[Gossamer's Scrapbook] The Ethereal Canyon I

[Gossamer]

. Character Therapy It's true what they say that you can find anything on the internet... While browsing the internet last night at work I made a discovery that made me laugh and laugh. There's a real life licensed therapist on a one woman campaign to make sure mental disorders and grief and all things professional therapists deal with aren't misused or misrepresented by characters in books when authors write about them based off what they can find in places like books or the internet. She will, for the low price of $14.95, even psychoanalyze your PC and give you a professional assessment. I kid you not. I thought this was so funny I was tempted to do it for one of my PCs. I loved this idea and this woman's creativity. I don't know her personally and I am not trying to advertise for her, but I just thought I'd share it with you guys. Way to be an entrepreneur into todays tight economy. But regardless, she has tons of blogs you can read broken down into disorders and mental conditions where she's analyzed characters and given professional opinions. I spent several hours looking up mental disorders and laughing and reading her antidotes. You should try her out. I might even get a character assessment one of these days maybe as a treat. The Character Therapist .

[Verilian]

Wow... Now.. If I had $14.95 to spare, but I don't.

[Cachet]

Proves once and for all if there is a market there is someone willing to fill the niche need. No matter how strange it may seem.

[Kadrath Onktaka]

Lol, it's a valid thing alright. The world has become so litigious that making sure your novel/story characters don't spread blatant misinformation is sadly necessary. There will always be someone with a cousin, child, roommate, or parent who 'had that problem and was nothing like that so I'm suing you' kind of mentality. Sometimes people want to protect their butts against lawsuits and that woman has found an ingenious way of appealing to that market. As for the rest of us, it's interesting chat fodder, yes?

[Echelon]

omg that's so funny! thanks for sharing, Jen!

[Gossamer]

. Terminology People Because I'm tired of people misusing these terms! You'd be surprised at how much people misuse gaming terms. They hear a term once and think they know what it means. They like to shout them like a battle cry ("Sink the Bismark!") of injustice and dubious behavior. Some even tote it as a claim to fame like they are proud of their flawed beautiful nature. Fine. To each their own. But the line in the sand for me was another AS calling me a Metagamer for doing Domain Storyteller things like taking a race that is actively listed in the wiki as having a BAD REPUTATION (hello? Yes... its there) and saying because a group I'm working with thinks this race is bad, then I'm Metagaming. Moderators can't be accused of Metagaming because that's kinda right in line with what they do! Geeze folks... seriously? Calm your passions people. We get it. You love your chosen races. I love mine too. That doesn't mean they aren't beautifully flawed and loathed somewhere or everywhere in game. One Myrian eats one person's heart out one time in a non-Myrian setting where there are non-Myrian witnesses that live and I bet you any coin in the Mizahar world that incident becomes an instantly true Urban Legend and then all Myrian's everywhere are suddenly dubbed Cannibals. Why? Because its a great story and people IC gossip. Fun times folks. It's taboo in most human societies so when a non-human does it, then its big news in the sense of bards carrying the tale around, caravan traders gossiping about it, etc. In that same light, I'm fairly sure certain darker races have reputations that proceed them. Now, as a Founder and Storyteller, I can have NPCs know this reputation. Why? BECAUSE I'M A MODERATOR AND I INVENT PLOT! Can you as a PC know this? Nope.. not unless someone's told you or you have direct experience in it. I've had one PC in this game so far that was told all about the Symenestra, for example, by a Symenestra PC that befriended mine and warned her away from them while at the same time inviting her to visit Kalinor. She did. She lived. It was no big deal. Threads were never finished because the said Symenestra player quit, but dude.. take it up with him that my PC knows it. It's all documented in game. Another PC of mine knows about Syms as well. Why? A GODDESS TOLD HER. Yep. In thread. Well maybe it wasn't exactly a goddess, but it was a Goddess' priestess acting as her go-between. I didn't ask for the information. It just came up in a casual conversation. So... because we all seem so confused on these definitions, I've been working on a big bad OOC guide for Riverfall in my huge and as Cayenne puts it 'God Jen, no one will ever read that thing..." way I've included a whole host of topics including Mary Sues and more relevant to this blog, two key definitions. I thought I'd share. That way we can clear up whether the evil people on this game have been GODMODDING or METAGAMING or whatever the hell they seem so intent on shining the spotlight on. My take on it is simple. Don't do it. If you do, fix it when someone calls your bullshit and move on. If you bring it up more than once, you are just once more trying to spotlight yourself. So... clarity folks. Get some. And know these definitions BEFORE you go accusing others, please, especially storytellers. ❖ Godmodding & Powergaming Godmodding (sometimes called Powergaming) has a whole host of definitions, but is distinctly different from Metagaming. In general, Godmodding is a term used for those that create a character that is portrayed as skilled sometimes to the point that they are virtually indestructible and incredibly good at everything they do despite their skillset listed on their character sheet. Anyone who utilizes skills at a higher level than listed on their CS is considered a Godmodder. Godmodding is also a term used to refer to a character that describes an outcome of their own actions against another PC or NPC without giving the PC or the moderator a chance to respond. Ie. Character A swung his axe, cutting off Character B’s head! On Mizahar, its perfectly acceptable for Character A to swing to kill, just let Character B respond and at least try to dodge. In a situation where it is impossible for Character B to dodge (say hes laying prone on the ground unconscious), it can also be considered Godmodding for Character B to miraculously get away in a convenient and out of context way. A further use of Godmodding is when a character takes too many actions in one round of combat. Some people love to write great detailed in-depth posts, but one has to remember that doing actions takes time. This is especially true with magic. So if its our badboy Character A’s turn to post again, and he casts two fireballs, throws up a shield, and creates a sword of stone all out of his awesome Reimancy, odds are he’s not going to have time for all of that at once. A fireball or two is fine, but some things take concentration and PC’s have a tendency to forget about casting time in magic. And while the wiki doesn’t specify casting time, we go by the ‘is it reasonable in those seconds’ rules. Probably four creations of oozing djed, forming it, and utilizing it aren’t. Controlling characters that are not yours to begin with is also considered godmoding. This is not metagaming, like some people confuse it with. Metagaming is utilizing knowledge (usually a skill or some news relevant to the game) your PC does not have in thread. ❖ Metagaming Metagaming is simply defined as the use of out of character knowledge in an in character situation. A character played by a metagamer does not act in a way that reflects the character's in game experiences and back-story. Metagaming most commonly occurs when a pc utilizes knowledge (usually a skill or some news relevant to the game) they do not have in thread. Player A knows how to tie a killer knot thus Player A’s PC (Character A) can too! Where’d he learn how to tie knots? When? Show me the lore or skill? If you don’t have it, you don’t know it unless its considered in-game common knowledge. Now this is a mild example, a tiny whoops, but the use of Metagaming gets vast and ridiculous fast. Metagaming is not allowed in Riverfall. All Metagaming will be commented on and noted when threads are graded and most instances, when either noted by Storytellers or reported by players, will result in PM's that ask players to change their posts to more clearly reflect their PC's skillset. This is why it is important to keep your Character Sheet updated and current. Metagaming is distinctly different but closely related to Godmodding (Powergaming). Please see the Godmodding section for noted differences. Neither is allowed in Riverfall or on Mizahar in general. Mistakes are made, and sometimes these two instances happen without players being aware. We understand this, but expect corrections to be made if and when incidents do occur. Now, hopefully, we all know the difference. If your Godmodding, your using skills above your level, predetermining outcomes, or running characters both pc and npc you have no right to run. If your Metagaming your taking OOC Knowledge IC. We clear everyone? .

[Oluse]

People will read it. It's way friendlier than a wiki page.

[Kadrath Onktaka]

Jen, you've just clearly defined two of the most aggravating, annoying, frustrating subjects in the RP world! It is really hard sometimes to pull back the reins on your PC and go "I don't know anything about that subject-will you teach me," when in IRL, you could write a damn expert's guide on the subject!!

Godmodding or Metagaming by accident does sometimes happen. We're all guilty of it to some degree at one point or another. The point of your big beautiful guide is not to call names, but instead give people a definitive heads up. To anyone pointing fingers or making accusations-shame on you. That's not what these subjects are about.

Helping someone recognize a -mistake- will have you thanked 9 times out of 10. The 1 percent player who gets offended and just wants to insult you, needs a reality check on how to RP.

This guide is to help people find what they need, not cast judgement on a personal player. It -is- called guide so this should give a clue that it's here to guide you. Yes, it's a lot of text but guess what--this is a writer's site so you can't have writing without reading. If words of important information in a nice neat guide scare you--you don't belong on Mizahar.

These things in the wikis and ooc's are like giant term papers that must have an A grade, but will never be given due credit. It's thankless hard work to write them and instead of bitching about how big it is or how a 1 percent of the group is offended with a term, just thank the author.

Seriously just type in the small but sincere word 'Thanks!' and have done with it. You don't even have to type it--just copy paste the thanks I just put even! Yes some things are hard to find, or within a giant tsunami of words that look scary but someone made the time and enormous volunteered effort to make that batch of letters just for you to read. So read it and say thank you.

*hops off soapbox and grabs some coffee* Happy St. Patrick's day!

[Gossamer]

. For Jules Jules is dealing with some friends on her FB account that refuse to read decent even amazing books because they are too 'popular' right now because of having movie deals etc. I decided she needed this sign last night when we were talking about this. .

[Caelum]

The Hunger Games by Collins is amazing. I have had people tell me they probably won’t read it now because there is a movie. They drive me mad, these people. Here, here, Jen.