NarniaMUCK and You: A Retrospective

[Blackclaw]

This forum's been... somewhat lacking in serious threads, mostly thanks to, uh, me, anyway, uh

I thought a good thread we used to have on the old forum was the one in which people would post a little bit about themselves and their stories of how they found the MUCK; I always kind of enjoyed reading it, at least. I know maybe some people were there for that old thread and don't feel like re-iterating themselves, but maybe some of you weren't and are just dying for this opportunity? Probably not, I dunno. Worth a try anyway.

[Blackclaw]

i... i guess i'll go first i guess
this totally wasn't just an excuse for me to talk about myself i promise

I was a young kid who had discovered MUCKs through internet communities based around the Redwall books, in which the corresponding MUCK was a prominent fixture. I had a pretty good time messing around on that game and being terrified of RPing, and after a couple months I was pretty confident in my MUCKing abilities, so I seized upon the idea of making my own MUCK for internet prestige and so I wouldn't have to be afraid of RPing on it. I was also a fan of the Narnia books at the time, so that was my first choice for theme. However, I felt I had to do a thorough Google search for competing RPs, because I didn't want to step on anyone's toes and also no one would play my game if there was a better one out there. It took a couple pages of results for the old NarniaMUSHes, but I eventually found this place, decided it was neat and the people were nice, and gave up the thought of MUCK-adminship and started playing here.

Now, this went swimmingly for a couple months, but unfortunately I was still twelve and dumb, and through a series of unfortunate misunderstandings I managed to severely annoy one of the wizards of the time, Hlao. As a character called "Blackclaw", I stole his character's things and then went idle when he attempted to confront me ICly about it. I had been called for dinner and, being twelve, had no choice but to go, but I explained the circumstances insufficiently, and it got Blackclaw deleted and my main character suspended for a series of several months. I was absolutely mortified and vowed never to show my face here again.

However, a while after my somewhat-justified banning, I got curious about how the old place was doing, and logged on as a guest in an attempt to not be recognized. Wix, of course, being Wix, spotted me right away and said I was welcome to come back, as the wizard I had irritated had committed some questionable decision-making himself and had also been banned, and so apparently all was forgiven. I proceeded to play the game again, during which time Wix mentored me through several different characters, and eventually after a year or so I got offered a position as RP staff, with the caveat that my staff character's name would be the name of my deleted character from several years ago, in the service of irony. I gleefully accepted.

I did my job as RP staff with great vigour for a while, but I always had this nagging fear in the back of my head that I was actually secretly a terrible RPer and had just been managing to hide it somehow. As well, every now and then I had to take hiatuses in order to get my school work done, and coming back from those I felt completely inadequate to RP or advise others on RP matters. As this cycle perpetuated and the years wore on I got jaded and cynical and stopped RPing at all, but I still wanted to feel vaguely useful, so I requested a transfer to Game Development staff, and, uh, here I am.

[Caerca]

Since BC's retrospective is all lonely and by itself here, I suppose I will keep it company.

I wasn't all that much older than BC when I joined my first author fansite. Because most of the people who belonged to those forums liked to write, we all started up little RP threads everywhere and when those RP threads started to be about the very books we were obsessing over... well... the author wasn't 100% happy and asked us politely to stop. Respectfully, we stopped and moved our roleplaying antics off-site. Several dedicated RP forums were created to be our new creative outlet and one of them was created by none other than former NarniaMUCK staff member: Zuisa (though I knew her by a different name at the time). Seeing how avidly I was taking to roleplay, Zuisa told me about this place and assured me that I didn't need to remember a single thing about the books to join.

Some of you may be excited to know that my first character was a wolf. You might laugh to find out that I, in my infinite child wisdom, decided that my first character would know as little about Narnia as I knew, just to make it easier on me. I solemnly swear that in the intervening time, I have become a much better roleplayer!

The rest of my history is... rather unexciting. I became a builder after I'd been playing for a few years and then staff a year or two after that. I managed the logs for a time, but like everyone else who has at some point managed the logs, I fell through and asked for the duty to be assigned to someone else. Now, I mostly just brainstorm, organize, and manage plots.

[Haelric]

Wow, it's so cool reading about how people found NarniaMUCK. I guess I'll add my story! (Oh and Caerca: Yay for wolves! )

First off, I must begin simply with this: NARNIA. That really is the root cause of basically all my RPing experiences, and I shall explain why. I've always loved Narnia, ever since my Dad read the books to me when I was very young. I read them several times throughout my childhood, couldn't get enough of them. Then came that fateful day when I was sitting in a theater (watching Star Wars Episode 3, I think) and I saw the trailer for The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe movie. My heart nearly stopped with excitement. I had heard vague whisperings of a Narnia movie being made before then, but that was the first moment I really became aware of the reality. My love for Narnia suddenly evolved into a slight obsession.

After getting home from the theater, I scoured the internet for all things Narnian. Before that point, I had never really had any participation in any online communities or social networking at all; but I soon found a few Narnia fansites, and soon after I joined their community forums. Writing has always been a passion of mine, so on those sites I was inducted into the world of Forum Role-Playing. Over the years since then, I've been a member of several Forum RPs on several different sites, including a small freeforums.org site that I set up myself (originally it was supposed to be a writer's group for me and some friends, modeled after the Inklings, but it eventually turned over completely to RPing madness. No complaints here ).

But, I digress. Back to how I found NarniaMUCK. While searching for Narnia News on the 'Net, I stumbled across a little website called The Lion's Call (although, it was Virtual Narnia back then). I liked it alot, and continued visiting it now and then. One day in the summer of 2006, I found an article on the site called Narnia RPG Creator Speaks to The Lion's Call (http://www.thelionscall.com/news/news_article.cfm?id=77), which intrigued me greatly. It was obviously an interview with Wix. After reading the article, I decided to check out the game myself. I created my first character (Not Haelric) and started exploring.

I wish I could see a log of my first NarniaMUCK RP; I know I was terrible. I probably broke a million rules accidentally. I remember mistaking a female character for a guy, saying OOC comments ICly, making up a ridiculously far-fetched and contradictory back story, and trekking all the way across Narnia for RP without considering how impossible that is ICly. But thankfully, some more experienced players mentored me, and soon I figured out how to play better.

That's it for me... wow, this is longer than I thought it would be. I don't know, I may have beat you in the wordiness department, BC.

[Antheia]

Haelric, when I first started, I can think of at least 3 characters that I guessed were the wrong gender! Ahhh, being a newbie.

[Haelric]

Ha ha, good to know I'm not alone. Another newbie mistake I remember: trying to start up an RP with a character in the room who I soon realized was asleep.

[Peridot]

I blame the mischievous winged horse, Peg.
Peg and I were room mates at school and we were looking up stuff having to do with Narnia (probably because of the First Narnia movie: LLW). I've always been a big fan of the general world of Narnia and I'm fascinated by how C.S. Lewis tells his fairy tale in a way that neither children or adults get bored. (I confess that I fell asleep at least twice in Tolkein's genealogies in the Hobbit) Since I am certifiably ADHD, this is a big thing for me. Anyway, Peg would look something up and then I'd look something up. One day, she came across NarniaMuck and sent me the link, knowing how much I love Narnia. Rps with her in the same room were hilarious because we wouldn't talk out loud until after the rp was done, but I'd hear her giggling. Or I'd show her rps later and we stay up to talk about them and giggle until 2am.
I swear, I was the slowest newbie in the world. I had never mucked before, so the commands, the OOC versus IC convo, and everything else completely overwhelmed me. I got to mock rp with Paxa to coach me before I got my primary, Peridot. Even then, I had unrealistic expectations. For instance, I wanted to get into Cair Paravel because I wanted to look around and I wanted to go from one side of Narnia to another for rps. I also wanted to climb trees for apples (figuring a horse/unicorn would be able to get apples that drop from trees) and pick fights with dumb deer to get stronger.
I was also incredibly stupid. I read the warnings and looked up /everything/ on wikipedia to make sure that my character didn't eat anything bad...except that I tried to look up "Mandrake apple" and couldn't find it. I reasoned that even though mandrake is poisonous, apples were generally ok so...why not? Big mistake. Peri was sick for /months/ and the one time she ever met King Edmund, even he felt sorry that she was as green as her eyes. It took me a long time to figure out where to go to join up with the unicorn herd because I only found them through word of mouth from more experienced players. There was nothing in the species info that told me where to go.
So, thanks to these experiences, I've learned how to be a more patient player with newbies and my characters become more and more experienced as I continue to play.
As a side note trivia- Peg and I made a university frat based on Narnia and LOTR. For awhile, we even had a life-sized LWW movie promotional Wardrobe in our common room and we constantly had people taking pictures in front of it. The frat may be over but the memories remain. (*insert misty-eyed look*)

[Niffum]

Ohhh I like this thread

How did I get here? Well back in about 2002(or thereabouts) I was looking for a MU* that was based on Narnia. I had been playing various types of MU"s since college(anybody remember MicroMuse? I even helped start one called VurtualChicago). Well, I got to know Paxa and Wix and had a lot of fun. Niffum was either my first or second character, with many to follow. I made a lot of mistakes and I think alot of the rules were written after I messed up. I struggled alot to RP the way that was expected and eventually decided I needed a break. After about 3 years I've come back to give it another go. I'm older and wiser and hopefully won't make the same silly blunders. It's great to see old friends, who've either never left, or who , like me are coming back!

[Penelope]

Hm, my turn I suppose.

My story's a little similar to Haelric's. I was introduced to the BBC Narnia movies and the books when I was around 10 or 11 and I fell in love with them. There wasn't much Narnia stuff online in those days, just a couple websites that I poked around in a couple times, under close parental supervision. When I was around 15, I stumbled across the news that a movie was in the works. I didn't think much more about it until the LWW movie came out and I saw a trailer and went I saw the movie and my obsession started. I was online every day looking for Narnia stuff and news. I found the Lion's Call and joined them. I got involved with the forum RP and I kept hearing everyone talking about Narnia Muck. I eventually decided to give it a go. I remember being a pretty pathetic newbie >_>
I got a character that lived in a region that didn't get much RP, so I didn't learn very much. I dinked around for a couple months, idled for a couple, then someone suggested I get an alt. I did so and my RP world opened up. That character was my learning character and I made...some pretty huge and stupid mistakes with her. My people skills were pretty rough on top of it all and things wound up in a big fat mess eventually.
Before all that though, Penster was my first absolutely awesome character! I got her by accident, actually. I went to Wix for ideas and the plan became that I would get a centaur healer. A couple days or weeks later I went to Wix to have the character created and she was like, ok let's set you up with the faun. I think I'll stick her in Sted Cair because a replacement healer is needed there. I was like....I thought we talked about a centaur but ok a faun could be fun, and I didn't say anything. Turns out that Wix got me confused with someone else and we created the character for me that was intended for her. oopsie! I had already had a full day's worth of RP with her and was reluctant to change things and Wix said I could keep her.
Best mistake ever. Pen's been a blast to play and I've learned a lot with her. She's one of my favorite characters. I've had quite a few over the years, but she's the one I miss when I have to idle for school. (And a couple others who shall remain nameless)

[Glyn]

Maybe I'm jumping the gun to write this, as I've only been here since November last year, but there is a story to how I got here. I fell in love with the Narnia books as a child--a long time ago now--my favourite being the Dawn Treader. Eustace's redemption in that book touched me in a way that Edmund's never did. As an adult, I've never lost my love of good children's literature.

It was in my undergraduate years that I first encountered this new-fangled internet thing (before web pages, if you can believe it!). I quickly stumbled into MUD games, which were much like my favourite text adventure games from the 1980s, like The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Planetfall--but these ones you could play with other people! I went through a half dozen games before I finally found NarniaMUSH, which quickly became the only place I ever played. I made a wolf character there (also named Glyn, although he was a bit different from my character here). The atmosphere there involved a fairly free blend of IC/OOC interaction, and I made a lot of good friends. Sadly, it shut down after a few years.

I fell out of the habit of MU*ing for many years, although there were a couple that I used as glorified chat rooms. I finished school and got swept up in career. It was only last year that I thought to look around for any traces of the old NarniaMUSH, to see if I could hook up with any of the old crowd. Imagine my surprise to find that a NarniaMUCK had sprung up without my knowledge. It was a different group with a different approach, but I could play again!

I decided to stick with wolves, and with my old name, even though this Glyn is a new character. Still felt like a comfortable glove. Ulfden was very helpful and patient in teaching me the etiquette and "writing" me into the pack. (Shout-outs to Eirwyn, Nevarre and Virika!) It took me a month or two to get the feel of things, but it's been well worth it. Outside of my own character's development, I look forward to participating in my first major plots!