So, my fellow RPFers, another year has come and gone. Like all years, there were times both good and bad, but...

Frankly, dwelling on bad moments gets old. So this thread shall be devoted to talking about what we liked and why we liked it, with an emphasis on rose-tinted nostalgia.

So go ahead! Toot your own horn! Relive the glory days of when you had just started your game and felt on top of the world. Reminisce about how cool you thought the Summer Challenge thread was. Just, please, don't take this too seriously.

[hl=black]Yeah, it might border on something of delusion, but this is the internet! Chill out.[/hl]

 

*Gets all emotional*

Cut off from the world of Everquest but able to give my three main characters a new lease of life on the RPF.

One, my half-elf rescue ranger, Yavinelf, even won the RPF-EUC Lightsabre Tournament, after learning the Soresu lightsabre form, and being part of a love triangle between Emperor's Hand Jacen Wayland, and a female EU character.

On the spur of the moment, I gave him and the woman some back-story by paralleling a scenario from James Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me, but dressed up with EQ stuff. Felt great writing and re-imagining my old exploits in that much-missed MMORPG:


[b]3/06/09

OOC:[/b] I am liberally plundering [i]The Spy Who Loved Me[/i], today. Took me all evening to write it, and I have fourteen minutes to edit, so please pardon any typos.
My gratitude to pashatemur for her help and feedback.


[b]IC: Inquisitor Nelf[/b], shuttle Stealf.
[color=red]Location: Coruscant skies[/color]

Yavinelf sat in the cockpit, thinking about the city planet below, whilst his pilot requested passage down through the security shield that PlanDef had erected around the capitol world.

He had been thinking whether he should call [i]her[/i]. A field agent that he had been thrown in with whilst she was SBI (Senate Bureau of Intelligence), and he still BESI (Bureau of Extra-Sensory Intelligence).

[hr]

[b]Iskalon ? waterworld[/b]

Arms scything into the waters in front of him, the stealth-suited half-elf operative pulled himself urgently through the planetwide blue oceans, towards the thick-legged 'laboratory' of Thromberg the Hutt, wealthy industrialist, crimelord, and suspected ally of the General Grevious and the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

Yavinelf quietly suspected that Thromberg had gone to GAS - gone all supervillain.

He had worked hard on his swimming back on Norrath, to minimise the swimming he had to do round the coast of Kunark.

After what seemed like a hour, but had probably just been ten minutes, he reached and hauled himself onto the duracrete foot of one of the cylindrical black legs that reached down into the sea, and sidled, dripping, against the side, out of the sight of Thromberg?s guards.

He applied ?Camo? to himself, the long-standing ability since he?d been level 9, that rendered him completely invisible. Of course, back then, it had been intermittent, and dropped randomly fairly quickly, but at his current and heady level 32, it was damn effective.

He moved between the two humanoid armed guards, Iskalon locals in purple armoured environment suits with fishbowl faceplates, and accessed the open portal behind them.
A cramped turbolift, decked out in garish silver, took him up into the several storey main area, which housed the Hutt?s living and entertainment areas, viral laboratories, crew quarters, control room, and a miniature air/space port.

The door slid aside, and he recognised the lobby area that he had visited before with the other agent, the two of them undercover as a marine biologist and his beautiful wife, a couple of days previously.
As a guest, rather than an intruder.

He quickly navigated the stark silver corridor, grimacing but trying to keep his disgust to himself as his neoprene-encased feet encountered the now-tacky slime trail left by the good Hutt.

He checked a couple of rooms before arriving in the lounge with it?s transparent wall that was also the side of a giant fish tank.
The comfortably appointed room featured two moulded white conform-loungers, one holding the belted-in Agent Triple X. In a flowing wine-coloured tunic dress!

?Whoa.? He uttered before he could stop himself.

Her bare arms were pale, she wore deep red lipstick on a severe face that he was used to seeing unadorned with anything more than tap water from the fresher, and her black hair had a striking white stripe going from the top of her scalp to the edge of her forward fringe.
"[color=deeppink]Aren?t you a little transparent for a SCUBA trooper?[/color]" The young woman asked.

Yavinelf stopped. He did not want her to know t>

 

PART TWO

"No, not really. I thought we were both fragged."

?Nice.? He swayed as the place took another hit. Unseen supports and fittings around and above them creaked ominously. ?Call off the airstrike. Your people, the SBI, are running the show from an Ursean star destroyer called the Död Bang.?

He started up the sloping corridor, pulling XXX along by one wrist as she called her people with her other hand. "Agent XXX calling the Död Bang. Call off the airstrike! There is risk of planetwide contagion!"

"Död Bang here, what is your authorisation code?[/i]"

"Esk-289-26-29."

"Stand by....authorisation confirmed, Triple X. Airstrike cancelled. What do you suggest?"

"We need to drop this drokker into the sun." She advised, while Yavinelf struggled to pull her along. They had reached an intersection of four passageways, and her saviour was clearly trying to decide which way to proceed. "He?s made the brain Plague airborne, and we need to get the entire installation off-planet and vaporised. It is the only way to contain it!"

"Copy that, Triple X. We are entering the atmosphere now. You have? seven minutes to get clear, otherwise you?ll be going into the sun too. Död Bang out."

?Seven minutes.? Yav echoed, still frantically looking from one route to the next.

"Yep, seven minutes."

A bassy hollow laugh echoed nearby. It was impossible to tell where it was coming from.

"I know that laugh."

?Well, yeah. It?s a Hutt laugh. And the candidate list contains one name.?

?You have no hope of leaving here.? the disembodied voice told them. ?Release the vornsk.?

?No, don?t release the vornsk.? Yavinelf implored softly. That sounded plural. Bad news. He turned to XXX. ?Go. Save yourself.? He checked his chrono. ?Five minutes, now.?

She gently extricated her wrist from his light grasp. "No, I?m not leaving you. Why do all the corridors meet here?" She started going up to the walls of the intersection, slapping at the seamed metal with her delicate looking hands. "He is trying to distract us from something."

The BESI agent looked along one shiny, well-lit corridor towards the sound of growls and lapping feet, coming closer. ?Well, it's working.?

Then he could see them, at the far end, two lithe quadrupeds, their sleek and lethal black hides led by a dark head with pin-pricks of yellow fire for eyes.

"Just give me a few seconds!" She called gaily, while he stared in horror at the slavering killers. "I think I?m onto something here."

One of the vornsk managed to pull ahead, it was that that he targeted with his next spell, Charm, bracing his right foot behind his left and showing it his palm in a classic talk to the hand move.

The animal stopped in it?s tracks, immediately passive, and he had no time to order it to guard them before the other one was on him, slavering at the arm he threw up to protect his throat!

A high-pitched and plaintive whimper accompanied the attacking creature as it shied away instantly, pawing desperately at it?s own nose, the Shield of Thistles protection he wore delivering points of damage directly into the mouth it had savaged him with, but that simply meant that both of them were hurt, rather than just him, blood flowing freely from the limp arm he now hugged protectively to his tummy.

?You literally have seconds.? He called, watching the second creature warily. Charm was a double-edged spell. Useful, but capricious, liable to drop, cancel itself, at any time, and even if an animal hadn?t been about to attack before hand, it would afterwards. And it probably wouldn?t give a drokk about the Shield.

?You are wasting you time, I

 

Hoboy. Memories. Where to begin?

Man Cubs! Seriously, that is my personal Game of the Year right there - the twists and turns, the rampant theorising (and frequent "... OMG, I want to say something but I CAN'T " interjections among the players involved), the awesomeness of my fellow players, everything else. I can never wait to see what happens next. At one point I think Fins and I were IMing each other after every update and speculate wildly on the implications thereof. Madness. But a lot of fun.

The RPF Newsletter - my short-lived project for the EUC Senate. I think I came up with two or three editions before I went off to Beijing, and before I came back the Senate dissolved, so I was off the hook. It was good fun compiling the list of Featured Games, though.

Graphs - I'm particularly proud of my graphing scripts. They were a lot of fun to write and the results were fascinating - it's something I keep meaning to revive again.

Tales from RPF City - I love the script rewrites people were doing sometime mid-year. It was a fad that came and went in a very short span of time, but it was pure hilarity.

Games - I played in a lot of games in 2009. Some worked out great, some fizzled despite promising starts, some I didn't enjoy but others did, some others didn't enjoy but I did. I learnt something from all of them though, so I think overall it's been a good RPing year for me.

Here's to next year...

 

2009 I took all my courage and did a game based on the ideas of a good, old and deceased friend of mine. I gave it my very best and it was a great and beautiful experience.

When his widow said SonOfZeus would have been proud of me, that made my year as a RPer. Yeah, there were awards and stuff, I took over a guild (which I enjoy) and won the Summer Challenge. But I seriously do not care so much about that stuff. As long as it´s fun, I am good.

But to know he would have liked it . . . to know his story has been told, even though he was taken so early from us. To know I ended it for him . . . made this an unforgettable year!

Sorry, if this was less fun than this thread is meant to be.

 

Nah, it's totally in line with the idea behind the thread.

Or it is now.

Anyway!

For me, 2009 was the year I finally sucked it up and tried my hand at GMing. JLA started close enough to the end of '08 for me to consider it an '09 project (Actual gameplay started in 09 anyway, so yeah). I learned a lot from my first project, and channeled that into the (I suppose "now-infamous") Aria of the Soul, which was far too big of a runaway success for me to handle, actually. Which is cool, in a way, and I still have some fond memories of working on the OP.

However, the games I ran that really stand out for me are Dimensions Collide and Saga of the Nameless Lands, because they were (And, in the case of the latter, remain) games I enjoyed almost as much, if not more, actually running rather than merely in planning. Yeah, DC ended before its time, but it was a hoot and a half while it lasted, and I love SoNL to death.

Not to mention... Man Cubs! I totally have to agree with Xan here, it was a major, if not the highlight. The other major highlight? Tide of Flames. I love that game to death. Both of these games were so strong in their addictive pull that they managed to pull me out of hiatus - though I nearly lost my spot in ToF, hence a stupid burnout shall be avoided at all costs in the future.

As for my burnout? That doesn't fit the thread.

 

My best moment in 2009 was reading Lightwarden's revelation that, when Tide of Flames first got started and he saw how I write, his reaction was:

"This is gonna be great."

That is all.

 

For me it was my return to RPing. In my age and considering I´ll soon retire and travel the world (at least I am young for retiring, before you think I am even older than I am) I got the chance to come here and do my thing a last time.

Early on in the year I was in contact with BobaMatt to play the resurrected Emperor (Boba rekindled that fire in me, for sure) and obviously I reprised Hoole -my now 15 years old trademark character- for a last time as a cameo in 41 ABY and a final last appearance in 133 ABY - The Dark Odyssey. I actually wrote a death scene for him, which might have been a relief to everybody else but was the hardest post I ever had to do. Because I did not know what was appropriate. I am satisfied with the result.

The Emperor entered AFAS soon enough and since then I am the face of evil there. One of it, at least. Which is fun. A good canon character to play, actually. I did a lot talking to BobaMatt about the game anddespite 133 ABY´s special place, I am also in love with AFAS. My secret lover over the motnh, while my romance with the ABYverse was so well known.

As a GM my last year was not so good. My 133 ABY - The Cold Embrace was hit hard, very hard by the loss of players in the summer. I actually brought it to an end thanks to the amazing JediGunship, TheSithgirly,, Mitth-Fisto and DarkLordoftheFins who did take over for a leaving character. They stayed with me through the rought times. Thanks for that. It was brought to an end, even so with a cut, much less mysterious plot, now. My Co-GMing in 129 ABY met an early end for the same reasons: my players ran away. It is possible I don´t get the right nerve of the young crowd anymore. That´s okay. I´ve been around a while. As a GM, I might be too old fashiooned by now. Serious.

Therefore I thankfully declined to join Sins of the Saints as full GM and this honor belongs now to a young wild one: Republic_Anvil. I regret having not joined her Asylum. A missed chance. But I got less time than interest in games, so that is regreattably the point . . . But I do what I seem to do best these days. I play characters I find interesting. There are a lot of those left over there.

133 ABY - The Cold Embrace was therefore my last game. Maybe my last game ever. And will always have a special place. I also want to mention my small project 124 ABY - The Reatep Sentarin and Hespar Kessler Chronicles. Which was a nice little ride with Fin and sprintabm in the two roles I always loved them in. A good minigame.

The game of year for me . . . was 133 ABY - The Dark Odyssey. And I have to admit, I was sometimes jealous about it´s perfection in crafting it´s story. What an amazing game, where we sat through the finale, waiting for updates for six or seven hours before the screen and stopped sleeping to not miss anything. It was simply a masterpiece in suspense and plot-depth with an amazing end and an extraordinary cast. I loved so much reading the other storylines. I never had this passion for other CS before. For me also the end of many plotlines I played in for one and a half decade. But it was amazing even without that aspect. I played the two villains there and therefore . . .

2009 was my year of bad guys. No doubt I have developed a specialty of mine there. And therefore I was thankful Sir_Draco offered me Max Payne in Bad Day in L.A.. With Sith-I-5 together I have good fun there and finally I saw a good friend of mine doing his debut as a GM. Draco, well done.

It also was the year of my little GM club, called Codex09 (even though the thread was never really used, we did it via chat, most of the time) and I digged the games we created there. The narrative theory and work on the medium games paid of for some of us. So, I am proud to have helped a bit in the advancemnt of a few people. I myself was not always on top of my game, but well . . .
Read Podracer, Lea Monde, some Ibop and Archange