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Cry of Despair Issue 69, 3/03
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|
.JNNNN` .JNNNNNL NNNNNN. | In this month's issue:
JNNNNN) JNNNNNNNNL (NNNNNNN. | This month's feature!
JNN` JNN` NNN (NN. (NN)| * We put your minds at ease
(NN` (NN` NNF (NN` (NN`| and announce the winners
(NN. (NN. JNN` NNF JNN) | of the Realms Awards!
(NNNNNN (NNNNNNNNN' (NNNNNNNF | * Ganemanoimu and Simone
4NNNN` "NNNNNN` NNNNNNF | give us more thought-
| provoking articles.
The Cry of Despair! | * Juliana gives us more
=================== | tips on futhering your
* * * | building skills.
* | * All the usual news,
* * * | quests, and more special
| additions!
* |
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Editor: Alysira Immortal Sponsor: Elisabet
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Staff: Amante, Ganemanoimu, Ilsensine, Juliana, Kellandra,
Khaimran, Shadia, Shadrack, Simone, Vaile.
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Contents CoD, Issue 69
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Desk of the Editor
News from around the Realms
Guild/Order News
TS/VC Updates
Inter Guild Quest Council
Realms Awards: The votes are in!
Furthering the Builder's Art
Rants from the Summit
Opinions from the Staff
Simone
Ganemanoimu
Story Submissions
FunnyBones
Announcements and Advertisements
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Desk of the Editor - by Alysira Editor
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Greetings, readers!
I know it has been far too long since the last Cry of Despair was
published, but life has that funny way of intervening right when
you have something to do.
On the plus side, I know many of you have been just itching to
find out the results of the Realms Awards! Well, Shadia's been
hard at work tallying all the votes, and I'm sure many people
will be pleasantly surprised at the results. Congratulations to
all the victors!
This month, we have all the regular news articles, and some of
the staff members have added their own opinions articles.
Juliana also brings us more building tips.
Hope you enjoy it!
-Alysira
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Guild/Order News - by Kellandra News
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Order of MaidenStone
The order extends a warm welcome to its newest members Elaisse,
Saraya and Sunfall. Many new faces have graced the Order's halls
lately and we are truly thankful and lucky to have earned their
company.
Administration within the order has endured several changes as
of late as our long-time deity Cersei has retired, leaving some
big shoes to fill in her place. However, we are pleased to welcome
Darshanin as the order's new deity and have the utmost faith that
she will do her best. As well, our faithful leader Aurien has
recently stepped down and taken her place among the ranks as an
elder Aes Sedai. We welcome with open arms our newest leader
Ilyatha, and know she will give her all to the betterment of the
Order. Following in succession, Skaphia has ascended as the Order's
new Number One, and Salendine has recently been graced with the
honor of being the Order's new Number Two!
To those that have moved on, we wish you the best and thank you
for the countless hours of dedication you have contributed. To
those that have taken on new roles, we have no doubts you will
lead the Order to some even better and brighter moments! :)
Applications to the order are still currently open. Potential
candidates are encouraged to read help maidenstone and help
ms applications for more information.
Order of Ringbearers
The Order of Ringbearers expresses congratulations to Fiebin and
Caldric for passing their acolyte period with power and panache!
Good luck as full members of Ringbearers.
The Order wishes good luck to Reatha and Micha in their acolyte
period. We know you'll do your best to get on through.
We wish to thank our IOQC team for placing second place in the
last quest. The combination of Thartos, Hobinay, Tinildur,
Goshimo and Pelmen.. one of the most underpowered teams in the
IOQ in terms of pure killing ability and placed 2nd place. Good
job guys!
That's about all from RB, may the virtues of truth, honor and
knowledge ever lead your way!
Guild of Clerics
This month the GoC continues its sprint towards to the brink of
insanity with more trivia, monster mashage and other fun, fun,
and also crazy events. Naturally, this is all interspersed with
the usual drunken antics involving dirty carrots.
The guild would also like to express its overwhelming gratitude
at being able to have our awesome second Chalamar. We hope to
see her back in action soon! We love you Chalala-alabama-banana!
Care to join the insanity? Looking for more uses for that carrot?
Or special tips on making it dirty? Come visit the Guild of
Clerics at nw, 2w, 2n, e, u of DH square and talk to one of the
inma... err members of the guild!
Guild of Fathomers
GoF now boasts 29 members. We would like to welcome the following
of our newest members: Mahina, Tornio, Cirdan, and Baxt.
Guild of Mages
The Guild of Mages warmly welcomes its newest full member, Vengor
to our midst. Our new initiates are Abremelin, Yosef, Dharkus and
Krangar (Formerly known as Milenko). Several mages recently
returned from retiring from Realms as well.
Guild runs included Justice, Kraken, Gradinar, Thoth, Dobra,
Corsterix, Black Rose, and Father Time.
MAP is taking new members into the Mage Apprentice Program under
the direction of Milamber.
GoM PK Ladder leader so far is Bergeil with Leonidas coming in
second and Zaeon in a close third.
The Webpage Council, under the direction of Treva, is making great
strides to rebuild our webpage: http://mages.silverwolf-den.com/
Guild of Thieves
The month of February saw the guild welcoming our new 2nd.
Congratulations go to Uimato. It will be a pleasure working with
you in the future. Thanks go to Zilensko as the contender for the
position.
New inductees this month were Lox, Ardaria and Flarene. Welcome
to the Guild to all three. May this place become your new home.
IGPK had the guild facing some formidable opponents. We triumphed
over GoP-GoV on the 1st and GoC-GoW on the 12th. Job well done
thieves. March is still to come and will be an interesting challenge.
Let's keep up the good work.
Thieves have been busy bashing away on Justice, Kahl, Shade, Hecate,
FT, Hellknights, Mandor etc. this month as new members are learning
about ARC, running and tanking a variety of mobs around the realms.
That's it for this month. Any level 20 thieves who are interested
in joining our guild, please read the notes in the recruiting office
or contact a member who has IT in their title. They will be more
than happy to answer questions about joining the guild.
The Triad
Guild of Nephandi
Following the election held to chose a new Guild Second, Morgrin
has stepped up to fill this position. Congratulations are also
due to Rikkath and Kiyah on becoming members of our IT team.
Joining us as new members this month were Yuka, Zoes and Taechal :)
The project to complete and verify our area directions is nearing
completion, and our website has both moved to a new home, and
received something of a facelift.
On the running front, most of our efforts this month were invested
in killing some of Realms' newer mobs on a regular basis, with
visits to old favorites such Guen and Brakky somehow managing to
be fitted into what time was left over.
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TS Updates - by Shadrack News
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During February the following proposals were considered in TS
meetings :
Passed -
* Scan echo removal
* Modification to forage skill message
* Mystery box for auction
* Emit command
* Poisoned food to be affected by res poison
* Weather changes
* Furniture store in DH
* Disarm message showing weapon name
* Roster changes to add induction date
* Vampires not losing BP while sleeping in dark rooms
* Note take/remove messages showing which note
* Examine echoes showing the short description of item
* Meeting room for orders
* Changing house/apartment keys for a fee
* Wings of Death, evil cleric group fly spell
* Umbilical, evil cleric hp drain spell
* Auction houses in hometowns
* Post offices in hometowns
* Glory option to remove enchantments on weapons
* Automatic config +nice after fighting in open arena
* Lastname command
Failed -
* Trance/meditate room echoes
* Mentoring program for new players
* Singing imp in Hell
* Extradesc command
* Give all command
* Group switch
* Banks in hometowns
* (Gold) items being holdable but not wearable
* Traverse/beacon echo color change
* Capping resistance percentages
TS also received feedback on a number of proposals it had passed
previously, as follows :
Passed -
* Mistform miss message.
* Writing buffer echos.
* Track corpse
* Mystery Box Auction
* Mystical Vision Castable while fighting (implemented)
* Mail Check
* Crab Guards race in Coral Depths
* Emit
Denied -
* Disarm echos
* Drow alignment/Race message
* Ruination
* Malediction
* Veiled steps message rewrite
* Changing Javelins to missile weapons
* Scan echo removal
* Kalerd Supplication Rates
* Circle message
* Where modification
* New use for glory (weapon enchants)
* Umbilical spell
* Sheathing of weapons
* Leader note removal change
* Evil clerics weapon proficiencies.
* Darkhaven furniture store.
* Res_poison affecting food poison
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Inter Guild Quest Council - by Shadrack IGQC
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In early February the events foretold in a prophecy handed down
to Yeroc of the Guild of Augerers by a distant ancestor came to
pass. The Gulgoths who had been bound were seen to have risen
again, and he called on the assistance of the Guilds of Realms
to seal them once more and prevent unbalance being brought to
the Realms.
With the assistance of the spirit of the ancestor, questors sought
out mystical objects from far flung corners of the world which
would aid them in this endeavor. After many hazardous journeys
had been undertaken, sufficient of these were recovered that battle
could be given to the Gulgoth. The struggle was bloody and painful,
but eventually the creature was defeated and balance restored.
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The Realms of Despair Awards - by Shadia RoDAwards
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The 4th annual Realms of Despair Awards votes are IN!
After hours of counting and recounting all votes have been recorded
and posted for all your viewing pleasure! There definitely were
some surprises and some not so surprising, but all in all the
categories have been tallied and listed below for you!
There were 37 players that voted, and none were disqualified.
There are a lot of ties this year due to all the great players
we have within the game. I must say thank you to all that had
taken the time to get a quill and note and vote your hearts out!
The winner of the drawing is after careful consideration and a
bunch of notes in a portal is... Nannuki! Please contact Elisabet,
Alysira, Shadia or Ganemanoimu for your prize.
Now for the results-
Note: Where more than one name occurs in one place, this indicates
a tie between the players. These are arranged alphabetically.
1. Best Male Immortal:
(1) Kali
(2) Blodkai/Conran/Edmond/Kinux
2. Best Female Immortal:
(1) Moonbeam
(2) Selina
(3) Darshanin
3. Best Male Roleplayer:
(1) Anmect
(2) Kevyn
(3) Phalar
4. Best Female Roleplayer:
(1) Shadia
(2) Graelynia
(3) Chalamar
5. Best RoD Couple:
(1) Conran and Kellandra
(2) Moonbeam & Kali
(3) Myra & Phred
6. Best "New change" to Realms:
(1) New Areas
(2) New Mage paths
(3) Changed Deity System
7. Worst "New change" to Realms:
(1) The weakening of the Mage class
(2) Portal/astral restrictions
(3) The limiting changing of Deities
8. Best Guild:
(1) Guild of Clerics
(2) Guild of Mages
(3) Guild of Druids
9. Best Order:
(1) MaidenStone
(2) Inconnu
(3) Ascendere
10. Best Clan:
(1) Surreptus
(2) Scorn
(3) Ophanim
11. Best Area:
(1) Mountain of Lost Souls
(2) Thul Ab'Hara
(3) Otherlands
12. Best Hometown:
(1) Elf
(2) Drow
(3) Human/Pixie
13. Best Food Item:
(1) Magic Mushrooms
(2) Chocolate covered spiders
(3) Lemon Chicken
14. Best Drink Item:
(1) Kumquat Merlot
(2) Blood fountain
15. Best "Treasure" Item:
(1) An old toy knight
(2) Darkfire Blaster
(3) White sequined mask Dragon
16. Most Likely to DT:
(1) Shaolong
(2) Brane/Mumra/Qaulorn/Solarius/Thartos/Zylo
17. Best Dressed:
(1) Ubasolak
(2) Eric
(3) Alyssa/Ardeth
18. Most Wanted to be Balzhured:
(1) Shaolong
(2) Thartos
(3) Riev
19. Best Rename:
(1) Bassam- Crown of the Pudding King/Cappadocius- Vivisection
(2) Evaine- Chocolate-covered cherry/Mephie- Happiness in Slavery
20. The "Fruit" Award:
(1) Shaolong
(2) Faceripper/Gael/Gallant/Pollo/Riev
21. Best Social:
(1) Nod
(2) Hrm/Slurp
(3) Boogie/Eskimo/Heh/Party/Thwap
22. Best Male Player:
(1) Ganemanoimu
(2) Cappadocius
(3) Coryn/Feyd/Meade/Rajatan/Tisik/Zylo
23. Best Female Player:
(1) Alysira
(2) Juliana/Skaphia
(3) Kellandra/Mephie/Rebekah/Saraphin
24. Most likely to get illegally PKilled:
(1) Shaolong
(2) Thartos
(3) Doyle/Solarius
25. Most likely to be the one to illegally PKill them:
(1) Amante/Kulj/Zed
(2) Dekkath/Doyle/Solarius
26. Most charismatic deadly:
(1) Amante
(2) Einik
(3) Faceripper
27. Most charismatic peaceful:
(1) Gallant/Pudge/Razzfellow/Skaphia
28. Most interesting help file:
(1) Help Me
(2) Help Bassamrequests
(3) Help Balzhur
29. Most interesting room:
(1) A nice warm room of shut the hell up/Disco World
(2) Hell/Inner Beauty/The Doghouse
30. Best Runner:
(1) Mephie
(2) Ganemanoimu
(3) Dortayl/Gatersade/Mirandee/Tisik
31. Best explorer:
(1) Juliana/Mephie
(2) Kellandra
(3) Feyd/Zylo/Mirandee/Muiren/Nelkum
32. Next-to-Imm:
(1) Skaphia
(2) Kellandra
(3) Zistrock
33. Most eligible Bachelor:
(1) Mumra
(2) Blodkai/Herne/Kortir/Mbwana
34. Most eligible Bachelorette:
(1) Rebekah
(2) Cresis
(3) Talena
35. Most annoying person:
(1) Shaolong
(2) Sealom/Gallant/Kinkathra/Riev/Thartos
36. Funniest person:
(1) Blodkai
(2) Riev
37. Sickening Goodness (the biggest Goodie Two-Shoes):
(1) Alysira/Destre/Kellandra/Loril/Selina
38. Ugliest Statname:
(1) Ganemanoimu
(2) Joandaximlij
(3) Vrykolakas
39. Most Unique rename:
(1) Bassam- Crown of the Pudding King
(2) Rikuo/Mephie- Granny pants up to her armpits
(3) Treva- An tshirt eblazoned "Ozzy Osbourne"
Tada! All 39 categories brought to you all behalf of the CoD
staff! I hope you all enjoyed reading them as much as I had
sorting them.
These votes were close and definitely credited to the right people,
so winners pick up those heads of yours and be proud of what you
are good enough to win... Nothing!
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Furthering the Builder's Art - by Juliana Building
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* What Is Worldbuilding? *
Worldbuilding is often used in conjunction with writing fantasy
or science-fiction. All authors require a believable world in
which to place their stories, but writers in the above genre make
it up instead of relying on our prosaic planet.
Plenty of writers before Tolkien used this concept, but the
popularity of The Lord of the Rings spotlighted how this one
author created Middle-Earth through details like his maps and
invented languages. Suddenly, world building was "in" and it
looked strange if you didn't have a map of your fantasy world.
Worldbuilding is the name for a specific kind of planning. By
thinking about what you are writing about and giving it surroundings
(a land, a culture, a world) that are internally consistent, it
paves the way for readers to believe in the world you are creating.
As a bonus, you also convince yourself and as a result, it is
easier to find ideas to write about.
Gamers have picked up this idea - many enjoy crafting a world of
their own as a lifetime hobby, as realistic or fun as they want
to make it, and then sharing it with their friends or over the
web for everyone to appreciate. Role-playing games are the natural
adjunct to a world building hobby, or vice versa, it's often hard
to tell where one ends and the other begins. Computer games are
using it more and more as players demand a good story and an
enjoyable plot (read: believable, logically consistent, and fun)
in addition to the actual game.
* And so we come to the importance of worldbuilding when writing
areas for a MUD: It creates internal consistency. *
Worldbuilding allows you to decide what to include and what to
leave out when making an area. If something is not consistent
with the area's theme, then you need to save it for another area,
no matter how good an idea it is. How do you know what is
consistent in the first place? You have to plan out the land,
the societies, the environment, the culture, i.e. you build a world.
To take a recent example, "The Mountain of Lost Souls" by Kinux
and Selina is established to be a mountain prison occupied by
cultists of Khiurn'hai. Therefore, we as players expect a mountain,
a prison, cells, prisoners, cultists, and a demon. If we found
Viking raiders within the mountain, or pastel-colored iridescent-
winged fairies flitting around a crystal castle, our belief in the
area's consistency erodes severely. We wouldn't know what to expect,
or what to trust.
The key is internal consistency rather than ultra-"realism." It
doesn't have to be exactly like our real world. It just must make
sense within itself. Verisimilitude - it must give the appearance
of being real.
* Caveat: Do not focus on realism at the expense of fun. *
A certain amount of realism is good fun because it gives viewers
a world to believe in, and simulates an experience we'd like to
have. Some MUDs have an ASCII wilderness system which allows a
player to see a world map and travel across their world using roads
and ships, bringing trade goods to cities, hunting in forests,
or mining in mountains. This idea can be fun.
It stops being fun and becomes agonizingly tedious if you run out
of movement points after crossing 10 ASCII characters' worth of
roads and have to keep sleeping for many real life minutes to
regain enough capacity to move again, especially if the nearest
city is 200 ASCII characters away. One might argue that it is
realistic that it takes 20 days for people in a medieval society to
travel across the land. I'd like to count the number of players
willing to waste half an hour of their gaming time walking across
a road.
* "I just want to build an area, now you tell me I have to build
a world?!" *
Not necessarily. Not everyone needs to have a complete plan and
outline before starting to write. Some people find this helpful,
but you may prefer to nurse growing ideas within your head. As
long as you aren't making a jointly built area where every builder
has to know what they are building toward, you're perfectly welcome
to make things up as and when you need them. You run the risk of
forgetting what you've invented if you don't write things down,
that's all.
Also, if you are building for an established MUD, the head Imms
will likely have already have created the world. All the major
land and water masses may be in place. The races of the world will
be found in the options for players, plus a few more non-player
races. Deities and how magic works are at least implied, if not
explicitly stated. Naturally, while your area should make sense
in the context of established ideas, your own creative world
building will start on a lower scale; that of a specific culture
or society, and the specific terrain of your area. Call it region
building if you want.
As you know, building is just another kind of writing. All the
complex commands of the MUD and area writing formats can be
learned with practice, just as you learned how to hold a pen,
type on a keyboard and manipulate Word documents. The trick is
finding something to write about.
* Worldbuilding comes in here as well: It helps you generate ideas. *
By using speculative thinking, "What might happen if," on already
established concepts, you can develop scenarios with inherent
conflict. This means good story potential and a nifty idea for
an area.
For example, you've decided that there will be a farming village
of human peasants in your area. Except this is fairly boring
without any interesting monsters to stir up trouble. You could go
the easy way and pick a random monster out of the monster manual.
An invasion of wild boars creates a different scenario from a
flight of dragons. You might decide to alter the existing idea -
how about a village of farming halflings or farming lizardmen?
Or you might choose to explore the concept of farming itself. A
farming village in drought has a severe problem. What if the
village has a famous crop? What if "modernization" is taking place
with a rich man buying up acres of land to intensively grow the
same kind of crop?
* Random Generators *
As you are building, you may find that you need ideas for mob or
objects, whether it be writing descriptions of what they look out,
or coming up with them in the first place. Random generators are
great for inspiring such ideas. Some generators may even provide
a 'description' of the person or item, but bear in mind that they
tend to be plain and formulaic to make it easier to program. The
real value of such 'descriptions' are to give you a foundation to
build on. Does the randomly generated potion come in a green vial
and smell like urine?
Hrm, that might be putting things across a little strongly and
plainly, but now you know to describe what it smells like, what
color container it comes in, what shape the container is in, and
possibly what the container is made of.
Random generators are excellent when used in conjunction with
worldbuilding techniques. By creating a world of your own, you
know the "natural, logical" responses of people and things when
something happens in your world. This created world tends to be
static, unless you've purposely fed regions with complexity and
conflict. To add the dynamic element that makes a good story,
grab the first thing that pops out of a random generator and think
about what would happen if you added it to your world somewhere.
* Random Generator Links *
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/gens/index.html
A myriad of random generators can be found here. Don't just explore
the obvious generators either! For example, The Martial Arts Contest
Generator is surprisingly good at churning up area names of arenas
and other such death-themed regions. With a little creativity, you
might find inspiration in unlikely places.
http://www.dhorizon.org/characterBuilder/
Lists. I love lists. I love lists with lots of options. Someone
needs to make a generator out of this. While this is themed toward
a desert setting, the words themselves can be used in descriptions,
and they provoke ideas yet again!
Just please be careful as to how many adjectives you use and so on.
I trust that you all have good judgment as to what makes a nice
description. These are for people who have difficulty finding the
correct word for what they've visualized, or are sick of repeating
the same word over and over.
* World Building Links *
http://www.globalserve.net/-pjduane/WorldBuilding.htm
An introduction to world building.
http://hollylisle.com/fm/Articles/faqs8.html
Holly Lisle's take on World Building. The rest of her site is full
of inspiring articles too.
http://www.sfcanada.ca/spring99/worldbuild.htm
A caution against too much world building. If you do too much
planning first and build an entire world and then try to constrain
your area into that world, you are naturally squeezing the area
into a box that may or may not fit.
Personally, I think planning is always a good thing, as long as
you are aware that your first decision must not be final and set
in concrete. A decision provides a direction and a goal to follow,
leading you down a path. You might find out later that this path
doesn't get you to where you want to go, and change your course,
but if you don't make the decision to follow a path in the first
place, you end up standing still.
http://www.sff.net/people/victoriastrauss/impatient.html
A recommendation for the best of both worlds World build a bit.
Write. World build a bit more. Write some more.
Translation: Plan area. Build area. Plan more area. Build more area.
http://www.io.com/-eighner/world_builder/world_builder_index.html
Patricia C. Wrede's World Building Questions.
http://www.rpgmud.com/WorldBuilding/Mythopoets/tmm.html
The Mythopoet's Manual - everything you ever wanted to know about
inventing cultures.
http://www.world-builders.org/lessons/Vless.html
World Building the Scientific Way.
http://www.brandubh.com/worldbuilding.htm
(Very long!) Combines P. Wrede's questions with science-based
questions. Probably the most comprehensive summary on how to
make a world.
http://www.astrofantasy.com/fantasy_world/fantasy_world.htm
A nice demonstration of world building with random generators.
If only the rest of it were written one day...
http://www.zompist.com/kitlong.html
Think you can do better than Tolkien? What's with all the "Vedui",
"Vendui" and "Vedai" floating around the elvish racetalks anyhow?
Make your own invented language!
http://www.hut.fi/-vesanto/world.build.html
http://hobgoblin.net/resources/createlink1.asp
http://directory.google.com/Top/Games/Roleplaying/World_Building/?tc=1
http://members.tripod.com/bmarch10/Worldbuilding.htm
These are huge lists of links to other sites.
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Rants from the Summit - by Ganemanoimu RftS
----------------------------------------------------------------
Another month, another rant. This is mostly focused on a specific
group of players. Every year, this group seems to get bigger and
bigger. These are the old cronies who tend to gloss over their
last however many years, especially in front of newer players.
While some players in their heyday were actually quite good at
questing, or running, or being a leader, or whatever else it was,
the other group has done essentially nothing. However, they seem
to believe that they are almighty and that we should all drop
down to our knees and worship our newfound deity. The former
group can sometimes be referred to as cocky, arrogant or vain,
but respect can be grudgingly given. On the other hand, the
latter group are nothing but posers. They're the scum of the
social circles, always trying to rise to the top. Oh, and dropping
names of famous players who used to play doesn't add to your
credibility, nor does dropping names of current and former
Immortals. It should also be pointed out that there is an even
smaller group of people, who are amazing players yet actually
have a sense of modesty and humbleness. Unfortunately, these
people will never really be given the respect they so richly
deserve, but that's a subject for a different day. They usually
aren't needy people as it is anyway.
There are a couple of things that these attention-seeking
parasitic posers need to understand. First, no matter how much
you whine, complain, rant and try to dream, those days aren't
coming back. Get over it. Make your mark in today's world or
move on and get yourself a life. If you actually accomplished
anything notable, people will remember.
Secondly, generally we don't care and don't want to hear about
your history. If we ask you about what it was like, feel free to
go all out. However, don't just walk and impose your will onto the
conversation, launching into your rendition of the Odyssey, like
some shade run or something along those pathetic lines. Let me
give you some amusing examples to illustrate my point.
In an organization that I'm a member of, some obscure character
logged and decided to explain how Seth was a few years ago. He
detailed how Seth was never really spammed (because it was too hard),
but of course him and his deadly crew killed him quite a bit. He
also bemoaned the fact that his storage had deleted because it
was full of clan and if he had it now, he would be rich. Perhaps
he might be able to cash out in real life by selling EQ through
websites or in nice packages. Oh wait, that's someone else. Ignore
that. (By the way, buying heavily gloried and renamed EQ for real
life cash when it's so blatantly obvious is a really dumb move
if you chose to do so).
Another person I saw began a note with "...Over 1800 years have
passed in the 6+ RL years I have played here...". He went on to
explain how great he was in the past and all the amazing feats
he had achieved. What made it more amusing was the other people
who were around during his day informed me the opposite was true.
Regardless, this person decided that because I was newer to the
game than he was, that I should be going out of my way to greet
him and show him respect and that kind of thing.
Earn my respect, don't ask for it.
Another character informed me that back in his day, he was
practically the buffest character in his guild. A number of my
friends laughed when they heard this, explaining how his stock
EQ and 110 DR didn't quite match some of the more experienced
players. Needless to say, if you did things in the past, people
will know that and give you credit. There is no need to go
advertising yourself. If you have to, you probably didn't do
much. If you were generous in your day and donated lots of EQ
to other people, people will reward that generosity in full when
you're in need. Don't go around asking random people for handouts.
This particularly applies if you were especially retarded and got
yourself balzhured repeatedly.
So next time you attempt to dazzle your unwilling audience with
another one of your superlative laden tales of success, just stop
and realize the truth. It is NOT them who are being rude or stupid,
it's YOU. Go tell someone who cares, like your pillow, plush toy,
imaginary friend, or any other happy memories from your childhood.
Ganemanoimu
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Opinions - by Simone Opinions
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Here's a little something to think about for those interested:
There are many ways to classify the population of the world.
There are people who are religious, and there are people who do
not totally believe if they believe at all. So what has been
causing this distinction as of late?
Some might argue that science is the culprit. How is science
responsible? Well science and mathematics are very precise and
exact practices. All evidence and observed phenomena must
yield an irrefutable answer at the end. They are practices
based on disbelieving as soon as a contradiction to theory is
found.
So what am I talking about? For example, metaphors. "His heart
is of stone." Is his heart really made of stone? No, of course
not, however the statement implies something far greater and
far deeper than the simple literal interpretation.
So in essence, my example of a metaphor is a sort of contradiction.
It can be proven (don't try this at home) with a hammer and
chisel that there isn't any stone in there, yet anyone with some
interaction with my individual of stone will usually either agree
or disagree with me, and not violently argue that my medium of
expression is wildly absurd.
So what am I trying to say here? I'm not exactly sure, but it's
something along the lines of even if religion is not to be
believed in the literal sense, is it false enough not to be
appreciated on any level?
Anyway, I'm not really trying to answer any questions but I
just came across this idea type of thing and I thought it was a
neat way of thinking of things as I myself am not particularly
religiously active.
If anyone has their own thoughts on all this leave me a mail :)
Simone
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Opinions - by Ganemanoimu Opinions
----------------------------------------------------------------
As this is technically a newspaper that discusses news, I've
decided to give my few cents on a couple of topics that might
concern certain people around the Realms. These are certainly
not objective reports on what has happened, just my personal
opinions. Don't like it? Don't read it!
First off, the recent Inter Guild Pkill Tournament has been on
since the beginning of January and looks to wrap up within a few
weeks. Overall, it has been quite interesting and fun for all
parties involved. A number of guilds sit tied for top with only
a single loss. These include the Guild of Mages, Guild of Thieves,
Guild of Warriors and Guild of Clerics. Some of my numbers might
be a little off, but processing of all the standings takes some
time and I'm just going with what I have. Most of the events have
started more or less on time and rarely last much longer than half
an hour. Each team consists of 5 members from 1 guild, and 5 members
from another Guild. For example, in GoC/GoW vs. GoT/GoD, there would
be 5 clerics and 5 warriors versus 5 thieves and 5 druids. All the PK
events occur on Wednesday evenings at 7 PM EST, or Saturday afternoons
at 2 PM EST.
There have been some fairly interesting tactics to note that were
quite amusing. One was the use of a large number of locusts to zap
neutral characters on the opposing team, and another was to kill
your own teammates to fix your align. This latter tactic was banned
shortly after its use.
Another thing to note was the fact that despite an slist only
restriction, the use of blindness and gouge has been virtually
nonexistent and no PKs have actually been decided by the use of
these skills.
Another rule that came to be fairly pivotal and effective, was
the 115 DR cap. This allowed the level of EQ to be relatively
equal across the board and forcing teams to win mostly by class
specialties, PK skills, and a little bit of luck on the side.
One interesting point to bring up is that GoR has been disqualified
for failing to show up at a PK event. While the official rules
last year were that a Guild that failed to show up to an event
would be disqualified, those rules were not explicitly stated
this year. At this time, the disqualification is on appeal. If
GoR remains disqualified, a new schedule will be written up to
make up for the loss of a Guild. If GoR is readmitted, most likely
it will undergo some penalty for failing to show.
Of course, none of this would be possible without the help of the
various immortals and mortals. Thanks to Bravadan, Aslan, Selina,
Darshanin, Kinux and everyone else involved, especially the
participants. Look to the near future for the winner as well as
the player with the most KBs!
While on the subject of PK, it should be noted that the area
Badlands has entered the realms. This is another PK area, similar
to Forested Arena but much more developed. This essentially
becomes the PK Town for peacefuls. I recently had an opportunity
to PK in it on a quest and found it to be a much more interesting
place to PK than in the arena. For example, it is much more
difficult to flee as there aren't a multitude of exits in every
single room.
My main issue with Badlands is that it is so big. The town is
surrounded by Badlands rooms and this area would be suitable
for 30-40 players while the usual number is around 10-20.
On death, your corpse drops in the Graveyard and you have to go
through to pick it up. This creates its own problems as you can
be killed while attempting to get back to your corpse. However,
the area is large enough that it should be relatively easy to
sneak by. If you're at all interested in how real PK is, I
highly suggest you try this out as it is far more realistic in
comparison to the Forested Arena, and can be a lot of fun on your
quest to rack up some more Honor.
Paths are also in for mages and have proven to be quite interesting.
I think this is an awesome idea personally because it makes you make
lots of changes to a class without affecting too many things at once.
I'll explain in a bit, first you get to introduce more diversity to
a class. This is a huge mud and there are only so many classes. You
can't make too many classes or they all end up being relatively similar.
However, you can tweak a class in a number of different ways to tailor
them to what a player is looking for. As well, let's just say you
want to give mages a better attack spell but don't want to throw
things too heavily in a mage's favor, have it so that only one path
has the good attack spell and give some other decent skills/spells
to other paths. This allows you to reduce the number of people who
have the spell. Kind of like keeping mobs hard so that not as many
people get the advantage from the good EQ they give.
I haven't had much of a chance to play with this myself, but from
what I've seen it's been pretty interesting. Hopefully we can see
more path-like structures on other classes.
Another thing to note that has been occurring recently in the Realms
is the Survivor Quest run by Hoerkin, Ceirana and Cresis. The
setup is pretty simple, 32 players to start with, 2 elimination
rounds, each one eliminating 8 players. The remaining 16 players
are divided into 2 teams. These teams compete in quests to gain
immunity in voting, the losing team has to vote off one of its
members. After that, the two teams will be amalgamated into one
team. At the time of printing, each team has voted off one member
and stands at 7 people each. The first elimination round was a
relay race where questors were split into groups of eight. Each
person had to run to the next person in line in whatever area
he/she might be in. Astral transportation and recall was forbidden
so that meant a lot of walking. The last place team ended up being
eliminated.
The next quest was an individual event which brought back happy
memories of final exams. A series of questions were rattled off
and the answers had to be quickly written down on notes and then
mailed to the quest organizers. These were then 'marked' and the
lowest 8 people were eliminated.
In the team events, the first event was a team vs. team PK where
team Ghetto Beaches won out over Team PHUNK PHENOMENON. Team 1
chose to vote off Graav. In the second event, a scavenger hunt,
it came down to a tiebreaker where Zwanth grabbed the silk shirt
before Thartos. Team 2 then chose to vote off Hope. Expect more
updates soon!
In the past 2 months, 2 articles that I wrote were removed at the
last minute for their inappropriateness. I have the most recent one
available for those who may be interested, titled 'How to get a
Mudhusband'. Anyone interested may send me a mudmail/tell with
their email address and I'll send it to them. I'd also like to
hear feedback from anyone who actually reads my stuff in terms of
good/positive things and what kinds of articles they liked/disliked.
Suggestions, criticism, comments are all good.
The draw for the cash prize for those who participated in the RoD
People's Choice Awards will be held relatively soon and the winner
will be contacted. Thanks for all your support so far.
Ganemanoimu
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Story Submissions Stories
----------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------
Alric - A Story by 0.Jander
---------------------------------------
Chapter 2 (Chapter 1 available at
http://www.geocities.com/nhojuilbook/)
The next morning, Alric set out on the path back to New Darkhaven.
It had been several weeks since the death of Alistair D'Emrose,
so he felt confident enough to travel directly on the main trade
route without a disguise. After several days of fast paced travel,
he arrived at his destination.
Alric entered Darktrail and the city proper. He needed information
on the goings-on in town since he had fled several weeks before,
and, more importantly, on who might have wanted to kill Alistair
D'Emrose. Although the existence of a Guild of Thieves was common
knowledge, its power was rarely visible to those outside of the
profession and its location was secret to most, even including lower
level thieves. Alric had seen high level thieves vanishing into a
warehouse in Thieves Alley and not leaving for hours, however,
and had investigated further and found nothing there.
By hanging around for hours on end, he had eventually attracted
the attention of several guild members, who had after carefully
scanning him magically and investigating him through more mundane
means decided he was to be offered membership in the guild. Alric
had declined, but still had access to the "public" above ground
section of the guild, open to all those with the wherewithal to
get in, and had stopped by frequently to fence goods or to catch
up on gossip.
Alric made his way to a nondescript warehouse halfway down Thieves
Alley, and entered. Leaving down through a hidden and magically
trapped door in the floor of the warehouse, Alric entered the
guild. Crossing the rune-inscribed main room of the Guild, Alric
moved away from the magical stairway that had vanished behind him
and went up a ladder leading back above ground, hidden behind the
warehouse.
"Alric!" shouted someone as Alric emerged into a hallway.
Alric turned to see who had shouted his name, and found himself
face to face with Stelan. A thin, statuesque man, Stelan was the
guild healer as well as an exceptional thief. It was he who had
originally recommended Alric for guild membership, and the two
had somehow become friendly, if not exactly friends.
"Alric, you're alive! I had heard that your band was wiped out,
and that you had gone insane and murdered a noble." said Stelan.
Alric shook his head. "Denimue and the others did die in Bartok's
Grove, but I'm still perfectly sane. Somebody cast a charm spell
on me and used me to kill that noble... And I'm trying to find
out who."
Stelan shook his head. "Someone cast a charm spell on you? That's
certainly a pretty ingenious way of killing a target. Good luck
tracking them down."
Alric nodded. "Speaking of which...have you heard any rumors
regarding anyone out to kill Alistair D'Emrose?"
Stelan was visibly shocked, but recovered after a moment. "Alistair
D'Emrose? Is that the guy you were forced to kill? He's heir to
one of the largest fortunes in New Darkhaven!"
Alric was surprised. "What? How come I had never heard of him?"
Stelan shook his head. "It's not very well known, but Alistair
D'Emrose is the bastard son of Irdrak, the owner of the Weapons
shop. Because Lord D'Emrose loves his wife so much, he even
recognized Alistair as his own son. Irdrak in turn still has
fatherly feelings for Alistair, and has willed toast... He'll
invest his entire fortune into bounties and assassins to track
you down. Even though he's an old man now, don't forget he was
a hero of the battle against Carnifex. He's still a pretty mean
hand with a sword himself. If I were you, I'd find out who was
responsible right quick and go to Irdrak with the information
before he finds you."
Alric nodded slowly. Irdrak, owner of the Daring Attack, was one
of the richest men in Darkhaven. He had collected a great deal
of gold from his long years of adventuring, and had increased it
manifold since then through selling his high quality weapons.
Making an enemy of him would be a grave error indeed.
Stelan sighed. "Well, I had best return to the healing room. Good
luck." Turning away, Stelan left downstairs to his clinic.
Alric walked slowly away, pondering this news. Who had hated the
young noble enough to kill him in such an ingenious fashion?
Entering the Circle of Lore, Alric nodded to the bartender, Gaspar.
After being knocked on the head so many years ago, Gaspar had gone
slightly... Funny in the mind. Still, he was a good bartender,
even if he was drunk half the time. Alric ordered a Stealth Serpent,
a non-alcoholic beverage. He wanted to keep his mind clear for the
night. Pretending to ignore Gaspar's "secret" drinks of whiskey,
Alric took his drink and went to the Loot and Pillage to see if any
Guild members were hanging around the shop.
Entering, Alric found Dirth, the shopkeeper, busily puffing away
at his cigar and carefully keeping an eye on all those moving about
the store. Seeing Alric, Dirth narrowed his eyes. Stepping forward,
the stout and hairy man stopped in front of Alric.
"No drinks in the shop! I won't have any of ye thieves hiding my
goods in yer glasses, eh?" declared Dirth, as he pulled out a match
and struck it on the prominently placed "No Smoking" sign.
Alric frowned. "You know I wouldn't steal from you, Dirth. Besides,
it's not like there's anything in here worth stealing."
Dirth growled. Lighting his cigar again, he spoke. "Are ye saying
my goods are low quality, you worthless bum? Anyway, are ye going
to buy something? If not, get out and make way for the payin'
customers."
Alric became annoyed. "I'm looking for some information on people
who might have been enemies of Alistair D'Emrose, a young noble
who was murdered some weeks ago. Do you know of anyone who might
know anything about him?"
Dirth shook his head. "No, I don't. And if you're not going to buy
anything, get out! I don't trust you for a minute."
Alric snarled. "Are you saying that I would steal from the Guild,
shorty?"
Dirth snarled back. "Yes, you worthless excuse for a half-Orc! And
who are you callin' shorty?"
Even though he was more cultured than most, Alric still had much
of the characteristic temper of a half-Orc. Dropping his drink
to the ground, he drew Sullandir, slashing at Dirth's face. Dirth
swayed back just in time, causing Sullandir to barely miss him.
Backpedaling, Dirth retreated to the counter and pulled out a
cudgel from underneath the gold chest. Charging forward, Dirth
smashed downward at Alric's head. Alric reversed his grip, holding
the dagger pointed downward. Raising his blade, Alric blocked the
cudgel's downward bash. To his surprise, the blade cut right
through the stout chunk of wood.
Dirth continued his downward swing with his broken cudgel, and
brought it back up and smashed Alric in the jaw. Knocked back,
Alric shook his head and charged forward. Stabbing again with
lightning swiftness, Alric managed to nick the dodging Dirth in
the leg. Dirth attacked again, but quickly arrested his blow and
backed off as Alric brought his dagger up into a guard position.
If it had cut his cudgel straight through, he obviously dared not
touch the dagger with his bare hands. Alric lunged forward again,
this time getting a solid hit and stabbing deeply into Dirth's
shoulder. Planting the blade deeper into the bone, Alric used his
momentum to turn to the side, twisting the blade and bringing Dirth
to his knees in pain. Pulling his dagger back out, Alric reversed
the blade again and stabbed Dirth firmly in the chest with the
pitch black blade, ending the short man's life.
"Ahem." Alric whirled around at the sound of a soft, cultured
voice. He saw a ravishingly beautiful woman dressed all in black
leather that somehow revealed more than it concealed, with a
hooded cape covering much of her thigh length black hair. Meeting
her deep green eyes, Alric noticed a particular signet on her
finger. Looking up, he saw the pendant that was always worn with
that ring, and took a step back in shock.
Guildmistress Angelea! An honor to gaze upon your exhalted beauty!
Angelea curled her full red lips, and snorted. "Dispense with the
flattery, fool. What has happened here?"
Alric shrugged. "This fool insulted me one time too many. I
disposed of him."
Angelea shook her head. "While I sympathize with your feelings,
Dirth is a long time member of our Guild. We cannot allow anyone
to attack one of us and get away with it. You will have to make
equal recompense...and since he is now dead, you have a choice.
You too may suffer the same fate, or you could replace him as our
Shopkeeper."
Alric frowned. "I am sorry, my lady, but I neither have any desire
to die nor wish to spend the rest of my life in servitude. There
is a third solution."
Curious, Angelea pulled out her blood stained dagger and began
toying with it. "And what might that be?"
Alric smiled. "Watch and see, my lady." Kneeling down, Alric
grasped Sullandir's hilt and willed its powers to activate.
Before the eyes of Angelea and several other members of the
guild, Dirth's wounds began sealing over. As the wound in his
chest began to close, Alric drew the dagger out and Dirth suddenly
spasmed and started to breathe again. After a moment, Alric stood
up and sheathed his magical dagger, and looked around satisfied
at the stunned Thieves around him.
"There. He's good as new." Alric stepped back, allowing Dirth to
slowly get up.
"I...was dead...." Dirth slowly looked at himself, and stumbled
back to his counter. Pulling out a match, he absent mindedly lit
his cigar and sat down to contemplate an experience that had
occurred to fewer beings than could be counted on his hands.
Angelea smiled, and licked her lips. "Mmmmm...what an interesting
dagger. I don't suppose you'd be willing to donate it to the guild?"
she purred.
Alric shook his head. "I am sorry, but the dagger can be wielded
by me and me only. While I am alive, nobody else will be able to
use it as more than a normal dagger, and it will destroy itself
in the event of my demise.
Sighing, Angelea nodded. "Well, since you have returned our
Shopkeeper to us, there is no problem." Turning to face the room,
Angelea clapped her hands. "Move along, everyone! I'm sure you all
have quotas to meet."
Patting Alric on the head, Angelea faded back into the darkness and
left the room, whispering a message to him as she left. "If you
seek knowledge of the death of Alistair D'Emrose, I suggest you try
the scene of the crime."
Alric thought about her parting words, and found himself agreeing
with her. It was unlikely he would be able to learn much more in
the guild after the display he had just given. Alric turned, and
left the guild.
Here ends the second chapter of the story of Alric.
Well, here's the second chapter, as promised. I only got a few
responses from the first chapter, most of them from people I knew,
but I decided to do this one anyway. Still, a few other people
have told me they enjoyed the story, so here it is. It's shorter
than the first one, but I think this was a good place to end it.
Special thanks to Angelea and Uimato for permission to use GoT.
Extra special thanks for Angelea allowing me to use her in the
story, and for being a beta reader. Again, please send comments
via mudmail or e-mail to nhojuil@hotmail.com.
0.Jander
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Funnybones - Collected by the CoD Funnybones
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When Ringbearer's get bored...
Avatar Hobinay. ______ ______ (Ringbearers)
Avatar Mercury. (_____ \(____ \ (Ringbearers)
Avatar Reatha. _____) )____) ) (Ringbearers)
Avatar Fiebin. | __ /| __ ( (Ringbearers)
Avatar Nadya. | | \ \| |__) ) (Ringbearers)
Acumen Tempus. |_| |_|______/ (Bored Order Inc)
(Number Two, Ringbearers)
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THE CRY OF DESPAIR IS PROUD TO BRING BACK
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If you had a chance to ask the Council of Elders something about
gameplay, what would you ask?
Do you want to know when we are going to have pasta somewhere?
Do you want to know why thief mobs only keep a percentage of what
they steal?
Or do you want to know something else?! If so, mudmail Vaile with
your questions today!!
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From the Staff of the CoD: Thank you for reading!!!
Feedback? Comments? Fan/hate mail? Submissions? All are
welcome at the CoD public boards, located: e,s,2u,s,w,s
from Darkhaven Square or south of quills and parchments
on Market Street.
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Realms of Despair
Wizlock 
Down