Roleplaying SOS

Llydia · 09-04-2012 12:58 PM

I've been burning myself out trying to save copies of stories from the Roleplaying forums onto my personal hard drive. They includes stories I've had the pleasure to participate in, stories I've enjoyed reading, stories I meant to read 'someday', and every other fiction piece locatable.

What other forum roleplaying pieces are recommended reading?

Pretty please include a link!

Update! Stories are archived at http://tiny.cc/cohrp

They are located in the main Browse folder. The originals are available under the main Download folder. If trying to view the Download files without saving them to a hard drive first, they will display as raw html code.

Anyone need me to post updated lists of saved stories? Unless I hear otherwise, I will focusing my time on saving as many as possible before the forums go Poof rather than formatting lists for a forum post.

Thank you very much for helping me Save Our Stories!

Dark_Respite · 09-04-2012 03:42 PM

Cende's "Prophecy and Dreams" is completely worth reading... and if you've read TCOSR, our stories intersect repeatedly.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)

DeviousMe · 09-05-2012 12:11 PM

While I usually don't like to toot my own horn (not to mention I tend to see my writing from the past as positively ghastly most of the time), a recent vote of confidence has given me the prod that some of it might be worth not letting slip into limbo after all. So mostly since this one was an effort by a multitude of folks, I'm going to pin up the after-action report of our hypothetical excursion to the Rikti homeworld here:

Anomalous AAR

And the RP thread as which it originally started, but petered out somewhere through:

Worlds Apart

As for the stories that came from just me, I think I'm much too self-conscious to consider those anything but shudder-worthy so long after, so I think I'll let those fade away. However, I do know of some stories by others that have managed to captivate me in their time.

From Burning Brawler:

A Return

Before My Eyes

Burning Brawler Fiction

Descending

Worlds of Confusion

From Grey:

Grey's Army

Obsidian Blight

The Air Guard

The Brutal Warriors Order

From Khell:

Cross Species Definitions

Mechanical Storm

"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi

Characters

Llydia · 09-06-2012 03:49 AM

MadGremlin · 09-06-2012 07:43 PM

That's an impressive list.
So where can we buy the consolidated PDF?

"Shut up Mr. Burton, you are not brought upon this world to get it!" - Lo Pan
@MadGremlin

Llydia · 09-07-2012 03:49 AM

MadGremlin, not from me. Converting everything into a consolidated PDF is the work of a lifetime. I'm just trying to find as much as I can, saving all the great stories possible that were composed over the course of City Of Heroes will have enough content for me to read throughout the rest of my lifetime. Reformatting into something else is beyond my capacity.

I looked at hosting them on Google Docs, but even the first file I check (one from Whitmoore) was over the 1,024,000 characters / 2MB limit per document. And that's without avatars or signatures.

Anyone with similar questions: If I can't figure anything else out before the forums go down, email me and we can arrange a SASE. (In case anyone doesn't know, SASE = Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope. Meaning you pay for postage both ways and the USB storage; I contribute my computer and time without monetary compensation.)

Llydia · 09-07-2012 03:54 AM

Someone brought a good point to my attention: The lists in this thread might seem to divide the CoH roleplaying stories into "good" and "everything else".

First and foremost, I didn't even imagine causing a segregation. My purpose was too rushed to even think about some kind of "us" and "them". Honestly it was a messy "Oh, no! No, no, no! I can't lose over seven years of my creativity! Save, save, save. Oh, what about all those stories I meant to read? Save, save, save. Shoot! What am I missing? Compile lists, plead for help, get feedback. Save, save, save."

If I could, I would save the forums as-is, complete with user names, avatars, signatures, and search function. Or at least the Roleplaying forum, which holds the birthplace of my creativity. But I'm only one human without the resources to make that wish come true. So I'm just scrambling to do the best I can. I have a lifetime to read and enjoy the stories, but only a few short months (or maybe less!) to gather them before the forums go Boom.

Will you please help me? I may not be able to save every story, but I'll do the very best I can to save as many as possible. One of my biggest hurdles is that if I spend time looking through the threads one-by-one for which are stories and which are random questions, I'll have none left for actually saving the stories. THAT is why I created this SOS thread, begging anyone and everyone to directly link me to the stories so I can spend my time saving instead of searching.

Please, please, pretty please share links to all the stories you can. I would dearly love to read your stories! And all those others that I have missed over the years. Please help me save the treasures we have all poured our hearts and souls into crafting.

Your fellow CoH writer,
~Llydia

DeviousMe · 09-07-2012 12:38 PM

Well...okay. But I'll warn you right now, the writing in these is fairly terrible. English is...yeah...though I guess if you can look past the spelling mistakes, run-ons, and all the other 'ugh' in 'em, you might have something you want to read:

Just A Stranger

The Big Book of Devious Little Me

"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi

Characters

Steele_Magnolia · 09-07-2012 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Llydia

MadGremlin, not from me. Converting everything into a consolidated PDF is the work of a lifetime. I'm just trying to find as much as I can, saving all the great stories possible that were composed over the course of City Of Heroes will have enough content for me to read throughout the rest of my lifetime. Reformatting into something else is beyond my capacity.

I looked at hosting them on Google Docs, but even the first file I check (one from Whitmoore) was over the 1,024,000 characters / 2MB limit per document. And that's without avatars or signatures.

Anyone with similar questions: If I can't figure anything else out before the forums go down, email me at CoHjm2012 (@} gmail {dot) com and we can arrange a SASE.

(In case anyone doesn't know, SASE = Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope. Meaning you pay for postage both ways and the USB storage; I contribute my computer and time without monetary compensation.)

Will you be making copies of Whitmoore Apartments and Paragon University?

The thought of losing all this just makes me feel sick.

Together we entered a city of strangers, we made it a city of friends, and we leave it a City of Heroes. - Sweet_Sarah
BOYCOTT NCSoft (on Facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/517513781597443/
Governments have fallen to the power of social media. Gaming companies can too.

Sparkly Soldier · 09-07-2012 11:26 PM

Here's a free tool that's a big help with saving these stories as PDF's. We use something similar at work, it's got a very good rating on CNET, I scanned the download and it came back clean, and it seems to work well...

http://thesz.diecru.eu/content/doro.php

Once it's installed, it works like a printer. Just click the File menu on the browser window as if you're going to print the web page, and you'll see an option for "Doro PDF Writer" alongside any other printers on your computer. "Print" the page to it and it'll create a PDF copy of the page.

It's not totally perfect: it didn't grab the background colors and image for the forum pages I tested (the one with Penny and Shadowhunter, that is), but it converted the messages and all the images posted within them just fine. And it's free and really, really easy to use, so there's that.

My original plan was to post a bunch of the longer stories I noticed while browsing the forums, but honestly, I haven't had a chance to read them and, for all I know, I might end up blindly posting things that the authors are embarrassed about and absolutely don't want preserved. And it hardly seems fair to post certain messages entirely on the basis of "I recognized that user's name."

So instead, here's just the two origin stories I've posted...

New World Daughter: Homecoming
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=293110

Shadow Ecliptic: Promise
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=294857

And I'd encourage anyone who wants their stories saved to just go ahead and post them here too. As painful as it is to even say, the forums might not be around much longer. At least this way our stories will still be read and enjoyed by people who cared enough to create, read and save stuff from this thread for exactly that purpose.

"Now, I'm not saying this guy at Microsoft sees gamers as a bunch of rats in a Skinner box. I'm just saying that he illustrates his theory of game design using pictures of rats in a Skinner box."

Llydia · 09-08-2012 05:24 AM

Thank you for the recommendations!!

The first post has been updated with the stories I've saved so far. It also now will include the document quantity (set at 100 posts per page) and total file size. Over 1 GIG worth of stories and growing!

Sparkly Soldier - Thank you for the suggestion for Doro PDF Writer! I've sent you a PM with a question/request.

Steele_Magnolia - Yes, I saved Whitmoore and PCU, plus their OOC threads. They are near the top of the list, under the Open RP section. Those threads account for over half of the memory used so far.

I'm not sure I got all the Whit/PCU spin-off threads. If you find any more, please post links here!

Everyone - Once again, please help post links to any and all forum roleplaying stories that you have written, that you have enjoyed reading, and/or insert-all-other-types-here.

If you don't have the forum access to make a reply in this thread, please either email me or send the links in a PM. Zwillinger just enabled all forum accounts to have PM access. I will continue to do my best to include all stories.

Thank you so very much!

The stories I'll be saving next are...

==> Open RP
=> Superhero 101 001-___ (___ MB)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=114349

=> Superhero 101 UK 001-___ (___ MB)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=152862

=> Superhero 101 UK OOC 001-___ (___ MB)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=152550

=> Superhero 102 001-___ (___ MB)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=201309

=> Superhero 102 Holiday Special 001-___ (___ MB)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=248852

=> Superhero 102 OOC 001-___ (___ MB)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=201307

=> Union Last Night In Pocket D 001-___ (___ MB)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=164573

==> Blarg
=> Full Moon Over Lakeview 001-___ (___ MB)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=213227

==> DeviousMe
=> Just A Stranger 001-___ (___ MB)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=118776

=> The Big Book Of Devious Little Me 001-___ (___ MB)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=120032

==> Ex Libris
=> Confessions Of A Teenage Superhero 001-___ (___ MB)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=111454

=> If I Lonely Superhero Says Goodbye 001-___ (___ MB)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=111859

==> HaloInc
=> Dark Ascension 001-___ (___MB)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=118815

==> Philbe
=> It's All In The Game 001-___ (___ MB)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=111827

=> Love And The Superhero 001-___ (___ MB)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=111930

==> Positron
=> Golden Age 001-___ (___ MB)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=127912

=> Past Lives 001-___ (___ MB)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=296984

==> Sparkly Soldier
=> New World Daughter Homecoming 001-___ (___ MB)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=293110

=> Shadow Ecliptic Promise 001-___ (___ MB)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=294857

==> Taumaril
=> Superhero Obituaries 001-___ (___ MB)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=122944

Llydia · 09-17-2012 06:02 PM

tl;dr Need more story suggestions, pretty please!

Whew!

Okay, I can give myself permission to breath again. Amazing how easy it is to forget that vital function when other vital areas of life are in danger.

I have completed my current bucket list of forum story threads to save. Totals sit at 1.6 gigs of 112 stories. Yay! Double yay for doing it in spite of the depression that continues to dampen the mood of the forums.

Yes, I need the cheerleading, even if my only cheerleader is myself. I need it to keep on this project. To keep on writing stories. To keep on playing good games. To keep on creating. To keep being optimistic about the whole of life.

After updating the original posts with all stories (and resaving my copy of this thread) I will start replenishing my energies by joining a weekly group for a hero's task force. Oh, and need to remember dinner. Food is good. Like breathing and restful sleep. Chocolate will almost certainly be involved as well. I hope everyone is getting doses of their vital needs, too.

When my reserve is replenished enough to dive in again, I'll do my best to look through the threads one-by-one, trying to dig out more stories. I know there are so many more jewels that are worth saving, if only they can be uncovered.

Please, help me if you can. Please post links to more stories on these forums.

If you know of a story but don't want to dig through my daunting list to see if I already have it, post a link! Better to risk having duplicates than to have them slip away.

Everyone who has or will help, I sincerely thank you. All our stories crafted in City Of Heroes are precious and worth preserving.

Also remember that if you would like copies of what I have, just ask! I will be glad to forward what has been so freely and beautifully shared here these last eight-plus years.

Thank you, all!
~Llydia

FloatingFatMan · 09-18-2012 05:22 AM

Why don't you just set thread mode to printable format, and 500 posts per page?

Thread Tools => Show Printable Page
Click "Show 500 post(s) from this thread on one page"

Then right click and Save As for each page you end up with. You'll find the resulting pages MUCH smaller... I archived the Pocket D thread in less than 5 minutes this way... 135 pages scrunched down to 6, and only a few mb filesize...

@FloatingFatMan

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Llydia · 09-19-2012 12:52 PM

/em facepalm

Because, FloatingFatMan, that would be a smart way to do it. Thank you for detailing this option!

First I tried it at 20 posts, to see the forums as I've enjoyed them all these years. The copies in a Word Document were... disastrously messy.

So after over twenty hours of work, I started over with a second attempt at 100 posts per page, no avatars/signatures. That has been better over the last two weeks. Usable but still a bit messy.

Third times a charm, right? Using the Printable Version looks to be smaller and much more readable. There are some things that don't translate the way I want, but it looks like it will be the best option, 95% better than everything else I have tried. Think I will keep it at 100 posts, that length works well for me.

What's the phrase? Try, try, again!

*rolls up sleeves*

American_Valor · 09-19-2012 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Llydia

/em facepalm

Because, FloatingFatMan, that would be a smart way to do it.

Thank you for detailing this option!

First I tried it at 20 posts, to see the forums as I've enjoyed them all these years. The copies in a Word Document were... disastrously messy.

So after over twenty hours of work, I started over with a second attempt at 100 posts per page, no avatars/signatures. That has been better over the last two weeks. Usable but still a bit messy.

Third times a charm, right? Using the Printable Version looks to be smaller and much more readable. There are some things that don't translate the way I want, but it looks like it will be the best option, 95% better than everything else I have tried. Think I will keep it at 100 posts, that length works well for me.

What's the phrase? Try, try, again!

*rolls up sleeves*

I saved them as PDF's using cute pdf printer program PCU 25 pages at 500 post per thread only took 2 hours as I kept getting intrupted.

AV

Quote:

by Star Ranger 4
WIN LOSE OR DRAW, WE WILL FIGHT.
WE ARE HEROES This is what we DO!

When you wake up seek the courage and strength to do the right thing.
Decide that this will be another day in which you Walk The Talk.

MA #14724 Operation: Discredit @American Valor
Sentinel Of Liberty SG

Llydia · 09-20-2012 03:38 PM

Glad to hear it, American_Valor!

It's good to know there are many people saving the stories in a variety of ways. Makes their survival more secure and tells me that I'm not the only one who cherishes what was created here.

Llydia · 09-20-2012 03:42 PM

tl;dr Yay! Got it done (again)! Files available at http://tiny.cc/cohrp

Good news: Got all the stories saved again! It went very fast this time, thanks equally to having a filing system already in place and also to the small downloading sizes which meant the process went as quick as the buttons could be clicked.

Even better news: Figured out how to get the files uploaded to Google Docs like I have been wanting to do since the beginning. This means the stories can still be read on mobile devices. (Browsing CoH forums has been my favorite part of portable internet since getting an iPhone.) I encountered various bugs in the uploading process but was able to make some workarounds.

The stories are available for anyone who has the direct link: http://tiny.cc/cohrp

aka https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0Bx...JPbkVFNTQ/edit

Stories are located in the main Browse folder. Subfolders were used to fix one of the aforementioned bugs.

One bug I couldn't get rid of was some of the translation errors when converted from .htm to Google Doc. Most notably it often had a strange dislike for the apostrophe. The Browse files are still easy to read, just not as good as the originals. Thus the originals are also available under the main Download folder. If trying to view these Download files without saving them to a hard drive first, they will display as raw html code.

When still-active threads such as PCU, Union LNIPD, and Superhero 102 get new posts I'll update the Google Docs versions, too.

Also posts will be added to this thread with updates when other CoH forum fiction stories are discovered, saved, and uploaded to Google Docs. Any recommended links would be very, very appreciated!

Everyone, thank you so very much! Your help in these efforts to save the wealth of fiction that would otherwise be lost when these forums go down is critical. On a personal note, I can't express enough how key you have been in keeping despair and depression at bay during the last few week.

Thank you.

Sparkly Soldier · 09-22-2012 09:16 PM

Okay, the first three COH stories I ever wrote are now proofread, cleaned up a bit and posted. They form something of a trilogy between them, since they're all about the same character and the first two are directly connected...

Astorian Shade: The Fall
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=297584

Astorian Shade: Survivor's Guilt
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=297586

Astorian Shade: Manifest
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=297587

That leaves one last existing story (one about Sparkly Soldier Yuki herself) to proofread, and one more about New World Daughter to sit down and write (right now it exists in the form of several pages of densely scribbled notes), and then that's everything, or at least everything there's a chance of getting ready in time. I hope you like them.

"Now, I'm not saying this guy at Microsoft sees gamers as a bunch of rats in a Skinner box. I'm just saying that he illustrates his theory of game design using pictures of rats in a Skinner box."

Llydia · 09-22-2012 09:56 PM

Saved! Thank you very much for the links, Sparkly Soldier!

Llydia · 09-23-2012 04:01 AM

Sparkly Soldier · 09-23-2012 03:00 PM

And with this last bit of proofreading, I'm done for the weekend...

Sparkly Soldier Yuki: For the Future
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=297604

If anyone's actually reading and enjoying these, please let me know. It's depressing to feel like I'm posting them for only one person who's saving the stories on principle. But thank you Llydia for working so hard to host and save them all.

The last CoH story I'll write, and the first new one since Promise and Homecoming (these last four were much older stories I had never turned into final drafts or posted anywhere) will hopefully be coming this week or weekend, forum access willing.

"Now, I'm not saying this guy at Microsoft sees gamers as a bunch of rats in a Skinner box. I'm just saying that he illustrates his theory of game design using pictures of rats in a Skinner box."

jwbullfrog · 09-23-2012 06:26 PM

You've done what I have been intending to do but (sadly) real life has prevented. I'll keep looking for others with what little search fu I posess.

here are a few I'm not sure you have

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...hlight=fiction
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...hlight=fiction
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...hlight=fiction
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...hlight=fiction

Writer of In-Game fiction: Just Completed: My Summer Vacation. My older things are now being archived at Fanfiction.net http://www.fanfiction.net/~jwbullfrog until I come up with a better solution.

Llydia · 09-24-2012 03:24 AM

Saved "For The Future", thank you for the link, Sparkly Soldier! It means a lot that you actively help me to save your CoH stories. And thank you for sharing your writing, new and re-edited, even now.

Thank you for those links too, jwbullfrog! I do have The IC Story Thread, but had not seen the others. Please let me know if I am missing any of yours (so next post). Looking forward to what other pieces you uncover!

Thank you!!

Llydia · 09-24-2012 03:32 AM

jwbullfrog · 09-24-2012 08:14 AM

I did not see this thread in the list (I might just have missed it)

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...hlight=stories

Started by Heroid as a short RP thread. Might be worth including

Writer of In-Game fiction: Just Completed: My Summer Vacation. My older things are now being archived at Fanfiction.net http://www.fanfiction.net/~jwbullfrog until I come up with a better solution.