5/23/2009 - Next game on May 30th! Please join us next Saturday for "Three Rings", the next episode of Ji Dian Station at Rory's House in Kirkland.

2/23/2009 - Game Announcement and an XP Oppurtunity for you! Coming up on February 28th, in Kirkland, is the 21st Episode of Ji Dian Station, "A Strange Noise and a Sudden Heat". Before we get to the game teaser, the staff have a proposition for the players and players who accept our proposal (by filling out the survey) will get some XP to go with it.

At 11 years old, Damian still enjoyed sounding out the words that he found around the station. Most were hard, but the sign above his head was not terribly difficult, even though it was long.

"Re. Act. Tor. 2", he sounded out before proudly repeating what the sign said. He looked over to his Pa and Uncle Jim Roy, who sat on top of the strange metal structure he had just named; hoping for approval, but neither one seemed to have heard.

Just a few minutes before, Damian, who had been told to hunt around the crawl spaces for scrap metal to sell to the Invaders on the upper deck, instead found a nest of rats. Using a trap that he kept on him, he managed to snare three good-sized ones. Although he wanted to butcher them himself, his Pa sent him back to hunting metal while his uncle prepared the mid-afternoon meal for the trio.

Unlucky in his search and hungry to the point of painful growling, Damian waited patiently as the sweet- smelling meat cooked on top of the station's power supply. Usually there were Invaders around to chase people away from their longtime stove, but lately the Invaders had travelled down here less. Damian had heard stories that the one of the important Invaders had been murdered, but doubted it was true. Usually when his people thought one of them dead, they were just taking one of their fancy ships to some far-off place.

"Did you hear that one of those sharpshooting Invaders gon'na get in a shootin' match whi-anuther?", ventured Jim Roy as he turned the spit of juicy meat.

"Fine by me. Save us a whole heap'a trouble if they pick each other off. Nuthin' good come from 'em anyway. Don't hardly pay nuttin' for scrap and they just as soon shoot as look at ya.", Damian's Pa said, although everyone knew that he was all talk, since the coin he got in trade with the Invaders had made his life much nicer.

Tired of listening to the same conversation even one more time, Damian looked around at the reactor and noticed a part that did not look to belong with the rest of it. Walking over to it, he kicked it and noticed it had some give. Playing with it, he was sure it was definitely good metal, probably worth something. Damian took out his knife and tried to pry off just the outer casing. It took a bit of jiggling before the casing finally gave way. As soon as it did, a small circuit board fell to the ground, a glass part of it shattering.

Damian cautiously looked around to make sure neither of his elders had noticed and crawled back through a hole and waited. Eventually his Pa called him out. He ran up and presented the metal casing to much approval.

With a large grin and a big thumbs-up, his Pa bit into the cooked meat. He immediately spat out the chunk and turned testily on his brother.

"Gorramit, this thing is hot. Why'd you let it cook for so long?"

1/18/2009 - January 24th game, "Death and Dismemberment", has been announced! The weeks and months have been rolling by. An unexpected meteor shower brought the station to a standstill in the closing months of December. As some had predicted, Olin Thomjack announced his last day aboard the skyplex on February 10th. In coordination with J.D., the engineering staff is throwing a "reception" for Thomjack to wish him all of the luck of the 'Verse in his future endeavors. Of course, it never goes that smooth, does it?

12/18/2008 - The December 20th game has been canceled due to snow. Jim and I decided that prognosis of the local roads do not look good--they are certainly quite nasty right now--and the uncertainty around what the weather will bring. At the time of this writing, weather.com is predicting more snow on Saturday. We are gifting 5 XP to every player because of the cancelation and we may consider doing a make-up game at another time.

10/26/2009 - November game has changed dates! Just a quick notice, during the game yesterday, the players agreed to move the November game to the Saturday after Thanksgiving, November 29th.

10/21/2008 - In the office of Olin Thomjack...
Allyn Moore approached the open door to Olin Thomjack's office. "What's the status, Moore?" Thomjack didn't look up from the paperwork before him.
The young engineer shifted from foot to foot. "Eden's dome has been patched and braced, but..."
"But you're not sure how long it will hold?"
"No, Sir," Moore said, taking a moment to breathe deeply, "I'm concerned about Midian's dome, sir." Without giving the senior engineer any time to respond, the new engineer jumped into the details. "Midian may be the newer bay, Sir, but her dome is older than Eden's. If Eden's has cracked, I'm sure the other isn't far behind."
The engineer managed to catch her supervisor's attention. Sitting up, Thomjack eyed her, "What do you think the best course of action is then?"
"I think we should be scanning the dome structure for stresses before anything else."
"Sounds like a good start, Moore."
"Thank you, Sir." Allyn Moore left the room a little lighter than when she entered it.
Thomjack scratched his thigh absently as he turned his attention back to the diagnostic report on reactor 2. The problem child of the station had been acting up again and this time, Thomjack was tempted to just leave it shutdown for the time being. Now, if he could just shake that feeling that disaster was looming around the corner.

This saturday is the 18th episode of Ji Dian Station, "Give Me Shelter". We are still looking for some additions to our game staff to help make running the game smoother. During the announcements we will also be bringing up the holiday schedule and a possible change in schedule based on your feedback.

8/17/2008 - On the operations deck of Ji Dian Station...
"Shuttle Paso Doble, do you copy?"
Huo Evans looked at the scrawny man, "Any response, Thomjack?"
The chief of engineering let out a sigh, "No, Cheerful, no one's opened up the com over there." Olin always took a bit of pleasure when poking Evans, knowing who much he hates the nickname.
"What'd you got on the ship?"
"It's a Mercerindyne Hopster, a speedy little short range shuttle."
"What's it doing out here?"
"That's a very good question," Olin looked at Cheerful to gauge his reaction before continuing his analysis. "Her reactor shielding looks to be runnin' a little hot and the aft hull looks like it's leakin'. She was beat up pretty bad, Huo. There is only one life sign on that boat I can see and it's fadin' pretty fast."
"Is she goin' to hit us?"
"No, but with her trajectory, she has a date with the planet in about five hours. Listen, I know we haven't seen any out here yet, but do you think it might be...reavers?"
"This far in, Thomjack? You must be itchin' to leave here earlier than you said, aren't you? No, it's probably not reavers." Cheerful turned to walk out, "Get your best crew assembled to bring her in. If he's still alive by then, he's gonna need to see the doc. If it was reavers...we need to know."

Please join us for episode 16 of Ji Dian Station, "Cut the Swathe" on August 23rd at the Clark House in Kirkland, Washington, for an afternoon of storytelling in the 'verse. For more information, please see the website at www.jidianstation.org.

7/19/2008 - The Excel character sheet template and archived news items. I have updated the Excel template in downloads for building characters. It no longer requires the GV2Web.dll to be installed if you are not importing the character into a Grapevine database. The template now also includes buttons for creating random characters or even just random parts of characters like attributes, boons, hitches, and skills. The ReadMe file has also been overhauled to make it more informative.

Additionally, I have archived all of the news items that are greater than 6 months old into "Archived News and Updated".

7/16/2008 - "The Devil You Know", Episode 15. Four hours before Lucky Lucy's opened on the 26th, reports began coming across the cortex that the Richards Federal Station on Triumph was badly damaged by a bomb blast in what many are calling a terrorist action. Fourteen federal agents and five civilians were killed in the blast and thirty-eight more were wounded. Within minutes of the blast, all traffic on and off of the moon were closed down. The Feds have even insisted on blockading the station in case the bomber was able to get off planet before the blast. People on the deck five, where the docking rings can be found, collectively sighed in resignation as the station was placed into orbital lock once again. Obviously, the feds do not want any of recent arrivals to leave in hurry.

In very least there is still Lucy's and there is no sign of it not opening on time.

6/21/2008 - Game Announcement: Edisode 14, "Whispers of the Muse." The wave crackles for a moment, as if it were some deep space transmission, originating from a remote rim world and not deck four, where a woman's face comes into sharp focus, talking to you as if you were a long lost friend. 'My name is Elnora Darosa and I am the local matron of the Artist's Guild's new chapter house aboard the station. Please join us for an open house as we cut the ribbon on our new home starting at 15:00 on the 28th. Come celebrate with us the beginning of a new era for the arts."

5/17/2008 - The next game is at BayCon! This is just a reminder that the next game, Harlequins and Hellfire, is in California, not the usual Seattle Area location.

And a reminder! We are about a month out from "Lights Out" at Norwescon.

Old news items can be found here.

4/19/2008 - Today's game has been rescheduled. Unfortunately, one of the game marshalls has become very sick and we are postponing the game to May 3rd because of it and putting things into a holding pattern until then. We appologize for any inconvenience this may cause for our players. Players, both new and old alike, are still welcome to come by Rory's place as an oppurtunity to discuss character concepts and get assistance as needed or simply just chat.

4/13/2008 - Interregnum. Episode 12 of Ji Dian Station, "Interregnum" has been announced. ...The Yuen Siu festival ended in murder most foul; Lord Drake Bell's servant, whose name is currently being withheld by station security, was found to be the culprit behind the murders of Miss Oriana Egger and Lord Bell himself. The servant, or as rumor has it--a Syndicate mastermind--was later killed by Marcus Black. The murder has been ruled self-defense. This last tragic event is the last to be overseen by Special Security Director Jasper Levesque, as he has been withdrawn from his post, however federal forces still believe that a Special Security Director is needed aboard the station. Until a candidate is appointed, Agent Sora Hesper will be fulfilling the role in the interim. Station Security Chief, Huo "Cheerful" Evans, was quoted as saying that "Levesque's departure is a true disappoint."...

...Ji Dian Station management is proud to announce the appointment of a new Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Shannon Bennett. Dr. Bennett has served as both a surgeon and emergency response doctor aboard Ji Dian since it opened its doors once again four years ago. Dr. Bennett is happy to announce that she has hired a new doctor, Dr. Jason Schovajsa. Dr. Schovajsa is native to Londinium and trained on Ariel. He served as a medical officer during the War of Unification and has an excellent reputation in the private sector. Join them on the 19th at 4pm at Chef Chu's on the Promenade to welcome the good doctor and get to know our new Chief Medical Officer...

...The Artist Guild has announced its intentions to open a chapter house aboard Ji Dian Station. Melissa Archer, a guild representative, said that the station's unique orbit provides an opportunity for classes and cultural interaction and the promotion of artistic and social diversity. This chapter house will have the chance to truly embrace our unity and represent unification in artist form. The chapter house is slated to open within three months...

3/10/2008 - The April game is rescheduled! We had to reschedule the April game to the 19th to avoid a collision with the Norwescon Post-Con meeting. We hope that this does not cause too many problems for people.

3/9/2008 - Reminder: Sign up ends on March 14th for Lights Out at Norwescon 31! Jim and I just completed the second round of character assignments for the Lights Out. If you have not received an e-mail from us telling you the name of your character and a very short synopsis of the character, then we do not have registration information on file for you.

If you filled out the form, located at http://www.jidianstation.org/cons/NorwesconSignup.aspx, and did not get an e-mail, we sincerely apologize; the mail server might have eaten it. Please fill out the form again, which will send a copy of your answers to us and to you.

If you have not filled out the form and you want to play, there is still time to sign up. We are accepting registrations until Friday, March 14th, 2008.

To register: Go to http://www.jidianstation.org/cons/NorwesconSignup.aspx by Friday, March 14th, 2008.

Cost: Free to convention members
When: Friday, March 21st, 2008, from 6:00 pm to midnight
Game Operations will be located in the 1st Floor Rotunda between wings 4 and 5

2/20/2008 - Location for "Zeus' Gambit, Part II" announced! The 10th episode of Ji Dian Station is coming up this weekend on the 23rd of February. We have settled on the game site, Rory's House. Doc Hope has revealed himself to be Dr. Marcus Argentum, the chief officer aboard Ji Dian Station while it was under the control of the Alliance before the accident, and has seized control of the station, threatening to release toxic gas into the station's air systems if anyone tries to interfere. The echoes of Hope's ominous message rings clear in your ears, "I will finish what I started all those years ago."

1/22/2008

12/10/2007 - Location for "Echoes" Announced. See above for the link to the location. :p

12/4/2007 - Episode 8 of Ji Dian Station Announced, "Echoes", and Lights Out, a Ji Dian Station episode at Norwescon 31 - Since the broadcast of what some are calling the "Pax Wave" on the Cortex, some have called upon parliament to investigate the charges laid out in the broadcast. Others have shouted down the Prime Minister Emer, calling for his resignation in the scandal. Regardless of these outside events, life continues on while the echoes of the past can be heard in the settling dust. Come join us for episode 8 of Ji Dian Station.

Ji Dian Station is coming to Norwescon 31 with "Lights Out". 

As the gas giant Heinlein continues in its elliptical orbit through the black, the years continue to move forward. In honor of the spring season from Earth That Was, the Companion Guild hosts a reenactment of Yuen Siu, the lantern festival, aboard Ji Dian Station, the skyplex that orbits the planet. Come meet the local color of the station. Rub shoulders with members of Parliament. Spend time with the beautiful ladies and handsome gentleman of the Companion Guild. Enjoy the delights of the festival and join in the contests and merriment. It is a festival of creativity, romance, and murder!

There is a killer on the loose. He has struck once and may strike again. That's right- besides solving riddle competitions, entering lantern-making contests, and advancing your character's own agenda, there is a murder mystery to solve! Come join us for "Lights Out", a special event  for Ji Dian Station. This session will happen Friday, March 21st, at Norwescon 31 from 6:00 pm to midnight. While the episode is a part of the LARP's continuity, this special event will be open to a limited number of interested convention members. Convention members will be playing pre-generated characters with different goals and priorities for the evening and the plots of this session will be centered on this event. There is no need to have played previously.

For more information on the game and to sign up, visit the information page or you can send an e-mail to norwescon@jidianstation.org.

12/3/2007 - Venueless in Seattle. We are still looking for a venue for the December game, "Echoes". If you know of a location that could work, drop the Game Marshals a line. If we use your location, your character gets an extra 2xp for the night.

11/6/2007 - Location for the November game has been announced! The Ace Space Race will be held at the Sammaish Forest Mannors Clubhouse in Redmond. The space has plenty of parking and two primary rooms, plenty of tables and chairs, a full kitchen, bar, and pool table. We look forward to seeing you there!

11/3/2007 - We are looking for more venue options and offer a new way to get some experience points! What does this mean for you? It means that you could get some experience points out of it. Here is how it works:

If you suggest a venue and we use it, you get 2 extra experience points for the game. It's pretty simple in the grand scheme of things.

What could be used as a venue? We could use your house, the clubhouse in your apartment complex, commercial meeting spaces, coffee shops, etc. If there is a cost involved, we may have to ask the player base for assistance, so please keep that in mind when you make your suggestions.

Ideally, any space we use should have enough area for us to spread out into the various areas of the station.

10/28/2007 - Ace Space Race and Norwescon Poll Coming to a Close. Reminder that the poll to let your voice be heard about Norwescon will be closing on Friday, October 26th, so we can all of that information into Programming, Special Events, and Gaming.

As Heinlein, and Ji Dian Station, near both Salisbury and Boros, a rare conjunctional celestial event will occur that happens only every sixty three years; the atmospheric drag and gravitational pull of the three planets and their associated moons creates a gravitational phenomenon between the planets and a "maze" of gravitational flux is created. Factions on Ares and Newhall have organized a race, the Ace Space Race, which will have spacers from all over the Black navigating the invisible gravitational torrents and eddies, hoping to emerge first and win the 50,000 credit purse.

Many will be arriving in this sector of the system to participate. The station has just announced that it will be playing host to race officials and all those who want watch the race. It is hoped that the station will be a safe, neutral place where the loyal Alliance Boros and Ares citizens can commingle with the former Browncoats of Newhall with little trouble. It's not too late to join the race, just contact Jack Wu at Ji Dian Station Comm signal 334-6.

10/15/2007 - Next games announced: The Bone Orchard. The month following the riots, things on the station have settled back down to some semblance of normal. People seem to have shaken off what ever it was that had gripped them during the chaos. The wounded haven been cared for and the dead have been buried. As so often times it happens, people do very ugly things in times under duress and those who were caught, have been tried and punished in accordance of the law.

Repairs to the station proceed apace and people are keeping a low profile. Will things ever be the way they were? What does tomorrow have in store? Who's been buried in the orchard? As a note, please stop by the jidianstation LiveJournal community and vote in the Norwescon poll. Yes, we're doing the March game, "Knock Galley West", at Norwescon as a special game event.

9/29/2007 - Changes to the RSS feed and the pending schedule change. Previously, the RSS feed was unreliable about getting updates out because of some bad design choices. Yesterday, the RSS feed generated (http://www.jidianstation.org/libraryrss.asp) was stipped down to the metal and rebuilt. Not only is the RSS file persisted, it now gets built in memory as XML object so it is easier to manipulate. It now sends out whole documents (but LJ only supports of the 300kb size feeds), the markup is preserved to make reading easier, and rule updates are fed to the feed as well.

LiveJournal users can pick up the feed at http://syndicated.livejournal.com/jidian_updates/.

As we talked about at the last game with the players, starting in January 2008, the game will be moving to the 4th Saturday of the month, except where to avoid collisions with conventions like Norwescon and Baycon.

9/25/2007 - LiveJournal game community and rule changes. First, we've created a LiveJournal community for the game. Currently, there is a discussion, though one sided at the moment, about the dice system and changes to it.

9/11/2007 - Game 5 Announced: Storm Clouds for September 15th. Also, we've been asked if we can move to the 4th Saturday of the month and we are interested in you think about it. Please let us know!

8/15/2007 - New Document in Histories and Other Tall Tales. Ji Dian Station: An Overview is now available under Histories and Other Tall Tales in the Station Archives. Learn about how the station is structured and where everything is!

8/12/2007 - "Hidden" is on 8/18/2007. The 4th episode of Ji Dian Station, "Hidden", is a week away. A new agent of the Alliance is making his presence known on the station, a large, mysterious package has arrived for delivery, and salvage jobs are towed in and docked.
 
Come join us next Saturday and find the meaning of "Hidden."