My posting rate is going to diminish for the next 3 weeks, just a fair warning. Combination of work, visiting family and upcoming vacation. There have already been effects, in that I haven't been able to post as much on the weekends. I may, depending on how tired I am over vacation, be able to post in the evenings. Things should resume to normal around July 15th.
I debated posting this, because it seems every time I do post one of these, I post as much, if not more than I usually do.
Guys,
I'm dealing with some personal stuff, and having real trouble concentrating on the game. Things should get easier Friday or so. Until then, don't expect much. 
Hey take care of yourself!
Definitely do take care of yourself, cunningrat! This was an intense weekend for me (a bunch of rehearsal and then performing in two shows yesterday), so I wasn't at all sad that our thread wasn't moving fast.
I've also been dealing with a real emotional roller coaster for several weeks. At least the roller coaster has its ups as well as its downs - glad for that. But it's really driven home to me how important it is to live in the moment, rather than me spending all my energy worrying about what might happen in the future. Easy to say, hard to do; but I'm doing my best to live in the moment and be open to the good in every day, and accepting of the less good.
I hope that your personal stuff gets easier to deal with. 
May the Holy Spirit grant serenity upon all of you
In case you didn't notice/observe over on rpol. I'm pretty well finished with hoping the Atlas site performance will improve.
I want to resolve any stories ongoing over here as best we may and then pick up over there moving forward. It is taking far too much effort on my part to make a post, and the saga itself is starting to become not fun for me to run. 6 weeks, in my opinion is an exceptional level of patience.
Over the next few weeks, I have family and vacation coming up, so my posting rate will slow down for a period. If you aren't going to be slowing down, please remember, to write summaries for any stories you participated in, and post those to Obsidian Portal to get Confidence. Those summaries are incredibly important with the saga transitioning over to rpol.
If you insist. I have had no problems for a few weeks now myself, and Andorra is booming. But anyways, go and I will follow. You have me by the shorthairs, as this is the only way I am able to play Roberto. As much as I love my saga (and it is pretty awesome), that specific character (Roberto) is the most important and valueable part of my current Ars Magica experience. Hell, he is the best character anyone has ever created ever in any game! :mrgreen:
So, what's the plan? I do not mind the slow pace if that is what is needed. I have been playing this character for six years and he has outlasted romatic relationships, jobs, housing situations, and people. I remember I created him while working as an IT recruiter living off Devon & Western in the city. It was shortly after I lost my two front teeth in an attempted mugging. Still have my wallet. Rather have my wallet and my self respect than those teeth anyway. I don't care if I am facing fist, knife, or gun. You want it? You gotta take it from me, 'cause I ain't giving it.
I can kinda see how Roberto was born out of that actually 
Ah, memories...
Just saying, in my sleep deprived state of mind, that I am happy to cooperate with you as long as I can keep playing this character As a fellow SG, I totally understand your time constraints, worries about player retention, forum frustrations, and etceteras. This is your hobby, not your job. You are in this to have fun just like the rest of us. It is a game. It is play time. Do it when you have time to play, when you will have fun playing, and in a manner that is fun for you to play. You have no obligations or responsabilities in this regard other than those you impose upon yourself.
Hell! I up and abandoned my saga and Ars Magica for over two years because I chewed myself up in a viscious cycle and was overwhelmed to the point that it was easier to simply go away. Don't do that to yourself. Mitigate, and play in a way that is best for you, such as using RPOL.
Didn't callen just leave a comment in Andorra's General Table Talk thread about being unable to post 40% of the time? 
Booming is relative. While I don't deny that after The Mistress thread, things were probably going to chill for a bit, I'll say that I'm disappointed that it's taken 6 weeks to progress that thread. Some of that is because the participants have been busy, but I would venture that the majority is due to Atlas being unavailable when they were available.
I think I'll split your story off after we resolve the Johan/Cid thing. Make a clean break at that point, and then put you in Cairo with no additional misadventures. As to having you by the shorthairs, or as I prefer to call them: the short and curlies, well, that's an awfully thin hold, to be honest. I'm hoping I'm creating a compelling and interesting story for you, and your interactions with the other players are doing the same. Yes, it makes it easy when you have a character you're really into, but sometimes characters need to be fought over to made vital and interesting. I'm playing a game on Skype with a Merceris Magus, Corpus specialist, just out of gauntlet, and finding his voice has been...difficult. I have a much better voice for my companion in that saga.
The plan is, we're moving, after getting stories to a good transition point. Where that is...? We'll figure it out.
I actually don't mind a slow pace, either. I've figured out your pace, and I can write to it, and make it coincide to other's stories going on over the same period of time. The trick is figuring out the pace. It's tough when I have someone who posts five posts in a day, and then nothing for the next 10 days. It makes pacing almost impossible.
Well, I do have responsibilities. One of the reasons why I'm doing this, is to practice and become a better writer. So I have a responsibility to myself. And then I have a responsibility to the players, too. Players have a responsibility to me. This isn't a dictatorship, I need to know what is and what isn't working. Where you and I generally have butted heads is when you came into the saga and said things as a player that I felt were trashing or diminishing the story. I wasn't just offended on my own, but I was also offended on behalf of all the players who've bought into it, and have told me they liked it.
I have no intention of abandoning the saga. I might abandon a story here or there, let a character slide out of view, but the saga continues on. There's a long way to go. The only way it doesn't continue is if the players drop out. I have concerns that some players are less involved, or have been because they site hasn't been available to them, when they've been available to play. When you have someone like gerg, on the West Coast, interacting a lot with PB or you in CT, if he can't post when he's available at 10pm PT, it leaves a huge gap in progressing the story along.
My observation is that the PBPs that haven't finished it has all been as a result of pacing. And pacing of the story has been, perhaps, my primary focus, granted it is also probably been to the detriment of other things. But I've seen it. the gradual decline in posting, because a player is gone for a week, then a month, and one character has a key role to play in progressing it, and it stalls everything. But I've written trap doors for everything. Rose never came to Mons Electi, what's she doing? How will that affect Mons Electi, especially if and when Ulrich comes to Mons Electi. Viscaria left, what's she doing at Lapis Crudus? Whatever happened to Gerulf after his dinner with Ra'am? And so on...
I'm going to be traveling starting tomorrow until Sunday so posting will be limited. Have happy 4th ( for all the Ahh-mericans) :mrgreen:
And I have no idea how I'll handle things from now through 7/14.
Have a safe trip.
What about me?!?!
When the time comes, you can have a safe trip too 
Safe trips all around!
Happy 4th of July everyone!!!
I have returned from the land of little to no connections. Hopefully. i can catch up on postings today.
I expect I'll be able to move some things forward later this afternoon.
And now my turn I'm going on vacation for the next week. I was expecting to have a little bit of access at the beginning and end, but now even that's in question. Nothing I'm involved in right now is going super fast, but just wanted to warn people I might have little chance to read or post this coming week.
WiFi is craptacular here. If I can get on my 'puter this evening I'll post. It is too hard to post on my phone. Especially with one bar of cell service.
Sorry for the delay, was kind of busy then I suddenly hurt my back to the point where sitting typing is difficult. I need to think about where to go next with Rotgers, I'm having trouble coming up with the best course, but I like the story. I'll try to post later today or tomorrow.