November 2, 2003 Welcome to the Barren Realms MUD Newsletter: Come visit BR at telnet://barren.coredcs.com:8000/ News from the Realms: DevilsAngel: mudd crashing Sorry guys, but due to the mudd crashing last night, the Haunted house has ended. I'll do scoring as quickly as I can, so you can have the results. Thank you all who played!! I'm sorry to those that wanted to go through and didn't get to. The imm story quest is still running. If you have an idea for How DevilsAngel became an imm, write it as a story and email it to me by Nov 7. So far I only have two entries!! Email at Failyn3333@hot.rr.com Thanks everyone! AMystery: costume quest We had a fun costume quest and in the final tally, Cacophony won with a delightful Headless Horseman, Stars came second with a quaint artist while Daredevil as a baseball player and Fia as a Troll rounded out the top 4. Please congratulate all of the victors for they went above and beyond the requirements and that is why they won. ---------------------------------------- IDEAS: Disaster: a new "afkon" command, which would raise an afk flag but not remove it, allowing people to use this command in triggers for unplanned absences (like when at work, being kept away for longer than originally planned) AMystery: i wonder if we should change the message for when a room is cursed vs when the player has the curse spell Peel: a spell/skill that demonize an item, but it can only be used once per lvl like foul rites Shadowhawk: I know demons are already realy powerful but, How about a limb that gives the "throw" skill? AMystery: I'd still love a time stamp on tells. Erin said something but I don't know if it was 10 minutes or 10 hours ago. Of course it doesn't matter since she isn't on anymore, but it would be nice to know Kitsune: A spell that temporarily enhances Save vs. Spell. Maybe for magic users? Of cource, since I am an elf, I would like to see it for elves and druids. ;) Maybe there already is one, but... Just a thought - Kit Exe: why does getting drunk help you get mana faster? it seems a little... retarded to me, why not give a skill to ALL races where you can meditate and regain mana fast, but not regain hp... or at least regen hp slower then normal Exo: when you buy a tent, you should have a lock that goes with it, so that you can lock the tent your are in... so people passing by cant get it, even those dirty little thieving kender... that way we could drop things in the tent fell safe about it Redeemer: have more immortal birthday parties.. with lots of food and drinks and balloons! Cake! Redeemer: I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but Aod is reluctant to sell his maps when he's in another shop.. He refuses to show his list of items Kiri -- Only in petshops. Otherwise he works. Deadpool: I think there should be a BR monthly lottery, where players can buy lottery tickets for $100 bucks each to have a chance to win somewhere from 50,000 to 1 million in gold coins.. IT would be exciting!! AMystery: a speco soul capture, its a room hurt like the one with the council, but instead ofjust doing some damage, it has a chance of insta kill. could be more fun with a saving throw, make it and you start fighting a newly created mob, the soul stealer Redeemer: not that it applies to me.. I was thinking maybe morts can be paid for doing jobs/chores for imms.. that would be interesting These characters need to log in or contact me: Bowie, Darthmaul, Daz, Daztank, Dedrik, Elros, Errol, Isidore, Itsbetta, Kainman, Mantraslider, Mental, Random, Sensi, Silkydove, Trice, Vaz, Visor, Whodareswins, Xaz, Yaz, Yossarian, Zaxx ---------------------------------------- Kiri's WWW of URLs: VERY funny, but some naughty words: http://members.cox.net/impunity/endofworld.swf From SCavenger: http://www.lileks.com/institute/ Some funny forwards on a site: http://ouray.cudenver.edu/~mbwillia/html/JMFFA.html#C4 An oldie but goodie, name generator http://spitfire.ausys.se/johan/names/ ------------------------------ Responses by Anakin: Its: when ever a demon gets a new limb it always says agonizing pain somewhere, why not take hit points off for diffrent amount of pain, for example small bird wings would be alot less painful then large bat wings. >>Just wondering, will this kill the demon with low hp? Robert: how about a message when weaken fails to have an effect? >>Like any other messages, I'd be glad to make new ones instead of "You failed." icon_razz.gif Exo: ok, when you get to the drunk condition, and then you sleep, once you are sober, when you wake up, you should have a hangover, make it so your mv/hp goes down when you hit sober >>Doesn't this defeat the purpose of drink/sleeping? Exe: ok, i think we need resitances here, we have save-vs-spell and save-vs-breath, but cant we take it further? mayve turn save-vs-spell in magic resistance and make a few more, like save vs fire ect? >>What is this for? We already have tons of save vs items (click here). I don't see what's "save vs fire" really would do though... Kitsune: We have a music channel for lyrics and such, how about a movie channel for movie quotes? Just a thought icon_smile.gif >>I idea'd this sometime ago, I still agree. Spiderman: have women and men's bathrooms so we can do our business and girls can chitchat in them about the boys In reply to Spiderman: I must admit seperate bathrooms? I honestly dont see the need for it or how it would improve anything. Then again remember we have M/F/N not just M/F >>Do we even have bathrooms in general? Still, when you get de-genitalized I still think you should be a neuter. ------------------ English Signs Abroad Here are some signs and notices written in English that were discovered throughout the world. You have to give the writers an 'E' for Effort. In a Tokyo Hotel: Is forbidden to steal hotel towels please. If you are not a person to do such thing is please not to read notis. In a Bucharest hotel lobby: The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable. In a Leipzig elevator: Do not enter the lift backwards, and only when lit up. In a Belgrade hotel elevator: To move the cabin, push button for wishing floor. If the cabin should enter more persons, each one should press a number of wishing floor. Driving is then going alphabetically by national order. In a Paris hotel elevator: Please leave your values at the front desk. In a hotel in Athens: Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the hours of 9 and 11 A.M. daily. In a Yugoslavian hotel: The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid. In a Japanese hotel: You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid. In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a Russian Orthodox monastery: You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian and Soviet composers, artists, and writers are buried daily except Thursday. In an Austrian hotel catering to skiers: Not to perambulate the corridors in the hours of repose in the boots of ascension. On the menu of a Swiss restaurant: Our wines leave you nothing to hope for. On the menu of a Polish hotel: Salad a firm's own make; limpid red beet soup with cheesy dumplings in the form of a finger; roasted duck let loose; beef rashers beaten up in the country people's fashion. Outside a Hong Kong tailor shop: Ladies may have a fit upstairs. In a Bangkok dry cleaner's: Drop your trousers here for best results. Outside a Paris dress shop: Dresses for street walking. In a Rhodes tailor shop: Order your summers suit. Because is big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation. A sign posted in Germany's Black forest: It is strictly forbidden on our black forest camping site that people of different sex, for instance, men and women, live together in one tent unless they are married with each other for that purpose. In a Zurich hotel: Because of the impropriety of entertaining guests of the opposite sex in the bedroom, it is suggested that the lobby be used for this purpose. In an advertisement by a Hong Kong dentist: Teeth extracted by the latest Methodists. In a Rome laundry: Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time. In a Czechoslovakian tourist agency: Take one of our horse-driven city tours - we guarantee no miscarriages. Advertisement for donkey rides in Thailand: Would you like to ride on your own ass? In a Swiss mountain inn: Special today -- no ice cream. In a Bangkok temple: It is forbidden to enter a woman even a foreigner if dressed as a man. In a Tokyo bar: Special cocktails for the ladies with nuts. In a Copenhagen airline ticket office: We take your bags and send them in all directions. On the door of a Moscow hotel room: If this is your first visit to the USSR, you are welcome to it. In a Norwegian cocktail lounge: Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar. In a Budapest zoo: Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty. In the office of a Roman doctor: Specialist in women and other diseases. In an Acapulco hotel: The manager has personally passed all the water served here. In a Tokyo shop: Our nylons cost more than common, but you'll find they are best in the long run. From a Japanese information booklet about using a hotel air conditioner: Cooles and Heates: If you want just condition of warm in your room, please control yourself. From a brochure of a car rental firm in Tokyo: When passenger of foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage then tootle him with vigor. Two signs from a Majorcan shop entrance: - English well talking. - Here speeching American. November 14, 2003 NEWS: Disaster: tgames results for this week Mon Nov 10 19:08:42 2003 To: all results are as follows: tenzor soujuri 9, robert 1, thentia 1 torr-penn exhile 10 to settle the tie between robert and thentia, i looked at who voted for each. the player who voted for robert was online for the quest, the player who voted for thentia was not. as a result, soujuri and robert are eliminated from tenzor, exhile in eliminated from torr-penn you guys know the rules, thanks for playing. -dis Disaster: tgames tiebreakers Tue Nov 11 11:28:03 2003 To: all it's been suggested to me that when there's a tie in the voting, i let you guys have a vote-off to see who is eliminated. i havent been doing this so far, mainly because it takes more time, but also because i haven't needed to yet since i've been counting people who were there for the quest more than those who weren't. if you guys want to change the ways ties are decided, you can let me know this coming sunday at quest time. if there's enough of a majority wanting a change, i'll change it. -dis oh, and i just remembered, there was one tie that was decided through one of the players not having been online for a very long time. other than that, i've only had to count who was online for the quest and who wasn't. -dis Everybody: a quest, of sorts Thu Nov 13 23:04:36 2003 To: all I was stashing money away the other day, and dug a hole in the realms, somewhere. Into it, I put some 7 million coins. Now, I can't remember where I dug the hole, unfortunately. Since it's not a big loss to me, I figured I'd notify the rest of you that it exists, and, if you find it, feel free to keep the money. I am very good at hiding things like this, though, and it could be anywhere in the realms, so search thoroughly if you expect to find it. Note, this will only exist until the mud reboots next, and remember, it is a hole that the money's in. Happy huntings. -EB P.S.- If I remember anything about where it was, I may send some clues out for you. ------------------- IDEAS: Lehua: cumulative affect potions, rare - but with spells otherwise that can't be cast by anyone in the realm. Rhyme: why don't we add a few more armor and weapons shops in calathar? Redeemer: make practice dummy at the academy level 3 or so, not level 10.. because it's not much of a practice dummy, but more like a bully. It also scaries newbies away thinking that this mud is hard. It's discouraging. Criterion: establish a method for registering tribes. members of tribes will help each other as much as possible when online. tribe can establish a central bank account which receives funds from its members Exe: we should have a CHANNEL -ALL so that if we are being annoyed by everyone, we can just turn all of the channels except say and gtell... maybe tell too. Lehua: local recall sites... you recall to the nearest one, except when you use the general recall that sends you to calathar... Redeemer: We should have a makeover quest for a lucky lucky winner to be given a completely unique yet sexy wardrobe. (like that show from TLC)-Makeover story?) :-) Lehua: the more of an item a shopkeeper has, the lower the purchase price for the buyer ----------------- Reply by Baltar: > IDEAS: > > AMystery: i wonder if we should change the message for when a room is = > cursed vs when the player has the curse spell I'm embarrassed to admit that this has confused me as well. Getting the "You are cursed!" message when trying to recall generally results in something like: "Gee, I didn't even notice that mob casting spells on me! Drat, nothing to remove the curse. You mean I gotta sit here until it wears off? Wonder how long that'll be...Hey! It doesn't show up in AFFects! Maybe I'm not really cursed at all! Okay, I'm cursed..." Eventually I figure it out and feel really stupid, but it would sure be nice if there were two different messages. How hard would it be to code? > Its: when ever a demon gets a new limb it always says agonizing > pain somewhere, why not take hit points off for diffrent amount of pain, > for example small bird wings would be alot less painful then large bat > wings. > > >>Anakin: Just wondering, will this kill the demon with low hp? Not if it's a percentage of total hp. Sort of like 'pluck'... ------------ Kiri's WWW of URLs - all helpful stuff this week: Slashdot article on mediation - from Amystery http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/10/22/220200 Amystery again with info on Anorexia http://www.facetheissue.com/anorexia.html For those of us looking for jobs http://www.brilliantpeople.com/ More jobs http://www.spherion.com/corporate/careercenter/home.jsp --------------------------------- FAQ for Etch-A-Sketch Technical Support Q: My Etch-A-Sketch has all of these funny little lines all over the screen. A: Pick it up and shake it. Q: How do I turn my Etch-A-Sketch off? A: Pick it up and shake it. Q: What's the shortcut for Undo? A: Pick it up and shake it. Q: How do I create a New Document window? A: Pick it up and shake it. Q: How do I set the background and foreground to the same color? A: Pick it up and shake it. Q: What is the proper procedure for rebooting my Etch-A-Sketch? A: Pick it up and shake it. Q: How do I delete a document on my Etch-A-Sketch? A: Pick it up and shake it. Q: How do I save my Etch-A-Sketch document? A: Don't shake it. November 21, 2003 News from the Realms: Ongoing Quests: Stars: The Great BR Writing Quest Mon Nov 17 16:39:02 2003 To: all Hey, don't forget about the writing quest. You still have plenty of time to submit any entries. Remember, you may submit one poem and one short story. The deadline is December 21st, so there is some time left. Make sure you send all your entries to Bluestar. You can find her email address in her "profile". Have fun, and I look forward to reading your work. :) Bluestar: The Great BR Writing Quest Again :) Tue Nov 18 13:43:02 2003 To: all Just a quick note to add onto what Stars said :) We've already gotten some great entries, however, the more we get, the better the prize will be (And it's already pretty good, so I can't wait to see what it will be!) *SO* make sure you send us your entries! We can't wait to read your work. And remember, send em to me at bbluestar@earthlink.net :) oh yeah, and make sure they go with the sci-fi/fantasy theme and have FUN with it :) Tgames update Disaster: vote off this week well, we had 4 votes for batman and one for thentia, so batman is off thanks for playing, you know the rules, etc.. -dis Everybody: another quest to keep you busy Tue Nov 18 21:48:58 2003 To: all It's an exploration quest, this time to find "easter egg" rooms. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, it's rooms that aren't immediately noticeable, either because there're closed, unmentioned doors in the way, or because there's no way to walk into them (have to teleport, bamf, etc.) - this, of course, makes the quest somewhat dangerous to you, as mortals, but you'll have to deal with that. ;) Alright, rules: to submit a room for consideration, you have to send me a way to get its vnum - either an item or mob that repops in the room, or by asking an imm to tell you the vnum of the room. Both heroes and mortals can play. Only the first person to report a room (or group of rooms) gets credit for it. Pet shop storerooms do not count, but I'll keep track of them as a bonus. Rooms found in any area I built do not count, neither do purely building-specific rooms (mob chutes, etc.). I reserve the right to count or not count any room submitted based on my judgement. (i.e. extremely well-known rooms don't count - that's where the judgement call comes in.) Any case, happy hunting. Leiland: HERITAGE QUEST! (aka: i r dumb) Wed Nov 19 23:32:57 2003 To: all OK, well... Lairian and I were going to run the elf heritage quest last Saturday... I must apologize profusely to all that showed up expecting to play... though I highly doubt there were many... The fault is mine, I double-booked myself on Saturday, and completely forgot about my prior commitment. As a result, the Elf Heritage Quest will take place this Saturday, assuming we have players. I sincerely hope this is the last time we'll have to postpone, and it it's not... I'm really really sorry. Now, for all of you who don't know what the Elf Heritage Quest is... It is part 6 of a larger, 7-part quest, known as the Heritage Quests. Each race gets their own Heritage Quest, and no player may participate in more than one race's quest (sorry to anyone who played in one of the others). The premise is that this is a role-playing, puzzle quest. There is no killing. All participating elves should be... probably above level 6 or 7. Other than that, level will not matter. Come on out this Saturday, 5pm System Time, and quest with us! DevilsAngel: Dev's Imm story quest Thu Nov 20 18:53:54 2003 To: all Well guys the quest has ended. Thank you all who participated. The deadline was the 19th at midnight. I have to judge them still so bear with me. Winners will be announced soon. The grand prize winning story will be the imm story posted for me on our Br website. Thanks again to all participants. Now the hard part begins for me..... *bounces around* Dev ------------------------------ Ideas: Lehua: a scroll of restore mana would be cool... Lehua: how about a repop vending machine in each area... cost 50k gold to force repop in that area ;-) Lehua: mobile recall day will be a day when recall shifts from town to town every hour Exo: we should have a command like visible or land that turns off pass door, make it like, solidify, or unphase Redeemer: there should be rooms (traprooms) that would take off hp b y walking into it.. ie falling off the cliff Indy: Enflame armor? elves and druids and heros only...on magical stuff only Kitsune: Elves and Druids often have trouble finding flaming eq. So, I suggest an "enflame object" type spell. but, to keep it's power inline, make it like taint so that it destroys the eq after a while. Just a thought! -Kit These characters need to contact me or log on their characters this week: Alathar, Arislan, Avispa, Bozz, Busta, Cristobol, Errol, Esp, Galag, Izlude, Kriswin, Logo, Lugar, Medagar, Mimer, Myr, Random, Rapter, Sanlin, Sauraman, Sepheroth, Sylvid, Titon, Yossarian, Zhimatsu ---------------------- Responses by Everybody: Quote: Rhyme: why don't we add a few more armor and weapons shops in calathar? Why should we? Quote: Criterion: establish a method for registering tribes. members of tribes will help each other as much as possible when online. tribe can establish a central bank account which receives funds from its members Sorry, but that sounds very much like the beginnings of clans, which we're very much against. (T-games are rather special exemptions.) Quote: Exe: we should have a CHANNEL -ALL so that if we are being annoyed by everyone, we can just turn all of the channels except say and gtell... maybe tell too. We have this: chan +all to turn them all on, chan -all to turn them all off. ------------ Kiri's WWW of URLs: Just in time for thanksgiving... Turkey flavored soda. This, my friends, is not a gag. http://www.jonessoda.com/files/turkey.html What is your college degree worth? Hint - it's not a lot. http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/departments/elearning/?article=whatisyourdegreeworth From Scav, a Smorgette, when a full-sized Smorg simply will not do http://www.lileks.com/postcards/rest/fjord.html --------- You Know You're No Longer A Kid When... Just one peanut butter and jelly sandwich doesn't do it any more. Driving a car doesn't always sound like fun. The average ten-year-old doesn't have a clue who Bo and Luke Duke are. Being bad is no longer cool. You have friends who have kids. Saturday mornings are for sleeping. You are taller than the slide at the McDonald's playland. Your parents' jokes are now funny. You have once said, "Whatch-you talkin' 'bout Willis?" You have owned, and since disowned Michael Jackson's Thriller. Christmas starts to piss you off. You would rather wear your dirty clothes again, 'cause mom is not there to do your laundry anymore. Two words: parachute pants Naps are good. You have onced deemed Space Invaders as "The best game ever". When you know that the machines in gas station bathrooms don't dispense balloons. When things go wrong, you can't just yell, "Do-over!" Playboy's Playmate of the month is younger than you. The only thing in your cereal box is...cereal. You actually buy scarves, gloves, and sunscreen. Your idea of fun parties now include Chips 'n' Salsa and Snapple. You leave concerts and ballgames early to beat the crowd. You WANT clothes for Christmas. You don't want a Camaro because of the insurance premiums. You remember when Saturday Night Live was funny. You've bought an album on vinyl. You remember seeing Star Wars when it first came out. You read the "if you were born on this day in 1976 you are of legal age to buy alcohol" sign at the liquor store and recall attending a school dance on that date.