Posts Thanked By User

101

Introduce Yourself / Now presenting ... me!

« on: March 23, 2007, 05:46:08 pm »

*Walks on stage*
Hi
*walks off stage*

Attempting to make a dwarven rogue called Bolor Glangyth.
If you've got interest or time, check out his character submission thread. I think the story's pretty good. :p

102

Roleplaying / Emote your heart out!!

« on: March 19, 2007, 07:44:41 pm »

[SIZE=18]Tired of trying to type in battle?  Tired of repeating your introduction to the umpteenth person?  I have the solution right here![/SIZE]

Those of you that have travelled with my PCs were probably thinking to yourself, "That fellow can type up a storm!"  While I can do that, I've added to my repetoire by taking advantage of this nifty software:  AutoHotkey - Free Mouse and Keyboard Macro Program with Hotkeys and AutoText.

This free bit of software allows you to write rather complicated hotkeys and macros.  The nice thing is that it can intercept the keystrokes before they reach your game.

Take my paladin of Vorax, Wanark.  He had a dozen or more short blessings that he'd say (some in dwarven) when just prior to casting bless or equipping his waraxe.  Then he had longer blessings that even included him kneeling.  Finally, he had the entire Vorax paladin credo he'd use when he visited the temple.  All of these I had assigned to hotkeys outside the game.  Brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it?  Beautiful.

I'll give an example from my current PC that you can use to build your own set.  (Careful of line wrapping if you cut&paste into your own file.)
[INDENT][SIZE=16]
;; ------------------------------------------
;; A utility routine to say something
;;
[/SIZE][SIZE=16]Say(s)
{
    global prefix

    SendInput {Enter}
    Sleep 250
    IfInString, s, /tp
    SendInput {Raw}%s%
    else
    SendInput {Raw}%prefix%%s%
    SendInput {Enter}
}

;; ------------------------------------------
;; This will send yourself a tell with some help
;;
::/o help::
    SendInput {Raw}/tp "Pen N Popper" name, description, wearing, ^f
    Send {Enter}
return

;; -------------------------------------------
;; Give your name
;;
::/o name::
    SendInput {Raw}rolan tennesen... *bows* sellsword in the employ of the freelancers
    Send {Enter}
return


;; ------------------------------------------
;; A random color emote of walking along
;;
^g::
    Random, num, 1, 5
    if ( num == 1 )
    Say("*hurries along at an uneven pace, pausing now and then to catch breath*")
    else if ( num == 2 )
    Say("*moves along at a steady pace*")
    else if ( num == 3 )
             Say("*hurries along, gaze taking in his surroundings*")
    else if ( num == 4 )
             Say("*marches along with quick strides, sounding a bit out of breath*")
    else if ( num == 5 )
             Say("*moves at a deliberate pace*")

    Sleep 100
    SendInput {LControl}
return[/SIZE]
[/INDENT]I save this to a file called "rolan.ahk" and then run it.  Ingame, when I hit Ctrl-g a random description of walking will be sent.  When I type in /o description the verbose description of Rolan is output.

You can see that this can have as much flavor as you can think of.  It is especially handy during battle when all I have to do is type Ctrl-f for a fight emote.  (I even have it setup to fill in which weapon he is using to the emotes are correct.)

Good luck!

103

Introduce Yourself / Finally home and near ready to enjoy Layonara again

« on: March 18, 2007, 05:16:09 pm »

Greetings all,

I've finally made it home and have never been happier.  6 months is definately a long time.  I see theres now a new site, the new campaign began and apparently the dark ages are over.  So much has changed since I've been gone and I have alot of reading to do it seems before I submit my new character.  I would definately appreciate any assistance in knowing whats imperative to read so it doesn't take me all day (just a little shove down the right path, heh).  To help with my characters story I would like to know more about the dark ages, like how long it lasted.

I can't wait to see you all in game again, I hope everyone will like my new character, well I'm quite possitive she will be more likable then Lia was, though that does't take much to achieve, haha.  I thought about trying to be origional, but then with all the players here, most being excellent role players, I wouldn't be suprized if everything has been tried already, so I decided to instead play what I like and just have fun, which of course means, wizard, female, elf, haha.  I can't help it, its my favorite class, sex and race to play.  I thought; though, so to be a tad different from my last character (well other then the personality and story difference) I would also multiclass her as a theif.  I then thought of the dual class prospect back in 2nd edition and thought it would be interesting and fun to have her start off as a theif and then strive to become a wizard.  Since Layonara is supposed to be a low magic world (that could have changed since I was gone as well though), I thought it would be a great idea to play a character struggling to become something that should be difficult to acheive in a low magic world.  Of course there would be much RP assistance from the community, I'm counting on it, but I do intend to give her a few small personallity traits to insure it doesn't become too easy, hehe

104

Introduce Yourself / Greetings from the Machine...

« on: March 18, 2007, 02:39:15 pm »

Hello folks!

For those of you who don't know me, I figured I may as well follow the nifty trend of introductions.

My real name is Kevin C. Krinke and my nickname is OneST8 (which is read as "One State" and is not OneSTB, not that I really care that people have a tendancy to misspell my nickname; just stating it here for clarification purposes).

So what do I do here at Layonara and why aren't I publicly active within this community? Well... there's a lot that I cannot talk about for whatever reasons but there's a bunch I can talk about so lets focus on those goodies.

Firstly, I'm the one footing the bill for the server which is hosting the new forums as well as the aging LORE site. I'm also responsible for starting up the official Layonara IRC services as well as maintaining the Layonara email services. While Layonara does not compensate me for these services; I am more than happy to provide them to this wonderful community of zany people who are enjoying the world I've helped to foster. A HUGE thanks must go out to our webhosting partner Netelligent located in Montreal Canada who has graciously set us up with a bandwidth package catered to our community needs.

Secondly, I'm the creator and general mastermind behind the LORE site itself, so let's talk a bit about what LORE really is "under the hood". LORE is a wiki engine that I wrote almost from scratch using Perl, Apache, and a slew of Perl libraries. The actual wiki engine is a fork and virtually a complete re-write of the CGI::Wiki Perl library that I've named it YAWT which stands for Yet Another Wiki Thing. One of the major features of YAWT is it's insane plugin capabilities. This plugin system has enabled me to write all of the nifty parts of LORE that everyone seems to be totally hooked on. For instance, the Bird Messaging, Character Pages, Deity Relations, Parchement Folders and so forth. Most of those features were written 100% by me with help from the venerable orth when it came to the NwN integration and database optimizations.

One major shortcomming of LORE is it's speed and performance. LORE itself was never really intended to run as a straight CGI application like it is, but rather it was designed for a mod_perl environment however I've never gotten around to implementing the actual support for mod_perl. You could say that greater priorities have taken over since LORE was made and sadly I'm in maintenance mode with it. For the curious, LORE will at some point in the next few weeks be fully functional again but with the added load of these wonderful new forums it's been a little trying to get all the different services to play nice with eachother.

One thing to note is that this server is still considered "unstable" until we get all these bugs and quirks ironed out. At which point we should see the months and months of uptime that LORE previously exhibited even though it's more sluggish than a slug at times.

Ok, so a lot of what I do here is all about programming for Layonara Studios... which seems kinda strange to some... "why does he not play anymore???" some may ask... well... let's look into my history with Layonara and what's brought me to where I'm at right now.

I started playing the character Elrond Anwamane with my friend and resident room-mate orth back when he started the absurdly popular cleric Plenarius Ashaley (yes, I'm allowed to poke fun at him while everyone else should show some respect hehe). Now, "Elrond" was created prior to the copyright rules being put in place and the name Elrond Anwamane is actually my middle and last name put through an elvish name generator so it's not like I'd just grabbed the Tolkien character's name out of uber-fanboy-ness. I'm really just lazy and so when pressed for a name, I used a program to give me one.

So, I played Elrond for a while, was part of the Red Caps when they first started up and at the time I coaxed my now ex-wife into playing in Layonara with orth and I. This proved to be a heartwrenchingly bad idea as hindsight shows me because only a few short months later my life fell apart with separation resulting in a full divorce. I won't go into the nasty details but suffice it to say; the in-game world of Layonara became polluted for me and I no longer had the mental strength to endure the memories made within the world. At this point I knew I would return someday as Layonara is just that incredible of a world but I also knew I needed time to heal and so believe it or not; I stipulated a part of my separation and divorce agreement that my ex-wife voluntarily leave the world of Layonara permenantly of her own free will and to her credit that's what she did. She made a nice post thanking everyone for the fun times and left the world.

During this time off I began to rediscover myself while rebuilding my life and my sanity. In this process I figured out something very important about myself. I don't like playing video games. I like programming them more than playing them. Yep. I'm crazy. I absolutely LOVE programming more than playing. With this renewed steam under my wings I eventually returned to Leanthar and basically flat out stated that I'll probably not play or GM within Layonara but instead wanted to code for the world exclusively. Now, I'm not certain that Leanthar had taken me seriously at the time and so that's when I dove right into developing LORE and within a month an a half I had the core engine created and fully functional and within the next five weeks LORE as we know it was implemented. At this point I believe Leanthar actually got the picture regarding my talents and my obsession with programming. This then brought me fully into the Layonara fold and the position I now hold within this organization. For this, I am grateful as Layonara has been a major driving factor for the happiness within my life.

If happiness is knowing what you want and wanting what you have, my role in Layonara has made me absolutely happy regardless of the ups and downs.

Ok, so you now know more of my history and background with respect to Layonara... what about me as a person? Well, some things worth mentioning are ...

I love to write poetry. For me, English is just as fun to program as Perl, Python, PHP, C, C++ etc etc and so by extension, Poetry has become a major outlet for my creativity and emotion. I've even been published in a few vanity-press type poetry books that were the direct result of wining a contest or two. I've always wanted to do some stand-up poetry recitals but have not found the time nor and interesting enough venue to do so. In time I'm sure I'll cross that of my "list of things to do before I perm-a-die" but for now I'm content to just write my poems and publish them on my personal wiki site which you can find here:

OneST8: Poetry By Kevin C Krinke

I'd like to draw everyone's attention to three poems I've written and while you can find them on my wiki, you won't find the background leading up to my writing those poems in there. Rather, I'm going to make this long post that much longer by elaborating a little about each of them.

The first, and most sacred to me is "Perceptions of Life". I'm not a religious person by any means though I have done my fair share of reading up on various religions from the Christian and Catholic to Taoism and Hinduism, from Islam to Bhuddism and other psuedo religions like the twisted Scientology. Each of the religions of Earth are interesting in their own right but I'm forced to take them all with a grain of salt as each has it's own pros and cons. While struggling to bridge the gap in my mind between science and faith I became inspired one night and under a full moon while meditating in my backyard I wrote the following poem in hopes of making sense of it all.

Perceptions of Life

Life is a state of energetic vibration.
Vibration is the resonance of being.
Being is the basis for thought.
Thought is a pattern of energy.
Energy is the ability to effect change.
Change is the nature of growth.
Growth is the essence of experience.
Experience is a memory of existence.
Existence is the perception of life.

While that poem does not touch upon the concept of a higher being who's sometimes referred to as "the creator" or what not, my answer to that is a simple acronym for the word GOD.

GOD

Grand
Omnipotent
Design

Now, jumping away from the ever-so-hotly-debated topic of religion and science... let's look at the other two poems I mentioned above.

The first I will bring up is one that I wrote because of someone else who inspired me to look for my soulmate. While her and I no longer communicate, I am truly grateful for all the time we shared together and it was on one of our camping trips that this poem was written.

Happiness

Happiness is the silent breaking of dawn,
When the moon recedes and darkness is gone.
Happiness is a flowing wisp of her hair,
When it catches a ray of the golden sun's glare.

Happiness is a long conversation with depth,
When the coffee is warm and words steal your breath.
Happiness is a sweet moment that's drawn,
When it takes some time yet does not feel long.

Happiness is that connection of eyes,
When the clouds break and open the skies.
Happiness is the smooth voice on your ear,
When the words spoken ring true and clear.

Happiness is sharing the depths of the mind,
When the emotion is strong yet pleasantly kind.
Happiness is excitement enthralled,
When the world seems to have slowly stalled.

Happiness is found in every glorious day,
When nothing can take nature's beauty away.
Happiness is the silent breaking of dawn,
When the moon recedes and darkness is gone.

Now, the structure and general format of that poem is rather strict and stems from a previous poem I wrote called Sadness. In fact, Happiness is my answer to the heart-wrentching emotion I poured into Sadness.

Shortly after separating from my ex-wife, there were a few deaths in the family starting with my Godfather's. He was a good man, a "man's man" if you will. Such a rock solid and invariably honest fellow. I truly cherish every memory I have with him. He had passed away suddenly one night from a heart attack. All I can say is that he led a long life, was able to know his grand children and his passing was a quick and relatively painless one. For that I am greatful.

The next death in the family was the one that inspired Sadness within me. It was my own Father's passing. I'd found out only a few months before that he had advanced limphoma cancer and that it had spread throughout his body. There was little hope but he started the treatements and so forth. Witnessing his slow and brutal decline while I myself was going through my own personal depression was intense to say the least. Two weeks before his passing, I had to let out all the pain somehow and so I poured my heart into some words and the following poem is the result. Literally, these are the words that came out of me on the first try... I didn't even know what I was doing until the poem had been written out and lay there in front of me. I ended up finding the courage to read that poem during his funeral service. Surprisingly, the congregation truly did appreciate the words even though I'd ripped a hole in everyone's heart that was listening.

For those with a weak heart, please stop reading. You have been fore-warned.

Sadness

Sadness is when you know someone dear will die,
When you can see it in their face and in their eye.
Sadness is when you can see their pride obstruct,
When you can see that they're about to self-destruct.

Sadness is when you can see the frailty of their day,
When you can see it in their actions; in every way.
Sadness is when you know their every step is in pain,
When you can see that there is no way they can remain.

Sadness is when too many emotions become dumbfounded,
When you yourself feel the weights of life compounded.
Sadness is when you have a defined lack of choice,
When you can hear death creeping though someone's voice.

Sadness is when you know in a few moments they'll fail,
When you know this person's soul will soon set sail.
Sadness is when they deny their own mortality,
When you know there will be one more fatality.

Sadness is when you see their remaining time cut short,
When you know the treatments are of the horrible sort.
Sadness is when you know someone dear will die,
When you can see it in their face and in their eye.

For those that have made it this far in my introduction turned mini auto-biography. I appreciate it and sincerely thank you for your time.

I hope all this helps you to somehow understand me better.

Sincerely,
One State of my mind,
One State of mankind.

PS: If people think this is too depressing of a posting, I'll remove the Sadness section. Just let me know and I'll edit it out.

105

Introduce Yourself / Wazzup! :D

« on: March 18, 2007, 01:30:58 am »

Hey everyone, I'm Erik, I'm 17. I like to draw, I still go to high school, almost out hopefully. I really like anime. Uh.. lets see what else.. I'm 6'1" tall, I work out quite a bit at school. I have a xbox 360 and play halo 2 alot when I'm not on here, or I'm playing warcraft usually. I do have some of a live, kinda. In reality I don't really trust much of anyone anymore but my family, because of all the things some of my so called friends have done to me. But I still like to have fun though, and I do every so often with my bestfriend. Anywho.. Thats pretty much a summary of me! Enjoy!

106

Introduce Yourself / Its Scifibarbie!!!!

« on: March 17, 2007, 06:43:45 pm »

People HI!

You may know me in game as Grena Rockbasher, Erk and former miss Hlint Mistone....Sa'kura Firesteed (the pink lion).

As far as the scifibarbie goes...funny story that. My roomie always said I was such a barbie. I even had a cute little barbie car for awhile. I tried getting something cute for an email nad various logins, but they were all taken. My friend suggested scifibarbie since I was and am an avid scifi geek (can you say MST3k). And yes, star wars rules!!!

My current best bud says I need to be a viking like her, both of us being tall blonde and bad-*%$#. Her words.

My current profession is full time student at Midwest College of Oriental Medicine studying to be an Acupuncturist. Yes I am going to be sticking needles in people and doling out chinese herbs for all sorts of wonderful and various ailments.

My favorite hobby is a fun past-time called Kendo. Ive been practicing for about 15 years and love it. I am an avid martial artist and my training also includes jiu-jutsu and iaido. So dont mess with me!  

I first discovered D & D while serving in the Army and and played the PnP fora  couple of years. I didnt start playing the computer version until NWN came out and my roomie at the time got me hooked. She later got addicted to Evercrack. Somethin I never understood or condoned. I mean how could someone get hooked on a videogame.
Yes Im being fascetious (did I spell that right?), since I highly enjoy Layonara. And just cause I play alot, doesnt mean i have a problem. I dont have an addiction to Layo...really...you believe me dont you? No!! You cant take my computer away, I dont have a problem, just leave me alone!!!! Oh yeah, its my first online RPG too.

Sorry if this post is abit chaotic, Im just perpetually hyper and have the mindset of a 12 yearold (at least thats what people tell me)...just a bit more responsible...sortof.....

So thats it. Questions? Comments? Words of wisdom?
No?
Then have a nice day.

107

Introduce Yourself / A thickly accented "Howdy"

« on: March 17, 2007, 06:40:04 pm »

My name is Thorsten and I have played on Layonara for far too long to leave now.

I started out playing Kobal Bluntaxe, my first dwarven character, after a few years where I preferred elves both in PnP and PC games. I do still enjoy PnP from time to time, but it is far too rare these days that we get together. Anyhow, Kobal was my first dwarf, and I made him at the same time that a friend of mine created Hargranar Craggenhilt - you might know him as well  

Today I have two other characters (Rashar Moiro Jerichan and Hjalmar) and I became a member of the GM Team about a year ago. Most likely I will continue to torment the playerbase from time to time for years to come.

Before I played NWN I have enjoyed the Baldur's Gate series more than once, together with Planescape Torment and a quick round of Diablo II. Of these the first Baldur's Gate game was my favourite, followed by Torment. Close one I'd say.

In real life I am a master of science in the field of civil engineering and I currently work as a consultant in one of the largest engineering companies in Denmark (which may not mean all that much compared to larger countries, hehe). I can honestly say that I enjoy my work.
I live with my girlfriend in Aarhus, Denmark, in a far too expensive apartment. I am a big fan of books, music and travelling. I try to go to out to concerts, theatre and exhibitions when anything interesting shows up to balance out my many hours in front of the PC at work and at home.
Additionally, I go jogging and to the gym 2-3 times a week due to back trouble that comes back to haunt me if I am not working out, but also simply to stay in shape.

Oh, and I am trying to get back to sports fishing, which I practiced a lot a few years ago.

108

Introduce Yourself / Jumping on the bandwagon

« on: March 17, 2007, 05:54:37 pm »

So who am I?

My name is David (how exciting!), I'm 20, and I live in the southwest of England where the fields are eternal and farmer's accents dominate the populace.

I'm an aspiring horror writer and musician (read: layabout). I play Guitar, keyboards, bass, vocals, and like to dabble in orchestrations. I am in a couple projects, but won't shamelessly plug here. I also have qualifications in music technology, sound engineering, as well as copy-editing and proofreading.

I'm fairly (completely) horror obsessed.

As for gaming...well, i can't remember where it started. RPGs always seemed to be something that were there. I come from the legion of tabletop gamers woo, which I played from the ages of 8-16, religiously. As for online gaming, I played EQ for a brief period before deciding I hate it, then shortly after I found my way here, to Layo, where I have remained pretty much ever since (with a break last year when my 'net went down for months). It's my first PW, and I have no plans to leave. I have learnt a lot in my two years here, I hope that will continue.

That's about it really.

Oh, and I look like this, but less red (and with more beard now):

109

Introduce Yourself / Yo.

« on: March 17, 2007, 02:26:55 pm »

Que pasa mi amigos?

My name is Mike Powers. Mugshot to follow, I can't find one and jacking one from a friend's myspace is proving difficult. The link below has me running at a pumpkin and smashing it with a 15 pound wooden hammer a buddy of mine made.

YouTube - Smash Club


Yea, we're all pretty immature.

I'll update this as I feel neccessary.. but here's the basic jist of me.

I play the guitar. I work a mind-numbing job. I'm a computer science major. I drive a Jeep that I named Bixbee, because she is my sweet southern belle. I've played a GMed off and on here for years now. Online RPGs are my least favorite form of videogame, Layonara just as some kind of right thing going on and it keeps me here.

I like action. I'm fickle and bored easily, as a friend here once told me.

Aside from Layonara the only other games I really play right now are Wolfenstien Enemy Territory and the odd Total Annihilation game.

I live in a wee town named Granby, located in a valley that fills with snow every year, and quickly melts causing us all to live on boats for a few weeks. It's fun. It's like Water World without Kevin Cosner's terrible acting ruining the whole deal.

110

General Discussion / Tales of Layonara - Comic Strip - Issue #2

« on: March 17, 2007, 10:00:53 am »

Issue #2 is now out! A very big thank you to Niels and Andrew.

Go to "New Players" and then "Downloads". You will see the category and then go take a look at issue #2. If you haven't downloaded the first one please do so. Enjoy both issues at the same time!

On an off note. This may be the last issue of the Tales of Layonara comic. Andrew seems to have had some significant RL issues pop up and has fallen out of communication with both Niels and myself for about three months now. It is so unfortunate because these two have worked really well together and they have so much talent.

Niels and I are discussing other options but that is all they are right now, just options and ideas.

111

General Discussion / ToD: Xora's Vial - #3 Top Mod at NWVault

« on: March 17, 2007, 05:46:52 am »

Right now (and for the past couple days) the Layonara Single Player Module, Towers of Dregar: Xora's Vial is #3 in the top modules at NWVault with over a thousand downloads so far.

Huzzah for Layonara!

Towers of Dregar: Xora's Vial -- Neverwinter Nights 2 Vault

112

Introduce Yourself / And the crazy one steps up

« on: March 16, 2007, 11:53:38 am »

I tend to be kept hidden about my life but I'll talk about it..
like most gamers i started out on an old "top of the line" back than 486/33mhz PC playing wolfenstine 3d. Then graduated to other first person games of legends. I didn't keep my self there, i played dark sun and other games and sealed my fate as a gamer.
As I grew up I learned how to build PCs on my own  and started collecting PCs that were thrown away and tossed out.
The turn point of my gaming life was about was about...1998 when half-life hit the stores I got it, beat the game got bored and got sucked into the Team fortress classic cult. for 3 years i was playing on a server called East coast with the clan NME2U (say it slowly) playing tournament matches were i accumulated money for playing games, heh.I been running that server all the way up in till the loss of WON and the change over to steam was started.
2003: Having been bored of most first person shooters I took up retirement from the clan matches only to fall back into it playing the leagues, hosting my own server, and "pwning" the nubs that dare to log on.

Long ago, and I don't remember how long ago, a friend of mine was throwing his stuff away and I found his copy of NWN gold hidden under his bed and unopened. After a long discussion on how he owed me money he gave me the game and once more I was addicted to D&D like I was back in my youth playing dark sun.

2004: I got into a car crash breaking my left leg and losing my job. I found an add in Planetneverwinter.com stating layo needed people. and the rest is history.
I still play first person games, I still run server but i no longer run in the leagues with the big boys, If i did, I would never have time to play layo as last year's winter (2006) has proven, my clan fell apart, I ignored layo and friends here for months on end.

After a recent rebuild (and prior shut down due to a few admins and the banning of me from my own server..)I reformed a small group that just plays for the love of the game.
I still play Layonara, its my second home, I went from fragging to just being a cleric how has a love for golems (because I have an obsession for mechs, I got a HUGE collection)

And well thats aboot it.

113

Introduce Yourself / A bit late, but meh!

« on: March 15, 2007, 09:09:58 pm »

Someone asked me if I was going to do one of these.  I told this person that I probably wouldn't.  Well I changed my mind.  Happy?  Now you have to do yours.

Hhmmm.. so, how do I want to do this?  Oh!  A questionnaire will do nicely.

Name?  Michael
Gender?  Male
Age?  31
Location?  Portland, Oregon  US of A
Race?  70% Nez Pierce (Native American), 30% Russian
Height?  5'9"
Weight?  173 lbs.
Hair Color/Style?  Black, and shaved.
Eyes Color?  Brown and Hazel
College degree, and what type of work do you do?

I hold a Bachelor degree in Electronics Engineering, though I don't work in my field.  I work for the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office.  I've been employed here for the past 12 years now.  I started off as a legal coder and worked my way up to the head of a project team (In other words; I'm someones boss).

Married, or have any kids?  Nope, I'm single without kids that I know of.
Smoker?  Not anymore.  I quit 7 years ago.
Have you always played video games?  If so, how long?

Growing up I was, what I call, a closet gamer.  I use to be embarrassed to let my family and friends know that I played video games.   I didn't own any consoles or computers.  I did have a friend in high school that owned a NES and an Amiga 500.  I use to goto his house all the time to game with him.  He introuced me to the wonderful world of MUDs.  I really didn't get into gaming until I hit 24 when I bought my first PC - So that's what? 7 years?.  Since then I've owned a SNES, Playstation, Saturn,  Genesis with CD add-on, Game Cube, DS, Playstation 2, along with different various PCs built for gaming.  I currently own a DS, Game Cube, and an outdated PC.

What are a few of your favorite games?

Alpha Centauri is my favorite game.  I enjoy playing strategy games.  Turn-based ones.  Tetris ranks right up there as well.  Puzzle games are probably my next favorite type of games.  I'm not much of a RPG fan.  I do like the Wizardry series, Dragon Quest series, Shin Megami Tensei seires (along with all of the spin-offs), and Fallout series just to name a few.

How did you discover Layonara?

Well, I use to be a MUD gamer.  I learned how to role-play on them.  The last MUD I was on closed down.  I went 4-5 months without being able to role-play.. so one day I asked a buddy of mine if he knew of any good role-playing MMOs.  He just laughed at me and gave me his NWN CDs.  I discovered Layonara right away, but was really reluctant to try the server out at first.  After reading all the rules I didn't think I would enjoy this server so much.   I thought that so many rules put too many limitations on role-playing.  So, I spent a few months trying various PW out there.  None of them matched the quality of role-play I was use to from playing my last MUD.  I was just about to give up and look for another MUD to play when I remembered that Layonara was suppose to be one of the better RPPWs.  So, I submitted a PC and started playing.  I have to be honest here;  I didn't like the server at first.  I was one of those unlucky people that didn't get any help when I first started.  I couldn't find anyone to role-play with either.  My earily days here were spent sitting around alone at the benches at Hlint.  I'd watch people run by, and by the time I'd get something typed out they'd be long gone.  Or there would be people gathered at the benches and I would try and walk up to them to get some role-playing going and I would just be ignored.  I almost left the server a month after joining.

You said that you were just about to leave the server.  What changed your mind then?

I met a few people in-game with my 3rd PC the day I created her that I was actually able to role-play with.  Before I made this PC I didn't spend much time playing.  When I first started here I played a lot, but sitting alone without anyone to role-play with gets boring really fast.  Over the course of my first month my play-time went down to maybe 20 minutes a day.  Just because I'd get bored of sitting alone.  The day I created my 3rd PC was a Friday, and I actually sat here for a good 6 hours playing that night.  Ever since then I've been hooked.  I went though a major down-time with my 3rd PC a month after I made her.  It took me around 4 months to get her from level 4 to 5.  And, once again I wasn't having much luck finding anyone to role-play with since those people I met stopped playing.

How long have you been here at Layonara?

Just about 2 years now.  I did take a break for a few months due to work and some issues I had going on.  Lately I haven't been playing too much though.  Not because I don't have any time to (well I really don't have much time to play, but I can play a hour or two a day on week-days and my week-ends are almost always free).  Lately I've found myself in the same rut I was in before.  No body to role-play with.  My last few weeks were spent just sitting around alone with just my PC.  And now that the starting location has changed to Port Hempstead/Vehl I have no where to go IC anymore just to role-play.  So I've lost some interest in playing.  I'm too attached to my PC to leave though.

Anything else that you would like to add?

Hmmm... nope, not that I can think of.  I will answer any question that someone might have though.

What about a picture?

Haha!!  No, I'm camera shy.  My last picture I had taken of me was 3 years ago for my drivers license.  My last real was is around 10 years old.

114

Introduce Yourself / Hello. My name is

« on: March 15, 2007, 03:13:04 pm »

Forum Name: Gulnyr
Name: Greg
Class: Commoner (1)
Race: Human
Alignment: TN
Deity: None

Age: 31
Sex: Male

Physical Description: 175 cm tall.  61.2 kg.  Dark hair, usually cropped off very close to the scalp.  Nerd-pale skin.  Wears glasses.  Often kind of scruffy-looking.

Hobbies and Interests: Sciences (all of them, though some more than others), history, science fiction, gaming, classical music, cookies.

Background:  I was introduced to the bright red D&D Basic box set at age 12 by some slightly older neighborhood friends.  It was a lot of fun playing for a couple of years, but then they moved away.  

I found some new friends with new games.  Some were RPGs, like GURPS, Warhammer Fantasy, and Champions (aka the Hero system).  Most were tabletop wargames, like Battletech, the Star Trek Starship Tactical Combat Simulator, and Warhammer 40000 (way back in the days of Rogue Trader, when army lists came in White Dwarf and made you roll randomly for equipment).  There were never many of us, so it usually came down to some sort of battle no matter what game we were playing, but we always made sure to include roleplaying.  We developed characters for every game, not necessarily written out on paper, but always with personalities that affected the game in real ways.  Tabletop battles take on a whole new feel when you stop thinking of the counters or miniatures as chess pieces and start caring about the characters involved.

Even when we started playing against each other in computer games, we'd find ways to include roleplaying.  We made rules for mixing Risk with Age of Empires, with a backdrop of politics for our characters - the leaders of the nations - to interact within.  

I met new people online who were also interested in mixing roleplaying into the basic computer games.  One of the best experiences I had was a small community built around the game Man of War II.  It's a simulation of sailing ship combat around the time of the American Revolution on into the Napoleonic Era, but we used it to represent roughly the mid to late 1600s in the Caribbean.  Some of us played pirates, others played naval officers (mostly British), and a couple played the middle as privateers.  It was called Marooners.  We set up a forum and four of us acted as GMs.  There were general rules about what could be done when and where, but it was generally free form.  I made a spreadsheet chart with a built-in die roller for determining ship sightings and cargo in the holds of prize ships, which was about the most absolute thing about the whole setup.  The players would make posts in the forum, in-character, describing what their characters were doing in town or at sea, up to twice per day.  The GMs would then respond with descriptions of the action, playing the roles of NPCs and other ships when necessary.  Things generally built toward Fridays, as that was our night to get together online and fight out any ship-to-ship combat that resulted from forum posts.  Any player who didn't have his character in a battle could still be part of the fun by playing one of the NPC ships.  

Eventually, I circled around and found D&D again with the arrival of 3rd Edition and then NWN.  Then I found Layonara through the D&D Adventures site.  That was a little over two years ago.  Since then, I've had only two 'real' characters - Gulnyr the Grim and Jennara Creekskipper.  Gulnyr is based on a level 1 Dwarven Rogue I have on a sheet of paper.  Jennara was a little more spontaneous, but she doesn't lack any depth for it, I hope.

115

General Discussion / Thank you Orth (James)

« on: March 15, 2007, 10:27:23 am »

This guy is amazing! I have had the pleasure of managing and working with some very talented and dedicated people in my life but James is at the top of that list.

In the years of working with him I can not recall a single instance where he has not finished a request or job in a timely manner and with a high quality of professionalism and shine. This is a fairly rare quality to find in people, and for him to do it so consistently is exceptional.

I worry about him tackling so much from time to time but every time I turn around he is finishing one task or another for the team, friends, the community, or just something out of the kindness of his heart. The amount of work and production from him is amazing, and it happens time after time across many projects and areas of responsibility.

You have some extremely good qualities and are just a down right good person, quite the combination for an individual.

You are a rare find James; thank goodness you are on our team and with this community!

Thank you, and however you do it, keep it up.

116

Introduce Yourself / The player behind The Veil.

« on: March 15, 2007, 07:44:31 am »

well..

My name is Katrina, yes, like the hurricane... but I promise I am not nearly so destructive. I joined Layonara not quite 2.5 years ago in Dec. 2004. My gaming experience at that point, if you can call it that began with afternoons playing multiplayer simultaneous Baulders Gate: Dark Alliance ... on gamecube...  with Talan. Eventually some eight months later Talan convinced me to play BGII on the PC.  After much complaint on my part about how the keyboard was nothing like the gamecube controller I played, and was hooked. After a while he graduated to NWN while I was still doing side quests on BGII, running around telling him to *Feel the burning stare of my hamster... and change your ways* -hehe, and refusing to give the money to Galen Boyle.

After watching him play NWN enough times, on my PC! -might I add, Lalaith was born on NWN and I forgot all about BGII.  We played Talan and Lalaith at first on another server developing their story and history, but never together as we only had a pc copy of nwn and as you all know, Talan has a mac. -One fateful day however we took a trip to a suburb of Boston to find a mac store.  It was quite an adventure in itself.

Eventually one thing lead to another and we found ourselves submitting Talan and Lalaith to Layonara.  Our characters were approved and the Layonara adventure began.  

In the summer of 2005 I joined the project and writing teams for Layo, helping with icon art, history influenced items, and whatever else I could.  Most recently over the last year I worked as the Writing Lead for Layonaras single player module, Towers of Dregar: Xoras Vial. The project was a labour of love and there were times when I didn't think we would get through it.  But in the end seeing it downloaded nearly 1000 times already on nwvault, it makes it all worth it.

So, I play Lalaith Va'Lash- The Veil (hence the thread title ; )) and The Gypsy of Leilon (Leringard now) Kali.

When I am not playing my elves Im usually at school.  I am in my first year of graduate school in a Masters/certificate program.

I currently have my Bachelors of Science in Chemistry with a dual degree of a Bachelors of Art in studio art.  What can I say? I am the perfect combination of left brain  - right brain.  I like art, science, music, sports, and of course rubber ducks (Who doesn t, right?)

I was an active athlete for many years including swimming for a D2 college my freshman year, but that was given up after nearly wrecking my shoulders and deciding to focus on school.

The Red Sox are my favorite baseball team, and I will never forget how they won the world series ON my 21st  birthday (Do the math : P)  Did I mention how our old Boston apartment overlooked Fenway Park? Amazing.  What a weekend that was...

My favorite food is icecream and my worst habit is eating the whole pint and then suffering from the bellyache it causes.  I am currently listening to a lot of Aimee Mann and Elliot Smith.  Both great while working.

Well, that is really about it.. hehe, anything else would just be TMI.  Oh! Though, I should mention.  I AM an elf.  *nods* and if Talan tells you differently, just remember, he lies.

-Lala

EDIT: As much as I love this community I feel this was a little TMI and made some edits! ~~

117

Introduce Yourself / Insert Clever Lable Here

« on: March 14, 2007, 05:22:01 pm »

Well..

I enjoy being thought of as .. whatever you've tagged me as, but I'm feeling the peer pressure, so I'll offer up at least a glimpse.

My real name is Josh, born the same year as Aeonblues. Yeah, freaky.  I'm a happily married 34 year old father of two kids (5 and 2 -- it's my son the two year old who falls asleep laying on top of me every night as I'm dancing across Layo).  I've been playing D&D since the days of piles of funny colored dice.  In college, I switched from D&D to Vampires the Masquerade. I ran a campaign that spanned the better part of my junior and senior years and some of the post graduate years. College was also my introduction to text based MUD's and MMPORGS, an obsession that lead me to Layo.  For several years, I played the text based predecessor to WoW -- Gemstone.  I am the obsessed type who would pay $1000 for a computer to play a text based MUD.

I majored in English and write really bad short stories and poetry.  Besides Layo, you can find me with my family in the woods hiking and camping or on a bicycle -- I completed my first century (100 mile in one day ride) the year my daughter was born and I'm a dedicated cycle commuter.  You have to be a bit insane to ride your bike to work in New England.  I work currently as a telephone company line retention specialist, but I'm working my way towards becoming  a full time Unitarian Universalist minister.  

So there's a glimpse and don't ask for pictures. Every time a camera points in my direction, it shatters into a thousand pieces.

118

Introduce Yourself / Allean, Xan and Grohin puppetmaster

« on: March 14, 2007, 01:08:15 pm »

Well *clears his throat*

I'm not use to that but I could as well do it for once.

My name is Marc, and I live in Switzerland (yes, that small country in the middle of Europe but which doesn't really belongs to it *sighs*).
Age? You want to know it? Oh well... guess it won't hurt, I was born in 1976... now make the calculation yourself.
What I do... I work for a real estate agency as a clerk... no no not a cleric *grins*, after getting a degree in English Literature at University, with a slight accent put on medieval english... and that doesn't mean Shakespeare but what comes before it... Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Battle of Maldon (read that if you want to know what's 'Honor' means and where it could leads you), La Morte d'Artur... . And I must say I quite like those, especially the Epic poems and such.

Other interests? Reading... lot of different things but mostly sc-fi (Asimov, Philip K. 'word is censured' *shrugs*...) and fantasy (first and foremost, Tolkien, Feist, and on a slightly more comic side, Pratchett).

Computer games ... I think I've been playing since I was.. oh well cannot remember, but it was the time of the Mac SE the very small all-in-one fabulous computer. And my favorite game on it was Dark Castle ... drats, rats. And I'm still playing today... and I'm still using a Mac despite everything. Only concessions to the "enemy"? Have to work on them at work and I bought a laptop not long ago ... to play NWN2 *grins*.

And of course Layonara since ferbruary 2006... never played online-rpg before, played a little on first person shooter, and played the official NWN campaigns and a few modules. And my only other RP experience before that was, what, three live RP events (three days spent sleeping in a tent playing soldier/mage whatever, trying to understand the goings on while drinking beer most day long. Never had a big role in those but was always a fun time spent with friends). So basically Layo is my first online RP server and I don't want to go look elsewhere.

My characters?
Allean D'oremm, the ranger -  not seen that much around these days
Xandrian Mor, the ex-officer - only taking his old bones out for a stroll from time to time.
Grohin Silveraxe, Dwarven Battlepriest of Vorax - do I need to say more *laughs*

119

Introduce Yourself / The Man Behind the Pirate... Sorta...

« on: March 14, 2007, 11:30:46 am »

Hello everyone!  Greetings from the Wild Blue Yonder, and I don't mean the one in the sky.  You might know me as Shiff Dragonheart or Latherian Leefwalker, and just maybe as Yukimura or Nemo, but either way, I'm Shane!  I'm eighteen, I go to Rutgers University, and I live in Jersey (Exit 88 :cool:).  I'm majoring in English with a Concentration in Creative Writing.  I'm fairly new to RPing.  Not to say I haven't played DnD games before, but until Layo I've been stuck with Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights.  I only just recently found people to play PnP DnD with, but I  //Aww! My post got cut off!  Can someone try finding the rest of it in the archives?  Maybe?  *cries*

120

Introduce Yourself / jjkolb

« on: March 14, 2007, 11:21:56 am »

WHO I AM:
Jeff Kolb.  Male, 5' 10", approximately 175 lbs, light brown hair, no tattoos.  Born in 1968 in Jackson, Michigan.  BA in Finance from Michigan State University.  I am 38 years old and married to the best wife a man could have.  We have three children (all boys) ages 4, 4, and 3.  Favorite band: KISS.  Favorite superhero: Batman.  Favorite sports team: Green Bay Packers.  Favorite TV character: Arthur Fonzarelli (the "Fonz").

HOW I GOT HERE:
I started playing AD&D 1.0 back in the early eighties with friends from the neighborhood.  We used miniatures made of lead and dice that had to have the numbers colored in with crayon.  Modules like Keep on the Borderlands, Ravenloft, Horror on the Hill, and Against the Giants were some of my favorites.  You tried to get the lowest AC possible and -10 was the best you could do.  THAC0-good times, good times.  

Along came the Commodore 64, the greatest gaming machine, ever.  Video games replaced PnP among my group of friends.  All of the CRPG were single player, however.  My favorites were The Bard's Tale, Ultimas I, II, and III, Questron I and II, Phantasie, and Legacy of the Ancients.

Then I went to college and gave up on CRPGs for a while-until Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale.  Those got me hooked again.  I kept looking at NWN but my system at the time was not able to run it.  Finally I was able to buy the gold version and started playing the OC.  It was cool but I still longed to play with other people.  

I started to look into these things called Persistent Worlds.  The first one I found was Layonara Online.  It sounded interesting so I wrote up a character submission and met the dragon.  That was more than two years ago.  I have made a few good friends here, sadly some have left.  My NWN time is limited but enjoy the interaction every time I am on.  

My one and only character's name, Klaugraquene Dragonbane (Klaug), is from my old PnP days.  We had trouble coming up with names for our characters so I designed a random name generator, hence the odd name.  Klaug is in the mold of Sturm Brightblade, the knight from the Dragonlance novels.

Thanks to Leanthar and the team for creating and maintaining a tremendous world for us to play in.