Inworldz Virtual World Closed 27th July 2018

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February Party_001
One of the great settings on our event level for music. Good times!

Very sadly Inworldz closed with only a weeks notice. We would like to thank everyone that was associated with Celyddon on Inworldz. Those who came to our events, roleplayed or battled and sailed on the inWorldz seas. You became our friends and we miss you.

We still have a small settlement in Second Life. To find us there just log in to Second Life (visit https://www.secondlife.com if your not already a user) and follow the teleport links in the profile picks of Ballyrae Hanly or Melanie Auxifur. We will continue to have music events and some medieval and fantasy themed roleplay.

For the future we are investigating setting up on one of the hypergrid opensim grids like Discovery, Kitely or Digiworld. We hope to hear from you all soon and please watch this blog for announcements.

 

Getting Started

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Maybe you are interested in roleplay, combat, exploring, building and creating, or events and making friends, so how do you get started?

Here I will assume your a real beginner, but obviously you can ignore anything you already know or have done. First go to InWorldz and register for a free account, there are other options for renting land or premium membership, but I am assuming you want to look round and see if its for you first.

You will be asked for a name for your avatar, the gender and to select a starting appearance, the rest is just passwords and the usual contact details. Just about everything about your avatar is changeable, except the name so choose that carefully.

Download and install a viewer and log in for the first time. You will appear at the visitor centre, there are usually a couple of greeters there to say Hi! and offer help. Its best to join the Welcome Group so that you can ask for help from one of the mentors if you need it and wear the welcome HUD which lists some popular locations for activities and shops you can go to because soon your going to want to personalise your appearance. But first take as long as you need to learn to walk, run, fly, TP, chat and get used to the viewer controls, like the camera.

Once you know how to use search, look up Ballyrae Hanly or Melanie Auxifur under people or Celyddon or Coromandel under places. We would love to hear from you if you message, but just as important look at our profiles. These list the groups we belong to and the locations we have in picks, including both Celyddon lands where you can teleport and look around.

Joining a group allows you to chat with others in the group and gives you permissions. In the case of the Celyddon group joining lets you rezz items, unpack boxs and set home. If you plan to sail also join battlegroup which allows you to rezz items on the Black Powder Seas.

Never Spit into the Wind

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A Celyddon Navy Ship - The Cuban_001
A Cuban mid-class navy ship on patrol in the Black Powder Sea

Sailing and SPD ships

SPD scripted ships are available both in Second Life and Inworldz, but Inworldz has a much higher proportion of sailable seas. We use sailing ships for combat, exploration and trading. The Celyddon Navy uses Port Celyddon as its base for patroling the seas and hunting pirates and smugglers. A smuggler is of course any ship that refuses to pay excise duties and tax. Pirates are the curse of any honest sailor as they pick on poorly defended trading ships to plunder cargo.

Merchant ships travel from port to port with cargos to sell, when they embark on a voyage they announce their cargo and destination in group chat, this makes them a target for pirates who may chase them or lay in wait. If a pirate sinks a merchant ship before it reaches its destination they get the cargo and make a nice fat profit.

Merchant ships are expected to pay the navy ten percent of the value of their cargo as duty. Any navy ships in the area will try to protect them from pirates because duty is only paid after the merchant reaches its destination safely. On the other had if a merchant wants to take a gamble they announce that they are smugglers, if which case the the navy will either ignore them of sink them as a demonstration to others.

Further information on the Naval Action or Flotsam and Jetsam websites where they seem to have excellent forums. Would be pirates might like to look at The Pirate King for lots of great background info.*

Demonstration SPD ships can be tried out at various shipyards including The Loose Cannon on Inworldz.

*Thank you to Modee Parlez for the links and for other information which I will use in future posts.

InWorldz … Just a taster

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InWorldz is where most of our current expansion and work is taking place at the moment. This promotional video is a couple of years old and things have advanced, but it gives you an idea of what’s possible.

Second Life is much bigger and if anything more advanced, but also more commercial and expensive if you want to have your own land. Please try them both out and look us up. Search for the place Celyddon or our names, Ballyrae Hanly or Melanie Auxifur once you have logged into either. There are lots of wonderful opportunities to be creative, roleplay, explore, meet and have fun!

Port Celyddon

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Picture of the harbour and citadel at Port Celyddon
The Harbour and Citadel at Port Celyddon

Port Celyddon is a themed land based on the on the 16th and 17th centuries. Role play is encouraged, but not required and while mostly human, fantasy characters are allowed. We are here to support IC and OOC events, combat both using the Unity Meter and SPD is supported.

We have free form role play where you are free to express your own character, just respecting our ‘back’ story. The UES system is employed for trade and to encourage the adoption of roles that integrate with our community.

Our main base is an island right in the centre of the Black Powder Sea which is an association of many lands all different and unique in their own way but sharing an ethos of fun and fairness in the seas that surround us and creating common standards for our interactions.

A naval fleet is based at Port Celyddon which is also a trading centre for merchant ships which come to the island. Near the main citadel of the port with its market, harbour and fortifications is the old fort, a base of the huntresses. Huntresses are the scouts and spies of Celyddon, undertaking dangerous and often secret missions on behalf of the realm.

Possible Roles: Naval Captain (you will need your own ship), Naval Ratings (Help crew the warships as gunners), Shore Gunners and Guards, Marines for raids and boarding parties. Scouts and Huntresses. There is also a need for Merchants, Artisans of all kinds, farm workers and domestics. These are just a few of the many possible roles available.

Mythical Origins

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When humans first came to Celyddon taking refuge from the wars that had driven them away from there homes, they crossed many seas until finally their small boats were wreaked against the rocks that seem to protect the coast of Celyddon. They struggled ashore with only the possessions that they could salvage finding a fertile countryside with lush wetlands melting into grasslands and green ripe forests. Wild beasts roamed the forests and while many of the beasts were very vicious it was possible with some hunting and fishing also picking wild fruits to survive and settle.

They soon realised that they were not alone. High elves lived in the forest and while they did not attack the humans and even occasionally warned of danger in cryptic riddles they seemed to have mysterious powers and loved to play tricks and jokes. It was said that the elves were lead by Yrmell who would occasionally speak to the humans.

Sometimes the elves would reveal a little of what they knew to the newcomers. They had lived in the forests since ancient times and often spoke of ancient wars between the forces of nature and chaos and that Celyddon was the site of the great treaty concluded for peace. Even to this day dragons, one of the forces of Chaos test the magical defense created by the treaty or attack those that wonder beyond the boundary of the treaty lands into the ‘Cradle of War’.

Compared to the high elves who often lived hundreds or even thousands of years and seemed to spend their time performing enchantments or tending to the forests, humans live only a few score years. They worked hard and built a village and a castle and watch towers for defense. Some of them farmed, others hunted and they settled and did a growing  trade with other settlements and started to prosper.

The human warriors called ‘The Guardians’ upheld the human laws or guarded the borders and battled raiders, while a special more secret group often known as the ‘Hunters and Huntresses’ explored the mysteries of the realm undertaking dangerous spying and scouting  missions to discover the many secrets of the enchanted lands. Often their duties meant that they had to wonder into territory where the beasts of chaos and dragons roamed. In lands beyond the protection of the magical enchantments created by the high elves they often have to battle danger and the forces of chaos

Melee Combat

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So the words are not enough and warriors clash! Here is where to a large extent role play breaks down and for the sake of fun a different type of game based on speed, reflex and a bit of luck takes over for a while. Strict role players hate it! They rightly stick with role playing each blow and the person role playing the weaker fighter, surrenders or is defeated, injured and maybe killed.

Embed from Getty Images

At Celyddon and on a number of lands the usual role play gives way to combat with meters. The Unity meter is great for combat with fists to all sorts of bladed and hitting weapons and bows and its a lot of fun to use. Each character wears a meter that shows their health so that everyone can see if they are injured, they carry scripted weapons, usually bows or swords. The meters record hits adjusting for armour if its worn and in some cases allowing for extra strength or endurance depending on the race of your character. Magical attacks may also be allowed, some weapons like swords can be used continuously, others like bows use arrows and when you run out you have to reload your quiver. Often magical spells take a while to recharge before they can be used again.

Combat is normally done in mouse look, a first person perspective and your character is set to always run mode for speed. With short range weapons like swords you step close to be in range, strike by swinging rapidly left and right and then step back out of range before they do the same to you. Some weapons do greater damage and others are faster then others and a spear will have a longer range then a dagger. Bows and spells you normally aim from a distance with a cross hair, allowing of course for the arrow to drop with distance and the direction your target is moving.

Characters heal slowly with time or the process can be speeded with healing potions or attention from a healer, depending on the rules. If your health falls to low you collapse and can be killed, but by convention unless it has been agreed otherwise beforehand when role play resumes you are treated as only having been wounded or dazed for a while. No one wants to permanently lose a character they may have spent years creating.

Unfortunately the Unity meter does not allow guns, muskets or cannons so if they are involved we use the SPD meter. Some objects can react with Unity, doors that break, chests that can be smashed open, spikes that can impale you causing injury, are all possible. The meters are free as are basic weapons, more sophisticated weapons usually have a cost and there are a number of stores that supply them.

Aids to Roleplay

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Just about everything is an aid, being in a virtual 3D world is just about the best role play aid so far invented, but it would still be possible to role play just by voice and imagination.

Think about how much more you would have to do. Reminding everyone who is in the room, what they are wearing and look like and all the rest! Our viewers let us see and make it all more real, but they cant do everything. Some things we have to describe, most role players use only text because they don’t sound like a pirate or a dragon and speaking would ruin the illusion.

Also they will usually have a quick summary of their character in their profile so that they don’t have to explain it over and over. Looking in a characters profile may also give you important ‘Out of Character ‘ information. This can include practical information like what times they are usually on line and very importantly their limits. They might not enjoy violence being described in detail or bad language.

Meters add some fun and take some of the work out of situations. At Celyddon we use the Unity meter and weapons to determine the consequences of melee combat and the SPD meter does the same for ship to ship combat. The UES pouch remembers what we are carrying and sell or barter. These all have to be used with common sense

So Whats Roleplay?

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We create a story world where we are not just the actors but also the script writers. It’s a co-operation between us, and each of us has in our imagination a character that we play, a role. We do our best to behave in the same way that our character would, be they rich or poor, aggressive or meek, honourable or cheating.

Of course even fantasy characters have limits and as we create our stories others create theirs as well, so to be fair we take turns, waiting to see how others react and adapting as the story takes unexpected twists. If I push someone do they fall or push back, are they angry surprised or afraid. That’s their role and decision. If role play works well its a great creative experience and a lot of fun!

Be careful not to ‘meta game’, use knowledge that your character would not have or ‘god mode’, force your decisions on others. Also try to be consistent and think in the way that your character would.

Often we use meters to decide outcomes in combat or keep track of trades for example, but more about that another time.