Wecome to the TownCrier’s Discord Digest! In this space, we at the TownCrier will attempt to provide a daily digest of select conversations at the Official GemStone IV Discord server from 10 pm EST the night previous to 10 pm EST the night of. Not all conversations will be reported and we will endeavor to utilize a neutral tone (although our unique senses of humor may show through).

Links may go to the Official Discord post itself, to the GemStone IV Wiki, or other useful and relevant places. In the case of Discord links, those links will send you to the Discord web interface.

The majority of this digest record was compiled by the player of Qafziel Nalfein/Darcena Wolf-Valslayer; scripting was compiled by Luxelle. Have an error to report on this digest or some information to pass along? Contact Jen on Discord at ArmyJen#0001. Please reference which digest day to which you are referring.

What You Missed

General Gemstone IV

#general

We welcomed Josh in Marketing (Simutronics) to the official Discord and promptly overwhelmed him with our enthusiasm.

#premium

Traiva offered a shameless plug that the Topsy-Turvy Masque will be on Sunday 8/18 at 10 pm ET in Ebonstone Manor. She said, “Celebrate Cholen, dress in drag.. do the Hula if you like.” She added that it is the annual semi-collaboration with Bardfest run by the House of Argent Aspis. This was part of a much larger conversation about cross-gendered dressing and how to pull it off mechanically and in roleplay.

GM Quilic posted a forum link to a series of vignettes combined with Nazhor Chronicles hiatus information.

GM Xeraphina posted an immediate announcement, “Beautician Mokosch will be on the patio of Misty’s Teas to do general work for clothing and jewelry.”

#mechanics

#help

After a discussion on some confusion with the FLAG settings, GM Meraki points out that the columns for the FLAG verb show that whatever is displayed is the current behavior for the setting the flag is on. Then added, “(I do agree that some of those flag “behavior for this setting” could be worded differently to provide increased clarity.)”

#scripting

Death Auto Log-off Prevention: Arianiss asked what causes the auto-log offs when you die. FarFigNewGut identified Bigshot’s “deadman’s switch” checkbox as one source. We’d like to remind you to check SET DEATH and make sure it is OFF to let you stay in til your normal timeout, even while dead.

Duskruin Arena: Tysong explained how ;tdusk can include your own Arena combat routine now.  ;tdusk help

• Enable the setting, see an example with: Tysong-duskattack.lic
• and name yours: Yourcharactername-duskattack.lic
• There’s also a bigshot quick option, use HELP to see it, and all the other settings.

#wiki-talk

Darcena asked about moving the BOOST (verb) to its on page again and clarifying which BOOSTs come from Login Rewards, from SEARCHing, or other places with appropriate links. Further discussion talked about issues with verbs not echoing appropriately in the window so that unless people click on the link, they cannot figure out how to use them. Darcena stated she would start a forum post for people to keep track of this.

Leafiara and Maylan provided some suggestions on ways to improve the new player landing page and guide at the wiki for new player retention as a discussion that shifted from #general at Darcena’s request so she could work on it.

World of Elanthia

#festivals-and-events

Seeeoooh (did I put the right number of eeeeooos in there?) reminded us all to mark our calendars for the 24th annual BardFest which starts on 8/14 at 10 pm Eastern.

#roleplay-in-elanthia

Questions:

• If the world we live in now was magically undone and you were transported into GS as your main, could you live with the choices you’ve made for them or would you be compelled to change? [Nimaera]
• When you start a new character, which personality attribute do you choose first: Strength or Flaw. [Naamit]
• (In the context of MMORPGS) What is Roleplaying? [Avaia]
• Have you ever played an extremely introverted character that you wished could find some way to interact with other PCs (not NPCs) without sacrificing that character’s core personality trait? How did you do it? [GM Xeraphina]

Calista asked the GameMasters, “can we revive the whole CoL story? there’s so much potential there but now it’s just like there are no consequences to mastering (maybe as part of an overall COL revamp!)” Brenric continued the discussion, but it fizzled out pretty quickly.

Erek delighted Xorus when he posted “a blast from the past.” He continued, “The ‘cotton’ in the middle (for anyone else reading who is scratching their head) is supposed to represent ‘prime material stuff’, with the valences surrounding it.”

Xorus then posted a link to Virilneus’ site with this quoted description: “This illustration shows the ‘Universe’ as we know it indicated by the smoky area in the middle of the picture, with a series of spheres extending outward in a seemingly ordered pattern. These spheres illustrate the ‘outer valences’ and show likely positions of demonic planes surrounding the material universe. The valences shift and undulate constantly with no real order. This shifting is brought about by a collection of forces acting upon the inhabitants of the valences, including but not limited to Life acting upon Unlife, Positive acting upon Negative, and Chaos acting upon Order. These forces push and pull at each other constantly, causing specific layers of surface tension to be created at ordered power levels. Thus the outer valences become inhabitable planes.”

Nimaera asked, “Are feature alterations considered sort of OOC here? Like, in my mind having one done is just enhancing what she already looks like so it’s not something to comment on?” Darcena responded that some people take them as IC and some handwave them as OOC.

Darcena suggested, “I would like it if we could RUMMAGE MY {container} ENHANCIVE {type}. That would make it easier. I already use that so much for runestones, ingredients, spells…” In response, GM Naos said, “The RUMMAGE stuff generally assumes you can identify the properties directly; e.g. you can read runes on scrolls to find the right one (and if you don’t have training for it then you are out of luck.) Generally speaking you have no way to know what enhancive properties an item has at a glance.” Darcena countered that perhaps it would work only if a bard had used their lore knowledge points to unlock the enhancive.

Traiva announced Happy Hour in Solhaven on Saturday, August 10 at 3:30 ET.

Qafziel Nalfein

Qafziel Nalfein, scholar and political devotee, travels Elanith learning more about the relationships between notable parties. His focus is on the Cooperative Houses of Elanthia and Meeting Hall Organizations and their liaisons, but he’s also known to pop into a town meeting on a whim or congratulate someone on reaching the pinnacle of their studies whether it be in warfare or sorcery or something else entirely. Qaf is always on the lookout for ways to connect individuals and organizations both with each other, with adventurers, and with the TownCrier for the betterment of our society. He maintains a network of informants who assist him in his tasks.