I stumbled upon this today after opening an old facebook account that I thought I had deleted.

Check it out and give this guy a like or a subscribe. 

Sooo... I'm surprised this hasn't really come up on the forum yet.. What do you folks think about the 2016 US Election? Here in the states, it's being talked about everywhere you go, and so much that many folks just can't wait for it to be over and done with. I've heard that on facebook (which I don't use), talk of politics have cause a lot of misery and unfriending.

This is by far, the nastiest US presidential election that I can recall, yet also, the most interesting given the angles in play. We have one candidate accused of grabbing women, one being investigated by the FBI ( a criminal investigation ) , 1 Democratic National Comittee member forced to resign, her replacement fired by CNN, a shit storm of rather damning hacked email to chew on, evidence of election fraud (DNC colluded with Hillary against Bernie Sanders), lampooning of a disabled reporter, fainting spells, the spitting up of wads of snot before an audience, a VP candidate skidding off the runway in a private plane, and more.

Since there is some interest being expressed in getting PlaneShift back on it's feet, I'm offering a suggestion for anyone who wants to pick up the flag and run with it. Like I said before, without action on someone's part, nothing happens at all. A botched attempt to get RP going again along with tons of mistakes and do-overs will do a lot more for the player community than just playing it safe and not doing anything at all. The worst thing you can do is nothing.

If you want to give it a crack, read below and just run with it.

( I won't be participating in this as I have work to do and no time for play )

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1. You need a character. Start out with a character that isn't afraid to make mistakes. One that will run full steam ahead and take on the world by the seat of their pants. Make this character the type that will just keep trying no matter how many mistakes they make. The character needs to be social enough to employ or manipulate others into helping them. This is critical as nothing of worth happens in a vacuum. It will be easier if you use an extroverted character than an introverted character.

2. Make a difficult goal for this character. It should be something that will takes months to accomplish ( not hours ). This distant goal and all the challenges and obstacles that prevent you from reaching it are the flesh and blood of the game. Treat each and every obstacle or challenge as another chapter in the story. Think EPIC ADVENTURE here.

3. Ask fellow characters for help along the way and empower other characters by treating their wisdom, skill, knowledge or service as an invaluable resource. Do not empower any one character so much that their help ends the quest. This will lead to a premature end. Game over. Duh.

4. Either allow this quest to go on forever or eventually bring it to a close. How you handle this is up to you, but allowing a quest to end kills the story. (Unless you make sure that there is some way that the story can later on be revived.  )

5. Think BIG. ( BIG )
By this I mean, don't just set out to free a f-ing kitten from a tangle little shrub in the back yard. Do something gigantic and damn near impossible.
ie.

Set out to create a secret weapon or spell with which to destroy all of Yliakum and yourself included. ( As a player, you can't destroy the settings, but your character can certainly try )

Make it your character's goal to discover and snuff out every trace of the Black Flame at any cost. If your character has a strange reason for doing so, then hide that reason for now and reveal it around the end of the story. It will create a "TWIST".

Conspire with fellow scientists and mages to develop something similar to Stepford wives for the wealthy. Perhaps the kicker is that later on, said Stepford wifes are turned against their owners, or perhaps they develop a mind of their own or blow up when touched or whatever..

The possibilities are endless. Just come up with a radical idea and run with it like a mad man with a pair of scissors in his hand. Just don't try to control the outcome.

Lastly, some words of advice on running the game:

1. Everything is a secret. Never let anyone know what you are thinking. People love surprises, and once you leak them, they are dead.

2. You cannot play an airtight game. What is not shown,  told or discovered remains unknown and thus, might as well not exist at all. Allow information to leak so that others can get a whiff of what is going on. Let other's spy on your character and overhear their secret plans. You need to allow others to win at times to keep it interesting for them. Your character should naturally deal with spies in an IC way.... whatever that might mean.

3. Tell the story. I've told the story both IC in taverns  to anyone who wanted to pull up a barstool and listen, and OOC on the forums by writing about the story so others can enjoy it.  This helps in getting others in on what is happening.

4, Deal with metagamers and OOC leaks in an IC way. If someone god mods you, you can just say that their action failed.  If someone's character says something to yours that you think is from an OOC source, then have your character question their character (ICly)about the source of the information. You character is free to disbelieve the leaked information if you truly believe that it is OOC info. ( This is better than having an ooc argument over it )

5. Worst case, if things go all wrong, call for a do-over. You are far more likely to get away with this in a small group. You can also just die and let it end, then make a new character and try something new.

Enjoy.

As echoed in the RCD thread, I propose that the Red Crystal Den be unlocked in order to make it less burdeonsome for players to use it.

Note, I'm mentioning only the RCD in this thread and not the hospital.

On Gods and Magic.

There was a discussion in another thread about the relationship between gods and magic. We know from the game settings that Talad created the glyphs for each way and taught some of the elder mages how to use them.  (See: History of Magic) This would make Talad somewhat neutral with regard to the morality of using the various ways such as crystal and dark. It means that one who practices dark way is not necessarily opposed to Talad or any other deity.

It does appear that some ways might fit in a little better with some religions. For example, There's a link between Dakkru, the death realm, dark way and the dark crystal. Likewise, some have pointed out that brown way seems to be rather harmonious with Xiosia, nature and life. I would argue here that crystal, blue and air too would be quite harmonious.

In some of her story posts, Siteya had her character debate over the relationship between living beings, Xiosia and Dakkru as mortals belong to the world of the living at present, but will all one day end up in Dakkru's embrace. I believe somewhere it is said that the gods are jealous and do not take kindly to those who worship more than one god - or who flip flop from one to the other, but what happens when one dies? Are they just transferred from their deity to Dakkru as if they no longer matter? Did they ever really matter?

If you have any questions about this or would like to further the discussion, then please do so here.

I'm not sure how else to describe this, but I was thinking about something, and this seemed like a possible solution with many uses. You may already have something like this implemented, but here goes:

An object that can modify itself under certain conditions and keep state - even after a server restart. The idea here is that the object's state could be viewed by multiple players, and each player could have a chance at modifying the object.

Some concrete examples of this:

Sometimes in role play, you want to have an object ( like a lamp, let's say ) which has hidden properties. Those properties can only be revealed if someone makes the right check. Ie. Someone with reasonable luck tries to rub it, or someone with reasonable int tries to determine its origin or use.  In a case like this, you would have a player or gm do all the work - describing the object, and determining if each player was successful in revealing something about the object. They would then announce any revelations to the group. This way, players with differing skills could contribute to the revelation of the object.

You can do this with a book - ie. write a description of the object, and then write a list of if statements in brackets ( ie. if you try to burn the book, you will see that its fire proof, if you have high int and study it, you may fine a hidden message... etc..) The problem here is that this gives away the surprise. It could also be very tempting for people to rationalize that they *should* be able to discover x,y and z.

In relation to game play, this sort of thing could be used to implement a chest that requires different skills to open, a crafted item that requires different processes to turn it into the end result, a mount that requires more than one rider, or some sort of spell/charm that requires multiple players to cast.

I say self modifying because the object would modify its own state in response to inputs that it makes available to the player. At any time then, any player could look at it and see a description of its current state.

What would be most ideal is if such an object could be make available to players who wish to implement an RP object that requires skill checks (or just chance ) to unravel. Perhaps 50/50 chance of success for an unskilled check, and a little better if the player is more than 50% trained in a relevant skill.

As an example for a role playing object. Let's say you wanted to make an object that would be used as a clue. Let's say a big, fat turd.  You might start off with a description of it, and then add some odds to it for revealing different things about it. ie.

%25 chance of determining the kind of creatures that dropped it if someone opts to right click and choose "identify".
* In this case, the object would update its list of things about it that were discovered and then /say "This appears to have come from a treppor"

%75 chance of determining how long ago it was dropped based on warmth if someone chooses to right click and choose "feel"
* Likewise, it would update its state and /say "Upon inspection, it was determined that this was dumped no more than an hour prior to testing it."

%50 chance of finding a rolled up note hidden in the mush if someone chooses to right click and choose "examine"
* the state would be updated and it would /say "A rolled up note in the dung reads: 'Look for a stone 20 paces from the floating rock, and dig under it.' "

100% chance of ruining and thus deleting the object if you right click and choose "wash"

Ok, this is kind of big and perhaps far fetched, but its out there...

A Collection of Forbidden Lore

Seven Words For Blood.
Ru'Thali Language and Traditions.

It has often been said that there is more to the realm than what we see. It's girth and breadth are beyond comprehension, and it's depth is to be found not by plunging downwards, but by passing through the many fissures and cracks in space and time. These fissures lead to places unknown. They are doorways to entire cultures, tribes and wastelands. Some lead to traps, and others to endless fields of filth and decay.

It was in my travels through one of these fissures that I met the Ru'thali people. They were a tribe of dark magicians who had a strange obsession with blood. Their magic was drenched in blood, they ate blood, and used it to mark their bodies, walls and floors. What I found most peculiar about them though, was that their language had seven distinct words for blood. To them blood was not just blood, it was cthor, vhar'lek, tzarnuk and korid. Each kind of blood was quite different, and had different uses.

Cthor was the blood spilled as the result of an accident and vhar'lek was blood that was sticky and syrup-like, but not yet crusted. Zchu, or zchu flakes were large hardened sheets of dried blood that had been broken into book sized pieces that were easier to handle. Mombhet was the blood that men could not spill, and chaiv'et was a lump of blood that bulged from within the veins - sometimes plugging them and causing tingly sensations.

The Ru'thali people used blood in their magical rituals to bait and draw demons, like flies to excrement. When enticed by the offered blood, the demons would plead and howl oh, so morbidly. Their wails of starvation and addiction were heartbreaking and induced great fear, but the Ru'thali people were great negotiators. When at their breaking point, the Ru'thali would trade the demons blood for magical items, insights, secrets and power. It was via these trades that they became obscenely powerful.

The Ru'thali wanted my blood and offered to teach me their magic in exchange. This was good I thought, and so I agreed to trade. They stripped me and lead me into a darkened chamber. Though embarrassed, I complied as I silently wondered about the remaining two words for blood. It was only when the strapped me down to their crude benches and beat with whips, barbed straps and heavy clubs, that I understood what tzarnuk was. It was quite literally the blood drawn from a man who is terribly afraid for his life.

When they extracted this blood from my wounds, the room darkened and a painful howling could be felt in the air. There were demons among us, waiting for a taste of my tzarnuk. I was elated and rapt at the sight of them - so terrible, violent and strong. And it was at that point that my wounds were sealed and my carcass was dragged away. For the seventh kind of blood was repulsive to demons. It was called khorid, and was rich with excitement and elation. To demons, it was like blood in one's milk or an embryo upon the yolk of one's egg.

The Ru'thali kept their word and taught me their magic. They gave me new clothes, and sent me on my way. With this new knowledge, I shall never look at blood in quite the same way.