[ORGANIZATION] Red Crystal Organization

[Aiwendil]

Description:
The Red Crystal Organization is a loose association of artists and people who want to support the cultural life in Hydlaa. The main goals of this non-profit organization are arranging cultural events and supporting artists with their work. To accomplish these goals the Octarchy granted us the use of a house here in Hydlaa as a Vaudeville. This Vaudeville is called the Red Crystal Den and is, in our eyes, a major step to improve the cultural life in town. But the activities of the Red Crystal Organization will not be limited to this vaudeville. Organizing events at other places or working together with guilds or other organizations to help them with their events is also part of our agenda.

Information for people who want to help:
Of course, we are always looking for people who share the same goals. We are open to accept people from all guilds or other organizations.
There are only a few conditions willing people have to fulfill:

• Candidates must be law-abiding and loyal to the Octarchy
• Some time and willingness to help with events done by the Red Crystal Organization

There are various ways interested people can help:

• Artists - We are always looking for artists of any kind to perform at events. Joining the Red Crystal Organization bears of course no requirement to perform at our events, but we will contact members first if we are in need of a performer.
  
• Supporters - People who don't have enough time to help with any events or who are unable to do so for whatever reason are of course welcome to help out with donations.
  
• Regular Staff - We are always in need of people who are willing to do some work at events. Possible jobs for example could be security personnel, cooks or moderators.
  
• Managers - People who spend their main time working for the Red Crystal Organization. These people will represent the Organization to the public and handle most of the daily work which arises. People wanting to become a staff member should already have worked for some time for the Red Crystal Organization in another position.
  

Services:
The Red Crystal Organization offers others their help with setting up events. It will also provides the vaudeville for events if possible. Please contact one of our staff's members to be informed about the conditions.

Contacts:

• Aiwendil Hallacar
• Haraun
  
• Lhaa Meeruu
• Siteya Ganaya
• Telnavi Silul

[ And now the OOC part:

Guidelines:

• Try to stay In Character and play your role at all times. No smilies or leet-speak. If you must speak Out-Of-Character, use [brackets], or better: send a Tell.
• Don't use any OOC information you might get from the Red Crystal Organization as long as your character hasn't found out IC too.

Opening times and contact:
Unfortunately, we can't open the Den at the moment because of the many bugs that prevent us to. In game it's easiest to join the RCO channel and see if anyone is around to contact us. To do that, type "/join rco" in the chat window and use "/<channelnumber> <message>" to talk there...if only in the gossip channel then the channel number should be 2, so "/2 <message>"; if you aren't in any other channel at all, you can talk there only by typing in the right tab.
]

[Aiwendil]

Red Crystal Den's Conduct Rules:

All Den guests are expected to behave in a conscientious and respectable manner. Certain actions and behaviors are not acceptable and will be responded to by verbal warning and then Guard action. Unacceptable actions and behaviors are:

• Harassment of other guests, verbal or physical.
• Disturbing the peace of other guests in whichever way.
• Assaulting other guests with weapons or magic.
• Wielding any kind of weapons unless it's part of your performance.
• Casting any kind of aggressive spells unless it's part of your performance.
• Picking up any of the Den's decoration and tools or damaging any of the Den's furnitures.
• Running immoral businesses such as gambling, begging, underhand trading and others.
• Climbing on the stage without the explicit permission of an RCO staff member.

All violations are considered on a case by case basis. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.

[Lhaa]

Renting the Red Crystal Den:

The Red Crystal Organization is glad to offer the Red Crystal Den for any kind of private events such as weddings, parties, meetings, etc.

• The Red Crystal Organization may as well provide the necessary staff for such events to be conducted properly.
• Doors may or not be locked depending on the customer's preference.
• Prices go from 60 to 120 circles and a bonus 20 circles must be deposited if no official staff must witness the event.
• Both parts shall sign a contract to avoid misunderstandings and property loss.

[Aiwendil]

Rules for the use of the stage of the vaudeville by non-members:

• During events done by the Red Crystal Organization nobody except Red Crystal Organization staff or people helping out with the event are allowed on stage.
• At other times people wanting to use the stage for their own performances should ask one of the Red Crystal Organization staff for permission.
• Depending on the current event and/or audience, any staff member of the Red Crystal Organization has the full right to remove and/or censor an act preformed on the stage.  This is not up for discussion.  If you do not comply with the requests of a Red Crystal Organization staff member, you will be escorted outside, and not allowed back in.
• Any kinds of fights or aggressive spellcasting are not allowed on the stage (or anywhere else in the Red Crystal Den).
• All props, costumes, scenery, trash, etc brought to the stage must be removed by the performers prior to the Den's closing.
• Drinks are not allowed on stage unless they are part of the performance. Save the heavy drinking for after your show.
• Don’t jump on stage with another performer, unless they invite you.

[Lhaa]

Rules for theater plays:

• Theater plays must be dated at least two weeks before the chosen date.
• In case props are needed they shall be petitioned the booking day, two weeks before the play.
• The script shall be submitted to the Red Crystal Organization at least a week before the play's date.
• The script requires approval from at least two members of the Red Crystal Organisation.
• The script must attain to other rule sets like the Octarchal Decree, the Red Crystal Den's Rules of Conduct, and the Red Crystal Den's Stage Rules.
• The play's director is in charge of hiring the cast; the Red Crystal Organization will provide the crew and extras if possible.
• Cast must not include a person that is not allowed in the Red Crystal Den due to other sets of rules.
• Cast and director have the right to schedule two dates for rehearsal before the play, being granted the use of the stage.
• Cast and crew have access to free drinks before and until the play is over and have right to a supper of their taste.
• The director is responsible for the cast. Any inconveniences caused by them will be reported and dealt with him.
• All props, costumes, scenery, trash, etc brought to the stage must be removed by the organizators prior to the Den's closing.
• The Red Crystal Organization will announce and promote the play according to its usual ways.

[Lhaa]

Rules for music and dancing performances:

• All performances must comply with the prevalent moral conceptions, and by no means ought to include things people would be offended by or foul language.
• Performances must not include a person that is not allowed in the Red Crystal Den due to any other sets of rules.
• Performers are in charge of hiring the dancers or choruses; the Red Crystal Organization may be able to provide backup performers if necessary.
• Costumes may be ordered from the RCO, and their costs will be charged to the performers. Orders must be made two weeks before the performance.
• Performers have the right to schedule two dates for rehearsals before the play, and will be granted the use of the stage for those times.
• All performers have access to free drinks before and after the performance, and have right to a supper of their taste.
• The Director/leader is responsible for the cast. Any inconveniences caused by them will be reported and dealt with him/her/kra.
• Taking the size of the stage into consideration no performance ought to have more than ten people on stage at the same time.
• All movements shall be performed within the stage, or in special cases the limits set by the Red Crystal Organization staff.
• Music shall be played at a reasonable volume. The Red Crystal Organization staff may remove performers from stage should complaints due to excessive loudness be filed.
• The Red Crystal Organization will not be responsible for lost or broken instruments or props; Be mindful of your equipment at all times.
• All instruments, props, scenery, costumes, trash, etc brought to the stage must be removed by the musicians prior to the Den's closing.
• The Red Crystal Organization will announce and promote the show according to its usual ways.

[Aiwendil]

Rules for magic performances:

• The magician is allowed to ask people from the audience to help him in stage, but has to make sure nobody gets hurt or suffers under lasting effects from the performance
• All movements and spells shall be performed within the stage or, in special cases, the limits set by the Red Crystal Organization staff
• No furniture or decoration in the Red Crystal Den ought to be damaged in the performance.
• Performances must not include a person that is not allowed in the Red Crystal Den due to other sets of rules.
• The magician has the right to schedule two dates for rehearsal before the play, being granted the use of the stage
• All performers have access to free drinks before and until the performance is over and have right to a supper of their taste.
• The magician is responsible for the cast. Any inconveniences caused by them will be reported and dealt with him.
• All props, costumes, scenery, trash, etc brought to the stage must be removed by the organizators prior to the Den's closing.
• No spell ought to last longer than the performance. It's the job of the magician to dispel such spells after the performance.
• The Red Crystal Organization will announce and promote the play according to its usual ways.

[Lhaa]

RCO Management OOC note:

From Friday August 14th on the Red Crystal Organisation will no longer be run by the Outlaws Guild.
The RCO will be an independent organization consisting of members from all walks of life, be they Outlaw or other, dedicated to the running of the Red Crystal Den. Since the RCO is an organization rather than a Guild, no one need leave their guild if they wish to be a member of the RCO. As before, all are welcome to apply to work at the Den.

[Meaningless Textplayers]

This post was written by both Aiwendil and Lhaa, and this is a shared account created only for this that will get deleted just the same as our individual ones.



A few days ago we asked Dannae to join the management of the Red Crystal Organization and run the Den together with Illysia after we leave it. Illysia already proved several times she was a good choice for the management and Dannae was always a great help in the events in the past. We think that both are the best available candidates for this work and are really happy that they accepted the task. With us both gone there will be of course some changes in the RCO but I am sure Dannae and Illysia will try everything to make the Den as enjoyable for players as possible. A new thread of the likes of this one should pop up as soon as they're set up since nobody can edit this one anymore. Any questions or suggestions you have from now on about the Den should be taken to either Illysia or Dannae. For now, the RCO still has its boards in the Outlaws forum and it seems it will stay this way, but it may change in the future; Illysia and Dannae are now in charge to keep the players updated about any changes. But we would like to ask you all to give them your support if possible as we know very well how hard it is to run the Den without much support.

We finally managed to update the gallery of the RCO events in the Outlaw's gallery page. Have a look if you want to see all screenshots of our events in one place.

And for completeness' sake, a list of all events we have done for the Den:

• Red Crystal Den opening party
  
• Where Mining gets you
  
• The Red Crystal Amateur evening
  
• The Hydlaa's First Fashion Parade
  
• Red Crystal Evening of Arts
  
• Singles' night
  
• The Evening of Extravagance
  
• Jester's Pool

And of course there was the Explorers' Poetry Fair and the Order of Light tournament at the Hydlaa Summer Festival II we helped out a little bit with.



And now please allow me (Aiwendil) a few personal words about the Den:

I'm really not sure what to say now afterwards about the Red Crystal Organization. This isn't very easy for me at the moment. In the last months there wasn't much for me to enjoy in PS at all so it's really hard to speak about the good times I had with the RCO.

So let me try to remember the good things first before I get to the point of asking myself again if it was worth it. When we got the Den from the Octarchal Society for Progress I was really excited about it as I was rather disappointed about the quality of Roleplay in PS already back then. I saw it as a chance to give players the possibility to roleplay in a place without any disruptions or the usual Nonsense going on in Kada El's. And looking back now I think I really had fun with it at the start. Sure, already when planning the first event it became clear that there won't be many players helping at all, but that was to be expected and of course got a lot worse over the time. I myself always enjoyed the regular opening shifts of the Den much more than the events we had to do to keep it. That were the occasions when some good RP was going on in the Den. Of course some of the events were fun to do also...especially the fashion parade comes to my mind there. That was the event I enjoyed most but for sure also the event that we put the most work into. And yes, of course I also enjoyed some of the "privileges" the Den gave us. We always had a spot to withdraw to for some RP if all others in Ylikaum around us went crazy. If there was a GM event we always could go to the Den and play there in a small group until the event was over. And not to forget the few nice players who helped and visited the Den regularly. It was a pleasure to play with all of them and without those players I would have given up on the Den already much earlier. Sorry, no list of names this time, the people I mean will know anyway. And last but not least the Den of course also helped with filling Aiwendil's background a bit. In the year we ran the Den it became a important part of Aiwendil and some others and always gave us some stuff to play out. In the end I for sure had my fun with the Den and all things involved in it but at the moment it takes some effort to remember those good times...maybe when I got some more distance to PS I can think back to them more easy again.

But on the other hand the Den of course also caused us a lot of troubles. And right now all I can say is that the troubles were much more than the fun with it. First of all of course the need to interact with GMs. While this wasn't a big issue at the start it got worse and worse over the time. Every few months we got some OSP rules changes when there was some post of me they didn't really like. After half a year we were told that by taking part in the OSP event and winning we got privileged players and better should keep our opinions for ourself if they are not conform with the PS team's opinion. I left the GM team because I wanted to do something for the roleplay in PS and not get into that control fetish of some PS team members and into all this favoritism that seems to be normal for the GM team. So I quit the GM team to support RP in Planeshift with the Den...only to see after some time that all the PS team wanted from us is to entertain other players for them and shut up. Second there was of course the huge amount of work that needed to be done for the Den. But that was something I was aware of in advance and that I accepted. What I wasn't aware of was the total lack of willing helpers for this. In the end it were always the same people again working for the Den...all others just came by to enjoy the shows or to poke me in tells what reward they will get for coming to one of our events. In a way I think the RCO came far too late to really work out well. When it was created the player count was already down at 100 and people were to busy dueling each other at the plaza to care about RP. And with the 0.5 version another major problem for the RCO showed up....the client was not stable enough to run events outside and the Den was not usable due to bugs. But even this didn't keep me off to get some others to do two more events with me...Afterwards I am really happy they didn't slaughter me for forcing them into this seeing how bad the events worked out. Of course I could add here a lot of minor annoyances too like players coming in the Den and trying to build the tower of Babel to climb to the ceiling or coming up with an IC newspaper article accusing Aiwendil to be an outlaw because it was in the OOC part of the RCO thread. (Or someone puking on the stage on our first event...I wonder if anyone still remembers that ). But this is nothing specific of the Den, RPing in PS always meant to have to deal with some idiots at times or keep an always updated ignore list. In the last half of the year the annoying sides of the Den (and of PS at all) just got far ahead of the good sides so it's for sure better to stop with it now. Just another failed try to give PS some life back...now it's time for others to do that or just keep on watching the degeneration, I'm done with this.

The last thing I tried was to make sure to hand the Den to people who are interested in the other players and PS at all. I hope that they will have more fun with it than I had and are more successful with it.



And now for something completely different, Lhaa's thoughts on the topic:

First of all I want to thank everybody who helped along to run our events or directly took part in them. This one time I went through all the event threads so I'm positive I miss nobody (and if I missed one it's on intention, screw off you-know-who ). Names are written in no particular order:

Jonoth, Rigwyn, Lace, Dalgin, Stelanso, Llyn, Jaycol, Carua, Eneloy, Orgonwukh, Aucesia, Dakaros, Deror, Mellas, Torias, Yania, Grolla, Zakrei, Taradiddle, Remyl, Euli, Anaros, Glundun, Havuik, Domec, Mogweh, Morila, Caraick, Rerarel and Suati.

Last, and even more important thanks go to the ones who have been Managers along this time: Siteya, Telnavi, Haraun, Orgonwukh, Elvi, Kaisa, Aiwendil and our newest one, Dannae. <3 you all. o/

But to continue with Aiwendil's question to himself, I'm not sure whether all we did was worth it or not. We definitely had some good fun in the Den, most of the times when it was only a few of us inside, or in the regular shifts when interesting characters used to roam it. The whole recruiting and finding artists process was also fun sometimes, despite we always struggled to find more, or at least some that won't disappear in the next week/month. Events were stressing, but at least their aftermaths always were good fun as well.
Now, when I think of all we did and everybody who was involved, I tend to think "no, it was not worth it". Simply because of the people named above very few are still around, and seeing the current situation in PS it seems evident that the spirit we tried to transmit didn't get through. And it didn't get through because of the same issues I've been pointing out for the last... two years? three? I forget, really. But it's hard to forget nobody listened meanwhile and that now I read things like "This evening, 7pm GMT+1, I saw 15players online" or see threads about how important for the health of RP is a simple meeting in Kada El's that used to be just the everyday thing some time back, or have to read new players trying to lesson some of the players that did most for the game simply because they don't know better who the hell they are or what they did. And to be honest, all those things just make me laugh. Not as much as the so-bent-to-RP PS team pushing people to mass-recruit brainlessly, but almost.
So it seems evident we failed to provide a lasting RP ambience in PS, and I don't think we should be surprised about it. Players prefer to RP only if there are rewards for it, and the team pushes them to act like this. The way the game is meant to improve has nothing at all to do with roleplay and not only doesn't support it, but obviously hinders it. What else could await us? As usual, too many expectations put in a ship that helplessly sails towards mediocrity. It's a shame it could have been great if the team had another view on some topics but one only has to see the guilds list (with well known RP guilds like abcdefgh and JDKDK) to tell it can still get worse.
But even if I'm not up to go through more of the bullshit myself, I truly believe that both Dannae and Illysia are the right people to lead the RCO to a second great age if they get enough support; unless you people help them a bit posts like this one will have their names soon... And I wouldn't like to see that happen.

My best wishes to the two of you.

[LigH]

I really enjoy to see the project not yet disappearing. The little I know Dannae at all, the much I hope it will be an incentive to develop.

There are always ups and downs in happiness and motivation. Try to stay in good and in bad times. Don't give up. You all are valuable as soon as you are present.

[Sluuph]

I want to add my voice of encouragement. I think that the Red Crystal Den will be an excellent forum of roleplaying. I'm confident that Dannae can lead it. I will help any way I can -- you only need to ask, Dannae.

[Dannae]

The Red Crystal Den, although I've had enormous amounts of fun RPing there since having been bequeathed the position of current manager, has been nothing like what Lhaa and Aiwendil originally brought to PS from a role play event standpoint. I've never been able to put the time and effort into operating the venue as it originally was, with the players requirement to hold monthly events.

I have attempted to keep the building open as much as possible by handing out keys and hiring multiple players over the years to RP barkeepers, guards, co-managers, and performers, but in the end it has not been enough as players come and go or start only to lose interest, combined with the huge loss in recent years of player base.

One now obsolete reason for the initial need to be locked was to prevent theft of drinks stored within the large kegs. This was circumvented with the developers giving the staff a lockable chest which will be sufficient for now as long as staff remember to keep it locked when not in use.

For those reasons, despite some previous opposition, I've decided to experiment with leaving the doors unlocked at all times now allowing others to use for RP purposes.

Keep in mind that in-character, nothing has changed. Dannae will still be the RCD manager, and other characters who wish to work there would require permission. I don't mind if any want to RP they have that permission to serve behind the bar when no one else is available in game without actually contacting me. I will want to be contacted eventually, at least for RP reasons, by any wanting to RP working there in an ongoing basis. I may also supply a key for the chest to any player who feels they can and want to be there often enough. I would only ask that a player return the key if for any reason they no longer wish to work frequently.

My hope is that this will encourage more performing arts role play using the venue's stage along with dispelling the notion that the RCD is never open.

[mistnmc]

Just got caught by another PC while making my private speech at stage, thinking I was alone in RCD. xD lol that literally made me blush. 

[Sadie]

What a wonderful idea! This sounds like it could be fun .... *mischievious grin*

Sanrai   

[cdmoreland]

I wish that music was fixed so that I could play my lute. I'm really not good enough to write my own and I purchased a lot of music in game that is now useless. One can make swords and axes at level 5, but I can't play a simple song at level 37, and can't increase my level without playing!

It could be that we just bring our own drinks and food to the RCD when no servers are around. Waesed always has a few red liquors on him.