I imagine most players / lurkers will have registered this by now, but I've set up a community for Time Under Chaos (at timeunderchaos). People are very welcome to join.

We're starting off with polls to choose casting for the Elders in the game, based on the excellent polls and discussions that immlass ran a few weeks back.

And now the Game That Should Not Be Mentioned ... CAN Be Mentioned!!!!

It will be called Time Under Chaos.

And here's the premise ...

Amber won the battle - and lost the war. The Battle of Patternfall was won - and then the storm passed over, and in its wake ...

The Pattern was gone. Order should have been gone from the Universe with it, and yet ...

Rumour says that Corwin's Pattern survived - a new Order. But its whereabouts are lost; no-one except Corwin knew where it was inscribed - and Corwin is lost.

A hundred years have passed. A hundred years of Chaosian occupation of Amber. The Chaosians have installed their own puppet-King on the throne of Amber - Merlin, who is still a heedless, irresponsible youth, more interested in getting drunk with his cronies and outraging the citizens of Amber with his wild exploits than in ruling; power resides in the hands of his elder half-brother Mandor, and those of Amber who have thrown in their lot with the former enemy.

But there are those who oppose the status quo - those who would foment rebellion. The penalties are hideous if they are caught, but still some dream of a time when Amber will be free of the alien domination.

So where do you stand?

Are you one of those Amberites who are working with the Chaosians, resigned to doing the best for your people by collaborating with the enemy? Or perhaps you have an eye to the main chance, and have discovered that loyal service to Chaos brings pleasures of its own? Perhaps you are a Chaosian,stationed in Amber (which you might see as your penance, or a pleasure). Perhaps you are one of the King's young and heedless friends. Or perhaps you are - covertly or openly - a member of the Resistance; fighting in Arden with Julian or, more mysteriously, with Caine.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For more information, see:

Website: http://www.galacticrenaissance.com/time_under/
Wiki: http://www.gamera.cc/wiki/index.php?n=TimeUnderChaos.HomePage

As ever, we'll welcome lurkers!

And adore the icon - it's the game logo, designed by bushi7

arrefmak was asking what's your thing? when it comes to roleplaying characters.

I don't think I have a 'thing' in the sense off a need to play a particular role or be motivated in a certain way.

I do have certain types that I love to play.

1) The kind-hearted ditzy young females who spreads chaos and confusion whereever she goes - Emilia in a game that is no more, and Phoebe in Ill Met in Amber.

2) The witty, urbane, polished male - sometimes an alpha male (Delan Anderon in GalRen and Nickolai Odelenski in a game that is no more), sometimes standing apart from the system as a malcontent (Lucas de St Cyr in House of Cards).

3) The determined woman of action - as good with a gun as she is with the smartass remarks and the wisecracking (Kat Levin in Gal Ren, Patricia)

4) The unusual female villainness - whether the monstrous Maub in aryb, or the sweet-as-can-be Nira Lagoran (Gal Ren) or Celia Hardy (Winter Chills)

5) The obsessed artist (of many kinds) such as the poet Adolphus Finchley ( a Regency game) or Gwalachmai the Welsh dragon (Castle Falkenstein), with his fascination with leather goods to add to his collection; "It has little compartments, look you."

I'd be interested if anyone can see any link between them!

This isn't a post written with any particular irritation or unhappiness, and it's certainly not aimed at any individual or indivduals. It's more a general thought about where I need to focus my energies.

I have a limited amount of time available to post.

I can do game posts.

I can do GM or Mod posts.

I tend to do the latter first - because those tend to represent Problems rather than Fun.

Sometimes they are big problems and will sap my time and energy. Those are bad days.

Sometimes they are small problems, or not even problems but little bits of admin stuff, that need, in effect, for me to say, "Yes, yes, noted." or "Yes, you're subbed now." or "Yes, I've changed your email address." That's fine - all part of the routine.

But it cuts down on my game posting time.

Today has been a day filled with those sort of head nod posts. Some of them have been fun stuff, even. A good friend has had a Very Important Birthday and - as her computer is a rather old Linux machine and she can't really see Flash, I made her an Oxford ecard of her very own that she could see. Something nice to do.

But it does eat up my game posting time.

How to ration things?

Should I allocate a certain amount of time for game posting and a certain amount for Admin? Ot would people feel their needs are being ignored? Should I carry on the way I'm doing? I mean, most of the posts are great, amusing, or express real need. Should I be firmer with people about what I will or will not answer, or have time to answer?

This is one for House of Cards people, really - although others can join in too.

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Oh lud, I'm getting sentimental.

But remember the HUGE discussions we used to have on LJ?

We are coming to the end of Enclaves ...

And I'm awfully sad.

It's been running four years now. I took a break when Dad had his final illness, and gave myself time before it started again, but it picked up energy again with amazing speed.

We still have half the original players: hmace, veazeyae, Tomus and Francesca. We've acquired some great new players over the years: wraith808, my oldest Internet friend and a staunch ally (the games now run on his servers, and he's made all my lovely game wikis), arden_ranger and dirkcjelli. Some players left, others joined later and went too. The story has grown and changed in ways I wasn't expecting, and in other ways had built towards an end that was present in its beginning.

It was the first game I GM'ed all by myself, and it's taught me a few things - which I think have gone into making Winter Chills a stronger game, and which I think will also make the Game That Shall Not Yet Be Mentioned stronger too.

Some have to do with matching GM's needs and players' needs. Others involve timing - Winter Chills is showing me that zoning is a good way forward - that people can be zoned according to how much they want to post. And moved between zones as their schedules change.

One thing - if you let players play NPCs, you do it for a scene. You Do Not Let Players Become Attached the Their NPCs. It's one reason I didn't try to add more players - my own group were determined to play their NPCs to the hilt so, at times, I had double the charcters to post to. That won't happen again.

Above all ... I had the support of my players - not all of the all the time, but enough of a solid core to see me through difficult times. And that means a lot.

I just hope now that I can deliver an ending over the next few weeks that is worthy of you and of the game.

Anyone who wants a dragon in one of my games (like the new Game Which Shall Not Yet Be Mentioned) is going to have to have a Naomi Novick style dragon - with rigging.

Bonding, yes. Telepathy, no. Not with your dragon.

And, if you want a big one, a crew.

And if anyone wants to run a Novick dragon game - or is running one, I am so there.

Warning! This part contains an account of the GalRen game at TBR, the facts of which will be emerging within the game. In other words, this post contains spoilers - read it at your peril if you're a GalRen player!

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Be warned - this is a long one!

My first taste of GM-ing came this evening - but there was a whole day to get through first. Back at home, the crucial match between England and Portugal was being played in the World Cup. I'm not a huge football fan but I do take ... an interest.

It was harder getting up this morning. hmace's game had run a little late and at 7am I didn't feel like climbing out of bed, still less heading for the pool.

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Posted to the Online Writer's Workshop again - the opening of my very dark fairy tale - Marizon.

Which did not include these lines, which I rather like (and wrote today):

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I was wired enough to wake up very early. hmace merely groaned, so I trotted out for a swim. So not a Grey Panther hotel - 7am and I had the pool and the hot tub totally to myself. It was heaven.

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I've just bought the pdfs of Amber and Shadow Knight to help me prepare the rules for the new Amber game.

I think I'm getting excited.

GM: "What's Sky doing?"
Me (insouciantly): "She's downloading her iPod onto Ghostwheel."
GM (not missing a beat): "Got that, got that, that's sh!t, I'll have that."

Which is probably my Quote of the Con.

AmberConUK that is - I also have to write up TBR.

Yes, I'm back - having had a great time at ACUK to top my great time at TBR. Too tired to post tonight, but Con descriptions will follow. All I will say is that I think I've found a great way of resolving the Powers issue for my next game - a system of Partial Powers that I saw demonstrated in a very strong game. kadath - I'll probably be discussing this with you shortly, as a follow on from our chat at TBR. Any other potential players, I'll give you a sneak preview too if you're interested.

Just another one to leave you with ... Simeon, my prissy son-of-Bleys trumps his own louche son, Toby (their first in-game encounter):

< open_trump >"Your grandfather's dead. Sober up and get back here."< /close_trump >



And ... erm ... I thought my weekend was drama-packed.

Down to 69 emails now. Mostly GalRen.

A recent exchange between bushi7 and me that made me laugh - and made resolute non-gamer Greg laugh when I read it to him:

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I'm not going to run MaC this Christmas; I'm taking a break.

Enclaves may well be wrapping round about then (although, more probably, it will run into the New Year). But of course that will be succeeded by the new Amber game, for which plans are well advanced.

So why then am I looking at my new Game of Thrones rpg book and thinking ....

um.

New system, yes. Maybe number crunchy. But.

Sterner control. Say ... two posts a week.

um.

Nah. No-one would want to play.

Perhaps someone would co-GM. Or even set up a game I could play ...

A year ago today, I sent the first private posts for Enclaves.

What a lot has happened in the game since then!

We started with several old aryb players: Rob (who was in at the start of Enclaves but had a long hiatus and character swap in the middle); Allen, Tomus and Stuart, who were both later joiners of aryb, as was Brian (who joined shortly before I did).

Then there were Katie and Aron, who I knew from other games, and two totally new players - Heather and Francesca. Heather came with recommendations from people I knew; Francesca put in a brilliant audition.

Nine players - but only Brian and I knew he was a ringer, who would make a sensational exit early in the game (he's a brilliant player and writer, and came in to help me ensure things got off to a strong start - on condition I promised to kill him off early).

A lot has happened in that time ...

Some players have left - Brian (obviously), Stuart (by mutual agreement, as he was finding problems with the style of the game), and Aron (hopefully just on a long hiatus). New players have come - Theresa, who is playing a brilliant Nora, and Alan, who is taking a little longer to shake down at the moment.

Eight players seems to be a good number. I might take on one or perhaps two more, if I meet the right players. I have a couple in mind ...

The players I have are brilliant. They are boundlessly enthusiastic. I expected the posting level to drop off after the first couple of months - in fact it has continued at over a thousand posts a month until very recently. I'm quite pleased the level is a little lower now - it seems to me a good, sustainable one.

Their characterisations have been excellent. Characters have grown by their experiences, and changed - but in convincing ways. The naive bunch who found themselves prisoners in Karadon have become strong and powerful ... ready to tackle their problems that lie ahead. And from now on, I think I'm ALWAYS going to open games with a disaster - it gets everyone together that much sooner ...

The players have coped with an unusual environment - well, lots of them. They've been brilliant at coming in and supporting each other, creating a wealth of NPCs themselves to support mine. I always wanted to give them a real hand in creating the game, and I think that has succeeded. It very much feels like a group work to me.

And they haven't uncovered all the secrets yet.

Settings ....

Bogatina, the industrial Shadow. The scene on the bus with the guards and the missing identity papers. It's one thing to be able to smite people - it's another thing to do it when everyone's being helpful ... just doing an officious job ...

The Sidhe University - and the lecture on the fallacies of Amber. Given by Merlin - although no-one knew his identity then.

The Shadow of the Corn - very creepy and weird.

The Castle of the Silver Rose - the Amber theme park. And Rob''s brilliant description - with the line to be treasured for all time - "Whatever the Castle of the Silver Rose was, it was certainly family-friendly."

Gramerye. The mysterious Arthurian Shadow with the Sansgraele. Allen's wonderful Erlenstar. Jennever's knack of finding Shadows where she's worshipped as a goddess.

It really has been a fantastic year.