Greetings traveler,

Welcome to the tenth edition of the realmsofgildor / alcarin.com newsletter.
There is an archive of the previous newsletters in the Townhall and the columns are added to the Town Square, so you can always read it again.
Although there is not much new content this month, a lot of work has been done. Mainly I'm trying to get my new domain on the run and I've been searching all over for link pages, exchanges, etc. I partnered up with Fathomgate Online, http://www.fathomgate.com . Really good site. I'm waiting for them to upload my button, but that'll happen soon I guess. I've also been searching for a good advertising company of affiliate program, but no luck so far (exept for amazon.com, but I've been their affiliate for ages, without getting anyone to buy stuff there).
A really big thing that has changed this month, is the Forum. I've dumped my old virtualavenue hosted (and heavilly bannered and popupped) cgi message boards (UltraBoard) and installed new php boards (phpbb) on the alcarin.com server. More about that in the Close-Up below. Enjoy reading.

This letter's content:
1. What's New
2. Coming Up Soon
3. Close-Up
4. Column: Men with a Mission

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WHAT'S NEW:

31/08/2001 - added a search utility to find players and/or GM's in your neighborhood to the Wyvern Inn

30/08/2001 - new link in the Gate, created a small thanks-list in the Townhall

26/08/2001 - new link in the Gate

24/08/2001 - put up and opened a new messageboard system, started "The Pits" online rpg dueling arena on the messageboards, started Chapter 2 of the webnovel "Goiren and the Blackened Blades" on the messageboards

22/08/2001 - new link in the Gate, partnered up with Fathomgate Online

16/08/2001 - new link in the Gate

15/08/2001 - new link in the Gate

14/08/2001 - new poem in the Temple: "Raven's Dawn"

10/08/2001 - created the Dunékàr city register (list all the site's pages)

Visit http://www.alcarin.com/townhall/updates.htm for the latest updates.

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COMING UP:

There will probably be a lot more links added to The Gate and maybe a few partners to. I plan to create a poll (one of those things you see on a lot of sites already; maybe not original, but they are fun). The poll will be in the sidebar next to the town screen. I already have some good suggestions as for what I should ask in the polls and a poll script in php, so I think it will be up very soon. I'm also considering the creation of a detailed profile on who runs the site (that's me :-), and the columnist Wouter). Those should be placed in the Townhall. Furthermore I expect to finish and upload the graphite-pencil sketch of the special project "Raven's Dawn". The poetry part of the project is already online in the Temple (poetry & songs section). The intended full-color version of the artwork is going to take a while. And if University isn't going to claim all of my precious time again, I'll work on new things for the RPG Archives, maybe some game review or a new D&D mission or some new stuff for the Elfstone Campaign Setting.

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CLOSE-UP:

The new Forum and The Pits

This month's Close-Up is dedicated to a big change on the site. We've got a new messageboard system.
I used to use the UltraBoard system on my virtual avenue account. That was free hosting. The messgeboard contained a standard banner with a huge text link and a large popup screen as standard advertising. Quite annoying indeed. One could hardly open a page without ads happily flying around the screen. It was also quite slow and it was an old version of UltraBoard. So, with our new domain, I wanted to move the boards to the new alcarin.com server. I tried and tried, but I couldn't get the thing to work. And with lack of time and will to scan the enourmous amount of files and code for errors, I decided it was time for a new board. The new choice was also used by my hosting company: phpBB. Written in php (you might have guessed that already from the name) and uses the mysql database system. Fast, relyable, etcetera. And it has a lot of new cool stuff to. Ranks, lots of smilies, who's-online-feature, private messages, translatable into a lot of languages and lots more. The old board didn't have such cool stuff. And it's much easier to sign up now to.
With stepping over to the new system, I've also created several new boards. First of all I've split the old General Board into two boards: the Town Square Discussion Forum for general discussion; about anything visitors would like to talk about, and the Fantasy and RPG Discussion Forum for serious on-topic posts, polls, questions, etc. That's to keep those "in serious need of help" from drowning in posts that are not useful to them.
The other new board is "The Pits", an online RPG dueling arena. You can fight a character or monster agains another character or monster or duels with entire parties, whatever you like. Registering is required to be able to post on the board (although everyone can read the posts), mainly to keep people from posting just once and not coming back to resume the duel. So far, it has been quite popular, especially among the regular visitors. The past few night's I had to stay up quite long to participate in several duels. Of course it is not nescessary to complete a duel right away (you can take as long as you want to, that's the good thing of messageboards instead of chat), but it is a lot of fun. In the meanwhile you can communicate with the other player through the private message system.
The other boards run quite well to. I recently started Chapter 2 of the webnovel "Goiren and the Blackened Blades" and I had several good replies already. The Dunékàr Online RPG runs increadibly well as well, even better than it did before the new system. So far, I'm quite happy with the new Forum. Go check it out:

The Forum: http://www.alcarin.com/forum
The Pits: http://www.alcarin.com/forum/viewforum.php?forum=7

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COLUMN: MEN WITH A MISSION
A column by Wouter vd Zandschulp; wouter@alcarin.com

"I am a monster"

I am a monster. I live in the sewers. I am all evil off course, and I am guarding some sort of a treasure or something. It's very important for the plot of a mission, so you can bet I will be slain before the role-play-evening is over.
Just to make things easy, I look all evil, a bit giant-spider-like. Of course the man who invented me had no idea how hard it is for me to meet girls, to get my hair right in the morning. Well, I can never count on any sympathy, I'm just the evil monster.
Life is very cruel. Always the same pattern. The party comes in, sees I'm just an evil monster, thinks: 'Well, that's easy, we can just slay' and reliefed it isn't difficult just start hitting. Well, how exciting. Who will win, good or evil? The big party or the one monster? I may take down some of them, but they'll probably win.
Why am I treated like this? Have I no feelings? If you stick me, do I not bleed? If you tickle me, do I not laugh? If I kill, do I not get experience-points?
But still, the party won't show any mercy, I bet. They will just be another group of adventurers, working together. Sometimes one will leave, then another one will join directly, it's just like a soap-opera. One will be stupid, another one smart, another one my next dinner, I hope the paladin, he's very big.
It could very well be the paladin, because he will attack me when it's not wise. That's because he is so heroic. Sometimes I think 'herioc' is another word for 'stupid'. Well, at least being stupid helps when you are heroic. But still, heroes are needed now and then. Me, as an evil monster, also am concerned about the well-fare of society today. There is a lack of heroes. If they want heroes, they should look at role-players. They obviously have a desire to protect people from evil and being heroic. But they are often treated like strange people with their 'evil' role-playing; that's quite stupid.
You may think that an evil non-player-character like me shouldn't talk as friendly as this. Well, I can't help it. I just got the label 'evil' on me. The guy making me up just wrote down 'algignment: evil' on his character sheet. I just have to live with that. I would like to go to the movies and dinner and join a litteraire discussion group, but it will not happen. If it was all turned around I maybe got a change. If the players where locked in a mission and the characters could play them whenever they wanted. If an Orc, a Dwarf, a Human, a Halfling, a Gnome and me where sitting around a table and the Orc said: "I am Theo, a human of 20 years old who has to go to school every day. I role a Will save to see if I'm going to make my home-work."
Then the Dwarf would say: "I would tempt you to watch a movie with me, the movie is so good that it requires a Will save of 30." Then the Orc would say: "I can make home-work later."
But it's not the case. So now I ask of all you players: please have a litte sympathy to me. I am just a monster. Don't always role-play in the same pattern, just killing everything what's evil. Listen what they have to say to you. They still are persons.
I mean, role-playing is about acting, it's a reflection of real life. In real life you don't just slay whatever comes to you. In real life, you can never call a person totally evil, that's the difference (some of you may not agree according to teachers, brothers or sisters), but in role-playing, try to give a fight a bit more character and don't make it just another hit-till-he's-dead-fight. Give me the change to gain some dinner and experience-points.
And... oh.. wait.. I've just found a great magical weapon and a spellbook! Forget all that sad talk, I'm going to kick your ass! WHAHAHAHAHA! (I just thought of a joke).

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Well, that's it for this month's newsletter. I hope you enjoyed it. Lord Gildor
"May the stars guide you on your journeys"
http://www.alcarin.com

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