Because today, I Have No Clue What I am Doing.
Yep, totally running dry on ideas today, so I have no themes to throw this thing together with, and no closing thoughts even as I write out this introduction. For some reason, my brain is running out fumes, which just makes me sooooo annoyed. Yet, what kind of hypocrite would I be if I let this momentary block get me down- I'm always preaching about pushing through it and doing what you need is necessary for you to get past it- so that's what I am doing. I am going to plod on through this one like I have a plan, even though the plan is the complete absence of a plan.
Given my lack of direction, this is where I just have to wrap up by saying that we do have some awesome content down below (thankfully, finding good shit on Valucre does not require a great deal of brainpower... I will leave that one alone), so you do have that. There is RP to be checking out, a new subsection added below at the behest of an awesome suggestion, and we will have some kind of closing thoughts by the end of this thing. In the meantime, let's see what I cooked up today. By cooked up, I mean what came out during the 'creative process'.
What's Happening Valucre?
The Chosen Goes to Round Two - Looks like the facilitators of The Chosen were ready to jump into round two, as all stalling or completely stalled matches were drawn to a close and winners meted out based on who was the last post. With all the results in, you should expect the next round to start up shortly, with all new pairings for you to enjoy. We draw one step closer to the finals- any bets on who will advance to the finals? Discuss your thoughts in the lounge.
The Survivors- Well, if you like survival based games, this will be one of two little gems I present to you this fine morning. This game has two possible scenarios for the players to choose from, one involving displayed scientists in the arctic and the other displaced civilians after a hurricane- looks like hurricane is on the lean, but there might still be some time for feedback. Regardless, the core of the RP remains the same- Rping out people's struggle for survival in conditions that exceed the ordinary, testing your ability to maintain realism, and think cleverly. Looks fun ;)
Hell's Foothold: A Zombie Apocalypse Game- Now, this is not a spinoff, sequel, or in any other way related to the Zompoc campaigns I had tried to get up and running, but given my ever present love for all things zombies, this has my full endorsement. This one branches away from the simple survival of the outbreak approach and instead looks at the long-term picture, looking at surviving in a world already full of zombies. You are living at an outpost and are either a part of, or know someone involved in, the zombie cleanup crew. This has the potential for multiple angles of RP, and I think that is pretty damn cool.
A Ship Towards Orisia- This person is looking to recruit some well established characters to join a character studying vampires, along side her companion who travels with her. Now, they have a set course to head towards Orisia, particularly with the ambition of charming its queen, but they got temporarily stuck in Coastal Grande. So, do you have a character hanging around the area, or one you could put there? Want to go check out Orisia? Well, come check this thread out and hit up it's author.
How to Become a Hero- The title alone captures my fancy, but I enjoy these character development based role-plays. The thread author is looking for some like-minded individuals who want to do some long-term RP centered around developing a character, particularly one who wants to be a hero and is not very good at it... yet. An Rp with lots of opportunity for character growth and some good laughs, with the story starting out in the Gaian Academy. Honestly, had this been around a couple years ago, it would have been a great opportunity for a character of my own, but that character has since gone in different directions. Perhaps it is not too late for your own.
A Wedding Gift for the Queen- An Orisia based quest that will take you to other parts of Genesaris, this quest giver is interested in obtaining the fabled Rose of Umbridge Isle, a black rose said to be out of reach of the living. This man desperately wants that rose as a gift for the queen of Orisia as such, the quest comes with a good VB payment. Go here to get the details.
The Order of the Valiant Sky: Recruitment for Valorious- Well, the very first reason you should go check out the interest check for this is just to go see that utterly creepy purple monster gif that the thread author uses- I am guessing it is something from Adventure Time, but who man, it is an odd one. Anyway, a new group is on the rise and looking to recruit members who think they have something to contribute to the team as a whole- and by something, they mean a wide variety of skill sets, of which any that could help further their cause is welcome. This group is one that looks to tackle quests put up by the board leaders and other members, as well as missions as suggested by their own members. If this sounds appealing, you can get more the scoop over here.
Featured Read of the Week- This is a new subsection that I will be including each week, at the suggestion of Blue Shoelaces, who often contributes awesome stuff (the only problem is, often that awesome contribution would be late. >_>). The idea behind this is that I am going to give you a link to a closed thread (one that you cannot join) but one that I have found contains some awesome reading. So, this week:
It's Not All in Fashion- I went around doing a search for good closed role-plays, and this one certainly knocked my socks off. Between King and Noko, you really could not ask for a better pair of writers to collaborate on some quality role-play. This thread captures your attention right away, offers a poignant dialogue between a couple, addressing old wounds in the midst of present complications. It's an example of taking the extraordinary (gangsters in a fantasy world, all with magic tied in) and mixes it with some very real, normal problems: Pain, jealousy, histories, etc. All of it meshes into a wonderful read, and I look forward to what more comes of this. Perhaps you will too.
Lore of the Week!
This Week's Feature: Telarian City
At a Glance:
- Leader (Lead Ship Designer): Unnamed, but a distant relative of Uhltoria, the original ship builder.
- Population: A fine mix of Genesaris based native peoples, in addition to a plethora of other races who come to build airships. There are 1.5 Million people in the entire expanse (Within the city and all outlying villages technically considered a part of Telarian City), of which 910,000 are of working age (16-60). The male/female ratio is 49.9%/50.1%.
- Defenses: Director of Defenses- No specified name (At least an Edgemaster). There are 3,000 basic city guard, with 20 high ranking officers (captain and above), 100 capital guards, 150 guards in the prisons, and 10 special assignments officials (think FBI sorts). In addition to the city guard, nearly 25% of the Rising West's Military power remains stationed in the region, accounting for about 275,000 military personnel, in addition to the majority of the airship fleets.
- Neighboring Landmarks: Inside of Telarian City- Airship Factory (the main production site), Uhltorian Bridge (Tallest structure in Genesaris, serves as the airship take off point, a military base, and a backup source for power). Aelindra City- due East (700mi-800mi), Wicker Town- due North (350mi-400mi), the west coast (about 300mi) and West Coast Town- West, Northwest (1,000mi or so).
- None as of yet. Be the first!
Available Quests:
- Authority of the Air: Someone up and stole a Telerian warship and is now invading the skies wreaking terror and shooting down merchant ships. Telerian authorities want your help to blow this rogue ship out of the sky and will give you your own custom airship so long as you create a magnificent explosion. You can create your own or ask for an available one on the Airship List. The Reward includes your Airship and 500vb, and so as such, this will require some extensive RP to obtain.
Brief Summary of Lore:
Telerian is one of the primary lands of magitech, displaying some of the best creations of the genius minds. It is said this is the origin of all magitech, where it first appeared and was put to use, eventually spreading out to offer its convenience and services to all of Genesaris. Indeed, its colleges and universities apply heavy focus on such advancements, and thus it has continued to grow without pause. Proud of its intellectual mind, Telerian is the center for architecture and in particular one of the most important and valued things in Genesaris; airships. Cotninuously growing in design serving many functions from simple transport to warfare, Telerian is where most of all the airships are planned, designed, and built. Other modes of travel are also said to be worked on, which worries those who have always relied on animals to ride.
Telerian is one of the primary lands of magitech, displaying some of the best creations of the genius minds. It is said this is the origin of all magitech, where it first appeared and was put to use, eventually spreading out to offer its convenience and services to all of Genesaris. Indeed, its colleges and universities apply heavy focus on such advancements, and thus it has continued to grow without pause. Proud of its intellectual mind, Telerian is the center for architecture and in particular one of the most important and valued things in Genesaris; airships. Cotninuously growing in design serving many functions from simple transport to warfare, Telerian is where most of all the airships are planned, designed, and built. Other modes of travel are also said to be worked on, which worries those who have always relied on animals to ride.
New Members and Returns!
Welcome, AngelicAshes
Welcome, FoolBornNoise
Welcome, NiikurashiEitan
Welcome, Vergil
Welcome, Kratos
Welcome, Ollpheist
Welcome, WalterF
Welcome, Mach14
Returns:
Welcome back, ASimpleMusician
Well now, this blog is starting to become as regular as the man who lives on prunes and drinks shots of MoM all day long. Apparently, having exactly eight new members sign on each week (now three or four weeks running) is becoming our new norm. Now, I think we could definitely do better than that, but as long as we are doing no worse, I'm not going to lodge complaints. :P
Other Highlights?
Hey, I'd gripe about this, but since I am already doing such a bang up job, I might as well do something. Whatever helps me stall from having to write up those closing thoughts. Man, I am almost to those aren't I? Shit. Anything to get out of what I should be doing, AMIRITE? >_>
FAQ- Seems like this one should stick out like a sore thumb, but sometimes things that are easily seen are the ones most often missed. If you are looking for some FAQs that give you a good bit on how to use all the features of Vbulletin to their fullest, you can click right here.
Closing Thoughts?
So, go figure. I get to this point, and I am still stalled for ideas. I finally get an idea, and then that infamous patient you might have heard me gripe about got up and proceeded to go into I need tech support mode, and my morning was shot. So, basically, this was my morning. Throw a gluten reaction on top of it, followed by a malfunctioning website... yeah, I cannot wait to go to bed. Anyhow, this is not the closing thoughts, I really do have a closing thought, and as tempting as it is to rant on days like this, I will stick to the plan I came up with, moments prior to that patient showing up. >>
The subject I decided to cover was one that came up here
recently, and was in fact the basis of a panel that I went to during Jordan
Con. Now, that panel had was, 'Making the Fake Sound Real in Science Fiction'-
not exactly that title, but close enough. It was an hour lecture on trying to
find ways to make what you injected into Science Fiction (or even Fantasy)
sound realistic and plausible- enough so that the reader would be willing to
suspend disbelief at least. Being that this is a fictional world based outside
current reality, you have leeway to inject the 'unrealistic' into it- but
making too much use of that liberty is sure to alienate your reader and push
them away from your writing.
The same could definitely be said of role-play, and as such, I think this is a great subject to cover today.
Given that we are dealing with a different world which operates under its own set of principles and laws, there are going to be differing rules that govern what may be achieved and what may not be. What might not be plausible in our world could be an everyday occurrence in the world for which you are writing. After all, our present world has no such thing as 'way gates' or 'warp gates' or by whatever name you want to call it, a piece of technology that can instantly teleport you from one location to the next. In the world of Valucre, both Genesaris and Terrenus employ that technology, and to such an extent that even the common person can afford to use it, if not often, periodically. The idea behind it is not one entirely novel or hard to fathom- we accept that some combination of magically engineered technology allows them to do so. Therefore, with the limited information given, we accept it without a second thought, conditioned to be open towards such a concept.
Minimal justification is required, assuming this is the established norm (in this case, it is).
So, what of those things that is not commonplace; the issues that cross the boundaries of what is 'normal' in our world and this fantasy world. It does come up, and sometimes it comes up quite a bit- where we have role-players who might go above and beyond what can be reasonably expected of certain individuals on the basis of their ability to arrive somewhere, perform certain actions, react, etc. If you fall into the trap of breaking the laws of physics surrounding even your own posts, you will have fallen into that dangerous territory where you are losing your readers. If you cannot abide by even the perhaps less restrictive rules of the universe you write (or write within), why should they bother continuing to read? They already know you are just going to go beyond those rules, and often, which is frankly, quite annoying.
After all, who wants to read a story about someone who cannot abide by the rules of physics as applied upon them by the world itself, and with no basis to step outside of it.
The message I am getting at my fellow role-players is that writing with some degree of realism in mind tends to pan out better than writing that intends to have no rules at all. Yes, we recognize that this is not the real world and that there are exceptions all over. There are, however, certain rules that continue to govern the world. Objects that go up will come down, without an external force interfering. People are only able to move so fast, and in doing so are limited in their abilities to travel from one distance to another. Governments only have so many capabilities based on the technology available to them, and even while some of it might be extensive- extensive has its limits. Work within the confines that builds up your lore, and avoid making every extreme available.
What is a story without adversity and difficulty? What is a story without a conflict that took some work to resolve? If you just hand everything over on a platter, you end up with a bad story. In the case of role-play, it could be a bad story, and it could be breeching upon mild powers and metagaming.
There are so many things I could write about when we are talking about going unrealistic- cities with unimaginable and endless power, Mary Sue characters that are designed to outpace other Mary Sue characters... it all leads to a degradation of the quality of role-play. In order to produce good role-play, we must stick within the lore that is available to be used, and we must actually stick to a realistic approach of what we can do given a certain distance, time period, or level of capability involved. If a butterfly farts on the east coast, the west coast should not become immediately aware of it, and have others out ready to respond in short order. No, chances are that butterfly's flatulence will be missed, and even if that land has the most attuned gas detectors in all of Valucre, mobilizing and engaging with that stinky bug will take a fair bit of time- it is a hell of a bit of distance to travel.
Let's keep our role-play believable in so far as that we can suspend disbelief in favor of the lore presented within the region, the realm, and the world itself. Let's work with what characters can reasonably do in a given period of time and what they cannot do, based on their abilities and what constitutes mild powers. Let's not use metagaming to try and push our agendas, when based on all the data at your disposal, you would not be aware of, or in knowledge of, what you are trying to say you were. Stick to what you can and cannot do- the quality of your RP (And your writing) will certainly benefit from it.
Wish I could go into further depth, but I am glutened out.
So, take care Valucre, we'll be back next week. ;)
The same could definitely be said of role-play, and as such, I think this is a great subject to cover today.
Given that we are dealing with a different world which operates under its own set of principles and laws, there are going to be differing rules that govern what may be achieved and what may not be. What might not be plausible in our world could be an everyday occurrence in the world for which you are writing. After all, our present world has no such thing as 'way gates' or 'warp gates' or by whatever name you want to call it, a piece of technology that can instantly teleport you from one location to the next. In the world of Valucre, both Genesaris and Terrenus employ that technology, and to such an extent that even the common person can afford to use it, if not often, periodically. The idea behind it is not one entirely novel or hard to fathom- we accept that some combination of magically engineered technology allows them to do so. Therefore, with the limited information given, we accept it without a second thought, conditioned to be open towards such a concept.
Minimal justification is required, assuming this is the established norm (in this case, it is).
So, what of those things that is not commonplace; the issues that cross the boundaries of what is 'normal' in our world and this fantasy world. It does come up, and sometimes it comes up quite a bit- where we have role-players who might go above and beyond what can be reasonably expected of certain individuals on the basis of their ability to arrive somewhere, perform certain actions, react, etc. If you fall into the trap of breaking the laws of physics surrounding even your own posts, you will have fallen into that dangerous territory where you are losing your readers. If you cannot abide by even the perhaps less restrictive rules of the universe you write (or write within), why should they bother continuing to read? They already know you are just going to go beyond those rules, and often, which is frankly, quite annoying.
After all, who wants to read a story about someone who cannot abide by the rules of physics as applied upon them by the world itself, and with no basis to step outside of it.
The message I am getting at my fellow role-players is that writing with some degree of realism in mind tends to pan out better than writing that intends to have no rules at all. Yes, we recognize that this is not the real world and that there are exceptions all over. There are, however, certain rules that continue to govern the world. Objects that go up will come down, without an external force interfering. People are only able to move so fast, and in doing so are limited in their abilities to travel from one distance to another. Governments only have so many capabilities based on the technology available to them, and even while some of it might be extensive- extensive has its limits. Work within the confines that builds up your lore, and avoid making every extreme available.
What is a story without adversity and difficulty? What is a story without a conflict that took some work to resolve? If you just hand everything over on a platter, you end up with a bad story. In the case of role-play, it could be a bad story, and it could be breeching upon mild powers and metagaming.
There are so many things I could write about when we are talking about going unrealistic- cities with unimaginable and endless power, Mary Sue characters that are designed to outpace other Mary Sue characters... it all leads to a degradation of the quality of role-play. In order to produce good role-play, we must stick within the lore that is available to be used, and we must actually stick to a realistic approach of what we can do given a certain distance, time period, or level of capability involved. If a butterfly farts on the east coast, the west coast should not become immediately aware of it, and have others out ready to respond in short order. No, chances are that butterfly's flatulence will be missed, and even if that land has the most attuned gas detectors in all of Valucre, mobilizing and engaging with that stinky bug will take a fair bit of time- it is a hell of a bit of distance to travel.
Let's keep our role-play believable in so far as that we can suspend disbelief in favor of the lore presented within the region, the realm, and the world itself. Let's work with what characters can reasonably do in a given period of time and what they cannot do, based on their abilities and what constitutes mild powers. Let's not use metagaming to try and push our agendas, when based on all the data at your disposal, you would not be aware of, or in knowledge of, what you are trying to say you were. Stick to what you can and cannot do- the quality of your RP (And your writing) will certainly benefit from it.
Wish I could go into further depth, but I am glutened out.
So, take care Valucre, we'll be back next week. ;)
- Acies
"Plotting is like sex. Plotting is about desire and satisfaction, anticipation and release. You have to arouse your reader's desire to know what happens, to unravel the mystery, to see good triumph. You have to sustain it, keep it warm, feed it, just a little bit, not too much at a time, as your story goes on. That's called suspense. It can bring desire to a frenzy, in which case you are in a good position to bring off a wonderful climax." ~ Colin Greenland
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