July OOC plotting and bulletin of goings-on!

[magisteriamods]

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OOC Plotting + July Bulletin: What to Expect

It's that time again, gamers! Here is the July post for OOC plotting and CR-building, as well as a general recap and what to expect for this month! I strongly encourage players to discuss what their characters have been getting up to in terms of player plots, as well as what aspects of the game world you would like to explore! Mod is very happy to see how engaged y'all are getting with the world, so please discuss among yourselves to your heart's content, and if there's anything I can do to facilitate, do let me know.

Brief Recap on Game Happenings/Plot

As I noted in the very beginning, Magisteria is a metaplot-heavy game. Both the game world and the plot are designed for reveals and narrative complexity. We're really just starting to roll, but I want to make sure everyone is following along, so here's a recap:

In the first event, tech and magic PCs began their training in their respective disciplines.

Tech PCs learned about Bursterflies, the metallic butterflies of Magisteria, with each PC getting their own Bursterfly.

Magic PCs retrieved the Greater Runes of water and fire and encountered some... unique sea life and some gnarly ancient fire spirits.

The Seeds of the Tech Path Conflict: It's Beginning

During the first event, Tech PCs were also tasked with helping an android named Rosalind Vireo. Two of her properties, the Digital Flora Dome and the Neon Nest were vandalized by a mysterious intruder. The details uncovered about the intruder were a skull-like face and the phrase "Symphony of Disruption."

Sometime later, PCs of both sides visited the coffee shop, The Bean & Berry, belonging to Seraphine Nova's family members. Various NPCs, including Rosalind herself, appeared on said post, dropping various plot hints.

[Note: While players can certainly engage with such mingles without checking the NPC hints (I designed them that way), mod definitely encourages keeping an eye on those for the most plot mileage. ]

Finally, Otherworlders of both groups were invited to a High Risk Quest alongside two members of the city's law enforcement/investigative units. Here, Otherworlders became exposed to some of the deeper and darker machinations of High Rise Village. Some questions were probably at least partially answered, even as whole new questions have no doubt been raised. To summarize:

⚙️ PCs encountered a heretofore unknown group of entities known as The Fractured. See throughout the quest for their description(s).
⚙️ PCs visited an abandoned laboratory now known as The Wreckage Labyrinth, where members of The Fractured were found in great and grotesque abundance. The facility was formerly known as the Aetherion Labs HQ and Some Scandalous Shit is kind of hinted to have happened there, but it's yet unknown as to whether that has anything to do with these mysterious beings.
⚙️ At the end of the quest, PCs encountered an entity calling herself Lysa the White Phantom, apparently a former classmate of Selena Voss. Lysa identifies herself, Selena, and Seraphine Nova as the "esper girls," or, more properly, thetics, the children of human fathers and AI mothers. She also references a few other things, making some claims which seem to confuse the NPC allies.

Other Stuff That's Happened:

🌌A mysterious being describing herself as a Cosmic Traveller, Soraya, entreated Otherworlders to help return her precious children, the Woofaloomps. 🐾 Shenanigans ensued.
🐟 The fish got real problematic... but I think y'all already know about this.

🌼 There was other quest-related stuff, but the one I want to bring attention to here is the Nightglow Flower Quest, particularly the detail of the Bios-hungering creatures in the Agrarian Enclave.

What's Next

More Intrigue in the Magic Path

So far, the conflict plot threads have been more connected to the tech side. That is going to change/balance out. I did not want the two sides to be an exact parallel to one another, so I have chosen to lay the two out in somewhat different ways in the game.

The magic path conflict has not really kicked off yet, but the seeds are going to be appearing this month, and things have been brewing in the background.

As one pretty big hint: remember some phrases alluded to on the game's first TDM and keep them in mind, if you will. They just might start re-appearing in events. ;D

July Goings-On:

Many will be tied to the magic side, but there will of course be follow up on what has happened with tech.

✨TDM #3: Looking to get it up by July 15th. Please note: this will be a special TDM, as it will introduce a new location.

The Elysian Grove will open its gates to Otherworlders in this TDM. The Elysian Grove is home to the primeval spiritual world of Magisteria, full of forest spirits and unique, unfathomable beings which exist nowhere else in the island or perhaps even the world. If you think Magisteria is an enchanted world, you have not seen anything until you get a glimpse of the Elysian Grove, which is quite literally synonymous with the beauty and antiquity of the spirit world.

True to the description: characters' dreams, their hopes and wishes, can quite literally manifest as apparitions within the Elysian Grove.

✨The Agrarian Enclave and its many unique sub-locations will be rolled out for PCs to engage with. Of all the locations I designed when building Magisteria, the Enclave is the one I made the most sub-locations for out of the gate, so I'm quite excited to roll them out. This location will introduce quite a bit more of the world's unique flora/fauna.

Some things to look forward to in the Agrarian Enclave:

🌷The Nightglow Flower Festival, a night of enchanted floral lights
🌷Oca Street Bathouse, a location with extraordinary hot springs, aqua aromatics and specialty baths, and great luxury as a haven for relaxation and wellness
🌷Scorzonera Animal Sanctuary, which will be doing an animal adoption drive.

... and those are just a small sampling of the sub-locations. The Enclave will give PCs tons of exploration and pleasure opportunities.

And remember, as mentioned above: keep an eye out for clues, because the magic path conflict will be starting to simmer and heat up here, so be on the lookout throughout these activites.

The next event is also coming up! Here's the plotting post.

Yes, I know it said end of June, but I decided to move some things around in light of the pacing around the High Risk Quest. Instead, the TDM will be first, and the event will be nearer the end of the month. Reason being that the High Risk Quest was very event-like, and in terms of pacing, I think it's important to get another TDM up.

✨ There will also be more quests, largely related to the Agrarian Enclave, though some will continue to be set in the urban areas.

I THINK... that's it for the big details on July plotting!

Just a Couple of Extra/General Notes

💥Just as a little reminder, PCs can engage in tech/magic beyond what's in the events! It is assumed that they can be learning both off-screen, growing their abilities. The game set-up heavily encourages PCs who get in earlier to mentor newbies and get them up to speed on powers, so you can take advantage of this as time goes on for CR opportunities. For example, it's assumed PCs are learning how to use those Bursterflies in all sorts of ways, i.e. building a surveillance system for the upcoming High Rise Expo event, which they were tasked with in the first event. More tech fauna and tech gadgets will of course continue to be introduced and given to PCs, and more explicit forms of magic will be introduced as well.
💥I will continue to overhaul update the pages, including flora/fauna, NPCs, cleaning up the FAQ to more reflect the identity the game has developed/have more relevant questions/answers, etc. We have so much content now!
💥Going to add a page for PC discoveries so we can all be on the same page as to what you guys have uncovered and so newbies can see everything and not be overwhelmed. PCs have uncovered a ton of cool stuff! I'm super impressed by the engagement with the game! 🖤

Lastly, a note about AC --

Magisteria is a check-in game. Who has time to be counting comments? However, as it says on the AC page, a pattern of several months with no tags or very minimal (1-2) tags is still potentially on the squatting side. It's less about number of tags and overall engagement. If a player has few tags, but is obviously working to catch up and generally plotting or generally connected to the game, that's okay! But if someone is continuing to not tag at all or do 1-2 in a month across months and seems to be disconnected from game goings-on altogether, I might reach out to you and check about what's up, if the engagement/interest is there, if there's anything I can do, and, if it comes to it and players keep up that pattern, they may still be cut.

Now, y'all know I am not in any way harsh about this stuff, so again: if there's anything I or others can do to help you engage more, if you feel like you're in this boat, please do reach out. I am putting this here so you will be appraised before the next AC.

And that's pretty much everything, for real! Have fun plotting!