We're well into our group's tenth year. Can you believe it? A ton of people have come and gone (and come again), but even now, we still have four members from our very first year. It's pretty cool to see how our group has grown, withered, and grown again, and how it's created a lot of lasting real-life friendships well outside the bounds of the internet.

But, I'm actually not making this to prattle on about sentimental stuff. I'm actually going to keep it pretty brief. Here's the deal: In light of the fact that we're having a lot of changes and new story arc stuff, I figured now would be a good time to let you guys in on a few very vague tidbits.



We have several different factions now. This will help us all have something fun to do in the story.
It's a rough business trying to be a lone-wolf character in a story like this. However, it's even rougher business trying to keep a story going when there are ten characters all clamoring toward the same goal. That said, we've been making bigger and bigger movements toward separating our cast into smaller, more manageable groups, where they will hopefully be more likely to build relationships and personally accomplish interesting and cool things in the course of the story. We don't want to fragment our story too much, mind you, but we will continue to be open to new groups that anyone wants to form.

The more groups there are, the more threads there need to be. The more threads there need to be, the more leadership is needed.
While having all these new parties and mini-storylines is a rad thing, I cannot run it all. Our group is growing and we need people who can just do things all on their own to make a story happen—a story that's fun for both them and other participants to write and be a part of. That's a challenging thing to accomplish in a very structured and purposeful group like ours (where the venerable "*walx in* hey guys what's happening" does not accomplish anything), but thankfully, we have folks like Mie, Rachel, Ben, and Sheff stepping up to the plate already, hopefully with more to follow. The more people we get, the more subplots we'll hopefully get, too.

Let it be known that this is not a call to get more people to step forward to run the RP right now, though. The last thing that we want to do is splinter the story we have or overstress any new folks. This is just to let you know that no one has to be locked into a particular group or cause, and that, if enough of you get together with a common interest in a hypothetical storyline, group, goal, etc., you can work together to make it happen and create your own story arcs or even chapters.

We're actually going somewhere with all of this. Can you believe it?
We have a central plot in all of this. Some elements (such as the anti-Eggman side forming now) may be less critical to it, even just plain disconnected from it, but we already have plans to make everyone relevant in at least some way, and even cause some unexpected inter-group collisions. That said, yes, we are planning a lot of things in advance, but not so as to rob you of in-character choices and freedoms, but rather to make it so that there are actually choices to be made. While everything is perpetually subject to change with every unexpected character decision and action, we do have plans running all the way through to the beginning of chapter 8.

I don't want to spoil anything, but, let's say that you can expect chapters 6 and 7 to be quite short (more like the length of chapter 5 or less rather than chapter 2), and the end of chapter 7 to be a major turning point for the RP. In some ways it will restore the status quo, and in other ways, it will obliterate it. Whatever the case, brace yourselves for a substantial timeskip (possibly on the order of an entire year in-character) between chapters 7 and 8. In a way, if all goes as anticipated, this will be one of those kinds of finales where we really could end the whole RP and feel like it was done with some closure, but, if it goes as well as I'm hoping it will, we'll be all the more amped to continue afresh.



That's all I have to cover for now. If there are any specific questions about what on earth it is we're doing, I'm always available for the prodding, but don't expect me or anyone else to give too much away. Similarly, if you have any big ideas for something you want to do, then feel free to pitch it not only to me, but to the group at large. While I'm happy to continue having a central, focused plotline, I someday want this whole thing to become more open to the ideas and stories of others so that we can have those in addition to the chapters I personally lord over all the time. I'm not going to rush us to that state though; for now, we need to stay focused to make sure the stories we have are successful and have plenty of interesting characters. But, I'm just saying this so that hopefully the gears can start turning in the heads of any of you who may be so inclined.

Have a good one, guys. Happy RPing. Thanks for being a part of this big geekfest.