Do You Want to Build a Snowman...

For the sake of all that is still good and right, will you just let it go?

This kid... he knows the feels.

Alright alright, super late reference to a tired out meme that is still making the rounds. Think I am kidding? Take a popular phrase from Frozen, punch the first two or three words into google and see what your suggestions are. Go on, I dare you. It doesn’t really matter, we all know it’s a tired out subject, but for actual reasons and for no special reason at all, I’m going to kick that dead horse and see if I can make the body jiggle, because who needs good taste when you have a rude sense of humor?

Besides tired out memes and decaying equines, I do have some good stuff lined up for you this week. Some interesting role-plays, a cool new extra in the additional highlights, and lots of new members who were happy to answer some interview questions and tell us a little more about them. Just when you don’t think you can stand anymore of the Frozen references, we’ll switch gears with the closing thoughts. Enjoy. >D

What's Happening Valucre?

A Frozen-Mine Craft reference. We have truly sank to new lows.

Changes at the Tavern of Legend- I’m repeating this section just because the changes are more or less complete, and they certainly do benefit the new folks. If you are a new person reading this here blog and you have not yet entered the Tavern, now is a good time to do so! If you are a regular reader who has no access—well, live vicariously through a new member you can direct into trying the Tavern out. We have a list of quests now available to members, ranging from quick and easy to a bit long and more involved. There is a T-1 learning area where you can get help in learning the basics of T1 and that Tavern on fire event- it is now over, so you are safe to reenter the establishment. See the changes inside the new sub-board..

We interrupt the Frozen broadcast to bring you a real pic.

Sossego- Another new land, and the lore in this one—wow, it is a lot of lore! Hats off to Lastlight, he put some serious work into this one. In West Genesaris, near the center of Strulest Loche and north of Sunset Way, you will find the newest addition to Genesaris, the city of Sossego. Said to have been built in defiance of that major body of water (the largest source of freshwater in Genesaris, possibly the world), this city is made by interconnected series of boardwalks, leading from homes to businesses, to operations and docking stations. The people here provide themselves with all manner of work, including the tending of man-made adapted gardens.

Many of the people get around through designed waterways for vessels and boats to pass through, covering the many hundreds of miles this city takes up, or crossing the thousands of miles the lake itself spans. What makes this even more interesting, is not necessarily what is above the lake, but what might be below it. In depths that can reach over 4,000ft, the military has discovered tunnels in the lakebed that lead to unknown locations. Brave adventurers, I call to you—who will be the first to explore it? If you are thinking about it, best you read the lore first.

Mad Scientist... crazy... eh-eh? I know it was a stretch, shut up!

Sci-Fi Melodrama- Who doesn’t enjoy the occasional RP that is less about taking yourself seriously (in this case, not doing so at all) and more about having fun while poking at all the classic tropes? If you are into satire half as much as I am, this is going to be right up your proverbial alleys folks. The name of this RP here is to be corny and enjoy yourself while doing it. Take the old Mad-Scientist theme and turn it into a comedic spectacle. Intrigued? Talk to the guy running the thread over here.

Didn't he mean stage acting?

Role-Play Theatre- This is a different take on RP, and I love it. Our characters go on adventures, they go to political functions, and lately we seem to show up at a lot of parties. Who says that we can’t have some cultured folks among us, those who would hang up the sword and scabbard for the day and go see some quality entertainment instead. Yes, I am talking about the theatre`, where some characters might be actors and others the spectators. Perhaps a famous play is being presented, or the next big thing since Odin Haze taught the world about sliced bread- who could say? There is a lot of possible angles on this, so go discuss them here

See what I did there?

Pirates Reboot- One last call out for the pirates role-play event in Genesaris, though this one is now getting some traction—so get in here and join the fun. We have someone who is going to be leading the guards against Witch and her pirates in Coastal Grande, and now we have a pirate leader found for Mezthaluen. If you want the chance to take some booty and shiver some timbers or other pirate stuff, get to this thread. Or, if you are a land lubber with a penchant for kicking the arses of one legged men, you might want to be a guard or something. Come hither, regardless!

New Members!  

Eight respondents this week, a great turnout! Now, I've been making an effort to make the names look all pretty, using their own avatars to make it easier to recognize them on the board... buuuuuut my copy of CS3 (Photoshop) on my flash drive is not working properly, at all. I've had some problems with this flash as of late, telling me it's time to get a new one, and it looks like it might have corrupted photoshop for me (succcckkkkksss). Rather than dwell on  it, let's get to meeting our wonderful new people, some of which I know for certain have already been an active face around the neighborhood. 

Harlow Foster

• What brought you to Valucre? How did you find us? 
  Welp! I belonged to a few different communities back in the early 2000's, and 'retired' from RPing in about 2006. I hung up my hat until this year, when I decided to get back into it. So I Googled 'decent forum-based roleplaying', and Valucre was about the third hit on the results page or so. The first two hits were HUGE, but so impersonal, and Valucre felt welcoming, so I took a stab at joining, and it's worked out great ^_^
• What got you into role-play? What are your favorite types (genre, style, etc) of role-play? 
  Medieval Fantasy - by far, my favorite genre. I'm into long form, or I guess paragraph style posts, with a lot of depth and insight.
• Do you have any long-term goals related to role-play and/or writing? If so, what are they?
  I hope to publish a series of novels over the next few years. Right now, I'm currently in the middle of the first book in the series. As far as RPing goes - I guess my longterm goal would be to find decent writing partners. I miss having them. haha ^_^';
• What are some of your other hobbies and/or interests? What is one interesting thing about you that others might not expect when they first meet you?
  I'm a photographer and designer by trade. Every part of my life speaks to my love of creating worlds and beautiful stories. One thing people generally find surprising when they meet me - is my love of videogames! I guess I don't look like the poster child for a lady gamer, so it surprises people when I start talking about them.
• How has your Valucre experience been so far? What do you like, and is there anything we can do to help you (as staff or fellow members)? 
  Great! I don't think there's anything really that the staff could assist me with. I would say that there seems to be a large number of newcomers who don't read the rules or lore and just jump into a thread, which can be a little frustrating. Not sure how anyone would fix that, though. ^_^ But I'm having a great time finding other members that I connect with.

JessicaHighTopp

• What brought you to Valucre? How did you find us?
  One day I felt like I wanted to try something new, and I wanted some new places to roleplay on, so I typed in "Good roleplayer forums" and got to a site that listed roleplayer forums ( and Valucre was the highest. So I created an accunt and started to explore.
• What got you into role-play? What are your favorite types (genre, style, etc) of role-play?
• I started roleplaying three years ago I think, it could mer more. I was just surfing around searching for Harry Potter stuff and sites(I really loved Harry Potter) and then found a Swedish Roleplaying site with Harry Potter roleplays. I started roleplaying and man, I was really bad in the beginning! I didn't quit understand roleplaying then(I was 11-12 so). But I got better, and after one years the site shut down because nobody wanted to take care of it. I moved along to other roleplaying siter(or more specific two), both in swedish. I roleplayed there since. I've gotten much better in my roleplay and writing and made a lot of friends in the process. I still roleplay on those two sites I mentioned. 
• 
  I prefer roleplays when people write in he or she form(I honestly don't know what it's called in english). And when people write so you have something to answer, it dosen't matter how long or how many sentences there are in a answer, it just have to bring the roleplay foreward in some way. In genres I prefer love and romantic stuff, but I also like fantasy and roleplaying in book worlds(with own characters then). But I'm not picky, I can test new things.
• Do you have any long-term goals related to role-play and/or writing? If so, what are they?
  Well my long term goal before I got here was to begin to roleplay in english. But now I do that, but I wanna write stories in english too. But a goal is probably to finish a roleplay, it may seem impossible to some. But sometime I would like to have a roleplay when we have an end and that is the end, it could be long, it can be short but I wanna try it.
• What are some of your other hobbies and/or interests? What is one interesting thing about you that others might not expect when they first meet you?I love to play computer games, I prefer adventure games, but I really like shooter games too! I also love to draw, I'm not that good but I just love it so much! And now to some things that may suprise you...Well I'm from Sweden, some may now this now. I can write pretty good english but when I speak english I'm terrible! I don't pronounce things so well....And another thing: I love Alice Cooper. I listen to him almost everyday and one of my dreams is to go on one of his concerts. Many seems to be suprised by this...Maybe because I'm not that old.
• How has your Valucre experience been so far? What do you like, and is there anything we can do to help you (as staff or fellow members)?
   I really like Valucre, everyone is so kind here! I've gotten so many welcomes and started to talk with so nice people! And I really like the New Members forum, it's really good. I have do admit that I haven't checked everything out yet, but I'm a little confused in the roleplayforums, with the different world and things like that. I don't understand where I can post just roleplays that don't takes place in one of the worlds that already exist. But overall I really like this site and it's members! ;)

Chaerc

• What brought you to Valucre? How did you find us?
  I frequent a different roleplaying forum. It was there that someone mentioned Valucre, and had only good things to say about it. I was excited to check it out.
• What got you into role-play? What are your favorite types (genre, style, etc) of role-play?
  It feels like a long time ago, but there was a gaming website called gametalk.com (it's gone now). I was spending time there talking about Pokemon games, and I stumbled across one of the roleplaying forums on the site. I already enjoyed writing, so I thought I'd give roleplaying a try. I'm not sure that I have a favorite type of roleplay. They are all fun to me. I suppose one of my favorite roleplays was fantasy-based, and our characters could each control an element. But the reason I liked it had more to do with the diversity and dynamics between our characters than the genre or plot.
• Do you have any long-term goals related to role-play and/or writing? If so, what are they?
  I don't really, or at least none that are very concrete. I want to get to a point where I'm both confident of myself as a writer and proud of my work. I also want to be a versatile writer; I'm not interested in developing just one style and using it in every differing story/setting/situation.
• What are some of your other hobbies and/or interests? What is one interesting thing about you that others might not expect when they first meet you?
  I've training in various martial arts since about the 2nd grade, and people definitely don't expect that of me when we first meet! My other hobbies kind of come and go, although reading/writing is a constant. 
• How has your Valucre experience been so far? What do you like, and is there anything we can do to help you (as staff or fellow members)?
  It's been honestly amazing. Everyone I've talked to -- both staff and members -- has been extremely welcoming, and everyone I've roleplayed with has been a great writer. The site is kind of overwhelming at first with all there is to learn about it, but the people here have been so helpful and accommodating. I love how Valucre is a structured world and yet really anything is possible -- as in the structure doesn't limit or box us in at all, while still providing opportunities that an unstructured site could not. The site seems to maintain that philosophy of freedom of creativity in every rule and FAQ that I read through.

Untrue Fires

• What brought you to Valucre? How did you find us?
  My friend, who's known as Ganu_Canudali here. Met him over on another site, and I'm good friends, when I mentioned that I was looking for another site, he brought this up, so, I joined. 
• What got you into role-play? What are your favorite types (genre, style, etc) of role-play?
   I started writing short stories when I was fifteen, for a class project in Creative Writing. And that was fun, and I enjoyed it. Then, life got in the way for a while until last year, when I looked up a couple boards and joined them. As for the other question, I'm not some one genre writer, I do sci-fi and high fantasy best, but I'm willing to do anything. At that, I'm personally fond of combat, and adventures.
• Do you have any long-term goals related to role-play and/or writing? If so, what are they?
  Actually, I don't. I want to go into college for Info Tech, and writing is just a hobby. If I do end up going into writing, I'd definitely want to write short stories, along the lines of Sherlock Holmes, but in a High Fantasy setting.
• What are some of your other hobbies and/or interests? What is one interesting thing about you that others might not expect when they first meet you?
   I read a hell of a lot, and of course, I'm a gamer. This along with writing, and occasional cooking, is my main field. And for the second part of this, I'd prefer to not answer, as people are surprised about different things. Some see me in strange ways.
• How has your Valucre experience been so far? What do you like, and is there anything we can do to help you (as staff or fellow members)?
  Valucre so far has been awesome. The community here is great, it's really active, and it's staff is amazing. For my likes, I'd say the different areas, with different genres in each one, along with the people. Also, the staff here is so friendly, and welcoming. As for questions or any help needed, I don't think so, it's a pretty complete and easy to handle place it seems.

Carmen

• What brought you to Valucre? How did you find us?
   I stumbled onto Valucre because the internet. No one really bought me here, but I spent about three or four days lurking around before I finally got the galls to join, and oh boy, I am glad I did. 
• What got you into role-play? What are your favorite types (genre, style, etc) of role-play?
  What got me into role-play? Oh man, that's a loaded question. I started writing when I was in middle school, with my best friend. We were writing one word sentences and we wrote about the dumbest things, and from there it kind of graduated into writing even more. I'll write just about anything, from romance to fantasy to steampunk, horror, adventure, etc. You name it, I'll write it! 
• Do you have any long-term goals related to role-play and/or writing? If so, what are they?
  I don't really have any long-term goals with writing, just having fun. 
• What are some of your other hobbies and/or interests? What is one interesting thing about you that others might not expect when they first meet you?
   For my free time, I just listen to music and dance a lot. I'm terrible at it, but it makes me happy, so don't judge me. I suppose, if I had to tell you one thing about me that people normally don't know, it would be that English isn't my first language. It's my third! 
• How has your Valucre experience been so far? What do you like, and is there anything we can do to help you (as staff or fellow members)?
  It has been interesting, challenging, exciting, and inspiring. I like that it has it's own predetermined world, which  was VERY intimidating and confusing to me the first few days. I stuck it out because I was determined to make my already existing rp fit into the Valucre planet, but more so because the people here were absolutely awesome. I got help from every possible angle, and could not believe how friendly and welcoming everyone was. I continue to ask questions, and people continue to answer them with a willingness and grace that I've just never seen happen on other websites.

Reinholdt

• What brought you to Valucre? How did you find us?
  I was searching for a new RP place. I poked a few other sites before ending up here via the Top RP sites list..
• What got you into role-play? What are your favorite types (genre, style, etc) of role-play?
  Which version? I've always had an overactive imagination I can't shut off, so role-playing was just a natural transition. I like the fantasy adventuring genre, though interwoven heavily with major psychological trauma character growth. Corruption and/or redemption stories also fascinate me to an unsettling degree.
• Do you have any long-term goals related to role-play and/or writing? If so, what are they?
• I mostly wish to work on my descriptive capabilities and proactive character actions. I'm far too used to smaller, reactive oriented posts that concentrate heavily on the action over the feelings or the details. While there's nothing particularly wrong with that style, it doesn't help me with working my intended series of novels.
• I guess I should also work on settings and world building for that series, but one step at a time.
• What are some of your other hobbies and/or interests? What is one interesting thing about you that others might not expect when they first meet you?
  Games. What kind you ask? All of them. Video games, board games, card games, naughty games, role-playing games, etc. If I don't have my mind pre-occupied with my addiction to escapism, I get bored. And then bad things happen. Also, cats but that should be fairly obvious. I can't think about many interesting things about me that doesn't fall into those two purviews and isn't immediately obvious. I guess people find it fairly surprising that I actually don't read any books at all. It certainly is dichotomous of me. I mean I've tried, but books just bore me immensely.
• How has your Valucre experience been so far? What do you like, and is there anything we can do to help you (as staff or fellow members)?
• Well the staff is certainly the best I've ever encountered in my internet travels. Things are quite different here, especially combat and the somewhat intimidating T1 system. Granted, I still have only my limited experience at Tavern of Legends. I liked the idea of a random encounter to help teach combat, but thus far I've seen wildly different posting styles and no real comment on what's considered good or bad form. Or perhaps all of it is typical and accepted? I'm unsure. Maybe some sort of constructive feedback would help? I know how that can go pretty awry though. I'm probably overthinking it all really. I tend to do that.
• From what I've read, I rather like the canonization process. A neat and efficient way to contribute to the overarching world.

Mendicant

• What brought you to Valucre? How did you find us?
  My love for role playing bought me here, I actually found the place by searching something along the lines of "free form rp" on google.
• What got you into role-play? What are your favorite types (genre, style, etc) of role-play?
  My father got me into role playing with a loose game of Dungeons and Dragons that I played with my cousins. 
• Do you have any long-term goals related to role-play and/or writing? If so, what are they?
   I hope to just advance with my writing skills, being an author would be great, but I don't see it happening, so it'd mostly be for leisurely purposes such as role playing here on Valucre.
• What are some of your other hobbies and/or interests? What is one interesting thing about you that others might not expect when they first meet you?
  Another hobby of mine is strategy games, I mostly play Starcraft, but I like a lot of other games of the genre, whether turn-based or real-time.
• How has your Valucre experience been so far? What do you like, and is there anything we can do to help you (as staff or fellow members)?
  My experience has been good, I'm just hoping I can start role playing up to snuff with the oldies of the site. There isn't much you guys can help me with besides role playing with me, whether you think I'm bad or good!

Tranquility

• What brought you to Valucre? How did you find us? 
  I was invited by a couple members from one of the online writer's groups I'm in. Neat huh? You'll probably hear this again because I think we're all liking the idea of using this place for communal writing exercises. No offense intended. I imagine some real love will develop.
• What got you into role-play? What are your favorite types (genre, style, etc) of role-play? 
  RP? I like the idea it'll get me into a writing routine. I enjoy Romance and High Fantasy very much.
• Do you have any long-term goals related to role-play and/or writing? If so, what are they?
  I have problems with composition, actually, so it is my hope collaborative efforts will help break me of that.
• What are some of your other hobbies and/or interests? What is one interesting thing about you that others might not expect when they first meet you?
  I fantasize about things warm, cute, and fuzzy, and sincerely wish everyone reading this a moment's peace to smile today (many more smiles if possible), but I'm not all flowers, hearts, and candy. I push for happiness because I know what sadness is. I write of life more brutally than one might expect of someone who calls herself "Serene Tranquility".
• How has your Valucre experience been so far? What do you like, and is there anything we can do to help you (as staff or fellow members)? 
• My Valucrean experience has been neat so far. I keep hearing nice things about the staff here and that's wonderful. "Talk to them, be reasonable, and they'll work with you," someone told me. Oh, and she also said you guys are "easy to approach" and "don't be shy." She's probably right. If regular members are saying good things and encouraging people to make goals here, than that says something good about management. Right?
• I've no major aspirations but to write a sob story so I doubt you'll hear from me very often.

Other Highlights?

Much like this Frozen meme that is surely got you going Ape with me, I wish I could just let these highlights go. Much in a fashion as depicted in that picture. That's letting something go alright.

When you can't hold it anymore...

The World Lore Page:  This was put together by a new member, but I totally loved it. A breakdown to help people interested in creating a new race, but not sure where to begin or what to cover. This gives you plenty of ground to cover. Well done, highly recommend taking a look.

Did You Know-  About the Find a Role-Play button? It's easy to use and very helpful! If you want a quick and easy role-play to join, hit this button and the most recently active threads tagged as "Open" will come right up. To learn more, check it out here. While you are at it, read the rest of the Did You Knows too. 

Closing Thoughts?

Here we go; the big reveal. Why did I decide to dig up a meme that is more persistent than Ralph Nader with an Undying MTG deck? Two reasons, if you must know. The first, is that I needed something to roll with and that struck me as funny at the time, so I went with it. The second reason is that it served as a primer, preparing you to deal with me jumping up and down on yet another “dead horse topic”, because that is what I like to beat. Dead horses- squishier the better. Essentially, I used a tired out meme to prepare you for a subject that is already tiring itself out—“overexposeddiscussioninception!” said the person who looks like Ted. (Button courtesy of Spacegy… don’t ask how many times I played with it tonight >>).

Okay, enough silliness; let us get serious.

You are all literate individuals using the internet, so I will not insult your intelligence by assuming you did not hear about what happened to Mr. Robin Williams, though if this came as a spoiler to you, I am both sorry for your loss and sorry for your clear lack of regular communication with the outside world, in spite of an internet connection. Here I said I was going to get serious—and I am, I swear, but the way I am going about this… well, I think this is the approach he would best identify with anyway. Robin Williams was an absolutely silly man, who approached both the serious and dramatic with this light hearted humor that just made you smile. Yes, I am coming around to a serious point, but making light of the approaching topics is something he would have done. A famous bit from Patch Adams says as much on the subject of life and death.

My two cents on that at least, and hell, you’re reading my closing thoughts, so that’s what you get. Unless you’re Canadian, in which case I’ll round it up and give you a nickel.

Perhaps I have that out of my system and will now move on with the actual intent of these closing thoughts—there are two aspects here. The first is having a frank chat on mental illness, suicidality and awareness, and the second half will be connecting this back to writing, as this is a blog about writing and role-playing. I thought about not connecting the two, leaving these closing thoughts only as a piece with the first half displayed, but I feel it necessary to stick to the roots of this blog’s purpose, even when putting out an important message.

It is a sad thing that it usually takes a tragedy to bring out the important discussions, but we’ll leave the examination of human nature for another time. For now, we’ll just sit comfortably with the knowledge that it never seemed like something to bring up until it was brought to the public stage, ironic, considering a similar event hit me on a personal level last fall. Perhaps in dealing with something much closer, it makes you forget about talking and focus on the processing and moving on—so by the time you’re back in here writing, you’re on to other subjects. When someone you grew up admiring and appreciating does the same, you have just enough detachment to come out and open the discussion.

This piece is not about passing judgment or making value statements on the act itself, so please do not read this with expectations of an official position in that regard. Instead, what I want to say (finally) is that serious depression and thoughts of suicide is serious and should be taken seriously, both by the person who experiences it and the people surrounding that individual. Yes, too often people sometimes attribute a person’s morose behaviors with being that person’s baseline, but if that person expresses something a little more—please listen. Please pay attention and be willing to lend a hand if that person has decided to extend it one more time.

If you are that person, the one who is struggling with the decision to reach out for support or to take it back and take your own life instead, I ask—no plead with you, get help. Call someone you know you can trust to make good decisions and to support you. Call one of the many hotlines available- all you need to do is make a quick google search. They are free, they are there to help, and they are trained in helping you get past the worst moments of depression’s grasp so you can carry on long enough to get to someone who can assist you in getting through the long term. If your feelings are frequent and lasting, do yourself a favor and get to a support group- and in person support group, one with people who are there.

Human social contact does wonders for you, even if you have a hard time believing it. Yes, getting up and leaving is hard, but if you have the energy and drive to consider harming yourself, I ask that you make that one last effort to go talk to someone, to meet with people, to find support and keep pushing forward, because it does eventually pass and it does get better. Suicide is a hard thing, and the controversy flares up for a reason. Suicide is much like casting a stone into still waters. You think all you have done is given up one stone, a single piece of rock that never affected anyone. Yet, when the stone hits the water, it leaves ripples- ripples that reach out far and wide, sometimes from shore to shore. We are all stones casting ripples, but suicide is something that weighs us down and makes the stone that much more massive.

I’m making my transition now, but here is a resource should you or a loved one ever need it.

Coming back around to writing, we can think of our characters like rocks as well. Not rocks like they are as interesting as a box of rocks or have as much going on in their head as a sack full of rocks rattling around- no, I mean they are the proverbial stone through into the lake of life, each one lost echoing as ripples, touching many, many others. Some of our characters are small, so perhaps their stone is not as big or as wide, or perhaps their stone is big, but only when specifically looked at by a particular group, and since the perspective of this story never sees that group, we the readers will never know.

Characters are stones, and some of them have great mass. When a character dies, they will leave ripples in their story, reaching out and touching other people often in ways they never understood. This does not just apply to characters that have harmed themselves but to any character that dies in the story period. The greater our character, the bigger their stone is as it is cast into the lake, forever lost. If we have the right perspective, we can see much of where those waves are going, and who they will touch before they lose energy and cease.

Much in the same way that we are all people who leave impressions on each other and therefore leave ripples in the lives we leave behind, do the same for your characters. Even if they start out as a loner who could not care about others much beyond their usefulness, they will eventually touch the lives of others (for better or worse) and their death will have a noticeable impact. As you develop your character, make sure that you take the time to give him those connections, to treat him as a real human being who will make friends and enemies, acquaintances and neighbors. Ensure others will notice when he’s gone.

That way, when your story parts ways with that character, plunging them into what is assumed inescapable death, you will be able to trace the ripples. To watch where waves go when the character is gone, deciding who in the story gets hit with the worst of it and who hardly notices a thing. Draw out your story, as the story of that character does not truly end with the character’s end, but instead it follows through with the others who will miss them, and by addressing that too, you add depth and dimension to your plots, a while showing just how important that lost character was.

That’s my time everyone, take care. 

-          Acies   

"No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.". ~ Robin Williams