Weekly Update: Issue #1

Alright boys and girls, time for this week's update. Well, it's the first update, so don't worry if you're confused. Just hold on to your hats, because we've got a wild ride.

The staff just had their first meeting, and got quite a bit done. We baked and cleaned and...oh, right, talked about Into Narnia. So I better get on to that part, and leave the cookie crumbs at the bottom of the post.

1. RP Forum Descriptions: As per a suggestion from the lovely Cara, each RP forum area should be accompanied by a wonderful description of the area surrounding it. And since all of our staff were humble enough to say they weren't the best to write for it, we've decided to let you get involved. So, prop open those Narnia books and pick up a pen, folks, because here's the thing. You can submit your own descriptions of the areas, as many as you want, as many times as you want. And it doesn't have to be particularly superb, it really doesn't matter. Just so long as, if someone read it, they would get the feel for what the area looks like. So don't be shy, get your submissions in today.

2. Member Awards: After working so hard on that profile and those posts, you need something for all your time, right? Well, that's where the member awards come in. Released in a slow succession, there are now two awards that will be up for grabs at the end of this month.

The first is the Character of the Month award, granted to the person with the best character profile (bio, application, etc). This award can only be won once, and so you should feel some prestige when winning. More information to come soon, but as a sneak preview, profiles will not be judged only how they looked once approved. You're free to go back and spruce it up to be better and win that contest.

The second award is the Recruiter of the Month award. This award is based on a new mod that I've installed called a referral mod. At the end of each month, we'll see who has the most referrals and that person will win. No eligibility stipulations, just a straight count. You'll find a link in your profile, unique to you, that you can hand out and get credit for. The catch? You can't post it on boards as a guest, or post in any random shoutbox. Just to friends, family, or any boards you're a member of yourself, whether roleplay or not. (As an addendum to this, if anyone here was recruited by another person, PM me to get their referrals manually adjusted.)

We'll have more information about awards as the end of the month draws near. For now, you can clean up your profile and recruit more people using the link in your post. As an alternative, if you tell your recruitee your username (the one you use to login, not your character name, unless they're the same), they can simply enter that in the registration page.

3. Open/Closed Maybe you've noticed, maybe you haven't. But now, for any RP post, you can select an Open or Closed Message Icon to indicate the type of roleplay thread it is. See below:

You're still free to use any tag you want in the title. It might be a bit easier, and cleaner, to use these instead.

4. Roleplay Timeline Guidelines We want to make Into Narnia the most fun for everyone involved. There's a few concerns regarding linear and non-linear roleplays, so I'll try to clear this up.

We will not be restricting members to one roleplay thread at a time. There is not a high enough member count to require that, and we know people go inactive or lose motivation. To restate that, you may be in more than one roleplay topic at the same time.

However, there is a concern for a timeline and planning events. Events that happen in one thread that predates another could end up contradicting the future thread. Therefore it is key that use is made of the OOC RP Discussion forum. Please use this to discuss the roleplays you are in, when they take place (compared to other RPs) and where you are going with them. If you declare yourself a member of the rebellion (Old Narnian) to a squad of Miraz' soldiers, you should think carefully about where that roleplay is going to go before starting another that takes place afterwards. Talk to others, plan things out, keep communication going. It's the best way not to get turned around in here.

The one restriction is fighting roleplays. If you are or plan to be in a fight in a roleplay, all your threads must be dated prior to that fight, and you may only be in one fight at a time. This is so that there are no obvious paradoxes involving injuries or death that may result from a fight. So, bear this in mind if you plan to fight, make sure it takes place after your current roleplays do and that you don't enter any other fight roleplays as well.

5. Plots A roleplay site without a plot is, well, no roleplay. We recognize that a plot is handy and a needed guideline for some members. As of this moment, Into Narnia has 0 evil characters, and thus a Miraz-themed plot roleplay is impossible. However, as we begin to grow and bring in more players, we hope to have three plot-centric roleplays: Prince Caspian (currently underway, join now!), Pevensies and Miraz.

That's all for now. I'll be back next week with more exciting updates on Into Narnia.

Oops, I almost forgot. Here's the crumbs:

Feel free to discuss and leave feedback.