though I suppose there was one lapse in supervision that proved problematic this season… [hider=Oh?] Yes, the coins. Love them or hate them, collecting them became a favorite pastime for everyone. Bee Pee was never a huge fan of them because it seemed like a lot of extra paperwork that changed very little of how events in the Reality Plenum unfolded. The importance of stats were on a decline and there was no reason to try and inflate them beyond a certain point. Moreover, they were a source of annoyance to those who were joining the Reality Plenum late or had more passive champions. As an example, Bee Pee had been a part of the Reality Plenum for everything but the pre season. However, because Amber took a less violent approach to problems than Penny did, she had less than a quarter of the wealth of the cybernetic overlord. There were also fewer opportunities to make money. The pre season was densely packed with weak enemies and fast battles, the first season was more or less a battle shonen, but the second season was more of a sandbox and there was less fighting going on due to nobody wanting to get creamed. Getting stronger was only fun if you could lord over others. I think? Bee Pee still doesn’t like magic coins. But power is a vile temptress, and by golly he's going to collect as many as he can... [/hider] [/hider] [hider=What sort of freedom did the players get to enjoy?] For season two, the Grand Magistrate wanted to allow the patrons to take control of the story. To this end, he allowed them to have borderline magistrate level powers. He let them make combat non-patron champions, allowed them to host events, with the only caveat that everyone had to put away their toys when the grand magistrate busted something out. Seems innocent enough, and with the mainline plot more or less not existing it did feel like the Reality Plenum needed to become more of a sandbox. But it was all very insular. Everyone stuck to their little cliques and roleplayed with one or two other players while pretending to control an important organization. But the CYOA was quite addictive to just make champions with, and I think the temptation for a few patrons was to make a little base with little champions that could talk to other champions and feel important. It’s hard to dig deep into anything here because none of it ever built up to anything. Some of it was okay. There was this news agency that was kind of interesting, and there was this one homestuck fan who- Oh? I said enough? Okay, glad you understand. [/hider] [/hider] [/hider] [hider=Give me the P.O.S.T. please.] Only because you asked nicely. … … … [center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/0197c7fe-1399-7399-abc0-8827b761f230.webp[/img] [color=cfff04]"Alicia said something smart!"[/color] First time for everything I guess. [color=888888]— Mac[/color] [hider=Tonya ‘Mac’ Murphy] [b]Age: 24/11 | Gender: Female/Female | Illusion, Gravity Body | Power of Friendship, Regeneration, Third Eye | Cradle Coercion, Soul Jar, Martial Training, True Sight, Parasite, Gifted, Awareness, Overcity Shift, Mystic Artifact Magical Overload, Cradle Supply, Connected, Gifted Item (Aigorost) | Monstrous Form, Exposed, Mercy, Distrust Redirected Magic, Second Specialization | Non-Standard Limbs, Destroyer[/b] STR: 05 | AGI: 04 | VIT: 05 | MAG: 03 | LCK: 03 +46 STR: 20 | AGI: 20 | VIT: 20 | MAG: 20 | LCK: 20 Remaining: 8 Gold, 30 Silver, 39 Bronze Total: 12 Gold, 162 Silver, 183 Bronze [/hider][/center] For starters, Rachel starts gnashing her teeth. Apparently Mac said something that made her cringe really hard. I think I know what it was, but I’d just as soon forget it happened. Then she ignored Mac so that she could talk about some Beacon stuff with Alicia. Oh those catty, cliquey Beacon girls. You haven’t changed since season one, haha! Then it turns out the little green dudes were actually cactuar. I feel a little bad about this because I almost described them as such, and that would have been more amusing come this update. You guys would have been like [color=ff7f50]"Damn, he’s still got it."[/color] But guess what? You don’t have to imagine that reality because I [i]did[/i] predict something! Remember how I said that MDP would think Alicia was playing fetch with them? Well that’s [i]exactly[/i] what happened! Word for frickin’ word! Shootin’ straight from the hip! [i]Damn[/i] I'm good! Nothin’ surprises me. I think I can stop talking like a cowboy now. Point (no pun intended) is that there was a big happy get together and it put a really dumb smile on Mac’s face. And this was after- Hold on, Alicia responded to Mac’s comment about her shooting at everything. … Huh. That actually sort of makes sense. You know? There’s so much going on with magical enchantments and what not that the possibility actually slipped under my notice. I mean, Mac is supposed to be a detective. She should be smarter than Alicia. Certainly smart enough that her logic can’t be undone with a single sentence. … I need to take a break and reflect for a while after this. [i]*sigh*[/i] [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GOE3w2ZUrQ]NOW PLAYING: MOONLIGHT SONATA: FIRST MOVEMENT[/url] I’ll get back to you in a few hours… Maybe… [i]... … … *Stares out a window and watches as the rain gently splashes against it. The room is dark, with only the light from the overcast sky illuminating the area.* … … … *Caresses a picture of Amber: Shining Scale. Sharpened claws grip the frame, as if reaching for a future that could never be.* … … … *Meows sorrowfully into the heavens, as if asking for guidance. But no one meows back.* … … … *Is playing a game of cards with Gorefield. Notices he’s cheating and proceeds to wrestle with him.* … … … *Is sitting in a rocking chair, stroking the John R Buckle laying in his lap.* … … … *Sighs and lays down on his tree branch again.*[/i] Okay, I think I’m fine. Please kill the music. Mac actually didn’t think that held any weight. At the very least, the hen she was riding did not appear to be affected by the magic. Perhaps it only worked on creatures of a certain level of intelligence? Maybe animals were immune? It was hard to say. Ultimately, they were in strange lands and couldn’t pretend they understood how anything worked here. But Mac was too busy listening to the Cinnamon sisters (Ronin and Miko) having their goofy little conversation. She was sure she didn’t have to say anything and they would have forgotten she was even there, but this was good. It had been a long time since Mac had existed as a person outside of her super secret missions. Maybe it was time to cast off the cloak of mystery. She had been that person for long enough. [color=cfff04]"I don’t mind being a mysterious stranger, but that just means you two have to keep what I say next a secret, okay?"[/color] She adjusted her cap. [color=cfff04]"Besides, I’m bearing a little too much right now to keep anyone guessing forever."[/color] Siiiiiiiiiiigh. [color=cfff04]"I’m helping you fight Wonderland because they are bad people who are threatening my home, which is Penrose. I’ve been there for a while but I tend to keep to myself, which is why you’ve never seen me. But this was a little too important to ignore."[/color] Deciding to play with the kids a bit, a grin crossed her lips. [color=cfff04]"Now wouldn’t that be scandalous? Alicia’s had a monster mom as her aunt this entire time and still works for Beacon! What sort of monster must I be to invoke these feelings in my niece?"[/color] She adjusted her cap. [color=cfff04]"What if I’m your niece? Wouldn’t that make more sense?"[/color] She was having a lot of fun. When hearing about a spearhead force that she was left out of, because of course Beacon would do that, she waved her hand. [color=cfff04]"Yo! What do you want me to do? Don’t leave me in the coop!"[/color] That joke was painful, and I’m glad Mac’s section is over. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/PjPyXYN.gif[/img] [color=violet][i]I guess…[/i][/color] Female Finn? That you? Nah, you’re not that big of a screwup… [color=888888]— Chloe Irving[/color] [hider=Chloe Irving] 03 03 03 03 03 10 10 06 17 04 23/12 | Babe/Baby | Spirit Mystic orb, Gauntlets | Third Eye, Tentacles | Horror Wings, Enhanced Outfit, Big Damn Hero, Blood Magic, Interdimensional Home, Sorcery, Enhanced Transformation Dominator | Dark Weapon Nagash 6 Gold, 9 silver, 13 bronze [/hider] [/center] Lily… Did not appear to be picking up what she was putting down. I’m not sure I’d describe anything Chloe did as [color=ff7f50]"lashing out"[/color] myself, but Lily strikes me as one of those snowflake types that probably would. But I’m not here to regurgitate the Grand Magistrate’s transcript in my own words, I’m here to tell you what Chloe was doing off on her lonesome. When Viper chimed in, the news was… Really good actually. It sounded like all of Wonderland’s forces were moving to attack Penrose. Normally that would be a reason for some concern, but with that mambo jumbo barrier Dr Nykannis put on it, she was sure Penrose would be safe. What fools! Without those eggs, she was sure the doctor’s trick would work without a hitch. The time to strike back was soon, and like with her old patron, she would make sure it was a blow her enemy could never recover from. [color=ee82ee]"Thank you, Viper."[/color] She caressed the crystal ball in her hands. [color=ee82ee]"Have I told you how cute you are today?"[/color] I can’t tell if this is normal Chloe or coping Chloe, but I don’t like it. [color=ee82ee]"We’ll all have to go eat somewhere when this is over. Maybe that noodle place the Mint took over. The takeout isn’t that bad."[/color] But before Chloe could continue crushing on her co-worker, she was interrupted by Mariette. [color=ee82ee]"Bah! Portal witch!"[/color] She hissed before deactivating the crystal ball. [color=ee82ee]"What… Why is your portal a mirror?"[/color] She didn’t need an answer. She only needed a moment to look at it with her third eye. [color=ee82ee]"The queen took over your magic? Mary, I’m not going to jeopardize our mission by conversing with you through this accursed mirror!"[/color] At least she could confirm that it was, indeed, Mariette on the other side. She did not appear to be an illusion. [color=ee82ee]"Tell you what? Tell me what you think we should do and I will take it under consideration, but I can’t share anything with you."[/color] By the sound of it, she didn’t have a lot of time anyway. Then she could rejoin with the others and share the good news. Her mood was improving already. [/hider] [/color]