The Tenebris Falls Roleplay Community

 
By Bixyl Shuftan

Solista (Mistressbubbles Bondar) recently told me about a new roleplay sim and group: Tenebris Falls. It is located in the Nava sim. There was a grand opening party on Saturday January 22. She described it as a dark modern fantasy roleplay, adding they wanted a sim for it they could protect, and the RP itself "open to as broad a player base as possible. We are furry-friendly. Not many role play sim's like ours are."

"The Admin team here are all players that met on various Role Play Sim's that were great up till they weren't and shut down for various reasons. Well we got tired of losing story lines that we had dedicated ourselves to. So many of us carried our characters over and adapted them to each new sim." She pointed out Samasue, "Sam over there put forward the desire to own our own sim. He's the owner of this place. The other admins are also financial backers to keep the place going. This way we are not reliant on rentals to keep up open."

Samasue was happy to talk about the place, "We are a unique approach, the setting itself allows for almost every kind of race, and most "realistic" furry types....yes we are happy to accept Furry character for RP...but the lore and character creation guidelines allow for the most diverse character population possible, without the restraint of a masquerade.  And the roleplay here can be anything from slice of life, to dark RP (if you know you know) and everything in between.  its set to modern times, with current tech, and realistic expectations.  Magic is also here.

In the background lore of the story world (link), creatures from the four pillars of creation, Aether (order), Void (disorder), Veil (life and growth), and Pale (death and enthropy), had been subtly manipulating the human world, held in check only by magic-using humans and hunters. For millenia, the truth was kept away from the masses of ordinary humans. But with advancing technology it became more and more difficult to preserve the secret. So recently after secret meetings between magic-users, supernaturals, and world leaders, the Masquerade was dropped. Legally, supernaturals could live alongside humans with the same rights and responsibilities. But not all humans and demihumans were satisfied with this arrangement, the biggest problem being human vigilantes who were going after known supernaturals.

Samasue described the area, Tenebris Falls, as a city on an island off the mainland, "the city is a city in North America set aside after the break of the masquerade, where there could be some freedom from racism with humans. There are humans here, and there are some tensions. But for the most part, there is no requirement to 'hide' there is currently no governmental control. But there are local laws. Anything can happen, you can open a business....you can just life your life.....develop a crime syndicate, run with a werewolf pack, work a normal job....what ever..."

Samasue would say besides previous roleplay sims closing down for various reasons, there was also a problem with a few not paying attention to what most of the players desired, "we saw too much martial law out there trying to make people role play the way the minority wanted. Well, with our entire build, we had the community in mind.  We really really try not to say no.  There has to be /SOME/ limitations, has to be. Some people just don't know when enough is enough.  But we're not going to fence in anyone's creativity.  The Lore and RP was designed the same way, how could we give the community the widest possible choices for character creation, and still have a lore that would support it.  It was tough, but our team pulled it off. The main lore writer Kaiya Otelier put in so many hours of work refining and working, and came up with a master piece.  And its community based, for as many possible builds as we could think of.  The City build, same thing. We have aquatics, caves, forests, city, rural, parks, slums, we really wanted an open canvas for the community."

Samasue stated there was an effort to be open-minded, "myself and my staff, are all diverse long time role players, we are friendly and welcoming to any. The community is a SAFE place for anyone, LGBTQ, BDSM, what ever, there is no hate. And if we find hate in our community its dealt with swiftly, with a zero tolerance system."

Of how many were in the roleplay, Samasue told me, "The active community on sim is small, but active, and we're always looking for more....anyone from the 15-20 year veteran RPer (like me) to the first timer, everyone is welcome. But the number is like 10-15 active currently."

Of future plans, there will be monthly concerts at the sim, and most likely some in-character events as the community grows. Samasue also mentioned, "we have a couple projects that we didn't get to add into this build," but they may be done in the future. 

Looking around later, I ran into one of the locals. While he asked to be anonymous, he did say, "As a regular joe player, and I've been playing in Second Life for a long time. Many sims have come and gone. You get nostalgic and looking for a home for old characters. Even if you've got to modify it to theme for whatever sim you've landed in. People are just looking for a home for some version of their beloved characters, to invest and grow stories in again, chance to explore a different aspect or change things up, dare to go a new direction with an old favorite. Sims like Tenebris Falls, fit that bill. Allowing creative freedom within the common sense balance of strengths and weaknesses and consent based paragraph roleplay.

He would then get me in tough with the lore writer and Kaiya Otelier (Hotarru Resident). Of how Tenebris Falls has been doing, "Well we've gotten a few people who rp here regularly, and a few shop owners who've already set up. But the official opening was technically today. I wasn't expecting anything to big because the idea of the sim was basically a place for all of us to RP and be friends, and.. we just wanted to open it to everyone else who would want to join. So, we made it so anyone could be whatever they liked, and.. we had a surprisingly high turn out for opening. I wasn't expecting us to get as many as we did so quick given we weren't trying to hard to advertise."

When I asked if there was a favorite type among the characters here, "Hm. (We) got some unique ones, honestly. I think because we don't use predetermined races and racials, we get quite a wide variety from normal people hosting Eldritch Horrors, to Kumihos people continue to mistake as Kitsune. Some typical fae, but I think that Fae are always so popular because of their varieties. Could have a group of ten fae and not one of them look anything like any of the others. But given all of the admins but one have at least 1 fae character, I'd say they are fairly popular. Fae and witches. People always love magic. Surprised I've only seen two or three demons, so far honestly.

"We are furry friendly, as long as they match their character up with the lore and setting.  I don't see why that needs to be stated.. As if furries shouldn't be allowed for some reason? But yeah, we let in anyone as long as they abide the roleplay etiquette, and character creation rules."

I pointed out the variety of buildings, "Yup. Tried to add a lot of different ones so people could find things that suit them. And I think we got a few different kinds, modern to old style, homey to run down.. people like a variety." I then asked what was the most unusual place made into a home, "That would undoubtedly be April Jean. During the build, (she) requested we give her a cave that she could set up a cardboard box in. (She) offered to pay rent, and Sam told her she didn't have to pay L for a 2li box. So yeah, we got her a cave. And a dumpster here in the city (chuckle). ... she's a bit of an insane and young unruly lycan.

"We want to be that place you can bring your character that doesn't fit anywhere else. (The) only thing we don't really have a spot for is scifi and cyber punk set characters. ... We are set in modern day, a place just off the coast of north west America. Separate mind you, as we try to keep politics, covid, and all that jazz out of the picture. People come here to avoid real-life, not get into it, ya know?  But yeah, you'll find a lot of people are playing characters that are either warped to present day from older time framed sims, or just grew to be a couple hundred or thousand years old. So you'll find their places fashioned up and decorated to be more old fashioned.

"I think a good idea of separation would be the confectionery shop run by a human that looks like a normal confectionery. Then if you go out to the woods, you can find a bath house run by a fae who grew up in the roman times. So it's an open roof dual sex bath house with lots of statues themed to look like it was run that time, but made to fit in with the settings."

I would look around. There was a small city area, and a housing area with a small event area in between. The houses themselves ranged from large homes fit for a wealthy man to small rustic looking ones for those with not much income. The town area had some businesses from manufacturing to local ones such as the coffee shop and the confectionery. There was a movie theater and what looked like a disco. And there was the clinic and police station. There was also a Japanese garden and a church with a cemetery. A tunnel led to the countryside (located on another level), with an asphalt road leading to a biker bar, and dirt paths that went into the woods. I found one abandoned building.

For those looking for more information about the roleplay community, check out the website at https://tenebris-falls.wixsite.com/tenebris-falls . You can also find a little information as well as ways to contact the admins at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nava/97/152/2501 . 

Bixyl Shuftan

Ranchan Weidman and the Robotech Roleplay

By Bixyl Shuftan

High above the HV Community sim is a space carrier which Ranchan Weidman made her home in Second Life, and the hangout of many of her friends. The carrier, and a few other places high above the sim, are the settings for a Robotech Roleplay. The roleplay is not a new one, but has been going on for close to a decade, since 2008. The game has players from both the early days, and some more recent ones. It is not a "combat rolepay" like New Bastogne, but instead the various settings help put the players in the mood, as well as the uniforms the players often wear. The game is played out much like a real life roleplaying game, with Ranchan acting as the gamemaster and the players various characters helping to defend Earth, Ranchan occasionally calling on the players to make dice rolls when making an action or responding to one.

"For the last nine years, players have participated in my blended version of Robotech / Albedo," Ranchan told me, "It's a Sci-fi space drama which incorporates a large part of the history of the original Robotech Universe mixed with The Albedo Universe. The players have enjoyed a mix of settings within the theme of Science Fiction /Fantasy from being in space, to the cold of Alaska and down in the nice islands of Hawaii."

Although the game is often called "Robotech" out of convenience, the title Ranchan gave it is "Robotech: The Albedo Alliance." For those who don't know, "Robotech" is the American version of Japanese anime TV shows and movies in which human pilots fly space fighters that can fold into robots in combat against giant aliens called Zentraedi, whom are a warrior culture that finds a number of aspects of human society, such as music and love, hard to understand and sometimes frightening. "Albedo" is a less well-known science fiction tale, Ranchan stating, "Albedo is the shortened version of Albedo : Anthropomorphics. Artist Steven A Gallacci Art Featured here http://www.furaffinity.net/user/stevegallacci , and here http://www.stevegallacci.com , in where he created a universe of anthropomorphic animals in a slightly futuristic setting but dealing with an in depth look of political , social and military values ideals and repercussions. I would highly recommend reading the story. It's well written and thought through."

The plot of the roleplay's story universe diverged from that of cannon Robotech from the very start, "There are lots of things I remember, and I fondly remember how things got started for this roleplay. One of the things I stress to any new player, and as of late, older ones, I will not be following the cannon story line of Robotech. The story itself opened up with a bit of background history for the universe I was going to create, and the players were going to live in and help shape. ... Robotech fans ... would recall the day the SDF 1 crashed onto Earth. And that's about as much original cannon material I relied on to start with. Everything after that point is unique to the universe. When the SDF-1 crashed, it opened a tear in the space - time continuum . This space - time tear, pulled a cruise ship from the Albedo Universe, over, thus forever introducing anthropomorphics to humans

"From there, after 10 years of strife and working together. we introduce the players characters to the world. This being abbreviated from what the players actually read in the note card. But when it first started, our players were just arriving at boot camp, at an island nearby Macross Island. The SDF was three months out of being completed, when our first set of players started their training. The first set of trainees were, Miya Cross, Nydia Tungsten, L'sai Aeon, Icebolt Aeon, Umbra Gardenvale, Tanya Ayoob, Kit Repine, and Squick. "

Besides the plotlines of the roleplay, what's been going on with the place it's been held is a story in itself, Ranchan explaining, "Things were slow at first for the roleplay as I was still holding my own, running Club Afterburner, putting together the military training base the trainees were studying at and building a 100 m diameter labyrinth under the RDF CVN Aegwei I for a treasure hunt. It was only after Linden Lab changed the rules on void sims, changing them to Homesteads, and bumping up the cost that we had to abandon Pacific Waters and took up residence on Sunweaver Air, which later became HV Community sim, and not having the duties of the club things started to pace faster for the role play. The void sim offered the size of a full sim but a quarter of the prims , script allowance and avatars that could be on it. After moving over from there. we were squished into roughly less than a quarter size sim. I had to trim down further when my real life situation drastically changed and I couldn't support the parcels I had. so we became pretty small in size. It was around that time that we moved from the northeast corner of HV community to where we are now, about center east to just off center of the sim that I dedicated some of the land to a worthwhile cause.

"I've built at least 20 versions of the ARMD platform to fit each parcel. We're currently on a decent sized parcel, about 108m by 64. maybe 80 meters. ... My builders that have helped me with some of the zones. really deserve a good portion of the credit too. A special thanks to them 'cause my landscaping skills suck compared to building things .Kinya Resident and Matoazma 'Mato Foxy.' "

I asked about the ship's many different versions over time. Ranchan answered, "Four of the versions were for prim (and) land size. Everything else was overhaul. Like spring cleaning, only more frequent."

I asked about how often does the roleplay have sessions, asking if it had one a week. Ranchan answered, "We've started to do two. One of our long time members schedule at work changed and the goal was to include her more so a second day had been brought in. Been running a second day for over eight months now. The eventual goal is to have something going each day, with some parts being live interactions, as if you and I were walking through the hallways, and stopped to have a chat, then moved past that, one heads to a different location, while say I headed to the bridge of the ship etc. But that's going to require a bit more game assistants staff, and a lot more players."

I asked about the various plots over time. Ranchan answered, "Every player has a sub plot that they are involved with some how. Sometimes the sub plots become larger side plots and main plots as because of not strictly following the main story, but the players following an untold story of the combined universe has allowed for a lot of flexibility. A lot of 'who cares what Rick Hunter did, or Toki did, but what Nydia Tungsten did, or Miya Cross has done. Mato's achievements, and what our new players Christine ( played by Skylark 'Snowy' ) and Puella ( played by Kiwi ) are doing.' Unfortunately, with time and how it is (with) Second Life, for some players real life has stolen their time, not letting them come on and participate. Tanya Ayoob, our ship 'Gunbunny' Special Forces specialist hasn't been on in at least a few years."

"For me, I dwell in an abyss of plots and sub plots. I love to end sessions at times, with cliffhangers. A sample set of plots that I believe the players have enjoyed are as follows. One adventure led the players to take part in a ball at a ski lodge in Alaska. They had to detour an assassin plot against one of the delegates which were attending a meeting being held there. That one turned into a ski chase down hill. Another one took place at a roller rink. the players were going in to rescue the squadron commander, Shelly 'Kit' Sintol. She had been abducted while on vacation by a former friend of Umbra Gardenvale, who was leading an anti military group. One of the first plots during the training phase was surviving the wilderness after being shot down on a routine helo repelling lesson."

Asking more about the ski chase, Ranchan described, "After the team uncovered who the assassins were, some of the group that were involved attempted to get away from the players. One of them had managed to get onto a pair of skis and were rushing away down a non trail path. But they were captured still in the end. After the three sessions of the players arriving at the base in Alaska, they headed to a hotel, individually, although there were some that arrived in pairs. got dressed up for the night at the lodge, and eventually made it to attendance of the party they were able to uncover the who and neutralize the threats fairly swiftly. Although the one that got away on skis did make it down hill to a set of private cabins which was where he was taken down as well. that part only took one session to wrap up. I had built a small small not to scale model of the lodge up in the mountain, and a few of the cabins down below. After that, is when Mato started to take part as well."

The current plot  involves the team having been assigned their own ship, of which Matoazma captains, but Ranchan couldn't go too much in detail of the subplots, "Those are still in the progress of rolling out."

Of the roleplay's future, Ranchan told me, "Well, I would love to add more players, and bump some current players to staff that still play so that eventually this can be a more interactive roleplay with bells and whistles and running 24/7, and I hope that I can continue providing material for the players so they don't get bored."

"I would love to thank all of my players, past, present, and hopefully future for taking part in helping to shape the history of the universe that I started. Every one's contribution with their character into the story lines means a great deal to me. I enjoy watching players relax, characters develop and mature and hope that they have enjoyed it as much as I have, and continue to do."

The Newser may do articles in the future about the roleplay, such as in depth articles about the players and their characters.

Bixyl Shuftan

Roleplay Etiquette

 
By Syndra

Dear Bunnies,

   Normally I am your fashionista expert, although now I am feeling the need to write about something near and dear to my heart. As we all know, Secondlife is full of amazing sims and Roleplay opportunities. I personally love Roleplay, especially that of the Gorean variety.

Now, we all have had the experience I am sure of as soon as you land on a sim, someone harping in your IMs about this rule or that rule and that is an immediate turnoff. However, what is more of a turnoff is if it is something minor that really doesn't matter in the instance.

Now, we all know that it is frowned upon to teleport into active roleplay; but we also know that we all do it and we all teleport people in for whatever reason suits us at the time. A simple (incoming) or (im tping someone in) in OOC brackets usually suffice.

Now personally I avoid doing this in a large crowd but if it is myself and one other person, it does not matter. Especially if we are the only two people on the entire sim. Yes, that happens; sometimes sims are empty but you and one other person can enjoy roleplay together.
This morning a very close friend of mine teleported me in to roleplay with him. He and one other person were on the entire sim. She just happened to be a slave character in roleplay with him and he wanted me to join in the 'breakfast scene' so in he brought me.

Instead of just going with it, and mind you; I posted a proper entrance to explain my sudden appearance:
 Syndra steps out of the shadows and looks to Saxon. "I could have killed you and you would not have even seen me." She glances to the girl before settling into a seat. "You rang Saxon?"

The girl involved immediately began to jump into my ims in a most unsavory fashion. For those of you who don't know, this is an immediate turn off and honestly looks bad on you as a person and the sim as a whole.

If a serious rule is broken, that is one thing. And even then it should be a mod or the sim owner in another player's private messages. Not every Tom, Dick and Harry with a complaint about a situation that is acceptable to ninety nine percent of players. Come on now....really? You have nothing better to do than to harp on for twenty minutes about such a small thing as me being telported into a roleplay by the main character because he wanted me there?

And after I asked her if it was truly that big of a deal she rolled her eyes at me. Well...all I have to say is, with players like that no wonder some sims die.

The moral of all of this is, can we not all just play together and get along. Leave the little things alone and stop trying to be the center of attention all of the time. Secondlife is a wonderful place. Let's play, and the more the merrier.

-Love Syn

Commentary: The Interstellar Alliance Roleplay

By Foxythejamie

A group with simple beginnings, as the Interstellar Alliance (ISA), the fleet has a lot to live up to. However in most categories, it fell short of that goal, quite a bit. From bad administrators, to not so good role plays, among others.

The story starts quite a bit ago, with the ISA 1.0. In ISA 1.0, if you could fit a back story to your character, it was approved. The group was small, but amazing. The sim design was something to stare in awe at as well. However things started going south after a bit of trouble.

After a few griefer attacks which left the sim completely empty, and void of items, the group's owner decided to move sims. However, little did everyone know, his plan was to also move away from ISA 1.0. He turned it into a Star Trek roleplay, with 3 ships. Thus, the ISA 2.0 was born.

That is where most of the problems had started. To start off, the group owner removed his second in command, and replaced her with someone else, who proved to be a bad choice of an administrator. He then started liquidating whole groups within his now growing group, which pretty much ended up with quite a few people leaving the role plays. After a few more weeks the groups were made entirely up of people who had never even heard of the ISA 1.0.

Well then after he and his XO (Executive Officer, or second in command) scrapped that roleplay as well. They started a new roleplay, named The 12th Expeditionary Fleet. The name might suggest that everyone on the ship will be exploring far off places, and getting into loads of trouble. Well the second of that is true. There is loads of trouble. However the trouble doesn't lie within the storyline. The trouble lies within the roleplay itself.

Let's start with my first roleplay on the sim. It started out less than well. With me being a marine, trying to keep the culture of ISA 1.0 alive, there was no seat for me. So I had asked the Captain where he wanted me to be, and he responded by simply saying "I do not care." Well that got me a bit perturbed, however I stayed for the roleplay. I am now wishing I hadn't. For in the time of 1 hr and 30 minutes, we endured a Captain who thought meta gaming, god modding, and power playing were a great way to run a story line.

For non role players, meta gaming means you use things you found out, out of character, in an in character story line. For example, if someone IMs you information, and you use that information in a roleplay. Power playing means you are not letting anyone else respond to what you are doing. This means if you just walk over to someone, punch them, and walk away. God modding is the worst one yet. This one means you are role playing with someone else's character using an rp tool.

Well the meta gaming we had to endure through that first roleplay was the Captain seeming to know exactly where the asteroids were, even when they were not on screen. He seemed to know that a ship, which had not been heard from in over 50 years, was floating in the middle of space, as well as knowing exactly where the ship was. Also seeming to know exactly which way a planet, which was over 200 Light years away, was from the abandoned ship.

The power playing we endured was the captain getting mad at a lot of characters and biting their tails, or slapping them. Then he would simply return to his seat without even waiting for a response. Of course that could have been easily overlooked.

However the worst thing being done by the captain, was an rp tool being used by him, to roleplay as other characters. He role played as my character as well as a few other, prompting some to leave mid rp.

The second roleplay I was in, was with a different Captain, this one being the owner of the group, but had pretty much the same outcome. This captain was also role playing as if he had never even seen a full episode of the great series. During the roleplay we encountered a ship with a weapon that was apparently powerful enough to pierce the shields, and then burn a hole straight through our saucer section. Yet somehow, this extremely powerful ship took one hit from a Quantum Torpedo, and was not only destroyed, it was vaporized. I am no expert in the show, but for one, I know for a fact that if something were to pierce the shields, then we'd have no shields left. Also, if something really was that powerful, it would be able to withstand an entire barrage of torpedoes. In Star Trek, ships with powerful guns are themselves powerful, and able to withstand a multitude of attacks.

All in all, I was pretty disappointed with this roleplay. In my mind they took a great theme and just soiled it.

Jamie

Star Fleet Galactic: Adventures of the USS Ironhorse

By Foxythejamie

"Star Trek" roleplay is not new to Second Life. In fact one of the first roleplay groups here was in fact a Trek group. However different groups have different ways of roleplaying, and that is not just one of the unique things about the Star Fleet Galactic, or SFG. From a dedicated group, to multiple bridges, and multiple captains. This group is one for the history books.

SFG is the child of the ingenious thinking of a man named Steve Atlanta. He alone builds bridges, and even worlds for his group. He himself is one of the two Admirals of the group. The other Admiral being Kitty. Together, these two have helped this small group thrive, and grow into what it is today...A multi bridged, multi crewed rp group, with a passion for having fun.

To whoever said you can't make a parcel roleplay work well, you need to come here, because not only do they have a parcel, they also have over 80 different, unique planets, all built by Steve himself. SFG is literally a small roleplay that can do, has done, and will do great things.

Another aspect that makes this group one of the best, is the sheer will of the roleplayers. The players, are given an outline of what the mission is, however they are free to choose what happens during the roleplay, whether it's the ship being boarded, or them boarding an enemy ship, you never know what way the RP will go, which adds to the suspense.

All in all, this is truly worth looking at, if you want a star trek roleplay that allows you to be who you are.

Images from Steve Atlanta

Jamie

The Hanging Trial

By Gemma Cleanslate

Some of you may recall that I have written about the roleplay town of Tombstone Arizona several times and my friend did a story about her time there ( though she is no longer there at this time)
http://slnewserplaces.blogspot.com/2013/01/reader-submitted-tombstone-roleplay-in.html. Breezes Babii also did many articles about things she experienced in the towns and she is still happily living there. I went over for the trial of one of my fishing friends who lives in Tombstone. 

The Courthouse was packed when I arrived (late from being lost in the wrong town on the way. ) to witness the hanging trial of Angi Spires. Before the trial started it was necessary to remind all to remove their weapons since one idiot had not parked it at the door. The jury was seated already when I arrived.  Angi was seated at the table looking terrible. Her eye was healing from being blackened, rope burns around her neck,  and her face was scratched. She was eating a taco handed to her by a compassionate member of the  audience. Her eyes looked confused. Angi is on trial for shooting Garth 'Dead Eye' Mcleary (gamloth), a self proclaimed territory bad guy.  and this may lead to a hanging.  There is more to the story it seems and I am hoping it will come out in the testimony.

 You must realize that in the late 1800‘s the court became more like a theater with many allowances , eating , drinking , smoking allowed by the members of the audience.  So in this wonderful roleplay sim many of them also made comments to each other and expressed their thoughts in role play mode. This added to the theater of the moment. 

The decorum of the trial  however was well controlled despite the asides  and the lawyers well prepared, both prosecution and defense. Jimmi Ruble, the Judge, instructed the jury on conduct , gave us a little history of the court conduct of that era and the trial began. 

There was not much of an opening statement and the first witness was called The Marshall, Kristoff Jamison , was sworn in, sat and the prosecutor, Nimbrel Sassoon began to question him. Marshall Kris witnessed the whole event. It seems that he was in the process of arresting the man who had wronged her when Angi took out a carrot and tried to shoot him. Well, since that did not work she grabbed a gun from a bystander and  finished the job.

The next witness called , Julielynn Slade staggered to the chair leaving an alcoholic haze  behind her. However, her testimony was consistent with the Marshals.  A statement was read and submitted to the court that clearly describes what happened the day of the incident read by the prosecutor,  Nimbrel Sassoon

Territory of Arizona

Dated: 7/17/1899

Name of Witness: Ben Stolen

DESCRIPTION OF CRIME: I was enjoying the fresh air on Allen street ,talking to a few friends, Miss Angi being among the crowed, she was cleanly not in her right mind, when along come Mister Garth...In a split second Miss Angi just seemed to start shouting accusing Mister Garth of being half dead, most folks were to assume at that point that Mister Garth were the one that had near beating Miss Angi half to death , I ain't never seen Mister Garth to be that sort of man and still find it hard to believe if it was to be truth, anyways, before I knew it, Miss Angi had pulled my colt from my holster and blasted the poor SOB in the knee...she then dropped my colt in the middle of dusty ol Allen street..I was more mad about that seeing how I spent the morning cleaning the dang thing, she did apologies to me for it a bit later..but none the less..I couldn't react fast enough to have prevented any of it from happening....”

The Doctor, Jessicajewells. took the stand next  to recount her treatment of Angi’s injuries when she was returned after being kidnapped and beaten leading to a complete mental breakdown. Next Paisley Nelson was sworn in and confirmed that her behaviour before the shooting was disoriented. After she left the stand a young girl , Nora ... was called by the defending lawyer, and testified to Angi’s behaviour since she returned from her kidnapping had been completely opposite to her organized previous self. Angi is the Matron of the orphanage and Nora is a helper there. Many of her charges were in the seats witnessing the trial looking sorrowful and frightened when they were not throwing candy at each other. Angi was called to the stand finally and after telling of her tribulation at the hands of Garth and her action in the street, in her confused way threw herself on the mercy of the court by accepting her actions as completely wrong. 

The trial progressed to its closing statements. The Judge instructed the jury and they retired to the jury room to reach a verdict . There was much discussion in the room with sudden shouts and  hollering amidst many comments from the people waiting in the courtroom while they were out. 

Finally they emerged to the waiting crowd with a verdict of not guilty! The court erupted in applause and relief. Angi was free! The doctor was ordered to treat her and help her recover from all the events . Happy to be released from this long trial( when I arrived the judge said most trials last about an hour but it was now over 2 hours. I was about to leave when shots were heard from outside the court. A man marched in and began to berate the Judge for corruption . Time to leave before getting involved in a new episode. Tomorrow the trial of Angi’s abuser will begin . She left with Nora and the children to go cook chicken. 

So ends the trial of Angi Spires. I will be visiting Tombstone again soon to see what is going on. If you are interested in learning more about Tombstone which still exists in Arizona today ,  and its adjacent sims and roleplay you can visit the greeting area. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Broken%20Rose/177/174/704

Gemma Cleanslate

Roma's New Senator

The Roma area in Second Life is an interesting place. The sims are well done, with buildings giving the feel you're in a Roman city. But it's not just buildings. The place is home to a community of roleplayers. There are at least a couple activities a week, including a public dance, and most likely a number of unofficial roleplays. About the time of Thanksgiving, they held a big party followed by a four ship Roman Era sea battle. More recently, the roleplay community made an event out of the promotion of one member to the status of Senator.

Today, the Emperor will induct a new brother to the Senate at 12:00 pm in the throne room. After this induction, we will make our way to the Curia for our assembly.


As Noon SL time approached, people gathered at the palace. Most were in local dress, though there were a few that weren't. But all were greeted in a friendly manner, "Salve (name)." Among the roleplayers, the majority were in togas, but there were also soldiers with armor, sword, and spear. Julian Augustus, the Emperor of Roma, had his own special armor, plus a cape.

When it was time to start, Julian addressed the crowd, "Friends.... The august body of the Senate originated in the very founding of the city of Rome. As the great historian Livy wrote, 'Having now adequate numbers, Romulus turned his attention to social organization.' He brought together the leading citizens of his settlement and encouraged their powers of deliberation, fellowship, and debate. He called them Senators, from 'Senex' the Latin word for 'Elderly,' since in the harsh eighth century BCE those who were able to survive to old age presumably possessed more wisdom and knowledge than everyone else.

"We have followed this path in the social organization of ROMA. And it is now time to induct a new member. Gaius Tiberius Curio please step forward and stand." Gaius (guillaume.mistwalker), whom stood out from the crowd with a hooded toga, stepped forward. The Emperor continued, "As Senator of ROMA you will be looked upon by the other Citizens as the foremost example of a ROMA Patrician, and your behavior will be scrutinized by friend and foe alike. Today you embark upon a position of ethical responsibility and sibling-hood. Do you pledge to uphold the constitution of the Senate and all of its codes, and conduct yourselves with honor so long as you wear the mantle of a Senator? ... "

"Iuro!" Gaius answered, the Roman phrase meaning "I swear."

"The Princeps will give you items now. May that ring and those robes be a reminder of your position and the oath you take today. May your meetings be lively and your discussions fruitful. And may you enjoy your tenure as a Senator of ROMA!"

The new Senator bowed in respect.

Julian smiled, "Congratulations!" The audience then erupted in applause, and welcomed the new senator, "Welcome to Senate, Gaius." "Congratulations Gaius Tiberius."Congrats!" Gaius smiled, "Ave Caesar! Ave ROMA!"

The Emperor then adjourned the ceremony, "You may now all follow the consuls to the Curia for the Curiate meeting. Go in peace, brothers and sisters!" And so the people began walking from the palace to the public assembly building. The guards had no problems with visitors entering the building, though one asked another about a "metal golem," possibly meaning the Viewer2 starter robot avatar that briefly appeared. Both the senators and the public, residents and visitors sat in the seats. Looking over them was a horse in senatorial robes, presumably a reference to an equine appointed by a less than stable emperor to show his contempt.

"Let's begin!" Senator Maali Beck announced, "Welcome to this auspicious occasion as we welcome our newest Senator Gaius. Welcome also to our honoured returning senators, our group offices and our wonderful citizens of ROMA. We can all feel safely protected by our brave Praetorian guards," there were several people applauding at the words, then Maali gestured towards the horse, "and our four-legged honoured guest."

The senators then discussed community business. There was a problem with the Subura, due to a number of unrented plots. The good news was a few residents dug into their pockets to get one more apiece. One resident built a replica of a Roman station near his home, with plans to build a similar structure soon. It was also announced Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas), "has stepped forward to do honor to the goddess Diana and take over curatorship of her grove and temple in the Subura, and will be updating and improving that parcel so Diana will stay in the Subura."

There was also a weather report, "a snowstorm is forecasted to roll through ROMA tonight. So Suburans should be advised to pull their snow shovels out of storage." This got a mixed reaction, some looking sour, "urgh," others smiling, "Snowmen!" "... I can start Saturnalia builds!"

Other news included the library in the forum being updated, "Many thanks to Peter and Nina. ... We have big plans for the improved space." The Theatrum Romanum group met and built a new theater at the edge of the Suburba, "And the Theatrum will be having regular meetings. So if you are interested in roleplay, and also if you are interested in joining one of the roleplay families in ROMA, watch out for those meetings and join the Theatrum." It was announced the Roma newsletter would be publishing sometime that day, "It will go out to the Citizens group, but can also be found in the kiosks around the estate." Last week was the fourth anniversary of the Ludus group, "who organizes our chariot races and gladiator fights here in ROMA! It was a fantastic celebration on Friday and we look forward to many more anniversaries (and races and ludi!)" One lady grinned, "especially liked the sweaty gladiators." The day before was also the seventh anniversary of the founding of the Thirteenth Legion. There would be a lecture on Roman Medicine the following Wednesday (today) at 1PM SL time. There was also a proposal for a new statue in the Julian Plaza, which would be donated by one resident. It was approved unanimously.

Then they got to discussing the upcoming holidays, "The collegia will tell us shortly about the Saturnalia events. And this New Years we will again ring in the new year in our ROMA Basilica with fireworks, one time zone at a time." Their Saturnalia events were scheduled for Dec 28 and 29. The events on the 28th included a Ritual & Tavern Celebration at 10AM, Skating & Snowball Fights at Noon, and Sleigh Races at 1PM. On the 29th would be the Ornament Building Contest, the Grand Feast at Noon, and the Snowball Harpastum at 1PM. The festivities were on these particular dates as to allow people to celebrate Christmas at home and for those overseas Boxing Day at the stores.

The Senate concluded the meeting, save for one activity, "Senators, join us outside, please." There had been a few red pyramids set up on the street. The senators were instructed to get on them, then they all began bobbing up and down, doing what looked like the "Badger Dance" from several years ago. The senators, soldiers, and others all chuckled, "We should make this a myth." "No, it's a fact!" "er... I mean.... Apollo himself decreed it thus!" One lady giggled, "Hey, if we can't be fools for ROMA, what *is* worth being a fool for?"

And thus concluded the new Roma Senator's introduction to his new job. By the looks of things, it will be an interestingly pleasant one.

Bixyl Shuftan

Commentary: Gender in Second Life - Take Two

By Bixyl Shuftan

Written in response to "Gender in SL."

Besides Second Life, I also play World of Warcraft. There, I came up with a number of characters. The majority are male, but there are a couple female characters. For the recent "Mists of Pandaria" expansion, I came up with a female monk "Weynli" (Wen-Li). I kept playing the character, and still spent quite a bit of time on the pudgy but still cute fem fighter.

While a character's gender is fixed in WoW (unless you pay a fee to change it), in Second Life one's appearance is quite maleable. One can go into "Appearance" mode at any time and alter it. And not only are there no shortage of female skins and avatars to purchase, some come in both male and female.

So how often does yours truly take advantage of this ability to swap genders? Very seldom. It's not that I never change appearances. I do so quite a bit, on occasion taking on the appearance of a dragon, griffin, black human, an anthro skunk, squirrel, rabbit, and recently for much of the Halloween season a six-foot vampire bat. But while having no problems changing species or color, it's rare that I take on a female appearance.

On occasion I'll see a girl thinking about getting a female version of an avatar I have that comes in both female and male, and if no one else is around I'll switch for a minute. And there has been a time or two I switched over for a moment as part of a joke on a close friend in private. But just up and doing a gender-bender in broad daylight out in public? That's something I've never done.

So why the difference? Well, World of Warcraft is much more of a "game" then Second Life is. If a guy does a female character, or a girl a guy, I don't usually hear many jokes about it. In some ways, I see it as much like an interactive story, with the player taking on the role of the heroine.

Second Life, well, it isn't exactly a "game," although we call it one sometimes for the sake of simplicity. It's a lot more freeform with many more options for what one can do, including building, selling, and even dating and intimacy. And it's been my observation doing a gender-bender isn't always seen so lightly. Sometimes it usually is. If a comedian has on the appearance of a cute blonde in a dress, yet makes wisecracks on stage in an obvious male voice, people laugh and see it as part of the "joke." But if someone known to be male in real life takes the same kind of avatar and poledances on stage, reactions can differ. While some see it as the equivalent of a guy sharing girlie pics, others will take it as strange, even perverse.

Looking at old time cartoons and movies, one sometimes sees things that one doesn't see in those of today, at least not in G-rated fare. There were times a character would disguise himself as a girl, a wig and dress and sometimes make-up, as part as some ruse. While such chuckles were routine for Bugs Bunny fifty years ago, how often to they appear in today's cartoons, or family-friendly TV programs and movies? Not often.

What happened? My guess is fifty years ago, people weren't quite as mindful of jokes and scenes being taken the wrong way, that it was fine for a subtle joke in a cartoon that would go over the heads of kids and get chuckles from the grown-ups. These days, you have talk shows discussing a gay group's claims that a cartoon character is "in the closet" because of a cross-dressing joke in old cartoons. Not exactly publicity an animation company wants.

Since the 60s, people have been a bit more aware of the naughty side of human nature, as well as aware not everyone's idea of intimate companionship involves the opposite sex. If a guy tries cross-dressing as part of a Halloween costume, unless he's a football player or someone else with an ironclad image of masculinity, the result is getting joked and kidded about being gay and weak. And the consequences can be more than just jokes. Some onetime friends will become more distant, and imagine applying for a job and the prospective employer sees such pictures on "Facebook." And if the guy ends up in divorce court, imagine the judge's reaction to pictures of cross dressing, or kissing a guy after having one too many at the bar?

Some people in Second Life don't particularly care what people think or say about them, that the virtual world allows them to be free, and they can look like whatever they want, or do what they want, short of outright hostile action to others. Others don't feel quite as free. Perhaps they make no secret to real life friends and coworkers about being in Second Life, and worry certain things might somehow get found out. Maybe they have problems getting a date for whatever reason, "Gee, you're a nice guy, but ...", and are especially mindful of behavior that could be seen as deviant and ending any chance of a real life date, even in Second Life under a virtual identity.

On the other hand, many here are avid roleplayers. No one has a problem with a guy writing a story about a girl as the hero, or rather heroine as it's spelled. Video games are full of heroines either using their wits, their guns, or both, to take care of situations. And when Massive Multiplayer Online Games came on the scene, they allowed players the option to play either male or female characters.

My real-life roleplaying group, there were a few cases of a guy playing a female character. One guy pulled it off flawlessly. Another however did a scantily-clad "chick" that just didn't work. However the first had a reputation as a "munchkin" whom would take on any advantage he could, while the second was a bit of an awkward player.

I imagine some guys also see a female appearance as a kind of roleplaying, that they are "writing" the story of their heroine. While they may join a roleplaying group and sim and change over to the fem look only there, they don't always. They see the appearance as a character living her life, doing things and interacting with friends.

On the other hand, there are a few whom just "like the view from behind." Even if it's not so much, they turn people's expectations of men being naughty-minded and successfully use it as an excuse, saying, "Hey, if I'm going to be staring at a butt for the next three hours, it might as well be a nice one."

In any event, while I may take on all kinds of looks in the virtual world, I'll be sticking with being a male for all of them.

And here, my backside is covered by a tail.

Middle image from Geo Meek.

Bixyll Shuftan

Gender in SL

By Becky Shamen

One of the coolest things about Second Life is, if you can think it, they probably have an avatar for it. In real life, we only get one body and are stuck with it until it wears out. Your body in SL is a winged vehicle of your imagination and is shaped by it. Take full advantage of SL and let it help to stretch your imagination. We are not limited to just one either. Face it, Ironman isn't going to feel very welcome in a MLP sim. Some people don't mind always looking the same and doing the same things, week after week, If you like new adventures and things to learn, like me, you'll soon have almost as many avatars as LMs.

Another important selection, you get to make in how you present yourself, is gender. In many cases, with a few clicks of the mouse, you can change from male to female. Do men play as women in SL? Yes, a lot. There are also many cases of women playing as men. It is impossible to find exact numbers, but I've heard guesses of over 50%. I've also heard of many clever attempts to determine true gender by speach patterns or sign up name, One girl told us, girls don't have numbers after their name, like "Susie2013". Only boys would be lazy enough to take the next name in line. Recently, I heard that boys write "LOL," in chat, way more than girls. One guess is as good as another.

Why do they do it? No doubt, there are as many reasons as there are people doing it. In the first place, it is like a Prime Directive of SL. You can, and should become, anything you can become. Perhaps, because, by default, the camera always follows behind the avatar, if a guy is going to have his nose hauled behind a butt, it may as well be one he likes to watch jiggle. There are many cases of ye ol' "woman trapped inside a man's body" players that can live out the change in SL, when it may be too painful and expensive in real life. Whatever the reason, it is your right, given by our Linden, who art in heaven.

Should they tell us the truth? The rules state that our real life self is off limit to others, unless you are willing to share it. Some wear tags, boldly announcing their status. Others only answer when asked by good friends. Pitty those that won't let anyone know. It is said, a cloak that hides you from your friends will also hide your soul from you. Getting to know the real life people, behind your avatar friends, allows you to see through each other's eyes, increasing the Love and Oneness shared. Where there is Oneness, there is no duallity, hence, no gender.

To female or not to female, aye, that's the question. Now, go have fun, finding the answers.

Becky "Sha" Shamen

Adventures in Cadair

By Grease Coakes

 

A friend of mine Inhandra Birdsong told me that when she wasn’t in Second Life for a while that she was on under a different name in a roleplaying sim. I actually found this out when Aurora Avila asked where she was. When I IMed Inhandra and told her that, she told me about Cadair, the roleplaying sim she role-plays at.

 

What’s Cadair? It’s a medieval roleplaying sim that takes lots of patience, but the patience can be rewarding as you role-play a character in a medieval magical environment. I put together an old B@R clothes set and some bow and arrow props to make myself look like a ranger type of character which would mesh well with my green Tokushi griffin avatar.

 

New to roleplaying? Not to worry the players there will assist you to craft your roleplaying into a richer part of everyone’s addition to the roleplay experience. Furries and humans are both welcome as I ran into both human characters and furries. The first character I ran into was a mute woman named Birala when I role-played that I was new to Cadair as a ranger searching for a “Bow of Destiny.” Even if with her name above her head I pretended I didn’t know her name. She invited me to her house using hand motions. Each motion of explaining what your character is doing is about a paragraph or two so there’s lots of typing involved. Later she told me her name through a scroll she handed to me from her belt.

 

She was helpful to me reminding me to use quotation marks when I spoke to make it clear what I was saying and doing were kept separate. Very quickly I improved as my adventure began in Cadair. I role-played along helping her prepare fish and eel that she brought home with her. She got upset with me, gesturing when I chopped up too many vegetables for her stew. I stopped helping her and went to the table instead. She told me of demons to the west to be careful of. I asked her about the "Bow of Destiny" I was hunting for as part of my character story. She had no idea shaking her head no.

The Bow of Destiny as I explained in RP “Would let the clumsiest farmer or the most skilled archer hit any target without fail.” Birala ventured away to Real Life having to leave the sim so I wandered around some more running into merlin and some child characters. Then a minotaur walked over asking me to accompany her to the infirmary. She asked for my allegiance to the land of Cadair. Playing along I said sure that I may find the Bow of Destiny helping the land.

 

Walking along with Vilge the Minotaur I walked into some more people talking about demons and other things. Vilge who crashed requested that I tag along to help her something. Learning the hard way I found out this was a bad idea. Read along and find out why.

 

Following Vilge for a short walk she led me to an underground cave which happened to be the warded moonpool of werewolves! Wait werewolves? In my character’s words “If there was a mad cow disease its name would be Vilge for leading me here. “

 

I roleplay myself jumping on to a ledge and shooting the alpha werewolf in his shoulder, but instead his mate Violet takes the arrow instead. Next the child named Saliu next to me morphs into a werewolf (WAIT she was a werewolf? I didn’t know that she was) and she pins me to the ground.  Luckily for me her clan mates bite her ear to get her off of me. All I had was an arm bruise wound.

 

To make this interesting, the minotaur character was called away for business and the same for the alpha werewolf character named Maral. I roleplayed action with the remaining characters, however Vilge comes back and asks technical questions. Luckily my actions were valid and Vilge did nothing so my actions were not voided. A RP overseer, like a dungeon master, came by and ruled in my favor.

 

When Maral came back as well, we continued the roleplay to me being led to a firepit. Saliu seeing me was enraged again as I shot one of her parents. Once again her clan mates intervened as I flew away, stating out of character, then I flew far enough to escape their clutches. A lot of the characters said I did a great job of paragraph roleplay for my first day in Cadair. I was also told that having a RP overseer intervene is a rare occurrence. So it was neat to see a RP issue handled first hand.

 

Looking for something new and exciting within Second Life? Check out the Medieval roleplay sim Cadair. Just be patient with others and if real life gets in the way there’s not much you can do about that. 

 

Whatever you do DON’T FOLLOW THE MINOTAUR!

 

Grease Coakes

More on the Mos Espa "Star Wars" Sim Closing

Last week on Nov 26, it was reported that the Mos Espa sim, a location for roleplaying by several "Star Wars" groups, would be closing down in two days. Daniel Voyager wrote that the sim owner stated the reasons were "due to real life and Second Life issues."

Mos Espa in the "Star Wars" movies was a small city on the desert world of Tatooine, where the young Anakan Skywalker lived in "The Phantom Menace" (In "A New Hope," Luke Skywalker and  Obi-Wan Kenobi get off the planet through Mos Eisley). A notecard from the sim described the town in it's RP with the following: "Mos Espa is only one town on Tatooine, it is known to be a dangerous place under control of multiple Hutt Clans. With one of the most harsh environments for a planet, the sun is burning hot. Temperatures are high and storms blow up with winds of sand ripping through the town slowly eroding all in is way. Residents of the town are often seen in basic style robes and hoods to protect themselves from the sand storms and sun."

The role-play is described as taking place long after the events in the movies. Under the rules, the Nasiri Clan was the only one open to players, the rest being represented by NPCs in plots. Among the groups in the sim were the Nasirii Hutt Clan, the Nasirii Enforcers (guards and security), Nasirii Entertainment (dancers and staff), and Nasirii Hutt Clan Contracts (smugglers and freelance traders).

Going through the sim, there were a number of buildings around the place, some more detailed than others. In one corner was a Jawa sand trawler with a few banthas (beast of burden and meat source). One building I came across was a bar, the "Last Shot Cantina." The Star Wars Roleplay Wiki describes the place as having had different people employed as managers, but all having failed to make enough money to please its Hutt owners. Looking around the place, there was a working music player. Two special events the notecard described the role-play as having time to time were Pod Races, and "Miss Galaxy" beauty contests. As for how to end the RP, Daniel Voyager wrote that the last act had, "The role-play will be about a Sith betrayal in the city and the destruction of Mos Espa."


One resident whom built much of the place was Glitch Tennant. Second Life Newser contacted him about the closing, and he responded, "I helped to build the sim. I got to play a bit, and be part of some good fun races. I was lucky to be asked to help build Mos Espa, and jumped at the chance. Really thanks goes to Wittsofwanda Zapatero, it was her sim she paid the bills and gave us all place to play."

"It's a shame to see the sim go, although thats part of Star Wars Roleplay. Players will continue on in story, and find other places to make home. I wish 'em all well, and it was a joy to see some of the stories made on Mos Espa. The players bring the life to any sim, and that's just magic. Happy RP to all."


Sources: Daniel Voyager, SWRP Wiki

Bixyl Shuftan

Return to Bronytown

So a while back I reported on Bronyville falling apart as breaking news. Twinkie got banned as a "ban evasion alt", although with the fact that it is -waaaaaaaaaay- too easy to just make another alt and come back on. I wouldn't be surprised if he came back and was around but kept his former life completely secret. I did a little bit of searching and found that not only was Bronyville back (as BronyTown), but that it is THRIVING, with about six sims. I do not know if the sims are all owned by the same person, but the fact that the place is about three times larger than it was as Bronyville shows how interested people are in the fandom of My Little Pony.

There's an underground cave with a bunch of small shops, several areas where one can go and watch the episodes, a sandbox for building, and many many freebie pony-related things, such as cutie marks and basic avatars. The two avatars most often used seem to be a freebie (which is well done) and one you pay for (about 450 $L, which is slightly smaller but more fluid moving than the freebie one).

I saw that there was a small little roleplaying area, decked out as Ponyville. Complete with places like Rarity's Boutique and Sugarcube Corner, it was enough to get me to set up a separate alt ("harmonylongbow resident", AKA Ampersand the Pony) and I took part in one or two RPs myself for a couple of days. After having a bit of fun as Ampersand, I decided it would be nice to track down some of the "official Mane 6" roleplayers for a bit of an interview for the Newser. I tracked down Annabelle Baar (AKA Rarity) and Okami Brokken (Applejack) in Rarity's Boutique.



Ampersand: Ok, let's start with the basics... the first question on my list is how long have you been RPing in Bronytown? What made you decide to take on the role of Rarity and Applejack?

Rarity: Hmm. Perhaps a month in BronyTown and a month as Rarity. I didn't really start RPing here until I had Rarity.

Applejack: Well I've been roleplaying MLP in SL for about 9 months now. The original roleplay started in Bronyville and was organized by myself. I was drawn towards Applejack, because I was born and raised in the country and could just relate to the character closely. She has a lot of wisdom to her that I don't think alot of people give her credit for and its very appealing to me.

Rarity: Rarity is my favorite of the Mane Six, I started looking on the sims to specifically play her. When I saw the canon list here and Rarity was the only Mane not taken, it seemed perfect.

Ampersand: Bah! Derpy and Applejack are best ponies. (chuckle) What do you think is the toughest thing for RPs these days? Have you run into a lot of "god moders" or other "difficulties"?

Rarity: The toughest thing is probably people who don't speak English very well. And I don't run into godmodders as much as I run into people who use one liners when posting. The problem with that is it doesn't give the other RPers much to go off of, and makes the whole session lacking.

Applejack: Well thats a difficult question to answer. Honestly recently it has been about getting people involved. Often times people come to the sim for roleplay, but want to be dragged into a RP in progress by standing in the background and hoping someone takes notice of them even if they say nothing in IC and the characters involved are heavily distracted by events taking place. We have run into our fair share of god modders and difficulties. We are often considered uptight for an RP group because we have a set of rules that tries to keep characters and events feasible in the Equestrian universe.

We want players to have the ability to create their own unique character, but not everyone can be an Alicorn. We have turned a lot of applications down due to character wanting to play crossover characters that don't mesh well with the Equestrian universe in our opinion ( Green lantern, Dragon ball Z, Sonic, Animes, ect. ) but also because everyone wishes to be special but goes about it in unusual, canon breaking ways. Such as many many alicorns, Celestia's personal assassin, etc. Things we can't rule as being -impossible- in a canon sense, but it just makes things difficult from an RP standpoint.

Ampersand: That's what we get for having such a famous fandom, as it were, but it could be worse, everyone could be Pinkie Pie. Are there mini-RPs if not enough people show up to a featured "event," or does the group have backup players of the Mane 6 if say, you can't make it?

Rarity: There are mini RPs all the time! If there are ponies on, there are RPs happening. The events are just RPs that incorperate everyone on, and sometimes use NPC ponies, like Princess Luna in the latest event.

Applejack: Well, we encourage more player created interaction then anything else. We do host the events in an effort to provide RP to those who are timid or would just like to RP larger scale things. Though due to our resources those large events can only happen maybe 2 times a week, so we really depend on players to make their own story. That is what role-playing is all about after all. We do have alternates of our main cast, but have almost never needed to use them. Our mane 6 is carefully selected on their RP ability, avatar appearance, and attendance. Many players come just wanting to interact with the canon characters, so it is very important to us to maintain these players be available AND accurate to the role.

Ampersand: Have the storylines gone in totally weird directions that no one was expecting (both event and regular RP)?

Rarity: Yes! The great thing about the event is that only certain points are planned, and the ponies participating will determine how it ends. There were five possible endings for the last event.

Applejack: Of course storylines have taken weird turns! Completely scripting events can be dramatic, but often is a less fun experience for everyone but the scripter. We prefer that the characters direct the roleplays based on what their character; and their own imaginations can come up with.We have a staff of coordinators to referee a lot of RPs so that god modding and completely RP breaking events do not take place.

Ampersand: Do you know if anyone is planning on Discord making an appearance?

Rarity: I do not know. As far as I know there is no new story planned right now. Though I'm technically not a Mod, despite me being a Mane character, so they don't need to tell me. Haha.

Applejack: Well I can't rule it out, but we did have a Discord RP back when the second season started. All of our mane 6 recolored their avies to be corrupted and everything. We may bring Discord back to Ponyville one day, but for now we our creating our own villains so that the players can write a whole new chapter to the MLP storyline here in SL.

Ampersand: If someone's got an idea for a storyline, who do they contact?

Rarity: Nessia Fizzle or Niles Cournoyer.

Ampersand: And finally, what do you expect for Bronytown's RP in the future? Besides hopefully more ponies :)

Rarity: More ponies would be wonderful. I'd also like to see ponies participating in the events, they're there so ponies can have fun! It's also a great way to meet the Mane cast, and spark future RPs with them that aren't events.

Applejack: Well we would like to expand the parcel to include at least an entire sim containing all of the shows key areas. The real benefit of role playing in SL over a forum or through standard text is the eye candy. Whole RP is based almost entirely off of a players imagination it is nice to be able to see the town of Ponyville and its surrounding areas AND being able to interact with them. Honestly I feel the actual RP here is pretty firm. We get a good amount of casual character interaction as well as the more intense and emotional events. Both allow characters to grow. Getting new ponies interested and keeping them here is the our primary goal right now.

Ampersand: The more the merrier. As long as they're not Pinkie Pie clones. One of her is *enough.* (grin)

Rarity: Agreed.


Xymbers Slade