These Dice Are Pink

Archive for the ‘FiranMUX’ Category

Shipping Code

I haven’t done anything all week, because I was too tired.  So, I don’t have much amazing to write here.  Today, I finally feel like I can participate in things, so, I must have caught up with my lack of sleep over our Air Conditioning free weekend.  Right now, my moderate project is to write some shipping code for FiranMUX.  I’ve had this idea for a while, so, I’m putting it into play, as it should not take that long.  Really, I already wrote the main command and just need to put things into action.  The idea behind this is that the military will be able to send things back and forth between cities where they may be operating.  This means wizards don’t directly have to be involved.  More so, the way I am writing this code – players are solely responsible for their shipments.  Anyone in the Coalition military can ship for free to the destination and civilians can for a cost that goes into the military operating account.  We have code to handle the part in between and players still get to RP out the fun distribution of things.  If all goes well this weekend and we don’t end up running around flailing like we did last week, I should have this done by Monday.

Two Chicks at the Same Time

As a friend pointed out, it’s been a long time since I posted here about actual roleplaying.  I tried to blog at night, when I had more time, but apparently, I’m not as fresh and can’t remember what I was doing all week.  The coffee hour in the morning seems to be the best time to make a post.  On Tuesday night, I did my only mission for war season this year.  After Kinslayer, Brandon took over with this one and I took a break, so that I could be fresh for the fall/winter GMing.  This was a gang mission.  In previous war seasons, the Republic had made a deal with Thalos for some stenis.  This made the gangs friendly.  However, the Republic never made good on the deal and then Kinslayer happened and the Republic became a Coalition.  Needless to say, the gangs had some hurt feelings here.

The evening started out with an explosion and a squirrely Thalos.  Thalos is one of the Eesani cousins who runs the gang in the city of Ellish.  Curtio is the brains and Thalos is the muppet arms.  We never seem to play Curtio, even though he is the brains.  I think this works out better, since Thalos isn’t as smart.  He’s easier to manipulate in that way and in different ways that aren’t straight forward and also a little fun.  Thalos spends the first part of the evening trying to cover for massive explosions that are occurring in the gang hideouts.  Surprisingly, the players brought a woman dressed as a “naughty medic”.  This played really well into the fact that Thalos was previously viewed to be a lecherous man.  We were really impressed with the idea that players had taken the time to consider what Thalos would be interested in.

Ultimately, the players discover that Thalos found some small firebombs and stored them in a cellar.  Some of them are unstable, and in trying to get rid of them before Curtio gets back from patrol, they blew up part of the hideout.  The players made rolls to determine if the bombs were live or duds and then a roll to see if they could carry the bomb safely.  It was a one failure or botch, one kill scenerio.  A bomb going off would have ensured permanent injury/near death/death.  Luckily, they passed their roll.  While the players could not have known this at the time, just simply trying was enough to get Thalos’ buy in.  However, they went beyond that and removed all the bombs, thus sparing Thalos from Curtio’s continued wrath (did we mention that Thalos accidentally stabbed and killed Curtio’s brother?).  In return for their silence to Curtio, Thalos offered them gang members as guides through Ellish.  In return for guides through Ellish, Thalos ended up with two chicks at the same time.

I love playing Thalos.  It is such a guilty pleasure to be a little bit skeevy and a little bit humorous.  While Ellish is, a serious and often scary story, I love that we are able to break the tension here and there.  It makes it a real place, a place of joy and sadness for me.

A Long Project Complete

Yesterday, I completed a very extensive wiki page on FiranMUX that explains social imperatives and some ideas for uses and disputes.  It took me about a month to complete as I had to research and analyze each social imperative command that is used in the game mechanics and how it’s used in the game.  For example, the beg command is used to more play on someone’s emotional stats while intimidation plays more on fear.  I’m really proud of the page and I’m ecstatic that it is finished so I can move on to other projects.  Usually, I’m pretty quick at things except for long TP plans and thematic information, so, it felt like a huge weight on my shoulders.  Now, I can breathe easy and work on the other many projects that we have going on.  I need to do some character generation, write up some information about the cursed griffon, and finish up the new wiki pages for the mechanic that will allow new and cooler legendary skills.  A legendary skill on FiranMUX is one at level 6, which is above the cap of 5.  More importantly, it gives a player a cool reputation.

Glee and RP

Key to last night, I watched the Madonna episode of Glee.  I had a lot of role play to do while I watched it.  First on FiranMUX, Lucretia held an excellent night in the Gold Dragon library; we gave away some of our kittens that we have been longing to give away.  I also dispensed much unhelpful marriage and love advice of the best kind.  While that was going on, I also slipped into Gazel’s skin to play the Sarojin on there.  It was fun and without a lot of pressure.

On AstralMUX, we had a scene in which a compromise was formed before demon prince, Murmur, and the former assassin, Demas.  They agreed to go free the slaves held by the demons in the slave pens.  It was a story decision that I was going to guide everyone to, but, they came up with it on their own and it was delicious.  Hopefully, I will get all these logs edited soon.

We Must Always Pause for Coffee

I did fire up World of Warcraft last night, but, I only managed to do dailies before I was worn out.  Tonight, we have an Ice Crown Citadel raid, so, I’ll likely give it more time.  I was extremely busy with two other things.

The first was Argin’s Funeral on FiranMUX.  It was a nice event, but, very sad.  I’m not distraught by what is a roleplay game story, but, I do think it’s a good one when it can bring one to an emotion like that.  It had a good turn out and I think people had some closure from it.  I hope Argin’s player finds some closure in the funeral as well.

The second was that I roleplayed with Kedrych Rhys on AstralMUX.  It was a tentative scene as we get back into the storyline after the hiatus.  However, it was a good time and made me laugh.  Within the next week, I expect to be warmed up to delve into the rescue of Zanobi Muthos, who was taken by an angry sea drake before we went on break from the holidays.

What Didn’t I Do Yesterday

Yesterday, I kept a busy gaming day.  Work was not bad, but, it was busy and I needed to find some down time when it was over.  I worked with some very difficult character generation on FiranMUX.  I got some dailies down on Autoshotmoo, in WoW.  My Oracle egg only yielded yet another Tickbird hatchling.  My goal is to supply the entire game with one of these.  That way, everyone can feel the Tickbird hatchling joy that I do.  At some point, probability suggests that I will get the Green Protodrake mount.  However, I’m not sure probability works for me on World of Warcraft.  I’m sort of anti-probable.  During last Noblegarden, I got three bunny pets (all soulbound) and it took me huge amounts of the weekend to get something as simple as the pants.

I nearly got in the Spider Temple in Overlord II.  Nearly, because a surprise gauntlet mechanic took me by surprise, and I died and had to start all over again.  And I was mad, of course, and did not start over again.  Instead, I put in Dragon Age.  I had not even taken one character out of the introduction story, but, I managed to through Ostagar yesterday.  If you’ve never played, this doesn’t mean much.  Just go, wow you actually got through the introduction to a game!  GO YOU!  That’s how slow I am.

I’ve also been tending my Viva Pinata garden.  My second one, I’ve played it on the Xbox 360.  I am replaying it on the PC, because, I admit the controls with the mouse make it a better game.  It’s so much easier to achieve with being able to move around with a mouse, that, I don’t think I’d go back to the 360 game.  Sorry Xbox 360, I’m a huge console fan, but, this one wins.

Kinslayer Wars

It is over.  Well, at least, the bulk of the work finished just over a week ago.  It was trying in a way that many other things I have GM’d was not and it was easier in a way that many other things I GM’d have not been.  One thing I learned from Kinslayer was to do what I could until I felt tired and then stop.  The ability to back off when you need a break is so important and more so if you are spending eight hours working through emotional content.  If you’re more fresh the next day, you will do a better job and the people around you will feel like you are giving more to it.  They might be disappointed one day, but, they are sure to be happier the next.

I’ve never been much to cry while GMing, but, the various battles and wars over the last one and a half months certainly put me through my paces.  I always enjoyed everything I have ever oversaw on Firan, but, making the hard choices made a connection with me that was different than all the other times.  It was like reading a good book, but, the characters affected were people on the back side.  People who I had chatted with on public or finished a request for or talked to on a Forum.  It was definitely a unique experience, in that, I don’t know if Firan will ever change so much in so little time ever again.  I can’t promise it won’t.  But, I also don’t know if it will.

I feel grateful for my boot camp into that world.  I learned so much about conflict resolution in a short time that I might not have ever learned otherwise.  I came to grips with my difficulty in making bad things happen to people, because, I realized that as long as they are consequences to actions that they were meaningful and important.  But more so, I learned that gaming require some roll of the dice, a card, a mechanic somewhere that stands for some outside influence or the unexpected.  I learned to savor the high and low rolls, as the same, as means by which the world could alter roleplay with some interpretation.

End of Resolution Days

I have failed to update my blog as much as I like. I have been so behind on everything and this morning I made the effort to catch up. Let’s see how this goes! At the height of my attempts to balance everything, I was sleeping better at night and so much more active. Since December, we worked so hard on Firan for the Kinslayer War. The bulk of this has been resolved and we just officially finished Resolution Day yesterday. It’s such a good feeling. I think it proved if we could run that high and hot for 3 months that if we backed it off to medium…the game can still be interesting and fun without full burn out.

So what does one do now? I’ve been getting a renewed interest in World of Warcraft. I have lost the desire to grind out instances for badges, but, I did level a little bit and do some achievements. I think I’m going to work on Bennett’s mining some here; it can be relaxing to run in a circle gathering minerals. I got my Star Trek character to LC which means I get a cooler ship with keen powers. I haven’t had an opportunity to try them out, yet. I may wrestle the Xbox back from Bill, who is playing lots of Mass Effect 2, so I can continue my Overlord 2 game. I also have Quake 4 and Assassin’s Creed. Yes, there is a II. Yes, I am the slowest gamer in the world. I like the savor the experience, OKAY.

We are clearing to Saurfang Jr. pretty regularly now. I’m happy for that and the chest piece I got last night. I need to gem it before my Shaman leader gets angry. You wouldn’t want to see him angry.

Firanmux for 2010

I haven’t talked about Firan for a while.  To be honest, I didn’t have a solid direction for quite some time.  I like thinking about game design, I like plotting, and I like writing stories.  Many times, this does not translate well into talking much about here.  Mostly, there are so many things that can’t be shared because they are spoilers.  Or, I fear the mundane details of design, which are fascinating to me, are extremely boring to other people.  I’m pretty sure the ins and outs of keeping a request queue from 150 players down to 40 or less is something of a pretty good niche.

When people look at Firan, they see a social and political roleplaying game.  For me, there’s a whole back end of little pockets of information that must be filtered, handled, set in motion, and processed.  Studying efficiency has always been part of the game to me (once I became a wizard) as the story itself.  And finding the balance between the two, it has always been a challenge and a delight.

Around December 17th, I finally stepped up into the Assistant Chief Wizard position.  About 3-4 days later, Prince Zaridos killed Prince Argin and the world went to hell in a hand basket.  I admit I wasn’t sure I wanted to take it on at that point.  I have since managed to stop hyperventilating enough to realize that it’s a challenge that can be handled.  A lot of wizards have over five years of Firan experience.  Since I joined the staff in 2001, my picture of the roleplaying world has exploded.  I’ve examined different systems and different methods of resolution.  I’ve had time to experience more of what is fair and what is good story and how to mix them both.  And I have the experience now to realize, it’s going to be difficult, hard, bloody, and quite possibly deadly.

With all that in mind, I believe we can do an interesting and fair job.  This sort of unrest is why people came to Firan to play for many.  It’s like the situation has put forth a challenge to make it count.  And we all know, I have trouble backing down from a challenge.

GMing on the Wild Side

Today, I did some work on FiranMUX in regards to a new political situation.  Ania announced that the Rissik Family had joined the Eagle Clan.  Clan Leader Torianos of the Chimera clan disagreed.  I studied up today to write the GM Emits for this one.  It feels weird to say but I’m definitely proud of the political climate I created to roleplay with.  All you can do some days is wind it up and let it go.  I’m eager to see where people go with it on Wednesday.  I think the field is very open; this is some of my favorite political things.  I like when it could go either way and you’re not quite sure what all the players are going to do.  It should be interesting!