Site Updates and Information
Jul 22, 2013 19:39:31 GMT -5
Post by Sean * on Jul 22, 2013 19:39:31 GMT -5
Many changes are coming to Hammel, and there are many events on the horizon. Some have been scheduled for a long time, while others are new, but no less well-thought-out.
1) The first is the one that has been planned for the longest time: Hammel is upgrading to Proboards v5. This is a mandatory update that will begin on Monday, July 29, 2013. I do not know at what time it will begin, but the board will be down for a few hours during the upgrade. After the software is upgraded, the staff will need to take some additional time to make sure everything is player ready. At that point, the site may be in Maintenance Mode. Do not panic – this will be temporary, and staff will work hard so that the board is down for the shortest possible amount of time.
This is a link to the Hammel C-Box: hammelinstitute.chatango.com/
The Hamel C-Box will be up and running during the site upgrade, so that we can all still spend time together while we wait for our fancy new software.
2) We have updated our documentation! Please read everything. As always, players are on the honor system, and there will be no quizzes. However, staff has put a lot of work into the updated documentation, so please validate us.
Plot – The plot description has been updated to better reflect the course of the game. New plots will be introduced below.
Information on Powers – The powers list now includes nearly double the amount of powers from the original list. There are new side effects and some of the descriptions have been tweaked to match developed Hammel canon.
Hammel FAQ – We have updated the FAQ to better reflect site history and canon. We intend to continue to answer questions as they come; please be patient with us.
IC Rules – There has been some inappropriate behavior from Hammel faculty and from students. Here are some remainders: 1) Any staff member engaging in inappropriate conduct with students, including but not limited to: any form of romantic or intimate relationship, spying, facilitating illegal activities or endangering minors, or physical altercations with students – will be terminated from employment at Hammel. The character will be banned from the Hammel campus for life, and Hammel will put out word of the reason for termination, such that the adult character will not be able to work at other schools, or, in the case of sexual contact with minors, will be registered as a sex offender, in accordance with Vermont and federal laws. 2) Any student breaking school rules, or engaging in conduct that is illegal under Vermont or federal laws, will be subject to school discipline. IC conduct results in IC consequences, and thus these punishments are not negotiable. Depending on the nature of the offense, punishments can include, but are not limited to: detention (and school service); mandatory therapy sessions, anger management, or substance abuse counseling; grounding to the Hammel campus; banning from recreational events (like dances and school trips); security escorts, power suppression, and parent alerts. 3) Any property damage to the school building needs to be cleared with staff, because it affects more than just the characters immediately involved in the individual plot.
Claims – We have been trying to update the claims. Please go to each claim individually and scan for your characters. If they are missing or contain incorrect information, please post in the appropriate thread. A staff member will edit accordingly.
3) We have a number of plots and events on the horizon! Each plot and event will have its own thread with more detailed information and, if applicable, the ability to sign up. These are merely brief teasers coupled with a general overview.
First, we are introducing a new user group: People United for Safety and Equality (PUSE). This is a non-partisan group of Pilot Ridge residents and their allies who wish to limit and prevent meta-human political involvement because they view meta-humans as having a naturally unfair advantage. There are adoptable characters for this group, which have been posted. Please speak to a staff member, particularly Dryope or Sean, if you are interested in taking one of the PUSE characters. Additionally, gender group members will be accepted as well; please speak to staff if you are interested in making a pure OC for this plot.
Second, we have a number of other adoptable characters to provide a counterweight to PUSE, all part of the same plot. They have also been posted. If you are interested in taking any of these characters, please speak to a staff member, particularly Dryope or Sean, before registering an account and making a profile.
Third, for the students and Hammel faculty members – there will be a government inspection of Hammel as soon as the summer break ends. The bureaucrats are coming to make sure that the school is up to code and that it is abiding by all current academic standards and state and federal rules. IC they will be with us for a few days, no more than one school week. The inspectors will be NPC accounts.
Fourth, after the inspection, there will be a Hammel exchange program. What this means: new characters will arrive for one semester to learn at Hammel; these characters are exchange students from Essai and Kocher. In return, some students from Hammel will be sent abroad. As part of the program, there will be community involvement, and the exchange students will have jobs in the community in order to learn skills and earn pocket money.
How this will work – Exchange students to Hammel will be applied for as per normal rules, and characters are open to all players. This is an excellent opportunity to have requests filled for family and friends for any international students. Most of these exchange student characters will be temporary, but there will be the potential for a permanent transfer if all goes well for that individual character. Any character who breaks major rules will be sent back early, or will not be allowed to stay, the same way that real life exchange programs are governed. There will be some new faculty members as well.
For characters going abroad – you will not be able to play your character abroad. Players who wish to temporarily retire characters can do so and use this as the explanation for where their characters went. No characters with major disciplinary problems will be allowed to go abroad, because they are being punished, and Hammel would not want to punish the staff members at their sister schools. If we do not have many players interested in sending their characters abroad, they will be supplemented with NPCs, so don’t worry about making numbers. The only exception for playing abroad is that you will be allowed to have your character use the communications board to contact people back home.
Fifth, Sean’s Sexual Education Talk is on the horizon. It’s that time of year again.
For new players: Sean Neville is the designated sexual education instructor at Hammel. Every year for the past two-plus decades, he delivers a single lecture to cover the sexual education curriculum, in lieu of a health class. The event is only open to current students and to designated (largely volunteer) faculty. No alumni and no local community members are admitted.
The Talk is a mandatory event for all rising seniors (students who plan to graduate in June 2014), regardless of age. Any character over the age of twelve is allowed to attend, although if things become intense, Sean has the authority to ask younger students to leave. If you do not want to actually write in the thread, that is fine, but for back story, your character must have attended (and it would be a good idea to at least skim the thread, in case anything interesting happened of which your senior character should be aware).
In the week before the thread opens, a request for questions is posted. You can PM Sean’s character account with IC questions from your character, to be answered during the Talk. Not every question will be answered, but many will be. The more questions, the better, so please send them in.
A final warning regarding this event – while shenanigans do happen, IC actions lead to IC consequences. In light of events of years past, faculty has a low threshold of tolerance at the Talk, so please think before you have your character cause a disruption.
Lastly, there will be a community fair in August. There will be some rides, games, entertainment, and lots of food. For interested characters, there will be some competitions; since we have many characters with baking skills, there will be a pie judging (and pie eating) competition, for instance. We are interested in suggestions for fair events and for IC volunteers to start those events as threads.
More events and plots will follow throughout the years. Please be on the lookout for future announcements.
1) The first is the one that has been planned for the longest time: Hammel is upgrading to Proboards v5. This is a mandatory update that will begin on Monday, July 29, 2013. I do not know at what time it will begin, but the board will be down for a few hours during the upgrade. After the software is upgraded, the staff will need to take some additional time to make sure everything is player ready. At that point, the site may be in Maintenance Mode. Do not panic – this will be temporary, and staff will work hard so that the board is down for the shortest possible amount of time.
This is a link to the Hammel C-Box: hammelinstitute.chatango.com/
The Hamel C-Box will be up and running during the site upgrade, so that we can all still spend time together while we wait for our fancy new software.
2) We have updated our documentation! Please read everything. As always, players are on the honor system, and there will be no quizzes. However, staff has put a lot of work into the updated documentation, so please validate us.
Plot – The plot description has been updated to better reflect the course of the game. New plots will be introduced below.
Information on Powers – The powers list now includes nearly double the amount of powers from the original list. There are new side effects and some of the descriptions have been tweaked to match developed Hammel canon.
Hammel FAQ – We have updated the FAQ to better reflect site history and canon. We intend to continue to answer questions as they come; please be patient with us.
IC Rules – There has been some inappropriate behavior from Hammel faculty and from students. Here are some remainders: 1) Any staff member engaging in inappropriate conduct with students, including but not limited to: any form of romantic or intimate relationship, spying, facilitating illegal activities or endangering minors, or physical altercations with students – will be terminated from employment at Hammel. The character will be banned from the Hammel campus for life, and Hammel will put out word of the reason for termination, such that the adult character will not be able to work at other schools, or, in the case of sexual contact with minors, will be registered as a sex offender, in accordance with Vermont and federal laws. 2) Any student breaking school rules, or engaging in conduct that is illegal under Vermont or federal laws, will be subject to school discipline. IC conduct results in IC consequences, and thus these punishments are not negotiable. Depending on the nature of the offense, punishments can include, but are not limited to: detention (and school service); mandatory therapy sessions, anger management, or substance abuse counseling; grounding to the Hammel campus; banning from recreational events (like dances and school trips); security escorts, power suppression, and parent alerts. 3) Any property damage to the school building needs to be cleared with staff, because it affects more than just the characters immediately involved in the individual plot.
Claims – We have been trying to update the claims. Please go to each claim individually and scan for your characters. If they are missing or contain incorrect information, please post in the appropriate thread. A staff member will edit accordingly.
3) We have a number of plots and events on the horizon! Each plot and event will have its own thread with more detailed information and, if applicable, the ability to sign up. These are merely brief teasers coupled with a general overview.
First, we are introducing a new user group: People United for Safety and Equality (PUSE). This is a non-partisan group of Pilot Ridge residents and their allies who wish to limit and prevent meta-human political involvement because they view meta-humans as having a naturally unfair advantage. There are adoptable characters for this group, which have been posted. Please speak to a staff member, particularly Dryope or Sean, if you are interested in taking one of the PUSE characters. Additionally, gender group members will be accepted as well; please speak to staff if you are interested in making a pure OC for this plot.
Second, we have a number of other adoptable characters to provide a counterweight to PUSE, all part of the same plot. They have also been posted. If you are interested in taking any of these characters, please speak to a staff member, particularly Dryope or Sean, before registering an account and making a profile.
Third, for the students and Hammel faculty members – there will be a government inspection of Hammel as soon as the summer break ends. The bureaucrats are coming to make sure that the school is up to code and that it is abiding by all current academic standards and state and federal rules. IC they will be with us for a few days, no more than one school week. The inspectors will be NPC accounts.
Fourth, after the inspection, there will be a Hammel exchange program. What this means: new characters will arrive for one semester to learn at Hammel; these characters are exchange students from Essai and Kocher. In return, some students from Hammel will be sent abroad. As part of the program, there will be community involvement, and the exchange students will have jobs in the community in order to learn skills and earn pocket money.
How this will work – Exchange students to Hammel will be applied for as per normal rules, and characters are open to all players. This is an excellent opportunity to have requests filled for family and friends for any international students. Most of these exchange student characters will be temporary, but there will be the potential for a permanent transfer if all goes well for that individual character. Any character who breaks major rules will be sent back early, or will not be allowed to stay, the same way that real life exchange programs are governed. There will be some new faculty members as well.
For characters going abroad – you will not be able to play your character abroad. Players who wish to temporarily retire characters can do so and use this as the explanation for where their characters went. No characters with major disciplinary problems will be allowed to go abroad, because they are being punished, and Hammel would not want to punish the staff members at their sister schools. If we do not have many players interested in sending their characters abroad, they will be supplemented with NPCs, so don’t worry about making numbers. The only exception for playing abroad is that you will be allowed to have your character use the communications board to contact people back home.
Fifth, Sean’s Sexual Education Talk is on the horizon. It’s that time of year again.
For new players: Sean Neville is the designated sexual education instructor at Hammel. Every year for the past two-plus decades, he delivers a single lecture to cover the sexual education curriculum, in lieu of a health class. The event is only open to current students and to designated (largely volunteer) faculty. No alumni and no local community members are admitted.
The Talk is a mandatory event for all rising seniors (students who plan to graduate in June 2014), regardless of age. Any character over the age of twelve is allowed to attend, although if things become intense, Sean has the authority to ask younger students to leave. If you do not want to actually write in the thread, that is fine, but for back story, your character must have attended (and it would be a good idea to at least skim the thread, in case anything interesting happened of which your senior character should be aware).
In the week before the thread opens, a request for questions is posted. You can PM Sean’s character account with IC questions from your character, to be answered during the Talk. Not every question will be answered, but many will be. The more questions, the better, so please send them in.
A final warning regarding this event – while shenanigans do happen, IC actions lead to IC consequences. In light of events of years past, faculty has a low threshold of tolerance at the Talk, so please think before you have your character cause a disruption.
Lastly, there will be a community fair in August. There will be some rides, games, entertainment, and lots of food. For interested characters, there will be some competitions; since we have many characters with baking skills, there will be a pie judging (and pie eating) competition, for instance. We are interested in suggestions for fair events and for IC volunteers to start those events as threads.
More events and plots will follow throughout the years. Please be on the lookout for future announcements.
