Scheduling

[Sierra]

Start time: presumably five or six A.M. EST, whenever people can be here. Please weigh in if you have a preference (offhand, I think Eb's most affected since this basically determines when he needs to wake up on Saturdays). Note that DST ends for me in a couple weeks, so we might want to set our start time with an eye towards how that would skew things. Ideally we'd run 4-5 hours each session.

(This thread will also be used to note absences in the future.)

[Ebiris]

6am EST is 11am GMT, I think, and that suits me.

[Corwin]

I'm good with it.

[Carthrat]

I kinda need to go into cramming mode this weekend. Will anyone hate on me if I ask to miss this session?

[Ebiris]

Lets take the day off, I need to do Christmas shopping anyway.

[Sierra]

It does make things easier on me since I need to work late tomorrow night. Bear in mind that we will also not have a session next weekend, in all likelihood--I expect to be with family, though I'm not yet 100% clear on when I need to be where.

[Carthrat]

So, are we gonna play on boxing day? I'm good for it.

[Sierra]

As noted in the above post, I'm going to be out of town still by next Saturday. So Jan. 2 should be the next session. Try to get over your hangovers, all?

[Carthrat]

May be late for this weekend's session. However I will stay up late to make up, if necessary~

[Sierra]

No session this weekend. Family stuff is happening on Saturday and I have been guilt-tripped into picking up the brother, driving him down there and staying overnight Friday instead of going mid-day as planned. Was really hoping to avoid this since I also expect to be out of town the weekend of the 17th, but the parental units are tenacious beings once they have you in their clutches. I'd suggest makeup session Monday since I'm off work, but that is surely impossible given the collective scheduling insanity of this group. Would likewise suggest trying to pad out the missing weeks with solo sessions, but current in-game situation makes that a little hard to arrange. Mrgh.

Cor's requested bit with Sayuri tomorrow should be unaffected, at least. I don't have to leave until 7PM, so we've got a good 3-3.5 hours if needed, but it would be best to start right when I get home if possible.

[Sierra]

So, Rat's going to be gone the 11th through the 31st. This knocks out three sessions. I really, really don't want to leave three weeks without any momentum, especially after I was gone for two sessions this month and Cor's going to be gone for two at the start of September. We have two sessions before Rat leaves and ideally we'd manage to pause in a situation where the others can wander off on sidequests or whatever. This basically necessitates not being in the middle of something at the end of next week's session. My question is, does this sound possible for two sessions given the loose ends before you?

At the moment it looks like there are several things the group was planning to do (I am skeptical that I can get all of this into two sessions, given the pace I usually run things):

-Explore China ruins more
-Knock out some odds and ends in Japan (options are revisiting the otherworld folks now that Erin can talk to them, raiding Kurou's place for notes on translating the otherworld languages, having Suzume swing by her parents' place; not sure how much of this is genuinely in your plans, just that all of it's been mentioned)
-Taking a train across Russia (I could just handwave this as travel time, but c'mon, you're on a train for a week through Soviet Russia, something's likely to happen)
-Hitting the asylum before returning to London.

Priorities? Anything people just don't care about? Again, really trying to avoid having the whole group be in a lurch for five weeks.

[Corwin]

-Explore Beijing's ruins
-Japan loose ends (I care about Suzume alone, if others want to revisit The Demons, either demons, I don't mind)
-The Orient Express, where a murder simply must occur

I don't think we'll have time for hitting the Asylum before Rat leaves, but these should be doable. Once we've seen what we can do as a group, Eb and I could go and see whether we can install Nadia as the Empress of Russia until Rat returns?

[Ebiris]

Exploring Beijing ruins hopefully won't take too long but is pretty mandatory.
Stopping in Japan to say hi to Suzume's family hopefully won't take too long unless ninjas attack. Hell, a ninja attack might even shorten things considerably!
The Orient Express demands blood and this is a priority for me as a player because it should be awesome.

I agree there's no time for the Asylum in two sessions coupled with the above, but maybe Communist bureaucracy can slow us down so Yomi and Nadia can do other stuff in Russia while Erin communes with the spirit world.

[Carthrat]

I do want to go revisit the demons and such, since I can speak to them now, and I'm far too cowardly to go in that place without an escort (also the crushing darkness would drive anyone mad.)

I want to ensure various other demon-hunting teams are made aware of what's going on with Kurou's place so that someone can ensure no swarm of demons kills a bunch of people.

[Sierra]

Advance notice that I will be out of town October 9th, so no session that weekend.