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Layonara Server / Now Taking Gamemaster Applications!!

« on: June 10, 2011, 03:19:01 am »

Hello Layonara Community!
 
 It has come around to that time again, where we look around for interested individuals to help grow the Layonaran experience for the community as a whole. If you are interested in giving back to the community that has provided you with countless hours of entertainment, this is one way to make that happen! Below are listed the qualifications, the required duties and the list of questions that we'll need answered so that we can evaluate if you are a good match for the world. Please take some time to consider all of these if you are interested in becoming a Gamemaster for Layonara.
 

Gamemaster Qualifications:
 
You qualify for GM application if you meet the following:
 
• If you have been a community member in good standing for at least four (4) months
• If you can work well on a team but can also take independent initiative
• If you act responsibly both individually and within teams
• If you understand both the rules and the spirit of the server
• If you enforce the spirit and rules of the server when necessary
• If you communicate well in text in an online environment.
• If you can commit to perform GM Duties as either a part time or full time GM

Gamemaster Duties:

 You will need to be able to commit to ALL the following:

•   Commit to the Author-Publisher Agreement. This means the rights to what you write, run as a quest or otherwise provide in your time as GM belongs to Layonara. You will be required to sign off on this and supply the document to Layonara. This is required to protect Layonara Studios and all of our community members.
• Run impromptus, CDQs and quests, reward RP, assist players in game, or otherwise be active in game with your GM avatar (Part time: 1 hour/week ; Full time: 2 hours/week)
•   Properly research and include world lore for events that require it. This can require that certain kinds of quests be written up and approved by head team members (such as EdtheKet and Leanthar) prior to running them.
•   Communicate any long term absences from the world to the team, ahead of time if possible. “Long term absences” is defined as more than two weeks consecutive where you will not be able to reached for any reason. (We certainly understand that emergencies happen and for our enlisted members, you don't always get that opportunity. In case of the latter, please make us aware in your application that this is a possibility.)
•  Write up quests after they are completed with detailed information for tracking.
  
• Check the forums regularly for GM specific content. (Part time: at least 2 times/week ; Full time: at least 5 times/week)
•  Spend at least 2 hours per month working to help the team and community on IRC or forums (e.g. Character approvals, disputes and grievances, answering questions, moderating forums or IRC, providing other assistance to GMs or Players).
• Participate in GM team discussions (these are largely forum based). Examples include discussion of changes to policy, weighing in on World Leader eligibility, and communicating various issues to the staff as a whole.
• Keep appropriate records of character profiling, player interactions, etc.
• Communicate with individual players who may need help understanding the rules or spirit of the server.

Application Questions
(please answer in a response in this thread)
1. How long have you been a member of Layonara?  (The minimum is four (4) months of active time in the community.)

2. Are you applying as a part time or full time quest GM?

3. Why do you want to be a GM team member in Layonara?

4. Please describe any GM experience, including any NWN GMing experience. GMing experience, digitally or PnP style is not a prerequisite for a GM position!

5. Please read carefully through the GM team duties and qualifications, if you have not already. This community has always supported the ethic of 'real life comes first' but we will need to know, realistically, if your real life can support your interest and commitment to the world. Please describe, either Layonaran or real life, responsibilities that may conflict with your Gamemaster commitments. Membership to other teams such as LORE or Character Approvals are examples of Layonaran commitments.

6. Please submit an example quest in a PM (addressed to EdtheKet, Rowana and Dorganath). Your quest should be a brief outline of the set up and expected important events during your quest. Please include a few foreseeable side paths players might take and your intentions for working with players on those initiatives. This should be a quest you could run if you are accepted as a GM, though it is by no means required. Your sample quest summary should be between 300 and 500 words in length. Summaries less than 300 or more than 500 words will not be considered and you will be asked to submit again with the proper word length. Applicants without a quest submitted to the Team by the deadline will not be considered during this pass.

The applications will close on June 30th, 2011, Midnight Eastern Daylight Time. All qualified applicants will be contacted for an interview by July 5th, 2011. Interviews will take place either in game or via IRC. Interviews must be final by July 20th, 2011, in order to offer invites to new GMs in a timely manner.  
 
 We look forward to hearing from you all!
 
 The GM Team

2

Rumour Has It / Rumors from Audira

« on: September 29, 2010, 08:04:54 am »

Rumors coming into Audira in the last couple days are that the Desert Giants are once again attacking caravans and adventurers.  

Reports are that no warning is given, no offer of a tax to pay.  

Others report more sightings of giant activities, lots more sightings.  

It appears the giants are very recently on the war path.  

Many are heard saying that the caravan tax may not of been such a bad thing after all.

The market for caravan guards is through the roof, prices have temporarily tripled.

3

Just for Fun / Can You Count 400 Billion Stars In This Galaxy-Spanning Panorama?

« on: June 03, 2010, 02:26:05 am »

Astronomers estimate that there are 200 to 400 billion stars in our galactic neighborhood, the Milky Way. I guess that someone tried to count them in this fully-zoomable, ultra-high-definition 800,000-image mosaic and got tired around 296,351,284,702. (Gizmodo)

WOW!

The mosaic is simply brilliant.

4

Roleplaying / If Cha is your dump Stat.....

« on: April 26, 2007, 06:31:58 am »

We have no comeliness Stat in the NWN nights engine....As such, Cha needs to represent a balance between characters attractiveness and 'people’ skills.  10 in NWN Stats is considered as average as I understand it...so with the above balance that would be pretty average looking and pretty average people skills.

I wonder how many people have Cha as their dump Stat...say 10 or lower and have amazingly attractive PC’s who also have great people skills?

Now...I’m sure some of you are saying....”what’s the harm in that?” Well....not everyone uses Cha as their dump Stat...Some people actually do sit and think how they wish their character to be looks and people skill wise and actually put the points into their Cha to reflect that.  In fact....everyone should be doing that at character creation....The whole point is that you can’t necessarily get all your Stats exactly how you’d want them so you do have to sacrifice some things.  If you’re playing your Cha 10 character as amazingly beautiful cause you wanted more Str or Con say....where’s your sacrifice?  The person putting their Cha at say 14 has made theirs.

Now remember it is all about balance...I have seen a Cha 8 character who was played as very good looking....Their IC people skills were terrible, I mean really terrible...It was some very excellent RP on the part of the player who was actually very sociable to be such an anti-social character all the time.

Take my own Cleric of Mist for example....She has Cha 12 and the following in her bio “She may be considered stunning by many but her eyes are what draw you to her, they seem to swirl, shifting with her mood much as the sea would in a storm but within them is a coldness that may detract from her beauty”....Anyone who has met her will agree she is NOT a people person...She is blunt, rude, judgemental and those are often her nicer traits!!! As such, I play her as being slightly more attractive than Cha 12 because her people skills are lower than those of Cha 12.....Obviously those are my perceptions of Cha 12 but most people can apply enough common sense so we are all pretty much working on the same page.

So have a thought when creating your character, requesting a description change and obviously RPing your character as to what the balance is between your characters attractiveness and people skills and if you want to be good at both...actually put the points into Cha to reflect that rather than getting yourself a 'freebie’ and using it as a dump Stat.

5

Roleplaying / Roleplaying Attributes

« on: October 13, 2006, 01:59:43 pm »

Roleplaying Attributes (a/k/a Faldred's Essay Time, again)

In D&D, and by extension, Neverwinter Nights, there are six basic attribute types that define the basic "shell" of a character: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.  These attributes are used for a variety of purposes -- to apply bonuses or penalties to certain tasks, or as qualifications for certain classes, abilities, or feats.

But there really are two different types of abilities represented here: physical abilities (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution) and mental abilities (Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma -- yes, I'm classifying Charisma as a mental ability, stick with me here).  From a role-playing perspective, physical abilities are very easy to deal with -- how strong is the character?  How nimble?  How tough?

Mental abilities, on the other hand, are a bit different.  Take Intelligence... how smart is the character?  Well, unlike sheer physical strength or endurance, "smart" is harder to quantify and represent in-character.  Ditto for how wise or how charismatic the character is.  To make matters more difficult, it can be quite easy playing a character with radically different physical abilities than you possess, but in some ways, it can be quite hard playing characters with very different mental abilities, especially if they are higher than your own.


Intelligence

A high intelligence does not necessarily imply having a great deal of knowledge.  That is, a character with an INT of 25+ doesn't simply "know" everything.  In real-life, there are many highly intelligent people who are relatively ignorant because they have not had the opportunity to access information or to learn how to use their natural abilities.  On the flip side, many intelligent people who have had the opportunity know a great deal about certain areas, but still know very little about others.  (E.g., a PhD is often characterized as someone who knows a great deal about a very narrow subject and very little about everything else.)

Intelligence is, rather, a measure of how capable the character is of critically analyzing, synthesizing, and correlating information.  Or more simply, how well he or she is able to learn and to use logic.  In game terms, this is expressed in puzzle-solving, number of languages allowed (not necessarily granted), and as a skill modifier for skills requiring the use of learning, critical analysis, and/or problem-solving.  For example, a high intelligence helps the Search skill because the character can analyze the environment for clues as to where hidden devices may be located, and indications that one actually exists.

Roleplaying intelligence requires acting in accordance with your abilities when faced with a problem that requires thought and analysis.  This is a perfect example of why it is much easier to play "dumber" than it is to play "smarter".  That is to say, if you're playing a half-orc barbarian, you can very well play him as if he couldn't figure out the puzzle you the player saw through in an instant.  On the other hand how do you roleplay your elven wizard's ability to solve the riddle if you personally have no clue?


Wisdom

Wisdom is a dual-purpose ability.  It represents common sense, but more importantly, force of will -- mind over body, if you like.  On the first point, unlike Intelligence, a high Wisdom leads to a more intuitive approach to knowledge or problem solving -- certain things just make sense... well, because.  The character simply knows something to be true (even if it isn't).  Skills like Listen and Spot highlight this type of intuition.

On the second point, Wisdom acts as will power.  How strong is the mind against external attack or distraction?  In mechanics, this shows up as adjustments to Will saves, but in roleplaying, it is about staying focused on-task and avoiding temptations.

While not as difficult to play the extremes with wisdom as it is with intelligence, if you're personally borderline ADD, it might not be easy to play a character who can maintain a tough mental discipline.


Charisma

Ah yes... Charisma.  A mental ability?  Am I serious?  Absolutely.  Physical attractiveness is not the end-all and be-all of Charisma.  In fact, I would strongly consider dissociating the two a great deal, though not completely altogether.  A "beautiful" person can have the Charisma of a stick, and an "ugly" person can rule an empire by sheer will.  This is, of course, extreme, and human (or demi-human) nature leads us to naturally perceive those with what be believe to be positive physical traits as more charismatic, so it has some place.

But much more so than that, Charisma is the couter-point to Wisdom.  Whereas the latter is about force of will focused inward on one's self, Charisma is about the ability to impose one's will on others, hence its inclusion as a "mental" ability.  Leadership, to be slightly cynical, is about getting people to do what you think they should be doing, or, in other words, manipulating them.  This is not necessarily a bad thing -- the Paladin may believe that she is showing people the True Path and helping them focus their energies.  Of course, the same ability can be used by the dark side to dominate or (mentally) oppress others.  In any case, the abilities come from some combination of physical appearance, force of personality, leadership skill, smooth talking, and apparent moral authority.

In game mechanics, Charisma is expressed in two ways: spell-like abilities and diplomacy.  For "spontaneous" arcane casters (Bards and Sorcerers), it is the ability to manifest one's force of will in physical form as a spell; for Clerics, Paladins, and the like, it has an effect on their power over the undead, and as a "force multiplier" to certain spells and abilities.  Even the Use Magic Device skill works in this first regard -- the Bard or Rogue manages to bend the item to their use by force of will.  Diplomatic skills, specifically, Bluff, Intimidate, Persuade, and Taunt, are impacted by Charisma, in terms of imposing your will on someone else.  

Charisma, from a role-playing standpoint, offers probably a wider set of options than Wisdom or intelligence do.  A middle-of-the-road Charisma could be a slick-talking attractive person who just has no leadership skills or could just as well be an excellent managerial type who faints at the thought of public speaking.


Mixing and Matching

From a character definition standpoint, what makes the three "mental" abilities even more interesting is how they work together to create a personality.  The stereotypical absent-minded professor (or Wizard) can be represented as having a high intelligence and a low wisdom -- with a high Charisma, perhaps he becomes a great mentor, with a low one, a stuttering recluse.

But in short, just bear in mind the traits (or variety of traits) associated with each skill, and mix and match them together to come up with one logical approach for the character.  Above all, just avoid the lazy stereotypes of high-INT = "know it all", high-WIS = "sage who speaks in cryptic riddles", and high-CHA = "Faldred in a tux".

Edit: typo fixes