Preliminary to the game-status post (which will appear momentarily), I have to regretfully scale down my roster of characters.

I'm especially sorry to lose Ram, my first Tron character and, for a long time, my strongest muse here. Most of the others are going because even six was too many characters for me to hang onto at once.

For continuity purposes:

Ram and Wulf have been Portaled out. Wulf's clinic is left in the (usually) capable hands of his orderlies. Stats and Analysis will run smoothly in Ram's absence, as they try to keep plenty of backup programs on call.
Roy is back in his own world, trapped on his side of the Portal because of the vagaries of spacetime.
Ko has returned to the Outlands, working on recreating the Grid's network of weather stations.

Allon (overarch) and Eckert (electrifaction) will remain in g_l for the time being.


Thank you, everyone, for the amazing stories all our characters built together. It's been an honor to play these people with you.

First of all, I have to apologise to everyone for falling silent throughout May. Job-hunting woes and general muse loss rendered me mute, and I didn't want to say anything until I had something constructive to say, but somehow never did have anything.

Though There Was An Attempt (and, we hope, a good one while it lasted), it seems to me that, pre-May, the changes we made to Grid_Lined did not help those who'd wanted a faster and more controlled environment and did not suit those who preferred a less structured experience, and did not matter to those who were okay with either one. Attempts at managing several years' worth of continuity and frequently-interrupted CR have been bogging everyone down and rendering g_l inaccessible to casual and long-term players alike, and of the players who had been active at all in the past few months, many have been swamped by rl since then.

That includes me, and I have to reluctantly conclude that my responsibilities right now don't leave me the headspace for running a game with mod events and a complex continuity.


Therefore, after discussing this, Dawn and I have decided to roll the game down to a sandbox format.

*The game's original rules for characters, tagging, and rp etiquette will still apply.

*There will no longer be a schedule of events or a bimonthly check-in. Not sure about the plot-with-me posts; those seem to have pressured some people.

*The difference from the pre-big-game format is that while Free Grid posts will still absolutely be allowed, so will voicetest/meme-style posts and tagging outside of Free Grid continuity. If you want to have your Tron character pilot a Jaeger (you know who you are~~~~), or escape the system in the eighties and infiltrate ENCOM disguised as a User, or want to set a post during the Occupation or in the 2.0-verse and play without previous in-game continuity, such posts will now be allowed.

*We'll be creating some new tags with which to manage different continuities. For now, they don't need to be used; we'll go in and apply them retroactively when we figure them out. A Continuity: Free Grid (or ENCOM Era; Pre-Legacy; AU; whatever it is) note above the who/when/where information on new posts will be enough for now.

This is supposed to be A FREE SYSTEM FOR EVERYBODAAAYYYY -- I mean what.~ Hopefully these changes will dial down the pressure and make this place fun again.

Can't make an in-post poll right now, so please comment if you want to answer this one:


Should we:
(A) Place the comm as a whole on hiatus for a month, to give swamped players a genuine no-guilt break?
(B) Leave the comm open whether people are ready to post here or not?

Questions will be answered; comments are screened.