Hello, Skuldhellir!

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I friggin love the idea of a real nasty gladiator arena where criminals or feral animals or perhaps even captured orcs and such are pitted against each other in any combination. Decadence!

That's what I was going for!

And yeah, Ed, but right now I imagine the arena is someone's private property--they're just not using it, nor are they letting anyone else rent it out for any reason. If there's a duel, public execution, etc, you may as well use public space with maximum visibility (like the town square) rather than the shady arena in the outskirts of town, y'know? Though you're right--if someone takes over the arena IC, they can do whatever they'd like with it. (I almost want to RP the arenamaster now...)

I've been thinking about this a lot and just remembered it. I discussed RP an evening with a couple of friends and we all agreed on one thing. We kinda agreed on everything actually but this one in particular has top priority, or so we think. It's basically a very, very simple thing to keep in mind.

When you RP, you should do the utmost to make sure that the ones you RP with are having a great time.

To me this includes good behaviour, well written posts, some kind of thought or motive behind your actions. It's common sense and everyone here knows what I'm talking about. But for new and potentially herp de derp people, this guideline will likely be useful. It will give them a simple question. "When I, for no reason, stab this character in the face with my +18 death dagger, does the owner of that character have a good time? Probably not, hence I should not do it." I think that if potentially good RPers with a bad attitude can get into this thinking, everybody wins.

In addition, I would like to do some advertising for micro story arcs. I used to do this loads and loads when I started roleplaying. I'd device some minor plot for my character, drag other people into it and then resolve everything within a few sessions of RP. It will give more flavour than the every day small talk RP without screwing up other characters or the continuity. Perhaps your character owes some random made up person money and now you need to pay them back, or resolve it in a different way. More of a comedy person? Have someone encounter your grimdark hard ass character in a dress and try to convince them to never tell anyone. I recall the time when Edwarde came flying into the tavern with mechanical wings or something like that and all of a sudden it was the most awesome RP I have ever seen in the keep. Lares trying to get him down, the panic Ed had and the sheer amount of amusement I felt at the time. MOAR OF THAT STUFF!

Well said, indeed! I think this could probably be stuck up on the Roleplay and You post in the Information forum.

Of course, sometimes a player is going to do things with their character because that is simply what the character would do, but for the most part, roleplaying with the intention of making things fun, not with the intention of 'winning', is very key to an all-around enjoyable environment, just like you said. It's something worth repeating!

Your second point is great, too. I think people need to do stuff more. In Northkeep, nobody did stuff. I'm not sure why, even though I was one of them. We'd sit around writing 3-post textwalls about sitting around and sipping tea and discussing the weather (I'm not even kidding), and for the most part things usually didn't happen, at least not publicly. I think this came from a lack of initiative, and a sort of uncertain feeling that players would be labeled 'attention whores' if they tried to liven things up by using their character to make things happen.

It's one thing to hog the limelight--it's another to make some limelight for someone else to step into, even if you have to be in it to start, and I think that's something we need to remember. There's nothing wrong with causing things to happen via your character--after all, your character is the way you create interactions in the world! How ELSE are you going to do it?

In Skuldhellir, we're not going to have much in the way of arranged plots. The mediators and the decider are not a Rah and Taneests--they're just here to help guide the plots of the players in a way that they become fun for everyone. This is your continuity. Make things happen. Do with it what you will, so long as people enjoy it!

Man I'm super glad Ed has taken my ideas and so effectively ran with them. Seriously great job yo.

I'm super glad you came up with the ideas in the first place, man, else we wouldn't be here doing this right now.

Yeah, Serin, you rock so hard. This is going to be so awesome, I can't wait till we actually start RP'ing.

Same here. Skuldhellir is going to be the awesome place.

And having fun is indeed important, it's the most important thing. It's usually at the first page of every p&p booklet for a reason. xD
You play games to win, but you roleplay to create something beautiful with other people.

I have a question. We already know that we want to be linked with other dreams so that there's a bigger world and more travel options. But would it be possible for institutions/companies/I'm looking for a word here, to have holdings in Skuldhellir? Maybe they have no established building but they take their business there?

I don't see why not. That's kind of what the Wizard's Guild is, after all.

Hat City holding! It'd be awesome if different dreams (especially trade outposts like Mirandol) could set up small buildings or the like to represent them.

Mirandol is actually what I was thinking of, yes. People from various guilds there coming to Skuldhellir to do business and possibly recruit people who live in Skuldhellir so that they have holdings there without having to buy or build a building. I'm sure having buildings of their own would be rather awesome, but I'm thinking we may want to conserve space.

I could see this causing some interesting conflict, particularly because Mirandol also has a Mages Guild, and I can see the Hat City-originating Mages Guild going all, "What, WHAT? GTFO!"

Alternately the two guilds can work together, and/or decide to merge on some level. (; I was actually kind of hoping for that, especially since Edward is a member of Mirandol's Mages Guild.

Working together could work! I'd still want to see a little bit of conflict- maybe if they work together, one guild still thinks it's superior and tries to have more say in how to do things?

That's very possible!

I've been wondering... are there going to be any prejuduces heavy in the town? I can see the wizards and mages in the Mages' Guild doing that sort o' thing, and the rich merchants to the lesser folk perhaps, but is there anything else?

Are wimmenz going to be realisticly looked down upon? Does the town hate Drow? If you don't wear pants will you be prosecuted?

If you don't wear pants and you have an attractive bottom, they pay you a fee. If you don't wear pants and have butt fur, you get fined.

Joking aside, that's a good question. What kind of prejudices do dwarves usually have? Do they dislike elves for being tall snooty pansies? Do they think their women should stay in the kitchen? It's not my area of expertise. XD

I know a very, very tiny bit about it myself, but this IS fantasy-medieval. Sometimes the realism boundaries get pulled a lil' bit and warped.... hence why I asked. XD;

Hmm, I'd assume drow and other races that have a bad reputation to probably, in the least, be treated unfriendly and watched closely.
Not sure about females though. Dwarves generally are a race with a small number of females among them, when they can even be told apart from the males at all.
I'd assume they'd either hold them at high standards, or protect their own heavily since they are so rarely born.

Yeah, drow and the like are going to be treated with suspicion. The same goes for orcs and gnolls, of course, since tribes and clans of them are such a bother to the townsfolk.

So far as I know, dwarves don't really care much about gender differences. It's even rumored that the ladies of certain clans have beards, too. :B Since this is a dorf town, then, I think either gender won't receive any sort of special treatment, for better or for ill.

Elves are, indeed, generally disliked for being pansies. If the term existed IC, I bet our dwarves would call them Mary Sues. ;B

Monster-ish races will probably have some trouble, and many golems/elementals that don't have familiar (i.e. very humanoid) forms will likely be considered strange and outlandish and treated with a sort of nervous respect.

I imagine the dwarves won't like magic-users very much, probably because they're a wee bit sour towards the Wizard's Guild.

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Elves are, indeed, generally disliked for being pansies. If the term existed IC, I bet our dwarves would call them Mary Sues. ;B

XD!

But yay! That's the sort o' thing I like to hear all around! x3

Excellent! I'm glad to hear that, and I'll try to keep it in mind.

It looks like Sneeuw is going to be doing zero magic in Skuldhellir, between a. The only magic she knows is highly frowned upon, b. The Mages Guild is going to want to control it either way, and c. The dorfs will also frown upon it. And dorf frowns are mighty and bushy.

So are viking frowns.

Do vikings and dorfs get along?

Oh, dorfs don't frown upon magic itself, they're just iffy about people who use it, to start. They might warm up pretty quickly once they realize you're not from Hat City.

Vikings and dorfs totally get along yo.

Ah, well that's not too bad. I wonder if Sneeuw could get away with disguising dark magic as some other type of magic? Once she gets over her initial fear of men that are shorter than she is, I'm sure she would love dorfs, being as she's of Viking blood. :B

We are getting a bit off topic, though, so... are we going to write all this stuff about prejudices and intrigue and whatnot down where newcomers can see it? I realize we're trying to keep the amount of stuff you have to know upon joining limited so that it's easier for newbies. Or, oh yeah, maybe people just learn about it naturally through roleplay. That would mean, though, that our original members have to be very clear about these things.

Let me, once more bring forth wisdom from the awesome pen and paper RP I hold so highly, henceforth called by its name, Coriolis. One of the weaknesses they have listed for your freshly baked character is some sort of stigma and this is VERY cool. Let's say Shady Thiefson gets caught chewing on the tail of the village famous cow Rosie. For this brutal and shameful crime he is branded with THE MARK OF THIEFS and everyone everywhere will spit in his general direction for his crimes.

Srsly though. Some kind of marks or similar to brand criminals. In different degree of course. From the angry lollipop mark for pick pockets all the way up to a Hitler-moustache tattoed onto the really evil people.