Echoes in the Mists - CoD 2e MU

[Goldfish]

From the ashes of Reno, a phoenix rises...
Echoes in the Mist!
portland.echoes.wiki:2019
http://portland.echoes.wiki/Main_Page

=============================== Announcements ================================
Message: 1/19                      Posted        Author
Live Open! - March 1st             Thu Feb 21    Moonshrimp
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, everybody.

At exactly 8pm CST on March 1st, we will be leaving soft RP and going live.

This means a few things:

* XP spends will be open, but for a time all spends must go through Staff via a +request.
* XP may be gained through means other than your weekly allowance. Which means you may gain beats through aspirations, PrPs, breaking points, 
and all those funky fun things.
* Game plots will kick off in short order, so you'll be wanting to watch +events for happyfuntimes.
* ICA will really and for true mean ICC.
* You will have until 3/14/19 to make any minor respec changes to your sheet that reflects stuff that didn't work for you during soft open.

Please be patient as we here on staff side wrangle with what will likely be a huge influx of jobs. It may take more time than normal to see a response.

The wiki will still be a work-in-progress, but most major information should be there and we're hoping to have character pages ready for you. 
In addition, some more specialized things coming down the pike may not be fully in place yet.

We're super excited, hope you are too, and thank you for playing here at Echoes in the Mists!
==============================================================================

[Goldfish]

Added opening announcement!

[Goldfish]

We are open!
http://portland.echoes.wiki/Main_Page

The wikl, of today 3/2/2019, is not yet ready for account creation and character pages are still in the works but all the theme and setting information is there.

[Derp]

An addendum to this:

The wiki has been open to players for a minute now, we just maybe forgot to make an update about that. <.<

[Ganymede]

Another addendum:

The players here are really, really awesome.

[Ganymede]

Further addendum:

Staff in the Vampire Sphere are trying to pick activity up again. We could use some new blood, literally and figuratively. There are lots of positions to fill, and lots of good RPers wanting to get their politics and blood-drinking on.

As a personal pitch, we could really use some dedicated, wicked Sanctified and Ventrue. For shizzle. Non-personally, we could use some more Unconquered and Dragons, two Covenants for which I never thought I'd see a paucity in numbers.

I am not staff.

[Derp]

@Ganymede

Can confirm. Need all those things.

Also can confirm lawbot is not staff. Which is probably lucky for you all, or the streets would run red(der).

[Ganymede]

@Derp said in Echoes in the Mists - CoD 2e MU:

Also can confirm lawbot is not staff. Which is probably lucky for you all, or the streets would run red(der).

Staff? Pff. I was doing bad things all on my own, thank you very much.

[Derp]

@Ganymede

Is troo.

[Derp]

Just figured that I'd drop in here and post an update.

A few of you probably know already, but in the next few weeks, we'll be opening up the Mage sphere for play.

The code is mostly in. It's waiting on me to do a bit more work on the wiki, and get the Signs of Sorcery stuff in (the parts that I'm keeping in, anyway -- not all of it is gonna make the cut, I don't think).

There are a ton of players already getting sheets ready. We've opened up the chargen a bit early so that people can start to tinker.

Please DO read the wiki, especially the application requirements, because these are a bit stricter than the others spheres. I'm being very careful about how this all gets rolled out; I've seen how Mage spheres fail in the past, with players not knowing what they're doing or not caring about the theme that magic should be used judiciously, just rolling over everything in their path.

Which is why some reasons for caution are now baked into the mechanics and theme, moreso than even paradox.

Hope to see some new faces soon! I'll keep you updated on the official open date.

[Ganymede]

@Derp

Also want to put in that I've returned to the game.

Still looking for potential packmates for my werewolf. My new vampire is substantially more sociable. And mages, whee!

But, yeah, if you're looking to put a toe back into the water, now's a good time.

[Jennkryst]

@Ganymede Considering it, maybe? But am lazy. Merp.

[Alamias]

@Ganymede I'll try and see if I can't log on and get involved in some way tomorrow when I work from home.

[Derp]

Mage on Portland is officially open!

Upsides:

There are plenty of beginning Mysteries to go out and explore.
It's a new sphere, so everyone's just as clueless as everyone else!
The players are fantastic.

Downsides:

The wiki is kind of a hot mess right now. I've been doing my best to get information out there, but honestly, I have no idea how this beast works. Mage templates aren't completed, and I cannot tell you when the ETA on them will be. All of the information is conveniently (haha nervous look) on a single page, so you don't have to go hunting for it, though. Even if it's a bit crowded.

Legacies I have writeups for but I don't have them on the wiki because I still am not sure where the hell I am putting them, and haven't even vetted them all really.

Things are basically in a beta phase for the next few months to see if all this catches on fire or not.

If you're interested come check it out.

http://portland.echoes.wiki/Sphere:Mage

[Aria]

@Derp said in Echoes in the Mists - CoD 2e MU:

Mage on Portland is officially open!

Upsides:

There are plenty of beginning Mysteries to go out and explore.
It's a new sphere, so everyone's just as clueless as everyone else!
The players are fantastic.

Downsides:

The wiki is kind of a hot mess right now. I've been doing my best to get information out there, but honestly, I have no idea how this beast works. Mage templates aren't completed, and I cannot tell you when the ETA on them will be. All of the information is conveniently (haha nervous look) on a single page, so you don't have to go hunting for it, though. Even if it's a bit crowded.

Legacies I have writeups for but I don't have them on the wiki because I still am not sure where the hell I am putting them, and haven't even vetted them all really.

Things are basically in a beta phase for the next few months to see if all this catches on fire or not.

If you're interested come check it out.

http://portland.echoes.wiki/Sphere:Mage

How active is Mage right now? Are you getting an influx of apps?

[Rinel]

I really wanna try out mage, but I'm a bit worried that I'd get everything wrong. But if you are not drowning in apps, I'd put in something for a Mysterium Moros going Uncrowned King (there's so much more stuff you need to say to describe a mage. Yikes).

[Warma Sheen]

@Rinel said in Echoes in the Mists - CoD 2e MU:

I really wanna try out mage, but I'm a bit worried that I'd get everything wrong.

Probably. I mean, not everything, but there is a learning curve. But that's kind of the fun of it. To learn how things work. Its kind of like actually apprenticing your magic, but on a much faster track. My most fun experiences have been learning the game while in the game.

My favorite was a tabletop of a Demon: the Fallen. It was World of Darkness so we were familiar with the basics of the "world" but none of us had or read DtF. The ST was the only one who knew anything about it and he ran us through from mortal to our becomings based on on what he knew we tended to play, then we came up with our own backstories as we learned more about the game. Because amnesia was built into the game mechanics, it worked fantastically.

But mage can work the same way. When learning 2.0 I had plenty of great RP sessions trying to cast stuff with other mages, then chatting about the mechanics oocly of what I did wrong or could have done better and workshopping things on channel because of all the options. In my case, I had never played 1.0 so it was a whole new learning session when I tried to learn 1.0 after I had already been familiar with 2.0. That didn't particularly end well, but it was fun while it was happening. It was super fun (imho) to try to icly explain game mechanics as expressed through the view of a particular Path or Legacy or whatever.

Just use the learning opportunity as an RP opportunity and you'll love it. I used to avoid mage like the plague, but now it is one of my favorites.

[Derp]

Sorry for the slow responses, RL has been a beast.

As far as "influx" it depends on how you define it. We are open less than a week and already up to I think 12 PCs with more in the pipeline.

As far as it having a learning curve, yeah, we know lol. My support staffer (who I adore) and I have been working through kinks, too, and we're both seasoned Mage vets. Everyone is learning everything. No worries.

My main thing is -- Mage on Portland is different. It's much more dangerous to use magic, and you have to rely on mundane skills more. Every mage there is risking their life, or their soul, in pursuit of something that overrides their own need for self-preservation. The game is meant to be dark, and the mages here are meant to be desperate, obsessive individuals risking what is effectively the most hostile imaginable environment to find something they desperately need -- or to avoid being found bu something.

We'll see how it goes!

[Aria]

I think I'm going to give this place a go, and maybe drag a few friends.... once I get around to reading 2e and seeing how different the system is and if my concept would actually work! >.>

@Derp -- Can you give a rough idea of when people are most active? I only see a few on as I'm posting this and if I'm inviting some of my friends with weird schedules, would like to give them an FYI of when to look for people.

[Derp]

@Aria

To be completely honest, it's really hit or miss. It's hard to pin down when players are going to be both on and active. we have a relatively small playerbase compared to a lot of the previous WoD games, and getting people out RPing has been something of a battle since it opened.

That said, the way we have it structured, you don't have to wait on staff to run stuff to get xp for things. Staff plots aren't even necessarily better sources of xp. we have a pretty generous system of beat incentives that let people get to various places using a variety of paths.

I have an event schedule up for Mage, right now mostly consisting of introductory Order stuff and getting people some exposure to the main overarching Mysteries of Portland.

So if you've got friends, bring them. Try to coordinate. I cannot guarantee any specific time for RP. I really wish I could. I have no idea what's driving the passiveness right now, whether it's seasonal or burnout or what, but we've got new blood that are eager to get their story on, and a lot of mages with some pretty fantastic concepts. I'm hoping that we can get the sphere hopping once people get settled in.