h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

RPG activity in general seems to be slowing down. In fact, it all seems to be slowing down and I've got a few theories.

1) Nothing else to accomplish
Academy did something rather unique in that it built up a hardcore cadre of RPGer's. These would be the one's who would come on every night and put in the time and effort. With them would be there partners in crime (the padawans) and whilst in theory this worked for a long time - with some good story lines - at the moment its hit a brick wall. The older players have grown fed up with the game for various reasons

2) Instant promo
When Craxus created the magicians guild it was all woo and sparkly. Most of the aforementioned cadre transfered over to magicians guild (academy died for about 4 weeks). However, rather then start there characters from the bottom up they went the other way round.
Because of this, newer people are blocked off in effect - theres no where for them to advance to. As such they don't feel included. Again this causes inactivity as a quick gander over the magicians guild reveals that the front gate was the last place to be posted at (an OOC message, 1 week ago) and after that the healing halls in the main guild (3 weeks ago).


Now we all know and love these RPG's. I personally don't want to see academy die, nor magicians, mainly because they're well crafted and have pretty much guided me across the bridge as it were.
It's why I've added a huge ammount of classes and locations to the hyborian age. It's necessary to keep the game fresh.

So I extend this invitation to all* - come join Hyborian Age** Start from scratch once more and try and rekindle your interest in RPG's.
Maybe this burst of new shiny RPG will encourage you to get involved in the older RPG's like Academy

The only other RPG which is missing is LOTR. HPB and Werekitty began work on something about a year ago, but after Hyborians if the projects still dead I'll give it the REH-Treatment upon request.



*barring HPB and Psyc - the cadre know why. Thats all I'm saying on the matter and the decision is final.

** Start a new thread on this page with:
Your name (just basic rather then all the bits after it)
Your charecters name, age, sex
Your U number
If you want to have a look through the countries to pick a nationality and a city of birth your quite welcome to but ignore much of whats on this page for now because I'm still toying with ideas.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A3193968

ahhhahhahhh


the time to bicker is apon us again



ok tinker count me in

Elwyn centauri
U1138262
female
17 yrs old
Nice observations

Give me a reason why I can't join.

well eerrrrrr emmmmuuuummmmmmfffff

Oooooo where do you want me to start HPB? really?

1 - You spammed the republic when it opened. Fair enough it died a death but I had the decencey not to do that to the academy. Besides your name has at times contained the academys U number which is technically linking. Thats more pendantic then anything but please read on..

2 - I don't get on with you. Now I know I won't get on with the majority of the people who join Hyborians (working title..) but in turn I'm not going to get myself into something I can't get out of. If I let you in, psyc will follow - especially with the four week long inactivity with Annat - and you two are adept at causing my itchy typing fingers to get ranty which will see me (and psyc) on pre-mod.

3 - So far I have never had a pleasent RPG experience with you. Seriously. I've suggested changes and additions to academy that I thought were best for the continuation of the RPG, which i for the most part implimented in republic, and will carry over into Hyborians because they proved themselves. This included having multiple games masters rather then a single entity because as any one can tell you its all well and good doing this that and the other on your own, its much better when someones putting things in your way - hence the new and shinny god system which with the tweaking I've been making on a word document, will purr with godnessity. It also means that people like Anth, yourself, me, and reef who automatically were given high ranks in the past now have to prove themselves in relation to the newbies - which i beleive is a much fairer system as it encourages play. It also means that play doesn't necessarily have to stop at any point - as proven by Craxus and Fueilles duel leading role (iirc)

4 - I don't see how you could bring anything constructive to Hyborians in any sense. I mean, go look at any of the finished pages. Go on. The content on that page exceeds a dozen planets, and I've left out far too much. Not only that, but I've spent roughly 6 months on and off working on that beast of a RPG; why should I trust you enough not to enter and cause chaos?

5 - Theres no magic tricks or jiggery pokery. Non of this force power nonsence or spell blasting shinnangians. You have what you hold in you hand and you work with it. You begin as a complete pleb - no one gets a leg up at all, which means everyone has an equal chance of dying within the first week. If you don't improve in skill, then it's likely you could die (also encourages play). Thats why theres about a dozen (incomplete) career paths already built in waiting to be used (rather then going solo and being hunted to oblivion).

6 - Theres a possiblity of death of a character at numerous points which is what makes it fresh. Where as in academy and republic (and in assassins) no one but yourself, anth, or craxus can kill an RPG charecter, in Hyborians a GM can actively hunt down characters in an attempt to kill them (E.G. The thing in the crypt where the wolves chase conan) - and in all possibility they will. Can you honestly say If you create an RPG character and I kill it for what ever reason you won't hold it against me?

7 - When I created Republic, I noticed that the academy went through a surge of pages, much like it did when Magicians guild opened, because there was always a buzz earlier on when a new planet opened because it was somewhere new to wander round. When Hyborians opens properly over the next week (thread creation needed, have to speak to Jimster so he knows im not spamming), there will likely be a surge in pages again, or something equally new. Having gotten this far, why should I let you in only to casually mention the new academy stuff in a hyborian thread.

8 - Cross RPG treatment. What this basically boils down to was what happend when the guild started and there was a mass migration/academy spasm. It was at this point where you took a huge step back from the academy and focused more on annat. The main problem with this, as I told you repeatedly over my time, was that the younger players felt detatched and the older players felt abandoned unless they came up with there own thing. As such reef went off to become all political and Ma'rol went off and built several armies. What I'm getting at is that if someone who currently plays academy migrates to Hyborians and spends more time there, then will you treat them differently - because thats whats happened in the past. You had a bloody good RPG and you were happy to let it die on its proverbial.

9 - The ninth reason is that I could come up with the eight above. Match me point for point and I'll consider it, until then you've not got a chance in the slightest.


*Sits back on his great throne and rests his axe by his side*

*elwyn would defy you and post in the guild healing hall but as of she's the lazy creature who visited there last, a change of mind*

However, I might be a teensy upset if my character dies off, unless you can create another char [preferable family with a vengence] for the game after you get culled?

"1 - You spammed the republic when it opened. Fair enough it died a death but I had the decencey not to do that to the academy. Besides your name has at times contained the academys U number which is technically linking. Thats more pendantic then anything but please read on.."

Oh come on, the Republic was a blatant attempt to set up competition and undermime the Academy just because we didn't get on. I know it, you know it, Reef, Psych, Anth, Feuille, Cat-Eyes, Ancha, Khamsin know it. You started by copying the GuideML exactly!

A lot of researchers have links to their h2g2 projects in their names.


"2 - I don't get on with you. Now I know I won't get on with the majority of the people who join Hyborians (working title..) but in turn I'm not going to get myself into something I can't get out of. If I let you in, psyc will follow - especially with the four week long inactivity with Annat - and you two are adept at causing my itchy typing fingers to get ranty which will see me (and psyc) on pre-mod."

No we don't get on. Bouncing words with Reef hasn't been in a kick in the park at times either. Didn't stop me from joining the Stargate RPG with zip knowledge of the programme and asking her if what the cans and can't do.
Where there's rules I play by the rules, I don't look for loopholes or reinterpret them to get a different meaning.

"3 - So far I have never had a pleasent RPG experience with you. Seriously. I've suggested changes and additions to academy that I thought were best for the continuation of the RPG, which i for the most part implimented in republic, and will carry over into Hyborians because they proved themselves. This included having multiple games masters rather then a single entity because as any one can tell you its all well and good doing this that and the other on your own, its much better when someones putting things in your way - hence the new and shinny god system which with the tweaking I've been making on a word document, will purr with godnessity."

If tensions were that problematic you could have just left in the beginning if you've never had a pleasant RPG experience unless you were hanging around for half ayear just to see what it took to press my buttons.
When I took a suggestion on you accused me of stealing it!
I stopped giving Marol things to do when you were clearly going to do your own thing.
Terrible that business about keeping you in the game after causing Ancha to leave, even worse that letting you back in when I'm being screamed at by people not to let you back! Marol was bunked off officially when I was gone for a bit but got back to cries of god-modding. It wasn't me telling you stop doing X, Y and Z that time but the other players saying it and you kept doing it.

"4 - I don't see how you could bring anything constructive to Hyborians in any sense. I mean, go look at any of the finished pages. Go on. The content on that page exceeds a dozen planets, and I've left out far too much. Not only that, but I've spent roughly 6 months on and off working on that beast of a RPG; why should I trust you enough not to enter and cause chaos?"

I've seen the pages, I watched it grow. Ask Anthea, she can tell you that I praised you for it.

As for the trust? Well for one I'm trustworthy. And I trusted you enough to let you in three times. I know absolutely nothing about bending over backwards to make an RPG.

"5 - Theres no magic tricks or jiggery pokery. Non of this force power nonsence or spell blasting shinnangians. You have what you hold in you hand and you work with it. You begin as a complete pleb - no one gets a leg up at all, which means everyone has an equal chance of dying within the first week. If you don't improve in skill, then it's likely you could die (also encourages play). Thats why theres about a dozen (incomplete) career paths already built in waiting to be used (rather then going solo and being hunted to oblivion)."

This is relevant to my ability join how? Funnily enough I do understand rules which aren't mine.

"6 - Theres a possiblity of death of a character at numerous points which is what makes it fresh. Where as in academy and republic (and in assassins) no one but yourself, anth, or craxus can kill an RPG charecter, in Hyborians a GM can actively hunt down characters in an attempt to kill them (E.G. The thing in the crypt where the wolves chase conan) - and in all possibility they will. Can you honestly say If you create an RPG character and I kill it for what ever reason you won't hold it against me?"

Honestly? Absolutely. I loved the Keezo and Gr'jar characters. They're dead. It's nice to know that I don't get the benefit of the doubt that I gave you.

"7 - When I created Republic, I noticed that the academy went through a surge of pages, much like it did when Magicians guild opened, because there was always a buzz earlier on when a new planet opened because it was somewhere new to wander round. When Hyborians opens properly over the next week (thread creation needed, have to speak to Jimster so he knows im not spamming), there will likely be a surge in pages again, or something equally new. Having gotten this far, why should I let you in only to casually mention the new academy stuff in a hyborian thread."

I certainly didn't create a lot of pages when the Guild appeared, Craxus was kind enough to ask if he could use the same system. It was very flattering especially since I made the Academy so an RPG could be played with a bizarre set of ::movements:: which not only looked stupid but took (at least for me) a long while to even understand them. The planets have came out when I'm reading the books or comics with enough visual discription to make them playable. That's when a surge comes and that's why I could never give you the Rothana you asked for.
Funnily enough things I do in the Academy are attempts to make it better not a reactionary stance from what you do.

"8 - Cross RPG treatment. What this basically boils down to was what happend when the guild started and there was a mass migration/academy spasm. It was at this point where you took a huge step back from the academy and focused more on annat. The main problem with this, as I told you repeatedly over my time, was that the younger players felt detatched and the older players felt abandoned unless they came up with there own thing. As such reef went off to become all political and Ma'rol went off and built several armies. What I'm getting at is that if someone who currently plays academy migrates to Hyborians and spends more time there, then will you treat them differently - because thats whats happened in the past. You had a bloody good RPG and you were happy to let it die on its proverbial."

I want people to do their own thing. There's the vague hope that when I'm not on the game still goes on. Why would I treat people differently if I'm also playing the game?



9 - The ninth reason is that I could come up with the eight above. Match me point for point and I'll consider it, until then you've not got a chance in the slightest.

What this boils down to is that fear I'll do to your game what you've helped in doing to mine. Now why don't we do the proverbial handshake, at least have a peace time so we don't have accusations of cyber stalking, complete breakdowns of why each others' posts are an affront to the English language and see if we can stop pretending we're not similar hm?

*shrug*
Well if everyone's on equal standing I don't see how discriminating against recruits work. There's no real control over what happens to the RPG once it launches, ppl have to fan it a tad to keep it going, but essentially there's no real way to mess up a role-play forum save inactivity. Anyhow, the gods could always cull off the annoying ones who don't follow the rules, though there will be some who wouldn't know them unless you *pointedly* make up some, institute them and worry less about who will be in the fun game prophecised to come out next week?

I refer you to the posting i made some moments ago




(post 2)

You're making many presumptions here.

1) You assume that I'm going to rise to your baiting and get myself on pre-mod. Not a chance. Not going to catch me out. I know the rules, and I know the interpretation that the MODS have of them, not your skewed world view. As such, I'm not going on pre-mod, especially not over you.

2) You assume I'd want to join. Unlike you, I have a life to lead, I get very little time on the net except to check my email and do assignments. I don't have any time for the Academy (which very maturely you've come on here to slag off to promote your own bloated mess) at the moment, and I certainly don't have time to indulge your god-complex. I don't even know if my flat's going to have TV, let alone the Internet, and if I'm paying out of my own pocket for a connection, I won't be wasting it so that you can fulfil your 'Crom' fantasy.

3) You assume this will do better than the RPGs you mentioned. I'll tell you now. It won't. It's too large, your rules will undoubtedly be too fixed because you need total control, and your personality 'quirks' mean that you'll drive away more people than you recruit.

Good luck anyway, and stop posting anonymous stuff on my livejournal.

Hooray for Elwyn.

Okay from the beginning

ELWYN - ah yeh sorry I wasn't too clear. If you character gets killed off you can come back as another character. Its just a way of keeping the game fresh and unpreictable because part of the reasons why RPG death seems to occur is that theres an element of self preservation. You can join and come back when you please, without worrying about your character lossing a limb - in this you don't have that warm fuzzy security.
There's a difference between fanning and huge arguements. I know fanning works, because part of why academy became so intense at points was because everyone was working to kick my head in, which was bloody fantastic. But theres other times when it got out of hand and I'd send you transcripts of conversations if My PC hadn't of died awhile back.

HPB -
1 - Granted they do, but I still consider it advertising in your case because I don't trust you enough. That's basically what it boils down to. Magicians guild also used the same guide ml, difference was Craxus is nice and asked. I didnt, you yikesed it.
2 - Hmm fair enough. I shall take a gander at Stargate sometime soon.
3 - When you took the suggestion I got no credit. Had you said, thank you, then I might not have said you had stolen - especially as the implmentation of these ideas came at the same time I implimented them at republic.
4 - But the question is do I, or should I, trust you? And if so why?
5 - If you had read it properly I was tying to emphasise the point regarding death
6 - Keezo was a plot bunny, and Gr'jar became a plot bunny as the academy grew. And so they could die.
7 - I'll go check later if you want regarding dates but from what I remember, planets have been created when Magicians guild and republic opened. I know, because anthea told me you were adding ten pages when republic opened from what I remember but like I said Ill check the dates.
8 - But look at academy. Everyone buggered off apart from psyc, so the only one you interacted with was psyc. You choose to do that, and if you hadn't you'd still have a thriving game.
9 - Hmmm. I can think of more reasons for you not to join then for you to join so I'll do you a deal.
You've got a month (may 31st) to save the academy and breathe life into the old dog. If it works, then your welcome on board because you'll have shown your willing to give it a go, if not, then no. I know reading this the players subscribed will start posting (maybe to prove me wrong...) and you'll have the basis - all you have to do is run with it.
And when I say save, I don't mean postings by just yourself and psyc. I mean across the board improvements because if you don't do it in a month it'll never happen again - sorry

JACK - Glad to have you on board... I think....
...
I'll make you a tea shop mate

PSYC -
Ah my predictions came true, on to buisness
1 - errr...
2 - I haven't 'slagged' it off. Read my post again. Academy is dead and has been for FOUR WEEKS. Thats fact. I'm trying to encourage people to get involved once more, which is the whole point of point9 in my reply to HPB in this posting. I could quite happily not mention Academy and go round peoples spaces and ask them if they fancied joining on the quiet but instead I'm asking people to get involved once more in the RPG's that are well crafted and were enjoyed by many for a long time. Its group mentallity ('hes not posting, so I wont') but hopefully this will change that and the ball will get rolling again.
I didnt assume you'd want to join, I assumed you'd follow HPB in. Like this thread, and the republic joining thread, remember?

3 (the most important)- You have missed the point of Hyborians entirely. I already know its too big. By the time it's finished it'll be roughly a thousand threads and two hundred guide enteries if I have my way.
I know at such a whopping size only about a tenth will ever get looked at. I know that roughly 8 months of work (estimated finishing time) will be utterly wasted. But theres a beauty to it.
You see, you can go anywhere. Visit ancient Rome (Koth), anglo-saxon england (Brythunia), old babylon (Stygia) or even the mongolian empire (Hyrkanians). Any one of these countries has four locations, and so in itself becomes a mini-rpg.
The main idea is that the player isn't limited by what's not there, because everythings there. If a GM says 'hey mark, I've always wanted to run an RPG full of knights' then I point them towards Poitain/Aquilonia and away they go. GM's aren't going to control individual countries in anyway, because of the restoration rule, but instead they can bring travellers in and out of countries much like HPB has done with your goodself and Annat.
The god system is an attempt to control this behemoth because your quite right I'm a control freak. Each GM will be a God, and so whilst controlling adventures on one hand gets to play around with there divine abilities on the other. Arguements and the like therefore arent settled by characters on site, but offsite over MSN between the Gods. This way if you worship a god and follow there rules they will naturally aid you in these discussions. Thats not to say this will work I just thought it was really good and anthea - who has played basically every RPG there is, thought it was pretty good too.

You see, it will get used over time, because people will want different things that other RPG's can't give them. Sure I haven't stuck utterly faithfully to REH's books, because at times I can't have. Each country has a distinct flavour which is slightly like its neighbour but with its own twist (aquilonia has knights, Ophir to the south has very rich knights and mercenaries, corinthia to the east of Ophir has mercenaries with money, Zamora to the east of Ophir has thieves which steal the money).
It doesn't necessarily have to be popular, or even ever played. HPB proved this with the page rush awhile back (10 new planets thing). They didn't havew to be used, just be there if needs be.

Do you ever listen to yourself?

What would you rather i said
'Yeh come in HPB, stuff the academy no ones played it in 4 weeks'

Get it going again! People liked it and you let it die

Or if your refering to the important bit just above -
I built it all for my own amusement and out of boredom. The fact its because sodding huge and any one can come in and start running games (Craxus, Anthea, Yourself) makes it worth while.

I also find your MSN name mildly amusing

I'd rather you said you could let bygones be bygones instead of telling me how to run the Academy and quit the pseudo-martyr act.

Telling you how to run the academy?
Well someones got to because, as is pretty obvious, NOTHINGS HAPPENING!

oooooOOOOOOOoooooooo a Tea Shop eh!



Nice touch!



and cheers mate!



*gets out the second best china*

Would you like a real tea shop? I mean, it'll be awhile before I do Khitai/China but its better then inmitation

thanks for the offer mate but the main reason i have'ent been playing all the games atm is the fact i have a lot of work atm and fitting it in is going to be a difficult thing

but the tea house sounds really good