Letters for NPCs.

[Amourae]

I was thinking that maybe it'd be cool to have a private section in the forums for PCs to send letters IC for NPCs (DMs).
 

Sometimes something in the Correspondence can be revealing about the character or what he is doing, so, to facilitate private communication with NPCs that are difficult for the players to know to which DM they should adress a private message, it could be useful to have a section that only the player and the DM team are allowed to see.

[Yalta]

why not just send a forum PM?

[DangerousDan]

I quite like this idea, actually. Do it Snot.

[PanamaLane]

But how shall I metagame now?

A+ to this.

[Luke Danger]

Definitly, this will make things much easier.

[Snoteye]

I quite like this idea, actually. Do it Snot.

You must have missed the handful of similar suggestions we've shot down in the past.

Many fourms don't make a board more effective or easier to manage. For one, we would not check such a forum any more often than other forums like it (probably less, really), and what happens when somebody has to send identical letters to PCs and NPCs? There are a bunch of arguments against and, at most, a couple for. If you have to send a private letter to an NPC, PM a DM either the letter or advice on who to contact regarding it.

[Mort]

To my knowledge, it's easy to setup a board like this. Just dont make it a SUBFORUM. subforums are the things that are a pain to check.

[Mort]

btw, snot. This is for private letters, so that other people do not see what people are writing to NPCs. PM'ing a letter to a DM is fine, but sometimes we are not free when another DM who could likely answer is.

[Snoteye]

I never said it would be difficult to setup. That's not even on the list of arguments against.

[Sandstorm]

It may not be checked more often, but it would also mean that if a DM had time to respond to these letters, they could do several at the same time. They would also be easy to find, instead of interspersed amongst player letters.

[Amourae]

Well, I don't know, maybe it's just me, but Snot, considering the two arguments you point out against it (And I understand theres more, but I just can't see them, I'm sorry), I don't know how it wouldn't be helpful.
 
I mean, I think it sounds easier to get a DM to actually see such section of the forums than to PM a letter for a random DM asking for a reply or a direction towards another DM just to send the same letter. Not to mention that if a DM has his mind full on another thing, he wouldn't need to be bothered with such PMs. Of course when you know which DM is the responsible or is running a certain thing you'll direct your PM to him, but sometimes you just don't. Well, I don't.
 
And about sending a letter for both PC and NPC, well, it's really easy to PM a letter for a PC, because you know exactly who to PM it to. So, you could post something in this private section and PM it to said PC whitout a problem.
 
Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see how it wouldn't affect positively the practicality of contacting random NPCs.

[Snoteye]

I had to eat my hat yesterday trying to find this "handful of similar suggestions we've shot down in the past," managing to find but one such, in which no DM had actually participated. I do know there are more but I'll try and list the pros and cons I can think of, in no particular order. I'm not trying to be a sour-puss and I haven't excluded any and all possibility of this happening -- I'm just saying it's useless. And in case anybody wonders if I'm just being lazy, composing this post has taken several hours (most of that time having been spent on coming up with a pro not already mentioned in this thread).

Pros

• Complete player/DM privacy.
• We (DMs) will have an easier time finding a given letter while browsing the forum, there being significantly fewer threads to look at.
  
• Batch responding.
• No holdups as a result of a contacted DM not being able to respond.

Cons

• Obviously none of us browse such an active forum as the Correspondance forum when looking for a specific thread; we use the search function instead.
• Mort's plea in spite, this second forum would indeed be stuck in another forum (together with what is now the Correspondance forum). This is because, in addition to my being a heartless, misanthropic tyrant, for the purpose of checking new posts, such an organization has no impact on the time spent, but it does reduce forum bloat and load time. And the alternative looks silly.
• Even if DMs checked a separate forum there's no guarantee the DM in the know regarding a specific subject doesn't accidentally miss an attempt to establish communication. Probability of this happening with PMs is less, and there's even a forward option at hand in case we can't answer the PM.
• A PC contacting PCs and NPCs both must necessarily post an identical letter in both forums. Not only is this a waste of time, it introduces complications in terms of conflicting data (not to mention that we might also like to know who else responds, and that without having to work for it).
• DMs contacting PCs must post in the existing forum, and where does the PC reply?
• What happens when a second PC suddenly needs access to the correspondances?
• A separate forum will subconsciously encourage players to contact NPCs (through letters). This behaviour is undesired.
• The lack of holdups doesn't mean an overall faster response time, nor does it even guarantee there will be a response.

You may assume all DMs work with a certain amount of efficiency, even as I know this isn't the case.

[The Beggar]

I would offer that we have a system in place that could be used to that effect, and the DMs already have it labelled as hidden. If it's so urgent and secret, it's likely plot related (either player driven or DM), or you have super secret plans that the DMs should already know about. Make sure and send in an email early on detailing your goals and desires in to the DMs so they know what you are planning, and doing, and then update your progress in the appropriate player actions forum that only you and the DMs can see.

This way, no new forum, the existing setup is used appropriately and to full measure, and the DMs don't have to browse another forums. Players, understand the sheer volume of crud the DMs have to filter through to keep up to date on the forums. It gets exhausting, and the rule should be to simplify rather than to complicate here so DMs can have fun IG with us, rather than have to surf the forums to get up to date on more

"Mr X, please note that PC Y is evol, and does not have your best interests at heart. You should do (*^$& to him over and over agian and then kick him out of place Z.

multiply that by a few a day and it really bogs things down, especially since the DM doing the forums needs to write a response, tell other DMs what happened (since all may not surf all the forums equally), note updates for your character if needed in the appropriate DM forums, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera *in voice of The Yule, King and I*)

KISS people.

Send the DMs an email detailing your plans. It's easily posted to the DM forums.

Update your PC personal accomplishments with screen shots as documentation as you need to in the appropriate forum, the DMs can easily check this and cut and paste to the DM forum as needed.

DMs have more time for IG activities and killing lame, obnoxious players like me.

[Snoteye]

^What she said.