PoisonPen

Group Name: The EYE OF HORUS

Server/Game: Virtue

Theme: Early 20th century pulp

Contacts: Grimstalk on Virtue, or @NoJusticeNoPeace

Background & Structure: Beneath the glittering spires of Paragon City lie shadows upon which the light of day dare not shine. It is here that only a terrible few take courage to tread the secret paths and byways of power, a dark cabal of Nietzschean Overmen whose path is illuminated by the wisdom of the all-seeing EYE OF HORUS!

We're looking for people who love the old pulps, and who understand the larger-than-life style of roleplay they entail: an admixture of hard-boiled detective novel, overwrought, Lovecraftian, purple prose, and dimestore comic books. In the spirit of the pulps, the SG - played as an elitist secret society bent on saving the world from itself through whatever means necessary - has a faux-Egyptian theme. Players are expected to create a pulp-themed hero or anti-hero, which means capes-and-underpants will not be in great supply. Roleplay should be fun but immersive, which means it's more about style than plotting soap opera character arcs.

We don't want a huge group, just a handful of people, each of whom can stake out her or his own personal schtick. We want everyone to feel unique - something critical to the pulp feel - and have a chance to share the spotlight.

Contact Grimstalk (an undead 15th century assassin-killing existentialist who refers to himself as the "Murderer Supreme," talks in the third person, and narrates his overwrought internal dialogue aloud), or send game mail to @NoJusticeNoPeace if you're interested.

Group Name: The EYE OF HORUS

Server/Game: Virtue

Theme: Early 20th century pulp

Contacts: Grimstalk on Virtue, or @NoJusticeNoPeace

Background & Structure: Beneath the glittering spires of Paragon City lie shadows upon which the light of day dare not shine. It is here that only a terrible few take courage to tread the secret paths and byways of power, a dark cabal of Nietzschean Overmen whose path is illuminated by the wisdom of the all-seeing EYE OF HORUS!

We're looking for people who love the old pulps, and who understand the larger-than-life style of roleplay they entail: an admixture of hard-boiled detective novel, overwrought, Lovecraftian, purple prose, and dimestore comic books. In the spirit of the pulps, the SG - played as an elitist secret society bent on saving the world from itself through whatever means necessary - has a faux-Egyptian theme. Players are expected to create a pulp-themed hero or anti-hero, which means capes-and-underpants will not be in great supply. Roleplay should be fun but immersive, which means it's more about style than plotting soap opera character arcs.

We don't want a huge group, just a handful of people, each of whom can stake out her or his own personal schtick. We want everyone to feel unique - something critical to the pulp feel - and have a chance to share the spotlight.

Contact Grimstalk (an undead 15th century assassin-killing existentialist who refers to himself as the "Murderer Supreme," talks in the third person, and narrates his overwrought internal dialogue aloud), or send game mail to @NoJusticeNoPeace if you're interested.

I'm searching for an UNofficial CoX message forum for general discussion of CoX, comic books, superhero RPGs, and so on. It should have a general policy of non-censorship, be relatively clique-free, have an average IQ in the triple digits, and promote a state of reasonable literacy. A scattering of weeaboos. Bronies, and/or furries are acceptable (and probably inevitable), but preferably kept to a dull background roar. If you know of such a place, please send me a private message.

I don't use realtime virus protection, so it's not my AV. And the only time this artifact appears is after I've run CoX. I don't even need to connect, just load it up and the artifact appears. Moving windows over the artifact does nothing. Refreshing the desktop does nothing. Changing the desktop image and screen size does nothing. As long as I don't load CoX, I go weeks without the artifact appearing. The instant I load it, I'm stuck with the artifact until I reboot.

It really is mystifying. Largely benign, but mystifying.

There is one thing which might account for it, though I don't know what the mechanism would be. When I migrated my files to a new computer, I didn't do a fresh install of CoX. I purchased CoX online, so I didn't want to have to re-download dozens of gigs of files and updates from scratch. I copied the files over, then tricked the NCSoft launcher into resetting its registry entries by telling it to download all the files, then shutting it down just before it did. Is this a possible culprit?

For some reason, every time I load CoX, my desktop gets an odd graphical artifact which will not go away until my computer is rebooted - and the next time I load CoX it comes right back, and in the same spot.

Here's what it looks like:



You can see it just to the right of my shortcuts, the odd silver-coloured graphical glitch. It's always this specific shape and always in this specific location. Refreshing the desktop doesn't help, either. This has been bothering me for a long time. Does anyone have any idea what it is, or how I can get rid of it?

Running Win7 Home 64 if that makes any difference, with a GTX 285 video card and 16 gigs of DDR3.

Moved to correct forum. Thanks, Rajani.

(Feel free to delete this thread.)

Try giving them a single "pistol" power from the MM thugs set.

First, thanks very much for making the attempt.

I did mention in my posting in item (2) that there are no bios or NPC chatter yet because I need to know how much space I'll have left to allot to each. That will be the last thing I do when everything else is finalized, because I'll be using up every last byte.

In answer to your question, there are seven types of angels on each of the first three levels (777 being significant in that the numbers 3 and 7 have mythological and archetypal connections to YHWH), as well as 3 unique EBs on each. That makes a total of 21 non-uniques, and 9 uniques. In addition, there's a hidden, unique NPC ally available in the second map. The last map has 2 unique EBs and a unique AV, for a grand total of 34 custom NPCs + the contact, Lucifer.

I didn't intend for this arc to be soloable (although I think it may be possible with the right high-level build), and mention as much right in the arc description: that it's intended for high-level groups of heroes/villains. I've deliberately given the bosses wide varieties of abilities so that it should require cooperation to take them down. Playtesting has shown that three seems to be an acceptable number.

You're right that this arc isn't finished. I tried to indicate as much in my original posting, but I apologize for not being clear. I will be clear here: This arc is not in a state of completion. The bios and NPC chatter are missing, and I've not yet settled firmly on the maps which are currently in use. The very reason I'm asking for playtesters is to get the feedback I need to finish the arc.

Again, for others, I want to reiterate that this is not a finished and polished story arc. It's playable, but it's going to require more work. I need your assistance to get it finished and polished.

So, I'm starting to get close to completion on this arc, in which you take the side of Lucifer Morningstar against the Throne of Heaven, roughly based around the sympathetic portrayal of Lucifer from Milton's Paradise Lost. I've accompanied a few groups of playtesters, but I need a lot more to be able to finish this off, and it's extremely hard to find people willing to do so in-game. I'm hoping some folks here can help.

A few notes, first.

(1) This is not a superhero-themed arc, and I'm less concerned about gameplay than I am the feel, mood, and style. I've had several playtesters complain because they felt this arc doesn't feel superheroic. For example, one playtester was quite firm that there are "too many varieties of angels," and that I should use "Crey style" conventions of similar appearance. This is not going to happen. I spent a lot of time doing research on the Heavenly Host to make their appearances and powers as authentic as possible, and ended up using the medieval theology of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite as my primary source for the Host, with Kabbalic lore as my source for most of the individual angelic lords. This was my inspiration for creating the arc in the first place, so this, at least, is not going to change.

(2) There are no NPC bios or chatter yet, because I'm going to be very close to the file size limit, and I have to know how much space I have left before I can determine how much text I can afford to allot to each.

(3) I'm not entirely sure about the first map. I'm using Oranbega, Baron Zoria's Lair, right now, and while the mood is right for Sheol (think along the lines of the Greek underworld), it's too large and every group of playtesters so far has found it dull. Combined with the fact that I restrict the enemies you face to the least powerful angels (the Third Circle of the Host), there's not a lot of variety and I'm concerned that people may lose interest in the arc before they've bothered to experience the later levels with a lot more challenge and variety.

(4) With the exception of the first level and the last level, everything else has large, open spaces for the angels to fly. This is by design. My conception for combat involves large flocks of angels wheeling overhead, players and angels swooping through the sky at each other, dogfighting. Some of the playtesters have complained that all these flying enemies in open areas are irritating and should be removed. That's not going to happen, since it's been made this way intentionally.

(5) Playtesters complained that "bosses" were hard to spot amongst all the varicoloured angelic hordes, so now they all do a fire cast animation to make them very visible, and their followers all do a karate kneel.

(6) I'm having a lot of trouble adjusting the challenge level, and I'm worried that the self-selecting playtester sample may be skewing results. My playtesters all tend to be bored, level 50+4 players with a lot of experience. They've complained about the lack of challenge, so I've kept slowly increasing enemy numbers and difficulty. A group of level 44 playtesters were chewed up and spit out by the very first level, which makes me worried that I may have gone too far in accomodating power-players.

(7) Right now, I have missions set up so that you need to defeat 3 bosses, then recover 3 artifacts which spawn when their associated boss is defeated. I've noticed that (particularly on the first map), time spent hunting artifacts is boring and anticlimactic. I'm considering eliminating the separate artifacts and just using a clue stating that the player recovered the artifact on defeat of the boss. My only hesitation is that I'm worried people won't even notice, making the goal of the maps puzzling, and ruining the immersion. Advice on this is appreciated.

(8) If you playtest this arc, please make sure you have at least four players (or set yourself to x4) so that all the bosses come out to play. Also, make sure you have AVs turned on, or the final battle in the throne room of YHWH is not going to be very challenging.

(9) Please feel free to criticize anything and everything. I have a thick skin, and I am genuinely grateful for people who can help me improve something into which I've sunk a lot of time and effort. Just be aware that I may not agree with some recommendations (particularly those involving style and feel), and if I don't adopt your particular concerns, no offence is meant, and I am still hugely grateful for your input.

(10) I am already aware that the word "Raziel" from the book Sefer Raziel HaMalakh is misspelled in several places. I had no choice, since the wise, prudent people at NCSoft have declared the word "Raziel" to be copyrighted. Never mind that the name is 4000 years old and that the copyright would be the property of some Bronze Age middle-eastern sheep-herding barbarian. Raziel himself is renamed to Galidur, one of the alternative names provided by the literature. Unfortunately, his book, the Sefer Raziel HaMalakh, contains the word "Raziel" in all its alternative variations.

(11) Some players have complained that the angelic lords (like Michael) don't look impressive enough. Please let me know if you feel the angelic Host isn't, well, sufficiently angelic. I'm also well aware that angels don't have gender, and that they should look androgynous. Sadly, the game doesn't really permit for this. As a result I've assigned gender based on personal opinion (and in some cases, like the female Gabriel, along the lines of some post-modern reinterpretations). For the sake of appearance, I've also left out some defensive sets; ice, dark, and stone change the appearance so greatly that it rendered their angelic appearance moot, so I've replaced all these sets with less visually disruptive sets.

(12) I guess I should also add that some strange synchronicities have been happening since I started work on this arc. For example, one day I was working on the angel Sandalphon and asked for some assistance with the AE editor on the Help channel. A player named Sandalphon answered me. For another example, when I hit "save" on the Holy Spirit for the first time (which is depicted historically as a bird, and in my arc with a bird's head and feet), CoX produced a very loud, surprising, and inexplicable bird-screeching sound effect -- while I was inside the AE studio. My arc is as close as I could make it to theological and mythological accuracy, and we're dealing with some very powerful archetypes. Whether or not you believe in the so-called "supernatural," powerful archetypes have a very strong and well-documented effect on the human psyche through the collective unconscious. I mention all of this as fair warning for anyone who is prepared to assist in the making of this arc, just for the sake of my own conscience.

Arc # is 537993 and the name is "Awake, Arise, or Be Forever Fall'n." My in-game name is @NoJusticeNoPeace and I'm most usually playing as Grimstalk on Virtue. I have characters on both Virtue and Union, and if I'm around when you playtest, I'd appreciate being allowed to tag along and observe.

I'm not trying to be aggressive, I'm just annoyed that every single time I've tried explaining what I'm looking for to people who call themselves "roleplayers," one or more people have taken high offence and told me that, variously, it's not real roleplaying (whatever that is), that it's stupid, that I'm lying, and so on. I've become gun-shy about even mentioning it, since I'm now getting a rap for being a troll for making what people regard as outrageous requests for people to contact me who share my desire for iconic roleplaying.

(And I put "roleplayers" in quotes not because I'm trying to imply they're not, but because that's the specific term they use to identify themselves.)

Anyway, it's good to know that I'm not actually the only person who enjoys a sort of Golden Age roleplaying experience. I get the feeling that a lot of the people who take personal offence at the idea of iconic roleplaying are young and grew up with the 90s Dark Age era comics, the X-Men soap opera stuff. I think they don't realize that when a deconstruction of a genre becomes the norm, it's no longer a deconstruction and becomes the new structuralist orthodoxy.

The amateur thespian auteur
Can do whatev' revs up his motor
But I get irate
When swarmed with a spate
Of closeminded bile-spitting hauteur.

The tone of your comment has haunted
Each convo with Virtue's much-vaunted
Roleplaying crowd
Who sneer aloud
That what they don't like is unwanted.

I'm over on Virtue, and for the last couple of months I've been trying hard to get a pulp-themed blueside SG off the ground... without much success. The idea is to use a style of roleplaying which fits the iconic feel of the old pulps, where there all the characters "reset" to their classic state between adventures. There are no continuing storylines; each adventure is self-contained, and while the characters acknowledge that they know each other, there's not usually any specific references to what has occured in the past. James Bond movies and Star Trek episodes (original series) can be viewed in any order without confusion because they use this same iconic styling. The pulp characters I'm trying to get people to emulate -- Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, The Shadow, Phantomas, Doc Savage, et al. -- work the same way, where they have larger-than-life personalities which never really change. They're iconic.

The problem, however, is that the people who call themselves "roleplayers" on Virtue seem to have become amateur thespians with furrowed brows, standing around in the D and muttering, "What's my motivation?" The idea of iconic-style roleplaying not only doesn't interest them, they find it actively offensive -- as I've found out to my chagrin after repeatedly getting flamed out of their RP channels.

After asking around a bit, the only suggestion I've heard for finding people interested in pulp-style iconic roleplay is to post on the fora. And I'm not even sure into which forum I would put something like this. I'm open to suggestions. I'm not open to accusations that "ur RP sux," because I've already heard every possible variation, thanks.

Those of you who quietly purchase game money and think no one is really being hurt, you need to read this article. Your fun is being purchased through the use of slave labour.

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