It's been a while, so we're due for me to posit some wack-ass idea, right ?!
I've been thinking about 'the faceless masses', for lack of a better term. Almost-toons. Unsustainable concepts. Dead venues. And what I've really been thinking is, could they live in Shards? I am not-so-great at explaining some of my half-baked ideas, but:
What if we 'opened' Shards up to non-characters. One-shot, limited shot write-ins that were just for fun? Sometimes there's a Shard you want to be in, but your character wouldn't go. Or you miss an old toon you dropped. Or you've got a half-concept that would make a great NPC but there isn't enough there for a PC. Or you just don't have the time for a full fledged new toon.
For example, I miss my Hunter every now and then. And I could totally see him wandering in to Marginalia.
There'd have to be restrictions -- we wouldnt do sheets or accounts (unless maybe they were dead venue/dropped? dunno) or wiki pages. They couldn't PvP or overly harass 'real' PCs. Maybe experimental concepts could 'graduate' to real PCs? Hell, maybe it even be an experimental writing 'sandbox' for new people/characters/concepts?
Just free writing, semi-NPC free-for-all. Given that Shards are month single-shot Scenes, things couldnt get too out of control.
Would that be nuts?