All Things Cairhien

First devblog of the summer for me and hopefully not the last. Coming back from my hiatus slowly in all areas from logging in, events, now finally to PR and communication with the player base. That being said lets get to the meat of this devblog.

This summer Cairhien is our big theme. Last year in the fall it was the world and the tensions and eventual wars brought on by events and the players chance to participate in those. We had some really fun world events such as Malkier, The Horn of Valere, treasure hunting in the Caralain Grass. Now however it is time to deal with the repercussions of these wars and chaos in the world. What better city then Cairhien to do this, besides maybe Caemlyn. With that in mind the story arcs all revolve around the city of Cairhien and how it is being affected by the refugees, war to the south, and constantly dwindling trade.

The player base will be able to help or hinder Cairhien, form loyalties with noble houses or foreign powers, help the refugees or remove them. The opening event for the summer story arc is on May 20th at 3:00 pm PST and is the grand reopening of the Silk Path inn which if you are new, was once the Cairhien headquarters for the Children of the Light within the city. It was destroyed late last fall by two male channelers. After the destruction several player groups decided to rebuild it ICly and we are proud to be bringing it back with updated room descriptions, a memorial plate, and possible a new owner!

After the kick off event on May 20th, I will be running two public events a week and 2 semi private or private events as well. These will range from event chains to one shot mini events. I will be keeping track of all the interesting bits through devblogs and schedule event times and dates on the forums.

All that being said, I am glad to see the MUD thriving again and promise to remain active until at least the end of the summer to entertain everyone with stories, events, and the occasional contest!

~ Jeshin

Server Trials in Down Time

Some of you may have noticed the last couple days the server was uhh not quite working right.  Find out why after the jump.

Walking the Tightrope

First things first, this post is dedicated jointly to Doagle and Stevie Ray Vaughan (RIP) who has provided the title for the post. Go now and listen to one my top 5 guitarists: 





Ok, now that we've crossed that bridge let's get down to business.

Guilds and Groups and Leaders

I've been asking folks lately what sorts of posts they would like to see on the blog here. The other day a really good idea was put forth by Doagle, who wanted to see something about maintaining a healthy distance between you and your character. This is a tough topic that I'll try to start to address in a later post once I get my thoughts wrapped around it a little more.

In the meantime though, I wanted to take the time to expound a little more on some of this morning's changes (Guilds!) and offer a 3rd plug for one of the related topics.

Why Avoiding RP Makes You a Wanker!

Another devblog and another week on the Sea of Storms. In keeping with my original intent of these devblogs to be something informative and relevant, I will be addressing some annoying role-playing tendencies. The chief amongst them being when someone avoids role-playing with others. It’s really simple, when you log onto the Sea of Storms you should, hopefully, be logging on to role-play.

Now, I realize that some people play the Sea of Storms and enjoy some solo play. I enjoy quite a bit of solo play myself, as do channelers, shady types, and older players with thousands of hours logged. So a good rule of thumb is, if you remember your last role-play in detail and had fun, then you’re doing fine. Normally this equates to something like one role-play a week, which is a fair number with an active schedule in your daily life.

Logging on to the Sea of Storms with the intent to role-play is important, since it’s the basis of the game. However, logging on with the intent to role-play then turning down role-play with certain characters is what turns you from a misguided player into a wanker.

The crux of this problem is set firmly on the player's shoulder. When someone asks to role-play it’s not your character saying no, your character addresses a role-play situation after you’ve started to role-play. Players avoiding certain characters is improper use of OOC/IC information, but it’s one that we typically let slide. Still, when a mercenary, whitecloak, male channeler, or Aes Sedai asks you to role-play you should never turn them down simply because doing so would threaten your character in some way.

All you’re really doing is deciding that you know ICly that character is this or that. So based off that IC information you’re deciding as a player to avoid role-playing. Personally, I’ve always found it to be something of a self imposed handicap. Stories are born out of division and conflict, on many levels ranging from physical, emotional, and philosophical. By choosing to remove this conflict and division and waiting for event immortals to generate these situations you’re depriving yourself of superb role-play.

I’ll give an example in hopes it helps make my point. As Jeshin the mute, I role-played with Alisa Sedai every chance I could. She knew I was a male channeler and had told me that when my madness progressed that she’d either find a way to help me or gentle me. I knew OOCly that eventually I’d go insane as my taint went up and Alisa would do her thing. This didn’t stop me one bit; characters aren’t meant to live forever. They’re meant to exist as experiences and stories. If their story ends that’s just their story ending. To finish the Jeshin and Alisa example, she eventually kidnapped me to the White Tower when Samiel declared dragon. I managed to escape and join Samiel. The point is that it was a great set of role-plays and gave my character an amazing experience of nearly being gentled and escaping.