Scarburg Meadhall Discussion Thread

[Nogrod]

Hi there good people.

I'm very sorry I haven't checked on the 'Downs for ages.

The real life hasn't been too good to me (all my personal health problems after the operation & the situation with my mom & her later life's partner) - or at times it has been too good (the Barrow-Downs moot in Finland) or just plain busy (new year at school with all the stuff from the end of last semester undone etc.). And like I think you all know, the working-field is ever more competitive, every day more so (where will this all lead to, to Chinese working hours?)

But I have not totally forgotten this one. I have just been afraid to check in to learn what I would be supposed to do while the RL has cast it's obstacles in front of me.

But if and when you can still go on (I see a lot of discussion of late), please do so, and if lmp wishes to get the hosting back to him - please let's arrange it thus if it helps things go forwards. I feel a wretched host right now.

I'm going to be still quite busy with the RL at least for a week or two from now so anything required of Athanar would have to wait - unless someone PM'd me a shortcut to what is going on and where he should react to in a short way; so that I could just react to make things go forwards. To that I think I could steal the time for.


If there is anything to say on my behalf for my inattentiviness, it's probably only that I have not had time to take part in any other threads either (not even ww - if there has been any of late) - and even on Facebook I have probably more action in others tagging photos of me than me really saying anything...

But I'll be back. Hopefully sooner than later.

[Firefoot]

Thanks for the update, Nogrod. I hope things work themselves out for you.

[littlemanpoet]

Nogrod, you and yours have my sympathy and prayers.

Are you resolved in regard to modding? I certainly appreciate your kind regard in offering it to me, but I hope this is not brought on only by feeling. You're in a tough spot right now. so please let us know if you think this would be truly best for the rpg. I'd appreciate it if others would speak before any decisions are made. Something like this ought to be a group decision, I think.

Firefoot, that was too funny!

[Durelin]

I've been missing writing for this but I've found it hard to do so for a while. Mostly it's just been life, but also there seems to be a disconnect between those 'native' to this thread and those not. And I don't mean that offensively; it's only natural anyway. And it hasn't been helped of course by the fact that Nogrod has been busy, and really there's not been much action from any of the characters surrounding Athanar besides Legate's Hilderinc.

Anyway, still my own fault for not posting. I would like the storyline to continue from both sides of this new Eorl thing. Though sometimes I feel like there might be too many characters and players involved to keep up with haha...(that is, when everyone's posting)

As for Nogrod being unable to post -- from an OOC point of view it doesn't really matter who's 'mod' to me! But what do you think we should do with Athanar? Should someone else play him for the time being? But then we also have Lommy and Mnemo pretty much missing? (I mean, I have been pretty much gone myself, as well, so I am definitely not complaining just wondering)

I'm not sure what direction the thread should head in I guess is what I'm saying. We've switched back in activity to having far more characters active from the 'native Scarburg/Eorling Mead Hall' characters than 'new Eorl' characters. Obviously not a bad thing, but maybe should dictate how the thread moves forward.

I'm really in no position to make any suggestions or anything, but I just wanted to post my observations.

/rambling

[Firefoot]

I think you hit on a lot of good points, Durelin.

I also think that it can be really easy for people to look around at the characters who are actively posting and say, "Well, I don't see why my character would interact with any of the available characters" and then not post (I'm guilty of this too). And it can happen for a variety of reasons: the character as created is just kind of a loner, or there's no one else available in the character's age group, or all the writers of the character's previous compadres have gone AWOL.

Rather than not posting at that point, I think what needs to happen is that we all make a greater effort to be aware of what other characters aren't busy, and make them interact for some reason. Like what we did with building the sheep pen.

As for writers who have gone missing a bit (Mnemo and Lommy were mentioned) - Mnemo has at least been around the Downs, and Lommy, I would imagine, is somewhere in the same boat as Nogrod... Can we bring people back in?

As for leadership in the hall, I'd agree with Elempi. Everyone goes through tough spots in RL and I don't think anyone on the Downs would expect you to prioritize us over that. If you want to come back, I'm perfectly happy to wait for you.

[Folwren]

I have enjoyed Nogrod's mod-ship of the game, and I think that it wouldn't be the same if someone other than Nogrod took Athanar's character. So I, too, kind of feel we shouldn't remove him as mod and eorl-player. I think that if there are strong characters and players who are consistent (Elempi, Firefoot, Legate, and I are pretty consistent) it's not a terrible thing if Nogrod isn't ALWAYS about.

I wish we could find a way, though, that would make the new-er players who were integrated with the mod-change feel more comfortable and at home. It is really interesting to me how the occurrences in the story-line are mirrored somewhat here in RL.

Possibly we could take Durelin's suggestion and have someone temporarily take Athanar's character? Just so he can have a presence in the hall, and so forth? I feel confident that in the given scenario, with the formal feast and all, his actions will be straight forward and predictable. (Haha...that's funny..."predictable"...I can never predict Athanar.) I guess so long as no one else does anything out of the ordinary, he'll be predictable.

No other thoughts to offer right now.

-- Foley

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Durelin

I've been missing writing for this but I've found it hard to do so for a while. Mostly it's just been life, but also there seems to be a disconnect between those 'native' to this thread and those not. And I don't mean that offensively; it's only natural anyway. And it hasn't been helped of course by the fact that Nogrod has been busy, and really there's not been much action from any of the characters surrounding Athanar besides Legate's Hilderinc.

Anyway, still my own fault for not posting. I would like the storyline to continue from both sides of this new Eorl thing. Though sometimes I feel like there might be too many characters and players involved to keep up with haha...(that is, when everyone's posting)

As for Nogrod being unable to post -- from an OOC point of view it doesn't really matter who's 'mod' to me! But what do you think we should do with Athanar? Should someone else play him for the time being? But then we also have Lommy and Mnemo pretty much missing? (I mean, I have been pretty much gone myself, as well, so I am definitely not complaining just wondering)

I'm not sure what direction the thread should head in I guess is what I'm saying. We've switched back in activity to having far more characters active from the 'native Scarburg/Eorling Mead Hall' characters than 'new Eorl' characters. Obviously not a bad thing, but maybe should dictate how the thread moves forward.

I'm really in no position to make any suggestions or anything, but I just wanted to post my observations.

/rambling

I agree with Dury's points raised earlier, and while I think that it's a pity that e.g. Nogrod is not posting, I would say that it is not such a big deal. I mean, this has been just some time - barely, say, a couple of months. Generally speaking, RL-busy times (or other reasons) happen, and actually rather many people of those now active have been away for a long time before. So I would not really be that concerned about that - the game can keep moving on and focus on other stuff. Sure, Athanar is a rather central character now, but as some have pointed out, it can be amended.

Indeed I have to confess that maybe I could have been a bit more active, though probably all of us could, but after all, we are here to have fun and it's not "obligatory" to post in the end (and let's face it, we are all guilty of the crime). I agree with Firefoot that the good "medicine" is to make characters involved in some get-together general tasks, like the sheep pen thing was. It is easier for the "old" characters to have separate conversations with each other, since they have old "relationship issues" and stuff, but I think another good thing to do would be possibly to somehow make the "new" characters somehow involved in that... I think the "old" characters' players could contribute here as well, though the activity from the "new" characters would be more naturally put-in (let's say a character overhearing a conversation, leading to them talking to one of the sides later on... actually, now as I am writing this, a few "evil plans" have formed in my head... let's see, I'll think about this.... ). Anyway, I think if the "old" characters' discussions are being made a bit more "public", and the "new" characters get a bit more, hmm, involved, it might do the trick (I thought I could actually possibly take some of the NPC soldiers of Athanar's and make them a bit more of semi-characters of mine, as I operate them most often anyway, and they are rather more talkative than Hilderinc and thus I could use them at least as "catalysers" - I am thinking e.g. Áforglaed).

Anyway, as for the "lack of players": I don't know about e.g. Mnemo, but at least when it comes to Lommy, I know that she has had a really busy RL time now (after the summer 'Downer-moot during which she also didn't have time to post, as neither of us who participated did), and she simply had decided not to get involved on the 'Downs since it would be unmanageably time-consuming; however, I believe (and that's what she actually has told me) that she should have more time on her hands from now on, and she said that maybe in the horizont of two weeks, or a couple of weeks anyway, she might return here and catch up with Scarburg. And so, if we get Wulfric and Wilheard on the scene... with the matter of Eodwine back... I think we won't be bored. More like, Béma save us.

Originally Posted by Folwren

I have enjoyed Nogrod's mod-ship of the game, and I think that it wouldn't be the same if someone other than Nogrod took Athanar's character. So I, too, kind of feel we shouldn't remove him as mod and eorl-player. I think that if there are strong characters and players who are consistent (Elempi, Firefoot, Legate, and I are pretty consistent) it's not a terrible thing if Nogrod isn't ALWAYS about.

I wish we could find a way, though, that would make the new-er players who were integrated with the mod-change feel more comfortable and at home. It is really interesting to me how the occurrences in the story-line are mirrored somewhat here in RL.

Possibly we could take Durelin's suggestion and have someone temporarily take Athanar's character? Just so he can have a presence in the hall, and so forth? I feel confident that in the given scenario, with the formal feast and all, his actions will be straight forward and predictable. (Haha...that's funny..."predictable"...I can never predict Athanar.) I guess so long as no one else does anything out of the ordinary, he'll be predictable.

Depending how badly we need Athanar, of course. I mean, the inner-relationship dramas can work without him, of course. Saeryn's concerns might need Athanar, but that is a kind of thing which would probably really need Nogrod. Perhaps then, in an inventive way, we (or the players whose characters it concerns, anyway) could come up with some pressing issue (I don't necessarily mean war coming to Scarburg, it can be something related to the one or two characters in question) that would sort of push the thing into the background until Nog returns. If we have the need for an evening meal where Eodwine is supposed to be "officially welcome back/introduced to the Hall", it can be a short speech which, in the worst case, can be just mentioned in narration (as in "...then, Athanar rose up and told them all that...") in order to avoid direct speech, if we want to avoid it; or Athanar sits in the background and says "we welcome Eodwine back... my good and trusted friend of old..." then he hesitates about mentioning personally the fact that Eodwine has sworn loyalty to him, but Eodwine himself could say it, maybe? - thus the ball would be on LMP's side (that is, if Eodwine still feels the same even after his talk to Saeryn). For example. Or something like that. And then we can see.

Random remark to something that's been sort of mentioned by some above as well: I don't know how it seems to others, but *I*, for one, don't feel myself being any less interested in the thread because I am not an "original" player. From the point I actually entered the game, it started to be my game, and the only reason why e.g. I am not always around is that I had a lot more stuff on my hands in general. So let me echo Hilderinc and say that I don't think there are really any differences between "old" and "new" players in this aspect. I mean, aside from Foley, the "old" players haven't really been around consistently for a long time until Eodwine came back, either (Foley is basically the only one "fully consistent all-time poster" I know of). So that's just to say, I don't think the "problem" is really in that some people would be less interested or feeling less involved in the story as a whole. (And like I said, in fact I think there is no problem at all. It just sort of coincided that many people from the "new squad" have been busy.)

Whoops... Sorry for the novels.