The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

I think I remember seeing you around. Good to know you found the place.

However, not wanting to be rude, I nonetheless feel the need to ask why you're here if you're not interested in what we do. There are lots of other places to go if you don't like us, and I personally could do without the sneering at us on our own forum--which uses HTML, not [] tags, and suits us very well.

~Neshomeh

I'm also an artist, and I specialize in digital - you can see alot of my character portraits on my deviantart account, and you can see my various comics on my website.

doesn't look like i can edit old posts though.

Couldn't he just bring his own supplies?

If the story is too long to realistically carry supplies for the remainder, would it be economical for him to teleport back to hq, resupply, then teleport back?

Good to see you here, and I hope everything's going well.

The boards support most HTML tags -

Google turns into Google.
Italics turns into Italics.
Strikethrough turns into Strikethough
Bold makes things Bold.

Haven't tested everything, but the more common tags work. Would recommend against the ones.

How involved is the story in Wizards 101? If the story almost seems separate from the mechanics of the game itself, you may just decide to ignore them completely.

I have more experience with World of Warcraft as the only non-flash MMO i've ever played - while I'm sure alot of people like making sillier stories that reference levels and spending gold for spells, the better stories are the ones that ignore that aspect completely and focus on the characters of the Warcraft lore, which is backed up by 3 games prior to the MMO.

If you've ever read any novels based on Dungeons and Dragons, you can see similar things happening - DnD is a very rules-based game, but the novels make no mention of levels, make references to classes only when there are extremely obvious archetypes associated with them (I cannot recall any Salvador novels actually labeling someone as a Rogue).

I've been lurking the PPC IRC channel for a bit, and the PPC board for a little less than that (while deriding the poor forum technology it uses) but July has been bugging me to post an introduction.

I'm not actually a regular reader of fan fiction, and I don't see the point in writing fan fiction rather than original fiction, so I guess the trial period before I start trying to write any MST's is a good idea.

Should I actually develop any liking for the entire concept, I'll probably be using Grey as an agent - an author avatar character I use in a webcomic that i'm not updating anymore called Grey Matters http://cyphimedia.com/graymatters/index.html (how do you link text on this thing? Standard [] tags?)

Dann already brought up the example of City of Heroes, where Security Levels (and the villainous equivalent, Threat Levels) are stamped on an ID card every character carries around and must display to get into certain areas -- it'd nearly impossible for anyone in that setting to not use the terminology. In sufficiently 'meta' games, such as S4 League, it'd make sense for everything visible to the players to be visible, since the characters are canonically just avatars for their players. In comedy, I think you can have characters randomly reference levels and other "universe rules" without it being a problem: the Order of the Stick and its various heirs, many World of Warcraft comedies, and some other series do this on occasion.

On the other hand, it's very easy to accidentally end up with narmy "It's over 9000!" sorta things. The class schedule or how long someone's been there may be a lot smoother to write, especially since you can go to relative values rather than end up with painful-to-write level numbers. Another option would be something similar to the "years" comparisons from Harry Potter; someone five ten levels above you would be from a higher year, someone five or ten levels under from a younger year. Wizards101 does shameless emulate borrow from Harry Potter enough for the overlap to work.

Alternatively, you may not want to use that information at all. Characters don't know everything, and metagame is often something that's very easy for them to not know. It removes the easy method of simply telling information about power, but there are a lot of other ways to establish strength -- everything from method of dress to weaponry to powers to movement tells a lot in most MMOs. Lots of opportunity to show, rather than tell.

You are most likely to be able to get hold of me via email - trojanhorseshadowfax AT gmail DOT com. I try to avoid chats and IMs as much as possible - apart from anything else, when most of the rest of the world is being nocturnal, I am at uni trying to work (stupid timezones!), and I share an office, so I can't be on chat really. But I am pretty fast at email replying :)

You can also friend me on LJ if you like - my username (for now at least) is agenttrojie.

Hello and Welcome to the PPC Posting Board! Please have some chocolate and enjoy your stay!

Those are always fun to work on. I'll admit, I tend to twist canon characters into doing what I want them to do (though I do my very best to do it gradually, so that it's believable), but side-characters are also great fun. I work mainly within the Harry Potter continuum, meaning there are lots and lots of fun characters to torture... er, I mean write about.

As soon as I get home from school, I'll go looking for your story.

--anamia

Sorry, should have looked at photo before hand. I didn't see the link.

Sparkly rock, or fire opal. they look the same, but are very different.

The story I'm working on is not mainstream. It's more a side-story. Completely different characters, same story line, different view. Nothing that would play havoc on the Canon. Like I said, that just pisses me off.

Sorry that this is late. I've been MIA for a bit.

Anyway, welcome! I offer you a sparkly rock.

--anamia

I had a look over the writing sample and commented a few days before it was posted, so I didn't feel right about saying yea or nay here.

I will say that my initial response was pretty much the same as what everyone is saying now, though.

~Neshomeh

Hey, [The] Trojanhorse. Are you still open for a little sib?
And while I am here, Artists are amazing. I wish I could draw people, but that wish was not granted. Oh well.

As Techno-Dann correctly Googled, it is indeed Wizard101. Sorry for not mentioning that earlier. I think I need to go reclaim my brain; it seems to have wandered off somewhere and begun a game of hide-and-seek without telling me.

Anyway, I like the idea of the levels being more tied into education. I'm reluctant to use words like 'grade' or anything else so recognizable, but they're supposed to be at school anyway, so that makes sense. (We're ignoring here the fact that a student wizard, especially one who comes from a distant land that doesn't know about magic, is in change of saving the world. This game is really frighteningly similar to Harry Potter. Really. But I digress.)

On a side note, would the PPC deal with this kind of story? Not the subject, but the fact that the people who write them are just plain bad writers. I haven't been able to get through enough of any one to see if they involve 'Sues, but they're just badly written. Would they be left alone, or is it something a department like the Dept. of Technical Errors might handle?

Thanks for ideas and replies,
--anamia

Anyways, except for certain types of parodies, it is traditional to not refer directly to game mechanics, unless the game story itself mentions them explicitly in the story and gives a specific explanation for what they are. Keep track of what level the characters are, though, so they don't have inconsistent power levels.

You'll note that pretty much all single player roleplaying games considered to be of high quality never mention level in dialogue. It's on a level with saying, "The sword does 2d6+1d10fire". The level is part of the game, but presumably the characters don't actually know what level anyone is.

Hello and welcome to the Board! Have some chocolate and enjoy your stay!

A lot of us have a gift that we give to everyone. Some will be useful for future agents, some (like mine) are just random. (It's also a literary reference, but that's beside the point.)

I read the last book of the Olympians series. I probably should have started with book 1, but the last was the book that was lying around. It wasn't bad. Percy seems relatively likeable, which is unusual. -grins-

--anamia

Um, some points.

Spelling! Please make sure you get someone to look over your spelling (or at least use a spellcheck - 'appearence' is something a spellcheck would pick up immediately) before you post any writing. Given we do horrible things to people who make spelling mistakes, we really shouldn't be making any ourselves.

Warnings! As July pointed out, you need to do this. Lots of PPC Boarders read missions at work, school, or other places where they may have people peering over their shoulders. Therefore using words like 'rape' tends to be a bad idea.

Was Alice press-ganged into the PPC? Recruits are usually volunteers or persuaded in a friendly manner. We don't force people to be in the PPC, and the only things we do scientific experiments on are Mary Sues. I'm not sure what the other PGs will think but I personally am uncomfortable with Alice's backstory in the PPC as I think it creates an unpleasant precedent.

Where's 'Research'? Do you mean Medical, FicPsych, DMSEAR?

There's an awful lot of 'classified' and 'mystery' stuff in their backgrounds. It's okay to just not specify if you're not sure where their stories are going to go in the future, but to deliberately set it up as 'classified'? Normally the Marquis and Personnel in general seem happy as Larry to give out even the mst personal of Agent's information.

I'm going to reserve judgement for now, and finish reading it later. Given past form I'm sure Neshomeh will be along soon :)

-Trojie

Note: I am no one of import; I simply felt like making an effort to interact and such. Ordinarily I'd stay out entirely, but my curiosity has demanded that I make an attempt to obtain answers about some things I noticed. You're in no way obliged to listen to me on this matter, but I would appreciate a thought or two in return.

I am certainly intrigued by your choice of first-person and present tense. It's a marked departure from the norm and could certainly bring up many interesting things as time goes on -- though, it may present difficulties as well, given some of the things 'fics do. (Also given that most 'fics tend to be in past tense, and I've observed that Agents tend to match the tense of the 'fic, hence tense wrenches and shutting up on that topic now.)
I will say that your Agents give me a bit of a turn, in places.
On the subject of Falras. The springing full-formed from HQ is odd to my eyes. Most Agents do suddenly appear, true, but most appear from somewhere. And, it strikes me as strange for someone so calm and sane to suddenly start screaming because the mission has taken an unexpected turn. Calmness isn't exactly an oddity in the PPC, though I do find sanity rare and easily lost... well, I don't know if I have room to speak on that matter. Hm, the point I'm trying to make is there's nothing wrong with a calm Agent; in fact, they can be highly entertaining to watch. But, a calm Agent should generally be calm, one thinks, and a sane Agent is likely to lose that precious commodity as time progresses.
Grall is interesting, and I mean this in the good way, not the carefully-neutral-I-don't-know-what-to-say way. I can see much humor coming from his presence and antics. I should like to know where he's from, though; there seems no sense in the redaction, and I can't bring anything to mind that's 'parasitic'. Is it a tabletop or RP continuum, or am I barking up the wrong tree entirely?
On the subject of Alice. I agree with a lot of what July said here. If it's just the killing she hates, as your sample suggests to me, why not work in Bad Slash, or one of the internal departments like Medical or DoSAT, or something that doesn't involve killing? I get that she needs Grall around, but there are ways around that, and the Flowers don't set out to make people miserable. Er, generally. There's a line between disapproval/unhappiness/whygodwhy and serious out-and-out hatred, and one thinks that someone on the hatred side would not be put to work in such a manner. An Agent who hates his or her job is likely going to go flamethrower-crazy a lot faster than others, so it's a bit of self-preservation. (Also, nitpicky crow would like to point out: Addendum.)
The Pokémon hybrid thing is a choice I do like, though.
And, on the subject of the writing sample... well. I don't like to bother people about style -- who knows better than you what you're trying to communicate, after all? -- but there are technical things that keep tripping me up. I'll acknowledge that I'm unusually picky about grammar and punctuation, but... well. A beta reader is a good plan for everyone, no matter how experienced they are.
I'm done being a picky little crow. Going further will make one no friends -- in fact, I have probably grievously offended at least three people already, but I felt the need to speak.

Make no mistake, I do think that this trio has definite potential for excellent fun and good times. But, I, too, am of the opinion that they could be better. I think it would be a good plan to get a second pair of eyes on, preferably someone who can and will tell you exactly what they think without fear of offending or worse.
Best of luck, Max!

The only 1-to-50 game that I'm familiar with is City of Heroes, where players have a "Security Clearance" that's effectively their level. There, I think it would make sense, as it's handled like an in-game number. On the other hand, using Levels in WOW fanfic would be jarring and out-of-place.

*does some googling*

I'm not terribly familiar with Wizards 101, but there has to be a better system - could you convert levels into class numbers? Those tend to go from 100 to 499 or so, so that suggests some sort of mapping.

(And by the way, don't be embarrassed by the games you play. I just got into the Lego Universe beta, and am happily ignoring college homework to play it.)