I thought as far as the staff are concerned they do know it is an psychological experiment, and have been told it is about a group of people living together with the old fashioned principles that men are dominant.<br/><br/>The staff all live off the island - they will only come when the weather is good enough - so as winter sets in they will see less of them.  The men will come whenever the sea is calm enough rain or shine.  Angus is the one the guys will be with most, if they want too, as he is their ghillie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gillie) taking them hunting, fishing etc.  I put Jamie as the gardener - so he will bring the girls the fresh food each day he is there and the supplies that have been ordered too (I thought the housekeeper in the morning will show the girls a simple netbook in the kitchen which has a log-in to a supermarket so they can order anything for the next time the boat comes over - bearing in mind as the weather gets worse they will have to plan a very good stock cupboard and freezer!)<br/><br/>The staff are extremely well paid and have tight contracts - and would never breathe a word about what is happening on the island - the local area all know that there is a project on the island - but not what.  I think the staff may get to realise as time goes by the polyamory aspect of things - and only Angus knows who owns the island, and knows it is a secret.  So Marcus can have private words with him at any time.<br/><br/>I thought if we start the setting in autumn, mid September, they have the more isolating winter months together (and christmas!) and the start of spring and lambing etc and the big decision comes in spring itself, a good time for new beginnings!<br/><br/>The NPC staff are only there to make the setting 'real' you can use them or not use them in whatever way you wish.  Lots of knowledge or events can be assumed - so for instance one of the guys could refer to going out on the mountain with Jamie and being shown the eagles, or being taught how to take winter feed out to the ewes when the weather is too bad for the estate workers to come across - and I expect that is what will happen most of the time.  And of course you can write a whole scene with them if you wish.  We can also plot on the OOC at anytime to arrange scenes we have ideas for.<br/><br/><br/>The first posts are wonderful *kiss* lovely to wake up to things getting started  ;D