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@Field trips since that was my suggestion: They could provide like...extra exposure to the world/help solidify things in canon that we've talked about while world building?? Or just encourage that?

Ooor an excuse to have like...plots not relating to rp charas or the school wide story! (It would be kinda ridiculous to leave that 100% up to Jen, though, so maybe rpers could brainstorm or suggest ideas or narrate field trips? It could be good practice!) Though I think it would be more like ADVENTURE.PNG!! Explore Kool Stuff. Also an excuse to have people bond outside of their friendgroups with others or, alternatively, experiment with group dynamics by mixing a bunch of characters into random travel groups.

It would be strictly forums based of course! I think I suggested the same idea last year as well lmao. I think doing any of this is mostly dependent on how interested people are//how willing they are @this rate.




On Other Kids&Swim Team:
People COULD themselves decide who they want to keep, toss out permanently, or leave for next timeskip. Of course, that basically means that characters could risk isolation or end up not being played that often anyways, since our rps work with groups. And...honestly I don't really care much for the idea myself??


I think both groups of kids should be left for next timeskip. It would give players who didn't put too much focus or want to redo them a second chance at fixing their characterization and try something different. For the people who LIKE how their chara's characterization is going so far, they could always 1x1 or write stories to 'hold that in place', and they'd have the extra time to flesh that character's plot out more.

After all, it's not like we're getting rid of them? And timeskip isn't aaaages away.

Another option would be to leave both groups for summer as like...'filler' characters for the space between the 4yr timeskip and the end of this round I guess?? Unsure how possible that would be.

Yesssssss, some discussion!

Field trips
This would be REALLY COOL actually! Field trips would most likely be a single year all visiting X place, and those could take place in the event forum if the area's not already made. And there's a TON of possibilities and space for worldbuilding! Visiting known NPCs (I'm going to use that term to refer to pretty much every adult character since the students are the "main" characters so to speak), or known locations would be fun. In first plot, it was established that Ekaterinas would organize exploration into the Catacombs - maybe something can be done with that as well?

I'm definitely on board with field trips but it's definitely up to player participation and organization.

New Kids/Swim Team
Yeah I'm... personally on board with tossing both these groups into next timeskip. One, it'd seriously be a waste of some creative characters if we kept them in this timeline and then didn't focus on them, and two, moving them into next timeskip gives us more time to focus and develop them. Personally, I want to make some massive changes to mine in both groups.

Timeskip isn't too far away either! There's maybe two more big events for plot and then character wrap-ups and then we'd be pretty set to move.

Forum move
If I'm being honest I really should've consulted with the group properly before making the decision myself. If I'm ALSO being honest, I'd rather move than stay here on Gaia because the forums are becoming increasingly difficult to manage. It's impossible to delete or move forums without causing a huge mess. The new forums are about 10000% easier to manage, and moving offsite also enables me to create a more diverse and better-designed cast of NPCs. (Also, the antagonist list for next plot is REALLY BIG and like hell am I making thirteen new accounts to jump around on.) Also, it's aesthetically more pleasing. So there's that.

Also, let me take this opportunity to say a HUGE thank you to you guys for helping out with the area threads. I can't emphasize how grateful I am.

It DOES create an issue with getting new members, though. I'm pretty sure it's against TOS to advertise for other sites directly in the forums, but I can check.

Maybe since we all have a tumblr we could make a Merlin sideblog? Reblog aesthetic posts, art, character posts, etc. to it. That might make for some pretty good advertising, especially if we reach out to the RP community. I can set the forum on the registry too, but I don't want to do that until it's at least 60% set up.

On Field Trips
I'm all for this idea, to be honest-- There don't seem to be any downsides, once we work how how they'll work. At this point I just kinda want to know how it will be determined who's going and whether we'd do it in forums or on skype.

On the Kids
I'm gonna clump both of them together bc I kinda have the same opinion on both groups. Some people have brought up that putting the kids in the next timeskip would cause problems for multiple reasons. I personally am 100% in favor of putting them in the next timeskip, but we should get those individual issues worked out first.

On the New Location
I wasn't sure about a new location at first, but I think it'll be overall more user-friendly than Gaia, sooo... Let's go for it! Once we all get used to it, I'm confident that we'll have zero problems.

On New Members
A Merlin Tumblr sounds ideal to me. Tumblr has a large rp community from what I've seen, and I don't even follow a lot of rp blogs. Even then, we could reach out to the writers on tumblr (the writing aspect is what finally made me cave and join Merlin in the first place, actually!), so yeah I'm super in favor of this, and if we do get a Merlin tumblr, I'd happily be a mod on it.

@Field trips

I am down for this. an opportunity to explore and expand merlinverse without it being part of character sideplots seems a good idea. solidify the world and lore and all that. they could be year/subject exclusive like focusing on enhancing one of the paths or whatever. Also a good way for inter-friend circle mingling so yep.


@Other Kids and Swim Team

I wouldnt mint leaving them for next time, i do feel a need to restart my swim kiddo anyway seeing as they still havent actually met any other members :'D

as for other kids, i dont have a character in that so im down for whatever, will i make a new character to fit in there? maybe if i have an idea, though there might be the chance i end up slotting them in another circle as well. shrug.

@Moving to new forums

gonna screm at fear of change but ill get used to it ¯_(ツ)_/¯

new members will always be an iffy thing to handle, i wouldnt mind some new people even though there might be clashing of rp styles or getting used to this genre. I guess as long as they aren't problematic itll be fine.

In terms of crew, its a little ambiguous, we've become so inclusive with each other and got our own character plots and lore that we developed and influenced each other with ideas that we've all sort of become pseudo crew members anyway without properly acknowledging it. Still, a proper crew team wouldnt be bad, duties would probably just sum down to shifting the forums around and setting up threads. though i might suggest npc designing as one possible role.

Also rping some mid-time skip stuff would be nice, still feel a little sad at wiping away all those characters.

Field trips:
Hooray!

Crew Positions/Advertising:

Maybe you should assign a role for advertising on Gaia and reaching out to people and such? So we can cover more area other than tunglr. Or whereever else people advertise forum-hosted rps. IDK if you can do that on gaia

The Merlin sideblog thing is defs a cool idea I think yi. We'll probably have to spam tag a lot of original s**t to get attention and stuff tho. (': I think best way to attract people on Tumblr is to contribute to Fandoms&then link to stuff like that?

Chat:
Discord's kool with me!