Likewise, I hadn't misunderstood what you intended with stepping in to write the god-mod posts instead of Veldanya. I get why the rule was put there - got to keep the action flowing and all - but like Shadow said, I'd have thought sending a reminder (maybe a week's notice, for example) would have been the go-to option. And if the person in question is still unable to get a post in or are willing to hand it off, then go for the god-modding.

For the Battle Host's extra timeframe, I think a week or two is reasonable. Gives them some leeway without it being too long. Also, I realise I may be echoing Shadow a fair bit with this. Interesting to see how similarly we think, though.

All in all, I'm happy with the proposed changes, and I look forward to seeing how things pan out from here.

It's been a long time since it's been used, so as a reminder: the Spear of the Apocalypse is a projectile similar to Soul Reaver's Sphere of Annihilation.  However, whereas the Sphere of Annihilation explodes into a huge sphere that tends to vaporize anything within it, the Spear of Apocalypse is more restrained, its energy remaining focused largely on and immediately around anything the Spear actually strikes (which makes it slightly easier, faster, and less draining to cast - but it's still a very high-level offensive spell).

It'll travel in a straight line and cause massive damage to anything that it hits without stopping.  Soul Reaver judges, by the size of the crystal, that it'll either explode it into a million tiny bits or, if its structure isn't exploded by the extreme pressure/temperature differentials of the impact, will obliterate near half of its mass in a nice tunnel-shaped hole through the middle.

Oh I don't misunderstand the purpose of the last two options at all. You are just correct in that I don't particularly like the god-mod method in any regard, because, regardless of how it might help the battle host, it is essentially threatening the player to make a post, which as I've mentioned is a bad way to get me to want to do that, and E and F, at least as the only solution taken, would only make that worse. And it's largely the way it's formatted; the current layout is that the god-mod is the default response for missing the deadline, when ideally the only default response should be to talk to the person in question and see what works best in their situation. The only time I'd recommend something like god-modding someone is if they agree to it or you just can't get into contact with them at all, rather than it being a standard threat sitting on display.

There is a recognizable tonal difference between 'You are approaching your deadline, please make a post or your character will be god-modded' and 'Hey, you're getting close to the deadline, do you need any assistance getting your post out there or anything from the mod?'

As for a timeframe on C; A week or two sounds fine to me. I would personally lean closer to two weeks, just because the fact that's half the amount of time the normal limit is set to makes my pattern-seeking brain happy, but either is fine.

Wanted to wait for others to post their opinions given that of course this is (in a more direct way) revolving around me as the current Battle Host.   In terms of which options I feel like C/B/A are the best options (listed in order of "Best" to "worst" relatively).  Option C I think would certainly help AND I feel like is a plausible long term solution not only for myself but in general as actual potential permanent changes to the rules.  Option B of course is clearly a temp fix/band-aid so of course will work for now but doesnt really do much to fix some flaws in present rules (option C i feel like strives to do this).  Option A will "work" technically but does nothing to fix the present issues caused by lack of posting and does nothing to fix flaws in current rules.  Option E sounds like it would "work" but yeah doesnt fix flaws in present rules and yeah places more work on Soul Reaver versus on myself AND can potentially result in issues like we had recently where 50% of the players are going to be god-modded. 

I am largely indifferent to approach taken except for options E and F, which I would definitely -not- want to see implemented.

Sometimes life is busy or sometimes you're not particularly inspired for a post and it takes a while. But the board is supposed to be fun, not homework. I don't mind getting prodded occasionally if I've been slacking on posting something for a bit, but being threatened with something like 'make a post or I'll make it for you' just tends to make the inherently rebellious part of my brain go 'well fine, fuck you then, do it better yourself.' and want to post even -less-.

I find myself agreeing with Shadow, to me E and F feel like they may cause more issues than they would solve for that reason.

In the interest of keeping things going, options B and C stick out for me. Less stress on the Battle Host that way.

I think you might have both misunderstood what (e) is about...

The current rules already allow the Battle Host to god-mod a player that’s holding things up and preventing them from posting within their own deadline.  Veldanya just hasn’t done so.  In (e), I was proposing that if I see a situation where Veldanya's post deadline is coming up and a player still hasn't posted, it would me that would god-mod them instead of Veldanya needing to do so.  That would leave them one less thing to worry about when they have time to post.

We’ve always had a rule that the Battle Host would be able to god-mod players that were holding up the plot.  I personally have always thought that this was in important rule/tool to have available.

Put yourself in the Battle Host’s shoes: you’ve posted almost a month ago where you cooked up some sort of special attack against everyone that will wipe them out if they don’t respond in some clever way.  And everyone’s responded, except for one person.  What are you supposed to do?  Unless you can god-mod the actions of the non-posting person to at least some extent by ‘assuming’ what they might have done, then the only options open to you are:
i) to hold off on your next Battle Host post, keep harassing the player that hasn’t posted (assuming you can get hold of them) and hope this person will post eventually (leading to a situation where one non-poster is holding everyone else hostage, and where you, as the Battle Host, need to ask the Admin/other players for more time so that they don't God-mod YOU to move the plot along)
OR
ii) pretend like that character has done nothing at all and gets hit accordingly (which is a total jerk move and a type of god-mod in its own right)
OR
iii) 100% ignore the character in your next post (which makes for some really incoherent writing, not to mention is sometimes close to impossible in certain situations where the characters really need to give their input)
OR
iv) something else I haven't thought of...?

Making a god-mod post for a non-posting player is supposed to be a last resort when other methods (eg, ideally reminding the player etc) have failed.  Practically speaking we’ve very rarely had to use that rule in the past, though in some rare cases we did have to do so.  In those cases I was glad the option was there.  I’d also like to point out that those god-mod posts should be kept very restrained – only as much detail is included to provide what is necessary.  The posts tend to be relatively short, ‘conservative’ solutions to a given problem that are as much in-line with established character powers/personality as possible, and don’t do anything like introducing new powers or result in any key character development.

If the idea of the Battle Host (or Admin in the interim, if we accept (e)) making God-mod posts for a player who doesn’t post in a certain timeframe is something a majority of players can’t get on-board with, we will need some alternative, ‘official’ means for the Battle Host to deal with a situation where they are supposed to post but a player hasn’t posted yet.

If you’ve got any alternative ideas, or refinements to the current rule (please do re-read it if you need to jog your memory), this is a good thread to discuss those.