Greetings traveler,

Welcome to the twenty-fourth 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.
And here we are with the 2nd anniversary edition of the Alcarin.com mailinglist. A lot has been going on the past month. Early this month, I discovered that my hosting people had increased my web space and data transfer limits quite extensively. Of course, that was good news. I have therefore reopened one of the items that was closed because lack of space: the article "Role-Player's Night - the photo report". And I've put up another big file: a new D&D 3rd edition misson, called "Burglary in Dobnell". More of that in the Close-Up. I've also been working on a few things that will be finished and uploaded in the coming month.
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:

29/10/2002 - created modified version (more adapted to D&D 3E) of the Tinker Battlerodent

17/10/2002 - added comment form to D&D mission "Burglary in Dobnell"

12/10/2002 - new D&D mission in the Barracks: "Burglary in Dobnell", added comment form to D&D mission "Agmanor's Treasure"

11/10/2002 - renamed "Vreeborg Campaign Forum" to "Dutch Roleplayers Forum"

09/10/2002 - reopened article "Role-Player's Night - the photo report" (Town Square)

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

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COMING UP:

The first additions on the list will be in the RPG Archives subsection of the School. There's a new monster coming up: the Vanisher, a teleporting monstrous humanoid. Furthermore, work has been done on the Bracers of Powerpoint (similar to the Bracers of Archery, only for ranged touch attacks) and a psionic item that will grant the user an extra power known. There will probably be a sorcerer version of the item as well. I've also been working on a system to keep track of reputation. Discussions on that are still running on the Fantasy & RPG Forum. I think it will be ready for uploading to the school soon. Maybe there will be some more additions to the RPG Archives as well.
For two missions, I've added a comment option. This will be added to the other missions as well. Furthermore, I am considering to remove the frames and redesign site navigation within the sections (not the Town). The largest problem here will be the communication with the Town Citizens and other characters in the town screen. It will take a lot of time before I can implement these things. The Elfstone Geography pages are still high on the list as well.

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CLOSE-UP:

"Burglary in Dobnell" (Barracks: D&D Missions)

Preview (from: Adventure Background):
"A while ago, a young black dragon called Kasmatur settled in the forest southeast of the village Dobnell. Although black dragons usually prefer swamps, Kasmatur thought the forest was a nice place to stay. It held enough food, and nearby was a village with some wealthy people just waiting to be robbed. Especially the mansion of Sir Niglund, the richest person in Dobnell, drew his attention. Kasmatur kept an eye on the mansion, but he didn't want the villagers to know about him, so he didn't try to steal anything.
At that time, a group of six troglodytes strolled through the woods, near Kasmatur. They were led by a sorcerer called Myghnom, who had been defeated in a duel with a rival sorcerer. Myghnom and his closest followers were banned from the troglodyte-tribe and ended up roaming around on their own.
Kasmatur spotted the troglodytes and ambushed them. He ambushed them, and killed one before the trogs even knew what was going on. Then Kasmatur gave the troglodytes a simple choice; they could either serve him, or die. The intimidating behavior of the dragon made the trogs decide to give in on his demand quickly"

This month has brought the site another great addition, in the form of a new RPG Mission for Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition. This latest adventure, called "Burglary in Dobnell" has been created by Jan Willem van den Brink, the author of "Agmanor's Treasure", which is still one of our most popular downloads. Burglary in Dobnell is written for a group of four third level characters, but can easily be adapted to larger parties and/or higher level characters. Just like Agmanor's Treasure it plays in the vicinity of the small town of Dobnell and it is very well suited to be used as a sequel to that mission. It is a separate story, though, so having played Agmanor's Treasure is not a necessity.
Burglary in Dobnell deals with a local rich person, Sir Niglund, who's mansion is emptied by burglars. Fortunately, there's a group of adventurers (the players) in town and Sir Niglund hires them to investigate. They find quite obvious tracks in and around the mansion and can follow these easily, but the burglars used the river to escape. Thorough investigation leads them to a variety of persons/creatures who are involved and finally to the treasure itself.
The mission is downloadable as a zipped Word document of 417 kb. Only Introduction, Adventure Background and Adventure Synopsis have been put on the page itself, due to the large size, pictures and many maps included. On the mission's webpage, there's a form that enables you to send us comments, ideas, tips, etc. on the mission and just tell us if you liked playing it. Optionally, the comment can be placed on the site as well.

Go check it out at: http://www.alcarin.com/barracks/missions/dnd_l6.htm

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

"About the columns"

This is the 24th column, completing two years of monthly Alcarin.com-columns. I am very grateful about achieving this and I sure hope that I can go for another year.
About 195 people read the columns and they probably wonder how I manage writing them. Well, mostly I made that idea up, so I could write a column about this process.
Well, it's quite simple, actually.

STEP 1: find a monkey

All kind of zoos or jungles can provide in this need. You lure them with a banana and when they are close enough you quickly put it in your bag. Do not keep valuable stuff in the same bag.

STEP 2: train the monkey

Build an area at the backside of your garden, where the monkey can play. Do NOT keep rabbits close to this place!!!!
Let the monkeys do exercises to keep them fit and healthy.

STEP 3: bring the monkey inside

Take the monkey to your room, under your shirt if your mother is watching, and put him behind your computer/type-writer. Now he his trained, he will be able to push the buttons and type some letters.

STEP 4: edit the letters to words

Later, when the monkey is sleeping, which you can make sooner by singing some lullaby, you can secretly, without telling it, change the order of the letters and type: 'MEN WITH A MISSION' on top of it.

Well, that's about it. A simple four-step-procedure to write columns. But maybe I shouldn't have told you, now you all can do it.
But o well, it's all big nonsense and I only wrote it since I'm quite tired and stuff. I know it's pretty stupid. But pretty stupid in a simple, relaxing way, I like to think. And my real way of column writing is quite uninteresting.

I have enjoyed this year of column writing.
Fantasy and role-playing stays a very interesting thing to write about. Role-playing with good friends and everything the way they play their character tells you about them is extremely interesting. All kinds of good friends and everything the way they play their characters tells about them, is extremely interesting. When you look at Freud's theory about the sub-conscience, you would expect that all kind of repressed thoughts and feelings think they can innocently and freely come out in a fantasy setting. So watch out for friends who always play strong kill-happy fighters!
Role-players generally agree that the development of their characters is somehow out of their hands and that makes it quite interesting. And there are not much things that keep groups of youth interested and are this innocent. Not even inflatable bananas.

I thank you all for reading and hope you enjoy it and will enjoy it for the following year.

Greetings,
Wouter

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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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