Greetings traveler,

Welcome to the fifty 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.
This month was one full of updates again: a bunch of custom spells and a custom rule dealing with alchemical potions. Furthermore, several plugins for the computer RPG Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind have been uploaded. Besides the bunch of uploads, this newsletter contains a Member of the Month interview again. The regular to be elected this time is Ben van Laar (Fombel on the forums). Enjoy reading.

This letter's content:
1. What's New
2. Coming Up Soon
3. Column: Men with a Mission
4. Member of the Month

-------
WHAT'S NEW:

31/05/2005 - corrected some errors in the "Swiftness" spell series (School), added 3 plugins (mods) for Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind to the Barracks: "Rethan Manor Add-on 2: Library (v.2.0)", "Rethan Manor Add-on 2: Library (v.2.0) - Tribunal Edition", and "Rethan Manor Add-on 2: Library (v.2.0) - Tribunal Museum Edition"

30/05/2005 - modified "Swiftness" spell (School), added 3 new spells to the School: "Greater Swiftness", "Mass Swiftness", and "Mass Greater Swiftness"

29/05/2005 - did some restyling, added section "Computer RPG & Fantasy Games links" to The Gate

19/05/2005 - added 2 new spells to the School: "Dark Orb" and "Alexander's Tiny Windstorm"

14/05/2005 - added a new custom rule to the School: "Alchemical emulation of magical potions", updated Forums to latest version

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

-------
COMING UP:

I'm currently working on a number of custom things for Dungeons & Dragons campaigns and these will probably be among the first things to be uploaded in the near future. They include a large bunch of spells, probably some more items, and new monsters and templates/races. I'm also thinking of setting up a set of alternative spells for instant-death type magic for that game. Since there are a lot of people who seriously dislike save-or-die situations, my own roleplaying group included, this might be a welcome new ruleset. It will probably require a joint project with those people and a lot of time as well. Don't expect that anywhere soon. Besides new material, I also plan to make the School's interface a bit more informative, displaying some characteristics (like the type of monster or school of magic) of the material in the RPG Archives.
The "plugins" section of the Barracks is also one of the higher priorities on my list. I have yet to finish a Dwemer Espresso Machine plugin for Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and I plan to make a patch for the Rethan Manor Add-on 1: Livingroom to make it compatible with Baratheon79's Rethan Manor expansion v.2. Two companion type plugins are also under construction.
Other items that have my attention are writing some more reviews for in the Town Square, putting a bit more work into the artwork section of the Temple, and expanding the site's links section (The Gate). Hopefully, the coming summer holidays will leave me with some more time to work on things at Alcarin.

For up to date news on these major projects and other major developments on alcarin.com, see the Announcements forum at http://www.alcarin.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=9

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

"Power of the puma"

Last night I was walking through the woods with my girlfriend, when we thought about how a puma was seen there not long ago. So my girlfriend tried to scare me with puma-like comments and scaring me can be way too easy. Of course I carried a little stick to defend her if necessary. Not quite a light saber, but I pretended it to be of course.

After a while we heard some cracking in the bushes and we also saw a deer ran away. We saw no other person around and it was getting dark and of course my girlfriend pretended to have lost the way we had to walk.

When you are a Wouter like me, things can get scary then. Of course I walked on bravely, but with my imagination, I got some idea of real fear and danger. And I thought about role-playing. And crazy enough, this sort of helped. Like being in fights there just the night before would help me fight of this vicious puma. It sort of was like I would be role-playing for real.

But sadly, I had not character sheets, no dice to throw at him, no cola bottle to hit him with. Luckily I also had not screaming friends around. Though they would probably scare him off. But still...

Feeling danger a bit more for real is not as much fun as in the role-play-event. Though it can give a bit of a thrill, if you are crazy enough. So the wanting of adventure in role-playing-games can be translated some bit to real life. People sometimes want the adventure to be more real too. That's when they go to LARP-events.

Though, in reality, LARP-ing may be more dangerous then that whole puma. When it comes down to it, this is just one animal tracking through the entire country, avoiding humans and sometimes eating a deer or so. But the sighting of this puma around here makes this normal and natural animal to some kind of hype. Not for long will tourist be able to buy 'I-saw-the-puma'-shirts and take their pictures with a fake puma. Run, hyped animal, run!

-------
MEMBER OF THE MONTH
By Keeley F. Hearn

Welcome to another addition of Alcarin's Member of the Month. This month we have Ben van Laar, known as Fombel on the forums. Ahh... Ben. One of the people I had least expected to become one of my "Brothers" at Alcarin. He may seem a bit rude and coarse on the outside, but he's actually a really nice and funny guy, but ya didn't hear that from me.
:P
It took me awhile to catch Ben online for this interview... but I did finally manage! Here is the interview with Ben:

*You have been chosen for Member of the Month,how do you feel about this?
It's an honour and such, I guess. Don't know why I was chosen actually, I am not that active anymore.

*How did you first come across Alcarin?
By some guy, called Arjan, who used to tell me long stories about how he played Command&Conquer. At some day, he began to nag about some site orso, and he kept doing that. Saying I had to go and see it. It had a very long and difficult name, so, it took a while before I managed in visiting (that was the old site, realmsofgildor.com). And since then, after I found out the difference between signing in and signing up, I ended up staying.
And, I am proud to say, I was the first one who placed a topic on the new Alcarin site! (Which was entitled "Geiter", located in the members board).

*What do you feel is one of you biggest contributions to the site?
Bringing some Light of Wisdom to the Mass of the Ignorant, being present there, and donating to the site.

*What is one of your favorite parts of the site other than the forums, and why?
It's the Town Square, the columns part. Since I don't receive the mailing list all the time, and I don't want to miss the columns, of course.

*Which part of Alcarin do you think is best for the guests?
Either the forum, or the school.
The school is interesting because of the monsters and such, I have incidently grabbed one of those there as well. But it, of course, depends on what the guest is interested in.

*What characterizes your style of roleplaying?
I don't play the most perfectly balanced character, role-playing itself is nice, especially when it goes out of hand.

*Which race do you favor to have your characters?
Tja, I almost always play a gnome, maybe that says something. I like confetti and explosions. I tried to play a human once, but that didn't work, was just a large gnome in the end. And a dwarf! Brotbon! With the Niels-party I have played things like orcs and vampires, but most of the time they were enthousiastic about the world around them. And,they couldn't fly.

*What class do you prefer?
Fighter, can take care of itself. So, I usually play a gnome-fighter.

*What are some of your other hobbies?
Gardening (in the summer), model-building, scale models. Anwering e-mails from Wouter is also a thing I do quite a lot (and other mails).

*Name a few of your favorite things.
A scale ship-kit of Heller, lasagnette, young plants, the smell when it has just rained, watching Frost, upsetting Wouter or someone else (but Wouter is really the nicest to upset), harvesting potatoes in the burning sun, going home after a nice day at school (which does occur once and while), reading a good book (which is a rare thing to occur lately), some role-play situations, interaction with friends (not always, but happens quite frequently (and other people by the way, like students at school)), and, not to forget, my family, which is a really cool one.

*Quick! Describe yourself with five words!
Depressed (sometimes, sometimes not). Forgetful. Sometimes I am a too cynical as well, but I tend to hide that. Tall.
(Keeley's note; He could only think of four... ^_^;)

Well, that's it for this month. See ya in the next mailinglist!

-------
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

Back to the Notice Board

Home | Submit content | Contact | Legal info | Top of page

This website © Copyright 1999-2011, Arjan Wardekker.
All rights reserved.
All trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners.