Easter Ball

I put some stuff up about the old ball, just for a point of reference. Dunno how many bites we'll get but it's always worth a shot! Though this would mean I'll have to respec to get diplomacy back...

Did we ever settle on a location? Or, more importantly perhaps, a date?

Easter's kind of a complex one to try and figure out... Basically because Rome changed from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian in the 1500's, but the changeover took some time... and England (not being Catholic) didn't get around to changing for a lot longer (1750s)!

However, for the sake of clarity, here's one site that claims to know definitively the dates for our time setting:

http://www.assa.org.au/edm.html#List17

They claim March 31 for 1720, and April 13 for 1721. (I always imagine it must be 1721 now since we launched a year ago in 1720. Your mileage may vary.)

So I wouldn't worry about the actual date of Easter so much, and might just want to go with a date somewhere early to mid April-ish and pick a Friday or Saturday night to work from.

Though if I might suggest, RP-wise, that it'll be best if we claim it's *after* Easter and not just before since partying and revelry during Holy Week really isn't the best idea. Nailing Jesus to the cross and all is rather depressing. We don't even get Hallelujah chorus in church during Lent.

This does bring up an interesting issue. How would this work for people who don't have diplomacy? I know a lot of people pick this up and then ditch it because it simply enables you to hear crap in multiple sectors rather than just on your own nation chat. I myself have always thought it a waste of a skill point.

What kind of interaction can you imagine for characters without diplomacy, from an RP point of view? If we were ignorant Brits whose typical response to encountering another language is that "ils parlent l'Anglais le plus fort" (as the wonderful line from the film Orlando has it) we'd be fine, but we represent France and are therefore sophisticated and cultured (and even as Scots/Irish many of us would historically be bilingual if not trilingual).

Actually, back when we held the first ball, it seemed many of us already had diplomacy - especially the Spanish and Pirates, since they often did Rum & Wenches night internationally. But anymore, yeah, I imagine most of us don't have diplomacy anymore.

Those who have established some sort of RP background in multiple languages (or just want to know what's going on, even if they don't act on it) will have to pick up re-specs, run over to Pensacola or PaP to pick up diplo from the general trainer, and run back over there after the party sometime to re-fix our builds.

There were at least one or two that didn't have diplo at the last ball. They didn't stay long, probably because I didn't notice anyone bothering to translate - which I attribute to a functional flaw in the diplomacy ability, that you apparently have a universal ear but can't speak anything but your own language.

I have always kept diplomacy. Not sure as to why just always have.

Ironically, I just unspecced it on my last attempt to go for a battle-ready FT. *sigh* Ah well. I'll probably leave it on again after this ball, just in case it's needed. Technically Chant should be able to have a pretty decent grasp of Spanish and "patois" anyway, having the background in Latin and being a former 'rat. English, well, not sure about that...

Aye, it is true that Chantilly's grasp of English is demonstrably shaky. . .

Deoiridh wrote:

Aye, it is true that Chantilly's grasp of English is demonstrably shaky. . .

Zing!

But what I lack in quality, I make up in volume!

Émile deMontfort wrote:

As I remember, Henri didn't have diplo but stayed the entire time because I and others did, in fact, translate for him.

He didn't? I'd forgotten that. I only remembered a pirate or two. Well aren't you just Translator Hero then. Ah, Henri. Totally miss that guy, he was such a class act.

Émile deMontfort wrote:

I was under the impression that we were going to be using Fort Caroline... as for the date, maybe the Friday before Easter (10 April)? When was Easter in 1720?

The first Sunday on or after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox, that day being fixed as March 21st. (so March 31, 1720 Gregorian)

And for what it's worth, the French and English calandars are 11 day different in 1720. And for how different countries/churches calculated Easter...

I dropped diplomacy as a worthless skill some time ago. If it's in the evening (US times) I won't be able to make it most likely anyway.

Hey, it even looks like some of my poking around the Vanguardia forums has unearthed one of them... We might yet get to pay back at least a few for their prior hospitality.

There's a decent amount of buzz among the Vanguardians about returning to Pirates in order to help with the RP movement. Hey guys, we're a movement now!

I'm starting to get high hopes for this ball.

Émile deMontfort wrote:

I received an answer to my "soft inquiry," as Chantilly puts it, to FLS today. It would seem that they are willing to help out, and would just like to know what sorts of things we'd like. Beyond the possibility of access to a "ball room" instance, is there anything else we should ask for. Maybe a news post on the community site once we have things hammered out?

Maybe they can provide several appropriate musical selections if they actually provide a ballroom?

It would be nice to be able to check diplomacy at the door but that would be too much to ask. I think its great they are considering a room as possible. On another note we have had a couple of inquires in the game as to attendance and where we RP if there is a location.

I love all the suggestions so far... music, auto-diplomacy inside the instance, and definitely a news posting. Any of those, if possible, would go so far towards making this completely epic.

As for where we RP now... you can always tell them "anywhere" as an answer but I doubt that's what they're looking for. We've had a couple different bases of operations over the past year - Grenville to start, P-a-P during the CdIO months, lately it's been St. Augustine's tavern but that's none too centrally located, and is an ugly, ugly port to boot. Not to mention that when we do RP, it's usually spontaneous.

I suppose this is as good of a call for standardization as any...

I belive I answered the questioner as to where do you all RP was "Where ever I am at the time. ((on Society or Locally when I meet with someone face to face.))

Namo Larkin wrote:

I belive I answered the questioner as to where do you all RP was "Where ever I am at the time. ((on Society or Locally when I meet with someone face to face.))

Accurate, yet probably not what the poor petitioner was looking for. Ah, for a standard RP night into which we could drag curious strangers. I must think on this.