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Well it only recently dawned on me that there is only a month between the one day and the first event of the year so yeah, timelines would change for sure. I just wanted to encourage people to get moving with it and not have everything the day before the event. But if people want to wait and react to the narration, that would be fine by me.

We'll discuss Art's idea as a staff. My initial leeriness is having a year that feels really disjointed from event to event, but I could certainly be swayed.

I could see that as a possible fallout of a year-to-year method.

It's simply a bummer that certain heroic parts of my character's backstory never really got moved on and after a time-jump would be 9 years out of date. That's even longer than I have been playing Final Haven!

For my two cents, I would say look at this as the time lapse that happens between some TV shows or movies. The player base has been fighting for survival for something on the order of 10 years. Now that fight has paid off and to let the background set-up needs time.

Regardless of writing ability, I would say take this opportunity to let he FH Gm's what your character really wants to do for Haven, and see this as a new start for everyone.

For what it's worth, I'm anti-5 year jump... and with the jump planned I'm grumbling more about how missed the last two events. I create a personality and backstory for my characters and prefer to let them develop organically based on events and interactions with other people.

Ovak Stonecrusher wrote:We'll discuss Art's idea as a staff. My initial leeriness is having a year that feels really disjointed from event to event, but I could certainly be swayed.

As I said, it was a heavily flawed concept, and could be worse than just one 5-year jump itself too. It was just a thought to consider/for folks to play with.

The bigger issue, though, is what this means for Winter Haven, as it wasn't/isn't really in such a story position where 5-years of "downtime" really made/make that much sense (at least that I'm aware of)... unless there's a wizard's spell that puts the whole area into a time-stop-effect for 5 years instead of 5-minutes.

oddly that just made me picture the WH PCs showing up for an event and being met by the WH GMs standing in a circle trying to figure out why the pause button on the remote wont work and up pause the chapter....

We are working in conjunction with Winter Haven so hopefully there will be something in place that will make sense

I am for the time jump. The stories are played out and now it's time to do something new. A clean break is better than some weird skipping thing.

5 years of peaceful days sounds mind numbingly boring from a PC side of things.

We will have no issues with it mechanically or RP on the WH side, but skipping forward would mean we too would have to break up our plans.

As both Travis and Mike have stated we are working together to make sure the transition from FH to WH during the season will hopefully be seamless.

The WH one-day will be used to explain how this happens In-game.

So if you are interested in good story and boardgames it sounds like the One-day's are the place to be this year!

As someone who is working on the story for both chapters, I'm very much in favor of the five year jump. It allows for the FH story to advance in accordance with the efforts of its characters and set up a new, but believable venue for telling different kinds of stories. Phil describes it well in citing the gap that can take place between seasons of a TV show or movie sequels. Five years was chosen as a long enough time frame to allow significant changes in the setting while still being short enough that PC's could remain essentially unchanged. Advancing the setting will allow us to tell stories in both the more established and civilized Kingdom while still maintaining the edgy, seat-of-your pants feel on the frontier.

Some players may want to write some significant changes for their character, while others will pick back up right where they left off. Both are options, and we'll be happy to work with whatever interesting twists you come up with. Additionally, if there are people who aren't confident in their writing ability, I'd be happy to have a phone call or Skype session with you so that you can communicate your wishes more comfortably. Hell, for those of you willing to make the drive, most of you know where I live and are free to drop by and talk with me personally. There might even be cookies.

That said, if someone is very much against inserting five years of story into their character as they sit right now, we can certainly create an opportunity for you to "skip" those five years. There are always portal accidents, magical comas, and ancient artifacts that could explain why your character suddenly finds themselves five years in the future.

On the Winter Haven side, while the five-year jump initially seemed to pose some difficulties, I'm thrilled to say that we've found a way to turn it into a great addition to the story. Instead of being an inconvenience, I think we'll be able to use it in a way that actually ADDS to the WH storyline without disrupting the flow of the game or breaking the narratives we were working with last season.

In total, I'm excited for what the jump brings to both games and incredibly pleased that we've got both groups of GM's working in concert to tell great stories. Thanks for making your concerns known, and keep them coming.

So...What are the mechanical changes to the political system? I know you guys have plans in mind. Do you have a write up so we can review it? This will allow people who will try and take advantage of the system (myself and others) the opportunity to look for breaks before they become an issue.

One of the biggest frustrations around the political system is the lack of clarity in the write up. Many new players interested in playing political characters have found themselves in bad situations when they realize whats on paper does not apply. Are you going to have a write up that you will be able to stick to with a minimal amount of adjustments during events?

We're currently looking at a minimum tweak option to the economic system. As of right now, remove starving and thus basic upkeep requirements. That may be it for the time being, though we may try and make everything more clear for the time being. Phil has graciously offered to help run economics for both chapters, so if nothing else, there should be definite consistency between the WH and FH

Kiel, Mike's on target. While we're still working out the details, the system will look and feel much the same as it has felt as far as the way PC's interact with the economy. Having Phil on board to take care of the Economy at both games will allow us to maintain consistent practices at both chapters and ensure the rules are clear to all. Additionally, Jared will be free to engage in the kind of economic plot and roleplay activities he's been trying to implement for some time.

Some important changes are as follows:

1. Everyone will be presumed to check out at the "Common" level, eliminating the need for resources at check-out. Wealth levels will still be available for those wishing to gain those bonuses, and special items will still require upkeep in some form.
2. Holdings will still be a part of the game, though the equations that govern them behind the scenes will change. Any player that possesses a holding will see that holding modified (with his or her input) to fit the new system.
3. Barring any catastrophic events, the rules as presented in the beginning of the year will stay constant throughout the season. If the system works as well as we believe it will, we'll iron out any bumps and look at including it in the new Player's Handbook project for next year.

For the sake of keeping things clear, let's try to refer to it as the "Economic System" from here on out. Politics has been entirely in-game for some time now, and I know some people get confused about the varying terms.

For those of you who have been playing at Winter Haven in the last couple seasons, we'd like to hear any feedback about where the economic write-up we've been using over there is unclear. If it's a matter of clarifying and better explaining the rules we'll be happy to do so and the effort will only help the rulebook project as we go forward.

Survival at winterhaven will remain the same as it has been. It will be in the PCs hands to stablize the region if they wish.

I have come to a point where I am "mostly comfortable" with such a time-gap, but I am still absolutely leery of so many players creating stories in an absolute vacuum. I can't even begin to imagine the anxiety I feel at how many things I will attempt but I won't be able to because "someone is already doing that".