Submitted by MrDave on Fri, 06/07/2002 - 00:23
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AAAGUH! I accidently wiped out everything since May 20th. God. I need to make backups more often. I am very sorry and if anone has any posts from that date forward, please restore them!
I am really sorry :oops:
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Restoration in Progress
Thanks to Louisa who restored all the game posts!!! You are awesome.
I managed to get MOST of the NPC profiles restored. There are a few that are still missing. Janus, Mrs. White, and Ian which were the last three that were added I did not have any backups of.
I have also restored by PC profile. But I lost all of the re-edits. I should not complain, it was my own fault.
Again, I am very sorry, and anyone who wants to line up to kick my ass for this is welcome. I deserve it!
New Feature!
Look to the right of the "NEWS" header. See that? Thats the last time I did a backup. Burn my ears off if I go more than a week. Generally speaking once a week or after major postfests is good. so keep me from doing the dirty again. Keep us backed up!
Second New Feature!
Look at the timeline from the timeline link (under Quick Links to the right), and you will find that the post numbers now link to the actual posts (in a new window no less!). When Heather gets the timeline restored it should work automatically.
Updates Updates Updates
Well I think that the vast majority of the stuff is back online and I have added some new stuff as well. Under the STORY section is now "Items" with little writeups of some of the magical stuff that has showed up during this season.
Inanna has a new gallery as does Paul and they are linked into their profiles online.
As summer rapidly approaches (or winter if you live down-under) things slow down. For the above the equator folks other obligations creep in and in the southern hemisphere winter has a way of frezzing things in place. So it becomes even MORE imperative that we push on to finish the finale.
Then we can take a vacation from LA by Night for a few months and come back fresh and creative again!
Power Outage
Last night we had a power outage in our building. No power at all. FOr nearly 12 hours there was no juice to our servers at all. If it had been a few minutes, that would be one thing, but without a back up generator, there was no way we could sustain the servers for any time at all.
I apologise for the outage, but there was nothing we could do. Hopefully it didn't cramp anyone's style during the outage. Hopefully it won't happen again. Just goes to show you that nothing is perfect. Ciao.
For the New People...
Hi there! You've seen an ad or a post on another board and you've come here. Now what? Well explore first. Look around and absorb the flavor and ambience. Read second. Read the backgrounds of the characters, the timeline, and the game board.
Third (and this is the big one) Apply to be a member. Use the "New Member" link on the right hand side of the page. Fill out the form and send it. The current players will review your application and decide whether to invite you to join. There is no limit to the number of forms you can submit, nor are there any hard and fast guidelines on what you can be.
We are looking for characters with style and detail. Power is secondary (although we turned down a God and we have rejected a half-vampire since we have three already) to originality. We want you to have fun, and we want to have fun too!
If you get rejected to be a player, thats okay...we want you to participate anyway. Post in the trivai games, or word association games. The guestbook and the other parts of the forum. Read the ongoing adventures. Make suggestions! An active non-player is better than a non-active player.
Who knows, if you get to be liked, we might invite you to play anyway! So welcome to LA By Night!
PS:
There is another LA By Night game run by a former player of this game. His game is starting July 15th...ours won't start Season 2 until August. Just so there is no confusion: THIS one is the original.
No More Characters! Please!
We would love to be able to accept every character that comes along. But its just impossible to manage that many. 15 seems to be a comfortable level for this game and so that is the target level we have set.
I Just wanted to say how impressed we were with the creative and original character ideas we recieved. This recruiting run netted:
21 Submissions
7 New Members.
and a big boost in the number of posts on the board. Thanks everyone!
I also want to commend our players for making our new players feel comfortable, appreciated, and most of all welcome. It can be a lot to absorb coming into this game at first. We should all pat ourselves on the back for being helpful and welcoming.
So the polls are closed to new members. I may set aside a rejected forum for the stuff we turned down so if we need to bring in a new player we can look in there...but I have all of that stuff archived and it may just be easier to sit on it.
:lol: Thanks again everyone!
Housekeeping Duties
I have moved a slew of topics out of the regular forums to a special archive forum to sort of clear out some of the clutter. While I know many of you have worked hard and have written thoughtful posts and comments ("Woo Hoo I'm Fresh Kill!") I felt it was time to make some room for some new thoughts.
I have two dilemmas. How rigid should I be about archiving? Should I delete the non-game relevant stuff? Should I keep everything? Anything that is deleted drops the POSTING COUNT of the person who posted it. So consider that...
Second Dilemma: Some of the forums can be set to auto-houseclean. This means that any topic that has not been posted to in the last 7 days/14 days etc... will be dropped auomatically. This means that drivel topics will disappear automatically after a few days (and the associated drivel posts count that accompanied it).
The upshot of this would mean that drivel posting in the Member Lounge (for instance) would disappear on its own.
Just some food for thought.
Still work to be done, but the scary part is over....
Well Season Two of LA By Night is underway and things are progressing smoothly. I am still amazed at the degree of talent displayed here. In the process of setting up I have linked all the "Timeline" links to the season Two timeline (maintained by our dear friend Heather). I have creted character pages for all our new PCs (and I think I got them all). Nad the new NPCs are coming along nicely.
On the subject of NPCs I want to thank GoddessMaia for her NPC library. some of our players have drawn from that resource and it has been fun to have a pool of personalities to draw from when needed rather than re-using the same ones over and over.
The nature of this season's "big bad" means that many of our NPCs will be forced to retire from living so the more the merrier. Even of there is not intion of using a particular character in a major plotline, it might be fun to post a collection of "normal" and "not-so-normal" characters for the others to use as the menace in the basement of Poplar grows.
No News (they say) Is Good News
Wow, I was looking back and realized I missed my newsbite last week. There wasn't much to report, but it kind of miffed me that it slipped by and no-one had anything to say about it. :(
Backups are getting made. The story is progressing at a decent pace. And things are moving along smoothly. Heck, You'd think we had done this before!
On a personal note, I had a client who was looking for a forum/chat web solution and all I had to show them was LaByNight and they were very impressed. So, indirectly, Late Night Games may have made some money for my company. Something which means that the fact I am hosting it on company servers using company bandwidth free of charge doesn't bother them (not that they would ever tell me I couldn't).
I am trying to find an integrated chat solution for LateNightGames that will suit our unique needs. To this end I am exploring Jabber (an open source chat client/server available from Jabber.org). If I can get it integrated into the site with a minimum of fuss then we may be able to have a running chatwindow at the top of LaByNight's game board, and game rooms with a chat suite that allows for OOC and Game chat all at the same time.
I'll keep you posted on developments as the come through.
Count Your Blessings...
Occasionally I am reminded how great a community we have. We get together and discuss all the cool things in our lives. We talk about television shows, we joke with each other, and we post incessantly.
Lets give a little contrast to show what I mean.
http://lanight.nanwani.net/ is the site set up by the same two individuals who set up this one. It was their choice to leave (due to creative differences) and the game they set up is identical in both mechanics (the BBS, the supporting site) and setting (It is also called LA By Night) their game started a month prior to ours.
In that time they have had about 50 posts. We have had nearly 1000.
I was reading through their board. It is technically good, spelling and punctuation within acceptable norms (for anyone except Heather that is :wink:). But it lacks a lot of life.
I read through the characters and found a lot of them very dark. We have dark characters too, but they are complicated dark, not evil dark. So whenver you feel like you are not good enough or if you doubt that your stuff will fly post it anyway. It can't be worse than anyone else's stuff, and we are sure to help you make it better!
The Week That Was
There are times when I am overhelmed by my non-work activities. LABN is one of them, but there are lots of other things that seem to compete for my time more and more frequently.
I was asked to volunteer at a local Rennaissance festival on behalf of a group I am not a mamber of (I did it...16 hours and killed my feet). I took my Brother and his wife to a football game because I could (Our teem lost 37-7). I have an endless supply of laundry that never seems to get done. My electricity was out for 24 hours. I have a neice who had a birthday (sweet 16).
In the midst of all that I also workd 50+ hours and managed to make time with my sweety (well not as much as I like, but I did pay attention to her). I kept the cat fed, I made my mortgage payment, and I managed to bathe at least once a day.
Add it all up and you will find that there are very few hours left, and sometimes I have to say no. I was asked to help out the Boy Scouts for a few hours and initially said yes, but as the week went on, I reneged. I couldn't do it. It was just too much.
I always dedicate time out of my (sometimes very) busy week for LA By Night. You might wonder when you are an action hero of activity like me why I would do such a thing. It is because I love it. More than my love for it, I think it is important work.
We have a unique community here. It isn't anything that I do alone. Everyone pitches in and they all contribute creative ideas energy and talents. I am like the owner of a community center. The existance of the center does not make it a valuable asset. The people who volunteer, support and operate the center are what make it valuable to the community.
I do not take offense or get angry at requests like "Can you upload these pictures" or "Oops, you forgot so-and-so's profile sheet" i consider that part of the teamwork. It might take me a while to remedy errors or take care of your requests and I don't even mind a friendly reminder.
I really do appreciate the help. I cannot do it all alone because I just don't have the time.
Ups and Downs
Sometimes it is amazing how many posts we can generate in a 24 hour period. Here is is, Sunday Evening (-5 GMT), and there have only been 32 posts for the last 24 hours.
Just a few days ago it was something like 100. What happened between then and now? I think that our games like "This 'n That" and the WAG are what does it.
During the week we all have places to go and things to do. We busy ourselves with the stuff we must do (not like actual lives or anything, we've covered that topic before). When we hit LABN we feel we have to post something; we have to put in our 2 cents.
I'm a guilty of it as anyone. During lunch at work I read up on the WAG, ToT, and the SLG. I chuckle at the goings on and sometimes share them with my co-workers. It makes good recreational reading.
But then the weekends come along and everything changes. We no longer have a definite schedule. Our lives are at the whims of others and their availability. So, suddenly, we can't 'jump on' anymore and post like madpeople. We plan and we wait until we have something to say.
I can see you now smacking your heads and saying "Why didn't you tell us this before, Dave?" I never said anything because it doesn't matter. One, It does not change anything, its just an observation. Two, I was bringing it up because that is why I do these little "Admin Corner" things in the first place. I have planned to do it every Sunday evening while waiting for Angel to come on.
Best Laid Plans
It seems that no matter how hard you try to make things better, easier, or cooler for people, that things beyond your control kill you.
You may have noticed a brightly colored bar above the Make a post window. This is so you can just click on a color to colorize your fonts.
Moderators may have notices that there is now a merge topic function in addition to the split topic function.
And I am about to do a serious housecleaning on themes.
BUT. UUNet (a major backbone provider) has been having difficulties so there are delays all over the Eastern US. Heavy Hammer (our hosting provider) has had to change the IP of their server whick led to some downtime. And of course work eats up a huge chunk of my time.
THen to top all of this wonderfulness off I was archiving the WAG and nearly scrambled all the posts on the board. I fixed it. No worries. But it has gotten me a little on the stressed side.
I really should not complain. Little problems like this stuff tend to have hidden silver linings. When Nick was having probs with is service provider he moved to my company (giving me the change to lock him out). When the WAG went funny I was able to re-do all of the post counts and fix the nagging problem we've been having with phantom pages.
So all in all it has worked out. Now if I can only figure out how to make it 'work out' without raising my bood pressure...
The Phoenix Rises
I have been stuck in a rut. Every day had been the same. Wake up, go to work, eat lunch, work some more, go home, LABN, talk to my girlfriend, go to bed.
Every day the same routine. Even weekends were the same routine. and it finally got to me. I burned out. I was less than a vampire dusted on BtVS. Little bits of Mr. Dave that were no good to anybody.
The girlfriend wanted to help but that wasn't going to do it. THe mother fretted and worried but that wasn't going to do it. People at work tried to give me different things to do but that wasn't going to do it. Even LABN wasn't going to do it.
So I took a weekend and left town. I went to visit some friends and goof off in a different venue. Break out of the rut. At first I wasn't sure it had worked...I didn't feel any different. I was still tired and sort of listless. But what I did have was a little more oomph.
When I sat down at my computer I actually felt like writing and coding again. I felt like the projects I was working on mattered. And best of all I wanted to move forward with LABN.
I write these little "sermons" every week, and I imagine my friends reading them and asking themselves "Why?" well, brothers and sisters, this is why...
LABN can be a rut. You focus on your character to the point of excluding the season's over-arching plotlines (yes, we have more than one). You can tell this is happeneing when your character gets "stuck" on a day. or when you find that you are not moving closer to the other characters but have begun to parallel them with your own story.
So the idea I am proposing is this. Pick up another character. Try on an NPC for fit. Change your venue. There are things outside in the LABN world that need our attention to reach the climax we hope to achieve.
Doppelganger someone. Have a celebrity meet your PC (we are so close to Hollywood!). Have an encounter with your real self (who happens to be in LA visiting some internet friends). What movies are playing, what are current events three years from now?
Have a flashback, a flash forward or even a flash sideways. Have a joke, a laugh, or a date. Do something different. Some of the PCs are doing these sorts of things and thats wonderful! Now do it faster. Jump ahead days.
The timeline is about to start moving in leaps and bounds. The goal? October 31 game time by the end of the season. Pick days with purpose and try to avoid getting stuck in a rut.
Too Much Informaton
We love to share stuff don't we? Thanks to the trust and respect we have for each other I know more about the players n the game than I know about half of the people that work for my company.
Thats a scary thought. There are roughly the same nunmber of employees working for Heavy Hammer as there are players on ths board. And I can recall from memory marital status, age, country, time zone, some of your favorite things and some of your phobias. Music preferences, food preference and smoker/non smoker/recovering smoker status.
I know where you go for vacation and I know what most of you look like. And even scarer...most of you can say the same thing.
What has compelled us to share this much of ourselves with each other? I'm not sure. For some of us (Heather :roll: ) it seems to be compulsive. For others (Greg :P ) it seems to be just enough to shut us up.
I'd like to think it was becasue we really like each other. We see in each other qualities that we admire and that we enjoy. Humor, Intelligence, Paranoia (Adam :wink:) and creativity are things we all share in common. Therefore we like to share with people who share these qualites.
I am glad to see that we do occasionally have visitors from outside of our circle. It means you are sharing our obsession with others. But we are somewhat insular. Sometimes we know things that weren't destined for public consumption. We forget that we have at least one window open to the world.
I am reminded of the MTV show "The Real World" (if you have managed to miss this show I envy you, but the premise is grab a group of people, and sequester them in a house covered by cameras and watch the hilarity ensue). We forget about that "fourth wall" that is open to the world, and we spout off or rant or talk out of school.
I am as guilty of it as anyone--I forget all the time. This isn't a sermon on any particular incident or post. You people are my friends and I want to spare you anything that might come back to haunt you. Just be careful with what you know we trust you wth our privacy.
Halloween 2002-What fun!
For a single guy who lives in a condo, I can think of no greater thrill than having a line of kids at my door for me to throw fine non-sugar treats to (I had temporary tattoos this year. Last year it was comic books). I can share with them my life-size carboard cutout of John Leguizamo as the Clown from Spawn. Or my Michael Keaton as Batman cutout. I even have a black cat.
I can wear my kofiya, and egal from Palistine with sunglasses and be a shiekh for a day. I could wear my broadsword, leather armor and leggings and go as an adventurer. I could even wear coveralls a flannel shirt and a straw hat and go as a hillbilly. I own a variety of costumes.
In years past I have had one...maybe two kids to treat. I would get dressed up, and wait faithfully at the door. I ordered a pizza last year so I could give something to the driver.
This year, however I had to work late and didn't get home until nearly 8pm...far too late for any respectable trick-or-treating. So I have all my treats and costumes unopened this year. :cry:
So thank you..all of you for goofing around and wearing silly 'costumes' on this board. It gave me my Halloween fix and kept it from being a really horrible and lonely time. And it was fun. Now I need to plan for Christmas... :x-mas:
Writer's Block
First things first...The "Print editions" of LA By Night Season One and Midseason one are available now.
Download them from here
Now, on to the editorial. I have heard the term "writer's block" being tossed around this board as if it is a virus or infection that has been suddenly contracted.
I have never had writer's block. I refuse to. I have had times when I was so sick of what I was writing I coud not stand to look at it. I wanted to burn it and forget that it had ever happened and then crawl under a rock and suck my thumb. But I was never unable to write.
I am a programmer and it isn't unusual for me to spend 10-12 hours writing code. And I get so fed up with it sometimes I could scream. But I keep hacking at it until it works. I can make it pretty later.
I would rather see 10 stories of mediocre quality to one story of superior quality. This isn't a novel and if it sees print beleive me I will be the first one in line to re-write most of it. So what is it that has caused a sudden outbreak of "writer's block"?
Is it that you lack direction? I can help there, I have a pretty clear idea of where the story is going, and will be glad to help you get back on track. Is it your character has lost its luster? Bored already? Then kill that character off, or finish its story prematurely and start a new one. I won't mind...neither will anyone else.
Perhaps you are too busy to take a few minutes and write a paragraph or two. Thats all. Not a whole post, just a little "what happened in my character's life" thing. Even if it is you character doing the same thing you are doing...atching TV, going to the dentist, or eating yet another meal alone.
These bits of life are the meat of good writing. Anyone who has ever read a Stephen King novel has been bombarded by the endless pages of mundane activities his characters go through. And it makes great writing.
Stephen King and Piers Anthony are two of my heroes. Both of them dutifully turn out a novel every two-four months. They sell everything they write, and they never ever stop. They might slow down...but they never ever stop.
Don't stop. Don't give yourself an excuse like "Writer's block" to let you stop guilt free. I am gonna make you guilty that you aren't writing. If it is crap...fine. Write a post in the members forum that says you wrote X pages and it was all crap.
I'll beleive you, sympathise, and offer to help. And if I don't someone else will. Writing is a discipline don't get lazy now.
Thanksgiving Day
Yep. I missed it last week and I very nearly missed it this week. It has been 17 days since I last posted an Admin Corner. Why? Well...its tough to come up with topics sometimes. And Its hard to take a moment and reflect (becasue it is a reflection) . And I'm lazy, and and and...
You get the idea. I can pull an excuse out for why I didn't do it at the drop of a hat. But the net result is the same, it didn't get done. And I can't "go back" and fix it either. So here i am rambling on pointlessly so that there is something new in the news bin.
Just a slice of life for you...I am in West Virginia, about 500 miles or so from my home staying with relatives. I am sitting at their computer on Thanksgiving Day (see my little bit in Cultueral Awareness) while they are upstairs watching moveis and football games and we are enjoying a little familial fellowship.
And I am here becasue I feel an obligation to you folks. I have always maintained that this is not my game it is our game...our community, our friends, and yes...family. Anyone who wants to step up and send a weekly message has only to ask.
I am glad I get the opportunity to share my time with you. Every week. Ugh.
Silent Running
Silent running is an old submariner term for drifting with the current in the depths of the ocean with all sound dampened and no motor running. It basically rendered the submarine invisible to anything except active sonar pings. The problem with active sonar pings is that while it exposes the "invisible" sub it also reveals your own position making it that much easier to be torpedoed by the very sub you were seeking to find.
I have been silent running since Thanksgiving. All of you know (or will know in a second) that Heather and I are an "item" and that I was down under visiting her in Australia. Since it was a special trip I felt it was more important to be with her than with you. I love you all but one-on-one you lose. Sorry.
"But," you say, "You didn't leave until Dec 15th. What happened between Thanksgiving and then?"
Um. Nothing. Here anyway. It was a great case of Ain't Broke-Don't Fix it. I generally put little announcements, pointers, updates, stern finger-waggings and pep-me-ups here. But I didn't have to. You guys went apeshit and posted all over the place and resolved issues and pointed out problems (which I mostly fixed) all by yourselves. *Sniff*Our little group is growing up ;)
That trend continued during my extended hiding act. So pat yourselves on the back. Shake each others hand and hugs all around. You did fine without me hanging over you. I am still here and Heather too to nudge everything back into line as it needs nudging, but overall, I'd say the acid test is over.
Coming soon...1 year of LABN!
Its That Time
It is Midseason time. Wow. And almost one year for LABN. Double wow. And that means a couple of things. ..no more plot constraints. No more timing constraints. And free reign for a couple of months. So burn out those cobwebs and tell those stories.
The Season 2 finale will be late. It just will. Urks me no end but I can't help it, it is gonna be late. Darn. Oh well at least no players were injured in the making of this finale.
Feel free to post in a midseason thread. First one there gets to name it (okay the naming convention is the same as the other, but first post...wow). The only thing is...assume the finale is over with when the events of your post take place. thats all.
---
Recruiting Time. Invite people. Lots of em if you can. If e get enough takers then we will have a spin-off city (still deciding where) but we want to get these folks into the fold MIDseason rather than FULL season so they can get posting and learn the names and rhythms of the group. And so I can get the character sheets and galleries and (ewww...work) stuff done .
If you can, invite them to http://latenightgames.com rather than specifically to LABN. If you want to suggest the LA By night game thats fine, but link them into LNG rather than LABN (or link them to both).
I am hoping some of our Buffy crowd will fall into Mythic as well (or instead of LABN...be nice to have more than one soloist)
---
Okay, story time! Gather 'round boys and girls; Uncle David is going to tell a story...
Once upon a time there were two beautiful people who met in their dreams and every night they would dream of each other and laugh and cry and tell long stories about what was happeneing in their part of the world. And as these things happen, they fell in love.
But it as very hard becasue life never stops and when you can only meet in your dreams you get so little time with each other, and it makes it very hard to touch. Becasue dreasma are like clouds, lots of fun to look at but very hard to hug.
So they made a plan to meet and a huge steel bird swooped out of the sky and carried the prettier one to meet the other one. And they laughed and cried and told stories and had a great time. It was so much like their dreams that they didn't want it to stop.
But the bird snatched the pretty one and flew her back to the land where they could only touch in dreams. A long time passed and the other one (not the pretty one) managed to convince a giant steel bird to carry him to her and they laughed and cried and played and told stories and had a wonderful time until the giant bird snatched him up and carried him back.
They knew it was going to happen, and yet this time it was worse becasue the giant bird had broken the other one's dream machine. So they could not dream like they used to. It was dark and very sad for a while.
But the other one was clever. He used several different machines together and made something sort of like the dream machine only different. and they were able to meet in their dreams once again.
but this story isn't over children. soon comes the big part of the story where we see if the two beautiful people can find a way to defy all of the giant steel birds and stay together for ever.
For now, sweet dreams for all of us...
Win some and lose some
I messed up. Not all me but mostly me. I didn't push, cajole, encourage, direct, or march you all enough to make the deadline. I should have started back in December. Planned for the finale during the holidays. Or just after.
I didn't. I had other things on my mind. I still do. Frankly I wish I could do nothing more than babysit this game. But I can't. I have a job and I have a girlfriend (whom I love very much) and I have my own set of worries.
There are technical issues that affect this site (and nearly a dozen other ones on this same server). There are plotting issues and there are player issues and I have not been taking care of them
So I locked Season 2. I will clean it up and make an end to it. Hopefully Heather (who has also been overstressed and frustrated at this season) will help me. If not I'll do it alone.
Moral #1: Don't change your mind right at the end, its too hard to stop.
Moral #2: If you are going to get it done plan to finish don't plan to get to it.
The vacation is over...
Okay it wasn't a vacation, it was more of a sabbatical. Self imposed, no real goal other than avoiding all things LABN. Okay I am not the kind of person who can just ignore it completely, I drop in and read, but I have not been contributing for weeks.
Why? Frankly, I got tired. Too many things happening at once and too many things going wrong. A lot of personal reasons. If you didn't know, I rival Robin in lurkage when it comes to discussing my problems. I just brood and sulk until I can figure it out. Well that is done. I figured it out.
So here I am up to my hips in snow and ready to roll. I have been plotting and writing (some) and programming for leisure (as opposed to programming for work). I feel more like the old Dave.
So my apologies for being boring-guy. But I also appreciate that the support was there even if I didn't take advantage of it.
==Point two
We have lost some people in the wake of the season two fallout. Some of them more memorable than others. I can't say I am happy about it but I feel a need to pull in some newbies to fill the gap.
So send out the call. I have seen a few apps come through but we really need to add 3 more players. So a lot more than the few we've seen need to arrive. Go! Recruit!
Countdown...
In a little over 40 hours I'll be boarding a plane to travel back to Australia for a week. So if I seem a little absent over the next 8 days you will know why. ;)
Welcome to our newest players: Ben, Jekke, and Shaun. I am looking forward to seeing you shine among the stars on this board. It may seem like a lot to absorb at first, but it does come naturally after a while.
Second midseason is in full swing and there are some tense and dramatic moments building. We are already talking about Season 3. If you are new or didn't know the season structure is fluid. We are going to postpone the beginning of Season 3 until after the cast party.
The cast party is set for June 14th in Los Angeles. Our primary host will be Sherlynn who is a local and will help all us directionally deficients to find our way around. If you are a player you are invited, regardless of how long you've been on board.
The Season 3 big bad is being hotly debated, and may still change. If you have not put in your two cents about whether you want it to go that way, please do. This is a community and while I proposed the BB my story isn't wedded to it.
Let your will be known. I am only throwing out ideas not forcing them on anyone. If you have a Big-bad idea you want to share speak now while things are still in the planning stages!
Bon Voyage
I traveled halfway around the world and back and all I lost was my Swiss army knife. Not bad. I'll miss that knife but it was an acceptable sacrifice so that I could see my sweety again.
It may come as a shock to some of you but LABN isn't my entire life. I know I know disappointing to be sure. But the fact of the matter is I have a job and a woman and a mother and friends and lots of things that all vie for my time.
I would love to spend all day every day talking to everyone during their various and sundry ins and outs, but I just can't (nor could I stay up the 24 hours it would take to do that). I am always amazed that we are a truely international community with members on most of the continents.
I have to laugh at huge communitites bosting hundreds of thousands of members who I am certain could not name the real first name of 20 people in their community. I know all of your first names.
Pat yourselves on the back for the amazing feat of knowing everyone on the board. We may be small but we certainly make up for it in enthusiasm.
This (of course) leads me to the sermon portion. We have a few extended members. They are as much a part of our family (becasue we care about them) as Heather or me. But it's time to deal with a few of these members as befits thier particular circumstances.
Sid (big sniff) has been pretty clear that he's not coming back. In fact his last post was as a 'guest'. I'll be doing the unpleasant task of removing his name from our memberlist. Farewell Sid.
Andrew has mentioned he'd like to propose a new character. I invite him to do so, but if he doesn't, he'll be removed at the end of mid-season. Sorry Drew.
Jean has said she is planning a character and wants to play. I say get your butt together and at least submit a name or she will never get it done. I'd like to see her become a regular member, but you have to start somewhere. Hurry up Jean.
Greg has been noticeably absent for many moons. I'd like to know if anyone has seen him or heard from him. If you need help Greg let me know becasue I am at loose ends in the evenings of late and would be happy to share all sorts of ideas to jump start you back into the game. Come into the light Greg.
Everyone else is certainly welcome to invite friends, associates, co-workers, writers and online pals to participate. We would love to swell our ranks with more wonderful people.
-----
One of the admins of Slayer: A Twist of Fate has mentioned that there might be cross-game possibilities to explore. I had suggested perhaps getting to know one of the S:AToF players that resonates with your character. Then, discuss ways to have your paths cross in your backgrounds. Write it in.
If you don't see a character, explore their rich background and story and look for ways to incorporate some of their events into your history.
I am more than willing to link the two storylines by having their slayer be the last "known" slayer in our background and alter our history to fit. I'd be interested in ideas that both satisfy plausibility and our story as well.
Let me know what you think, I'd be happy to communicate any ideas back to the admin.
Easter is a time of celebration.
Happy Easter. For those of you non-Christians I think you might just shake you heads and wonder why I would wish you well on a holiday you don't celebrate.
For the same reasons I wish you well on holidays I don't celebrate. Australia Day, Ramadan, Passover, and all sorts of religious and non-religious holidays.
We are a community of diverse and wonderfully varied people and we celebrate those differences in a lot of ways. Sharing our cultures, trading jokes, politics (grr), and our lives.
Another community has touched ours, the folks over at Slayer: A Twist of Fate and I am extending some of our diversity with them by participating in their game in a limited way. As it turns out they have a lot of the same sorts of diversity we do.
So as we turn our attention to each other lets keep an eye out for other cmmunitites to extend olive branches to. Their diversity can onlyhelp us appreciate our own more.
Happy Mother's Day
A Happy Mother's Day to you who are mothers, and a special "Thank You" to the mothers of our members. You have raised a group of wonderful dynamic (reasonably) well adjusted and fun people.
I think its great.
-----
This has been on my mind for a while...we are still waffling about the direction of Season 3. We have not made any hard and fast decisions about the Big Bad. I've heard some good ideas but nothing has been set in stone yet.
Here is my thought. We have more than one big bad. Victor, Tash and a few of the characters are going to G;Rnatha. That is the only fixed element of Season 3 so far. Thats Big-Bad #1
Mother Mariah is set to have a "culminating event" soon, she could be Big Bad #2. Kris we will need some outlining about how that will play out though....
Alaric and the Order of Valor are poised to be a great Big Bad #3. Adam and Lou need to give us some more details of what they are planning to make that happen.
The Midseason is rocking along and I am amazed at the story quality coming through (yes, that was cue to pat yourselves on the back). But the difference between the "Season", "Midseason", and "Subplot" styles is this:
A Season story arc is a open-plot storyline with a beginning, middle and end that affects most of the characters, which the players can modify by mutual cooperation but is resolved completely by season end.
A Mid-Season story arc is a closed plot driven by one player but within which other players can participate but which has a definate conclusion.
A Subplot is a character-centric plotline that is driven by a single player which may be affected by other players but not changed significantly and may never reach resolution.
Season two had a Season plot (The Doppelganger/Evil Entity) that almost none of the characters utilized. It turned out okay in the end, but it was a little disappointing. I heard many of our new players reading back saying they liked how everyone was working on the season one plotline.
This second season has been moving along great. Tarix Conney, Tyler Hyatt, Keirnan, and Fate have all been telling Mid-Season stories and recruiting help from other players to help tell them. Its working fine. And its making for great stories.
Subplots which should have been Mid-Season plots (Mother Mariah, Sam and the Idea, Ohenewaa, and there may have been others) diluted Season two. I'd like to avoid that in Season Three if possible.
I loved all those stories, they were great and they needed to be told. But they killed the reason we have a Season-midseason structure. The Season is to bring us together. The Midseason is to explore our characters.
If we have multiple big-bads in Season three it will mean your character will need to pick one of the major plotlines and stick to it. You can still appear in the other plots, but you won't be a pivital character in all of them.
Think along the lines of Buffy. In each season each of the characters fulfills a pivial role at some point in the season. They do or say something that makes it all come together over them for that plotline.
Some of the things are big like Buffy sacrificing her life at the end of Season 5 (Not spoiler I don't think). Others are more subtle like Willow restoring Angel's soul at the last minute in Season 3.
In any case, if we can get together and pick which major plotslines we want to tell, then we can start figuring out how to tell it. Please spread your ideas in the Private Game Discussion Forum. If you don't lie or are leery of the ideas that have gone before, then post your own. Remember it needs to be something everyone can have a part in.
[/]Cast Party - Labn - Season Three
June 13th-June18th the First LABN Cast Part was held in Reseda/Canoga Park Californa.
Dave, Heather, Sherlynn, Robin, Adam, Kris, Jean, John, and Labn the Vampbear all had a great time. We laughed, joked, watched Buffy, ate and drank to excess and it was if we had all grown up together.
High points that I will never forget (in no particular order):
The Pool. Amanda's Video. Cuban Food. Venice Beach. The Bathroom Incident. Mulholland Drive. The Alexander Hotel. Labn the Vampbear. Wolfram and Hart.
There are pictures and I am putting together a compilation disk for the attendees. It has taken me a couple of weeks to get organized at work and at home since getting back so sorry for delays. Yes, there will be a picture gallery of the cast party for everyone online...soon.
Meet Labn (Lab-'n):
Amanda created this wonderful Vampbear as the (now official) mascot of LABN. He is an elder vampire who is fond of dropping out of gum trees and attacking unsuspecting passersby.
He is tough and cuddly at the same time and is living in Maryland with Heather and Dave temporarily. He is slated to return to Australia (his home) and his beloved Amanda (who is clearly under his thrall) in December.
In the meantime he has gotten fairly bold and has been spotted in St. Louis, and at the Grand Canyon. So he too will have his own photo gallery and desperately needs a character profile. Any takers?
Season Three
I am (as I did for Season 2) reserving the first post of season 3 for myself. It will feature the Fanged Four and should set the stage for their reign of terror on the vampire community in LA. I will make that first post on or very near July 1, 2003 and that should also be the first game date...July 1, 2006.
The G'rnathan invasion won't be happening. However Victor's G'rnathan excursion is still on and should start sometime after July 8th or so. I will set up a briefing and brainstorming session for that soon.
Wow. Season 3. Who'd have thunk it.?
Season Three Time Jump Imminent
Ok, this is your 60-hour warning for posts in the current time. On Friday - yes, that's THIS Friday, the 10th of October - I will be making the post pertaining to the 18th August wherein the Fanged Four will reveal their purpose in kidnapping Ellie.
This is to let everyone know that it's coming, and that once that post is up we will be doing a time jump to the first week of October 2006 - game time. So, if you have any posts that belong prior to 18th August, now is the time to post them.
For those of you who have things your characters need to do in the non-time of the time jump (ie the second half of August and all of September), it's possible for you to post events in a sort of 'digest' format. That is, you pick a date to set a post (in October, by preference) and have your character reading his/her diary, having a dream, remembering, etc. Or you can simply make a series of very short posts detailing the highlights of that intervening time to get to early October.
The idea is to get to the finale date of 31st October by the real-time date of 31st October, hence the large jump. We did all right in the early days of Season Three, but late July game time really started to drag. So to get back on track we're pushing it along a bit here. Some of you are doing things relevant to the finale and I've already spoken to you about how to cover those events to get to October. For the rest of you, I'm sure you'll manage. If you have any questions about how to deal with a particular situation for your character, Dave or I or indeed any of the "old hands" will be happy to help you work them out.
Just to reiterate. On this Friday, the 10th of October, I will be making the final post for this game date period... once that post is made we will be jumping to the first week in October.
Once Upon A Time...
...there was a couple named Heather and Dave...
who met on a game called LABN...
And who on October 14, 2003 at 8pm GMT made it official...
and tied the knot ('til death do us part).
And they lived happily ever after.
We love all of you who were there in spirit if not in body and we promise that part of the next Cast Party in Melbourne 2004 will be devoted to a Wedding Party to share our love with our online family!
Love,
Dave & Heather
Another Season Bites The Dust...
The Finale and the aftermath is mostly written and the last little bits of editing are still being done. As usual the actual end of the season is actually about a month late.
As is our custom, the forum will be locked on the last day of the following month so there is a sense of urgency to finish posting into the forum. The Midseason can begin on any game date after October 31, 2006. If you are the lucky worm who starts the midseason posts, the title of the first post of the midseason is "Mid-Season Three: Nov 1, 2006 - Mar 30, 2007"
If you didn't know, the Midseason does not follow the traditional rigid timelineing. Your game posts can come in any order, any time (even in previous seasons), as long as they do not cross the beginning of the next season (April 1, 2007).
Backstory is encouraged and if you are joining us for the first time, its the best time to introduce a new character. Speaking of which, we have four new players, be sure to greet them.
LA By Night News
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!
LA By Night News
Its officially a new year and suddenly I have 100 people trying to climb directly into my ass to make me do things. Now I know how busses feel. My increased schedule means that once again I will have to rob Peter to pay Paul on site management.
It is important to know this because Heather is headed back to Aus. for a few weeks this month and that leaves me feeling like Dad is at work, Mom is out and the kids have no babysitter.
I shouldn't feel that way and neither should Heather. She does a hell of a lot of very time-consuming work around the site (and even more so since she has come to the US) and it is important that you not only let her know how much you appreciate he efforts but that you try to assist a little when she's not around.
Its not enough to tell your Mom that you love her while she is cleaning your room...if you still never clean it yourself.
So I will ask that while Heather is back in her home country you can ease her furrowed brow by running your posts through a spell checker at least once, try not to cause continuity errors, and most of all don't complain when things aren't done right away.
I will handle emergency problems and I am pretty vigilant about continuity. She won't be gone long (about 3 weeks) but she won't have broadband unlimited access while she's there. So keep it bandwidth light (no huge pix please)...and we may have to adjust the end of the mid-season a little to make it fit better.
Hope everyone has a "fabbeaux" (or is that fabbeh?) new year and next stop is LABN 2nd Anniversary!
LA By Night News
NOTE: Just junky news about me and my travails so feel free to ignore this if you want. I am just indulging my ability to subject the world to my ramblings. --Dave
Heather and I are buying a house together. This is relevant because it my second house (her third) and we are not disposing of the first house. Some of you (and you know who you are) have seen my condo. Its a comfy place full of big windows and tall ceilings. A nice place. It was recently appraised at $145,000 which is amazing since I only paid $86,500 for it three years ago. And it is still going up. Last estimate I heard was it would appraise at over $170,000 in two more years.
The new house we are buying is pretty spiffy too. Big windows, lots of light, cathedral ceilings (Sensing a pattern here?) and a nice yard and porch. Total cost $250,500. I promise I'll get some pix online soon...
Why the bellyaching? I mean really, we are buying a second house when more than half the world cannot even afford one. We are making a landholding group when a lot of folks can't even afford to make rent. Well...its like this. It is kinda overwhelming.
Three years ago (when I bought the condo) I was living at home with my mother (at the age of 36...yikes!) and could not even find a place to rent. A close friend in real estate told me to buy the condo (he was so right) and thats how I ended up there. Eight years before that I was homeless and jobless and depressed (wouldn't you be?).
So in twelve years I have literally gone from nothing to where I am now and it still scares the socks off of me. Every step forward that I take I have to keep looking back to see how far I have come. This last year alone I have tripled my income, gotten married, and am now buing a second home.
I suppose what is driving me to share all of this with you all isn't to wave a flag and say "Gee look at how rich I am" or to make myself feel better about me...it is to say that great things happen when you push yourself to do more and harder than you have ever done before. You will be scared, and shake and cry (I know I have!) but in the end all the pain to get there will be forgotten and it will leave you with an amazing feeling.
*****
It has snowed again in Maryland. A mere 4" (about 10 cm) fell but is likely to have another 6" (15 cm) laid atop it over the next week. So if the server is unreacheable it is because there has been some sort of outtage. I promise it will be restored as soon as humanly possible, but if it happens you have been warned.
LA By Night News
How did you find LABN? I know Heather and I read an ad placed on a BBS system. But a lot of people find us through search engines.
But what kind of folks are searching? The top 8 keywords should shed some light on this...
michelle rodriguez fann wong
madeline stowe
angel tattoo
jade
angie everhart
avril
holly marie combs
catherin zeta jones
Hm...seems we have our own Babewatch going on. BUt then there is the rest of the crowd. These seem self-explainatory:
buffy the vampire slayer personality tests city of angel chatroom
slayer arm
irish celtic gaelic buffy tattoos
buffy the vampire slayer porn
johnny depp vampire
buffy the vampire slayer avatars
angel and buffy chatroom
faith davidson - buffy the vampire slayer
buffy the vampire slayer tattoos
But what are These all about?:
church song weight of the wood fashion brown jacket black slacks
night view of australia city landscape
tired of bandwidth nazi
hawian historical figures
viking knotwork
vw door shaving
to have your ear to the ground meaning
kadee (indian cuisine)
I will keep an eye on the lists and as more interesting things pop up I'll post them somewhere...
[/][/][/]Now We've Done it....
Its a long one today, Folks...
=====
How do you justify an Angel/Buffy game without Angel or Buffy?
Um...well..see...its like this. When the game started there was an Angel show AND a Buffy show. The creators of the game didn't want to tread over the continuity of the series (and neccessitate lots of re-writing history to make it fit) and so they set the game "safely" 3 years ahead of the series dates.
They said that W&H was all destroyed, that Angel was insane and that Buffy was dead.
They could not have been more wrong. Buffy is still alive in the Joss-verse and not only that but the potentials have all been freed from their mediocrity by an uber-witch named Willow.
Angel, well, he's still around and probably sane (although that still remains to be proven). The lines between him and W&H have blurred to the point where it is nearly impossible to tell them apart.
So this little game sort of branched off into an alternate reality of its own. It has taken a left-turn from the "Canon" of the Buffy and Angel continuum and is now charging headlong into totally uncharted territory.
But you the folks who read us regularly already know this.
On that note, since we have strayed from the path and have not kept our eye on the wagon, I propose that we are something else besides a Buffy/Angel RPG. I want to challenge everyone -- readers, players and passers-by -- to try to make sense of this simple question:
What Is LABN?
Post your thoughts in the Guestbook so they are readable by everyone. I'm going to take a stab at it and hopefully you will too.
=====
I am thinking about a contest too....one with a real prize. I have not concieved WHAT FORM that contest will take yet but I am going to keep thinking about it. It might even be something as stupid as a random drawing.
=====
One of our peripheral folks, Jean has sent me an email and I want to highlight her plea...
My Mother is a breast cancer survivor and Heather has had family with breast cancer so this is something that means a lot to me too. I am donating, and you should as well.
AdSense by Google
I guess you noticed the ads, huh?
I tried to find a way to make some money to offset the costs involved in running a shindig like this. Not that there are a lot of costs, mind you. I think I spend a total of $50 last year and $12 this year.
If I actually made $2.00 I would buy a celabratory beer and drink it with a smile. And then I'd be happy. But the problem is, that unless you folks shell out moolah to play this will always be a hobby.
To be really successful, I would have to literally whore LateNightGames on the pop-up banner/porn/gambling wagon to eke out a meger living at it.
And thats not me. So I found out that Google was doing the tasteful, text-only ads like they have on their search engine availble for personal sites. so I took it. Its still an experiment and if you see an offensive ad, please let me know it is offensive and I can block it. I am going to work on tweaking our ad selection on my end too.
It won't make me rich, but it might make me $12.00.
LA By Night News
I have had to remove a few players for inactivity. I hate having to do that but sometimes it is neccessary. So what sortof criteria do I use?
Well it is very scientific.
- Have they hosted a cast party? (if they did its an automatic 'in'.)
- Have they posted in 6 months? (If they haven't I send an email asking them to post something to keep active.)
- Have they made any game posts? (If they haven't then they can pretty much disappear and no-harm-no-foul. If they want back in they will have to go through the approval process again.)
- Is there an active email on file for them. (Bounced email is a fast-track off the board as far as I am concerned.)
I'd like to say there was more to it than that but there really isn't. If there is someone on the board you think has no reason being here then PM me and say "I think this person needs to go" and I can argue with you about why they should or should not stay.Frankly I'd almost rather keep everyone active and just let the place fill to brimming. But when I look at all of the posts that our (really dedicated) core players write (and lament that even with trying to read a minimum of two posts a day I am still a page and a half behind) then I have to reconsider don't I?
The problem isn't that there are too many players. There can never be to many players. LNG/LABN/FL is here to promote role-playing and games in general. The problem is that it isn't as intimate as it "used to be"
The intimacy we have in a game like this has made our experience a unique one. And even if the board is overrun with all sorts of players we will still have that same sort of unique community.
Players like Nick and Ben who post only the occasional story are still just as much a part of our community as Heather, Kris, and Ally who are on every day. And even though I don't get to talk to those guys as often as I see my wife (for example) I still consider them friends and would take an opportunity to have a beer with them if I was ever in their town.
Which is what makes us different. We know who we are both online and off. We are a community of players and we share ourselves completely in the game. Anyone who can't handle that doesn't belong. And that will be the limiting factor, I think.
[/]What are these links?
Do you remember Firefly? It was the short-lived seried by our favorite Joss Whedon and it was handled badly and died stillborn. But not forgotten. Latest news is that there is a movie (you may have heard this) did you know it is filming now and is scheduled for release in theatres April 2005?
I recently saw Shrek 2 in a DLP theatre and I will sell my wife to anyone who can get me in to see this film on DLP when it comes out. Okay I'll rent you my wife. She's the most valuable thing I have access to and I think she'll understand if she gets to see it too. If you've seen DLP you'll know what I am talking about.
So anyways, this movie needs to build 'buzz' and in Hollywood that means a 'community' (perhaps you've heard of them). So these links are the way to get to the community so you can get extras and stuff. Go. now. Enjoy. And don't cry to me about "I didn't know" come April when I disappear to watch this film.
http://forums.prospero.com/foxfirefly/start
FireFlyFans.net
Serenity: The Official Movie Website
How many pages?
J.K. Rowling's first book was a mere 309 pages. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was wildly successful and a pretty quick read. Her second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets clocked in at a heftier 341 pages. It too, was still a pretty quick read - one or two days at best.
Her most recent Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, weighs in at 870 pages. It takes a few days to pound through it and it is her most convoluted novel yet.
If you have looked at the post counts of LABN over the last two years (two and a half years - yikes!) you may have noticed a similar trend. 375 posts (but significantly fewer words per post) for Season One. Season 2 had 385. And so on to Season 4 at over 500 posts. Some of these posts are practically novellas in their own right.
It is probably our most ambitious season to date and our most convoluted. It has turned into a weighty tome without us even noticing. Until you get too far behind or are coming into it for the first time. It is a huge undertaking to slog through all of it.
It is worth it, however, and I implore new visitors to take a shot and read through the season. Like the Harry Potter books, LABN just keeps getting better and better with each new installment, even if the installments themselves are lengthier.
Cast Party 2004
I made it back and in one piece. Heather made it back in several pieces but a little glue and a chiro visit and she's good as new. Robin and Amanda I assume survived, but its hard to say. Overall, It was a great lot of fun.
I have started uploading pictures to a special place and I will add to it as pictures come in from Robin and Amanda who both took some shots.
I have a few pictures from places Heather and I visited as well as all of the cast party pix...mostly becasue there aren't any really great shots (since I am a terrible photographer). I'll try to put in some descriptions for the shots that are there as soon as I can.
As much as I would have loved to have a whole crowd of you there, it would have been almost too much to handle. But with just the four of us it freed us to have a "road trip" experience that was truly unique.
So the official rundown of the CP204:
Motto: "Look at the View!"
Mascot(s): COLABN (and the mini-collabs)
Attendance: 4
Best Moment: The Helicopter Ride
Cruellest Moment: Making Amanda re-watch the 2003 video she made.
CP2004 Itinerary:
Friday Night: Amanda's old video :twisted:
Saturday: Selected favourite episodes of (what else?) Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Sunday: Lunch, Downtown Melbourne, Rialto Towers
Monday: Ferry, Great Ocean Road (Waterfall, Air Walk, 12 Apostles, Great Hotel Room)
Tuesday: Helicopter Ride, Drive Home (Grotto, Ferry, Beach)
Thursday: More Downtown Melbourne, Paper and Pencil Role-Playing (D&D)
I can hardly believe we've done this twice and people are already talking about the 2005 events in both Las Vegas and England. I can hardly wait!
I'm drunk again
I'm Drunk Again. Actually it's been a while since I tied one on seriously. Im not talking tipsy I'm talking several martinis and a double scotch and several wines kinda drunk. So pardon me if I come off a little strange. I am drunk andcannot be held responsible for my ravings.
It was the Heavy Hammer Christmas party. The annual fete where the comapnay celebrates it's success at being ... well successful. The movie has been complete3d (Dark Ride) has completed filming - starring LABN's own Jamie-Lynn DiScala - and the video game (Damnation) has been entered in the unreal "make something unreal contest - and although it didn't win it has been guraranteed a publisher.
Which means they will make more money than God this year. And I was fired. why? becasue I didn't toe the line. I didn't bite the bullet and I didn't echo the maniacal raving of the madman Michael Urbanski who runs the company.
Back almost a year ago I had reservations about the way he was running the comany. This year we met his goal of 100% growth back in September .. before the cast party. but that didn't stop him from villainizing me and making me feel bad for his raping of comapny resources.
As a result he set me up by giving me a project that he knew..HE KNEW would make me balk at doing. Then when I expressed a grievance he sent me home early - One day before I would be gone for Three Weeks to Australia.
Normally I would be glad to have the extra day off. But that day I was not. I angsted myself privately for the vacation. And once home I lost sleep over a simple email - "call me before you come into work on monday". I knoew he was going to fire me. I was fired the Monday after I got home from the cast Party 2.
Remeber, that Heavy Hammer was a company WE founded. His business savvy, and my technical savvy. It wasn't until my MORAL qualms made it neccessary for him to dispose of me that it was a problem. Michael had long since promised me 50% of the profits of the company. I don't want them...not if it is ill-gotten gain. Not if it means defrauding most of his clients to get it.
I won't talk about the specifics. that would be wrong, ill advised and .. really... counter productive. I will be angry about being dumped liek a sack of bad potatoes. No...not really...we parted as friend exept for one thing..
The day we met and severed our relationship, he said "In the end I was the only one who was saying we should keep you". That dick!
he said that to keep his mind at ease. He had lied to himself to the point where he really beleived that. Nobody I talked to tonight said that. Nobody. He lied to make himself seem like a hero. He also led me to beleive they had had a meting. They didn't.
Michael set in his mind the result. Convinced/browbeat everyone else to beleive it. No one else supported it...they just didn't fight it. I beleived that without evidfence until tonight. Liquor is a great losener of tongues.
Several of his "clients" expressed their moral misgivings to me tonight. Some of them even going so far as to say they would be calling to make business arrangements.
I have also made arrangements with friend and contacts I had before working wwith Michael. I will be okay and I am not going to starve. I was successful before working with Michael and I will continue to be successful.
I am drunk and I won't be drunk tomorrow. So if this disappears, don't forget what I wrote. I may just archive it so it'll be there...but not there if you know aht I mean.
LABN 's future has been guaranteed by the man who run's the FriedBaloney Server (which some of you have seen). And it'll continue to be free.
Buy a mug if you want to help. Want s hirt with your character on it? tell me I'll make it for the store. Want to pay me for web-programming? I am more than glad to help.
Pass the word. Dave Dent is frelancing again. And he's drunk (but don't tell anyone until tomorrow).
Hacker Attack!
On December 21, 2004 a hacker maliciously and deliberately attacked the Friedbaloney server where Late Night Games is hosted. They did so through a security exploit in phpBB - the LateNightGames software - that was only announced at the end of December.
Consequently everything went down. And - indirectly it was my fault because I more or less left the door open.
So I have had to upgrade all of the software for phpBB to the latest version which closes the hole. Unfortunately it means that all of the nice mods that had been added in are now gone.
I'll gradually add them back in. But for now, sorry to say, they are gone.
I'll start working on it as soon as I insure that everything is completely secured.
LABN - The Musical
Way back when this game had first started, Buffy - The Musical Episode "One More With Feeling" had been aired only a few months before.
And at that stage we talked, laughingly, about a musical season. And swore we would never do it. But somehow as we grew, and we grew more confident in our abilities, we started tho consider the possibility.
Threads such as Karaoke which is a members forum for placing songs sung by the characters in Karatas (Lorne's bar from Angel) appeared. And we have songs that appear within the context of the game.
At one point a member put together a "soundtrack" of LABN songs. An entire CD. I was impressed. So a musical seemed inevitable. Then we set a day (July 16, 2007), made plans, and now it has finally begun.
If you are a songwriter, please accept our apology for using your song without permission. We don't make any money off this and we just want to have some fun. Let us know if you are pissed off. We'll take care of it.
If you are intrigued and want to know more, just post something in our guestbook It is open to post there and we love to hear feedback.
If you don't know what we are talking about, then dig deeper, you are in for a real surprise.
More Hacker Problems...
It would seem that there are more problems with hackers attempting to exploit holes in the phpBB bulletin board software. This time, it doesn't seem to be LABN or Legends that is the vulnerable point, although something got in last night.
It might have even been something that was here since the big upgrade (or the little one) in the last few weeks. Either way, it may spell the doom for the phpBB software on this server.
I am negotiating another server deal that would isolate LateNightGames from the other Friedbaloney functions (mail and other sites) but I don't know anything yet (nor will I for a while).
We aren't going to be cut off in a lurch either. I am have lugged all the security exploits I know of and am watching the logs carefully. We are still getting a huge number of attacks daily. I may have to lock everyone out of the board who isn't a member.
This would mean that the only way to view the current storyline would be to make an external page that displays it. The board would no longer be open to the public.
I think it sucks, frankly, but what are we going to do? Anyone who might possibly have a solution to this dilemma, please let me know. I am at my wit's end and don't want to lose this software just because it is flexible and configurable to our needs. Learning an entirely new (and possibly less creative or even non-compatible) software set isn't always a cakewalk.
And then there is the possibility that we might lose posts and data. All real possibilities. Heck we've lost one thread (Face-to-face) already and that was without migrating!
lease share your ideas with me. Remember that LABN and Legends are free, open, and flexible If you can find something similar elsewhere where we can squat, let me know.
Server Madness
Life has a way of throwing you a curveball. Wednesday Heather and I left to travel to New Orleans and on that same day the Friedbaloney people shut down LateNightGames. Turned it right off. Threw the big breaker switch in the sky and we went off the air.
Why? Becasue of hackers. We are being targeted for God knows what reason and all of a sudden we are everyone's butt-toy. This has caused problems with the non-free businesses on friedbaloney and that means that we got turned off.
Right now we are in "stock standard" mode for the board. No mods. Nothing special or fancy. This is better than being turned off.
I will slowly add back some of the cool things but for now, it is going to be vanilla. Sorry. Be patient. I'll keep you informed of the progress.
Worms!
Sorry about the worms, with our recent virus troubles I thought it would be funny. If you don't know what I'm talking about, read the front page.
I did the same thing (well, similar things) on the Late Night Games and Legends pages as well.
Moving and merging
It is my intention to move the Legends game forum to merge with the LABN forum to create a "true" Late Night Games forums. This will likely involve a lot of swearing and cursing and general mayhem. Not to mention backups backups backups. But in the end I hope to have merged the two forums. It might may involve shutting down LABN for a while to do it.
The date for this massive undertaking? Sometime during the week of the 17th - the 23rd. I am not sure which day, but for certain it'll be during 9am-5pm easter times as those are the slowest times of the day for the board.
I am warning you now so you don't wander in and wonder where everything went.
LA By Night News
Be prepared for some possible downtime, guys. I'll get everything back online ASAP.
"The rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.
I was talking to Shaun (You remember Shaun? Cute kid? Canadian?) and he was lamenting the decline of LABN as an entity. He was wondering about ending the whole game with a fantastic event on an apocolyptic order to sort of close that chapter of the game and leave it open ended but not hanging.
I told him to put it to the group, but ultimately I don't want to see it happen. LABN works fine as a sort of operatic epic that features a huge cast with a meandering plotline. People will come back to write for it soon, really. Right now, I think everyone is blowing out the creative cobwebs on a new thing (Star Wars: Triad) when the novelty wears off they will be back.
moreover, I think what has happened is that most of the cast of LABN has reached a "what else can I do?" place and are looking for new ideas from collaborations. This has led to a sort of creative stalemate where it seems everyone is "waiting" for this-or-that collab to finish so that they can move forward.
I challenged Shaun, (and you too!) to forget waiting and move. Don't wait for the collab. Write the bits. Write the parts for the other characters and PM them to yhe other player. Tell them "I needed to get this done and couldn't wait" Maybe the creative cobweb-cleaner we need is to step out of our characters and into somone else's.
So here is the task, wherever your PC in LABN is, think about what you have to do to get to the end of the midseason and ready for the next season. All that is left (as far as I can tell) is to dust Tash. Maybe you have more. Do you need to get another character to help you? Write that other character and send it (via PM or Email) to the player and then follow up to see it gets edited, approved, and posted in the next month.
We know each other and we know the characters well. I know I trust anyone here to write parts for Oz. And while I'll probably want to read and tweak some I don't doubt anyone's instincts for plotting. I would assume you have permission to at least write things for anyone of the other PCs even if they don't get posted.
Don't wait - act! Write Something! and let's move LABN to the next season.