Arraenae

I want to sign up, but I have APs coming up. I might be able to play this if signups were extended another week, though.

Rand, I lend you my metaphorical pen, for both essay-writing and storytelling. Just don't use it for defenses, it's pretty much useless for those

This strikes me as something interesting, and maybe the root of the issue here. I'd have thought that it would be fairly easy to recognize that they're not a regular and recurring player if only because we're not familiar with their name and profile pic. Since clearly that's not what happened with Bort, it shows that we're measuring newness by some other metric: uncertainty in posts and less logical analysis. Most newbies take a few cycles of watching to catch on, and we know that most of what happens before that is flailing around in the dark, so we're more forgiving if they accidentally whack someone in the head. But we're also less likely to consider players who don't flail to be new. Take the AG4, for example, where a lot of people doubted that Fifth Scholar (Ivory Dragonfly) was new. He seemed like he knew what he was doing, despite proclaiming his inexperience, so how could he be new? Turned out that he'd just read previous games before, so he had an idea of how things were supposed to go. At the same time, Fifth made several mistakes more common to newbies, such as trusting people just because they roleclaimed. It seems obvious to any regular and recurring player, but usually it's something that has to be learned firsthand. I think returning players fall into a similar gap. They've played SE before, so they mostly know how things are supposed to go. That means less flailing, so we don't recognize them as new. However, they won't know some things that are obvious to regular and recurring players, and will make mistakes that offend the sensibilities of our current meta, because they don't know what our current meta is. But we judge them as if they do. That's where our problem lies: returning players lack the markers of obviously new players, so they don't trigger the protective instincts we reserve for newbies. That leads to us treating them like regular and recurring players when they lack the ability and knowledge base of current regular and recurring players. I don't know if there's a solution beyond pointing out that they're returning, not recurring. Still, that seems like a good place to start.

Wow, thanks for all of the nominations, but I think I'll have to withdraw from this. AP tests and finals are coming up soon, and my summer schedule is still in a flux. I wouldn't feel comfortable representing our community when I don't know when I'll be available.

Oh hush, Steel

"What're you drawing?" someone asked. ArSuun looked away from his sketchpad. A little girl stared expectantly back at him. "Oh, just some people practice," he said. "This is of Fenot, a Hrovellian potion seller, if you know him? He got a lot of customers earlier today." He set down his pen and showed her the page. What ArSuun didn't mention was that Fenot had a habit of talking to himself, and grinned a lot, and held an air of confidence that almost bordered on recklessness. He didn't mention that Fenot had a nose that bent in like so here and hair that went in this direction there. No, that was information ArSuun kept to himself. Even if he was only here to practice his observation skills, there was no need to broadcast that out to the whole wide world.

When you edit your messages, please don't delete information. If you have to add in new information, make sure to mark it like in the example below, so all players can tell what was said inthread without being disadvantaged by access time. EDIT: If you want to just fix a grammar or spelling mistake, then feel free to do so without saying that you edited the post.

Heh, I actually wasn't trying to draw his character in particular, I just figured someone's character might look like that

Not in there yet, but maybe in a later drawing, since I couldn't get to everybody. Unless you want to be that muscleman up front

ArSuun is going to be watching Drawing, too, if y'all will just keep still for a moment and stop moving, dammit.

Seems like in the past, people used to gain nicknames more based off of their RP characters, especially since those RP names were often based on their usernames and already shortened. Nowadays that's a lot less common.

But the best part about spec/dead docs is when they run completely off the rails and talk about things outside the scope of the game

Seconded, Tamora Pierce is a really good writer. Another series of hers set in a different world is called Circle of Magic. The first book is called Sandry's Book, which is a boring title but not a boring book.

That OoA is so long o.O I'll use my pass on this game, it sounds awesome.

SE has already done terrible things to my sleep. I'm barely clocking in 7 hours a night as it is, and I like functioning

Sorry, I can't. I don't know what my internet access will be like from April 14 to April 21, and I'd be rather useless as a pinchhitter if you had to get someone else to replace me

Actually, he was also Nale in QF25...

I'd like to sign up for the spec doc

This game was a blast to co-GM, and I'm glad to have this experience. I learned a lot about the behind-the-scenes work that goes into these games, and also how to work a basic spreadsheet (turns out that there is code in the hidden columns). I wish this game and the spec doc were longer, but I'm also looking forward to getting more sleep soon Congrats to HH for that unexpected sweep, and keeping people thinking that you were harmless.

Vote Tally Fifth Scholar (2): Drake Marshall, Magestar RippleGylf (2): Fifth Scholar, Pyromancer Pyromancer (0): RippleGylf

Attacks against someone with an extra life will be explicitly shown in the writeup.

Thanks Pyro

Vote tally Eternum (6): Livinglegend, Fifth Scholar, RippleGylf, Hemalurgic Headshot, Jondesu, Pyromancer Droughtbringer (1): Magestar, Shanerockes, Randuir RippleGylf (1): A Joe in the Bush Fifth Scholar (1): Steeldancer

Just popping in to say that I love @Herowannabe's and @Madagascar's RP I'd totally buy some pork chouta if I was playing.

Vote Tally: Hemalurgic Headshot (7): Elbereth, Joe, Jondesu, Sart, shanerockes, Straw, Magestar Straw (5): Eternum, Fifth Scholar, Hemalurgic Headshot, Randuir, TheYoungPyromancer MonsterMetroid (2): Stick, Young Bard livinglegend (1): Megasif, Young Bard Jondesu (1): Drake Marshall