Zortel

Alraune tended bar again last night, chatting a bit to various patrons including Nightschild, who got him a free drink. She also talked to Justice Goldheart and several others, making chit-chat as she served the customers, before after clocking off her shift going to speak to Energyneer.

She later on hopped behind the till again to serve a few more people, including Amber Banshee, and recommended that Ginger drinks were good for digestion.

Number Nine in her Guardians of Destiny Battlearmour. Not too fond of the feet, or how the Justice Shoulderpads turned out, but I'm still pretty darn pleased with it!

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btw Zortel that art looks amazing!
Dont suppose it was you who I met down in the basement at the Brighton meet were we spoke breifly was it?

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Sitting on the PC that didn't play CoH while drawing? That was me, yup.

Maximillian in: Men In Black, a little sketch I did during break in my pad of paper.

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(The corpse of Nick and Zeyna's relationship isn't even cold yet and already the vultures begin to circle... As someone pretty new to the CoX RPing community, I have to wonder, is this normal? ))

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Yes. Yes it is. I could list all the relationships, but that'd be one huge, huge post that I make.

Alraune tended bar in Pocket D last night yet again, chatting to various people, serving drinks, getting irrate with impatient customers and getting worried about Nightschild, seeing as she could overhear most of what he said. Last thing she wants is a customer doing something stupid. She also got very friendly with Energyneer.

Friendly enough that the two went back to Dinah's place in Port Oakes for a nightcap.

Dinah also chatted briefly to Star Crusader, Half-n-Half who she considers to be an aqquaintance now, and some others, including Blackrun who forgot to take his tea, Hand of Sorrow who ordered a huge pitcher of beer, then didn't pay, and way too many for me to recount!

Alraune won't be bartending tonight in Pocket D, because I'm going off bowling with my work collegues.

Hope people are enjoying the service. It is a bloomin' stressful job though!

Those screenshots aren't really that good, I'm afraid. ^-^;
Problem is, with the auras running and the energy melee fist glow, it makes it hard to see details of the characters costume. A few standing still normally/up close shots would be useful too.

YAY! Thanks Sol Star!

As it wasn't posted in my art thread:

"Kiss From A Rose" - Roselin Thorne

Very good work, clearly worthy of your 'Best Work Yet' title. Love the pose, and the muscle lining.

Yes, as Ravenswing said, it can get confusing in busy places. In smaller, static-playered scenes though, it works fine.

1: If in doubt, ask. Send a tell to someone. This can be about their character, or a situation, or even a 'Oh god I'm lost and clueless, help!' kinda thing. Most people should be happy to help, but they may be busy too.

2: Peoples names do not float above their head. Also, they may not answer to that name, or even be known personally by it. This goe back to tip one, if you're not sure and the description of them doesn't help, send a tell asking.

3: Check peoples descriptions for useful information. It may have things in brackets or parenthesis ((, (, or [, for example, denoting OOC things of note. For example:

Alraune:
V Tells you yes, I'm an RPer.
[Roleplayer] [Full of Nature Magic] < If your character is magically-sensey, they may pick this up.

It can also contain descriptions of things not possible in the game engine. Tattoos, scars or eye colour not availble, and some basic public info.

4: Influence is not currency.
In-game, which is set in the US, the US Dollar is the legal tender.

5: Patience, young Padawan.
It may take some time for you to get into the swing of things, or to make contact with other IC characters. Heading to a busy place like Pocket D or Galaxy Girl, you may be ignored for a number of reasons: Your text got lost in the sea of words that fill the chat box, the characters were busy interacting privately, and couldn't really add a new, unknown person to a conversation, that kinda thing.

6: Get your character doing something, or saying something. Buy a drink, slurp on a cola from Up-n-Away, read the paper, mumble to yourself, fall over and die. Well, maybe not the last one. It can help show you're active and not standing AFK, and can help people interact with you. Example:

Person A stands under Galaxy Girl Statue, taking a slurp of cola from his drink.

Person B looks to Person A. "Hey, I'm kinda new in the city, could you tell me where's a good place to get a bite to eat and a drink?"

7: The bartender's dancing all funny and won't serve me!
For this problem, you can either look about to see if a player character is in another bar serving, or just NPC the barman. Example!

Player A nods to the barman. "Evening, could I get a whiskey please." he says, sliding the money across the counter before taking his drink once ready. "Thanks."

8: There's no one about!
A pretty surefire duo of places to find people to RP with in game are under Galaxy Girl's Statue (Galaxy City, behind Freedom Court.), and in Pocket D. People in Pocket D may be in the Heroes bar, Tiki Lounge, Monkey Fight Club bar or the Villains bar. It pays to look about and see. They're there most evenings.

9: ahjounojonoha?

Sorry? Ah, spelling and speaking and the like! For misspellings, you can generally leave some (If you've typed liek, or yoru for instance), though if it becomes another word, you might want to just correct it with a: ((*ducks)) or something.

Also remember you're hearing people speak, not reading their words. So, if someone writes Shakespear, when it's actually Shakespeare, you can assume that while they've missed off the e, they're pretty much talking about the Bard himself, and unless your character is a pronounciation facist, no need to point out "It's Shakespeare, you philisitne!" or the like.

And if you're not that good at writing or typing, doesn't mean you're going to be BANISHED from the realms of RP, as long as it's mostly legible and understandable, we'll be able to make sense of it. And remember, if you're having trouble understanding someone, you can always in a tell ask for a clearning up of what someone meant!

10: THere's a funny white box above someone's head saying 'Typing' or something, how do I do that?

Ah, the AFK typing bind box. Basically, this is done with a simple bind, which allows someone to see whether they're getting a reply or not. THe bind itself is:

/bind enter "startchat$$afk Message here"
So if you entered "startchat$$afk About to speak." when you pressed enter to start chatting, the box above your head would say "About to speak."

This is good for if you're writing a long sentance or description.

11: People are thinking actions!

Ah, the /emote, /em, /e or ; setting. Basically, this makes things appear as a thought bubble above your head, but in the chat window instead of:

Heroman: Hey everyone
You can have
Heroman thinks about that poor kitten he saved from a tree.

Which makes it good for things like:
Heroman waves to Superlady. "Hey, how's things been?"

12: People use *Smiles* and the like.
That's an emote done in the middle of a sentance. Or at the end. For instance:

Heroman: Oh, hey Sidekick Boy, get over here! *Waves Sidekick Boy over.*

13: I'm not comfortable with what's happening.

Sometimes things come up in RP that may disturb a player. If your character is not involved, then moving out of earshot or using /ignore charactername can help. If your character is involved, then a polite tell to the person running the plot or the others involved can really help, they can figure out something to remove you from the source of the uncomfortableness.

14: ((WHat's this do?))

Things in brackets are typically OOC chat. This is sometimes done on the local chat channel, for example:

((AFK, kitchen is on fire!)) or ((AFK, door/phone))

To hold longer conversations with one or more people OOC, you may wish to: Form a team with them and use team chat, use whispers, use a global channel or Supergroup chat.

15: What's IC/OOC, anyway?
IC means in character, OOC means out of character.

16: Is there a global chat channel for RP'ers?
There's one that I know of that's open to all, which is: GGOOC
You can join this channel and chat to other people OOC who attend the Galaxy Girl meets.

17: How can I arrange RP with someone?
Easy! Either through your supergroup if you're in there with them, or a global channel, in game e-mail or tell, or even on the forums! Sometimes RP will come to you, but sometimes if you want to get involved, you have to go to them and ask.

18: Why do people stand under that statue?
It's become a traditional meeting place now. People first met there when a heroine named The Prize called a meeting of heroes to discuss the Council threat, and people started to meet there since.

19: Day and night move really quickly.
Typically at the statue, and in Pocket D, we ignore in game passing of time, and instead use GMT 0/BST for the time. That's UK time, so +-1 hour for some people, or more for others.

20: What do I talk about?
Anything! You need to figure out what your hero does, their likes and dislikes, hobbies, jobs, personality, and then you can fit things in that they might have done to chat about. Like going to see a film. Typicalyl people use real world bands, brands, films and names, though there are some in game ones (Like up-n-away), or player things (Person C is a member of a rock band that's on tour in Paragon, for instance.)

21: Someone's being really stupid and rude to us.
/ignore and petitition are your friends in this case. Ignore the 'tool' as they've come to be known, and use Main Menu> Support in game to send a petition about them to the GM's if they're being rude or harrassing you.

22: I keep forgetting what's happening/happened.

Two/three things can help with this!

Main Menu > Options > Enable Logging
This enables you to make text logs automatically of what happens in game, which is stored in your City of Heroes install folder (Say C:/Program Files/City of Heroes/logs/)

YOu can also find recaps and stories on the main forum, or if you're part of an SG forum, then on there as well.

22: Is everyone here a hero/villain?

Who knows! THey may be a superhero, hero, villain, super villain, anti hero, dark hero, civil servant, goverment offical, robot, alien, civilian, family member, relative of another hero, the list is endless. It's roleplaying, people can be almost anything they want within reason.

23: Within reason?

Yes. COmmon sense applies here. Being the President of the US and going to Pocket D isn't very common sensible.

24: I just got shot and my character is about to die!

This depends on the people you're roleplaying with. IF someone just walks up to you and goes:

PLayer X pulls a gun out and shoots Player A in the chest, killing them instantly.

Then you've just been god-modded. What's god modding? Dictating the actions of others without their consent.

Player X draws a gun, aiming and firing at Player A
Player A quickly rolls to the side, avoiding the shot.

That's not god modding. Yet again, common sense applies here. If it's your GM (Gamesmaster, someone running an in game plot), then it depends on the mechanics they run under, and it's best to speak to them. Remember, if you want to remain IC, then you can mediport and heal up at the hospital, they treat lots of things. Or you can just ignore them, but that's less preferable.

25: I'm nervous about this.

It can be a little daunting at first, but once you get going, make some friends OOC and IC, it can be a hell of a lot of fun! Just remember:

Common Sense
Respect Other Players (And hopefully get respected back)
Use your better judgement and conscience when playing
And all that other malarky, and you should do fine.

26: Why are somepeople speaking in <Policeman: text> or the like?

That's people directing an NPC. For example:
Person A turns to the policeman. "Is that my file I needed?"
Person A: <The Policeman nods. "It is, Person A, sorry for the delay. I hope it helps.">
Person A nods and smiles. "It should, thank you."
Person A: <THe Policeman smiles and heads off.>

It can be useful when you don't have someone about to play a needed NPC.

27: Where -is- Paragon City?
Paragon City is situated on the East Coast of America, in the state of Rhode Island.

28: What do I do with Security Levels?
Well, some people ignore them, some have them as their 'rank' within a hero organization. For instance:

Person X: They bumped my clearance up to level 2 yesterday.
For if the player hit level 20.

29: Does security level = hero power?
Again, it depends. Some people roll an 'alt', which may be their hero in civilain clothing, or a different outfit. Some may be purely RP characters only, that are only brought out occasionally so are thus not leveled, but still powerful. An example would be my own character, Juan Ross. I don't play him often, and he ended up deleted as a main character, but he's still got more powers IC than his level 1 temp character has in game.

30: Alt?
An alternative character. Some people play one character IC, some play many characters, varying on situation, group and player mood.

31: Does RP happen elsewhere other than those two places?
Sure! It can happen in missions, in various parts of the city, in supergroup bases, even out of game on Instant Messaging, Chat clients and forums!

Last night was Alraune's first night tending bar, after applying to DJ Zero last night. Her first customer was Despare, who was rather rude and impolite at first, demanding vodka and giving a 'Don't you know who I/we are' speach. Alraune responded with that he was a patron in the bar, whatever he was outside didn't bother or scare her one bit. (Will need to check logs for exact wording)

Spearmint turned up and was served some Canadian beer, Ellie had a cola, and Alraune chatted to the people as she served them, and had to deal with several things through the night, including robots trying to tend bar.

Unsure as to if Alraune'll get the job, simply because I found it to be bloody stressful, annoying and infuriating at times. I can forsee problems ahead dealing with unruly patrons and theives.

Another update!

The mandatory Isaac of the update, with some work of shading done on him, though the scanner hates shading.

ShadowGhost's character Roselin Thorne, shaded as well.

And the somewhat mandatory Red Commissar reading the funnies page chibi sketch.

Damn, such quality entries others have posted... makes my attempts look feeble!

Just a few more little drawings done.

Chibi Jessica Stoneberg

Disco Dancing Chibi Miss Ellie

Chibi Number Nine, doing the 'Stare'

A rough drawing of Miss Ellie and Grav Mistress having a hug.

Should be okay for me.

Nene got very, very angry about that. Especially as nearby hero Lady Patriot didn't even bat an eyelid. Good thing she has more patience than the average person!

Last night, Girl Gyronaut drank a hell of a lot of cola, annoyed and got annoyed by Blackrun and left in a rather upset state when Blackrun started to plle on the 'Justin Timberhate'. I now need to ritually cleanse myself in fire for saying that JT is 'totally dreamy'.

Jan Boa arrived at the bar and was mostly quiet, getting into a little discussion about fighting with Stygian Minx and Rapacity before heading off to do whatever snake women do.

Number Nine arrived in her battle armour and nodded to Echo Hammer and Big Lunk, ordering a glass of wine before heading to the other bar to chat to Roselin Thorne, Lady Patriot, Nightschild, Rapacity and sensed Carrion Paw eyening up her non-existant pockets.

Heading to another bar as it was getting rather crowded, again, Nene got increasingly adgitated by Carrion Paw decieving Python's Breath, and went off to sulk and drink her wine. Rather muchly, may I add. ORdering another, she got talking to Rapacity, who was rather put off by her machineness until they started to get to know one another, and Silvana realised that Nene wasn't actually that bad. After a while of conversation, the two parted ways to head to bed, Nene bidding goodnight to Arrow Flame.

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And this is why it must be brought up again and again so that younger roleplayers don't make your horrible mistakes.


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Why do I now forsee the "Don't Do As We Did" RP'er thread coming?

*Checks her list of things on that*
It'd be a long post. :<

Aye, a lot of the games backstory simply isn't there, or has been delayed. I had several characters from the Hollows, but it took one and a half years for the Hollows zone information to be posted, and even then as I recall it didn't give a definative date on when the Hollowing took place. We're still waiting for zone info on many zones, background on heroes and villains.

Actually, there's not that much background information on Kheldians readily accessable. You have to play through the arcs and the Moonfire TF to get the information you need to RP a Kheldian, or go to a fansite and look up all the story arcs there. The same goes for a lot of other parts of the game, missing or delayed backstory, and if it comes out later and clashes with your character backstory, you have to work out what to do.

Last night/This Morning at Pocket D!:

Number Nine turned up and spoke to Vigilante Storm and Love Angel, and complimented Diana on her new hero costume. Chatting about various things, including mysterious (wo)men in black visits, Vigilante then said something to the two by accident, and after explaining wanted them not to mention this to anyone. Nene agreed, and so did Diana. After some more chat, Vigilante headed off, and told Diana to 'tell Tyger', which lead to a chat between the gynoid and the teen hero about Tyger, love and verious things. When Diana got upset about Coile and Sword of Truth's disappearnce and not hearing from them, Nene did her best to comfort Diana with hugs and as much advice as she could give. Diana told Nene that she thought Nene would make a good mother, because she was so caring. This brought a smile to Nene's face, and after a brief talk about happy dreams, Diana left to head home.

Nene went upstairs, and as well as seeing The Telepath, Arrow Striver, Dark Blow and some others, she bumped into Grav Mistress who was wearing a nice dress, duly complimented on. The two began to chat about work and things over a drink, before Jess got talking to Stupid Ninja and Nene headed to the bar to get a new drink, overhearing conversations about Crey from Wolvette and Swift Claw.

Jess joined Nene again later, and Nene mentioned she was pondering love related things. Tigergirl arrived and also complimented Jess on her choice of outfit, and got introduced to Nene, who talked about living with Doctor Temporis, who then appeared a while later. Leaving Jess and Yoko (Tigergirl) to chat, Nene greeted Doc and started to chat with him about hotels, mints on pillows which then sparked off an idea for some kind of steampunk mint-producing machine, and relationships, including Nene's initial trouble with her Hormonal Emulation System. After finishing her drinks, Nene bid goodnight to Doc, who also left, and she went home to the Laboratory to sleep.

Profile Update!

Global Name: @Zortel
Server: Union
CoH/CoV
Characters - Hero Side:
Fusebox - Daughter of former ZorTel Industries CEO's Zorielle and Tessa Rolando, Hannah Rolando worked briefly for GIFT before quitting. An Electrokinetic and Cyberpathic mutant, Hannah has a firm interest in PC's and gaming. A former Outcast, she spent a few months in Juvinile Hall for some minor crimes in her youth, but has redeemed herself. She runs thefusewire.org, a popular internet gaming site, and lives out of Paragon City, but visits often to hero and see friends.

Cauter - Lance Silverstone went missing for a while over Christmas in Bloody Bay, but is back now as the hero Cauter, also known as the Burning Sensation, and is determined to make himself known as a great hero. He's confined to his suit for most of the time, due to the nature of his powers, though tries to keep upbeat about this.

Number Nine - Nene Ninnezt has come a long way from her beginings as a simple gynoid, with an extensive social circle and group of friends now. A member of the Guardians of Destiny, the Crey built automaton has the ability to alter time and space locally within reason. Her best friend is Jane Darc, and she has a lot of contact with members of the Silent Tempest. She used to work for DATA in their Rikti Translation Unit, but is now unemployed.

Madame Midknight - Jane Darc is dead, and dead proud of it. A zombie, raised by powerful magics, she is a member of the Guardians of Destiny and dating fellow member Dark Stone. Her best friend is fellow GoD member Nene, and Jane can often be seen dragging Nene out to clubs of various reputation. In addition to her work as a parapsychologist, ghost buster and 'mediator to the living impaired', she GM's at the Wizard's Well in Galaxy City on Thursdays.

Storm Sapphire - Emily Preston used to be the weathergirl on Channel 7's Breakfast Paragon, until her life was changed by a kidnap attempt from the Circle of Thorns, and bonding with a Peacebringer. Now, Emily fights crime and trains in her newfound gifts as a Peacebringer, but is prone to bouts of rage, anger and depression, as well as talking out loud to her Kheldian half.

Characters - Villains:
Jan Boa After a brief stint in the Zig, Jan Boa is out and looking to rebuild her buisness as a jill of all trades, earning money safely by protection, extortion, bodyguarding, and dealing in a manner of things, including poisions and drugs. With her innate poisonous gifts, from her heritage as she claims of being a half snake, and her skill with pistols and commanding thugs to do her work, Jan's good at what she does. And seeking revenge on Storm Sapphire for putting her away, a dish that is best served cold.

Austin F. Pacat - There's something of the night about Austin, a lawyer who's won 180 consecutive cases. Perhaps the fact that he's not a slimeball lawyer, or is honest and seems genuinely concerned for justice?

Girl Gyronaut Gina Holstrom is the preppy, valley-girl daughter of Holstrom Technical Industries CEO David Holstrom. Rich, spoiled and rather silly at times, she seems to have an addiction to cola. In order to protect her from kidnapping attempts, her father has given her some force-field generating gloves and a robot to protect her. Her father also seems to want her to continue the family buisness and learn the skills and techniques he has.

Nah, I save that for when I'm at home, and usually to only pick up stuff that falls on the floor.

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Nick said that it was the most unpleasant time he had spent in the company of a lawyer.

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I'm pretty certain it was "The LEAST unpleasant time spent in the company of a Lawyer", but go with what you recall...

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Yes, you were correct, I was typing that up at college without my logs handy, and alt-tabbing to type up notes on Behavioural Psychology Key Concepts. Sorry!