STATE OF THE TAXON

[taxonmods]

You can also find the (much prettier) Googledocs version of the calendar here!

• Opposite Plot: Characters find themselves the opposites of...themselves. Details below!

• Outsides to Insides: Remember that Halloween episode of Buffy where everyone became what their costumes were? Oh yeah, we’re going that again.

• Player HMD: It’s that time again for doling out praise and concrit! The player HMD will be running next weekend.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
→ It’s been a month since Taxon’s relaunch, and we’d like to thank all of you who have stayed with us, and those who have joined since! It’s been an exciting time and we can’t wait to see what happens next.

→ There is one major change we are announcing: as of this month, Taxon’s media policy restricting applications from anime, manga, and video game characters is being phased out.

→ The new activity requirements have been announced, and they are one open-to-all post a month for each character. This is a minimum requirement and you are of course welcome to post as often as you like. More details in the mod post here.

→ We’re adding a new area to the city! Wilde has its forest, Osten has its beach, and now Shelley is acquiring an agrarian region: fields, orchards, pastures (cows and sheep and emus, oh my), a market, and farmhouses. As with the rest of the city this region will have a random assortment of locations, so dry stack stone wall pastures will be found beside rice patties will be near a hydroponics greenhouse. A wiki page is forthcoming, so if you’ve got ideas for what to include in this area you can add them there!


AROUND THE CITY
→ Weather/atmosphere: The climate will remain matched with Canberra, Australia for this month, so while the calendar ticks further into autumn the weather will get...increasingly spring-like. The aliens will be correcting this oversight in a BIG way next month.

Despite the weather Taxon will be enveloped in beauteous autumnalness. Leaves will be changing, Halloween decorations will start springing up, and out in the farmlands there will be a good old fashioned country fair.

→ Freebies: For October, the shops and hatches will be providing free Halloween decorations, pumpkin pies, and apple cider. Also, any clothing that could be construed as a costume will be gratis, but citizens should be cautious in what they choose to dress up as. Details below!

→ Crime And Punishment: The aliens have decided that they need to provide some sort of law and order presence in the city, and so have provided a Sheriff to rein citizens in when they disturb the peace. How effective he'll be is...debatable.

That said, there will be some in-game consequences for the Killjoys’ firebombing last month, in that this month there will be no gasoline available in the city. Also, any alcohol that everyone’s favorite dust angels get within five feet of will turn into water.


Opposite Plot
This month’s main glitch will give everyone a chance to explore other aspects of their characters, namely what they would be like if aspects of their personalities or histories were inverted. Slackers will become ambitious, good guys will go bad, bad guys will go neutral, the choice is yours!

• This is an opt-in glitch, meaning that characters can be totally unaffected if the player wishes.

• The event will be lasting from the 9th to the 22nd, but characters do not have to be affected the entire time. It can be for a few hours, a few days, or the whole length of the event.

Outsides To Insides
A couple of years ago Taxon celebrated Halloween by having characters become their costumes, and now we’re doing it again! If your character dresses up as, say, a werewolf, at 8 PM on Halloween they will actually become a werewolf. The effects will last until sunrise on November 1, and as with the above glitch it is a totally optional event.


MEME
Time for the monthly summary and CR planning meme! There’s quite a few events planned for this month, so use this post to start getting everything hashed out.

<lj site="livejournal.com" user="CHARACTER_USERNAME" title="CHARACTER NAME"> <b>Previously:</b> What's been going on with your character over the last month, or even months! Bring up things you feel you might need to handwave with others, too, to make sure you don't get stuck. <b>Glitch Plans:</b> Let us know your plans for this month's big system glitch! Even detail other individual character glitches you may be planning on so folks can plot with you and get ideas bouncing. <b>Other Plans:</b> The rest of your plans for this month! CR and plot requests, idea bouncing for what kinds of development you want them to accomplish, anything at all you want to do this month or get rolling for the months to come.

All set? Excellent! There will be a top comment for questions, comments, and mod feedback. Have an awesome month, Taxon!

Comments

[ownlittleprison]

I know me and Dien talked a while back about the possibility of blood donations being arranged one way or the other. But, we can delay that bit until I get a chance to double check how we see that working out on the end of the donors. I know Paul would volunteer, and Cain would as well (easiest solution to keep the vampire from going bananas that doesn't involve death or mayhem? He's all for that).

Anyhoo. Gwen breaking and entering can still happen! :D Mick may have covered the windows with a variety of stuff to keep the sun out, but that doesn't mean locks can't be broken and sheets nailed into the window frames can't be sliced...

In other news: What Keri said. Maybe Gwen could stun the crap out of Mick, open up a window of opportunity for staking?

[aintnoconvict]

Personally I was just thinking the whole blood-donatey thing would take a little more IC lead time than we're working with here, just taking the distacnes into account and needing to coordinate doctors and donors and all that. But if y'all can parse it out then awesome.

ETA: unless I hit up Emma and see about handwaving Martha having started up a blood bank at the surgery? /dashes to do this as backup

[ownlittleprison]

I don't have a preference, really. As a matter of fact, it might be more intriguing for the science-y types to get to poke and prod Mick in his current state until it's been established IC an emergency blood bank thing is being set up. HMMMMM.

Doctors 1-3 + Ozian!Scientist: Oooooh lookit those readings.

Mick: x_x;;;;;

[freaks-myword.livejournal.com]

Jumping back in to say that, assuming we're holding off on the blood-donor thing, I can definitely have Gwen manage to have awesome timing and break in as Glitch is making bad decisions. I may vague up the play-by-play on HOW she actually gets in the building (it's an apartment in a complex, right?) and the boarded-upness and locks and stuff since I don't have a layout of the place BUT if the two are going to end up in the hall, play that out and I'll have Gwen do her thiefy thing and pop in and put him down?

I donnn't think she'd stake him. HE'S CUTE OKAY. But she'd most definitely zap him to hell, especially knowing it won't kill him.

[ownlittleprison]

Vague away! I'm a fan of in medias res, personally, and how often do you get to see how a character gets from A to B if it's not Really Important to the Plot? :3

As for a layout? I don't really have one either, apart from what I've detailed in Mick's second post. Which means, anything I haven't specified here, go ahead and invent! :D

Someone will have to when Glitch fumbles his Dexterity roll and starts bleeding. ...so to speak. Zappy fun times will help, at least?

[aintnoconvict]

...keywords :|

And, as has been established, Glitch will totes stake his forgotten brother's clone Mick. Go go adrenaline powers :3