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On the reverse of this topic: What are your favorite skin trends? What makes you happy to go to a site every day? What makes you feel good about staring at something? I think I'd have to say... I still love sidebars. aka I can't think of anything.

So I love skinning and making things pretty and everything. I mean DF is my tweak time fun. I'm actually working on possibly starting a custom web design company based on the influx of customer's I just got. That being said I was wondering, within the roleplay world, what are your least favorite trends? What is it that makes you cringe every time you see it used. I think mine are huge waste of space banners. I understand that they are there to be flashy and (sometimes) have the information that used to go in a sidebar but really!? Do you have to have a banner that nearly spans 1200px in height to cover my desktop screen? Favorite ones from here:

Aw, I checked and we had one of these before but it's super old and locked now sooo, have a new one! Give us some memorable and favorite character quotes!

I looked a few pages back but I don't see one of these. So what are your characters doing right now?

I hope this is okay, I wasn't sure where else to post it and I don't think I saw another similar one. If so, feel free to point me in the right direction. As a player what usually draws me into a game has to do with how pretty it is. I know that probably seems silly, but if I can't stand to look at the skin of a game....I have a hard time with it. The app doesn't matter, if most of the people on it use doHTML or don't doesn't matter (I copy/paste into word either way), but....the appearance. And the rating. And, when it comes to finding something new, I either stumble across it advertising my site (just happened like a week and a half ago, and it was sooo pretty!), look in DF's directory or I'm referred by a friend. As a staffer so far advertising has worked surprisingly well. I'm just curious what works for everyone else, so I made a poll. What do you find gets you to join a game and how do you hear about said game? Staffers, what works for you the best? Is it completley pointless for us to use Facebook or Twitter because virtually all of us find each other via other means? Thanks guys, I'm just curious as both a staffer and a fellow rper.

I had another entry on relationships a while ago. This is a spinoff on it, based on the creative writing articles at http://www.springhole.net/writing/relationships-romance-and-shipping.htm I fully agree with the writer, and I know I have found these concepts before, in other creative writing books and articles. Some of the rules of writing romance are: 1. The characters need to communicate with each other, not only to gaze silently and sigh. To engage their love interest in meaningful conversation. How are they supposed to bond if they don’t even communicate? 2. The characters need to be aware of each other’s emotional needs and boundaries and one shouldn’t hate a major trait of the other (unless willing to overcome that hate, because this is possible too), because one can't actually love a person without accepting what the person actually is. 3. Don’t rush or take shortcuts in showing the relationship develop – show them in detail. Glossing over important relationship developments doesn’t do the story any favour. It makes it impossible for the readers to believe in the characters’ relationship or friendship, because it doesn’t create that emotional experience. 4. Don’t drop in a romance or crush out of nowhere, without a logical explanation and a gradual approach. All these are true - however, how many times one has seen the opposite in their stories? How many times one has picked up somebody's request for a lover... just not having them thread enough together in order to develop said relationship? How many times characters are avoiding effective communication and apply to offscreen shortcuts which make the relationship feel flat? And how many times writers (and therefore characters) vanish mid-story, leaving the other character in the air, and trying the best to glue back the shards into something to allow them to go on? How can a character go on after several such misfortunes, especially if they happen in a short story time? And how believable can be such a progression? Or, by contrary, if seeming unaffected... how it is possible, either? Why don't all the writers keep into consideration the creative writing rules and don't want to keep consistency in their stories?

So lately, I've redone a site of mine and got some friends to join, but it's not really picking up. It sucks when people join and then sort of vanish when they say they will stick around, so that threw me off a bit because now the site is so quiet. It's not like I want a bunch of members, but it's always hard to even find a few active ones who can post every once or twice a week. So my question is: what do you guys do and how do you go about handling advertising a site and bringing the right people in? Because I know sometimes it's hard to tell whether or not a person who joins will stick around.

You say you like your character. OK, then maybe you know that no character development can happen unless you post regularly and get involved with him in the story. That a character grows through interaction with other characters, while doing his duty, while partying or while fighting. There can be (and are recommended to be) individual plots too. But, again, just planning them and not actually writing them doesn't count. He has to be actively part of the story if you want exciting things to happen to him, to grow, to develop, to make friends. Equally, logging in and lurking on the site without actually writing doesn't count; your characters still don't get the development you want. There is no other magic solution than get to actually write.

One hears it so often from RPG partners - "If you don't like it, go write a novel (or fanfiction) instead!" But is this really the solution, instead of talking with the writing partners and finding by negotiation and compromise a solution matching everyone's writing needs, halfway? Writing a novel? Been there, done that (in my mother tongue) - several novel-length stories. (The list is somewhere here, in this blog, but given that it doesn't allow me to past links in words anymore, I give up searching for it. Breaking my blog entry with http links splashed as such isn't an aesthetic I prefer.) And yes, I do finish what I start. But writing a novel is a lonely endeavour. Just me and the computer (or notebooks before) and the research sources. Then, it stays somewhere in a corner of the computer and this is it. If in the past some people were curious to read the manuscript, even when it was handwritten on paper because nobody had a PC (and the existing PCs were writing on colourful cards, not on paper at that time) now people don’t read as much in general, I have noticed this. Since I discovered that RPGs do exist, ie one can write a story together with other people, and get it published on the internet for more people to read it and to discuss about it, I have no more interest in writing alone. (I might return to it some day, I don’t dismiss the possibility. But maybe something would change in order for me to return. Maybe at that moment I’d have around me a support group interested in reading and discussing characters, plots, motives, literary techniques). I like more writing with others instead of writing alone, plotting with others instead of doing it alone, making come true both my stories and the others’, negotiating and finding a midway for aspects where the expectations are radically different, so that it keeps being fun and interesting for all of us, discussing what’s behind the story and the research process, gossiping and discarding several alternatives after choosing the one with the most ripples for the plot. Finding online likeminded friends of any ages, places, cultural, social and national background, interested in writing and reading, when there are none around me. So yes, this is the answer why I wouldn’t write a novel alone, but one with others (a RPG, how writing with others is called) but still applying the rules of creative writing to this writing endeavour, planning included (just planning together, no more alone, and writing together, no more alone).

Okay, aside from the $1mil I need, there are some other things that I'd dearly love that are role play related. This seems like a good post to start it off on! Time. Like seriously, can I just be Piper from Charmed and stop time to do rp stuff in the middle of my day? Because I think that's the only way it'll happen. Time. It gets a second one because it's that damn important. A Star Trek rpg. Like, Deep Space Nine. I love my Cardassians, and my Vorta (sexy little bastards). Doctor Who role play, preferably Nine's era. Because I love my 9. Time. Did I mention that one already? Benedict Cumberbatch. I just want him, period. A new house (that's not part of this, and it's more of a need, but I thought I'd throw it in there in case any of you have a spare one floating around. Beachfront works for me.) Sherlock Holmes. A sexy beast that man is. A great rp it would be, I am certain. To be able to talk like Yoda at will. I think I can type like him, maybe? A Harry Potter rpg. I want to ship Snape and my OFC. Seriously. Another Star Trek set after the latest new movie. Khan should be involved. And why? I refer you to 6.

A "member" (I'll call them C) of my site shows up fairly infrequently (their last login was June 21st) and each time they do they generally don't stick around long. (Maybe a day or two at most.) That by itself is kinda irksome simply because we can't really rely on them for anything. (It's hard to include them in posts or anything because they're not around much. And, personally, I don't feel like holding everything up if I can help it simply because they weren't around. Nor do I feel like chasing them around letting them know it's their turn/they can post or whatever. I have other things I have to do and that isn't one of them. They're an adult, if they want to be a part then they need to check in.) C also has a tendency to only really use our chatbox to complain about activity levels. That itself is something I have repeatedly asked people (including C) not to do in our chatbox for the simple reason that it doesn't help. If we're in a slow period (which happens because people are busy and can't post) then mentioning it in the chatbox doesn't help speed things up. It just comes off rude and can actually hamper any attempts to advertise. People are likely to see "no posts" or stuff like that in the chatbox and they click out before even looking at the site (and before they'd even see that posts were made that day or the day before). This especially bothers me when people complaining about activity are the ones who either aren't active themselves or have tendency to vanish. I don't think it's at all acceptable to be complaining about activity if you're not even trying to help out. (Showing up once a month to make maybe one post is not really enough to quality. One post a month is, like, barely there.) I will admit that I've not handled things to the best I could regarding C. I've lost my cool a few times when they've been in the chatbox being obnoxious. One instance they were haranguing a member for details on something and had been told to stop twice. When they pushed the third time I told them in no uncertain terms to stop. Another time I got fed up with their attitude regarding an event and essentially told them if they didn't like how I did things then they could run the next one. There have also been a few other instances in the past which have given me a bit of distaste for them. So now they've visited our chatbox recently and have left a message stating they hoped for activity. (Which, there was some since they last visited and they could within reason make a post to help move things forward. But they didn't.) At this point I'm kind of frustrated and annoyed by C. I've debated with myself a few times what to do about them. I could ban them, it might not be the most fair/justified ban... But I could do it given the evidence and their behaviour. I could ask them to decide whether they're a part of the site or not, and if they are to actually show up and be more active... and if not then to just walk away and not bother wasting our time with these once a month appearances when they can remember we exist. Normally I feel like I have a pretty good handle on most situations and can judge things accurately. But in this particular case I'm feeling like I'm a bit too biased to make a fair decision. So before I take any action I thought it best to seek external thoughts. So then... what should I do?

"...Embrace Chaos." Here, you'll find a collection of my writing, be it poetry or otherwise! Enjoy - - - - - - Table Of Contents "Breathe" - Poetry "See" - Poetry "Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep" - Roleplay Post "Moonlit Sacrifice" - Original Story Part 1 "Death Becomes Her" - Roleplay Post "Silk?" - Roleplay Post "What Dreams May Come" - Roleplay Post

I understand that not all the characters are religious. However, if a religion is mentioned in a character's bio, one should use it at least a little - even if it means to highlight that he has evolved and doesn't believe anymore, and that his current beliefs aren't the same with the ones he was taught in childhood. Not to have it written in the bio, then act as if it was never mentioned. Why bother then to mention it in the first place? This is twice as valid when it is about somebody hiding his religion. There might be the desire to blend in, to seem unconspicuous and to deliberately not show any trace of the hidden religion. It makes perfect sense - but in the character's thoughts, there has to be this deliberate choice; an inner conflict, from time to time, between what he had been taught initially and what he has to do now. Or minor, delicate little things which still pertain to the hidden religion, even if they can't be directly traced to it. For example, there are two NPCs, one muslim, one Jewish - in a time where Inquisition still existed and... burned. The muslim one still believes in Allah as he had been taught, just that he can't say it in the open. He doesn't pray all 5 times a day, at least not visibly, but he surely says the prayer in his mind when he can. He gets up earlier than the others he lives with, for the ritual ablutions. This means he is cleaner than others, and a little teased for it, but nobody makes the connection between a strange (for that time) desire for cleanliness and religion. He does abstain from eating pork as much as possible; but when he crossed the sea (and not as a passenger) to the colonies, he had to eat what the others did. Salt pork and hard tack was the general menu. As he is isolated from any other Muslims, he doesn't keep any holidays because nobody can tell him when they are (moon-based religious calendar). The Jewish is a sailor; again, he does abstain from eating pork as much as possible; but when at sea, he can't. He eats with the others, so the notions of kashrut had to be forgotten. Even so, I think he'd never mix dairy and meat at the same meal, and he'd prefer drinking strong drinks or ale instead of wine (which, according to kashrut, is sacred and should have been only grown and harvested by Jews according to kashrut provisions). He also doesn't gamble, because he remembers from his bar mitzvah (the only torah studies he had ever done) that it is forbidden. He doesn't know much more than the basics about his own religion, so other precepts he might infringe in good conscience, without knowing. He also tried to avoid medical control aboard the ship whenever he could. At the transfer to a new ship he couldn't anymore, so he trembled what would happen when the doctor would discover the pledge of Abraham carved in his flesh. Fortunately for him, that particular doctor didn't care and didn't report. These aren't much. Just little details to flesh up more a character over time - and taking into account that these are NPCs, even more than needed. But still something to make the characters more rounded and more believable. I wished others would do the same. The Jewish sailor's sister never had a moment of thinking about God, of conflicting thoughts or anything. My Catholic characters, more or less believers, show their religious thoughts (or contempt towards them, for one who doesn't believe anymore). There is one who was once Catholic but turned Anglican because it was bad for business to be Catholic. He isn't much religious of any nature, still there are some inner conflicts within him between what he had learnt in his first school years with the monks and what he is doing now. My point is that if you gave your character a religion, show it a little in his thoughts, deeds or habits.

NIGHTMARE ZERO'S POPULARITY ON THE RISE A recent new video game released at the beginning of this year has gamers from all over Nyxis flocking to play. The video game, which is an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) is set in a fantasy land called Sedna, where players can choose a character from several different classes to explore, fight monsters, interact with other players, and more. The open-ended plot of the game, which involves taking on jobs, fighting monsters against one another, and joining guilds, is said to be a large part of the draw. Read more here!