Messages

46

Roleplaying / One Post Short Stories

« on: March 14, 2011, 02:30:36 AM »

"The last man alive sat at a desk. There was a knock at the door ..."

Although there is a lot to be said for long-running RP stories some of my favorite RPs are those self-contained short-stories that arrive in a single post and speak volumes.
Of course I only see a fraction of these and I know there must be gems I have missed.

This thread is for airing those gems; your own or those of others that you particularly liked and for people to comment on them if they wish.

The Rules..

1) Submissions must be a self-contained story that was previously written in-game as a single post roleplay.
2) Leave a modest gap between submitting your RPs to give others a chance to shine.
3) Unless the person posting a story here wrote it and marks it 'Common Knowledge' consider it OOC knowledge.

If it's yours feel free to tweak it a little for style, grammar, spelling etc if you really feel you must.

47

General Talk / Re: HALT! Who goes there?

« on: March 12, 2011, 10:59:53 PM »

 

University isn't an option after leaving education at 16 unless you mean doing an open university course?  :p

True, except in exceptional circumstances. My mistake.

48

General Talk / Re: HALT! Who goes there?

« on: March 12, 2011, 10:35:42 PM »

Whaa, and do what?   That's not the same as dropping out, right?

I realised someone would ask that so edited my post a bit as you were posting the question.

There is no concept of graduating high school in the UK (it's all exams, evaluations and certificates on a per-subject and per-level basis with a limited choice of subjects after about 2rd year of Secondary School) so no concept of dropping-out.

You can join the army, get married, go to college or university, get a job (with reduced minimum wage) or sign-on as unemployed (at a reduced rate of benefit)

Or you can get a load of part-time jobs, skateboard a lot, start a band and teach yourself computing like I did.

49

General Talk / Re: HALT! Who goes there?

« on: March 12, 2011, 10:18:33 PM »

In the UK it's generally Primary School (7 years typically starting at 4 or 5 years old) then 'Secondary' or 'High' School (6 years) though you can leave school voluntarily at 16 (co-incidentally the minimum age required to join the army but 2 years too young to be considered adult enough to drink, smoke or vote.

50

BM General Discussion / Re: Favorite Island

« on: March 11, 2011, 08:31:59 PM »

I was torn between Colonies and Atamara but voted Colonies because there is a lot more going on there right now for my two chars there than my two in Atamara (and so that the Colonies has at least one vote!).

I like the sedate, usually polite pace of The Colonies and the mix of people who choose to be there and people who end up there one way or another. Despite the slow pace there always seems to be something bubbling under the surface (and then erupting) and the slower pace seems to give some people more incentive to concentrate on scheming, planning and plotting - for good or for ill while others just to coast along with little pressure to act meaning that motivated characters can change things more so than in more active, intensive and populous continents.

I like that Atamara has a broad range of RP styles from the sublime to the ridiculous and the freedom to create RP storyline that can be full of subtlety, depth and meaning or just plain silly (sometimes with the same character, sometimes even in the same RP!). Where else could a realm's entire council spend a week 'on vacation' deep in enemy territory (culminating in a one-man invasion of their enemy's second city.. which then secedes and surrenders) all the while sending home postcards to their realm-mates about how lovely the weather is and how warm and full of life the natives are.. albeit not for long.

51

General Talk / Re: HALT! Who goes there?

« on: March 11, 2011, 03:16:14 AM »

Anyone else like problem solving, specifically the math or compsci ones?

Don't know about 'like'.. problem solving is more of a compulsion for me though I find people far more compelling than math or computers.. which don't tend to punch you, fire you, invade your country, incarcerate you  or refuse you intimate access to their naughty bits if you provide the 'wrong' solution.

Women are particularly intriguing because you can solve the problem and still be wrong because you solved the problem instead of sympathising with the fact there was a problem (I know there is a famous movie reference for that truism but it escapes me and my google-fu reveals nothing.. my wife thinks maybe 'White Men Can't Jump' but is not sure so I empathised with her frustration in not being able to remember just to be on the safe side.)

I love Canada, got a lot of family out there, awesome place and very much  like a really big Scotland but without some of the historical baggage.

I sense an academic, or at least intellectual, bent in the respondants to this thread. A common trait of BM players, do you think? or just of those willing to expose themselves on this thread?

52

General Talk / Re: HALT! Who goes there?

« on: March 10, 2011, 10:02:52 AM »

Player of the Da Hadez Family.

38 year old Scotsman, general I.T. guy (mainly Linux sysadmin and LAMP) and RPG afficionado.
Married (to player of Tempest family) with an 18 year old daughter studying animal care.
Love nice wine and nasty music. Probably a frustrated writer using BM as a creative outlet.

53

BM General Discussion / Re: Character Alignments

« on: March 09, 2011, 08:17:53 PM »

The D&D alignment system is a good tool but characters can and do change over time, in fact that movement from one alignment to another can be a good way to make a character interesting and how susceptible to such movement a character is can be an important trait to consider when creating them.

For example, Janna is quite susceptible to alignment change and has been chaotic neutral, chaotic good, lawful neutral and lawful good depending on how events in her life have affected her but Severn is quite rigid and has consistently been lawful good.

It takes a lot more than alignment to create a rounded character, though.

54

Feature Requests / Re: Clear explanation of the difference between nobles and commoners.

« on: March 09, 2011, 07:58:16 PM »

The word from Tom is that to a noble adventurers are the lowest of the low.

So, they should be thought of as little more than working animals like oxen or dogs.. but..

If another noble kicked my best hunting dog for no good reason my noble would likely be annoyed; not necessarily because the dog is in pain but because it's my bloody dog and if anyone is going to kick it it should be me. Other nobles may not care, or might invite their friends round for a drink and a game of kick-my-dog of an evening so it all depends on the noble's personality and how much their dog is worth to them whether they get annoyed or not when one of their human equivalents is assaulted without good reason.

Likewise some nobles may quite like other people's dogs and throw scraps to them as they ride by, others may just see them as hairy target practice and anyone who complains a sentimental fool.

Of course.. proving that a noble did not have good reason to abuse a particular dog would likely come down to their word against the victims; and what noble would take the word of an base animal over that of another noble.. unless that noble was known to be an egregious liar?

Regardless of all this no noble would claim any dog was their equal or should have equal rights, though. That would be plainly ridiculous.

As long as RP of action and complaint makes sense then it's all good.

55

Colonies / Re: Best kept secret in BM?

« on: March 06, 2011, 02:23:32 AM »

I love the colonies.

Yes, it's slow but that just makes it a bit more realistic IMHO*

There are two types of characters/players in the colonies..
1) The patient, intelligent and reserved who play the game like a 18th century game of chess by mail between kings.
2) The reprobates, troublemakers, assasins, rebels, misfits, duellists and schemers sent to the colonies as punishment.

This demographic often leads to trouble and fun.

* there is no such thing as an HO.

56

General Talk / Re: The Movie Thread

« on: March 06, 2011, 02:15:55 AM »

I shy away from paying £10 to watch movies with kids talking through them and texting all the time so I tend to buy DVDs and watch at home (where it's only my wife talking and texting all the time but at least I can rewind*)

Currently wading through Battlestar Galactica remake again (ok, not a movie but in terms of artistic achievement blows most current movies away) but recently..

Hot Fuzz (movie geek heaven, this is how pastiche *should* be done)
Iron Man 2 (would be the best super-hero movie ever if you hadn't seen The Dark Knight)
Jarhead (brave enough to show war can often be an anticlimax but mess you up anyway)
The Wicker Man (original not US remake, people are always the scariest monsters!)
Monty Python and The Holy Grail (because it never gets less funny)
The Madness of King George (sublime, Nigel Hawthorne is outstanding as always)
Dangerous Liasons (the scheming and bad accents remind me of a certain lightweight role-playing strategy game. Maybe we should add a lethario class next;-)

* love you honey!

57

Development / Re: New Player Retention

« on: March 06, 2011, 01:57:02 AM »

Couple of ideas for brainstorming with..

1) 'lite' option for new players first couple of chars..
Automatic oath to random lord in realm but funded a small amount per week by fictitious 'sponsors'.
Automatic assignment to largest army.
Option to move to 'full game' available any time.
Prestige/honour/gold/bonds/unit/stats size cap for balance.

2) Tutorial
Basically an optional scripted tutorial with tasks and achievements that happens between char creation and entering a realm. Maybe a little honour/prestige/gold for doing well. Could include anything a char needs to know. Could be lectures/quizzes or practical tasks as warrior, courtier, infil, priest, lord etc.IC played as noble's education. Done well could be fun and impart a lot of information but it's a lot of work to do in-game. Could be done as a stand-alone mini-game or even a basic quiz site, though.

58

Other Games / Re: Dungeons and Dragons

« on: March 04, 2011, 11:02:30 AM »

After discovering 1st edition rules in Canada on holiday via my cousins I spent most of my late childhood and early teens playing (A)D&D. I have no idea how many hundreds of hours I spent drawing maps and creating worlds, settings and campaigns. Miss it but just don't have the time or pool of players anymore so RPG computer games have to substitute.

59

BM General Discussion / Re: Tops and Flops

« on: March 04, 2011, 10:56:15 AM »

Top: flexibility and freedom to play as you like
Top: depth and history
Top: quality and passion of players and devs

Flop: interface on android is fiddly
Flop: um..
Flop: nope, can't think of another flop.

60

General Talk / Re: Last.fm profile thread

« on: March 01, 2011, 06:14:57 PM »

Joined the BM group; wraith0x29a

I love LastFM, it's great idea well executed. My computers and phone all scrobble whatever I listen to but sadly my car stereo does not and that's where I listen to 90% of my music.