Absences and Game Structure

I will be about, I am in Australia and we don't celebrate Thanksgiving

My apologies for the absence. I was finishing up a business trip and got hit with a nasty case of travelling yuck. Between hotels and airplanes, I picked up some nasty head cold of some sort and have been on my back for the last 4 days. I should be back and ready to go (though not 100% yet, at least at the point of being functional).

Ugh. Sounds like fun. Glad to have you back :)

Yeah, it was magical. Nothing like flying congested.

Just letting you guys know that college has started back up so my posts will all be in the evening from here on out.

Got some bad news, I will most likely be unavailable for the immediate future as the local dam is having issues and the area downstream has sounded evacuation orders. I am currently out of the danger zone, but until things get back to normal I can't say that I'll be able to post.

Sorry to hear about all that, Meribson. Hope all goes well. Keep us updated when you can, and we'll just have Hawke go silent for awhile.

Myself, things aren't nearly as bad, but I won't be posting today as I've come down with some illness that is kicking my ass. A lot of sleeping and time going by on a couch.

Seems like a lot of folks are sick this week. Hope you feel better.

So, it's been a rough couple of days, but I'm back in the saddle. Thanks for the kind thoughts Squeeks.

Will probably miss some post this week, dealing with a death in the family

I'm really sorry to hear that CCL. There's never any right words to say for that, but take the time you need.

My condolences CCL.

Additionally, I apologize for my absence. I have a growing fear that my time will be severely limited for the next 2 months. They pulled me into a new project at work that has cut my free time there (and at home) to nearly nothing. I will continue to strive to be engaged, but if I drop a day or two here or there, I truly apologize.

Understood; hopefully it's not as severe as you're concerned it will be.

At the outset, it looks like it is changing my workday from 8 hours in the office where I usually had 2-3 hours of downtime awaiting inbound work to 10 hours in the office actively engaged in meetings and writing sessions with maybe 30 minutes of free time throughout the day. I hope this initial flurry of work we have settles some as we get a few more weeks in and our development partners get online and start working.

I was about to write something about missing a post due to getting a new computer set up with programs, settings, etc then I realized that there won't be any new required posting days until Monday. Talk about timing!

Congratulats on the new hardware!

Things are getting much busier in my life, with daily time constraints limiting available free time. As such, I need to take a break from GMing Vanguard of Darkness for awhile. It can be a time consuming endeavor for me, and although I enjoy it very much, GMing/writing my contribution to the game to my own personal standards is a time sink as well, in which I always spend more time on it than I anticipated. In turn, combined with the aforementioned time constraints, this is leading to a burnout of sorts (I'm also in the process of leaving another game in which I am a player).

Considering the above, and the fact that I don't want to lower the standards and reduce the quality of the game (to meet time constraints), or simply close the book on what is a pretty cool story so far (our combined game play making for what I think is a great game)...

I'm suggesting that we do like any table-top group would and simply take a break from Vanguard of Darkness. Maybe a week, maybe a few. We'll see. The only thing I'm going to ask you to do is just check in once a week on the game, just to see when the gang's getting back together (when I'm ready to GM VoD again, I'll post in the OOC General Chat and we can get things going).

Also, for those of you who may have lost interest in the game, or simply in PbP gaming, this is naturally an opportune time to walk away. To be clear, I am in no way encouraging anyone to do so, as I've really been enjoying our game. However, I know some players can feel obligated to keep playing, just like some players/GMs in PbP will disappear from a game when they lose interest, which is truly rude and pathetic (it happens far too often in PbP... have some class and decency!). In other words, if you want to leave the game, do the right thing and just let us know. Nobody will hold it against you personally, and we'll move on.

Lastly, I'm not just going to say all of the above and immediately disconnect. Just like if we were sitting around the table at the end of a gaming session, I wouldn't say all of that and just walk away. I'd very much like to hear from each of you on this one, even if it's just simply a post from you saying you understand the plan.

Makes sense to me. Hopefully the anti-burnout break you need will be enough to get me through the glut of this project work and I can go back to having some reasonable time to dedicate to proper posting. I don't want to slow or negatively impact with my newfound inability to post, so if it is getting to be too much, please let me know. I don't want to bow out, but if it keeps things flowing better for everyone else and better enables their fun, I can.

I am interested in keeping the game going for the moment at least so I will keep checking back in to see when or if things start back up again.

I understand the need to step away for a bit. So no qualms from me. I will keep check and see when everything kicks back in gear.