Gartheiz stares from the top of the stairs leading to the Tavern. The wind's calm, the night as dark as they get. But his blood is boiling, like it always does.
He is soaked, bruised and his clothes are all smeared with blood and dirt... A shame the guards intervened though...

"Oh well. Dakkru shall miss my handsome features a day more."

He chuckles and goes down the stairs, with his jacket across his left shoulder walking in an elegant pace.

His blood begins cooling down, and the alcohol flowing within gradually eases him. As smoothly as fog mingling with the night, memories from his past invade his mind:
The shabby house his mother shared with his siblings, half siblings, sibling-nephews... The noise about it, the cruel taunts and jokes... The fun of it all...

And the day it blew up, thanks to one of his dumb, red-way-meddling siblings.

He laughs to himself, shaking his head. Dakkru had such wit. It was perfect how it wasn't the vengeance of his siblings' victims, but the consequences of their means that erased them all from Hydlaa.

"Hey, preacher! Heh! I see someone silenced you down this time." A stranger's laughter fades slowly. The fog turns into soft rain, completely erasing the voice he had heard and leaving him to his thoughts.

"There must be more I can do for her..."

Very simple. Post here links or actual pieces of stories that happened in-game, to add as material for someone else to reproduce as a poem. This way our bard characters will have stories to tell in-game. Actual poems should be posted here. You can also post poems about other materials (in-game books, player or not  player made.)



Here comes my material:

From Sangwa Greenmoon's (the character) "Guilds of Olden":

Legendary Warriors

During one of my last visits to the Steel Temple I found a damaged scripture.

I attempted to transcript most of it to something legible, as the original was quite damaged.

I will mark removed parts with "(...)" and words I completed myself by inserting them between parenthesis.

«A long time ago (a ynnwn who was named Enriege arrived in the) town of Hydlaa. He had aspirations of (grand) glory, and gathered all those who would come to him in the (guild) of the Legendary Warriors. Those who stayed over time (would become) the legendary. However, many who came did not stay, and the roster was filled with (names not) important to anyone.

«(Those who achieved glory went by the name of) Monketh, Grakrim, Seperot, Draklar, Rayna, Arbraz, Tranor, Druke and ("Shadows"). Several guilds have formed from its [The Legendary Warriors'] Ruins. Well, anyway, for a time 'twas good. The Legendary Warriors prospered, 'twas said "The Sun never sets on the Legendary Warriors". They were common, and they were generally respected (...)
«Their leader was more rude than his members, however. He caused disputes between himself and other guilds. One member in particular Draklar, got so annoyed that he left with a good complement of the guild and founded The Defenders Brotherhood. (The Circle of Legends was one of) those who had been annoyed. (...)
«He [Enriege] went ballistic on the leaders of the Circle of Legends, and he would regret it.

«This is what really led to the inevitable end. The decline continued (...)»

This sheet was divided in two, in such a way that one could not calculate the size of the text it missed.
It continued on the other part:

«But the tide was against him, Grakrim, Seperot, and Monketh held an emergency meeting to decide their fate. They decreed it was unsafe to allow (...) the end to the guild. They set out on their own with Tranor and "Shadows". Thus ended the time of the Legendary (Warriors.)»

Such was what I could salvage.

It seemed to have the wording of Monketh, an old friend of mine, founder of the Rangers. It also seemed quite connected with fate of "The Rangers" one of the guilds that derived from this great "Guild of Olden."

The Defender's Brotherhood and The Rangers have influenced many of the guild leaders of these days, with their efforts of valour against the enemies outside and within Yliakum. It's believe that both had a hand in preventing the Cabali from creating even more havoc.

The Cabal
It is only after many years have passed since the Cabali have gone silent that I dare to write on them as a departed guild.

The Cabal was a union of black hearted talented individuals who lived on the expense of Hydlaa and its people. Many know this, but very few know of how they came to be. This is my version.

When Hydlaa was closed down there was very little to do besides mining the Laanx Dungeon and gathering in the Temple to ask Laanx for a bright future.
This lack of activity and the heavy suspecting sight of the Hydlaa Guard drove everyone to their patience's limit. No one dared to strike at its foes, for it would be suicide to do so then, as you would be quickly refered to the guard and sent to the farthest depths of the Death Realm in a very quick fashion.

This did not prevent the existence of conflicts though; if only the guard was capable of swinging swords, then all one needed to do to bring its foe down would be to get him or her as close to that pending death as possible.

Espionage and forging public opinion became the deadliest weapons within the closed Gates of Hydlaa. And the Cabal excelled at both.

It was Auran, the Speechful, that formed the Cabal, though I have my suspicions about the involvement of corrupted Vigesimi and other personalities.
In a time where dissuading and persuading meant riches, he was able to gain the "loyalty" of very witty and dangerous characters: Xordan, Nostra, Savion and other such foul names that I'd rather not include in your memory.

These sentients formed "The Cabal" and their activity was felt right away. Masters of deceit and disguise, the Cabali, as the members of the Cabal were called, began by taunting the existent society that became distracted and allowed them to have their way with gems and tria.
However, their flirt with corruption quickly became an intimate relation... They began to find fame and wealth quite distasteful, as the Hydlaa Guard could do nothing to give them a lawful pursuit. But their thirst for chaos could not be quenched.

So they evolved their objectives to adapt to what they really enjoyed; the twisted methodology they made use of. Everyone then became a target. Some tried to counter them at their game, but none succeed and most paid the price for daring, like was the case of the Shadowhand.

They were partly the reason why the Dark Empire had so little expression back then. Not able to count on anyone, the Dark Empire avoided recruiting and would only do so after much deliberance. Such was the epoch when I was recruited. Princess Aelya despised them even above her most obvious enemies, though Auran would meet such hatred with a smile and a number of sweet words.

Draklar, who was the Empire's Warlord at the time, was the entity who fought their influence harder, though there were some who tried to as well, like Monketh of the Rangers and Golmir of the Defenders, but in general, their opposition did very little to slow the Cabal down.
They appeared and disappeared, changed their stance continuosly, their leadership swapping from member to member and finally reaching Xordan.

Their dissumulative nature did not last eternally though. Or at least that is what is believed and expected.
Nearing the opening of the Gates, the Cabal became less focused. Though many disagree, I believe these events were not independent.

No one is certain under what circumstances the Cabal disappeared. And no one wants to guess. But when that happened and the rest of the Cabal lost their faith, Hydlaa's community became more stable and within few years Hydlaa was once again linked with the rest of Yliakum.

I end this "Guild of Olden"'s story with an advise: do not fear Xordan's last heard words as the Cabal's Leader:

"Tremble Mortals for the eternal night is begun. No more will you breathe the air for the corruption will fill your bodies; no more will you see the light for the darkness will obscure all; no more will you know peace for chaos was seeded and has flourished, its tentacles sucking the vestiges of your very souls.

Tremble.
Tremble and cry for fear of the horrors that lurk in the darkness. Know that the Cabal watches and waits for you to die.".


This material isn't too good. But I'm sure some oldbies can get inspired to get something more solid.

He breathes calmly, watching the cursor float over its targets... slowly but steadily.
Despite the incredible levels of boredom his hands are steady, his mind focused. There's no time to spend on panicking or exasperating.
He must be strong; his wits depend on it.

Hundreds of topics flash before his eyes, but he doesn't waste a click. No. That would reveal his position and turn this hunter into a prey. Instead he waits to find that sensible gap where his words will hit the mark, but without silencing it...
This predator knows his game: the wounded victim will whelp, calling the attention of those surrounding it... And where there was only one person to take down, there suddenly appears ten, twenty...
Then he just changes his position, reloads his gun... And watches Schindler's List from first person.

The Troll laughs. But he knows this is not entertainment. It's part of his work. Part of a dirty job someone must do.

Yeah, I'm bored.

Please do.

For me "entertaining" is something that, without adding to my responsibilities, is able to stimulate me to use either my physical or intellectual abilities in order to attain a short/mid term objective, always adjacent to a need to be distracted.

So I'm using an Eee PC and I can run this game. It's slow as hell, but at least it doesn't crash as often as it does on my Toshiba laptop with windows.
Anyway, I try to run to pssetup, but I'm faced with some technical problems: there's no pssetup in my Planeshift folder and I can't access the Launcher menu because it doesn't fit my screen.

I've played a bit with the .cfg, but I don't think I'm doing all that can be done to the reduce graphics and stuff. Any ideas on what I can do?

I've been wondering how PS is progressing, to see if I like the way it's going. I'd like it if a Developer or a representative of the team could reply with simple, dispassionate answers.

So these are my questions:

• Are we getting rid of Progression Points in the future?;
• Are we going to replace the current quests with something more player-player-interaction-friendly?;
• What is the current focus in developing game mechanics?.

That's all for now.

Phinehas came to me a while ago with an idea: making a thread where we would include the general RP concepts we collected around. I gave it some thought and considered it something very important to do. However, I hadn't had the chance to start digging into it like I have now (since my PS time was previously reserved for working on DE's constitution ^^).

So the idea here is to ask people what they think about roleplay and some of its situations, so we can make a kind of "protocol" (a sort of set of guidelines we agree to) for the community. I don't think we'll have much trouble, since I've seen many people agree on several points.

This thread will only be part of the collecting manoeuvre, as I will go in-game as well to ask some people about their opinions. The names of those that contribute (and agree with the final result) are to be added to the text. This might not come to happen if it gets too confusing though (i.e. if there's any issues with it.)

I should claim right now that this protocol will obviously not be forced upon anyone, but it could be used by guilds and players that agree to it to form a more united RP community; in other words avoid that RPers ignore each other for lack of consistency of RP practise.

So what I want you to speak your mind about is:

• IC/OOC chatting (tabs, OOC chat, correct typing, etc.);
• How to respect other characters;
• How to respect the settings;
• About roleplayed fighting;
• About "complementing the system" where it lacks;
• About Death and its Roleplaying;
• How to use information (in the forums, in the website, etc.) & Metagaming;
• More (I might have forgotten something to add here.)

I hope this is enough to get you started. If it isn't, I'll certainly try to add what you think is missing!

Here's what I got up until now. Comment on wording, on usefulness and on the accuracy. See if it is missing anything and tell me what! This is not meant to be a final product, but if you like it like it is, be sure to tell me anyway. It's important to get support for this, so we can guarantee everyone's ideas are around, or at least that these ideas are able to be agreed to.
I'll make the styling better sooner or later :P.
Community RP Guide Lines

Introduction
Herein is a set of guide-lines meant to give you an idea of how the community enjoys playing PlaneShift to its fullest. It's meant to let you have a great experience playing PS, by learning basic concepts about RolePlaying and using PlaneShift's system properly. It has some examples meant to let you know preferred standards and discouraged practices.
Note that these guide-lines are not enforced by GM's and must not be enforced by any player. It depends only on your will to roleplay with everyone else. You can spread these guide-lines if you wish, but remember: no one's here to impose.
Please enjoy!

Roleplaying...
... in PlaneShift is defined as the possibility to live in the world of Yliakum, taking part of its day to day life and its intriguing story, embodying the personality and the body of a character you create. In order to do this you just need some imagination and to stay "in-character", or in other words, to immerse in the fantasy setting and play it as if you were your character.
Don't worry! This doesn't mean that you'll have to sit around speaking with people all day and saying "thou"! There are as many types of characters as you can think of, and some don't want to do anything else but mine, for example.

Note: As you read through this manual you will require to have present two important concepts: When we say something is In Character (abbreviated as "IC") it means that this something is happening in the virtual world of PlaneShift. Oppositely when something is claimed to be  "Out of Character" (OOC) it means that this is happening outside the setting of PlaneShift.
Examples:

• Saying that a sword is Q100 is out of character. Within the the virtual world people do not know what Q100 means.
• /me sips his mug.

This action is IC;

• /me is watching TV;

This action is OOC , characters can't watch TV because there's no such thing as TV;

• Chatting in IRC is OOC;
• Using the main tab properly is staying IC.

Respecting The Settings
It is very important that everyone knows what the setting (the general history and logic behind this fantasy world) is about. This can only be done if you check the website and inform yourself about the economy, the several races and the world's history and shape. This should give you a feel of the creative world of Yliakum.
Keep in mind that your character will be an inhabitant of this world, just like every other character played out by a player, but with it's own agenda and attitude.
This doesn't mean you get to make up anything you want for him or her though... The attributes of your character are defined when you create it and then improved as you go about interacting with the world. So you shouldn't consider your character is faster, nastier and in general more powerful than it really is! Just make sure it is unique and fair to the setting and everyone else. This way everyone will come to like it wholly: flaws and talents included.

A Good Example to follow:
"Telia is a young dermorian of fair traits. Before arriving to Hydlaa she was fostered by the leaders of an Enkidukai tribe and that made her an impressive hunter, but also a bit unaccustomed to interacting with cityfolk."
Dermorian is a race supported by the system. So all's fine! In the character creation there is the option to have belonged to an Enkidukai tribe, so nothing wrong there. It also lets you decide if your parents were famous or not. That could explain her foster parents being the leaders of the tribe.

A Bad Example, to be avoided:
"Falgazar is a very mean looking Ynnwn. Sometimes when he gets mad his horns grow, his eyes become fiery and his skin becomes black as the surroundings are swallowed by a darkness that consumes all. That's because when he was young he was possessed by a spirit of a powerful demon."
Well, Ynnwns can look mean and they do exist. So that part is okay. However, there is no way the system and the setting support or will ever support metamorphosis! And there's no such things as demons or spirits covered by the settings... So this character shouldn't exist.

Respecting the Players
Roleplaying is very subjective. People want to do all sorts of stuff to make it fun, but there's just no way you can go around doing what you want boundlessly without annoying other people. For this reason, when you interact with other people make sure you leave space for them to decide as well. And make sure you both agree on the outcome. This guide will tell you how later on "Complementing the Settings".

Using The System Properly
PlaneShift's game system is an innovative and very interesting set of mechanics, programmed by very hard working kind people that keep tuning it to adapt to the needs of the players. However it is still not fully developed and as such we need to know how to use it with responsibility, so everyone can keep roleplaying and having fun! You can even help testing the game better if you're enjoying yourself while finding out what is missing. Make sure to report bugs to the bugtracker and to request new features here at the forums.

Chatting
It is important that you type correctly and without errors, respecting the writing rules. However you don't have to make amends to your character's speech every time you make a typographic error or misplace a word. Other players will overlook most errors and if they don't, you could play it as if there was a communication problem, like a muffled sound, and have your character repeat. The best policy is to make sure you've typed well before pressing enter!

The chat window contains several tabs. Each of them has its use and you should make your best to respect it, so you might communicate properly with the other players.
Main: In this tab you should constantly be in-character. However, some rare times you need to explain something OOC to the players reading. We ask that you use /tell to explain Out Of Character details as much as possible.
Some circumstances require a fast communication to several players at once though and since in PlaneShift there is no OOC general Tab, you will have to identify your chat as being OOC. It's usually done by using brackets "(),[],{} or \\" or by adding "OOC:" before the text.

A Good Example to follow:
Thelvor says: I heard the dark rogues were attacking Oja!
Gelzir says: Me too, and I even saw their leader.
Gelzir says: (Sorry! That what was with another character, please ignore the last sentence...)
Gelzir says: Dark times indeed...
Gelzir's player had to be fast to warn the others he made a mistake.

A Bad Example, to be avoided:
Thelvor says: any1 has a Q100 sword?
Thelvor says: i broke my last 1
Thelvor says: lolz, I jus got a tell with som guy asking me to be IC!
Thelvor is not even trying to type well and he is using OOC tems like "Q100" and "IC."

A Bad Example, to be avoided:
Thelvor says: Hydlaa has many wonders Gelzir, you can't be so pessimistic.
Gelzir says: (My character wasn't being pessimistic.)
Thelvor says: ("This city is no longer safe." sounds pessimistic to me.)
Gelzir says: (No, it just means Hydlaa isn't safe. It can still be fun.)
Thelvor says: (Yeah, whatever.)
Thelvor and Gelzir are engaging in a discussion that doesn't matter anyone else. And they're flooding the main chat with it! These guys should use /tell for this.

Tell: Tells are considered OOC, unless your character is standing next to the character you are speaking with through the /tell command. We advise that when you use this you also type "/me whispers" in the Main tab, as most characters would notice someone whispering.

Auction: These are IC shouts from merchants advertising their products. This tab should be treated like the Main Tab and only for the purpose of trading.

Guild: What happens here is of the responsibility of each guild and again it should be used as OOC.

Group: What happens here is of the responsibility of each group. In some situations it could be used as a whispered conversation, if all members are next to each other. In this case it is asked that players type emotes (/me) in the main chat and that they type "/me whispers" at least at the beginning of the conversation.

The rest of the tabs have obvious uses.

Fighting between Players
The game system makes it that you have to propose a fight and the other player must accept it in order to engage in Player versus Player (PvP) fighting. This is because players should always agree on the outcome of actions and as such there should be some context that leads to a fight between characters.

A Good Example to follow:
"Mercula's travelling to Oja when out of the blue Sheridor appears. He claims that he won't let Mercula pass unless she hands him all her belongings. Mercula makes a run for it, but ends up in a dead end. She refuses giving her goods to the end and she'd rather fight than lose them."
Player 2 playing Sheridor proposes Player 1 playing Mercula a fight and he accepts because his character had no way to run.

A Bad Example, to be avoided:
Player A is travelling with his character in Hydlaa. He finds Player B and proposes a fight randomly, just to have fun. Player B obviously denies! There was simply no context whatsoever.

Currently the fighting system is not picturesque enough to please every player. For this reason some players enjoy making up the combat themselves, resorting to emotes (/me action) to provide an intense fight for both to read. Using the PvP system is still advised to find out the outcome beforehand (choose not to kill), so both players can roleplay the combat accordingly (in the end the defeated player can type /die if that is the case). Some players prefer to agree beforehand on the result and not use the fighting system. What can't happen is not deciding beforehand, or the fight might become endless or ignored half the way through.

Another problem that arises is that not all types of characters/movements are implemented yet. We still advise you to train your character accordingly. You should fill in a Wish at the Wheel of Wishes asking for what you think should be implemented in this area and until it gets implemented you can count on the good will of other players to let you roleplay your character... Or avoid getting into trouble!

Death
The Death Realm is still too small and the penalties for dying are not well developed. This should be a place of turmoil and long penance, so make sure your character is frightened enough not to get in there. And that he or she does not use it as a travelling means or quickly gets out of it to take revenge on an unsuspecting enemy.

A Good Example to follow:
"A dwarf named Polthiz was travelling when he fell in a hole. He cursed his blood luck loudly, but a bit too loudly as he soon came to understand. Two large consumers, whose interest was piqued by the screaming, quickly fed on him.
Finding himself in the Death Realm, Polthiz panics. He takes days to find the exit, costing him his good humour and sunny face for weeks."

A Bad Example, to be avoided:
"Herthaz and Zarit are fighting fiercely. After a while, Zarit strikes a fast, clean cut with his dagger at Herthaz' neck, slaying his gambling opponent.
A while later Herthaz appears again and jumps at Zarit from behind, stabbing him in the lungs."
A while later? It's the Death Realm! You can't just get out of there in a second like nothing happened.

Complementing the System
Throughout this guide you have heard that players should agree with the outcome of certain roleplayed actions. This is because the game currently does not support for every type of action, so players must bring on themselves to agree on how these should be played out. Two strategies are advised, depending on the situation:

• When doing something the system does not support, make sure to leave room for the other person to play. If both easily agree with the outcome, then the action flows the way both players agreed.

A Good Example to follow:
Jarthul tries to slap Elpra. (Player one types in the main chat /me tries to slap Elpra)
Elpra gets slapped across the face and starts to bleed from the nose. (Player two types in the main chat /me gets slapped across the face and starts to bleed from the nose.)

A Bad Example, to be avoided:
Jarthul slaps Elpra across the face, making him bleed from the nose. (Player one types in the main chat /me slaps Elpra across the face, making him bleed from the nose.)
In this example Player one didn't give Player two any chance to play! This is wrong!

• When players do not agree on the outcome (previously or after, though previously is preferred. When you think someone won't accept, do ask.), a dice test could be agreed to and then used.

A Good Example To Follow:
Jathrul tries to slap Elpra. (Player one types in the main chat /me tries to slap Elpra)
Elpra evades the slap. (Player two types in the main chat /me evades the slap. However, player one doesn't agree. They both agree that he'd have a chance of hitting Elpra, based on an opposed test of agility. They choose to roll a 1d100 dice each, then add each's agi value to it. With a roll of 53 + 100 vs 64 + 60, Elpra wins. So they settle with what happened.)

A Bad Example, to be avoided:
Not bending to others and requesting rolls all the time can make the game too slow and bother players. So be sure to be fair!

Meta-gaming
Meta-gaming is a broad term usually used to define any strategy, action or method used in a game which transcends a prescribed rule-set, uses external factors to affect the game, or goes beyond the supposed limits or environment set by the game. In other words, sometimes using out-of-game information to affect one's in-game decisions.
--Wikipedia
In a RP game meta-gaming is very harmful, as it distorts plots, making the game very incoherent. We ask players to avoid meta-gaming. Here are some examples of meta-gaming actions:

• IC use of information acquired OOC (An example is to use alternative characters [in PlaneShift one account can have 4 characters] to acquire IC information from a guild and then use that information with another alternative character, even though there was no IC information exchange.);
• Abuse of bugs to empower your character (Example: Bugs that replicate items or money);
• Abuse of bugs to slow down/increase game speed (Example: mass casting spells like Vortex, which slows down the game.);
• Abuse of camera views (example: using camera view to see through walls);
• Abuse of OOC speech (example: calling for help OOC when your character is in a situation).

Unfortunately not all players see the benefits of respecting the setting and other players. The Game Moderators have currently no authority to moderate RP, so we ask that you simply ignore inconsistent roleplayers. Any type of harassment (walking through your character repeatedly, etc.) can be reported to the moderating authorities.[/list]

I would enjoy, once and for all, that people would stop panicking any time I, or anyone else, delivers a perspective. There is never a reason for fearing the perspective of other people.

Since I began leading the Dark Empire, most of you won't remember when that was, I've been asking people to give me their opinion about it. Whenever I do something within my guild I usually put it up for discussion, so that my members can help me tune my own ideas. I look for their criticism because I am completely sure I don't know everything. If you ask any Imperial active in the forums, he or she can probably tell you that. In fact, I criticize my own work. That is obvious in some of my threads about the Dark Empire and in some posts within my private forums.

Actually, the people with leadership command in my organization are not only  close to me, they are also capable of telling me what they are thinking without having to care about my reaction to it. And I wouldn't have it any other way. I don't want people patting me in the back, I want help to improve myself and my organization.

So why do I have to be met with a knife or a club each time I visit someone else's thread to give my opinion? I'd be lying if I said that takes my motivation, because I do enjoy discussing. But as a guild moderator I can not have my threads filled up with useless rhetorical or personal discussions.

In this Thread I want you guys to tell me if you think I'm criticizing things the right way and if you think anything could be done to avoid these silly clashes that happen any time two people express different opinions.

Have fun!