Forums and things!

Some days it just doesn't seem you can stay out of trouble. Somehow, in a fit of end user brainlock, I managed to dump the entirety of the Forum module into the recycle bin. How this occurred is still a bit of a mystery as the folks that rescued said forums from the gnashing teeth of the recycle bin were at a loss to figure out how I managed to do it without realizing what I was doing.

Needless to say, there was a wee bit of embarrassment that accompanied my merry delving into end-user idiocy. However, the forums have been rescued and are now safely at home on the website with a nice cup of cocoa and a blankey.

Due to further investigation by those who are wonderful with our forums, IE, not myself, we now have the avatar functionality worked out. So, feel free to put up your APPROPRIATE photo or image. Remember, that as intelligent and upstanding web citizens you will, of course, not put up offensive or pornographic material as that will result in the "Das Interwebs" equivalent of jack-booted thugs dragging you into the alley for summary pummeling.

I am looking forward to getting the DIY part of the website up so that we can put up visual instructions for building and making things.

We are presently getting the Outpost structure worked out so that all those who are in a myriad of far flung locations can set up their own games and local organizations. More to follow on that.

Now that I have completed my rampage through the website with little or no idea of what I was apparently doing, we are now concentrating on getting the Captain's Table content put up for folks so that you can see about running this episode yourselves as well as the complete Triptych Fast Play rules set so that you can run games of your own. We intend for these rules to be complete enough for you to be able to run games until we finalize the full rule set.

So, until I find a different way to torment, torture or burn down the website, I will bid you all good eve.

Marshal - Tormentor of Forums

Steamcon Post Mortem - sorta

Well, this is the first chance I've gotten to really sit down since Steamcon. The episodes were a success, everyone enjoyed themselves thoroughly. I was a bit surprised but also immensely pleased by the number of folks who played that had never done any kind of Live Action Role Playing before. I say BRAVO! to them. =)

We had tech issues as well as paperwork issues with every episode, but we persevered and although we were a bit delayed at every turn, it all worked out for the best.

We were running three channels of sound at each episodes. Or, we were supposed to have three channels for each episode. We did not have it for the first game and only had it from halfway through the second episode on. Not having it for the first episode really made its impact later on clear. There was a Radiant (radio) channel. As a result of the creativity of Molly Friedrich and Jordan Blake, be looking for more from our variety hour host Jimmy Muttonchops in the future. There was the ambient channel which had things like the sounds of the ship's engines and then the ship's public address channel. When these were running, it was impossible to hear anything outside the room and when certain timed sound queue events happened, the players were totally surprised and it made their reactions even more real. Note for the future, SOUND IS CRITICAL to immersion.

We are now talking with folks from Portland, Tacoma, Chicago, New York and Arkansas about getting episodes going in these areas. We are going to be getting the Triptych Fast Play rules up on the website as a .pdf for people to download so that they can get episodes started in their own areas. These will be the interim rules while we finalize the full up Live Action rules. The forums will also be back up by the end of the week for people to compare notes, talk about story and characters, and talk with us. We'll also be having a special forum for those who participated in the episodes to give us feedback on them, and be able to socialize with others who've had the experience of playing in our world.

There will be more to come with photos, stories and other things as we get them pulled in. Be looking for the first page of the web comic to be up in the next week or so and in the next month we should be getting our hands-on section up with instructions on how to build or create a variety of things. The first installments will have to do with building set pieces such as the "Porthole panel" which is a wood wall panel with a porthole where images passing by the window can be seen. So, the plans will include the construction of the panel and frame behind it to allow mounting a flat panel monitor. As we get more things worked up, there will be hands-on entries for making costume pieces, props, and a variety of other things of interest for our players and the artistic community.

As a result of exhaustion, and post-con punchiness, several in-world products have come into being. Needless to say, these are...silly. The RoA staff largely degraded into fits off silliness and laughter at the end of the convention. Strange things were born from this wild and uncontrolled creative energy. I will leave the surprise for later about exactly what these products will be. But, let me just say, they were born from exhausted silliness and so they represent a slightly unhinged sense of humor.

Well, that's it for now. I'll have more later as things become clearer in my addled brain from the con.

Marshal