Best Practices: ST Contact in Downtime

Preface: I am speaking for myself here and not necessarily for the rest of the Storytelling staff. If the ASTs have anything to add, they are free to do so.

In-Character activity has seen a pretty sharp increase between game sessions of late. This is not overly surprising given that we are still resolving some of the complicated affairs of BaneKlaive 2012. That said, this is also resulting in the Storytellers receiving a lot more email than we are accustomed to.

We do not want to hamper the "soft RP" that occurs between games. It is obviously a valuable tool for the players in telling their respective stories, shared or individual. When it is seeing this much use, however, it becomes more of a burden to us. We are given a lot more to read and we do what we can to keep up. It is especially difficult when the "softness" of the RP graduates to attempted Empathy Challenges, Gift-usage, Lore Challenges, and the like.

We will never ask you to stop copying us on your private email scenes (we do like to know what the characters are up to as each one is a part of the overarching story that we are telling with you), but I would very much like more consideration given to those things that beg direct Storyteller involvement. The occasional polite request is fine, but we have received an inordinately large number of emails in just the last 36 hours, despite our frequently repeated wish that the players refrain from such requests following the Wednesday that precedes each game session.

One of the best practices for this is to provide a "heads up" email before those Wednesdays roll around. If it is reasonably possible (and that can be a flexible and subjective thing, I'll admit), seek out Storyteller-portrayed NPCs in live-action by waiting until the next Sunday game. Send a short email beforehand that lets us know which NPC(s) your PC intends to have contact with and, if you can elaborate, the tentative purpose of the interaction. Likewise, advise us of what sort of investigating your PC wants to do at the following game so we can wait until live-action to resolve Challenges and the like.

Please do your part in preserving the live-action part of "LARP" where you can. It will help us immensely. I know those four hours seem to go very fast (they often do for me, too), but they are always going to be the preferable time for us to be STs. It is easier for us to use what little time we have available between games to prepare for the following game session, rather than running various aspects of the game for players within the two week downtime.

Thank you for being avid roleplayers and being a part of the stories we enjoy crafting and telling, and thank you for your consideration and pity for us

Truman,

If no ST contact is necessary, would you rather us send you the completed scene, or still keep you cc'd on the ongoing scene until it's done? I'm worried because I KNOW you get a ton of emails from me, for these threads that are 50 and 60 replies long, haha. However, I rarely need ST interaction for them, for gifts and the like.

-M

For me, I am totally capable and willing to use my Mute and/or Mark Read buttons so that I can catch up on scenes when time allows, rather than right when a notification does or would normally come in. I definitely do not prefer the "scene now, copy STs later" practice since such scenes can take a long time to conclude.

Heard loud and clear, Mister Man. I'll keep em coming!

As a culprit of this, sorry is certainly the key word

What does the st staff consider acceptable non-st cc'ing? F an example, in vampire if we don't cc, it dint happen. Or, I know some people who will refuse to respond if st's aren't cc'd.

I for one want to make my st's lives easier

Copy your staff, always. It is also a best practice.