My current recommendation is that this plot be scrapped outright, or at most reduced to historical curiosity in the backstory. Here is a discussion between myself and Darker, on a possible replacement plot: The [Mongfish Legacy]?.
Justin: The Brigadoon Effect was one of the most complex backstory plots in the game, and it was almost entirely for DuPree's benefit -- while it was fun and interesting to write, and made for fine color, it was way too complex for what it accomplished in-game. It provided a curious and different tie for Moloch, but was enough of a non-sequiteur for him that it didn't come out in either run.
So I'm thinking that we should probably do something quite different in its place next time. Several people observed that, instead of having Von Pinn and DuPree at each other's throats, they should instead have some close ties. (Indeed, some players said that a secret love affair between the two would be utterly juicy.) Okay, what can we do with that? It seems to me that the most likely direction to take that is something that ties into Von Pinn's background -- I've been wanting her to have a more active plot anyway.
So the thematic concept is that there should be a plot relating to the Mongfish legacy: something about the family line. This plot should tie Von Pinn and DuPree together in an uneasy alliance -- not liking each other, but needing each other. The plot should in some way focus on Theo, and probably also replace (or at least supplement) the very weak Suspected Revenant plot. By pulling those threads together, I can take two weak plots that didn't connect well to their characters, and replace them with one plot that really hooks very naturally for everyone. (Note that this is probbly going to require almost completely rewriting DuPree's character sheet, though: to tie her to Lucrezia in any way, I will need to dispose of the Jumps completely.)
Darker: In general, tieing them together in a dislike-but-working-together relationship seems like a great idea. But...how to get past Zulenna's death? I have real trouble envisioning that as something that could result in anything but seething, implacable hatred on Von Pinn's part.
(As for the affair: I can see why people said it, and perhaps it's an amusing gedanken, but IMO it belongs firmly in slash-fantasy-la-la-land.)
Justin: Hmm. On the one hand, you're right that it's hard to see Von Pinn forgiving it. But oddly, I can see Zulenna doing so. If she views DuPree as having been doing her job, there might be bitterness but not hatred there. Zulenna grasps her role with far more clarity than anyone else, and it would be extremely in-character for her to be the one person who really groks that dueling is dueling, dammit, and that you are putting your life on the line every time you pick up a sword. If she hadn't been sincerely risking her life, that stand of hers wouldn't have been meaningful.
That has a lot of potential. It introduces a very nuanced tension between Von Pinn and Zulenna, and makes the three-way relationship between them and DuPree extremely complex. Zulenna could well have been the one to make Von Pinn promise to forgive DuPree -- not because she likes DuPree, but because she understands their individual roles clearly. And it provides a better psychological background for Von Pinn to be pushing Zulenna to reconsider her meek acceptance of the no-Revivals rule, which I'd like her to be doing more.
Darker: ...yes, I could imagine Zulenna going that way, if she could get past the "but the dagger was dishonorable" thing (which I think she could, in a "fool me twice, shame on me" kind of way, which is already nicely handled by her special ability). And I can believe that Zulenna would be able to face down Von Pinn over it; she made that leap just before she was killed. Though perhaps intead of trying to force Von Pinn to forgive DuPree, Zulenna might simply assert that it is her perogative to deal with DuPree over what happened, not Von Pinn's. Yes, that dynamic could be very cool. :)
Can we somehow tie this into the brewing [Mongfish Legacy]? plot? Maybe something that calls Gil's legitimacy into question? This plot needs enough motive to cause one or more people to actually pay attention to it.
Note that the main purpose of this plot was to explain why only a few members of the Circus are present. We might accomplish that in a very different way, if we rewrite the Succession plot. If, instead of being in search of Marie, she has been summoned back to Holfung-Borzoi, and permitted only a small retinue, that could explain it in a very different way. It could provide a non-threatened reason why the rest of the Circus are several days' ride away -- indeed, they might simply be traveling in a business-as-usual way, while this small expedition deals with the succession problem. In which case the Circus folk would need new plots, but that's okay: we could come up with better ones for them, including some sort of scam on the local nobility, needing to put on a play short-handed for some reason, and other personal ties and plots.
Summaries: One of the better ideas from Expedition was the super-concise summaries Sheena put together of the entire game. He had lists both by plot and by character. In retrospect, it was bloody damned useful, both for reading into the game fast as as reference material. So, I should add Summary as a property of all major schema objects, and pages that collect the summaries, and then go fill the Summaries in to all pages as I re-read them. This should pay off big in the long run. (Note that Sheena's summaries were bullet lists, typically 3-6 lines each -- that seems to be a good format.)
Overview: For players who are new to the Heterodyneverse, we should have an overview/glossary of the whole scenario -- what this world is, how it works, what terms like "construct" and "clank" mean, and so on. The big public knowledge. This should be sent out alongside the casting hints, so players have this basis from the start. For the more-experienced players, say explicitly when in story continuity this is set, and be very clear that this is a Heterodyne Story, and is not canon. Assumptions from canon may be inaccurate and deadly.
Definitions required for:
Tech Improvements: It would make my life oodles easier if I had my much-mooted Print Template feature implemented. The notion here is that you should be able to define a secondary template in the schema, which is how to print pages of a given type. There should also be a "print" button, which goes to this page and shows it with no chrome at all, suitable for printing. These pages should also suppress all linking, so we don't see underlines inappropriately. Given that, I could move away from having to import pages to Word for printing.
Closely related to that: it would be delightful if we could declare "obscured URL" pages, or auto-export printed pages, or something like that. If possible, I'd like to be able to define a "print" page with an online URL that didn't lead in any obvious way to more info about the game. Maybe some sort of redirector at the webserver level, that took a predefined list of obscured URLs and forwarded to print pages for their contents?
Note that the tech already has some of the key bits implemented. For example, the URL "http://jducoeur.org/GirlGeniusGame.cgi?action=browse&id=Summary&embed=1" already shows an "embedded" view, without any of the usual chrome. That's part of the battle, and illustrates how to add URL params -- the GetParam() function is already used extensively.
Continuing that: okay, now combine that with a different display template, and you get page "http://jducoeur.org/GirlGeniusGame.cgi?id=Gil_Print_Test&action=browse&embed=1". That's more or less what we want. Now, can we make it more automatic?
Okay, that's now working properly. If you subclass a real page with a page that just has IS_A and PRINT_TEMPLATE, that subclassed page will render according to that template, with no chrome. It's nice and elegant. Yay!
(You can also print any page on an ad-hoc basis like this: "http://jducoeur.org/GirlGeniusGame.cgi?id=Agatha&action=browse&print_template=CharacterPrintTemplate".)
PROBLEM: No, the above doesn't quite work right. This is because of an apparently-known bug in GetPropPageValues, which isn't walking up the tree because I'm having trouble understanding how to concatenate the arrays when I do so. FIX THIS.
PROBLEM 2: It appears that the "All objects of type" operator (as used on pages like Character and Summary) only works for leaf pages. Which makes sense, but totally messes up my grand theory of how to deal with this.