Simon walks along the forest trail, next to the line of rats and wagons that make their way under the cover of the trees. He himself looks tired; they had already spent one night in the forest, and he had barely caught any sleep, between the unfamiliar and uncomfortable bedding and the eeriness of the woods at night. And the nights were still cold, to top it off. Almost without realizing it, he drifts a bit further away from the line.

Just letting everyone know that I won't be on the muck from Aug. 10 to Aug. 19. Try not to have too much fun while I'm gone. ;)

I found this interview of the person who created the MUD system (of which our MUCK is a cousin), and thought it was interesting enough to at least share. He talks a lot about how online worlds are put together (both MUDs and MMORPGs) and how social and game worlds began to develop.

Isabella has been sitting quietly near the back, in roughly the same vicinity as Zohar. Her eyes are on Justin as she takes in this news. *Just when things were starting to get peaceful around here...* "How can we stop them?" she asks, surprised to hear her own voice speaking aloud. "/Can/ we stop them?"

There is a murmur of conversation as various rats filter into the meeting hall. It's a fairly typical meeting, with most of the council members there, as well as a fair number of other rats and mice who have come to voice some concern or another, or even to just watch the proceedings. The meeting hasn't started quite yet, but it is already a few minutes past when it was due to start.

After reading Tod's post here about twinking, I thought I might weigh in on the issue. I'm posting this as a blog entry mostly so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle.

Twinking, as defined in the rules "is essentially the MUCK version of cheating. Size, speed, strength, agility, ability, and intelligence is a factor in all Role-Play, and to play unrealistically deadens the RP for everyone else..." It also comes back to one of the main rules of the muck: no player can force another player to RP. Period. It doesn't matter if the player joined the RP or not, they cannot be forced into doing something they don't want to do. It is something we take seriously here on NIMHmuck, though we encourage the players involved to try to come up with a resolution among themselves before wizards get directly involved.

However, most twinking can be resolved with the other player(s), amicably. One of the most common replies from players that have been accused of twinking where another player brought the matter to me is that they were not aware of the problem to begin with.

In which Violet extracts her revenge from Duane and Timothy for turning her fur purple. :)

Today on NIMHmuck we had a brainstorming session on how we could improve on the mechanics of our RPs. We identified a few common problems and came up with the following solutions. Please, if you have anything you'd like to add, leave it in the comments below.

Too much OOC chatter during an RP

• Encourage others to use pages/whispers/alts to talk OOCly.
• Install an ooc channel program that people can opt to be in or out of.
• Modify rooc/aooc to highlight OOC stuff with a different color for those with ansi color.

Too much time between poses, or poses are too long.

• Added a new FREE status that allows players to RP without a pose order.
• Encourage shorter poses through good peer pressure.
• Encourage people to work on their poses well before their turn comes up.

It's difficult to keep track of the pose order.

• Write a program that will keep track of the current pose order, allowing anyone to check their place in the order at any time, and possibly 'warn' a player that has a pose coming up or that skipped another player or was skipped by another player.

Again, if you have comments you'd like to make, please leave them below.

Leon groans and his eyes flutter open - somewhere outside he hears movement, but that's hardly uncommon. Since waking up in the cave a few days prior, he had been keeping track of how often Ranger came and went, how long he stayed and where he most frequented in the small cave. Escape was an impossibility, Leon figured, considering that, aside from being well-tied to a pair of sturdy iron rings, Ranger was never gone for long.

The light is sucked out of the room for an instant, as rangers large form comes marching into the cave. "been doing well?" he asks leon cruely. He has a large sack thrown over his back. "I hope you've been a good boy, because I have a present to show you" he snickers.

LVC: Terrace
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An unusual rock shelf along the mountainside has been transformed into a peaceful, outdoor haven, positioned about six meters up the mountain slope. The view is impressive, as the terrace overlooks the forested valley. One can see the stream sparkling across the colony's fields, and glimpses through the trees to the southeast reveal the colony's stone pavilion and popular soccer field. The terrace itself is lovingly made as a place for rest and relaxation: benches and wicker lounge-chairs are set in pairs or small groups near low tables, and tall oil lamps are lit when needed. Vines have been carefully trained over the wooden framework that covers the terrace, providing for a soothing green canopy in the warmer months -- but for now, the lack of green makes for a piercingly clear view of the sky overhead.