"Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun." -- Mary Lou Cook
"Creativity doesn't wait for that perfect moment.
It fashions its own perfect moments out of ordinary ones."
-- Bruce Garrabrandt
It fashions its own perfect moments out of ordinary ones."
-- Bruce Garrabrandt
Greetings Sykans!
Everyone knows the orb had some effects on the residents of Syka. The Founders were very forthright about what happened. Akvin, unaffected, spent a goodly amount of time tinkering with it. He couldn't help himself. It was his nature. And rather than letting the effects wear off, as he predicted, he was able to 'fix' the orb and turn it on again to change everyone back. For the most part, everyone slid easily back into their true forms to the tune of 80% of the population. 20% of the population slid into yet another form. And even rarer still, another ten percent of the population found that they could slide from their original form to their fall forms at will as if they were second nature. This discovery and change happened on Winter 1, 519.
All players must roll a 1d100 who are currently in Syka and played last season. All players must declare prior to this roll that they are rolling for the Winter 519 effect. If you roll an 11-90, you will regain your normal form. Rolls of 1-20 mean you slide into another form not previously used and you remain in this form until you can find a way to regain your normal form. Rolls of 91-100 mean you get to keep your original form and have a secondary form of what you wore all Fall of 519 permenantly at your beck and call. Please let me know your outcomes so I can augment your SS thread if needed. If you happen to roll a 1-20 and are a human, you cannot pick another human subrace to transform into. The same goes for Dhani and Dhani varieties etc. You can look for a solution, but it will not be easy for those of you that transform into something else for good... or for those of you that end up with two forms.
Now, that's settled. I hope everyone is ready to move forward! Why? Big changes are coming to Syka. The Founders held a meeting with some of the long-time residents and decided too many people were coming and dying or not staying on permanently, the land incentives were not much of help any longer, and too many people weren't focusing on expanding their knowledge of the jungle and learning to live with it. People moving to Syka and getting all sorts of help to get started on a new life there ignored debt, didn't finish job threads, didn't fulfill obligations to train Wilderness Survival, and failed to include yourselves in the group activities. For that reason, The Founders have changed things in Syka.
First off, the land incentives are history. If you have a claim and have lived on it and been active, that's fine and you have it debt-free. No more loans for businesses and or houses will be given. Absolutely NO ONE paid off these loans, so there's no reason to allow them to continue. If you want to start a business or buy a home, you are going to be responsible for coming up with the money yourself. The Founders of Syka are tapped out and disgusted.
Randal will be focusing on building an Inn for tourists. The Inn will be finished this season. It will have rooms to rent, food to feed the new people, pleasure, and entertainment. Stu is going to get some competition for the Tidepool. The place will be large, sprawling, and pampering. It will have job opportunities for cooks, housekeeping, massage, and entertainment.
Jon will start bringing tourists over to Syka on multiple trips per season to fill the Inn via The Veronica. PCs are now welcome to come visit and vacation. This means citizens of Syka can start encountering other non-resident PCs and NPCs. It also means knowledge of the Verusk will be getting out. There might be hunters and nefarious sorts slipping into the city looking to bag one or capture one to see what it knows.
On an OOC note, there will be no more 'required' skills for Syka. Instead, there will be recommended skills and people out in the jungle without appropriate Wilderness Survival - for example - will just find themselves dead if they don't have an escort... or maybe dead with one anyhow. People are using NPCs as crutches way too much and skirting the obligations of this city. Instead of getting after them for it, I'm removing the obligations and putting in real consequences. You've been warned.
We will no longer ever be having Calendars. Instead, we are going to continue having our themes posted for the season. The themes will have storyseeds and atmosphere posted. I really want to focus on players developing story arcs and carrying through with them. I've given tons of people amazing storyseeds to go from. I will continue to do that.
And finally, the atmosphere for this season is CREATIVITY. Create, create, and create. I'd love to see PCs take up trade skills and learn them. I'd love to see art produced, music made, and magic weaved. I think Syka's going to start bringing out musicians and artists, and perhaps have an Arts School develop here since there is nothing like that in the game and one could well be a draw for players.
As always, feedback is welcome.
"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul."
-- Dieter F. Uchtdorf
❖ Pay Seasonal Expenses of Common or higher.
❖ Be active. This means at least one or two posts a week.
❖ Work on one or more recommended Syka Skill (Wilderness Survival, Tradeskill, etc) and increase it by 5 points.
❖ Have one tourist encounter of your choice with an NPC tourist of your own making.
❖ Include one of the NPCs listed in the NPC Masterlist in one of your threads.
❖ Utilize at least 1 storyseed in a creative way. The storyseed can be used in whole or part or could even be used as an inspiration for a whole different story arc.
"To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way
to make your soul grow. So do it." -- Kurt Vonnegut
❖ Meet or become aware of a sibling you never knew you had.
❖ Learn a secret from a book.
❖ Rehabilitate an injured animal discovered in the wild and once well, return them to the wild.
❖ Gain a harsh rash from local plant or animal life and spend serious time investigating how it happened, prevention and cures.
❖ Witness something falling from the sky. Investigate.
❖ Find something amazing in Stair Step Falls or washed up on Treasure Beach.
❖ Meet a mysterious stranger whom you discover you actually know.
❖ Discover a new animal or plant.
❖ Find a musical instrument and learn to play it.
❖ Recieve a significant injury.
❖ Invent a new holiday for the settlement.
❖ Discover a new resource for the settlement.
❖ Learn something new about yourself and your personality that's not exactly favoriable.
❖ Find yourself taking care of someone else for a few days for an unusual reason.
Syka is usually warm and pleasant, however, the temperatures in other seasons can make it unbearably hot and humid. When winter falls on Syka, the weather turns absolutely amazing. The temperatures are routinely in the 70's. It's never too hot or humid. Nights are cool enough you might need a light wrap, cloak, or even to use blankets on your bed. Fires on the beach are comforting, warm, and tend to be gathering spots for residence.
There will be no big storms. There will be no massive fluctuations in temperature. Morwen still isn't back on Mizahar, so there is actually no winter. Syka just experiences short pleasant days and long pleasant nights. It's a great time to explore, spread out through the jungle, and discover things.
I'm always willing to run a personal storyline for anyone who joins Syka for the season. People get such few opportunities to interact with their actual storylines in generic calendar situations within various domains, so in Syka I'd like to change that. I will be willing to run the following:
- Personal Quests
- Gnosis Threads
- Flashbacks & Future Foretellings
- Training Threads
Just let me know what I can help you out with. Syka might be small but we have had some really incredible storylines here in the past.
Happy Threading!
Goss
