Greetings traveler,

Welcome to the twelfth edition of the 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.
The twelfth edition already.... it closes a year of Alcarin.com and realmsofgildor.com newsletters. And it starts a new one of course. The list is expanding as is just about anything with the site. Unfortunately there was no time for a special extra large anniversary edition, but we couldn't think of anything to put in it anyway. Even Wouter seems to have a lack of time; he didn't get his column finished in time. That's a pity; it is probably the most interesting part of the newsletter. I will ask him to finish it anyway and maybe I can send it later. Anyway, enjoy reading.

This letter's content:
1. What's New
2. Coming Up Soon
3. Close-Up

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WHAT'S NEW:

31/10/2001 - new link in The Gate

30/10/2001 - new character the School: Alexian Azure

26/10/2001 - uploaded the map of Cemen (Elfstone Campaign Setting) to the School

17/10/2001 - uploaded "suggest a poll" page, 2 new characters in the School: "Jonathan (level 5)" and "Senzor"

13/10/2001 - implemented uniform closing tag and banner ads on most of the pages

12/10/2001 - new poem in the Temple: "Angel's Tears in Hell"

05/10/2001 - new character in the School: Knautus

02/10/2001 - uploaded special art project to the Temple: "Raven's Dawn"

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

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COMING UP:

I'm currently working on a new picture for the Town. I plan to make it an image map, instead Flash. The new Town will hopefully be much smaller in size, easier to use and have better artwork. I also plan to implement a small JavaScript that makes a difference in day and night. There will be more citizens and other people in the town that are going to have different vocabulaires. The artwork is already finished, but implementing and creating the imagemap and scripts is going to take a lot of time, so I don't think I will finish it this month.
I'm not going to move the artwork from the amethyst-alliance site to alcarin.com. I was planning on this because the pictures sometimes had problems with loading. Instead, I will put up a link in the gallery to my Elfwood page, where the pictures can also be seen. Any other spare time will probably go to managing the Dunékàr Online RPG and The Pits, working on the RPG Archives, maybe new RPG missions and some new material for the Elfstone campaign setting. Especially some descriptions of places and gods is nescessary.

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CLOSE-UP:

"Death Knight's Illusion" (Barracks: D&D and AD&D missions)

Preview:
"The mission starts in or outside Cerm, a medium sized town (of course it can be any town you like).
It is daytime, when the player characters enter the city and reach the central square, they will see a large crowd, gathered in front of the City Hall. These citizens are clearly excited about something. Some of them carry hay-forks, torches, clubs and/or other primitive weapons. If the players try to talk to one of the people in the crowd, this person will look very frightened at the player characters and run away, screaming something like "Help! There he is.... get him!".
The crowd will surround the player characters and threaten them with their weapons. The people will try to tie up one of the characters. This should be randomly determined or the strangest looking or most mysterious character in the party, preferably someone dressed in a cloak. The people are convinced that that character is in fact a Death Knight. They will shout things like: "Kill him, the bastard." and "You murderer!" and "What have you done with the girl?"
What has happened: Someone, a cloaked person, went through the town during the previous night. This person said that he was a powerful Death Knight and that was going to kill a bunch of people. He did so: the mysterious person has killed 12 people in the streets and he abducted a 18 year old girl, named Sarintia. The people wanted to hunt down this Death Knight and bring him to justice.... that is, kill him. Somehow, the people are convinced that one of the player characters is this Death Knight."

The introduction to the "Death Knight's Illusion" RPG mission. The mission is written for and play tested with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, but it is easy to modify it for use with Dungeons & Dragons, third edition. Death Knight's Illusion is a short mission mission for a low level party. I've heard of several groups that ran this mission and all thought it to be really cool and humorous.
A player character is mistaken for a Death Knight who has just killed a lot of people and kidnapped a girl. Of course the Death Knight could be any other dangerous creature that somewhat looks like a humanoid. A Vampire might also be a good idea. The mission is that the party will have to prove the player character's innocence.

Read the entire mission in the Barracks: http://www.alcarin.com/barracks

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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

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

"The columnist"

With this column I fill one year of Alcarin.com-columns. When I look back I see I made it; one year, eleven columns and the last one now. The last one to fill one year, that is, because I am pretty sure I will be able to do it another year.

No that I have reached this point, I would like to get a bit more personal. If you want to run away screaming because of that you may, but I will do it anyway. Because I am a columnist, and that makes me stubborn, self-centered and above all: totally in charge of the contents of my columns.
I myself am a 20-year old man, who role-plays once a week with some friends I met at high school and who convinced me once to join. I have played several characters. Most of all, till now, I have irritated people with my messy character-sheets, my lack of knowledge in the field of role-playing and worst of all my habit of accidentally throwing over glasses of cola.
I, like many, while not understanding at the beginning, at some point got to the enormous fun, adventure and endless joy and inspiration role-playing can provide. After a while I started laughing hysterically at evenings, I started letting the worst of me come out in my characters and I started to live many adventures (and die at some).
And after a while, and this is reality, I even got to it to BUY A PLAYERS-HANDBOOK AND WORKING OUT MY CHARACTERS PROPERLY!
And now, as it should, I am more precise about role-playing than I am about school-work.
I myself prefer playing a bard or a paladin, these always have worked the best for me. Not just a fighter, I always want my characters to have something very special. My favorite ones were the naive paladin Sensor and the stubborn attention-seeker and bard Jonathan, who brought the important message to the world: "Watch you head!", both once mentioned in my columns.
I hope to stay playing Jonathan for a long time.
And so, one night role-playing, Arjan Wardekker asked me to write the columns for the mailinglist of his great site, with disastrous results.
But who am I, myself. Well, I am trying to figure it out for you, really I am.
I am a bit weird.
Well, I am a human being (I guess). I have a dog, I have some strange habits. I am extremely good-looking, intelligent and nice, a rare combination, and still I am a very modest person, which is very unusual. People tend to get arrogant and blown up. Well, you have it or not, I guess.
Well, I'm not sure what to say about it, further. Lately I've been thinking that I may have to grow up a little. I may have to think more realistic thoughts, if I want to be taken seriously. And so I should find realistic goals at live to archive.
But I am not sure. What if the dreamers are right? What if there is a true love out there, and adventure around every corner. What if I really can become an actor, prime-minister and writer at the same time?
Why should I stop putting things on my head, stalking girls, rpg-ing and dreaming! I like it that way! It helps me to get attention.
And growing up doesn't mean you have to lose your dreams and fantasy. Otherwise I won't grow up, because I like dreaming way too much, also literally.
Well, I guess that was it, now you all now more of me than would do you good.
But be glad I didn't start about my looks... o wait... I did... sorry.
See you next month,
Wouter.

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