Spellbind Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
spellbindmods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
spellgrinders2017-07-29 07:49 pm
spellbindmods) wrote in spellgrinders2017-07-29 07:49 pm
Entry tags:
[UPDATE POST - JULY 29TH]
OOC NOTES
▢ Finally! The IC date has been added to the Google calendar, which you can see starting in August. The older days will be added sometimes soon, but for now the dates are added and will be added a month at a time so you can keep track of what IC day it is! ▢ The most important OOC note is about a few concerns brought up about the recent ruling involving Fate/ canons. When asked about whether or not all Fate/ canons would be lumped into one category under the six cast cap. The initial decision was that since Fate/ canons do differ in some ways and exist on different timelines (at least some do, some are continuations and universes where new characters exist with old ones, like Fate/Grand Order), that they would all be considered separately. While it may be unfair to limit all Fate/ canons to just six slots, it's also unfair upon further reflection to say that individual Fate/ canons and timelines can all have six slots -- this creates a potential scenario where if even four different Fate/ iterations app in at cast maximum, that's 24 characters in a 120 character cap game. Logically, this defeats the purpose of having caps when the point of these caps was to initially limit problems like this from occurring! This also brought up the possibility of this problem occurring in the future, Fate/ aside - for canons conglomerates like MCU, should each superhero film franchise in the ensemble be allowed a six character cap? This is another situation in which a universal canon that still has iterations with different time periods and characters can get around the six character cast cap with little issue. Still, the issue exists that limiting large canon franchises with so many characters and many different possibilities and timelines can be unfair to those who want to play from different canons but can't because the cap on a canon is actually a cap on an entire franchise. The original ruling was made thinking about how fair it would be for people in this situation, but that still doesn't negate the fact that the fairness for potential and current applications should also be considered. At the end of this TL;DR are a few question for the game and others: do you believe that a heightened franchise cap should be implemented? If so, how do you feel about a limit of 8-10 characters per franchise? Also, do you feel as if this should apply to all franchises, like Tales of..., Persona or Fire Emblem? The point of this discussion is to get a feel for where everyone is at with this issue and who these stipulations should potentially extend to. There will be a separate thread for this discussion, so please respond here. This discussion is open to those already in game and those interested in applying! This will be considered quickly and limitations will be put in place for the upcoming app round, and this issue at large will be addressed again on the September 1st game poll. Finally, as head mod writing this all up, I do want to apologize to those who feel inconvenienced by the need to discuss this, whatever the outcome, and for the original decision that has led to this discussion. Hopefully we can come together and figure out what is best for the game at large, though of course no one can ever be 100% happy with limitations like these. Also anonymous comments will be screened just for the safety of player discussion! ▢ The TDM is right here and can still be used! Feel free to tag around existing characters or test out your own characters here. ▢ Finally, don't forget to get your AC in. AC is being tabulated with results being posted tonight. Remember: since all characters are new, AC is halved! If you have trouble putting your links on the spreadsheet, ask a friend or PM your threads to the mod account and they can be placed for you. Also, reminder: if you posted to the game's opening test drive, that can also count as your AC Bonus. |
IC EVENTS
▢ While the Palai are still revering the coven members, the fervor surrounding their arrival has simmered down a bit. The Palai will still offer them gifts and food, but being harassed in public will be downgraded to a sort of awe from a distance. ▢ Some characters have and are planning on exploring the island at the top of the ocean, and they may be bringing back information and items from this mysterious place. When this happens, and if they share it with the Palai, the fervor will come back a bit -- they're excited by the prospect of more items, and also impressed by the coven's ability to do what they couldn't. How they'll react to this on a larger scale will be discussed next week. ▢ Some Palai may have discussed the Uvi with coven members, but if they didn't before they most certainly will now. The Palai hide in their homes during the evening when the Palai come, and that is occurring rather soon -- on August 8th OOCly. Not only will the Palai ask that coven members gather supplies for themselves, but brave Palai will ask that coven members help them fill their own homes as a thanks for their hospitality. This includes many different outdoors activities, usually in their farming territory -- pulling vegetables, washing food, catching shrimps and fish. There's a lot of work to be done so that the Palai can stay indoors for 48 hours to make sure no one is hunted by the Uvi. ▢ Starting on August 1st, dead fish that have been decapitated will begin falling from the sky in regular intervals. Some of these will be fish the size of catfish or trout, while others are sharks and larger fish of prey. The Palai have no idea why this is occurring or who may be behind it, but it certainly has them spooked! |
IMPORTANT DATES
▢ Reserves are open now and apps open on August 1st. Remember that Spellbind is a game that has apps open for 5 days, not 7! ▢ EMP is today, so look around for potential castmates there. ▢ Keep track of the calendar here! |
FRANCHISE CAP DISCUSSION THREAD
no subject
More specifically, in cases like Fate/ (or MCU/comics in general) where while there are many different spinoffs in the canon, many characters (the Servants, for example) are technically the same across canons, the franchise cap should be applied across the board (8-10 sounds about reasonable in this case).
For franchises like the Tales canons (or an alternative might be the Persona canons, which fall under the same umbrella), though, while there may be some minor continuity between games, most of the games can be considered standalone. It seems counterintuitive to apply a franchise cap here when each game can count as its own separate canon. In this case, I think each game should have its own cast cap rather than a franchise cap across the board.
In other words, cast caps should go to standalone canons, including standalone canons that are technically part of the same franchise, while franchise caps should be applied to cases where spinoff canons in the franchise are all technically in a connected universe with clear continuity and common characters.
+1
I think ten is the upper limit of what I'd feel comfortable with in such a small game for a franchise cap, to keep things from being overrun by any one cast.
no subject
+1
+1
This is admittedly really messy with Fate/ given that some are related in ways that some can be totally fractured off of each other (and then there's the broader Type-Moon umbrella) but I think in the instance of Fate/ a larger franchise cap would be ideal, while for Tales, Persona, Final Fantasy etc, they could be organized based on continuity of characters, perhaps? EG ToX2/ToX sharing the same characters, while still potentially allowing ToS + ToP or ToB + ToZ, which share universes but are thousands of years apart, to be different entries?
Re: +1
It could make sense to add a field to apps for characters who might be affected by this sort of thing. "Do you plan to play this character in-continuity with any crossovers in which they appear? (Mark N/A if not applicable.) If so, please link to said game." Or something like that.
Maybe that's too complicated and those characters should just be limited to the material from their original canon, and then divvied up by shared worlds and timelines. The more I type, the more work my first suggestion sounds like it would be for the mods.
no subject
Either way, I believe the game only allows one version of a character at any given time, so if a Tales character were apped from one of the mobage counterparts, they wouldn't be able to be apped from their original game, and vice versa. In that case, it might make sense and be simpler to just count them as part of the cast cap for their original game since no other version can be in-game anyway.
Mobage-original characters for crossover mobages, though, are also a thing. In those cases I'd advocate considering them part of the cast cap for the mobage canon.
It definitely gets pretty complicated once you get into these, so ultimately it comes down to whatever is easiest to process for the mods.
+1
+1
+1
no subject
+1
+1
+1
+1
no subject
Also, as mentioned above I believe only one version of a character is allowed, so separating out movies and TV shows gets a bit confusing -- they're still part of the same universe and refer directly to each other, so... Hm. I'm inclined to say it's best to go the simple route and consider stuff like Agents of Shield and Daredevil part of the larger Marvel franchise (I keep talking about Marvel because I'm a DC noob :Da).
no subject
I have no pony in this race, though, it's me thinking and rambling while tired.
no subject
I think especially with the big comics-based verses, spreading it out by movies, then TV shows, and then you'd probably need to divide out the comics too in that model -- so you'd end up with a minimum of 18 character slots from either Marvel or DC verse. Also there's the cartoon spinoffs... So that's where my concern lies -- it's a similar conundrum to Fate/verse, in that there's shared worldbuilding and/or playing with the same character concepts (though Fate is more connected character-wise), and also that the franchise itself is big enough that dividing it in too granular a way could open the door to taking over the game. It might not necessarily! But it's sort of a thought that it's best to be consistent with the big, relatively interconnected franchises. Star Wars and Star Trek are other big ones.
no subject
And now with Star Wars there's the current EU and the older EU what would you EVEN DO WITH THESE THINGS!
In the end though it feels like a lot of this self-regulates based on not having massive numbers of app ins, and right now the tilt of the game seems less to western media and more toward eastern........ and Fate / is such a sprawling mess, it's much the same thing.
I say this while backing away from Fate / going "i understand like. two percent of you, you being of utter madness... keep being you"
no subject
The reasoning for bringing up other canons like Persona, Tales of..., etc. is that while they all exist within separate universes (minus somewhat non-canonical games like the Tales mobage and the Persona games where casts mix, for those examples), the concerns was that they still sort of belong to the same grouping -- so if five Tales of... games reached max cap, that's 30 players from one franchise in a 120 cap game, taking up 1/4 of the game.
It doesn't change the ruling, but it was just something that I personally thought should merit discussion since part of the concern of the Fate/ ruling was that allowing all continuities equal cap room could allow that specific franchise to take over the game, but this is true of other franchises as well, regardless of their universe or continuity issues. It's just a food for thought thing to consider where to draw the line exactly. This is all supposing right now, but it's best to talk about it now instead of when it may be a problem in the future.
That being said! Since the deadline on this ruling is approaching, for now the limitation will be on franchises with major canon continuity with a limit of 10 characters per franchise, but six characters can still be apped from one canon. So in the instance of Fate/, if 6 characters from Fate/Grand Order app (with this example including our Waver), no more characters can apply for Fate/GO, but there are still three other spots open for other Fate/ continuities.
Also, in case the issue does come up somewhere down the line, some things of course do have to exist on a case by case basis kind of deal. It's hard to think up example at the moment, but the point is that sometimes you don't know the example exists until it walks into you. Hopefully this ruling will square away things as best as possible, but there are always exceptions to rules, unusual cases, etc. If and when these issues do come up, though, players will be asked or consulted on how to handle the situation as much as possible.
Hopefully this makes sense and is what you mean! Thank you (and also everyone replying to you with questions and support) for this discussion, especially your eloquently worded response.
no subject
no subject
Mostly asking out of curiosity!
no subject
Six characters is also room for a reasonable amount of characters from any given typical canon -- there are some exceptions, like how huge Homestuck is, but your average show, book, anime, game will have a cast of main characters that fits around this number as well. It's essentially not so small that most canons would be filled up easily, but also not large enough to monopolize a lot of room. Hopefully that makes sense!
no subject
Still--and this is mostly me thinking out loud here--the restriction seems to be based on representation and to prevent casts from excessively large canons from being too abundant given the size of the game. With the exception of some casts with very large numbers (FATE, Homestuck, Hetalia, etc.) most casts will naturally self-contain themselves within this range. The ones that would be most affected would be this large casts and I would hate to feel as though a person would be prevented from joining in on the fun if their preferred character was in a cast that is already capped. This is especially noticed at the Fate/stay discussion that was above (and a very good one), but may also affect other series that have a long-standing and widely diverse casts (like Final Fantasy series, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, the Shin Megami series, and so on).
Again, I'm mostly typing aloud and I'm certainly fine with how things are right now (I'm probably going to be lone-wolfing it for a long time to come), but my thought processes is asking what the goals for the restrictions are and to identify if this is the best way to do it.
no subject
no subject
no subject