SUCCESSOR helped me realize that I took a serious cop-out with the last update. I was concerned that the format we were using wouldn't be able to handle direct player-to-player interaction and in my zeal to prevent a mechanical hiccup I left several players with no real options and effectively ruined the tension of the scene.

So, I'm going to introduce two rules and push the scene back in a direction that will allow player-to-player interaction with a fresh update. The first rule will ensure that players are not penalized for this and future 'early' updates and the second will make player-to-player interaction possible and flexible so that I don't have to mediate between updates.

The rules are in this post, the update to fix the situation will follow in a second post.

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Rule Clarification:

General: Act Medias Res
If an update has a section that has the following construct:
[Act Medias Res]
...
[/Act Medias Res]
somewhere within, the update contains an ACT MEDIAS RES. This is a special section of the update where you may insert actions your character took in the middle of the update's events. Its purpose is primarily to allow you to ask specific questions in a conversation, though you could really do anything you want (if you derail I'll nudge you back into feasibility). In one of your action responses (see Action Tennis below), you may place the term [Act Medias Res] (color optional) at the top of your post to indicate you are inserting the action into the gap provided. This is NOT a requirement; if you do not take an action with Act Medias Res you can fill the gap at any later point by starting the top of your post with an HTML link back to the update that had the gap.
When you use up an Act Medias Res the results of the gap are filled in in the following update. A generic example of how I'll respond to your Act Medias Res is presented below:

You take a moment to recall your conversation with TELIVAR in the study.
~~~~~
Conversation with Telivar
"You see, they're highly unstable."
You ask him to clarify hamster baryon signatures.
"See, two visually identical hamsters could have alternate baryon signatures. If they were to make contact with each other they would cause a TREMENDOUS EXPLOSION that would likely destroy this entire mansion and all of the surrounding villages. They're VERY dangerous."
Telivar clears his through forcefully, effectively indicating he wishes to end the conversation.
~~~~~
You are particularly stricken by his thorough and almost terrifying knowledge of atomic hamster fusion. You ponder how this information will be useful in the trials to come.


General: Action Tennis
A feature of the game that no player has utilized as of yet is the ability to log more than one action between updates. I believe the feature has been avoided because of a distinct lack of structure, so I present: ACTION TENNIS!
From this point forward, any player may make UP TO THREE posts between updates. Each post represents one action scenario.
That's really the extent of the rule, but here are the implications:
  1. As before, you are free to make assumptions about any character or topic that is NOT LOCKED. As of this post the only topics in the story that are locked in the game are TELIVAR and DRAGON MAGIC. Do note, though, that the characters of OTHER PLAYERS are always locked, meaning you cannot make assumptions about their reactions.
    1. Just because you can't make assumptions about their reactions doesn't mean you can't interact with them. Because everyone gets up to THREE posts between updates, you can launch an action at another player, wait for them to react, and then react YOURSELF to their response. This is action tennis.
    2. For a clear example, @TheDarkOne 's character Sancireph is LOCKED, as is @bigjoe 's character Jerias. If the two were in a scene with the NPC Toma, either player could control TOMA or THEIR OWN CHARACTER but neither player could control THE OTHER CHARACTER. That is, TheDarkOne cannot dictate Jerias's actions and BigJoe cannot dictate Sancireph's actions, but both can dictate Toma's actions.
  2. The more you post, the longer my update to you will be. This means the more you do, the more you will get out of the game. Take advantage of this and use Action Tennis to interact with the world and other players. I may even volley quick responses back at you when you are interacting with NPCs, though remember that such is only necessary if the NPC is LOCKED since you have the right to simply state how an unlocked NPC reacts to your actions.
  3. This feature is necessary to allow for the rule above (ACT MEDIAS RES). Filling a gap counts as a post, so you have to make sure that an ACT MEDIAS RES is in a separate post from any actions you are taking currently (Otherwise you will confuse me and then bad things will happen).


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In short, use ACT MEDIAS RES to fill in scenes that are in the gooey center of an update, and use ACTION TENNIS to interact with other players and accelerate the pace of the story.