OOC chat thread (Participants only pls)

[Wired*Nun]

No.

This is one of those situations where somewhere in the discussions, be it the backwards link thread, the house rules, OOC shat, I explained that doing what you describe above will probably not yield the results you want.

Why?

Start with canon. If that were possible, or easy, an "easy" shadowwalk/hellride would have yielded Corwin's whereabouts, Brand's whereabouts, possibly Oberon's whereabouts. Especially Corwin. Brain trauma shouldn't have changed the fact that he was who he was, therefore all those who searched for Corwin should have easily found him in a few days or weeks of searching, by that logic. Yet it took Flora's luck to run across him.

I know Amber gamers, relying on the books, tend to think this way. I read the books at least 10 times before I ever saw the game, and when I read the DRPG, I immediately mentally disgarded all the Wujcikisms that didn't fit with canon. Therefore I believe I have developed a pretty good logical and intuitive idea of how the Amber metaverse works - or, you can say, how I think Zelazny saw it to work - and how I intepret it.

Because the GM/Storyteller gets to be the intepreter of the metaversal laws, this is the way we will be playing it. Other than canon, the reasons I can cite include the logical (the way I intepret metaversal law) and the game reasons (what is good for the game).

Regarding the logical, here is how I see the structure of shadow:

Shadows are almost infinitely divisible, limited only by the ability of the shifter to conceive and manipulate. Thus, if a shadowwalker shifts shadow to change that one rock from grey to black, he is in a different shadow, even if all else is the same.

However, each shadow is metaphysically connected to each other, kind of like a 4-dimensional slinky. Anything that a real person does ina shadow ripples outward and changes all the shadows around it. If a shadowwalker kicks the black rock, the rock gets kicked in the nearest slices of shadows, and other metaphysically similar things can happen as the waves of change ripple outward. But such a relatively minor alteration only ripples a little way. Larger changes ripple farther. Real people and objects tend to bring the less real into conformity with themselves, but this takes time.

Thus, a shadowwalker will create ripples to track, but those will fade. If he stays, he begins to cast shadows.

Now let us say that a shadowwalker passes through shadow. If you don't have that person's trail, what is it you are shifting towards? Neither that person nor those unique objects have cast their shadows out into Shadow far enough. Thus, shifting towards them gains no metaphysical traction, because the metaverse has no connection, however tenuous, between the shadowwalker and the target.

Think of it like "degrees of separation." A shadowwalker has to follow a sequence of degrees of separation to arrive at his or her target, whether Hellriding or Walking. Big or small, the walker must make incremental changes to arrive at an eventual desired result. Even with shadows that are relatively stable, there may be false starts and false stops. Every variation is not infinitely replictaed in infinite location. Therefore, if you wanted to hellride to Grayswandir, assuming it was not protected by some metaphysical issue like being in a Chaos pocket shadow, it would have to have been in one place long enough to cast enough shadows to create a shadow of a shadow of a shadow that the walker could shift towards, otherwise, there is no connection.

Here's another way to think of it: one of those word games. Change a word from one thing into another by only changing one letter, but each must be a word. Cow, Bow, Bog, Big, Pig, Pie, Die. But if the words are larger and to different, then there is no possible way to do this. Prestidigitation ----> Preendometriosis is not possible in the English language. By analogy, you couldn't hellride from one to the other, the connections do not exist. Other methods such as scrying or Trump must be used.

OK, that's the logical, as far as I can explain it. Now, for the game rationale:

It would be too damn easy. "No need to look for it, we'll just shift to it." This reduces GM options by a lot. If people can do that, than everyone always needs to be taking extraordinary methods not be be tracked down and found. "Lost in Shadow" would be absolutely meaningless, unless it was a pocket shadow, protected shadow, or whatever.

Hope that helps.

*Dave snaps out of lecture mode now*

Ow, that gives me a headache.

[Thanos]

Gotcha. At least your reasonings makes sense in a fashion.

[LynMars]

I agree, having run and played Amber games where players could just shift shadow to whatever they needed to find. Unless one takes ridiculous measures (which can be very frustrating for both GM and players, especially if not done well), just shifting shadow to find whoever or whatever you want can be too easily done. Going back to L5R a minute, my last GM disallowed Shugenja (holy men/mages) in his magistrate game. Why? A proper spell, and he could just ask the spirits what had happened, and have proof no one would fault. But it's not a game of finding the correct evidence only; it's about rank, glory, and honor, and who has more of it and how will this affect the daimyo and clan? And if the Shugenja can just cast a spell, why have a party investigate?

Shadowrun is the game I never have luck with; never died to my recollection, but never really have had a good gaming experience there, either. And that GM was a schmuck for killing you 3 times in a night for something that happened in another game. How immature.

[Wired*Nun]

Under the heading of Fun Things to Do to Players Other Than Kill Them: Let them live at the expense of someone they would die for.

I was storytelling a nice bizarre relationship between a hunted/retired ex-Tremere and a Garou. She, the Tremere, had been the Prince of Ingolstadt until an Elder Malk, who thought he was/went by Dracula, deposed her and imprisoned her for about 300 years, along with some other Kindred, to feed his blood roses. I mean, you can grow some really good blood roses with Kindred blood after all...Anyway, this Garou rescued her, took pity on her (he was already compromised from his friendship with a Native American Gangrel, they shared the love of Gaea and a hatred of Kindred, kind of) - and ended up falling in love with her, she with him. Or maybe it was just gratitude, who knows. In any case, she temporarily reestablished herself as the Prince of the City (by precedence and challenge) and proceeded to violate some more conventions by dealing with all sorts of unsavory types - mages, et. al - to use her restored DNA and his to create a child of their own. She didn't tell him about it, though...untill later...

But that's not the fun part.

The fun part came when her love was mortally wounded by the Prince of Boston's Brujah enforcer, in her presence...

So she Embraced him, of course. I mean, what would you do? At least he wouldn't die...and he would be like her now...

So he comitted suicide, having been deprived of his connection to everything that gives life meaning to a Garou, and turned him into that which he despised...

So she called in every favor, promised anything, to track down his soul and bring it back...to be put into his son's body...

So she could have her love back...

Who then had to be restrained from comitting suicide yet again when he found out that she essentially murdered his/their son for him to live by displacing the natural soul...

Needless to see these were two unhappy characters for quite a while.

[Wired*Nun]

Gotcha. At least your reasonings makes sense in a fashion.LoL. I'm going to take that as a backhanded compliment, based on my inability to communicate, rather than how it sounded. :(

[Wired*Nun]

In some further conversation with Thanos in private, it became evident that I need to change the description of Hellriding in game terms. Therefore, I did it, in the House Rules. Essentially, I never like the Wujcikian mechanic of the Hellride, so I have redifined it as merely shadowshifting dangerously fast. I would liken it to running over rocky terrain rather than walking carefully; it can be done, but at risk, and it gives little time to recover from mistakes. I believe this is more in keeping with canon. This also eliminates the whole question of walking to find specific objects or people that have no known location.

[Thanos]

It is a compliment :-)
You are the first ST that has given sufficient justification for me to shut up, beyond the normal “Cause I say so”.

[Wired*Nun]

Just another note, there are examples of more extraordinary things that might seem to contradict this in canon, but don't when you think about it. The black bird of Corwin's desire went to a known location (Amber) to find Eric. I choose to presume that it wouldn't have found him elsewhere in shadow. The white bird of his desire did not arrive until he had already arrived; additionally, had it preceded him, it could be put in the category of taking the risk of sending to an intangible - but it's a lot less risky with a bird. Lastly, there was Corwin's blood bird, which had a connection to him, so simply tracked him through shadow - just as some of the PCs paid-for creatures can.

[Wired*Nun]

:D Oh, and cause I say so dammit!LOL And give me my cheesy poofs! :yum:

[Wired*Nun]

Hey, I'm a Mohrg! What the hell is a Mohrg?

[Shutter]

Undoubtedly very scary and unpleasant.

And I'm a ghast:)

[Shutter]

Yep. I was right. (http://students.alma.edu/organizations/acog/games/colin/Image6.gif)

[Wired*Nun]

if I mention anything, I'm nearly accusing the Queen of Rebma of holding out on us,

Just in case you are referring to Llewella as Queen of Rebma, she's not, Moire is. Otherwise, I'm having trouble figuring out what this means.

[TreyKincaide]

And then there were two.

[Shutter]

Just in case you are referring to Llewella as Queen of Rebma, she's not, Moire is. Otherwise, I'm having trouble figuring out what this means.Er....oops...editing...

Ok, how's that?

[Wired*Nun]

Undoubtedly very scary and unpleasant.

And I'm a ghast:) I'm aghast too, at all this punnishment.

[Wired*Nun]

I'm going to split the thread now, just for my sanity. I'll leave the present one open, and you can move into the smaller ones as soon as you aren't interacting directly with someone from the other team.

[TreyKincaide]

That was horrible.

[Wired*Nun]

And if you could hear it, it would be aurable.

Don't ghet me started. Punnitive expeditions will be launched.

[Shutter]

I'm sorry everyone, for getting him started.

[TreyKincaide]

You should be. You will pay. Oh, yes, you will pay. *shakes his fist before curling his mustache*

[Wired*Nun]

I've reviewed the main thread a couple of times, I can't find where I need to post anything right now...is that correct? If someone is waiting on me, please prompt me. I admit I'm a bit fatigued.

[TreyKincaide]

I'm good boss unless an elder wants to talk to me for some reason.

[Wired*Nun]

I'm good boss unless an elder wants to talk to me for some reason.
Go ahead and move on over to the new thread then, start your preparations, go to bed, whatever.

[Shutter]

Unless someone wants to mention that I'm looking at Llewella funny, then, no I don't need GM input right now I guess. I'll probably send Roland to bed soon.

[chalice]

Gray makes one attempt to talk to Kat when she returns to the Hall briefly - I've posted in that thread, and Kat can pick it up or not as she wishes.


Moving to new thread now - and promptly signing off for food. See you guys in around an hour.

[Thanos]

**Sorry, I got pulled into a high level meeting so I could tell people what they should have already known :-(

Should be back for the afternoon.

[Wired*Nun]

I'm going to copy this thread into my private forum as a backup from time to time, but I want to keep using it and run the posts up till the thing pops!

[LynMars]

I think once Heldrick and Rae wrap up their conversation, I should be good to go myself, cause the next person she has to talk to before sleeping is Josh, I think, unles Roland or Kat need her for something. And it's okay, Thanos; I posted right before heading off to an afternoon class, so I wasn't waiting. :)

[LynMars]

...And I went from Ghast to Mummy to Vampire Spawn in very short order there...wow...

[chalice]

Huzzah - welcome back, Ice! Perfect timing!

[Wired*Nun]

OMG I'm a devourer now. What do I devour?

[LynMars]

Not us? :paranoid:

And do my eyes deceive me, or do we have everyone on at the same time? Wow...

[TreyKincaide]

Plankton. Lots of small fishes.

[Wired*Nun]

Not us? :paranoid:

And do my eyes deceive me, or do we have everyone on at the same time? Wow...
No chalice...:disa.ed:

[LynMars]

well...we had everyone earlier! Briefly! yeah...

[Pygysys]

I'm starting to think we could have gotten Raevyn out of cooking by challenging the other IC group to a bake off, using the Elders as judges. Then we could have had nice little pies and muffins to eat along the way. :)

[chalice]

Cooking? Oh, well, yeah, if you want to be fussy about your food, sure...

[LynMars]

um...eep?

[Wired*Nun]

Cooking? Oh, well, yeah, if you want to be fussy about your food, sure...
Hey, maybe she should hook up with Siodmak, I think they may have similar tastes...

[TreyKincaide]

Long pig. What a tasty treat.

[chalice]

Hey...I was talking about rabbits...OK?

[TreyKincaide]

LoL

[Pygysys]

Off to class, if I'm needed I'm back in 1.5 hours time. Later.

[TreyKincaide]

Have fun =)

[chalice]

So...you think we can lure Siodmak into a trap by along the lines of

"Mm, I got some delicious strawberry shortcake here, and there's more than enough for one..."?

[Wired*Nun]

Only if it was topped with raw meat...

[chalice]

I like this guy already.

Actually, that's not true. I wanna join the other quest...

[Wired*Nun]

BTW, though Ice shows as online, he hasn't responded to my GM Comms prompts to post. You can go forward and assume he comes with you, and do it in flashback if you like.

[TreyKincaide]

Now I'm hurt.

[TreyKincaide]

Righto. Thanks chief. I'm going to be around for another 30 minutes or so.

[Wired*Nun]

Speak of the devil...

[Shutter]

Yikes, how'd LynMars get so far ahead? That must have been quite a conversation.

I'm often not actualy online even if it says I am...I tend to live chained to a computer and a browser is usualy open, these days it's on this forum more often than not.

[Shutter]

Holy Crap, I'm a wight!How'd my post count jump like that? Ooooh, the thread being copied I'd guess...interesting.

[TreyKincaide]

I'm aghast! Woot! In no time I'll cause level drain!

[Wired*Nun]

I'll be going soon, alibis anyone?

[TreyKincaide]

I'm outa here. Bye =)

[Thanos]

[Thanos fawns......just when it was starting to get going ;-)]

[chalice]

Yeah...don't leave us now, Trey...

[chalice]

Goodnight, all. Today was a good day. May all our quests succeed:nod:

[Thanos]

Amen to that.

Sorry if I missed something earlier?

[LynMars]

Night! I think I need to go sometime soonish myself, since Dave went to sleep, apparantly. I was elsewhere and missed it...silly me...I have homework! Eeep!

[chalice]

Have updated the Public Knowledge section of Agraynel's description.

[Thanos]

Could Chalice, Trey, and Icebird put down their normal online times so we can try and hook up some time in the next few days :-)

Seems most are online 15:00-17:00 (Forum time), which unfortunately catches me in the last 2 hours of work. This of course makes my ability to post very eratic. Of course, the times that I can be online a lot normally is right after work till about the 0:00 (midnight for me). I have been trying to wake up earlier to see if I can catch you guys, but the odd 3:15 pee-break I do not think will cut it. If its between 17:30 and 8:00 I can be here, although I do need sleep sometime ;-)

[Shutter]

I think, for me at least, that the time I see in the forum is my own local time. So, for example, I see that Thanos's last post came in at 06:36. Is that when you see yourself having posted it Thanos?

[chalice]

UK times, for me: usually check in about 18.00-19.00, and then on and off until midnight. 22.00-24.00 tend to be the most active times - IE, when I coincide with most others. Not sure what time that translates to for you. I also check in in the mornings here, maybe around 8.30-9.00am.

Hooking up shouldn't be too much of a problem - Trey and I seemed to manage to coincide at least once a day when we were in the Looking Glass thread.

I'm always happy for others in the group to advance the action in my absence (Dave has his instructions for Gray...), so never feel you have to wait on me if I'm off-line.

[Thanos]

Yes, that is correct. If I am not mistaken Pacific Standard Time is GMT-7. Are you on the west coast?

[Shutter]

Indeed I am. Seattle in fact, land of rain.

However, it seems that Chalice is on UK time, so we can safely assume that the boards report to you on your own time....So....if we do all put up a "when am I on" type of thing, we should all do it relative to GMT. Which I'm pretty sure is 14:05 right now as I post this.

All that being said, I'm too erratic to give a meaningful answer to such a list anyway...heh.

[Thanos]

I have a feeling that Landon is not getting a trump call from Heldrik in Wired'Nun's last post. OOCly I think its that shadow trump artist that has made a picture of Landon and is trying to use it to 'save' him from the storybook picture. ;-)
Its 100% speculation though.

[TreyKincaide]

Very possible. The problems with expecting a call.

[Thanos]

I am off to work, and its usually pretty busy in the mornings, so I do not know how active I can be over the next 6 hours or so.

[LynMars]

Trey and I are in Kansas...UK time is, I think, 6 hours ahead of us (I know a guy in Sweden, which is 7 ahead, which is what I'm basing this on) Our time, I check before work at 5:30, after work/before class between 9:45-10:20, between classes during the 11:45-13:00 stretch, and after class from 14:30 until...um, almost midnight. Like me, his schedule is peppered with checks between classes. GM's first post of the day usually shows for me between 3-5 in the morning. That also sets Shutter about 2 hours behind us, and Pygysys...is an Aussie. I'm not trying to figure that one out. :) I just know that when I talk to Relapse in IRC, and it's Saturday evening for me, it's sometime Sunday afternoon for him, so, yeah...

I like knowing who's trying to Trump me, personally. Handy...though once I start believing the GM when he says who's calling, that's when he's going to spring something nasty on me, I just know it! Or maybe I'm just a paranoid gamer...:paranoid:

[TreyKincaide]

LMAO at Thanos's last post. Trump. Hello Trump.

[Shutter]

I meant to get Trump caller ID too...but somehow between writing up Roland on paper and putting it all down electronically I didn't transfer the power, which led to missing points, which got mis-assigned, which led to confusion...and now poor Roland is very worried about Siodmak brain-raping him.

[TreyKincaide]

LOL. Trump is good, but also not the widest of spread powers. I agree with Dave's decision to make it more expensive otherwise no end of people would buy Trump just to get caller id.

[Shutter]

Really, it seems fairly limited from a gaming persepctive. I've just always loved the notion of Trumps, though I think Siodmak made far better use of them than Roland ever would.

Did Dave decide to raise the cost? Or was his "You won't be special if you get Trump" warning sufficient?

[Wired*Nun]

I did raise the cost. I'll just subtract it out of your advancement points, so it will be transparent to you, if it applies.

[Shutter]

Heh.

I have this image now of Heldrik in a Verizon Wireless comercial walking around with a Trump card... "Can you hear me now?"

hmmm...I wonder if you have to be in the US to get that...probably so.

[Wired*Nun]

Well, I get it, and I'm not in the US. As long as you have US TV, like we military do. No commercials, but plenty of Leno, Letterman, etc. In the UK they have Leno I think.

[TreyKincaide]

About 15 more minutes until I'm off for class all.

[LynMars]

Poor Heldrik...very amusing. Why do I get the feeling Landon's going to be exasperated with his crew rather quickly? :P

On another front...it's all Trey's and our buddy Wargolem's fault (Shutter knows who I mean)! Playing characters like Rae used to be so easy; second nature. I used to be almost like that. Now...I must have played way too much Vampire the Masquerade, have read some of "the Prince" (need I say more on that?), and...yeah...

I guess that's what happens when you go from "that sweet quiet girl" to "That's Lici, the chargen narrator. She can be a real bitch so watch out." Yes, that actually happened at LARP. I found out later from a guy who decided to find out for himself if I really was or not. He's now our roommate.

Rae's actually become a challenge to portray properly. Fun stuff. So I may ask advise and opinions now and then. :evolved:

[Wired*Nun]

Landon et. al., just keep on going till you need me for something.

[Pygysys]

Let's see... Aussie time is usually anywhere from 8-10 hours in front of American time, depending on whether your West Coast, East Coast or in the middle of that big land. You're usually safe if you just project 9 hours forward. I'm usually up around 6am in the morning to check the site, then it's get ready for the day. I'll check again usually from 7:15-7:30 or 7:15-8:30 before zipping off to class for lectures, just depends if I have an 8am lecture or 9am lecture to start the day. Most days bring me home after that first lecture for a 3 hour break before I have pracs/workshops in the afternoon and then I'm not home till after 5pm my time. Once home though, I'm either online or hanging out with the OH, Flatmate and cats... or now working. The big gap though is when I hit bed around 11pm. So if I have the time correct, from about 3pm to 11pm for Americans, I'm zzzzzzzzzzzz...

[Wired*Nun]

To Heldrik Landon says, "Impressively done especially to learn such intracies without assistance."
What else do you do when you are trying to escape from locked shadows for 180 years? :cry:

[Thanos]

DAVE IS IN THE HOUSE!

Yes, well with enough time I would hope you could accomplish anything ;-)

[Wired*Nun]

Yeah, I am here for a bit. It's midnight and I'm really tired, tho, so leaving soon. You guys seem to have a good opportunity to catch up with each other, no need for me.

[Thanos]

Arg, where is Icebird? He has information (which he might share) that could be helpful :-) Let alone it would be nice to RP with the guy.

[TreyKincaide]

What part of silly fop don't people understand? =)

[Wired*Nun]

Well, as someone pointed out, he's only 16, prolly has some parental constraints. The best thing to do is just adjust to his timing. PCs can pose him as necessary for small things; I can do it for larger things. Hopefully it won't be too much of a problem.

[chalice]

What part of silly fop don't people understand? =)
Sorry - biased - playing with a character called Damien Mortlake in The Last Enemy, who is best described as 'a rake's rake' - and then he took down Benedict with only the barest assistance from the rest of us. I just automatically assume foppish = cover these days ;)

[Thanos]

I am reminded of Rob Roy and the fop in that show..... ;-)

[chalice]

Time for me to turn into a pumpkin. Night all:sleep:

[TreyKincaide]

G'night.

[Thanos]

Yes, goodnight.

Hrmm, what shall Heldrik and Landon talk about now?

[TreyKincaide]

Dunno. I'm at a bit of a loss.

[Thanos]

Something to consider is that we have a trump of Siodmak now and we could do a casting? (Although Wired'Nun would have to adjudicate that).

We have that we can go to Landons shadow, perhaps he can describe it and what he intends to do when we get there?

Then again Icebird is online now :-)

[TreyKincaide]

True. I think I'm going to sign off for a bit, though. I'm going to still Lici and force her to go out to dinner with me to give Icebird a bit of time to get caught up n stuff.

[Thanos]

OK, I will reply to anything he has for the next 25 minutes, then I will head out to home and get online there.

[Icebird]

At some appropriate time soon Arrotel will give a bit more background on himself, adn I'll post it. I would like a chance to fry Sidomak's brain, but it's probably a bit too easy, and could be messed up by him simply not taking it. I like the idea of trump casting, though.

[Thanos]

With a cast I was hoping that we might be able to see who is he effecting or who might be effecting him that might give us a clue. However, since we do not have a completely full deck of all the players (like Jasra, Duncten?, the Courts of Chaos, Delwin, Sand, ect) then it might not work like we like.

[Pygysys]

Got a big day/night ahead of me today/tonight, so won't be on till later my time most likely. Sorry for any inconvenience.

[Thanos]

I am not sure about Rae, but Roland could know that Rinaldo is Brands/Jasra's son and that Caine killed Brand (although the others helped arrange the situation). Vendetta is an old and honored custom in Amber. Those that are of Amber would/should know about such things or so I would imagine.

2 cents

[Shutter]

I am not sure about Rae, but Roland could know that Rinaldo is Brands/Jasra's son and that Caine killed Brand (although the others helped arrange the situation). Vendetta is an old and honored custom in Amber. Those that are of Amber would/should know about such things or so I would imagine.

2 cents
Oh yeah, Roland knows...and he just told Kat. Joss knew....but he got shot in the head...probably.

[Wired*Nun]

So as not to embarrass anyone in particular, but clean up our posts a bit (which, by the way, are still well above-average in writing proficiency, spelling, grammar, etc.) I am going to start a "common errors" page in the House Rules section. It won't be about typos per se, but chronic writing errors or misusages. I hope this doesn't seem too anal, however, one way to be a better writer is to eliminate the negative distractors. Feel free to post there yourselves, if you see anything. Non-attribution policy is in effect.

[Wired*Nun]

Here's an interesting thing if anyone would like to make a basic picture of themselves. The full download costs 20 bucks US, but gives you a lot more options. Or, the free one is ok. I need to figure out how to do a screen capture and then manipulate the picture some more, but for you technical types, should be a breeze.

http://www.heromachine.com/

[LynMars]

Love HeroMachine...The free, older version is a lot of fun...don't have $20 at the moment to get the other...

And as was pointed out earlier, while we know it was Rinaldo who killed Caine, we also know that the reason Rinaldo killed Caine was for Brand's death, and that the Queen and Merlin later vouched for him once he got out from under Jasra's thumb and was tired of the whole assassination thing; no longer a point, from what he could see. The vendetta was called off, and Rinaldo crowned in Kashfa.

Which makes for a slightly sticky situation....

[Shutter]

Hmmm....the Heromachine download doesn't seem to be working...how unfortunate.

[Thanos]

Everybody should feel free to wack my knuckles about spelling and grammer. I have gotten a LOT better over the last four years due to my job being very much about writting up reportings and sending emails. However, I am not a natural at English having talents in most other subjects. I found out in highschool that I naturally spell well in German, that I do not in French or Latin. So much for impressing the girls eh?

Yes that means I will not be offended in the slightest if you tell me I screwed up something in a post ;-)

[Wired*Nun]

Your posts run the gamut from perfect to...distracting...I think you just need to make sure you use the preview function and read over EVERY post before you hit save.

[Wired*Nun]

Bye for a couple hours.

Auch werde Ich in futur merken, dass Thanos Deutsch spricht...et Francais aussi?

[Thanos]

10 years ago I might have been able to do something with that ;-) Now I am a slug.

[Shutter]

I've forgotten a fairly hefty amount of French and Japanese. I've been meaning to refresh my skills, but somehow I never do...

[TreyKincaide]

Hmmm...now Dave is the Crimson Death. Running the gamut of undeath in its finest.

[LynMars]

I'm taking a French class now...it's been 7 years since the last French class, and the going is slow...at least my comprehension of written French is okay, so long as it's not too terribly complex.

I really wish schools in the States would start teaching foreign languages in elementary instead of high school, all the way through. It would be easier to learn, and wouldn't confuse children; kids learn faster and better than adults. I found, funnily, that learning a foreign language in high school helped improve my English, because you're forced to pay attention to rules of grammer you'd normally ignore, and have to make comparisons.

I do try to pay attention to how I write, but I still make a lot of mistakes. Or am just being lazy, at least here in the ooc thread. :)

[Thanos]

Mostly I am just in to much of a hurry. My brain thinks much faster than I can type....and when I am at work, my time to process and review is vastly limited. :-(

[LynMars]

See, I just can't type, so I tend to go over everything a few times...still don't get all the mistakes, but that's what the "edit" button is for...I love the edit feature...

[Thanos]

Heh. I at least always read something through, after typing it, once before I post it. That takes care of most things. Unfortunately my normal practice for professional work (leaving something for a day, reviewing it, then a week and reviewing it) doesn't work here ;-)

[TreyKincaide]

I'm going to give chalice and Icebird a chance to respond before heading out in Shadow.

[chalice]

Heading out into Shadow is fine

[Thanos]

If Icebird keeps the same schedule weekdays that will be in about 5 hours.

[TreyKincaide]

Yeah, I know, but as a player I don't want it to seem like I'm excluding him. It's definately a pickle.

[Wired*Nun]

I think you will need to do some things without his input, though. As long as it's not life and death, or big turning point. He can always do the "before they did that I did this."

This game is turning out just like my FTF games, which is why I have a hard time finding players - I take my time, don't normally rush the action. I think it's a richer experience, plus things matter so much more when there is a rich background. In a wierd sort of supporting contradiction, since the game is turning out to be so rich, slow will turn into dead slow if things don't move forward steadily. This means I think we should continue the steady pace even when he is not here, as much as possible. I know that for me, it's great fun reading what everyone else has been doing, I don't feel left out.

That's my $0.02.

[TreyKincaide]

Okay. Gotcha chief.

[chalice]

Here's a thought. How about if in our 'signing off for the day' posts, we lay down some base guidelines for our absence - eg, '"I'm gone for 8 hours; Gray will follow X's lead in my absence..." With, if necessary, limitations of the 'Unless..." variety.

Naturally, these can be backed up with private instructions to Dave, and with 'backtrack' insertions.

What think?

[Thanos]

I like the idea that Chalice puts forward. If somebody needs to be around and they said they can't be, then they need to leave instructions with a [OOC if this then that] or in the GM Comms for Wired'Nun to be able to comment or act for them.

[TreyKincaide]

Good idea. Finished up my first shadow traveling narrative. It's pretty long, but lemme know what everyone thinks.

[Thanos]

I like it. Heldrik's English is from a shadow like ShadowRun (FASA, tm). So watch out chummers.

[chalice]

I like it. Heldrik's English is from a shadow like ShadowRun (FASA, tm). So watch out chummers.
Oh, my. How...quaint.

[TreyKincaide]

Lol

[chalice]

Hey...I learned something at dear old Cantab., don't you know?

And - isn't it lucky? - Agraynel has read a goodly number of gothic-melodramatic Romances...

[TreyKincaide]

It was the best place I could see Landon dallying in at the beginning.

[Wired*Nun]

Posting instructions are fine, good idea. If anyone really gets in a snit over something done with them in their absence, I could completely rewind time or alter reality a little (hey, it is Amber...That makes me the Unicorn, right? Or maybe the Serpent). But, things for me being as they are, I won't commit to posting my instructions, because my schedule is very variable. I work in a secure area, and there is only one internet machine that allows cookies, other ones are view-only or standalone LANs and WANs. This means at work I may or may not get on with 15 other people wanting access. Lately most of these europeans are on vacation, but that will change soon.

I do try to get up and hit the posts in the morning before work, at lunchtime, and after work, so most cases yo can depend on me being on 3 times a day, more or less spaced around the clock.

[Wired*Nun]

Good idea. Finished up my first shadow traveling narrative. It's pretty long, but lemme know what everyone thinks.
I liked it, nice touches here and there. Seems a bit too quick if taken at face value, we will assume lots more time in there, but there was no way for you to know that. Still, if you try to add up in your own mind how many changes you would have to make if you COULD shift shadow, and use the Amber-to-Earth difference as a yardstick, it might help. Amber-to-Earth is about three days of shadowwalking normally, for basic Pattern, Amber psyche. Better psyche and AP speed this up.

[TreyKincaide]

Thanks.

[chalice]

Liked it.

[Thanos]

Good stuff, and its nice to now the shifting differential :-)

[Wired*Nun]

Good stuff, and its nice to now the shifting differential :-)
I think it's buried somewhere in the House Rules, six days from Amber to Chaos, with Earth being a metaphysical midpoint...

[Thanos]

So Ygg is not the midpoint?

[Wired*Nun]

nope. Need to read that backwards link.

http://www.online-roleplaying.com/forums/showpost.php?p=68198&postcount=22

[Thanos]

So shadow earth is more like the 25% mark if you go between Amber and Chaos?

[Shutter]

I thought it was more an issue that there can be many midpoints, using the globe analogy, with Chaos and Amber being the poles, and all of shadow in between...

[chalice]

oops. In chat with Trey I just made reference to 'Biggles' - met with a 'huh?' response.

Somebody please tell me I'm not the only one here old enough to remember Biggles...?

(Though I may, admittedly, be the only one English enough...)

[Wired*Nun]

Earth is on the equator. It's not the only thing on the equator. There are many other shadows on the equator. Ygg is about 45 south, but again, plenty of other shadows. It's not a perfect analogy.

This also does not take into account whatever effects Corwin's Pattern had on the arrangement.

[Wired*Nun]

oops. In chat with Trey I just made reference to 'Biggles' - met with a 'huh?' response.

Somebody please tell me I'm not the only one here old enough to remember Biggles...?

(Though I may, admittedly, be the only one English enough...)
Huh?

Not age, unless you are older than I (41) - must be a Brit thing.

[TreyKincaide]

Yeah. That's what I was thinking.

[chalice]

Oh, well - in that case, I feel better:nod:

Trust me, you all had deprived childhoods, though.

[Wired*Nun]

I know Mr. Bigglesworth...

[TreyKincaide]

I was happy with The Little Tugboat and The Little Engine that Could thank you very much :)

[TreyKincaide]

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?

The Shadow knows....

Yay level drain!

[Wired*Nun]

I'm going to bed soon.

[TreyKincaide]

Righto.

[TreyKincaide]

Night all

[Thanos]

Well I guess thats it for this evening, except for a bit from Icebird most likely in the next few hours.

[TreyKincaide]

Yeah. Seems to happen like that.

[Icebird]

Feel free to have him follow you. He's not much of a leader, although he does get passionate about some things. If you ever need an arial survey of somethings, ask him or Telloth directly (Dave has control of him).

[LynMars]

Thanks for posting for me; didn't realize we'd be making up a DnD game that was supposed to have been played out last week; near the end of that crazy campaign (I'm a 22nd level good Drow, now with the Saint template...long, weird story...). Didn't find out until this afternoon. Sorry. :)

[Wired*Nun]

Sorry, Lici, you're stuck waiting on the others again. Ahh the downs of being a copy machine. Still, here's an opportunity to draw some more info out of Josh, never a thing an Amberite should resist...

[LynMars]

I don't mind; this still moves so much faster than the forum I'm used to; Shutter's "Bending the Rules" and it's second part, "Breaking the Rules" have been going on for months now--and nowhere nearer to finding our missing friend! Poor Shutter...One of the party members is about to get himself killed by the Amberite (me) they called in to help with this mess. Don't insult the Family. especially by comparing them to demons and calling them ubers when she knows that's an insult. This is Karina, mind you; if she can find a way to kill the guy without repercussion she will.

yay, info! But how to do it in Raevyn's innocuous manner...ladedadeda...

[Shutter]

Yeah, I think I started that thread back in January. Still under 400 total posts. This pace is utterly astounding coming from those forums...This much content would have taken well over a year at their pace.

[LynMars]

February (http://nice.purrsia.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=35;t=002099;p=1), actually...

hehehe...:evil:

and what the heck...Part Deux (http://nice.purrsia.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=35;t=002327)

That dossier of General Caine's makes finding RP's a lot easier...

[Shutter]

It does indeed. I tried linking all the threads I was in in my profile, but once they started dying on me that got to be a very frustrating endeavor. I wonder if it will end in under a year?...I doubt it. Anything that can be resolved without violence takes forever to do over there.

[chalice]

Trey, Thanos, Icebird - I must (a damnable must!) attend a family gathering this weekend. That means I'll be here until about 1am my time tonight, then may not be able to re-connect before Saturday night (it all depends on when I can steal my brother's computer and phone line; since he's a doctor he does like to keep his phone as free as possible).

Dave will be driving in my absence, but if there's anything you actually want to talk to Gray-played-by-me about, I'd try to make it tonight.

Sigh. Family gatherings hurt my head.

[Thanos]

I like getting the family together, it is either huge and plenty to do, or small and intimate with people that are pretty cool.

[Wired*Nun]

OMG, Thanos, I just figured it out - you're LDS!

Don't be insulted, I'm just joshing you. Oh wait, I'm Joshing Raevyn. Well, not really yet....

Its okay me hearty, gotta love those family values. I managed to have some in my present family despite my screwed-up upbringing.

[LynMars]

*eyes Dave's post* Someone's silly today.... :)

LDS?

My mother's initials are LSD...seriously! I'm sure if my grandparents had known who she was going to marry, they'd have done something differently.

[Wired*Nun]

My sister was LSD before she married, Leslie Suzanne...

LDS = Latter Day Saints = Mormon. Lots of them in Vegas, I used to live there.

[Thanos]

LDS are people who think like they were on LSD when it comes to what they believe ;-)

OK, I am making fun to. LDS stands for Latter Day Saints (Mormons), which is a Cult based off of Christianity. Yes, it is defined as a cult by Christians because the LDS officially does not believe in the diety of Christ. Beyond this, it continues to say that any man can be a god and rule his own planet after death here, but his power in the afterlife is directly related to the number of children that he can have while on earth. This led to their multiple wives type of thing, which got them kicked out of the country as no state would take them east of the Miss....they ended in the Utah Territory, near a big salt lake ;-).

Anyways.... no I am not LDS, but thanks for the consideration. Should you like to talk religion, then ICQ or IRC would be best. Don't want to bore these pour RP'ers or anything.

Yes ther are a lot in Vegas, I do live here :-)

[Wired*Nun]

Amazing, a mainstream Christian in Vegas, that is very cool. I had a lot of difficulty finding a church there myself, ended up just going to the base chapel.

Its ok, I admire Mormons for their earthly values while alternately laughing at and detesting their theology and twisted historical beliefs. Would that we Christians did as well in demonstrating a Christian lifestyle to the world.

[chalice]

LDS...an archivist's nightmare. (I actually have a friend who specifies in her Will that she is not to be retrospectively 'baptised'.)

Lost count of the people we've had in the Record Office saying plaintively 'but I looked at the Mormon website, and they said...'

Grrr.

I'm Free Church by birth (dad was a vicar); new pagan by conviction. Got to love my mother..."Hecate and Beltaine, what lovely names for cats..." and all the while belivieng I remaining a committed methodist.

[Thanos]

Some do, some don't. I am certianly not going to judge either, thats God's job ;-).

However, just to give you an idea of things, the majority of the 'loose' girls when I went to highschool (that I knew about that is) were cheerleaders and mormons. So my opinion of the majority is based a lot on that. That isn't to say that there wasn't a slut where I went to church, but one vs a dozen is kinda a big difference.

ANYWAYS!

[Shutter]

I'm gonna go ahead and request we leave all of our real world religions off the boards, as far as explicit discussion goes. It's not a matter of anyone hiding anything, but I know that quite a lot of people are pretty passionate about the topic, and it can crop up and spoil an otherwise working relationship.

[Wired*Nun]

Well, I'm not going to censor myself if the topic comes up, neither will I prosyletise (sp?) anyone here. I choose to hope we are all sensible enough to be able to be neither offensive nor offended. My spiritual self is as much a part of me as my physical or mental self; the fact that I do not feel it generally necessary to bring it into an Amber game has more to do with my faithfulness to the genre than any desire to avoid the topic. My VTM campaign had lots of religious elements of all sorts, but then, so does WoD in a lot of ways. In that game I had a catholic, a baptist, a native American animist, an atheist and an agnostic... and those were the players, don't get me started on the characters...anyway, I'll stop for now.

[chalice]

Shutter's right. Let's skip it.

[chalice]

Some do, some don't. I am certianly not going to judge either, thats God's job ;-).

However, just to give you an idea of things, the majority of the 'loose' girls when I went to highschool (that I knew about that is) were cheerleaders and mormons. So my opinion of the majority is based a lot on that. That isn't to say that there wasn't a slut where I went to church, but one vs a dozen is kinda a big difference.

ANYWAYS!
An I even going to raise the point 'why are we suddenly talking about female morality here?'

The majority of 'loose' girls where I went to school were...desperate. Short on options.

But, the hell with it, let it go.

[Wired*Nun]

Yes, the game is waiting. Shall we?

[chalice]

Heh - and what a game it is?!

[Thanos]

"But son," and here he puts his hand on Roland's arm, "That's not the case. Doubt everyone, but never me."

Reminds me of Corwin warning Dara about the family, you know, before she seduces him as part of a breeding program.

[LynMars]

Yeah, made me and Jon giggle too. That's some good stuff there, Dave. Hey Shutter, ya nervous yet? ;)

[Thanos]

I know I would be if anybody else besides perhaps Benedict said something like that....even then it would have an edge that just wouldn't ring true.

[Wired*Nun]

Yes, but remember Corwin's comments about fatherhood's transformation of Random...

[Shutter]

Funny thing is, Roland totaly bought it.

Hell....I think his player might even have bought it.

[Wired*Nun]

Well, he's never had any personal firsthand evidence to the contrary...who ever believes ill of their parent without direct proof?

[Wired*Nun]

Bedtime soon, 15 mins max.

[Wired*Nun]

Sorry, didn't see chalice was out, I shouldn't have addressed a question to Gray. Oh well. Nite all.

[Thanos]

I think that Landon might step up and answer for Gray instead, she has been 'clingy' of late ;-)

[TreyKincaide]

Landon doesn't

a) Like this guy

b) Trust him worth a shit

c) Feel comfortable giving up family information to an upstart sorceror that may be an enemy

d) know a damn thing about Asmundson

e) all of the above

Chalice said she was going to gone for a family thing after tonight. If she is, I'm sure that Dave will respond.

[Thanos]

:-)

If the guy wasn't a 'friend' of Landon's Heldrik would certainly have admonished him. However, it seems the guy has confidence dripping from him, I am wondering what he has up his sleave.

[chalice]

Damn. Sorry guys - unexpected technical hassles. One more post from me (now) then officially over to Dave.

[Thanos]

No problems Chalice have as much fun as is legaly possible ;-)

[Wired*Nun]

I think we'll let Roland catch up a bit in case he wants to come upstairs. Feel free to go on among the three there.

[LynMars]

I think Kat's next, after that little deserved tiff from Josh. Rae's gonna wait for that to cool down a bit...

[Wired*Nun]

I always wonder whether it's the character or the player who overlooks an NPC's feelings and motivations...I like being a GM because I get to play more than one character at once, but I do have my favorites, and my favorites, I know very well. I like to think that's what lends veracity and life to them, just like any writer.

[Thanos]

Wow, Flora is one heck of a condisending little witch.......LOL!

Awsome little section though Dave, very much amused by that :-)

[Wired*Nun]

Take her for a lightweight at your peril...

[Wired*Nun]

Going to a movie, back in a couple hours.

[Thanos]

If you have read the Asimove Foundation series (the 4th and 5th) there is a very good example of what the 2nd Foundation does. They find a guy with the unconcious psychic ability to figure out what is right (or what will happen) given a specific instance.

Flora is much like that. She knows which side will win, when presented with it and she just hops on board. If Heldrik were the first version I sent you, he would be savy to such things and never cross her path. Heldrik v2, currently being played, is like you said, a fish out of water. He will likely have to learn the hard way :-(

[TreyKincaide]

Have a good time. =)

[Thanos]

Erm, Trey, is what you posted what you intended?
Maze vs Magic activity?

[TreyKincaide]

Sorry. Misread your post. Mind skipped over magic activity and saw maze activity. That's what I get for speed reading.

[Thanos]

No problem :-)

Glad to see we are bouncing around some good stuff though.....and yes, Heldrik, having been trapped for almost his entire life with all of 4 shadows to visit. He is really hating being stuck somewhere for to long......at least right now, his wonder lust and inquisitive nature are starting to kick into gear. So much new stuff has been presented to him that its almost overwelming his better judgement.
And here you were wondering why he was so willing to leave the castle in the middle of the night.

[Wired*Nun]

small crowd tonite. Other than chalice, where is everyone?

[Thanos]

I am still at work.

By the time I get off and get home nobody is here most of the time. Still think things are going well despite that. Come November though, life at work will become very busy and my time will be highly scheduled.

[Wired*Nun]

LoL, speak of the devils, and they shall appear.

[TreyKincaide]

Hi all. I was watching Hildago. I'm supposed to be playing Star Wars d20 here eventually, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Thanos]

That system erm.... stinks for Star Wars, give me Steve Jackson games any day!
Course that is my opinion..... ;-)

[TreyKincaide]

I'm not running it. The game is just kinda there really.

[LynMars]

That system stinks for a lot of games; funnily, none of them are the one it was originally designed for. 7th Sea and L5R are not meant to be d20; nor is White Wolf's Trinity line. :(

[Thanos]

Sounds like my old Saterday night game......
I started playing Rolemaster cause one of my roommates wanted to run it for a friend of his. In exchange, kinda, he came and played in Exalted. 3 months of boring level based drudgery (for me), vs him coming and playing for 1 game session. Did I mention his character basicly pulled the storyline into a sinkhole pulling some 200 square miles of creation straight to Malfeas.
The ST had something specific in mind and it all went to hell :-(

[Wired*Nun]

Gotta stay flexible. I have played with GMs who ram the PCs down a storyline no matter what. Now I don't worry so much about hurt feelings, and kindly play elsewhere...

[Wired*Nun]

Night all.

[Pygysys]

Night GM. :)

[Thanos]

I am off to get some food and head home. I will be back around in an hour or so to check in.

[TreyKincaide]

G'night.

[Icebird]

Arrotel was in what might best be described as a type of shock- death is something he never thought would happen to the family. Sure he's read about it or heard, but it was always to 'some one else.' Reality is when it happens to you. He just snapped out of it, and will be back soon. If I were in the same darned time zone as Dave, he would ahve been gone for five minutes play time, instead of missing the rest of this interesting stuff. Aaarrrrgggghhhh... Ok, I'm normal again.

[Shutter]

I will be gone most of tommorow, except perhaps early morning, my parent's are coming to visit and taking my Fiancee and me to watch the Mariners (baseball team) lose.

Sorry if that's a problem at all...Don't go blowing up the multiverse while I'm gone.

[Thanos]

LOL, I love your outlook on the game. Never could sit through one since the strike though. I hate that they make the money that they do. I think they should have a pay cap of $100,000 and the team pays for a lot of professional injury insurance (so when they get hurt, they get a nice sum to retire on). Same with the other major sports. Its entertainment, not teaching or being a soldier, which IMHO are jobs that should pay higher.

enough of my moral rambling though. Should be back in 3-4 hours though.

[LynMars]

...Don't go blowing up the multiverse while I'm gone.
Aww, there go my plans for the day...

[Wired*Nun]

Well, as long as we are a free-market society, people get paid what the market makes them worth. For example, a high school teacher makes 30-50k, a nurse, 40-80k, a full General makes somewhere in the neighborhood of 200k if you add in all benefits; a CEO of a major company, or major sports figure, perhaps 10 million, which is 50 times as much. Who has more responsibility and impact on peoples' lives? That's why they call it service or calling.

[TreyKincaide]

Morning Dave.

[Wired*Nun]

:yum: Oh, it's afternoon here (15:00) and I'v already been to the community Fun-Fest, eaten ribs, etc. The post from 4-5 hours ago was the morning one

[TreyKincaide]

Thanks Dave for saying something about ribs. Now I'm hungry. Although, I'm not all together awake yet either.

[TreyKincaide]

It's kinda funny. Now that I have the GM monopolized, I have very little I need to ask him.

[Wired*Nun]

And apparently nothing that Landon does...

[TreyKincaide]

I'm still waking up. I did respond. I'm having too many thoughts at the moment going through my tired brain. It's jumping back and forth between this and trying formulate backbiting Toreador plans for LARP tonight.

[TreyKincaide]

Did some editting. Also just noticed I'm a vampire spawn. Woot!

[TreyKincaide]

Um, Icebird. We're still in the basement of Asmundson's house. We haven't left yet.

[Icebird]

The entire reading was in the basement? Then what was the carrige that you went into town for? I had thought that you guys left, then returned.

[TreyKincaide]

We went by carriage to Asmundson's house where the reading was taking place. When the reading was over and the crowd had dispersed we followed Asmundson B down to the basement where the current conversation is being held - save me stepping upstairs to report to Flora.

[Icebird]

That was what I origonally thought, but after re-reading it, changed my mind. I'll edit now, before anyone else sees it (grin).

[TreyKincaide]

Glad I could help. =)

[LynMars]

Dave, what do you want done with those previous posts, then? Deleted out, or revised so she's not actually drawing a Trump, but only explaining it to Roland while they wait to go to lunch?

[Thanos]

I will be out doing chores for the next 4-5 hours (along with a 'Team Building Meeting' that I am going to). Heldrik will follow Landon's lead and do his duty by Arrotel.

[Wired*Nun]

Dave, what do you want done with those previous posts, then? Deleted out, or revised so she's not actually drawing a Trump, but only explaining it to Roland while they wait to go to lunch?
Whatever makes sense - edit or whatever. I'll be back in about three hours..

[LynMars]

okay...I've tried editing, at least until Shutter gets back and sees what's up. We can either delete and start over or copy-paste, if it gets too confusing.

[Shutter]

I'm all edited and up to speed...no need to delete anything.

[Wired*Nun]

Just a reminder, I much prefer if you are explicit about what your character intends to do. Implying that you are going to do something make me uncomfortable trying to decide that I should go ahead as if you are, or wait for further instructions...

[Thanos]

Oh, Heldrik would love to see this fight that Bleys is going to put on. Even knowing if he joined that he would get the piss whipped out of him soundly, just the opertunity would be awsome.

[Pygysys]

That's why Kat's joining in. Hands up all those who haven't seen an Elder in practise, even if it is just that, practise. :)

[LynMars]

If Kat manages to show up to lunch, she's going to be so covered in bruises...Anyway, Trey and I have LARP tonight; it's usually 2nd and 4th Saturday nights, for future reference. So if Shutter comes in ready to press forward, I'll go along, following the boys. Sorry if I'm one of the ones who tend to imply without being clear; usually I'm ready to go ahead and do what I'm implying, if it helps.

[Pygysys]

Kat's done lunch with the guard at this point. It's more a case of whether or not she'll be able to show up for dinner and how much of her will be wrapped in bandages. ;)

[Thanos]

Heh, I know I have a tendency to imply stuff...must put on more of a player hat instead of an ST hat I think :-).

[Pygysys]

"Come get your tickets to the Kat and Bleys show! It promises to be a treat and cheap too, only half a crown!"

I'm sure if Bleys wrote this post it would be: The Bleys show!

[TreyKincaide]

LOL. Well Lici and I are off to LARP for the night. Have fun all.

[Thanos]

Later then. Good posts :-)

I think we should let Dave go to sleep now. I am off as well. Goodnight.

[Wired*Nun]

nite all.

[Shutter]

Excellent, the multiverse seems to be intact, and the Mariners won their game.

Dave, could you leave me a note somewhere on where you'd like me to pick up with the chronology?

...Hope Roland can get in on some of that action after lunch...

[Wired*Nun]

Probably "overhear" someone saying Bleys is going out at the practice yard, arrive after the action has started, observe, follow Kat up may be a good idea. Can't use live steel though - the marshal may rap even a Royal upside the head with is staff, not to mention Bleys taking it personally....

[Shutter]

Yeah...kinda figured Smoke wouldn't get to play.

[chalice]

Sorry I couldn't join you last night folks - an emergency at the hospice where my sister-in-law works meant we couldn't tie up the phone line at all.

I'll definitely be back Monday afternoon (UK time); can't guarantee tonight, sadly. <twitch, twitch, game withdrawl kicking in...>

[Thanos]

I will be back in about 4 hours ladies and gentlemen.