Have to admit, one of the most fun things I've been able to create in KTDARPG has been Fort River News for the Tribes, the city's quasi-regular newspaper. While it's kinda supposed to be the mouthpiece of Tom-F Enterprises (that bastion of capitalism in Fort River), "Tom-F" has so far given me editorial freedom to do pretty much what I want.And what I've wanted is to give this game a sense of being larger than itself--the feeling there's a whole city of kids & activities & thoughts & deeds out there that we glimpse from time to time.Take the "classifieds." Lost something? Or someone? Need a bodyguard? Looking for a particular item to buy? Are you a vendor with a booth full of merchandise you want to move? Or a candidate in the city elections & want to get your message out? Ah, we have just the place for you. See "Stacy" (just a little NPC who serves as the editor/reporter for the paper). She can help you out.The newspaper's also been great for game continuity, bringing all players up to speed on events. The paper announced when the Virus cure reached the city--and worked!--reported on Solstice events, published the inflammatory "declaration of independence," reported on the recent riots in Fort River, and summarized the candidates & their "platforms" for the current elections. Somebody dies? Somebody tosses a little mystery into the city? Read all about it in the Fort River News!News editions are archived on our Web site & make a great quick-read for newcomers or anyone who wants to catch up quickly on what's happening in the game. There's a link back to the site (at right). Check out the latest, and maybe come join in on the fun. -- ChynaPhoto Source: Webshots
Sometimes it's good to just sit back & count our successes. Coming off an extremely slow February, March was a month of many milestones in the game (and it's not over yet!). 
> 250 posts in a 7-day period> A new Player> Breaking 6,000 game posts> 600+ posts in 1 month--an all-time best!> KTDARPG's first elections, parallelingFort River's first city-wide elections> Season-2 story digest completed> First installment of Season-3 posted> 3 KTDARPG-related blogs online ("Chyna's Closet," "Hawk eye view," "Man Behind the Mask")
It's the players who made all this possible, a great group of people just crazy enough to have:a) found "The Tribe" on tvb) been drawn to the possibilitiesc) found each other onlined) created a great game inspired by that little show from New ZealandMy hat's off to Ari & Hawk, Sid & Prince, Xeno & Ransom, Krystal & Simtwo & Rourke. Thanks, ladies and gents, for a helluva month.--ChynaPhoto Source: all photos copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"
Yep, confessing that my birthday is this weekend--mostly because this is one I'm enjoying! Birthdays are overrated, but when you have friends like I have? Makes it kinda fun. Besides, as the man said, every day above ground is a good day.A year in the game, a year in the life...a year of seeing new things & watching my world open up again. That's been the best part. A lot of that is because of friends I've found in cyberspace & in KTDARPG.My world isn't so small as it was a year ago. Actually, this new millennium seems to be going pretty well for me. I have a job I like & I'm good at. My family's staying close & safe (even if they are crazy). Roof over my head, food in the fridge, dependable transportation, healthy...all things you tend to forget about even though you're grateful for them.So this weekend, I'm counting my blessings. Thanks, everybody, for the cards & notes & good wishes. And for those bugging me for a photo? This one's a few years old but best I could do for now.And now you'll have to excuse me--lots to do and a movie-date to get ready for. Anybody know if "V is for Vendetta" is any good? Guess I'll find out! --Chyna
People react differently to surprises. Some love 'em. Some hate 'em. Some divide 'em into distinct categories--"good" surprises & "bad" surprises.It's kinda fun to watch all this play out in KTDARPG. If you read the game long enough, you start to predict who likes what. Examples? Not all of our players are neatly categorized, but here are a few...Hawk & Xeno & Sid--strong players, dominant players. Especially dominent through their characters in the game. Each one of them absolutely loves planning surprises for everybody else. And just as surely, each one of them will lambast a plot twist or sudden development that they didn't see coming. (In all fairness, that doesn't last long. They get over it and start plotting how best to turn the "surprise" to their advantage.)Arianna & Prince & Chyna (that would be me)--thrive on surprises. It's what keeps us from getting bored. Who wants a nice, safe game where nothing happens? Not us!Krystal is the thoughtful one. Confronted with a surprise, she is the "wise child." She'll sit back & take stock, look at everything from all sides, then decide what to do.With so many creative minds in this game, it's hard not to be surprised every so often. And when the "surprise" is something major to take the game in a new direction? Why not? My advice is always: explore it, go with it, see where it takes you. Life is full of surprises. --Chyna
No matter where you go, you can't escape it. Politics. Whether it's the politics of personal relationships, friendships, the art of The Deal, or the traditional "governing" kind...whether you're talking fiction or non-...politics will always be lurking somewhere.Right now, KTDARPG is drowning in a sea of politics, both in the game & among the players as we all jockey for power in our fictional city of Fort River. Deals are being struck, strategies played out. Raids & intimidation & mud-slinging are rampant. Fiction mirroring real life? That's what our Illustrious Game Master said he wanted. I think he's getting it in spades.So far I don't think anybody's feelings've been hurt (we don't take it quite that seriously, I hope), but it's still early days. We're actually having our "elections" via player polls outside the game, then the game mirror our player-election results. We're only half-way through with the voting so, yeah, early days.As much as it'll be interesting to see who wins what, I'm more intrigued with what happens next--the dynamics of the characters as they assume their new "official" roles as either City Council Members (you just know there's gonna wind up being a council chairman--that should be fun!) or the brand new Sheriff. The next phase will almost certainly deal with power-mongering & corruption in one form or another.
If you're a Player, remember to vote! --Chyna_______
Oh, almost forgot--Chyna's a River Rat and of course we all know, RIVER RATS RULE!!! :)
"No good deed goes unpunished," but I still never thought I'd face getting lost in the game. With all the hyped-up activity recently, there are so many great threads & sub-plots that it's easy to get lost following one & forget the rest.It all started with the Fort River City Meeting. From there, people scattered--some back to their work or their homes, some to sign up as candidates for the elections. From there the action subdivided even more--some people going to the bars to drink & talk politics, some getting away in small groups to figure things out, some to start causing mischief & mayhem by trying to intimidate candidates they didn't like or to bully people into voting for somebody specific. In other words...kinda like real life.The only way I've found to keep track is just to read each post as it appears & follow the thread-titles to see where they lead. I feel sorry for players who've been away the past couple of days. There's a lot going on; it'll take some time to catch up & then keep up. :)-ChynaPhoto source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"
The drought is over!KTDARPG has taken off like crazy in March. Just 9 days in, and we have more than 240 story-posts already! If this keeps up, we're in line to pass our all-time high & break the 600-post mark in 1 month!To my fellow players, you guys are AWESOME!I can't wait to find out if the Reapers & Bikers are gonna rumble over Sector 5...who'll find the unknown "Key to Fort River"...what's next now Rourke's found his beloved-but-badly-injured Adear in Tom-F's clinic...why are those ex-AKs hanging around Fort River...what's really the deal with Valentine wanting Sid to teach her to sword-fight...who is the Man in Black...and can Worm really help Jade or is he just what he seems, a little kid?Most of all, I'm really looking forward to the upcoming city elections--6 City Council members and a Sheriff. We have lots of candidates, some of them highly unlikely. But in this game? Anything can happen!Come on over & see for yourself. --ChynaPhoto source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"
It's true what they say--an rpg can indeed take on a life of its own.Over the past 2-3 days, I watched it happen. From one player's idea, once we got just about all the KTDARPG players involved in a group scenario, I guess you could say it was the game that took over.Call it player dynamics. Call it the game "writing itself." I just took part in a Fort River city-wide meeting that didn't turn out quite the way I expected. The players interacted. The story shifted. The game moved.So Fort River is gonna have its first post-Virus elections & create a city council along with a city charter that'll probably be the basis for a future set of laws & rules (as much as nobody is gonna like "rules" where we live!). And there's gonna be a new sheriff in town.What'll will be even more interesting? Watching the Power Plays. The way this is coming together, it'll be entirely possible for 1 player to come out of the elections with almost all the game-power in his/her hands. That's...unexpected. But the players around me discussed it, decided it was worth the risk. If nothing else, the drama-level could go WAY UP as we see this scenario play out.I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next. --ChynaPhoto source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe
One of the fun things I do inside KTDARPG is create our game-city's newspaper, Fort River News for the Tribes. We needed a way to get info out to all the players so we could be on the same page every now & then--this seemed an easy way to do it. Sometimes the paper summarizes what's happening; sometimes it reminds players where their characters are in relation to others; sometimes it just pulls us all back to the "big picture" game plot.
And sometimes...sometimes Chyna can use the newspaper to put little tidbits & twists into the game.
With the first edition, I discovered the newspaper can give the feeling that all these characters are actually living in a city where other stuff happens. I can create classified ads, birth & death notices, "personals." I can even make up little events around town, like robberies or missing persons or whatever comes to mind. It's also open for players who might want to include their own news or ads.
I've included a link (at right) to the back issues of "Fort River News" in case you wanna check it out. Gives a different perspective on the game, from the inside.
Oh, and if that city skyline makes Fort River look a bit like Chicago? Well...you never know. :)
-Chyna
Photo source: Webshots
I finally did it. After several months, tonight I finished reducing our game's Season-2: "Winter," to story form. Now we have the story to refer back to for what happened during the past season & don't have to wade through all the posts. Believe me, wading through 100s of posts to reconstruct something that happened is terrifically hard. The story digest makes it a lot easier.Don't misunderstand, producing the digest isn't easy. The sum of all our game-pots is rich in detail, dialogue & action. For the digests I have to pick 'n choose--what to preserve for the storyline, what to sacrifice, and how to summarize action without showing every detail. Definitely not easy.The writer in me enjoys this task. Digesting keeps the story's past fresh in my mind...and it's a good story. Another small thing...all this reading definitely gives me ideas for upcoming plot twists. There's a wealth of tiny, minor details I'm sure my fellow players have forgotten in the rush of new writing & new strategies. Won't it be interesting when some of those details come back & bite 'em in the butt? :)-ChynaPhoto source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"
I'm the first to admit I can't sing, can't play an instrument, and don't really dance that well. None of which explains my passion for music. But it might explain why I created a character who's a singer. It also might explain why, since the moment Jade began to belt out Pat Benetar's "Love is a Battlefield" in-game, I've been finding the music of KTDARPG in my head.
Most of what I hear when I read or write scenes happens to be 80s rock with a bit of late 70s rock thrown in the mix. (And no! I'm not a hippy-child of the 60s who just never grew up. Anybody who hasn't listened to this era of music wouldn't understand.)Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon," Yes's "Close to the Edge," early Stones, very early Elton John (before he went commercial), anything by Jethro Tull (but most especially "Locomotive Breath"), Van Halen, Seeger, Bowie, Kansas, Boston, Journey, Emerson Lake & Palmer ... one day or another, it all seems to fit with bits & pieces of this post-apocalyptic world we're playing in.What music do you hear? -ChynaArt source: dmxmusic.com
How do you create a city? How do you create a world? Something that, ultimately, will take on a life of its own for players & readers alike?
It's truly the little things that make all the difference.A good example: KTDARPG's current city meeting. Hundreds of kids crowded into a city hall building, and the concept of "freedom"--their personal freedoms--is on the line. As each player contributes to the scenario & it continues to grow, the scene taking place is becoming something incredibly visual.As the meeting starts, there's a lot--and I mean a LOT--of conversation. By itself, dialogue can get boring as hell no matter how heated the debate. The scene only really starts coming to life when the details start to kick in. A window is broken. Someone takes off a coat because the room is getting warm. Someone else lights a cigarette, passes a flask, laughs. The kids are cold & hungry, so food is provided. Then there's one passage about how the room smells.Sight, sound, taste, touch, smell...As important as characters & dialogue are to a role-playing game, when you start to engage the reader's senses--when they can SEE the scene--you know you got something good. -ChynaPhoto source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"
It's getting interesting. Remember I mentioned we were focusing in-game on concepts & expressions of freedom? Now we're in the middle of a city-wide meeting to decide how to build the future of Fort River...and the dynamics are getting very interesting.On one side we have several players pushing elections for a city leader or a city council (that one assumes would decide on its own leader, maybe rotate it like a council chairmanship). But how do you get anybody to agree first that elections could be done fairly? And second that those in power won't use the election to cement their power? Who do you trust? We've spent a lot of game-time building guarded partnerships, but elections would be something else. That's putting a lot of power into a small number of hands. Brings to mind leadership styles & examples from history--Stalin? Lenin? Hitler? Mussolini? Churchill? Caesar?On another side are players who don't trust anybody & scoff at elections. Some want to see the tribes keep their power & work from there. Others seem to want to set up little "sector" feifdoms--I guess they'd become sort of like "lords of the manor," overseeing their territories & rubbing elbows with their sector-leader peers from time to time. Oh, and all these players are quick to describe how they'd treat everyone fairly...as long as the people in their sectors are willing to work because "nothing's free." Seems like this could develop into either indentured servitude or outright slavery.There may or may not be a 3rd side brewing, creating a triumverate of possibilities. Some players seem to want the status quo--tribes fighting each other for resources; refugees & outcasts fighting the tribes; the "haves" staying strong by monopolizing food, power, fuel & other necessities.In other words...in Fort River City Hall, power & chaos live!-Chyna
Have to admit, one of the most fun things I've been able to create in KTDARPG has been Fort River News for the Tribes, the city's quasi-regular newspaper. While it's kinda supposed to be the mouthpiece of Tom-F Enterprises (that bastion of capitalism in Fort River), "Tom-F" has so far given me editorial freedom to do pretty much what I want.
