Sometimes it pays to script

[Prosperanna]

So, I've been using Kranar's rathunter script around the catacombs to get my little empath up to level 10. I always keep an eye on the screen while I'm doing it, so I won't get caught off guard by a GM. I figured it was only a matter of time before someone suspected me of scripting, and tonight was my night.

----------------
>
Seal just arrived.
>
A giant rat squeaks, "Prosperanna! Give me some cheese!" (I have a highlight set up for my name, so this is when I noticed that something was up.)

> look
[Abandoned Sewer]

Also here: Seal
Obvious exits: east, west

> cough
You cough.
>
[script aborted]

> w
[Abandoned Sewer]

Obvious exits: east, west
>
A sudden fierce gust of wind howls through the area!
You are buffeted by the wind and knocked to the ground!

P> cough
You cough.
P> gasp
You gasp.
P>
Seal just arrived.
P>
Seal just went east.
P> stand
You stand back up.
Roundtime: 3 sec.
R>
Seal just arrived.
R>
A giant rat squeaks, "Prosperanna! Give me some cheese!"

R> look
Seal just went west.
[Abandoned Sewer]

Obvious exits: east, west
> att rat
I could not find what you were referring to.
>
Seal just arrived.
>
Seal just went east.
> look
[Abandoned Sewer]

Obvious exits: east, west
>
You hear some rodent-type noises in the shadows.
>
You notice Seal try to tiptoe silently by you.
> search
A giant rat scampers in!
You notice Seal who is quite obviously attempting to remain hidden.
Roundtime: 10 sec.
>
A giant rat scampers in!
>
You hear the voice of Seal exclaim, "Rats are talking here!"
>
A giant rat tries to bite you!
AS: +5 vs DS: +35 with AvD: +35 + d100 roll: +7 = +12
A clean miss.
> 'I know!
Seal comes out of hiding.
Seal shivers.
>
You exclaim, "I know!"
>
You notice Seal botch an attempt to conceal himself.
> frown
You frown.
>
A giant rat squeaks, "Cheese! Please!"
>
A giant rat tries to bite Seal!
AS: +5 vs DS: +52 with AvD: +35 + d100 roll: +40 = +28
A clean miss.
> 'It's frightening.
You say, "It's frightening."
>
A giant rat tries to bite you!
AS: +5 vs DS: +35 with AvD: +35 + d100 roll: +80 = +85
A clean miss.
>
A giant rat squeaks, "Or your leg gets it!"
>
Seal laughs!
>
Seal just went west.
>
A giant rat tries to bite you!
AS: +5 vs DS: +35 with AvD: +35 + d100 roll: +80 = +85
A clean miss.
> 'You'll get cheese in the great catacombs of the sky!
You exclaim, "You'll get cheese in the great catacombs in the sky!"

> at rat
You swing a falchion at a giant rat!
AS: +42 vs DS: -10 with AvD: +35 + d100 roll: +63 = +150
... and hit for 38 points of damage!
Slash along the giant rat's lower back.
The giant rat collapses to the ground, emits a final squeal, and dies.
Roundtime: 5 sec.

R> rasp rat
You stick your tongue out at a giant rat and let loose with a loud, "Thbtbtbtbt" from your lips!
> skin rat
> search rat
You skinned the giant rat.
>
You search the giant rat.
It had nothing else of value.
A giant rat decays into a pile of mangy hair and bone.


With a sudden flash of insight, you realize you now understand more of what you have experienced.....
----------------

Hee! I've never gotten an RP bonus before. And to think, it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't gotten caught scripting! :)

[StrayRogue]

I got something like that yesterday morning.

A giant rat squeks, "Don't hurt me!"

[Chadj]

Bah.. ive only gotten one once, and that was just cause.. well, i cant remember why... oh well. It was years ago. I want another.

[Drew2]

Haha I remember a few years back, Tayre was complaining that he didn't have a gold ring on the amulet... people were making fun of him for not hunting... then he said something like "Rings don't just walk into the Center! How am I supposed to get them!?" and a giant rat walks in, starts running around and squeaking, someone kills it, searches it, and finds a gold ring on it.

It was very funny.

Edit: Oh yeah... the point is... when I figured out what had happened, I got that flash of insight or whatever.

[Edited on 10-17-2003 by Tayre]

[theotherjohn]

If Things like the stuff in this thread would happen more often people would never leave GS.

[StrayRogue]

Yeah, its what GMs are meant to do. I recall back when I played another nameless game *wink HarmNone*. I was beta testing. I was on a ferry boat which was manned by a blind old man. I started talking to him as my character would, muttering things like "hurry up", or "you'll be the next in the water old man". Then the NPC started talking to me! He even delayed the ferry just to annoy me. Excellent. I love stuff like that. And they had fewer GMs. Shame GS doesn't promote that.

[AnticorRifling]

Originally posted by Lady Daina
My rogue still talks smack to the Masters in the Rogue's Guild every chance she gets. I keep hoping that one day one of them will actually respond. That would just tickle me to no end, cos they are SO boring. :)

My rogue and Bean have a friendly competition. I won't train with anyone but Bean, if he's busy I wait. I always talk trash to him hoping that he'll respond.

[HarmNone]

You know, I think the GMs really try. There are just so many players in GemStoneIII. Most games do not have near as many players online at any given time, so it is easier for the Imps there to interact more personally with the "mortals". In GSIII, the GMs are hopelessly outnumbered and have so much to do that they cannot interact as much as most, I am sure, would like to.

I also must say that sometimes, the GMs try, but nobody notices. A GM will sit around in an area trying to call attention to him/herself to get some roleplay going, and the players are moving through the area so quickly that they do not even realize there is something going on. They would have to be hit over the head with a brick to get a clue, and that might not even work!

Still, I do hear what you all are saying. It is nice to have some special interaction with an NPC or a critter. It brings the world alive.

HarmNone remembers how much that meant :)

[Chadj]

Aye, HarmNone speaks the truth. I remembered what happend that got me the bonus.
I happen to pass through a room with several, if not many, people in it, and as i did, the constable said something odd.. So i went back. But none of the players were really responding in an RP manner, and some weren't responding at all. Anyways, so i jumped right in, and got angry at him for arresting me earlier, said it wasnt fair that he just threw the handcuffs on me, and that if i had been ready, i woulda killed him. So, it ended in me challenging him to a duel... we went outside, had a little fun, and i got the bonus.

I still talk to random critters when on hunts, and to NPC's, hoping to git a GM again

[Revalos]

What's really funny is that a lot of GM alterers have been showing up recently without using their usual pseudonyms that everyone notices.

The last three I've seen last week I've been one of maybe five people that came by after the person thinking on the net was saying stuff like "Oh...I wish I had some leather to work with..." or "I just got a new needle and some thread, does anyone need some embroidery done?"

Heh...and even then, other GMs seem to drop by and cause havoc to the few that show up as well. Last time a GM altered everyone a disk that looked wierd.

[ElanthianSiren]

I remember RP'd interaction during assists etc. I had so much fun with the GMs of auld and fun with the current GMs too, but a lot less. The most meaningful interaction I had I think was at my PC's wedding. Hundreds of GS'ers were there, hanging out in the shrine on the glacier. This was in 1998. GMs started sending echos during the ceremony and some folks got RP awards for their positions. That meant a lot that they were there. -Perhaps silly and sentimental of me.

At some point, SIMU seemed to put on the breaks I think and forget that their GMs are there to enrich a GAME for PLAYERS; the demands have shifted more to business orientation, which is expected because they are a business. However, they are a business that works with people and a shift too far in the business direction leaves those people feeling neglected from the humanism aspect of things. Over time, this neglect turns people quite disenchanted and more prone to act out. Results of this shift in my opinion:

1. the recent uncontrolled excess of GS. In my game, I deal with this by making certain that my players are aware that I'm there looking out for them (read as watching them) and doling out A LOT of rp's as well as dragging their bums up to consultation when they need it and right away, no warnings. Your consultation is your warning.

2. the very anti-social attitude in certain aspects of gemstone. Staff needs to be friendly and approachable or people in general are going to get defensive about having to deal with staff. I know, toward the end of playing GS, I never wanted to deal with staff. In fact, I even avoided merchants, both because certain folks seemed to think that I took up too much merchant time but also because I had no desire to deal with anyone but Kyalia.

I could go on and on... I won't. Being staff in other places has opened my eyes to a lot of ways that GS could be improved or even just elevated to the way that it once was. Saddens me that it will never be so.

-Melissa

[Dighn Darkbeam]

The problem with GM's in mortal bodies it is indeed hard to notice. In large communities like the Landing or Icemule new faces come and go constantly. In smaller towns most will stop to look at anyone they dont recognize.

I have come across several GM's simply by briefly assesing those people who's name seems unfamiliar. Sadly, I have never had an interaction with a GM in a one-on-one basis. From what I heard many consider it a treat and recall the interaction even years later.

[Faellyn]

I was with someone who was showing me to a new hunting ground in the landing when his name came up in the queue and GM something or other came to talk to him. I hadn't been in the game very long and what I remember most is being very bored. I'm sure the topic was interesting to at least one of them, but I had no idea what they were talking about even, so I started looking at everything on the path we were on outside the landing and I was playing with this ribbon thing (you know the one) and I kept poking at it and playing with it and I suddenly got one of those flashes of insight. I didn't know what that meant either, but my mentor and the GM were still in their long conversation and I didn't want to interrupt, so it was a couple weeks before I read on a BB what they meant. I've had them a couple of other times, but I don't really remember the occasion.

I think it would be a great idea for them to have either hired people or volunteers to do some of the fun stuff like that who don't have the responsibilities of running the game the GM's do. Not necessarily alters and other hard core stuff, but animating an NPC or other light duty RP things.

[Edited on 10-20-2003 by Faellyn]

[Xcalibur]

And now you see warclaidhm in the ratacombs giving cheese to rats..

he sures doesn't get it