Hello Fellow Mizaharians!
Keeping with our tradition, the Founders Circle and Regional Storytellers are proud to announce that the Featured Contributor of the Month of January 2019 is Regime! Regime is one of our oldest Storyteller/Players kicking around the game. Its easy to say he's 'old school' and knows a great deal about the game and how to put together a good plot. Please join me in congratulating Regime on earning this award. His Interview is below! |
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The Interview!
1. What drew you to be a Storyteller for Mizahar? I’d love to know what is in it for you. I know Storytellers give a lot of time and energy. Your payoff and rewards are what we’d like to hear about.
First of all, Happy New Year! Although, we still have a bit to wait before we celebrate the Valterrian.
I always knew I was going to be a Storyteller. I've had been on Miz for a few years as a player. Although, It wasn't all a constant stream of activity. I always found my way back since I enjoyed writing here. Miz became a place where I could just have fun and escape stress. After some point in time I had come to understand the setting of the world to a competent degree, then after a talk with chat in ye'old Ajax, I applied.
It's rewarding to see people want to root their characters in Sunberth. That alone is gratifying after going through the work of cleaning things up. The pay off to that is seeing people take what I've done and using it. I think people forget that an ST can both facilitate fun for others and then still participate in their city. I don’t mean directly with my own ST plots, but with the new things that grew from them. It turns the players into people who facilitate fun for me. Its why we are here to write with each other, even though I do tend to enjoy my solos thread.
2. Sunberth is a very unique city. What do you think its draws are? Can you elaborate a bit on its strengths and weaknesses?
Its major strength is that it's open to everyone. All races, creeds of any god, moralities. You name it, its allowed in Sunberth. Its a city of endless possibilities, so long as it fits the lore.
Its one weakness is that the city will fight with tooth and claw if anything tries to change it. It wants to be stagnant, like a living organism fighting off that flu of change. The reason Sunberth hates magic is now out of spite for what it once was. It does not want to be that again.
That spite also means the city is literally run by no one. As such, it lacks true infrastructure. So it depends on the will to survive that people want to not live in squalor, then fight to keep what they own. That weakness is a defining aspect of the Sunberthan culture.
At the best of times, its power is held like sand slipping through the fingers of groups trying to manage what little power they have before it's gone. The city is free. It adapts, changes, burns itself to the ground, and keeps on trucking. It will feel new but ultimately be what it always is. That is a strength. It's a cockroach in the vault full of gold. The culture of the city is built on opportunity and the will to live. The one real unspoken rule is obviously not to use magic. When a mage is found, the city doesn’t "police" itself, it riots. Indiscriminately until its satisfied that the fear of magic is reaffirmed.
3. What is your favorite part of Mizahar’s operating system - meaning how it functions as a game? Do you think it’s fair and balanced?
I'm a simple man. My favorite part is adding a new bit of Xp to my character sheet. That moment is gratifying to an addictive degree.
From the top down, Mizahar's community is made for writers. The more you write, the more you skill and lore. You grow your characters into fully developed PC with each post. I believe the game is fair, but not balanced. All players have the same opportunities, which makes putting in the work the only thing holding anyone back. Nothing is truly perfect. When inconsistencies to that balance arise, then the issue is seen to. Inconsistency happens sometimes.
Resolve itself is a new thing that sprung from the dicing guide, which came from the fact that the xp has a numerical system. And if you haven't calculated your own characters resolve yet, then you should.
4. You are infamous (or famous?) for your storyseeds you give out to players that request them. Can you talk about them a bit and what your process is behind them?
People often get overwhelmed with the fear of freedom of choice.
If someone in Sunberth doesn’t know what to do, or needs a little push to start their own plots. Then I can place seeds down a path for them to follow. These seeds can be random or character specific. My process behind them tends to start with me writing down maybe twenty bullet points at the start of the season.
As an example: Three dead crows keep getting left at your door.
What would your character do? Would they not care? Would they enjoy the free bird bones? Beyond that, I have further seeds that connect to them. However, they are not set in stone. I change them depending on how the pc goes about looking into the first thing. Story seeds tend to be a noose that a player hangs themselves on, because they are their own worst enemy. Player choice, that's is where my infamy comes from.
5. Storyteller organization is key. What types of things do you do to keep organized as a storyteller.
I mostly use Google Spreadsheets, Google Docs, and bullet journals. I'm always jotting down random ideas in my journals. But google docs are where I mostly make everything. That just for ease of access from my phone or computers. Like listing out who is interacting with what Npc. So if I need to write a post, it won't seem like that NPC has never interacted with a player before. Or keeping tabs on how a player is interacting with a gang and if any npc would care.
6. What have been some of your favorite Sunberth moments as a moderator? Please go into detail!
I would have stalled out if I had to pick one, but a few of my favorites are when I get to write as rare city NPCs. I wrote a post or two as Goldfinger for a pcs job intro, and I enjoyed writing such a cerebral character interacting with a newbie spy. Likewise, I enjoyed when the midnight gem crew first interacted with the slab. It growing legs and the sheer panic it caused gave me a nice chuckle.
7. If you could share something about Mizahar that you think makes it stand out from other games, what would it be?
Its originality alone makes it stand out from other fantasy rpgs. The sheer amount of lore that has been built up and expanded on over the yeas has made it into a fully fleshed out world. I've spent hours of my day just reading through the wiki for the fun of it, and I know many others out their have as well.
8. Sunberth is a dark place at times. You’ve managed to make it darker developing some monstrous backstories for the Slag Heap inhabitant. Do you have any teasers for what might get even darker about the city in the future?
Sunberth hates magic, but that doesn't stop it from existing in the background. I don't want to give too much away, but land travel is difficult for a reason. Better stay in the city. I hear there is a temple to pray at for safety.
9. Do you think ST presence in chat helps or hinders players and their planning? How do you like to ideally use chat as a tool to assist you in getting players on track in your domains?
Players may think it hinders them, but I believe it helps. Imagine people talking about a plot that makes zero sense, then running with it. An ST can tell them the right way to start going about things from the right direction. ST's are suppose to help. Imagine someone trying to make a pacifist Vantha PC bartender in Sunberth at the moment. Work for hours on making a character only to be wiped away in their first thread.
10. If there is one thing you could change about player behavior or attitude, what would that be from a storyteller perspective… and of course why?
I'd love to change that voice in the back of players minds that think they are the exception to the rule. It baffles me how often I have to tell people the city hates magic, or to treat it with the the utmost caution. Then I read a thread where people throw flames and fight like mages in public. Meanwhile, they only have background npc stand around 'dumbfounded'. That's not how the city works. The city will literally try to kill them on the spot.
11. This next question is your soap box. Use this space to talk about whatever it is that’s on your mind. People actually read these interviews so know that this section will get noticed.
I've never been one to stand on a soap box, but volunteers are what keep things running smoothly around here from staff to the graders. if you are at that point where you are able to apply to be a Storyteller, then you should go for it. Mizahar has been both a hobby and creative outlet that I love to see others take part in. And you made it this far.... thanks for having read all my rambling. It means a lot to me.
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by Ixzo on January 2nd, 2019, 3:10 am 
