Poll Moving Kalispell Harvest Festival Dance

[Stormwolfe]

@Admin   @Members   @Moderators   @Players   @Sr. Moderator

There has been some discussion regarding the time-roll and moving the Harvest Festival dance. We would change its scenario as well.

 

Please vote in the poll and feel free to discuss your choice and other options in this thread. Do not worry about current active threads. We will give you plenty of time to complete them or we will move them to a flashbacks forum where you can keep working on them. Either way, there will be announcements and plenty of time allowed. We won't simply shut down the current threads on you.

Edited July 2 by Stormwolfe (see edit history)

[Flip]

With  the April 1st are we plotting a four month jump? Either way?

 

 

[Wayfarer]

It was always planned that we would jump thru winter because especially in northern climes like Montana, the winters tended to shut down most movement. Nowadays with modern snow plows we can keep highways clear during blizzards, back then heavy snowfall would block roads for the duration of winter.

 

So, yep Flip, we are going to be doing a time jump   regardless whether we do a New Years Dance or April Fool's Day dance. I certainly hope we are not going to do both dances.

[Flip]

I figured as much, either way, my next question would be, will we finish out the year to give the new characters time to get "settled" in town, or just jump and let folks fill in with flashbacks?

 

CONGRATS on your appointment!!

[Jack]

I'm a little confused how we can do a New Years dance but time jump to spring.

Either way I'd really like Jay to be able to settle in Kalispell and meet so e people before he might have to run from the law come spring or sth. (Who knows....he might not have to do that at all. )

[Wayfarer]

Thanks, despite what it says I am not a Senior Moderator, I'm the Junior Moderator (you know the errand boy who gets the office coffees, etc). I even promised Julie I would not grab her parking spot in the Admin lot!

 

Once we start the new better weather part of 1876, nothing says a writer or writers can't make back stories, post in Feb. or March if you want.....the game is still being played in fluid time.

[Wayfarer]

I get what you're saying, Jack. I personally am not for a New Year's dance - for weather reasons and also timing complexities game wise but if it happens, all I can say is the game works on a fluid time scale. As long as you don't have one of your charries in two different places at the SAME time, it's allowed.

 

It works, I've been in games for years that uses this fluid time scale, it's easy enough when you get used to it.

[Javia]

It's really just a matter of taste, but I for one am seriously excited about a leap forward to 1st April 1876! 

 

Of course, it will be incumbent on newer players like JackLex and myself to work out who our characters would be likely to know or not know by that time, and to be sensitive to the integrity of other player's characters (so expect a slew of messages from me saying 'would it be all right if  Arabella already knows X and they did Y and Z together' etc.)

[Bongo]

I think there is an issue with jumping for new characters, because, sure, you can figure out who you may have met and might know by April, but it's hard to pretend first impressions, and honestly, I enjoy writing out first meetings.  And yes, those can be done in flashbacks, but that first meeting can influence how the relationship goes, and if it isn't played out yet, then it makes 'current' timeline threads hard to play.

 

I HATE, despise, can't stand time jumps.  I just HATE them.  HATE, did I say I HATE them?  And here we are looking at 4 months, not just a couple weeks.  And I REALLY, REALLY HATE when I am new to a game and haven't settled in at all, my character is new to an area and the people, and then I'm supposed to just pretend they know everyone.  if I wanted them to be an established resident, I would have made them that way in the first place, but again, I often tend to make my characters new to an area so I as the writer can learn about the other characters and the town, and what is going on, so I don't have to be familiar with all that.

 

That said, if there is a time jump that really pisses me off, I just ignore the jump in that I just play my character as being new, even though technically they have been there for months. 

 

And I really don't think people went into hibernation during the Winter.  No, they weren't as active, but they still came to town, places still had to function...and there are fun things to do, ice skating, sledding, sleigh rides, avalanches...hey, do the falls freeze and old timey 'Dumbasses' can try climbing...

 

Just my $0.2

 

 

Edited July 2 by Bongo (see edit history)

[Javia]

So Bongo, just to be clear, do like like time jumps or not?

 

PS Technical note - I was reading about these freak warm Chinook winds that they have in Montana, would that explain a thaw at the end of December that would allow us folks in outlying areas to get to the New Year dance?

 

PPS Watching this poll is like the watching the voting at the end of the Eurovision Song Contest!

Edited July 2 by Javia (see edit history)

[Wayfarer]

Feel free then to ignore the time jump for your chars and play it out like folks are just meeting for the first time if that's what you wish. I don't see it as a huge issue.

 

As for effects of winter on those folks, I know even now - having taught in a rural school - how bad it could get with major snowstorms. Even with our huge modern plows and concrete/paved highways, things can get shut down for a few days. So what was it like for those people who had no snow plows when they get huge snowfalls driven by wind which make awesome drifting conditions? How did you get a wagon to town from a farm? Don't say you walked. Even back in my teaching days, we worried about kids getting frostbite waiting for a bus some brutal days and would call off school. Wait for the snow to melt? Last year we got dumped on with a big snowstorm on top of maybe a four inch snow already on the lawns. That stuff did not melt fully until late March/early April. The lawns were piled as we stayed on the sidewalks - cleared most by snowblowers.

 

 

[Wayfarer]

One other personal experience RPG wise, I remember some years back in another western rpg I was in, they decided to have a big Christmas town wide thread - this was during real time summer. It was a flop, some early posts but most lost interest. People were not in a Christmasy mood I think.

 

But for those that want it, make back posts of skating, Christmas tree decorating, sing carols, whatever you want. Knock yourself out.

[Flip]

Good tips, however there needs not be either a Christmas or a New Years dance. Christmas might just be those things you mentioned, or perhaps a thread of peoples/couples, friends, what have you, getting together. Or a big deal for the displaced children.

 

I do agree with Bongo on a lot of her points as there were things that were planned that can be flashbacked whenever the jump is made. I do get the time being fluid and I do get how dead some of the months would be for even the most seasoned RPers.

 

So we just have a matter of choice as to when we're "thrust" into spring.

[JulieS]

Stormwolfe is planning a making a Flashback forum of some sort so people can post backstories so that will help out a little.  Maybe four months is a big jump in time but since I only know what winters are like in that part of the world from what I read or people say here, I can't add much to the discussion.  Heck, the only time I ever saw snow was 37 years ago when I went on a school camp to the Snowy Mountains and I remember was that it was cold, wet and hard to walk around in.

 

Basically, I am pretty easy with whatever is decided but then again most of characters are established and I can easily allude to things they did during the time break.

[Stormwolfe]

1. Time Roll

• This has been discussed in chat more than once. From the moment we converted to a fluid time style of writing, we said that when we completed all December threads/posts, we would move 3 or 4 months forward to spring. 

2. The Dance

• I only put the dance in the poll to try and save the Harvest Festival dance as some of us had some thread plans in it. However, it is not mandatory that we do a dance. Those of us that want to can choose to do a town or church social event at any time.

3. Flashbacks / Backstories

• Once all threads are finished and marked complete in the Whitefish forum, I will move them to the archives. After that, I will convert the Whitefish forum to Flashbacks where we can all write backstories or have threads moved to this forum if there are incomplete ones when it is time for us to move to another time period. 

4. Final Admin Decision

1. I would like for everyone to complete their December threads as soon as they can without rushing. Let me know with a note in the #help-me chat channel so I can lock them and move them.
2. We will put the dance event on hold for awhile. Once we are all sorted after moving forward, we can discuss doing a town social or something.
3. Our time roll will be to March - May instead of April - June. This lets me keep to my plans of doing our IC time segments as close to seasonal as possible since Spring begins in mid-March. There will be some seasonal overlap since we will not start new time-segments on the equinoxes or solstices.
4. Those that want to write backstories of any kind will be able to put those in the Flashbacks forum. You'll just need to make sure you add the actual month/year in the post header so everyone that reads the thread will know when it was set.