# Grading Phase 3

**URL:** https://forum.menagerie.team/t/grading-phase-3/1254
**Category:** Menagerie Phase 3
**Created:** [March 18, 2024, 12:06pm UTC](https://forum.menagerie.team/t/grading-phase-3/1254 "2024-03-18T12:06:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 13

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### Author: ![garrett](https://forum.menagerie.team/user_avatar/forum.menagerie.team/garrett/32/3_2.png) [@garrett](https://forum.menagerie.team/u/garrett)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2024, 7:02am UTC](https://forum.menagerie.team/t/grading-phase-3/1254/13 "2024-06-15T07:02:42Z")

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Measuring my course corrections! I’ll be updating this post as new stories are written.

> [@garrett](#):
>
> **Menagerie at Midnight** : Bodark and Vermillion are due some screen time, because there’s a whole relationship going on that we haven’t seen much of. But Bodark doesn’t talk much, and Vermillion is bound to lie. How can we express their story?

With [Buccaneers of the Beyond](https://forum.menagerie.team/t/416-buccaneers-of-the-beyond/1259) wrapped, I can say that shifting POVs was immensely helpful. Just having Bodark and Vermillion ask questions they’d ask gave me a whole new dimension to the story - “if the Eigendrakes are fleeing, what are they fleeing _from_?” - and changed the course of Midnight for the better. Beyond that, I’ve split the party. This is a no-no for TTRPGs but just fine for writing, and it’s going to force me to give everyone some screen time.

> [@garrett](#):
>
> **Menagerie Megaverse** : I really need to break out the big ideas and let them soar. And my big challenge continues to be managing the ensemble.

The two things I’ve done in [Planet of Dread](https://forum.menagerie.team/t/417-planet-of-dread/1260) so far address these points:

- Introduce the Planet of Dread - a whole planet locked out of space-time, with a devil born of fear being birthed at its heart. This is going bigger, and I’m not going to stop here.
- Introducing the Void Keys - tools that let the whole crew teleport around without needing Adam or the Love Bug. This lets my ensemble go where they want, return to Earth instantly, and so on.

> [@garrett](#):
>
> Ramp up the conflicts in **MIA**. Make people care about the situation, and make antagonists take notice of more teammates than just the heir of Chin.

[The Golden Dragon](https://forum.menagerie.team/t/418-the-golden-dragon/1261) is in the can and I feel like it’s very positive progress on the MIA book. We have foes that can challenge our team of hypergenius weirdos, we saw a lot of interpersonal reactions (some positive, some negative), and I got to weave in some domestics that played to the larger theme of the story (setting up a home is hard when you can’t trust people). Jason is respectfully deferring to Alycia but is still contributing without overwhelming the action, and with the Matrix cosplayers vs. John Black, we’re starting to give individual team members their own outside relationships. The next story is bringing in Emma’s old mentor as an antagonist. This is exactly where I want MIA to be.

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