May Game Announcements

[magicademymods]

May Game Announcements A Word From Your Mod Team Diatu is no longer a new game (by EMP rules, anyway)! We've made it this far and we hope to make it much farther. We would, however, like to increase our playerbase! We advertise on rpanons and EMP already, but we would like further suggestions on ways to attract players. Most importantly, we are considering an advertisement rewrite, and would like your input on what aspects of the game you like best, and thus might be the best sells. What Changes Are Coming? Several! First, Research on the Sundered threads links are now part of AC, rather than a response to an event top-level. This will save us some time in processing them. Second, we have changed the mechanics for adventures so that a failed roll no longer ends the adventure for the month. Instead, failure will simply cause consequences within the adventure. We think this is an improvement to the mechanic, as we've concluded the original fail/retake mechanic was offputting and offered fewer benefits than drawbacks. Third, we have updated the Game Guide and FAQ to address common questions we've received about continuing adventures, canon updates, and deaths. Fourth, we have created the Diatu Master Spreadsheet. This spreadsheet tracks student houses, Colormarch contributions, Regard, Familiar Bond, and Fame. We will also add any other numeric trackings to this sheet as well. Our goal is to remove the burden from players and transfer keeping track of these things entirely to us, making the mechanics easier to use and interact with and less likely to see a burden to track. As of now we believe it's up to date, but if you see anything in review that needs our attention, please let us know. We also appreciate familiar names, if you are improving your bond! This Month In Diatu Late Spring Weather is ramping towards summer, as warmer winds catch Ascelion as they roll gently across the land. The most notable weather event in this month is hail; freak storms can drop hail on the city from pebble sized all the way up to fist, on rare occasions. Buildings are prepared for this assault, so duck in one quick if hail starts to fall! Also, feel free to end up awkwardly trapped under a bridge or awning with someone your type, because... Live and Love is the theme both on-campus and off. As spring's growth settles solidly in and the birds and bees are about in number, Ascelion traditionally takes the chance for romance! Summer is hard hot work made better by a new love or a new spouse, after all. Many weddings occur at this time, including some on campus as students decide to tie the knot. Many deals are aimed at couples, whether it be a discount at a restaurant or a special line of earrings to catch the eye of that special someone. Sundering Around Campus shows the dangers of that formerly-forbidden Curriculum. As students gain enough knowledge to work some minor spells, and laziness born of increasing familiarity, troubles from miscast magic keep popping up. Little gremlins skitter around, causing mayhem and havoc. A small cherub has taken up residence in the fountain and won't stop proselytizing. Small portals occasionally pop open, disgorge a disgruntled familiar, then shut. The faculty is moving quickly to crack down on this misbehavior, but till they weed out all the students responsible, who knows what you'll face? This Month In Anastara Pop-Up Opportunities appear around the city, as it finally becomes pleasant enough to perform or sell outside of a store, but before the focused commerce of summer really settles in. Merchants unfurl blankets right on the street, hawking their wares both mundane and mysterious. Dancing troupes burst into performance without warning, then pass the hat with a smile. Fantastic Foil duels occur outside of shops to lure in the impressionable. Maybe you'll find a deal from a shifty smuggler, or enjoy a sudden burst of acrobatic flair -- or maybe you're responsible for one or the other. Or both. Adventures As detailed on our Adventures page, you may sign up for an adventure by responding to the appropriate comment on this post. We will respond with your adventure setups in a few days. There are new adventures, so check them out! We were asked a question which we want to answer generally: you may undertake a new adventure this month even if you are still in an adventure from previous months. We also want to encourage everyone to involve others in your adventures! Though it is possible to do many adventures solo, we intend them as opportunities for characters to mix and mingle. Actions To represent characters working long-term towards a goal, you can submit up to two actions on the appropriate comment below that your character will be focusing their time towards (or one action twice). This can range from studying, to exploration, to trying to gain points for the Colormarch, to buttering up NPCs, to others. At the end of the month, once you submit AC, you will be given your results. The Colormarch! We've calculated the Colormarch stats for the past two months and victory goes to Aer et Calculum! The Gates and the Walk are now in silver and black, and as a reward, you have all been granted Robes of Immaculate Style. These fine, fancy robes are enchanted to repel dirt and grime, resist wrinkles, protect against rain and snow, and generally make you stylish as all get out. (Gekronus Maius students are particularly jealous!) A Note On This Month's Event Thanks to player actions in adventures, this month's event will be a little special: it will occur in two parts, separated by time. We invite you to consider making two different top-levels for it, as the themes and tone for these days will be very, very different indeed. We considered making this a mid-monthly event instead, but wanted to try this experiment and see how it works. Please let us know your opinions on it. CRAUs? When initially designing the game, we decided against including CRAUs for the usual reasons: the idea that the characters are no longer the canon ones we expect, the concerns of players who might have other characters assume or insist on past interactions with theirs, and so forth. However, Diatu has turned into a small, close-knit game and we do not think those concerns would be especially burdensome. We'd like your opinions on the matter. Should we change the rule, or keep it as is? Monthly Mod Plans Our focus was actually taken up designing the Master Spreadsheet this month, meaning we once again dropped the ball on Religion -- but we think making the game easier to track and manage is more important. With that said, we actually have few new areas for improvement to consider this month. In response to a suggestion, we hope to have a CR meme out soon!: Update Locations to include all new discovered areas (monthly) Update Adventures with new options (monthly) Create a Religion page to explain the religion of the Tenscore Kingdoms (past due) Create and post a CR Meme

Comments

Actions

[magicademymods]

Reply to this comment with one or two actions you would like your character to undertake.

[woo_oo]

Allrighty, this month Webby will experiment with earning points for Colormarch, while also studying Communication!

[talkyourwayout]

Louie Duck will be working on his familiar bond with Cash, the rat, and studying defensive magic.

Kamala Khan will be asking about progress on Sundered Research.

[treno_nobleman]

Kuja is going to be interested in the Sundered Research, though he stayed out of it before given what it involved. He also will be trying to study the magic that brought him and the other Sundered here himself.

[bearshermark]

Eleven will turn a double focus to Forging this month.

If permissable, he will be working to forge the following:


Unadorned Katana- An undertaken request from Yotsuyu. Its a simple, well-balanced blade with a utilitarian design. Imbued with Anticipate.

Moon Dagger- A gift for Isa.
An inspired piece carved in the shape of a crescent moon, its curvature is not a wildly practical design for combat. Instead, it lends itself more toward decoration with an eye of moonstone inlaid in the hilt that gives off a soft glow under its namesake and complimented by a short, shimmering blade. Rather appropriately, the dagger is imbued with a unique spell to Detect Moonlight.


A small Mark of Light etched somewhere into each serves as his craftsman signature.

[noasark]

Technically Noa is Studying 'everything he can/everything he registered for', but in particular Physics is getting attention because somehow he wound up helping a dragonpeople with homework.

He will also work on his Familiar Bond with Adelai!

[shiningkindness]

Fluttershy will finally be putting to practice the knowledge that she's gained from the books that were loaned to her, and attempt to communicate with animals and familiars. She will also still be working on her familiar bond with Ballet.

Lena will be working on rediscovering herself, and trying to make amends for things (such as her fight with Louie, or a certain adventure that went wrong)

Re: Actions

[nobodys_puppet]

Xion will be avoiding bullies (and Saïx) as much as possible, and taking down more eaguls for munny to pay for ice cream. What she won't be doing much of, is attending classes. Mostly as part of avoiding bullies and Saïx.

V will be spending time building on the success of retrieving cantrips to try to regain higher level spell slots. There will be a focus on Sending (a level 5 spell, that V wishes to modify to speak between planes), healing (not traditionally in a Wizard's list, but potentially useful here, and....

Scry spells. Specifically, V is going to be trying to recreate all those spells crafted trying to locate Haley and Roy, here, where there does not seem to be a cloister effect in play. To check on the party. So.... yeah. Between Sending and scrying there is a big focus on trying to contact Haley, Roy, and Durkon. So double focus on magic this month.

Sho... whoo boy. Sho.

Sho will be spending the month making more trash sculptures and experimenting with what the spell on him does and does not allow. Specifically... if he orders his familiar to harm someone, does that rebound on him, or only if he does something directly? What if he sets off a spell he doesn't know the result of beforehand, if it will hurt someone, does it hurt him first and worst? He's being more than a little reckless, though. His goal, if sending his familiar causes him no harm, will be to make Noise to do his erasing for him. (Because he would have learned a lesson and made my life easier? NOPE. I am so sorry about him.)

[magicademymods]

Familiars are rarely willing to cause actual harm to others as a rule. They can be total jerks, harass and bully and torment, but causing actual physical harm disrupts the bond between familiar and wizard.

[grim_heaper]

Ah. Well he's already had the familiar try once before, and he will be trying now. So that might get... interesting...? I don't know. : sweat bead:

[daughterofclay]

Jude would like to explore the Palace Garden and she will also do her best to dig up anything about Dictation/mind control type magic (and more specifically if there are ways to ward against it).

Re: Actions

[advocateofgenderequality]

Whoops. Didn't know this was a thing. Am I too late for the month? If not, Kazuma has been working on learning spells equivalent to the ones he lost when arriving here, and strengthening his familiar bond with his owl, Scopes, in order to teach him how to be an eye-in-the-sky scout/spy for him.

[perfectenn]

Inside the Academy
Tenn searched the Library of Starchime looking for information on the Waterfall he discovered a couple months past. (He also browsed the book sale last month for the same, but I'm not sure if that counts!)

Outside the Academy
Using his new Good Business Sense, Tenn hit the streets during Pop-Up Opportunities season to find short-term jobs of the singing or dance variety.

Re: Actions

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea will be spending this month participating in Sundered research and continuing to work on his Forging skills.

Specifically with his Forging, if possible he'll be attempting to recreate certain pieces of jewelry from his world that offer some protection from various elemental magics, specifically the Blizzard Armlet, the Fire Bangle, and the Thunder Trinket.

Re: Actions

[puzzlers]

Trying to work out how to properly activate/use/weild the Deathtoll Card and asking Professor Loshakle to tutor him or maybe private lessors in Thaumaturgy.

[goingbythebook]

Huey will be involved in heavy studying and homework/spellwork because of course he is, as well as familiar bond. Gotta try to wean Ptolemy off gambling somehow.

[blue_ice]

Kaiba will continue to play War Games (gotta fund that dance extravagance somehow) and focus on studies.

Sunset Shimmer will continue to rock the music room and bond with her familiar.

Actions

[unswervingcompanion]

This month Yuki will be studying and be working at the library.

Hendrik will be going back to the Forgotten Knight's Monument and trying to regain his healing/buff spells. because Luminary

[afterthemoon]

This month Isa Bonded with his familiar, and has started looking into researching Forging so he can help Lea with his own Forging research.

Re: Actions

[darkenedmoon]

Isabel will again be studying her bracelet, and probably taking in some Bala-Inlota games and practices as a prelude to actually trying out.

Cliff is busy with Forging again, but he also wants to continue working on his bond with Rounder (if events prior to and at the dance weren't enough).

Yotsuyu will spend this month buttering up those NPCs she can, and applying herself to advancing Purifeul in the Colormarch.

[king_of_egypt]

This month Atem spent more time with his familiars, and participated in the War Games.

[paradoxical_personality]

Hel spent the month trying to master a projectile spell that would harness the power of dark energy, and she did more research at The Library of Fire and Ash with an emphasis on sundering and and anything that could be construed as interdimensional occurrences.

[holdyourhorns]

Spyro and Noa rendezvoused at the Twilight Ball, sneaking off to go try and find the ghost dragon hiding in the caverns. Seto Kaiba heard them talking and decided to join their little party too just before any actual sneaking happened.

And if the party of three (+ penguin) encounters the creature, who better to converse with a dragon than a fellow dragon?


Regardless of the results for the previous, one of Spyro’s weekly letters will inform Ire about the new dragon.

Re: Actions

[sevenyearsasleep]

Link spent May learning about school in general and bonding with his wee owl familiar, he dubbed Kaepora.

Re: Actions

[burningbrighter]

Sunset Shimmer is studying with a particular focus on Fantastics (gotta start that magic band someday) and bonding with her familiar

Seto Kaiba is researching fire magic (don't ask) and studying.

Tidus is involved in bala-inlota training and trying to find ways to summon food.