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» Manifest Changes

Posted on Sun Jul 28th, 2024 @ 3:10am by Dante in Sim Announcement

Hello, Survivors!

Thanks to the efforts of Ray (who writes for Alonzo Blazevic), we have a new and improved manifest that better fits the needs of our particular sim.

We're organized by families and those who are single are listed under 'The Unattached'. If your situation changes and you become part of someone's family, then we'll switch you around.

Suffixes:
========
Military designations are no longer going to be shown on the manifest and you'll see that they've been removed for you -- we're doing that for two reasons. One, it's no longer a part of our reality and two, it's part of the great manifest cleanup.

But that information is part of our history and so, it's all going to be contained in a field where you can enter information about positions held -- and what do you know, it's called "Positions Held". Here's what Hale's would look like:

Currently:
*Leader, Wisconsin Survivors
*Council Member

Formerly:
*Major, United States Army Rangers, 5th Special Forces Group, Fort Campbell, Kentucky

Location is a good thing to add in the former positions part because that will give other writers ideas about how to make connections with your character(s).

And yes, I know that the Council hasn't been formed as yet but I wanted to put it there to give everyone the idea of how it would look.

Rank:
====
Currently, there are only four ranks.
> Survivor (which is plain with a silver border)
> Committee Chair (one arrow with a silver border). Note that only the one in charge of the committee will be designated.
> Council Member (two arrows with a silver border). Once we're in Wisconsin and setting things up, Committee members will be elected with some rules involved. Hale as Leader would automatically be appointed.
> Leader (one circled arrow with a silver border) and that's Hale.

Only ONE position will be noted by rank on the Manifest. All positions held will be outlined in that Positions Held field in your bio. (So again, Hale's highest position is "Leader" so that's the one noted by 'rank'. His other position is Council Member and that won't be shown on the Manifest. Clear?

NOTE: Serena's rank is displaying incorrectly. That's a Nova thing that should straighten itself out over the next day or so.

Committees:
==========
Currently, there's only one committee and that's Logistics with Serena Reynolds as the Chair. And Serena's writer has been doing an amazing job with keeping track of what we have, what we need, and who is driving with who.
> NOTE: You cannot hold the Chair position for more than one committee at a time.

Other committees, which haven't been established as yet, will probably include:
> Medicine
> Motor Pool
> Construction and Maintenance
> Agriculture
> Hunting and Fishing
> Security
> Food Preparation
> Laundry and Clothing Repair
> School

NPCs:
====
Currently, there is a cap of eight NPCs per player-character and those are limited to active NPCs -- that's to keep the manifest under control. An NPC who shows up as three words in a JP now and again is not considered active and you will be contacted about your plans for that character.

Current Episode
===============
Our new episode, The Road Ahead, will be done as a series of vignettes. The narrator (me in italics) will set the scene and then everyone can write about it to their heart's content. The episode concludes when we reach Wisconsin.

New York Survivors
==============
The New York group is open to anyone who wants to write a different view of the apocalypse.I'll probably set up separate episodes for them (so NY writers, keep that in mind when you're doing a post).

And Finally
========
Okay, so that's it. Thank you for your patience while Ray did his magic in the background. As he just said to me, and I quote: "changing ranksets and positions and departments takes time my friends. Sometimes, things get tucked into places and need pulled back out."

See you in the apocalypse,

SG

» Report for June 2024

Posted on Wed Jul 3rd, 2024 @ 12:23am by Hale Stratton in Monthly Report to the Survivors

Hello, Survivors!

Player Statistics
================
New Players: 2
Departing Players: 0
Total Currently:
> 10 Main Characters
> 7 NPCs
LOAS/Unknown:
> Calista and Killian Sutton on LOA until 17 JUL 24
> Reuben Baptiste - Unknown
Returning From LOA:
> Victoire Olaffson

NOTE: All players are represented on Discord except for Killian Sutton; however, his real-life spouse, Calista Sutton is on Discord so he'll be able to get information through her.

Total Posts for the Month: 45
Posts by User (Average): 4.5
Words by User (Average): 2295.5

Rules Adjustment
================

I'm appending the rules for character-creation to reflect the fact that the character has to be consistent with the time frame of the sim -- 2010 at present. You can't talk, for example, about having had COVID, for example, since that hadn't happened in 2010. Existing characters are not exempt from this rule.

Awards
======

"High Speed Survivor" goes to Phoenix Lalor, who writes Serena Reynods, for a total of 9 posts last month -- that equals Hale's count which is also 9.

Player of the Month is awarded to Johnathan2009, who writes Tim Reynolds, for his willingness to contribute real-world knowledge and by doing so, enhance the realism we bring to the time period. And also, for helping me remember to look at production dates on vehicles.

Current Events
==============

With young children in the mix, the group's focus has shifted to setting up a community on Hale's land in Wisconsin. Having secured vehicles, the group is now going to drive South, towards Boston, and head west toward Wisconsin.

Hale has become the official leader of the group with Tim Reynolds acting as his second. Individuals will be evaluated and assigned jobs but everyone agrees that, Serena Reynolds (our doctor), Patrick Reynolds, 10 months old, and Thea Matthews who is five months pregnant will not participate in any encounters but instead, be ready to make a quick getaway.

Serena Reynolds has been asked to join the Logistics Committee with Ed being put in charge and Ethan to act as an assistant to Ed (for the time being).

The group is beginning to talk about how the settlement in Wisconsin will function and some rules have been suggested. Once they are confirmed, we'll add them to the sim site and new characters will have to go through that process to become members of the community.

Upcoming:

> Stop outside of Augusta at Vienna's parents' cabin

> Stop in Augusta to try to secure more medical supplies where we'll run into a new player character (formerly Vic Olaffson) and Rene's sister, Chloe, (an NPC) who are being held by a group of raiders masquerading as National Guard

> Stop outside of Boston, at a truck stop, where we'll run into three NPCs -- Kimberley Hathaway, Josh McCallan and Lydia Dunham.

And Finally
===========

I love the idea of setting up as a community once we are settled into cabins and are building our lives there. That will take some discussion, both in-character and out, but I think it will add real depth to our stories going forward.

And for those who were worried, while Vic may have died, her writer is still with us and is currently dreaming up another character that will most likely find at the Medical Center.

See you in the apocalypse,

Hale

» Report for March 2024

Posted on Sun Apr 7th, 2024 @ 3:05am by Hale Stratton in Monthly Report to the Survivors

Congratulations, Survivors!

We started our first episode, Bangor or Bust, Saturday, 15 April 2023. Tomorrow, nearly a year later, we will finally finish it. For those who like stats, we have, as a group, written 332 posts for this episode, 34 of them in the past month. And now, nearly a year later, its time to move on. There will be a short post tomorrow explaining what happens to the safe zone and after that, Bangor or Bust will be closed for posting and we'll be moving into the new episode (I'm thinking about "Winter is Coming" as a title).

As you've seen, I'm starting to use a narrator (descriptions in italics) to describe things that are happening in the world around you. As we go forward, I'll be making more use of that as well as writing for a host of people you might run into -- both good and bad.

This next episode will describe the ramp-up to winter and how all of these individuals start to come together and work as a group. Things to look forward to:

> More visits from Whistler who has taken an interest in the group
> A visit to a lesser-known weapons' store
> A visit to Vienna's family cabin (though that could be problematic but we'll see when we get there, eh?)
> Possible hike along the river to find Reuben's friend (Reuben, we should talk about that)
> The reality of a world without police or an effective military

These will be difficult months in a world that is just starting to accept the notion that things are never going to go back to the way they were. Expect problems, both with the sorta-dead and with the living, and hardships but the end goal is to gather resources, figure out what to do for the winter, and prepare for what comes next.

See you in the world,

Hale Stratton

» Report for February 2024

Posted on Mon Mar 4th, 2024 @ 8:44pm by Hale Stratton in Monthly Report to the Survivors

Hello, Survivors,

Been having a couple days of good weather here, sort of like the first promise of Spring, and its been lovely. Also, Watson, my cat, discovered Cat TV (its a YouTube channel) and he loves it. For a cat who absolutely refuses to go anywhere near the outside world, he's been mighty brave swatting at those birds.

Sim Statistics

No changes in the number of writers this month so we're still holding at eight. We are losing a couple of NPCs though -- Courtney, Jordan, Father Dominic I believe. Not sure about Bao (been quiet since the delivery) so I'll check on that. We did pick up two new NPCs and both are mine -- Emma Lynn Starsky and Whistler. Emma has a bio. Whistler's is coming. Just got to dig into the mind of a psycho a bit.

Oh right. I've added a second manifest to the site (on the Population tab, click "Departed")

For the month of February:

Number of Posts this Month: 45
Highest Poster This Month: Hale Stratton

Then in Order:
> Tied for Second Place: Alonzo Blazevic and Reuben Baptiste
> Tied for Third Place: Rene Rouen, Vienna Quinn, and Victoire Olaffson
> Calista Sutton and Killian Sutton

Awards:

Survivor of the Month: Calista and Killian Sutton. Since joining the sim, the two of them have been writing a married couple (as they are in real life) who are struggling to survive. While most of the writers, myself included, opted to have skills that made them able more than capable of surviving what's to come myself included, these two are just normal people. They are approaching the point, nearly a year into the sim, where they will join the group and I enjoy reading the snippets of their life. Hiding out. Being afraid. Hungry. Lost. In fact, they've actually inspired me to write an ordinary character myself! Good job both of you.

Current Episode:

Once Hale, Vic, and Reuben return from looking for Mrs. Quinn (the prognosis does not look good) and have dinner, we'll move onto our departure from Bangor. By the night of the 5th, we'll need to be outside of Bangor. I've added a tiny map to #references-and-resources -- the "X" marks the location. Its a suburban home that I transplanted from a Zillow ad. That's also in #references-and-resources. We'll (finally) meet up with Callista and Killian and watch Bangor burn somewhere around dawn.

And that brings us to the point where everyone finally has to say what they intend to do, as individual characters, going forward. The idea is to establish ourselves as a group with Hale assuming the role of official leader. We'll get organized, move away from Bangor and start figuring out what we're going to do next.

The Future

I've had one suggestion for a place where we can winter and I'll open a channel, #where-can-we-winter, for everyone to post suggestions. Things to think about:

> Where do you want to go? It doesn't have to be in Maine.
> And do you even want to settle in for the winter? Would you rather keep moving. Sleeping where we can?

I would suggest that we keep away from ready-made, easily defensible structures like prisons, survivalist compounds, and full-on military bases. To me, its a bit of a silver bullet but I'm also operating under the theory that we're not the only ones looking and the bigger places would be first up for grabs.

Now, if you want, I'll work all of this out and let you know -- but this is your sim as much as it is mine. Bring me your ideas and I'll put something together.

See you in the world,
Tory (aka Hale Stratton)

» Report for January 2024

Posted on Thu Feb 1st, 2024 @ 8:08pm by Hale Stratton in Monthly Report to the Survivors

Hello, Survivors,

Okay, its been an embarrassingly long time since I've done this so, let me start by offering my profound apologies. Had a bit of a Star Trek sim burnout going on and a lot of things fell by the wayside. Things are better now and I'm totally back.

Sim Statistics

We added two survivors, Stephen Wolff and Reuben Baptiste. That brought us up to nine writers. Course, Stephen dropped out again so we have added one new writer -- which means two service dogs and three military personnel. The world has never seemed safer, eh?

You know, we started this sim on the 15th of April, 2023 and since then we've written a total of 75 posts or 106,365 words. Feel free to cheer and get yourself a celebratory beverage -- in my case, a fresh cup of coffee. Niche sims like this one often fail -- and its entirely because of all of you that we haven't. I don't know about you but I'm looking forward to our upcoming first-year anniversary.

We should celebrate. Maybe we'll invite zombies to the party?

For the month of January:

Number of Posts this Month: 15
Highest poster this Month: Hale Stratton

Then, in order:
> Alonzo Blazevic
> Reuben Baptiste
> Callista and Killian Sutton, Victoire Olaffson
> Vienna Quinn and Rene Rouen

Awards

Survivor of the Month: Reuben Baptiste. I love his concept for a character who is disabled, in his case, through military service, both in how it reflects the reality some veterans face and in how it will affect his character's ability to survive and thrive in the aftermath of the Wildfire Virus.

Honorable mention: Steffan Wolfe for a character who wasn't afraid to hang onto the privileges he enjoyed in the pre-virus world. It would have been fun to see how it all played out.

Current Episode

Our time in Bangor is coming to an end. At the moment, Hale is conferring with Victoire Olaffson and Reuben Baptiste regarding the current situation. There's been a significant uptick in incidents with the not-so-departed and resources are becoming harder to find and more dangerous to procure. By the night of the 5th, the safe zone will be on the point of failing and, of course, on the 6th, the government, on the verge of collapse, bombs major cities. Not all of them, of course, since Atlanta and the CDC were still standing months afterward. But, for our purposes, Bangor will be on the list.

Between now and then, some things that might be happening:
> More sounds of gunfire
> Maybe a not-so-dead wanders by your quarters
> You see more wounded coming back
> The supply depot doesn't have nearly as much as it did
> The mood among survivors is getting desperate

For roleplay purposes, and so that we can (finally -- and yes, Callista and Killian I'm looking at you) meet up with the Suttons, Hale and those that come with him, will be heading back the way they came (we left our vehicles behind. Maybe they're still there? We'll watch Bangor burn and know that we have to leave that area behind. Fire attracts after all.

The Future

After we leave Bangor, we'll have to decide what comes next. OOCly speaking, since we're not doing missions, I'm going to be planning events that will happen. Some good. Some pretty terrible. It's not just to give you something interesting to write about, it's more that we can explore some of what happens when society breaks down and everything changes. So, on that note, I direct your attention to #future-apocaplytic-events in the Survivor Resources category on Discord.

Think of it as your chance to influence what comes next. Something you really need to happen to or for your character? Something you think would be fun to do? Something you're not seeing enough of? It's a place for brainstorming and discussing all of that.

See you in the world,
Tory (aka Hale Stratton et al)

Latest Mission Posts

» Gathering (Part 1)

Mission: Settling In
Posted on Sat Dec 14th, 2024 @ 7:35pm by Ethan Thompson & Hale Stratton & Timothy Reynolds & Timothy Cotton & Serena Reynolds M.D. & Chloé Rouen & Joshua MacCallan

Construction had begun on the first of the cabins. By general consensus, this would the largest of the structures, intended to house their kitchen and main food storage, both above and below ground. Digging out the root cellar, which would only be accessible from inside the cabin, had taken all…

» New Friends (WARNING...LONG READ)

Mission: Settling In
Posted on Tue Dec 3rd, 2024 @ 5:26am by Connor McLean & Roxy Santiago

***AUTHOR'S NOTE!***
THIS JP IS A LONG READ, AT OVER 4K WORDS.
***AUTHOR'S NOTE***

~ON~

As Connor sat in his cell, while he awaited his arraignment hearing, he suddenly felt the ground shaking. It was a slow rumble at first, but soon, it seemed as if the entire building was…

» Checking in With the Blaines (Part 2)

Mission: Settling In
Posted on Sun Nov 24th, 2024 @ 2:17am by Hale Stratton & Timothy Reynolds & Carmen Harris & Myles Harris & Jack Harris

After the hellos and the welcomes, Molly, who had been setting out breakfast for Noah and the kids, started a second round for Hale and Timothy. Their cabin, an open floor plan with a fireplace on one end and a wood stove on the other was a warm and inviting…

» Meanwhile Back at the Homestead

Mission: Settling In
Posted on Mon Nov 18th, 2024 @ 10:51pm by Ethan Thompson & Lydia Dunham & Hale Stratton & Alonzo Blazevic & René Rouen & Calista Sutton & Vienna Quinn & Reuben Baptiste & Ragnar Jørgensen & Serena Reynolds M.D. & Thea Matthews & Chloé Rouen & Kimberley Hathaway & Joshua MacCallan

Josh finished moving the remaining vehicles into a barrier around the cabin and barn area. He came back across to his sister who was digging a deep pit near the middle of the cleared ground. He took the shovel from her. “Serena..” he began.

“Don’t” she said softly. “I need…

» Getting Situated

Mission: Settling In
Posted on Mon Nov 18th, 2024 @ 1:37am by Killian Sutton & Calista Sutton

Calista was grabbing the last of the things that they needed for a longer duration stay at the homestead from the car when Killian sidled up to her.

"How are you doing?" he asked her quietly.

Even though she knew he was there, she still jumped a little. "I'm fine."…

Latest Personal Logs

» Journal Date: September 15, 2010

Posted on Tue Oct 15th, 2024 @ 3:25am by Catalina   Baptiste

Journal Date: September 15, 2010?

Definitely official, even if Sandwich will not admit it. He has an attachment for Thea. At the evening meal and campfire meeting I caught him dividing his plate in half and giving Thea the the half he separated. He then ate half of his portion…

» Family catch up time

Posted on Sun Sep 29th, 2024 @ 3:13am by Catalina   Baptiste

Reuben talked with Catalina when she had joined with him in helping the group. During the stops for the evening on the way to Hale's property Catalina filled him in on how the ranch and family were doing. Apparently their father was quick to realize the situation and started the…

» Journal Date: September 13, 2010

Posted on Fri Sep 27th, 2024 @ 2:13am by Catalina   Baptiste

Journal Date: September 13, 2010?

Well found Sandwich, he deviated from his emergency escape route and hookup with a group of survivors. Not sure about the group but they appear to be decent folks. The leader, Hale Stratton, is very similar to Sandwich; dark, brooding and all military. I suspect…

» Journal Date: September 10, 2010

Posted on Mon Aug 26th, 2024 @ 2:17am by Catalina   Baptiste

Journal Date: September 10, 2010

At least I think it is. Been a long and lonely trip back east since I departed from CeeBee and her beau. Not sure how father is going to react to him when they get to the homestead, if they get to the homestead, which…

» Diary Entry of Dr. Serena Reynolds

Posted on Sat Jul 6th, 2024 @ 7:46am by Serena Reynolds M.D.

**Diary Entry of Dr. Serena Reynolds**

The past few hours have been a strange blend of anxiety and fleeting relief. I’m sitting next to Timothy in our truck, cradling PJ in my arms while he sleeps peacefully, blissfully unaware of the chaos around us. We’ve just joined a convoy of…