Personal and interpersonal stories from the past

[jimhabegger]

Thinking about the call for room designs stirred up my memories of some of the personal and interpersonal stories that I loved in "Shades of Truth" and "Echoes of Chaos," and that I would like to see woven somehow into the new game, if only as memories passed on by a few dreamers. Those came to mind as I thought about what I might like to see in a room. Designing a room seems far beyond my capacities to me, and I don't imagine any kind of room, by itself, could serve my purpose.

There might be some other players who enjoyed those stories, and others, or at least understand what I'm talking about. I'll give some examples, for anyone who doesn't.

- For some time, Heaven and Laviticas were conspiring on some mysterious plan for restoring the balance in the dream. Dar'canon was organizing some kind of fighting group for defending the dream, and once I saw the three of them in a heated argument.

- Perunda always had some kind of intensely intriguing and entertaining story going on. One of my favorites was Sleevey.

- I don't remember any details of Ash's stories, but I had some conversations with him where he talked about his view of the dream's agents (aka beasts) as the native inhabitants, and the dreamers as invaders and usurpers.

- There were others who, with or without enduring stories, displayed intriguing and entertaining personalities, or who added color and depth to the dreamscape for everyone, one way or another. Some examples that come to my mind are ZsaZsa, Gilly, Cuero, Vampyro and Ponyea.

- Another way I saw people enriching the dream was simply through personal interactions with others in the dream, whether friendly or hostile. Belom enriched my dreams a lot through his friendship with Farlong, and Cuero enriched my dreams through his hostility.

- I'm drifting off my original topic here, but really, every dreamer who made any effort to actually play some kind of role, or even just provide some colorful emotes, enriched the dream for me, even if Farlong never saw her doing any more than polishing her nails.

I never saw those personal and interpersonal stories and interactions mentioned when people talked about the RP they liked best. They might not seem important to most players, or even most administrators, but I imagine that taken all together they added a lot of depth, richness and realism to the dreamscape, for all the players.

There were others who enriched the dream for me as much as any of those, but I won't try to list them all. Drifting off topic again, if Farlong or I meant anything to anyone here, please PM me, no matter if you see your name here or not.

As I said, I would like to see all that history woven into the new game somehow, but I don't know what anyone can do about it. For my part, if I play, and if Farlong is ever able to communicate verbally again, I imagine he will talk the ears off of other dreamers, about his memories.

[Roleplayer]

Hi Jim, Koi-Drama has been hard at work to lay the groundwork for this upcoming excitement, how we react to the groundwork will be the new memories. Be ready for the magic as this is a talented and dedicated group of players. What will happen in the clash in the here and now is what really matters. What side will you choose?

~S
AKA
Liolira, Dream Walker
ZsaZsa, Twilight Sentinel

[jimhabegger]

Roleplayer, thank you. I should have mentioned what Koi-drama has been doing in Athenaeum of Dreams. I like the way it weaves the dreams together.

In the thread, "Clash of Planesmiths Contest," Koi-drama Koi-Spark said that the room description can include an "if these walls could talk" narrative, or a significant event in UL history that occurred there. That's what stirred up my memories of the stories that meant the most to me in Shades of Truth. That's what I'd like to see those walls talking about; that's where the events occurred that I would like to see remembered.

I have no idea how to design a room that might serve that purpose, and even if I could, I would not want that to be the only way for those stories to be part of the lore. I think that making them part of the lore would make it a better game for everyone, so I'm looking for ways for that to happen. For now all I can think of to do, myself, is to have Farlong talk about his memories sometimes, and to bring it up here for discussion, by anyone who might be interested.

[Koi-Spark]

There's really nothing at this point that rules out the possibility for players, both Lyra and SoT era, to have memories of those times. In fact, it wouldn't be a Clash of Dreams if people didn't have close personal ties to their past. For returning players, it's certainly encouraged.

As far as room designs go, it doesn't have to be anything extravagant or complicated. The artwork doesn't have to impress anyone so long as it clearly conveys your ideas. See Tary's entry for a good example (haha). In fact, it doesn't have to be limited to just one room, either.

I'm not sure how things ran in Shades of Truth, but there were a few Lyra players who spent much of their time storytelling and were awarded the Wordsmith Mark. Perhaps that is an accolade you'd strive to achieve, or perhaps start a storytellers' league?

[jimhabegger]

Koi-Spark, thank you! That's the kind of help I was hoping for.

I like reading stories, but I'm no good at writing them. I've tried again and again to write some kind of story, and my mind goes blank every time. It's true that when I play Farlong, I'm writing a story, but I don't see what I've done with Farlong as a kind of story that makes good reading for anyone, and I have no idea how to do any better. It's a never-ending struggle for me even to come up with plausible emotes. The best I can hope for is that I might have given some other players some encouragement and support in writing their stories.

I still can't think of anything better for me to do, to help make those stories part of the lore, than to have Farlong talk about his memories sometimes. I'm not sure this interests anyone else, but I'm not sure it doesn't, so I'm bringing it up for discussion. Maybe it will give someone else some ideas, or maybe someone else will have some more ideas for me.