Future of the campaign

[Venture]

In the last few weeks, we’ve had a transformation in the participants in the campaign. Bigbluepaw, Boomer, and Tunari have all had to leave, either temporarily or for good. Having been at this for almost 20 months now, I sense that we are at a crossroads of sorts, and need to decide where to go from here. Part of me wonders if the campaign has run its natural course, since we’ve seen several folks have to leave in a short time, while another part of me wonders if we just need a change or a break, and yet a third part of me realizes we've had one or two points like this in the past and things got back to normal quickly. I thus see a few options:

1) Find a replacement or two and continue on as normal.

2) Take a couple of months off, through the summer, and hopefully regain some of the current group when we resume.

3) Go to an irregular schedule. Sort of like a an old TV show reunion, I’ll build at a more leisurely pace, and then set up a series of sessions when a module was ready. The frequency of the sessions would be hard to say right now, but any time we did have one of our “reunions,” I’d want to make sure we play consecutive weeks until the module was done.

4) Play on a regular schedule, but less frequently (for example, every other week, or two out of every three, etc.)

4) Call it quits.

I honestly don’t have a preconceived notion of where we should go with this, so post your thoughts, no holds barred, with no worries about hurt feelings. I still look forward to playing each week, and also enjoy building, occasional burnout notwithstanding. By the same token, I will be moving into a new house in a couple of weeks, which could cut down on my building time a good bit (although not enough to stop us from playing, I hope). Also, it looks like I will have a commitment on the 4th Wednesday of every month for the foreseeable future, regardless of what we decide. So, we will miss at least one Wednesday a month anyway.

Anyway, fire away.

[lindalas]

I'm not ready to call it quits yet. However here is my summer schedule: I'll be out of the country for the four Wednesdays starting June 22 and ending July 13. I'll be back again and ready to play on July 20.

Lindalas

[Nitricity]

I'm with Lind on this one, and I'll have to check but I'm 90% sure that I'll be gone the first week of July. Maybe the 2nd week or the last week in June, somewhere around there, I'll let you know when I myself know for sure.

Anyways, we're a pretty accepting group of players and DMs (at least I think so), if there are people out there wishing to join all I can say is hop on until the boat's full.

[Tunari]

I am definitely in the temporary leave column. I fully intend to be back in a couple months if there is a slot. I'm already planning out the levels for Asia for the long haul! lol She needs to hit level 16 for elemental forms, then I am going to cross in some Monk levels since the unarmed fighting and ac/natural armor bonuses of the Monk will transfer toi Asia while in various animal/elemental forms. Might even just add a couple Monk levels sooner then 16, just so she does more damage!!

I would hate to see the game go away, but it is a little out of my hands at the moment. I have been planning for this job for several years, but if it was delayed, or I hadn't have gotten it at this point, I would still be able to play regularly. I just can't make the weekly commitment until I am more established.

I don't think the game has run it's course, if anything it has gotten better and better with deeper stories revolving around our characters. So it is not the game or story, just RL stepping in.

Maybe the group traveled around Naeldor more before I joined, but if not, there is a huge amount of that map we haven't even scratched. Asia needs a statue in EVERY city on Naeldor. lol So there are many adventures yet to be had there.

For me it is just RL jumping in right now. I have spent years working to get to this job. Working full time and going to school full time at night and on weekends for 4 years, a couple job jumps after I graduated to get some things onto my resume that were missing, using that to get my foot into the door at this company, and then 2-3 years of hard work to put myself into a position to get this promotion. That is why I need a couple months, not because the game or story was nearing an end. Far from it, there are plenty of adventures in Naeldor yet to be had.

I couldn't afford to take more then a couple months anyway, as I refuse to have Asia fall to far behind that wussie cleric of Winsomes.

Tunari

[Venture]

Thanks for the quick replies. As an update, as if on cue I had a message from Bedeo (Sissfus and Perem) this morning asking about returning. He just got his U.S. work visa and will be here in August and ready to go at some point thereafter after he gets settled. I'm waiting for a reply from dscrilla (Brodin). We've exchanged a few messages, but I haven't heard from him in a couple of weeks.

How does this sound:

Assuming we have enough to play, we will play this week and June 15. It looks like I have a committment June 22, so no game that week unless my plans change. If it appears we have enough players after June 22, we finish out the Alantha Chath stuff I have built out (I'd say we have anywhere between 2-4 weeks more) and start our break at that point after we're done it. If, though, we are short players after June 22, we start our break then and finish Alantha Chath after the break. We then take a break until early August or September (about a month, depending on when we stop), and restart things. That will accomodate Lindalas being away, help Asia to not fall too far behind, get us started right around when Bedeo gets back, and give me a chance to move and get settled into my new house. Maybe if we are super lucky, Boomer will have a new shift by then.

What do you think?

[Miguel]

Taking a break to accomodate people's RL schedules is fine with me. I'm flexible.

M