« captain's log #27: november 1, 2025 »

[seawarden]

CAPTAIN'S LOG #27: NOVEMBER 1, 2025

QUICK UPDATES

YO HO HO!! Two more months until the new year…. That's wild. Because the holiday season can be busy, we encourage all players to consider their plans and if you know you'll be busy and may not be around as much to consider putting in a hiatus if you are able! If you haven't used your yearly free pass, this month is the last month to do it! December will be check-in and players who submit full AC can earn a new free pass for 2026. 2025 FREE PASSES WON'T CARRY OVER!

We have updated the Calendar for important dates, but here is a quick heads up on what to expect this month:

» 11/01: Applications open
» 11/03: Applications close
» 11/04~05: Apps processed; CR Meme
» 11/10: Mini MANTA Log: Hunting Competition
» 11/28-30: Activity Check

The Manta Board has been posted with new and updated quests! The Hunting Competition Special Quest will have its own mini log as our "featured mini event" of the month.

Our Rewards page has been updated with a few new things for the month!

AC RESULTS

Here are the results for last month's AC round:

Karlach Cliffgate | headhunt
Percy Jackson | judoflipped
Blitzo | laminitis
Gale Dekarios | netherese
Terra | notatyrant
Link | skyglider
Sidestep | telepathicignorance

Our player cap is currently at 54/65, which means we have 11 slots open. We will be opening direct mod requests for the next application cycle.

EXTRA NOTES

Here is a recap of a few things that occurred last month.

The battle against Eloise and her husband was a difficult one, but thanks to everyone's efforts she was defeated and taken by Envoy Jades.

» Kaveh and Alhaitham threw hyperblooms that helped weaken Eloise's defenses a bit as they made their escape, and the hyperblooms were left behind that others would use against her.

» Zelda, Darin, Garrus, Riju, and Miriam faced off against Eloise and her darling groom. Darin rode around on the head like he was the star of a Gross Head Monster Rodeo, then smashed it into the ground and stunned it. Zelda created a domed shield on top of it to trap it like a bug under a cup while Miriam set it on fire, but it broke out. Riju crossed swords with Eloise to try to keep the bride distracted, but got sent swinging at Darin instead. Garrus did his level best to shoot at Eloise every chance he got, but ended up being thrown into a wall for his troubles.

» Emet-Selch, G'raha, and Shadow faced off against Eloise and managed to defeat her and her husband's head once and for all with the help of some items left behind by previous fighters as well as their combined abilities. Emet-Selch also sent off all the other undead in as peaceful a way as he can manage (and forcefully if not), which Envoy Jades would take aboard his ship to bring them all to the Farplane.

» The souls of Eloise and her husband are locked away deep in Cassiopea's bell known as "The Locker." But hey, at least they're still together...?

Regarding the Bread Curse, there were a few notable discoveries made:

» With Emet-Selch's help, Sherlock has noticed that the bread transformations occur faster on less dense, organic matter, such as animals, plants, and people, compared to denser, inorganic matter such as random objects. This suggests that living things are more susceptible to bread transformations.

» Cid and Benedikta discovered that the system he developed to improve the heating efficiency in ovens had been modified to accelerate the baking of "cursed" bread. He's already isolated the modification, and authorities were alerted to hopefully halt that particular supply. However, given that the ovens look just like any other oven and someone would have to check the inside, it's not impossible for them to slip through the cracks, especially as the modified ovens are shipped with normal ovens to help disguise them. Emet-Selch also discovered the autonomous baking nature of these ovens and the two are working together to try and figure out who is developing them.

» It was also discovered that a potion utilizing mermaid parts, particularly their hearts, was being sold in the black markets as a cure for the curse. It seems to have some success in curing the curse, though time will tell if there aren't any negative effects.

» Both the ovens and the potions were being sold by the same group shipping off the modified ovens so there may be a connection.

» Fortunately, a true cure for the "curse" has been developed. Turns out it's not a pure magical curse, but one based on a fungus parasite of some kind. However, trying to learn more about it is difficult because…

» The island has dissolved. Unfortunately, too much time has passed and those who were in the area witnessed the island collapse and dissolve into the ocean. There were fears the fish would be contaminated, however the past few months have revealed that any fish that were contaminated would quickly dissolve in the water thus it did not spread beyond the immediate area and many of the aquatic life moved away from the area after the first month. Before the island's complete destruction, there is one report that a ship was sighted the night before sailing away, but they were too far and fast to identify or chase after.

» The displaced inhabitants from the island will be taken in by Eltrut and other islands willing to house them.

» Investigations will now focus on 1) the organizations trying to spread and profit off the "bread curse" on their own and 2) the source of the mysterious fungus parasite that started it all.

Research and investigations in Nilatast are still underway and will continue. Some interesting discoveries were made:

» Nico and Faulkner explored a temple-like building that honored the Leviathans, including a mysterious whale statue. They also learned more of the city's history through a maintenance robot that was possessed by a young novice and whose soul they purified.

» Turo and Cid returned to Nilatast to try and study the computer systems. In doing so they encountered a robot guide dog who helped lead the way, and Cid was able to successfully test his purifying bombs which would be available to help clear the miasma. They discovered the computer systems could read the punch cards that had been found in the Abyss island last year. The information on the cards yielded interesting cultural content such as recipes, knitting patterns, and some images that give glimpses of what the world was like in the past.

» With the ongoing efforts to purify the city and continued work on the computer systems, the Largos confirm that the toxicity and malevolent aura within the city has decreased substantially. It's still dangerous and many lost souls and miasma are around, but there are visible improvements.

» The powerful entity thought to be the mysterious "Mother" that had been lingering and watching near Nilatast is still there, however the oppressive atmosphere has started to lessen somewhat.

» The Special Quest will carry over, but we do have plans for the next development in this storyline soon.

» Emet-Selch will be introducing mammets, small autonomous toys, to the market. They operate with an elemental core and a spell that dictates their movements and traits.

» Regarding the wyverns, Dion Lesage has noted that various components, such as teeth, claws, stomach fluids, etc. have been harvested and used in various potions on the black market. (Actual effectiveness is questionable.)

» While Dame Stitchbane's "pearl" does not seem to have been found, many have theories on where it had gone and how it had been smuggled out via a tunnel. The Dame had been spotted near a dyeing workshop where smuggled goods were held, and some of the goods had goo and pearly fragments in the crates. There is a theory that this could be an egg from one of the snailfolk. But where could it be now...?

STORYLINES INTEREST CHECK

As we head into the new year, we've been thinking on how to best deal with all the fun plot lines we've introduced. Many have unfortunately been put aside in favor of other events that transpired during the time, or pushed back due to scheduling, and we do want to bring them back. However, we're also not sure how many within the playerbase are interested in what, especially with lack of AC submissions lately. Our main way of knowing what people are interested and engaged with are through the AC submissions, and it can be difficult to tell if players are interested in certain content or not when we don't get any responses, even when we've seen players have prompts or threads. As always, we will happily accept any submissions even if it's pre-planned or handwaved conclusions. However, we also need the submissions to be substantive or we're left with very little to work with.

Thus, we're going to try this and rather than guessing blindly, we're asking directly!

If any player is interested in actively participating in the various plotlines that have popped up, please comment to this subthread so we can have a rough idea of what to focus on.

Don't worry, even if you're the only one interested in a thing, we'll still work on it and surely someone else might join in.

Things are still in the works, but the rough idea is once we know who is interested in what we can create Special Quests of some kind that can be tailored to that group, with still some leeway for others to join even if not directly related to the initial interest group. We can also time things that best fits the schedule of the primary party, regardless of whatever else is happening in the game. The most important part is that we'll have assurance that someone is actively engaged in it to help progress things along.

We would like to have multiple plot points developing at once, but we don't want to overwhelm folks, either. This interest check will help us figure out where we might need to prioritize things. If we have a lot of interest in a particular thing, we can turn that into a full blown event instead.

Below is a list of some of the major plots that are still open. This is not exhaustive, so if there's something else that has occurred in the game that you might be interested in following up or seeing used again, you are free to mention it! This includes general quest themes that you might like to have your character engage in. We're always open to ideas or requests for quests or content in general and would appreciate any and all feedback, and we encourage discussions on this post as well between players.

» Nilatast (Note: this is high priority already and will have a continuation very soon)
» Sarht's Domain
» Ainomiad's Domain
» Temple Ruins + MANTA board post
» Various Cults +

We hope this interest check will help guide us in the new year, and as always we'd love to hear any feedback from everyone! We actually plan to try and engage those who are in our Discord server for more direct conversation on Sunday (November 2nd) afternoon, so if you haven't joined the server and want to at least see the discussion you are free to join and then duck out after. We will encourage players who participate to leave a comment on this post so that there's a more permanent record of their suggestion and ideas, and help engage discussion further for those who do not want to be on Discord.

While we are here, we would also like to remind players that if you didn't get the chance to do an old MANTA board quest, you are not limited to just that month. While there are some exceptions (quests that have continuations or endings), you are more than welcome to use old MANTA postings! If you are unsure, or you would like to request a specific MANTA board posting to make a return, please don't hesitate to reach out to us and let us know!

If you do have a plot or idea you'd like to submit, just head on over to our Plot Submission post! We have our own events and plots, but that's because we have to provide things for the game. Players are still very free to create their own plots and storylines for their own needs. You don't even need our permission for personal storylines unless it's something that would affect the whole game and could turn into a large event.

Escordvi is a world of freedom, and that's true for our players, too! Not everything has to be some big plot, big adventure and discoveries to enrich the world in general is especially welcomed! Go find that new island or even a leviathan, we'd love to see it!

HUNTING COMPETITION

After the craziness that was Eloise's gala-turned-horror-show from an otherwise successful Ghoul's Moon, a competition to just hunt monsters and beasts feels like a great reprieve. It's also a great way to help smaller villages and islands in colder climates build up their stores for the upcoming winter months. Not everyone can live on a leviathan that can just migrate, after all. It's also an excellent chance to find new islands and study those that haven't been visited too often, as well as deal with any overpopulation to help maintain a habitat's health. The competition will run through the entire month with a large feast held in Nogard for a celebration.

There are of course a few rules:

» Do not overhunt. Because the locations are all islands, resources will naturally be limited, and disrupting the ecosystem too much will only harm everyone in the long run. Of course there will be those who only listen to their greed, so anyone is free to stop those they see overhunting or poaching.

» Rare creatures are off limits. A subset of the first rule, and the same risks are present. There are some exceptions, but all hunters should read the guidelines given at the start of the hunt.

» No illegal smuggling of creatures. While some creatures may be tempting to keep or tame, they are not to be captured without permission.

While the hunting competition is going on, those who are not so inclined to go off and hunt beasts can participate in different ways. General harvesting will be ongoing, some of which will be used for the feast. Those can also come with their own problems within the field, so even gardeners may see a little bit of action. Hunters will also need some help preparing for their ventures, as well as dealing with their catches upon return. Cooks will also be able to showcase their skills.

However, things can never go smoothly. And this time the disruption will take the form of certain crabs... Addendum: The pearl from the previous Thread Wars quests featured in the September and October MANTA Board turns out to be an egg and a swarm of baby pearl crabs will appear on Eltrut at some point during the hunt competition. Rescue or capture them, they will be scurrying around until a giant pearl crab will emerge and pose a threat to everyone. Could it have come looking for the egg and the young crablets? What will the ending be!?

Although not necessarily part of the competition, the Bread Curse Continues Special Quest will also be referenced as there is an island of mutant mushrooms that is under suspect, as well as need trouble with the giant toads that provide the mushrooms necessary for a cure. Other quests can also be included in this log.

Unlike the treasure hunt, there won't be any point calculations, so everyone can just have fun with it! While the hunt lasts throughout the month, the log for it will be posted on Monday, November 10 and will include the feast portion that will ICly take place at the end of the month.

LAST WORDS

And that's it! If you have any questions, feel free to comment here. All quest-related questions should be posted to the Manta Board post.

Comments

STORYLINES INTEREST CHECK

[seawarden]

If you're interested in any of the various plots that have been introduced in the game and are still open for further development, comment below! It can be either for direct participation or would like to see more done with it in general. We are also open to any suggestions or input to help tailor the quests to help players engage in them better. Just fill out the form and comment!

<b>Player:</b> <b>Characters:</b> Any characters that you'd like to have involved <b>Storyline:</b> Which story lines are you interested in? Refer to the list in the post, or if there are others that you have been interested in, list them here. You can have more than one so talk about everything you'd like! <b>How to be involved:</b> How would you like your character to be involved? Make a significant discovery? Just help with general progression? Suffer some kind of terrible consequence that would lead to some other plot twist of some kind? The more information we have the better! If you know of other players who would join you, feel free to mention them here even if they plan on commenting themselves. <b>General suggestions:</b> Any other suggestions or feedback you may have for these plotlines or in general, including MANTA and events. <b>Questions:</b> Any questions you have.

[empyrean_mirror]

Player: Clover
Characters: Kaveh
Storyline:
- Nitalast Investigation
-Sahrt's Domain
- Temple Ruins
- Various Cults
How to be involved: I'm not sure about specifics as I'd need a refresher on how these plots are developing, but it would be cool if Kaveh's actual ruin-exploring and trap-disarming expertise could help advance discoveries! After some thought I'd rather have him focus on the desert domain than the ice one since he also has desert exploration experience and also rainforest boy haet cold. I also don't want to overcommit due to my poor health as much as I want him to be cool, orz

Alhaitham will almost certainly be involved in this since he has the same experience and also they're kind of a matching set, sorry about that.

For Nitalast specifically Kaveh would probably stick to building memorials and honoring the fallen, and I think this would probably do well handwaved, but it does fit in with his expertise and is something he'd want to be involved in!

General suggestions: I think it would really helpful to have a summary page somewhere for ongoing/longer plotlines, since it can get difficult to look up information after a while has passed. Thought I get maintaining that would probably be a huge Undertaking for the mods, having some place that can summarize what's happened oocly would be a really nice accessibility tool. ;;

Questions: I am actually very interested in being involved with plots my body just hates me I'm so sorry mods, thank you for your hard work.

+1, general suggestions

[multidisciplinary]

I wanna piggy-back on the idea of summary pages for ongoing plotlines. I think one way to do it that might mitigate some of the work of writing summaries is to create groupings of links to the different mod notes that discuss those plots. There's usually summaries written up in the monthly mod notes, so consolidating links to those summaries could be helpful.

[seasaltkeys]

Player: Megan
Characters: Roxas

Storyline: Temple Ruins

How to be involved: Similar to Clover, I'd like a general summery of where we stand with those plots and what's been figured out and where to go. Roxas was involved in the horse-looking one (I think it was the Kirin), and I was thinking recently that there wasn't really any sort of resolution with that, or at least hoped there wasn't. So it's kind of nice to see that there wasn't because I was starting to think that there was and I was just a complete dum dum who missed it.

I think I'd kind of like to see a gathering of everyone who was working on that being able to pool their knowledge and what to do next, as well as figure out a way for Roxas to get back into explore that particular path. Of course, I welcome anyone who wants to join in to help him (I believe previously it was Axel and Tifa).

General suggestions:
I admit that when it comes to AC submissions, I'm never really sure what to put. In some parts it's that threads might be in early stages and I don't want to lock them into a particular path and in other, when it comes to a larger subplot, another group may already have it in hand. And since I don't necessarily have the CR, I feel reluctant to say anything to be at risk of rocking the boat or messing up someone's plans. As a result, I feel like what I'm doing doesn't necessarily contribute to the larger story/world, but more my character's development and that's not really worth recording or mentioning.

Unfortunately I don't really have a way to create more of an incentive as I am, historically, absolutely rubbish at rewards.

But I think having places where information can be disseminated, either IC-ly or OOC-ly, through a post somewhere might help. Particularly if important conversations come up somewhere like the discord server, especially for someone like me who has elected not to join in (nothing against anybody, game servers have historically been really overwhelming for me.)

Questions: n/a

[astudyinviolet]

Player: Avie
Characters: Sherlock Holmes
Storyline:
» Ainomiad's Domain
» Various Cults

How to be involved: Obviously I need to get baby Holmes haunted by Cthulhu into the cult investigations either by helping to find information, connecting dots, investigating the scene or recreating it with his light magic. He can take a more active role too. We could have fun with his broken down mental defenses from having him be the canary in the coal mine that something is up to outright possession by a well-meaning entity to give the players a hand to a strange mix of interactions like Sherry somehow isn't fully affected by a ritual or something because he has traces of another eldritch entity on him. Pretty much open to anything besides hurting other characters or innocents in the process. He can get hurt, but he doesn't need the guilt of hurting others.

He also has that Encyclopedia Necronomica, and there are at least two others (Faulkner and Miriam) who are interested in studying the book in the worst book club ever. Faulkner even has his own copy.

Other than than. I believe Sherlock was originally part of the exploration team for the Ice part of Desert and Ice (Ainomiad's Domain, I believe), so I'm game to pick that back up.

General suggestions: Oh, I love the idea of a summary for on-going plots in one space, especially if they are meant to be long ones or short ones. I'll admit that I am not always sure if something is an island of the month kind of deal or something bigger. That said, the underwater stuff was easier to tell as supposed to be a longer plot. (It's just a character thing that I cannot participate in that, so I try to focus elsewhere.) Such a thing would also help characters who missed an earlier part to jump in, especially if there were efforts that stopped because someone dropped.

Part of my problem, the more I think about it, is that I'm all too willing to go with the flow because we all have different tagging paces and thus afraid of messing up something someone else has set up. And then I see that some development happened that I would have loved to jump in on, but I had no idea until after the fact and feel like I missed my chance. Maybe that could be fixed with a plotting post for the event with some points revealed? We have a CR plotting post, but a lot of the times stuff for an event or the larger plot posts aren't out yet, so we cannot really plot for those specifically as a game.

Questions: How is it November already? Where did time go?

[ramuhs]

Player: Laena
Characters: Cid primarily
Storyline:
- Nilatast
- Rifts generally
- SUGGESTION: Treasure Map follow up

How to be involved:
With disclaimer: I AM MOD SO I try to keep my characters off the spotlight and more in supporting position so other players can have a chance instead. I only put my characters in a "leader" type position if there's no one else or if it would fit and I can't work around it lmfoajsdf

For Nilatast: Mostly figuring things out on the tech side. He's already started on it with Turo, so likely will just continue to progress from there! The tech and mystery of the place is definitely something he'd be interested in and if it has any ties to the mystery of the rifts. Learning and figuring out how help start up the computers and machines would definitely make his day.

For the rifts: Finding a map, island, or some kind of story lore reference that would help lead to a grand group adventure and find whatever would bring people closer in figuring out how the rifts work and a way for people to choose whether to stay or leave rather than up to randomness. Perhaps something involving ancient powerful magic and also lead into some old world lore oOooOooooO. Which is kind of a generic idea BUT it's one that other people could do, too! Because surely there are many pieces to the puzzle....coughcough. But mostly anything to help it feel like they've made some kind of progress and not completely hopeless.

Treasure map follow-up: Okay so I know I have more control over this since I led the group that did the treasure map quest the first time and we also had ideas for this for a while LMAO SO HERE IS MY PUBLIC STATEMENT OF what I think would be neat and if anyone would be interested and join in 👀 When the group found the treasure map and got to the island, there was a lot of weird weather artifacts there, and the town that tried to use them. A follow up to explore some other islands or perhaps even a leviathan to figure out where these artifacts came from and expand more world lore would be fun I think! With other treasures and things that could be found.

I could suggest more but then I'd be revealing too much that's in our pockets—

General suggestions: I'm going to leave this blank and will respond to everyone else and share thoughts in a more official capacity elsewhere (but so far everything I've read has been good stuff )

[emet_sulk]

I think at the time I didn't involve myself with the treasure map as Emet may have been pursuing something else, but treasure hunting is always fun

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Player: Ant
Characters: Darin Altway and Dr. Eggman
Storyline: For Darin: Presently, Darin is interested in studying the rifts and if they can be controlled or if people can use them to travel to a world that is not of their origin considering his present relationship status. He's also invested in the world as a whole and the current faction system. I floated earlier this year about a third more neutral, player fun faction for Riftfarers but never knew where to go with it in all honesty. Darin has also declared himself a protector of the nativeborne denizens of this world and I'd love to have him get more involved in actually helping people as a whole.

For Eggman: Eggman wants to know what the Leviathans are, how they tick, and if they can be used for his world conquering ends. This one is a bit harder, but since Elah flat out left earlier in the year, I'd love an opportunity for Eggman to be an actual, credible threat and get one of the leviathans to leave or possibly even get one to attack another. Something good and meaty that people can get in on.

How to be involved: For Darin: Having Darin discover something or, more preferably, get a chance to actually use his powers and accomplish a great feat would be really nice, as I've never had a significant opportunity to have him truly affect things on a wider scale. Some sort of disaster to avert or something.

For Eggman: At this point, I'd love for him to get into the ruins and actively hinder people from learning more so he can hoard knowledge and power himself.

Darin has some wide-reaching CR so I have no doubt a lot of his CR would get roped into his business. Eggman, sadly, does not have a lot of CR, but being able to be an active hindrance would absolutely change that and give me more fodder for playing a villain, which is something that is generally hard to play in DWRP by virtue of 100000 heroes all piling on the bad guy.

General suggestions: There's a few things I could offer up as feedback that I feel would help facilitate plot and events.

-GENERAL STORY TIMELINE- So, one of the hardest things for me, as a player, is finding a way to insert my characters into a game's story when there's a bunch of people working on different elements. I don't have everyone on plurk and I'm not in the game discord so the only real interaction I have with the game's plot and various story threads are through the monthly posts. Which are absolutely great! But it still doesn't really give me a lot of inroads in how I could engage, especially if multiple people jump on the same MANTA board quest but might not communicate with each other. I think a "the story/plot threads thus far" page would help people get acclimated with what's going on and potentially find ways they'd want to insert themselves.

-PLOT ELEMENT ASSIGNMENTS- Which brings me to this point. I know it's largely left up to us on how we choose to interact with storylines but I've found that when players are given a limitless buffet of options to build the narrative as they choose, 98% percent of them will wait in the car. Lack of communication, general wariness for not wanting to step on anyone's toes or take plot hooks out of other player's mouths leave people with little direction.

I genuinely think the best course of action here would be to have people do soft sign ups for story quests and then 'assign' them a thread they can build on their own. It doesn't have to be a super specific thing! But for argument's sake, let's say I sign Eggman up for exploring a ruin. At that juncture, a soft prompt of 'Eggman will find an artifact that allows him to turn fish into bacon as well as some lore about the ancient Bacomancers.' At that point, that should be all anyone needs to get a thread going and they can fill in the blanks themselves. Then they can report that on the AC check-in. It's a bit more work on your part (sorry!!) but I think it will help players move the plots along in a way that could be fun for everyone.

-GENERAL MONTHLY LOGS- So, the simple truth of the matter here is that the monthly event/TDM logs are...for lack of a better word, unwieldy. There's so many options and so many things to parse that more often than not, I just note down the first three things that catch my attention and throw a prompt together with that. It also makes tagging around difficult for me because I need to CTRL + F look up keywords in the log to see if I misread/missed/glossed over things to keep a thread moving. I haven't participated in a lot of those logs recently, simply because reading them takes such a monumental amount of time for me, I wind up avoiding them and I feel like my CR has suffered for it. I know you guys put a ton of work into the logs and I genuinely, truly appreciate it. But I feel like less prompts with more to do might help ease potential choice paralysis and make it easier to simply engage.

-AC SUBMISSIONS- I hadn't realized that the things we put here were meant to gauge interest in the world plotlines. I admit, I stopped doing this as much when a few months back I put a write up of Darin's feats against the Krah invasion in the hopes that his efforts would have affected morale or...something, and it didn't even get a passing mention in the Captain's Log. After that, I just really wasn't sure what to put or what constituted something worthy of being mentioned and it somewhat demoralized me a bit. That said, I feel like this is going to be a metric you use to gauge interest in plots, I think it would stand to reason that making sure that the people who take the time to write things do get that little shout out. I genuinely had no idea this was just for plot things as a whole. I do feel that this will start getting used more if more players are handed more specific prompts like I mentioned above and you can use that reporting to move your plots along.

-PLOTLINE REQUEST/IDEA- So, the one thing I've been itching for is a big, daunting challenge to throw Darin at for awhile. He's already tangled with the Krah and I would love to know more about them as a whole. Specifically why they keep attacking, what their aim is, etc. Giving us a truly daunting, relic-powered Krah leader/admiral/king would be just what the doctor ordered, especially if he had something that allowed for a larger scale invasion. There's a lot of terrifying denizens of the deep that could essentially be magically transformed into siege weapons/monsters. Imagine titanic spider crabs like walking fortresses. Barreleye Fish Abominations. Just play Dredge for five minutes and you'll see what I mean. Point is, some largescale threat would be great, even if it's a slow burn with the Krah attacking and testing defenses. Attempting to setup defensive points on the Leviathans for future incursions. Things of that nature.

Additionally, there was the ruins and constellations from...a year ago? And I don't know what ever became of that. More leviathans in general, maybe even a darker, more violent leviathan would be useful for both Darin and Eggman plotting.

Finally, another plot would be political in nature. How do the natives of this world perceive the Riftfarers? Are there outspoken critics? How are tensions between the factions after the brands were lifted and could there may be forces at work trying to exploit any lingering tensions into getting the factions to properly go after one another? Some PVP could be interesting, especially if there's existing CR on both sides.

Questions: None here but if you want me to elaborate on any of my points or ideas, you know where to find me.

[garudas]

Player: Sheila
Characters: Benedikta mostly is the one that has a bigger investment in the world itself, but wouldn't mind getting Tifa and Lightning involved as well outside of their own more personal goals, but I think they'd be better off helping facilitate other people's ideas/plots.
Storyline:

- Rifts, first and foremost. Benedikta has been looking into these, or trying to, since the start of the game and not much headway has been made. I'd like for it to feel like there's been some progress towards this, whether it is to close them or open them so that people can freely come and go. Being a mod, I know there are some bigger mechanics to consider for this but it would be good to have some kind of discovery that takes them closer to finding something bigger.

- Sarht/Ainomiad's domains and really just the temple ruins as a whole. If it's tied into the lore of the world, then that means it must be related to rifts, right?

- The Ancients in general. This ties into the search for rift answers, really. But I just want to uncover more of them because I think they're neat.

- Nilatast. Lightning is especially interested in this one, moreso the old tech. Benedikta is interested in the lore, and the people that used to live there, what happened to them, etc.

How to be involved:

- My biggest thing is I would like Benedikta to have a bit of a 'villain arc' where she tries to thwart anyone who attempts to look into how to open the rifts permanently, allowing people to come and go. Her main goal is to close them off entirely so that no one (read: she) cannot leave. She would be willing and wanting to fight anyone who attempts to do so, and this is something I have been really wanting to do since the game's inception, and who knows, Garuda might even make another appearance—

- I'd like for Benedikta to be a part of making some discoveries on the rifts since she has been trying to find answers for a long, loooong time and hasn't really been able to come up with anything substantial, if at all. She is a spy and is good at it, and she also has sources watching/listening to things on each of the main Leviathans, so having that come into play would be nice. Whether this be through MANTA or events related to the Ancients or whatever, I don't really mind which. yes I know I'm a mod but I'm allowed to do cool lore and plot stuff too damn it!!

General suggestions: Will be looking over everyone else's comments to see what people say and going from there. May edit later to add more stuff.

[madeofmirrors]

Player: Heather
Characters: Fantomex would be interested
Storyline: The ruins
How to be involved: He could make a significant discovery, and admittedly I don't know much about this plot so a synopsis would be amazing BUT he is all for discovery and research.

General suggestions: I do not have any, it just sounds cool
Questions: Not at this time, no. Just expressing an interest

[serendipitously]

Player: Meghann
Characters: Betsy
Storyline: Cults!
How to be involved:
Having died uh...like 3 times and then literally becoming a Horseman of death in her world she's got a connection to death and boy would she be invested in the Farplane stuff.

I'd also love her to just get involved with any of the cults in general. In canon directly prior to arriving her 'job' in essence was hunting down a specific death cult in her world and eliminating them. Her character development could go either way towards giving that life up or pursuing it further and TBH I think it'd be really interesting for her to just go a bit more hardcore on tracking information on cults down and perhaps doing questionable things depending on what she finds out.

Also perfectly fine with her just getting fucked over or making things worse somehow.

Which I guess amounts to an anti-hero/vague villain arc of some kind. Which I would be more than willing to either have people join OR have people start looking into things if cultists start disappearing.

Obviously having a summary of things would be very helpful.

I am admittedly REALLY awkward about jumping into things because there's a lot a telepath can just find out. I do find it fun to play with sometimes but also worry about stepping on toes a lot.

Characters: Arkady
Storyline: Nilatast
The world at large I guess? Like what happened to it in depth
How to be involved: One thing I'd really like to have a chance to explore and offer to others is the fact that she can have visions. Small glimpses of the future, occasionally imprints of the past, or just remote viewing to really remote locations. It takes a stupid amount out of her but her own world ended up drowned (due to the actions of her and her friends) so she's kind of interested in investing herself into figuring out more about things here. Particularly in trying to prevent anymore places from being sunk or having a disaster happen to them.

Even if it's not something she can succeed at, it could be interesting. I'm terrible at writing things like this up.

General suggestions: Not related to plots, but I did have a suggestion in regards to rewards. Admittedly, I'm just absolutely terrible at keeping up with what thread should could for what amount of points so this is 100% a me problem. But it also feels like it might streamline things a bit to just accept points if they're over rather than making someone fully resubmit the exact same form? You already respond with the amount it's over and suggestions on switching around to get less points (which I think is really nice to try to help players get the most bang for the bucks in this economy!), so why not just leave it up to the players if they actually want to?

Previously when I was modding a game and doing rewards we just told someone if they submitted too much and that their request was approved but they went over so they could either add something else they may want (and comment there with it), make a note that they had blank amount of points carrying over from this purchase, or if they really wanted to just resubmit it all. That meant that they didn't have to resubmit a request, wait for it, and then we didn't have to do a second or third check over and ten approval comment. It just meant less time spent for everyone and I'm generally about everyone spending less time on things lmfao

Questions: N/A

[balemoonrise]

Player: Leo
Characters: Mainly it's Turo, but Arlecchino here and there
Storyline:
-Nilatast
-Ainomiad's Domain
-Other Ruins as a whole
-Ancients as a whole
+Leviathans
-Rifts
How to be involved: DO I NEED TO DISCLAIMER THAT I HELP OUT AS PART OF THINK TANK? Its why I try not to put Turo in charge of stuff/try and make it clear he's happy for help of any sort in all of his research, expeditions, and theory crafting that he does end up heading- on top of being big into sharing information with all.

Turo is already involved in most of the things listed above simply because of my throwing him at them—even at times bringing them up naturally in conversation with whomever. It's really easy for me to get him involved because of his natural curiosity and want to help others, plus the fact it's all kinda-sorta in his professional field of skills; Turo knows what he's doing, more or less. Such as his work in Nilatast with Cid, pushing along in working on their computer systems and adding a hand in clearing out miasma.

I would honestly love other people joining in on any discoveries he might make? Hell, if he was part of stumbling into something big via some further uncovered technology or some uncovered 'artifact' I'd love to include some people with me. This man loves to ruin dive, be it underwater or on land. Another piece of just what caused the flooding of the world, the anger that "Mother" holds onto, or even leading to finding another Leviathan from before the floods. He has great interests in Ainomiad as well from his time in the shrine and era around it, and the glimpse of a music box figure he feels has to be some depiction of her.Also maybe more Farplane stuff this man loves Cassiopeia for Reasons

This is all perhaps vague notions that can honestly fall to any of the listed above; I try to be flexible to better include others when I can. I have had thoughts of a discovery leading to something horrible happening(to him) that ties into the Warring Before the Flood™ and the discovery of a weapon that never got used due to Flood™—or something along those lines, whatever could work best.

As for Arlecchino-she is a trained spy that deals in the collecting/trade of information that most would find near impossible to get or simply hold high values. Full of secrets, along with being a capable and feared assassin on top of that. The type that could hear rumors and find their source to find just how true they may or may not be that could lead to any sort of discovery; maybe some lost and found, but held in secrecy by those who want to get rich(er) quick selling off artifacts/books/etc. could be something for her to get a lead on?

She holds some interest in the Rifts, even if not for her own benefits in figuring out how they work/where the artifact behind them could possibly have wound up etc. Her interest is mostly due to having come to care for Bennadikta and others.

General suggestions: I help Think Tank, y'all get known. I'm reading but don't mind anyone else commenting here.
Questions: ✍(◕◡◕)

[emet_sulk]

Player: Chips
Characters: Emet-Selch
Storyline:
- VARIOUS CULTS since they seem to pertain to undead shenanigans which is Emet's wheelhouse
- Stuff related to the Farplane

How to be involved:
Partly it's me not pursuing hard enough due to being scared of taking too much liberty. Partly it's also I don't want Emet to take the spotlight too much.

That said, I would definitely love to have Emet be able to show his strengths as someone who can interact with the dead. He doesn't need some flashy moment to show off or anything, but coming away with some kind of personal growth or change would be enough.

General suggestions:
I do struggle a bit with remembering the overarching plot of things so a brief summary of whatever plot point is being focused on for the month would help immensely. Not a game-wide plot summary but a focused one for the topic.

Questions: --

AC submissions

[multidisciplinary]

Hi! I wanna offer my thoughts about AC submissions. Because I have to admit, I didn't realize that the Extra Notes field in the AC submission played such a significant role in how you determine what players are interested/engaged with.

Like, in the AC form, it's just described as a spot for players to mention things that occurred in their threads that they think would be "fun for [the mods] to know." You give some good examples of stuff to write in this field (especially when you specifically ask players to make note of certain things, this is so helpful!), but outside of that, I've always interpreted this section to be less important than it sounds like it actually is. When I think about what to put here, I'm usually asking myself, "Is this something that I think effects the game as a whole? Is this important enough that other players/characters should be aware of it?" Like, recently Zelda has developed a lot of interest in researching the rifts, but I've never considered writing that in my AC submission because it didn't seem important to bring attention to.

I think it might be helpful to incorporate this information ("Our main way of knowing what people are interested and engaged with are through the AC submissions") into the Activity Check post and AC form to further encourage players to write something in that section. You also offered some more guidance on this section in the September mod notes, which might also be helpful to add to the AC post itself. Knowing that you use this section to gauge interest/engagement completely changes how I think about it.

Also, do you think you could add this to the MANTA board posts: "While we are here, we would also like to remind players that if you didn't get the chance to do an old MANTA board quest, you are not limited to just that month." I totally didn't know this!

OFFICIAL MOD FEEDBACK RESPONSE ⛵

[seawarden]

Hey all! Laena here doing my job as head mod and being the spokesperson for the team. After letting the post sit for a couple of days and after the "conference" in the Discord server, we feel confident enough to start answering and addressing some of the concerns and suggestions that were brought up! Players are still welcome to give feedback and respond! We really appreciate everyone who has commented on the post and came forward in the chat, and we feel really good about how to continue forward.

Of course, this will be a work in progress as we try to hit the right notes, so please bear with us! Ultimately we want Escordvi to continue to be a fun game for everyone, and we hope to have more hits than misses going forward. We also hope this opportunity has helped reassure and give confidence to players to come forward and reach out to us!

Because we had so much feedback that we absolutely love love loved, this meant there is a lot of ground to cover. The comments are divided up into their respective topics, so while it's a lot to read, you can take your time to focus on what you're most interested in and reply to the related topic. I've also used detail cuts to try and reduce the visual shock of how much content there is. So...take your time, ha ha. We'll keep the discussion going for as long as needed, and once things are more finalized we'll repost everything in the December Captain's Log as an easier point of reference and recap.

If there's something I missed or if anyone has further feedback or suggestions on any of these, even if it's just a " This is good, Captain," please respond!

DIFFERENCES IN EXPECTATIONS

[seawarden]

DIFFERENCES IN EXPECTATIONS

One of the first things I wanted to touch upon is that over the past few months we had felt a kind of disconnect between what we as mods were hoping to see and what players were actually comfortable with. A lot of it was a bit surprising, but as we talked to and observed players, we started to realize a few things—and the recent comments and conversations have confirmed our suspicions. To sum it up, a lot of players are more used to more restrictive games, and there is also the general shyness and effort to not overstep both player boundaries and the game's. So I just wanted to discuss this and hopefully clear things up about what we're hoping for and how to help players.

Mod side of things.

Being able to just freely create, be proactive, and come up with elements that could affect the game's world lore is both an exciting yet daunting prospect. Like Ant said in his comment, without a bit more direction players may feel uncertain on what they really can do. There's also likely decision paralysis because a player may be inspired to do all the things!! but alas, life does not allow that. Regardless of our assurances, we realize that we need to give more direction and guidance. As has been suggested, we'll offer more designated sign-ups and give more targeted ideas for what players can do and what directions to take. I personally didn't want to risk "railroading" narratives, so hopefully we can work out a good balance.

That said, we still encourage and request players to take initiative and come up with ideas, even if those ideas are more for their own personal gain! This is only because we don't want to burn ourselves out, and that's a large part of why we encourage players to come up with ideas rather than always relying on us. We are of course happy to give nudges, but if we had to come up with details for every island, adventure, artifact, tribe, enemy, etc. for someone's own plot on top of everything else—including our own personal plots—we will definitely burn out super fast. Another plot mod wouldn't be the solution because then they are the ones who have to come up with everything, which just circles back to the original problem. So hopefully by being upfront and making players aware of our own circumstances, we can work together on future plots and ideas. In fact Escordvi's game design is so that players can come up with their own things and is as open as possible to facilitate that.

To reiterate, we will definitely help out and provide any details that a player needs, we're not going to leave anyone completely lost. We will also happily read any ideas that people come up with—it's super fun, really! We just would like to see more initiative when possible.

Another thing I'll point out again here is for a lot of normal day to day things, players can just assume whatever they need, it's there at least in some form. If you need to ask us if something is okay, 9 times out 10 we'll say, "yes," and that odd "1" is usually a "No, but you can do this instead." There are very few hard no's we have regarding the game, and even then we try to work out alternative ways to get players what they want. So don't be afraid to ask us questions, but we do stress that you don't need to ask us if a character can own a certain thing or minute details about a setting that we wouldn't have thought about. If you need a window for a character to break, you may have your window. Players are also welcome to help answer easy questions if they notice.

Player side of things.

This one we can't really help too much with since relationships with players is more on the player side. However, we can say with good confidence that while players may not get along with everyone in the game, everyone is open to communication. That's the large benefit of an invite only game—we help vet and know generally how everyone is. Thus we encourage players to reach out to one another if there are any questions and encourage everyone to respect each other.

Although not required, having Permissions and/or Opt-Out posts might also help each other get a general idea of what players are comfortable with.

But one of the biggest concerns players have with each other is not wanting to overstep each other's plots and character action. Which is the perfect lead in for the next point—

PLOTTING: EVENTS AND MANTA

[seawarden]

PLOTTING: EVENTS AND MANTA

There was a lot of discussion, suggestions, and general feedback regarding events, the MANTA Board, and how to better facilitate plotting in the future. So I'll try to break it down by the main points:

Event Summaries.

This is actually something I had also considered, and the World of Escordvi page does need a major update (oops). So CS and I will be teaming up to try and wrangle everything from the past two years and create some kind of event summary. We'll include blurbs with important notes along with links to everything, from event logs, relevant MANTA Boards, and Captain Logs. This will take us some time, especially with the holiday season upon us, but we hope to have it all finished by January. Since I'm on a pseudo hiatus I'll see if we can't get at least some partial updates before December so we can do more sign-ups or get more ideas and feedback going again. A bestiary was also suggested, so that's also in consideration, but at a lower priority. (Side bar, if someone wants to volunteer to unofficially assist us, we will happily talk about it and we love those who have already!)

Details prior to the event.

One of the biggest suggestions we received is to include a little more detail in the Captain's Logs about what to expect from events. In general we do try to keep it short and just give small previews, which has worked for the most part. However, when it came to more plot intensive or action packed events, players have found that they would have benefited from more details on what to expect to better plot ahead of time. Admittedly, I have slacked off a bit on writing the previews because I didn't want to get too detailed (those from my past games, you know) and also because we don't always have the complete details for event logs until we write them. So on that front, we'll try to include more notes for plot intensive events, with the caveat that things are subject to change when we write up the logs.

We'll also work on implementing "surprise" elements better. The previous Ghoul's Moon event, while well received, left players in a lurch because they didn't expect such a big thing to happen. Thus because they made prior commitments and didn't really make any plans for it, when the event dropped they had little time or bandwidth left to make plans. So that's on us, we could have been more explicit that something was happening even if we don't give everything away. We'll try to balance it out and give better warning if we have another huge surprise element like that in the future!

Ease of plotting.

As briefly touched on in the other section, a big concern players have is not wanting to overstep other players. Plotting in the game happens in three venues: CR Memes, Plurk, and Discord. Just as a side note, the Discord server itself sees the least amount of real plotting—might be different for private dms, but we see most people plotting on Plurk, really. But of course, not everyone uses one or the other, so that can leave a kind of gap. Thus, we encourage players to use the CR Memes for event plotting more along with whatever method of direct communication you may use. At the very least, stating one's plans so that other players can see and are aware of even if they don't directly respond can be helpful. To help with that, we have a few ideas that we'll implement. (Note: we are not forcing anyone to use one thing or another but are just encouraging and providing as many tools as possible to help.)

• Copy of event notes on CR Memes. To reduce the number of clicking over and make it easier to reference, we'll include a copy of the event notes on the CR Memes. Depending on the length, these may be under a cut just to conserve space.
  
  
• Designated event plotting toplevel on CR Memes. This will mostly be used on months where we have big events, but we can also have a Side Plotting (name pending) toplevel where players can also post about other plots that are not event related. This could be specific MANTA board related that require more coordination or personal plots they want to do with their characters. Something like this could help players who don't often comment on the CR meme because they don't have much to say, and conversely those who do have full comments can just link their CR Meme comment on the toplevel like a directory. We hope that with a more designated spot, it'll be easier for players to see what other people are doing and try to get involved.
  
  
• Designated "findings" toplevel on event logs. On event logs where characters can find things, or perform some kind of action that could be used by other characters or potentially affect them, we'll have a designated toplevel to comment to. We just hope players will remember to use and check back on it as we've had similar toplevels in the past but they didn't see much traction. We have created similar toplevels for certain MANTA Board quests, and will continue to do so.
  
  
  • Multiple outcomes. This is most relevant for MANTA Board quests, but in the event an quest or prompt implies a particular solution or "ending," it is safe to assume there are multiple instances regardless of the context. If a quest is about stopping someone from robbing homes, you can have your characters catch the thief and jail them no problem! It would just be assumed they break out or get out somehow to do it all over again. Even killing a thief won't be a problem—someone else will be turned into the culprit instead or perhaps they killed a different thief. Similarly, if there is an object, it can get lost, stolen, recovered, surprise there is another one, etc. multiple times. We'll figure it out, don't worry! If we really only want one resolution, we'll have a sign-up for the final instance, and everyone else can still participate but would just have to tailor their threads to allow an open end or continuation. We'll add a note about this on the MANTA Board going forward.
  
  
• More sign-ups. This is mostly for more "plot heavy" content where sign-ups would be more beneficial to try and divvy out plot points or particular assignments. My one caveat here will be referring back to what I said earlier that while we are happy to give out content, please don't rely solely on us for ideas. If you've noticed, all our forms always ask players for things they'd like to do or see specifically. Even if it's just a vague, "I'd like my characters to find a cool item that can be used for X" or "I want my character to discover a person/place/thing with lore relevance," (the more specific, the better!) that goes a long way to help us create something. Just like players need direction, it's much easier for us to come up with an idea if we have a guideline instead of trying to come up with something from scratch and hope it works for the players. Of course, if we have a specific objective we want players to do we'll give all the directions necessary. But for more personal gain, we'll need your help with that.
  
  
  • As a small side note on this, when it comes to sign-ups that feature groups to bring about some conclusion, we'll make it clearer that this won't exclude players from participating in other ways to help the final outcome. The most recent example would be the fight against Eloise.
  
  
• SUGGESTION: HELP ME PLOT? Another thing we've seen is that some players just have difficulty coming up with plots to do, or they might have an idea but not sure how to go about it. So I was wondering if we had a designated "Help me plot" toplevel on the CR Meme if that might help? The comment could either have all the details, or if a player has something written in their individual CR meme comment, they could just do a brief summary and link their CR comment for more details for players to look at. This could be bi-monthly thing unless players think they would benefit from it being around monthly.

Hopefully the use of designated locations will help plotting in general, but we also encourage players to try and branch out and help others if they can!

Earlier event dates.

Another thing we'll try to do is post event logs earlier in the month, especially if they are more robust. Traditionally we did it roughly halfway through to allow players a chance to do their own logs first, but we are considering moving the timeline up by roughly a week, something in the 10th through 12th range depending on where the dates fall and mod availability. This should hopefully give players more time to digest events and still participate in them.

Reduced content.

Wheeze, we know—we write a lot, and our events in particular have gotten more robust lately. While I can't promise we won't have huge event logs in the future, I can say we will try to condense things and reduce the number of "box prompts" (the prompts that use the emojis like bullet points) in favor of more generic summaries. We just tend to get inspired and get carried away in trying to feature cool little things…ahahaha.

We will also consider different ways to feature festivals separate from the main event if we are "double dipping" in event content. So taking Ghoul's Moon for example, we could have had the festival portion as part of the MANTA board or a separate mini log that goes up earlier in the month, and then Gala and Palace of the Dead would have been the featured event log. This is still something we'll have to figure out, and will welcome ideas and suggestions!

We will also be reducing the MANTA Board a little bit. While there may be more quests depending how inspired we are or any board submissions, in general you can expect the following as the default: 3 General, 2 Paladin, 2 Corsair, 2 Bounties. This should help ease the load on Mich especially, but again we are always taking any quest ideas! I'd also like to take this time to remind everyone that general ideas are great, but if you want to see a specific quest to please write it so that we can just copy and paste directly to the board. If you need a little help that's okay! We will also include a reminder on the MANTA Board that players can go back and do older quests so long as they weren't time-limited or had some conclusion (the exception being if you're doing a backdated thread to fit that timeframe for the sake of the characters experiencing it).

Social Mingles.

Less "plotting," but it kind of fits in trying to branch out to get more CR. We haven't had a lot of "social mingle" posts lately, so we might try to do those a little more often. Things like "Two Truths and a Lie," "Message in a Bottle," "Advice Column," "TFLN," "Hot or Not"—even network shenanigans for misfires, things like that. We'd make designated posts for them to make it easier for people to tag each other. Of course, players can also make similar posts on their own if they want to sacrifice their inbox for the community!

Phew, that's a lot, but these were all great ideas and even better feedback. Again, this will all be a work in progress so let us know if something isn't working well, or let us know if it is!

[forgeabettertomorrow]

I wanted to comment here and let you guys know that if you need extra hands or brains or whatever to come up with character specific quest prompts for people who want to engage in plot, I'd be happy to throw my hat into the ring here. As someone who DMs for a liveplay podcast, I'd love the chance to help you guys out.

[seawarden]

Aww, thanks Ant! We definitely appreciate and we are definitely keeping that in our back pocket so we may tap you in when we need you 👀 can't take that offer back—

[forgeabettertomorrow]

I'M IN DANGER

STORYLINES

[seawarden]

STORYLINES

We did have a few suggested storylines both in the comments and in the Discord conference, and overall we're pretty much on board! A lot are touching on things we wanted to do, so this honestly helps give us confidence to go forward with them. As a reference, here is what's been suggested so far plus just a few comments with our thoughts:

Current storylines.

Just a brief mention that we're happy for the responses so far to the interest check! We realize the lack of a proper event summary is making some hesitant, but just knowing that there is some intent there helps! For the record, Nilatast will likely have the biggest update first. We're still working out timelines so no concrete answer when, but hopefully early next year.

Something with Riftfarers.

Yessss this is actually something I had realized we didn't really feature much about LOL. We focused so much on the existing and historic lore of the world, we kind of neglected anything that other riftfarers might have done. As a refresher, our characters are not the first wave through the world. In fact the rifts have existed for several years prior to the start of the game, at least five or so years (so at least over seven now), and that is why the natives are quite chill with the riftfarers now. The group is essentially a minority group, but because of how populations work in the world and how diverse the Armadas naturally are, it doesn't really make much of a difference. So there are seasoned vets and all types of riftfarers, including those who certainly could have caused mischief and mayhem. We'll try working more with them because it is an interesting side that we haven't touched on.

~The Rifts~

We have a lot of interest in this, which is not surprising 👀 Of course this is something that won't be resolved until…probably around endgame, SO understandably it's a very slow, stretched out meta plot that we've been kind of eking out very, very slowly and having it on the backburner in favor of current storylines and general world lore expansion. However, there's still a LOT that can be done, like a lot a lot, with a lot of discoveries to be made and potential consequences and conflicts from those discoveries, so knowing who all is interested can help us fine tune it a bit to get things going so that characters can feel like there is some kind of progress and players feel more engaged with it. Just as a fair warning, it is possible for a lead to turn up empty, so whenever we do proper sign-ups for anything related to the Rifts we'll always ask if it's okay for someone to get a false lead. We will also make sure that while false leads may not work for the Rifts, it could still be useful for something else (unless a player wants to be mean and have a result be completely worthless).

Armada conflicts.

This has the potential to be fun, but because we're not a real faction game it's a little difficult to throw in conflict without throwing players into a loop they might not be prepared for. We also do have the conundrum of independent "factions" that most certainly would exist, and we know a number of characters would gladly remove their affiliation if they could to be just that. Unfortunately, game mechanics kind of ruin that, ha ha ha. There is of course the option that a character could call themselves independent, but for the mysterious reason that makes them tied to an Armada to begin with, they are still part of an Armada in name. We'll continue to puzzle it out because the two Armadas are rivals and frenemies so scuffles are constant and expected, but we'd love to hear any ideas or ways we could feature this somehow. Might not even have to be a big event like the last time we had the brands.

Treasure maps.

There was a treasure map that was featured on the MANTA Board that led to some interesting results, so there's a potential "Part 2" for that. That said, we could have other treasure maps featured, or even player submitted treasure maps that could help facilitate island and artifact discoveries. Again, players are welcome to come up with their own ideas and can just pass it through us for general approval!

Big Bad Leviathans.

We've had a lot of friendly ones, but not a lot of dangerous/threatening ones except for Krahs. More opportunities in general for our strong hero types to get some action while also uncovering lore is something we could do. If not a proper event, but perhaps as a "Special Quest" type thing that can allow more individual action and engagement could be possible! Players are also free to submit their own ideas for Leviathans as well!

The Cults.

We have a few interested in the cults, and they have been a really interesting and fun way to bring in some of the more twisted and darker elements of the world. We'll see how we can fit them in, but we love the ideas brought forth so far!

I'm only touching on some of the ideas that were brought up, so I encourage folks to read up on the individual comments, too! We also weren't sure if some were personal storyline ideas or not, so if I missed one, I apologize! Just more reasons for people to check out those comments because there were a lot of cool ideas! And again, if players want to come up with their own plots based on these ideas, please do so!! The world is our oyster and we'll try to make things work. The Plot Submission post is always open.

AC SUBMISSIONS

[seawarden]

AC SUBMISSIONS

Disclaimer: AC submissions are not mandatory! They are completely optional! However because of how we use them they can be very important, so this section is to explain and hopefully give a thorough clarification of what we're looking for.

A lot of times we just use them as a "tally" to see if there was enough participation to give a certain result, and we didn't record every single instance because it felt a bit awkward to individually list characters when in general others would have also participated even if a player might not have directly mentioned it. The lack of recording some submissions, however, may have stifled future efforts, so we hope to fix that!

Ultimately, our hope from the extra notes is to both gauge player interest and to get a sense of what is going on in the game, especially as we can't keep up with everyone on our own. We can't always put everything on the notes, but going forward, if a player has a character do something unique that they hope might have influenced or affected the event in some way that might not be so obvious to us, write up a detailed blurb with a direct request to include it in the notes. This is also true for a character's personal achievement or something that a player may want other players to know, such as investigations into side plots, warnings of future plots, other discoveries, etc.

Basically try thinking, "What would be neat or useful for players to read about?" For things outside of requested event related submissions, simple "My character found an unusual apple" will likely not make the list, but "My character found an unusual apple that unbeknownst to them came from a cursed forest that could use further exploration and will have some strange effect on them later" is more what we'd like to see. We still have discretion of what to add, but hopefully this helps give a better idea.

If you're still not sure, we have some guidelines below, which we'll adjust to add to the current information for the Extra Fields section in the AC post (under a details cut for sake of space) as well as in the AC section in the Game Info.

Proposed Guidelines:

• What it's for and how we use it for the Mod Notes: How we use the submissions vary greatly. When we ask for specific things from players, sometimes we use that information as a way to determine whether an event is successful (tallying up how many people participated in a fight/quest/storyline), sometimes we use it to gauge interest in a certain questline, and other times, it's to know how or whether we should carry on a certain storyline. We would like people to be aware and keep in mind that not everything submitted will end up in the Captain's Logs, but we do read all of them and take them into account.
  
  
• Summarizing and what we are looking for: We ask that players give a detailed summary on what happened in the thread, especially if there are details that would be helpful to us in determining certain outcomes, or things that the mod team should be aware of, and we will use those details to our discretion. We know that players feel wary about writing conclusions for threads that are ongoing, but if it's something you think is important or would like to feel part of influencing outcomes, then we encourage players to reach out to each other and discuss the general idea or outcome of the thread! Multiple outcomes for quests or prompts is also possible, so don't worry about submitting a "conclusion" for these scenarios. If there is something you'd like to have referenced in the Captain's Logs, write up a detailed blurb with a direct request to include it in the notes so that we can mostly copy and paste it directly along with any other notes we need to add.
  
  
• Other notes: While we do ask for specifics every month, it is also helpful to know what else characters are up to around the world, especially if characters are interested in or are looking into certain lore related items. Find something interesting in a book? Come across a new island? Hear rumours about another leviathan? We want to hear it! Again, while some things might not make it onto the Captain's Log, especially if they are more personal to the character, we want to know where the characters are most interested in going! We might use it, refer to it, or be inspired by in future MANTA Board quests and events. Like mentioned earlier, if you do want it referenced in the Captain's Logs, you can make an explicit request along with a detailed blurb.
  
  
• Examples: Ultimately it is still up to our discretion, so if you're still not sure, we are providing links to some examples that might help give players a better idea of what we're looking for:
  • ongoing content
    
  • Event submissions: 1, 2, 3 but more thorough
    
  • Cool discovery that might not be directly listed on the notes, but we can save and feature in the future content or upcoming bestiary; another discovery example
    
  • Establishing a new thing

Note: we pulled some samples from previous AC submissions from players, but if those featured are uncomfortable with it just let us know and we'll switch them out!

Hopefully these guidelines will help, especially with the examples, so we ask that you bear this all in mind as it really helps us to drive all of these stories forward!

Extra Reward Points. A small note to stick in here, but for Rewards we had the suggestion of allowing players to bank any extra points used in submission. For example, if a player needed 8 points but only had a Special Quest thread worth 12 points available. The extra 4 points could be banked to be used in a future submission. The same can work if a player accidentally submits an extra thread they didn't need to use. We think this is reasonable, we just need players to remember they have those banked points after review and approval, as we do not track people's points totals at the end of the day!