Of projects, small and large

Layonara is a world rich in lore that provides not only a prolific and fruitful soil for stories small and large, but also for endeavours of characters and players alike. Some of the characters create guilds and organisations to pursue a certain ideal, others use what they have gained in experience, friends and wealth for their own goals. Some players create useful tools or entertaining artwork. With the community being small in numbers, this series aims at giving an overview on current, past and suggested projects, both small and large within the community.

This first part gives a general overview on the topic and discusses a few tools which are considered "possibly helpful" by the author.

Of projects, small and large

It is not only the lore and the quests, both world-altering and character changing that keep me coming back here, it is also all the various endeavours of the community, be that in- or outside of the usual on-goings of the server. I am quite sure that if I had had an overview over current active groups and player projects, the early time here would have been easier. Probably.

In the time I have been here I have seen or taken part in famine relief effords expressing in auctioning items for food and the creation of soup kitchens; I joined expeditions to dangerous locations in the Deep for precious crafting materials and suicide missions to other realms in an effort to cut off the troops being portalled to battle against a newly founded kingdom; another one of my characters was for some time enrolled in a player-run and founded wizard academy.

Guilds, organisations and player-run endeavours or events are a nice place to explore the aspects of a character: Would your character help a friend's endeavours to feed the needy in a famine? How would she or he go about it? What if your character's friend suggests or takes action your character isn't agreeing with? Does your character thinks that the end justifies the means? Or will she or he suggest an alternate path and adamantly follow it instead? Would your character manipulate the endeavours to achieve a more favourable outcome for her- or himself?

In short, these things are a nice way to develop a character's personality and experiences beyond the predefined, level-oriented, mechanical corsett. While quests and bashing trips ("Go there, kill it, take its stuff.") to certain locations advance a character in mechanical experience; quests and endeavours of players will advance a character's personality and status in the world. They do, however, require one of two ingredients mainly: endurance and time. Time is not something everyone has in abundance due to obligations in real life, and endurance is not always the strong suit of newcomers. However, different to weekly or monthly meetings of a Pen&Paper group, the internet allows players to access a varity of resources quickly (indexed serach!) and communicate at any time with fellow players or GMs.

Layonara has seen a lot of player projects of varying success and draws a lot of attractions from that. In this series, I would like to offer these projects some spotlight in hope that it makes it easier for newcomers to start and stay as well as a place to present projects openly to stirr interest and participation.

If you are part of a player-run endeavour and want to present it, please send me a PM describing the project, its general aspects (artistic, scholastic, miliatristic, mercantile), goals and ways to participate.

Feel free share the entry and your thoughts on the current state of player endeavours, the support for it, my idea for a series and so on.