The Pulp (8-22-11)

The Season of the Fire King meets its second moon.  Buzzards wheel effortlessly in the burning sky, while the bipeds below do what scavenging they can before seeking an unattended shelter.   Those who can’t take the heat find their tempers rising with the temperatures.  Others find cool comfort in collaboration, or seek food and scrap by whatever inventive means they can muster – especially as the Season of Hoarding draws nearer and nearer.  As far as the eye can see, the air shimmers with the heat and swirls with the sands.  And yet, once in a while, you could almost swear you spy something else glimmering in the distant east – and when the winds are right, they seem to carry the faintest taste of salt….

EVENTS HIGHLIGHTS:

Movie Nights have come and gone since the last writing. Due to the backlog, I’ll summarize each in haiku form.  Why not!

7/25 – The Last Lovecraft: Relic Of Cthulhu   (2009)  

Unsuspecting nerds
With monster-freeing relic
Avoid cultist goons

8/1 – Meet The Applegates   (1990)

Alien mantids
Pose as suburbanite WASPS,
Try to nuke the world

8/8 – Hard Ticket To Hawaii   (1987)

Diamonds, drugs, and boobs
Giant killer cancer-snakes
I don’t even know 

8/15 – I’m Gonna Git You Sucka   (1988)

Faux-Blaxploitation:
Heroes fight Mr. Big when
Bro dies from gold chains

Thursdays have recently featured Diamanda Gustafson playing a mix of folk, metal, world music, and more in the BAR! above Wankerstein Clapsaddle’s General Stoar.  The night typically ends in a few (often profane) rounds of the Barrel Of Fun SLacro acronym game made by Giuseppe Spicoli – but before that, people have often been stopping in for a drink of Likker and a chat in-character.  Weary wanderers are welcome to stop in and put up their feet for a while – or use their feet for dancing instead.

The Pathfinder: Curse of the Crimson Throne tabletop RPG campaign has reached one of its most daunting tasks yet: the dreaded and undead-ed Castle Scarwall, a place that is slightly haunted in much the same way as the ocean is slightly damp.   Even reaching the gate required a brutal fight against a score of animated skeletons, including one plate-mail-encrusted horseman on a rotting and grisly ex-stallion.  However, the party has acquired a new member – a deft and tricky monk played by longtime gamer Ironblood Mechanique.  Maybe, just maybe, the party can make it through the castle without adding to its collection of skeletons.

ESTATE NEWS:

July’s Wastelands Community Meeting was held at the Arena on the 30th of July.   As usual, Neo and the Devs addressed the three core aspects of Wastelands life:

Estate

• The new Tier Meters have been released, and appear to be working well!  Due to popular demand, the system will now warn owners whose parcels are three days away from going overdue.
• Residents can receive these warnings by email as well — email neobokrug [dot] elytis [at] gmail [dot] com if you’d like your email address added to the system.
• Want to add custom pictures to your parcels?  Send Neo the UUID of the picture you’d like to use and let him know which parcel to add it on.
• Been around The Wastelands for a while?  Want to help out?  There are a couple of opportunities!
• If you enjoy building, texturing, or any other sort of content creation, apply for the Wastelands Public Works Department — creating a pool of post-apocalyptic assets for the community.
• Not so hot at the building?  More of a people-person?  Ask to become a Resident Volunteer!  You’ll be listed on the Welcome Page as someone to contact when new people have questions or need information.
• The long-awaited coastal sim may soon be at hand!  Neo is interested to know who is serious about buying coastal land — and able to put their money where their mouth / dangling jaw / muzzle / weird Botan orifice is.

Game

• To increase flexibility, Neo is reworking the V1.75 HUD to be multiple scripts, not just one, and to include some new features — likely including the jump limiter, falling damage, and more.
• To help prevent asshattery and the use of ignorance as an excuse, new users will soon have to take and pass a test on the Terms of Service and Rules of Conduct, agreeing to those terms before their HUD will be activated.
• Everyone still really wants the Bow.

Roleplay

• Reminder that wearing a Ruin’t tag means that you are in-character at the moment — if you are not roleplaying, wear any other tag (or no tag at all.)  Sez Neo, “There’s no excuse to not be in character if you have such a tag on. I know it’s different from most estates in SL, but that’s how we do it here.”
• Roleplay should be mutual — even if you’re enemies, if you’re not just playing as enemies for your mutual entertainment and if you both actually hate each other, You’re Doing It Wrong.
• If you can’t get along with someone else and can’t play in a mutually entertaining way, ignore them, mute them, and deHUD if you absolutely have to.  Whatever you need to do to keep from perpetuating the absurd drama.
• Whether from IC or OOC conflicts, if you’ve gone to the Devs for help and they’ve told you to mute and/or ban the person bothering you, do it – don’t waste your time talking to someone who is only out to give you a hard time.
• In the Ruin Nation: Official Wastelands RP group, “[…]New avatars joining the group do not have group chat privileges. If they want that just IM a dev or something and we’ll bump you up. And, if you’re a tactless attention-whore or asshole, we’ll bump you down or out. “

RP NAMEDROPS:   The Barrelhead Bazaar has brought many scavengers, old and new, to the barrens of Cormac.  Rare and precious items have been traded and auctioned, certainly, but it has also become a place for the trading of tales.  A mysterious Mutant Elder has emerged from the sands, speaking dire warnings.  A confused and gibbering Ghoul has been seen capering around the stalls. And many an odd rumor has been told beside the fire — especially when tongues are loosened by drink.

After the destruction of the Trade Post, Facemelt Loon was among the many presumed dead.   However, these many moons later, he’s been spotted in The Wastelands — alive, if not well, his body is seemingly strained with malnutrition and sickness.  Still, his mind seems sharp as ever – and, if not, his tongue is sharp enough to make up the difference.  For the price of some food and scrap, he may well tell some secrets of the old days…

The Mutant Witch (CCindy Pfeffer) has barricaded her temple door in Hambone Slash, and rumors say she was spied tracking south, carrying a heavy load of water and food.  Yet the human-face icon from her totem has been placed on the barrier like a ward – and a valuable indication that she’ll be returning with only more secrets.