Award July 2018's Featured Contributor Is...

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IC News travels slowly in Mizahar. Fortunately there is a constant stream of news from around campfires, from caravan to caravan and from merchants to merchants. Within this forum lies the best of the best of this talk. Also, within this forum, OOC news from the staff and players can be found. This forum requires all posts to be 'approved' by a Founder before they are displayed. So if you post within, be patient. Your post did display - it simply will not show to everyone until approved as actual 'news'. Please keep all Introductions, Status Updates, and various other discussions in their appropriate forums and leave this area for game news!

July 2018's Featured Contributor Is...

Postby Gossamer on July 1st, 2018, 4:52 am

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Hello Fellow Mizaharians!


Keeping with our tradition, the Founders Circle and Regional Storytellers are proud to announce that the Featured Contributor of the Month of July 2018 is Solstice! As a new AS, Solstice has jumped into the fray. She's been moderating threads from almost day one and has even seen some to completion. She's helped new players get started and she's just grown in leaps and bounds in confidence. I can't think of anyone brand new at a job so good at it. So please join us in welcoming her to the elite club of Featured Contributor! Her interview is below!


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The Interview


1. What made you want to volunteer to be a storyteller and did you find the role as you suspected it would be? What parts of your role as ST are as you assumed and what parts are different?

I knew I wanted to be a Storyteller pretty much within a week or two of having joined Miz. I’ve done all sorts of world building as a writer and DMed games of Dungeons and Dragons and it’s always something I’ve found super enjoyable. As much fun as writing your own characters is, building scenarios for other people to play in and giving someone else something to write with is something I find really fun and inspiring. I waffled for months, wanting to learn more about Mizahar and be sure I was capable of remaining consistent with my writing before volunteering. Even after I was pretty sure I could handle it, I still waited a little while longer. What finally pushed me over the edge was Sibyl, my posting buddy, volunteering to ST. I knew Gossamer needed more Storytellers, and I had been seriously considering for several weeks to volunteer. When Sibyl started asking questions about STing, I knew I had to jump the gun.

I think the biggest thing that’s surprised me about STing is that it’s really not all that different from the sort of stuff I did before I started STing. I answer a lot of questions in the discord chat, but I’ve been doing that pretty much since I figured out how the search function on the lore worked, and could answer a question without putting my foot in my mouth. I’m still in the early stages of course and I’m sure things will be different once I’m running my own city since I think people usually prefer to go to Gossamer first if they need something. That said, the main thing that’s different for me is running modded threads. I still need some practice with it; I think I get a little shy using NPCs, because it doesn't feel like their my characters and I get nervous I’m playing them wrong. It’s going to take some practice!

2. How has your experiences as a PC influenced how you behave as a Storyteller. Give us some examples!


I haven’t had a lot of opportunities to put my major ideas into action yet since I’m so new to Storytelling, but I know that I’m definitely going to be modelling a lot of my habits as a Storyteller based on some of the Storytellers I’ve worked with since joining Miz. In the very first thread I ever wrote on Miz in Ravok, my roleplay partner and I were planning on writing a cute little thread where the two of us had a misunderstanding, and our characters had a moment to socialize and get to know each other. Prophet threw a freaking wrench into our story by joining in, and having the city guard show up and make an issue out of the matter. I was mortified and delighted. I immediately started planning with Prophet, seeing as how I could use the situation to jump start exciting and interesting plots with my character, which wound up taking him in an entirely new direction then what I had originally planned.

It was one of the coolest roleplaying experiences I’ve ever had, and it really got me thinking about how Storytellers can use their abilities to help move players in interesting directions. I don’t know that I’ll be quite as aggressive about it as Prophet was, but you can bet that if I see some threads that catch my eye, I’m gonna think about jumping in.

3. What is your favorite thing about Syka and Riverfall so far? How is it working under Gossamer? Be candid. Goss won’t fire you.


I already loved Syka before becoming an ST, seeing as I have a PC there! I think it's so cool how the city is building and growing based on player contributions to it. I’ve never really had the experience of roleplaying where player interaction can so directly influence the way things change within game. In my previous experiences, the worlds tend to be mostly static, with changes only being created by mods or large scale plotlines. While this is true in Miz also to a degree, there’s also so much change that players can incite just by putting the effort in. Syka is a really good example of this. In my time there I’ve seen people construct houses, build businesses, and discover strange ruins. There’s so much to create there and so much undiscovered!

Admittedly I don’t know Riverfall as well as I know Syka, but I’ve been delighted by the stories some of the PCs there have been cooking up. Part of that I think is that the structure and culture of Riverfall is just so complete and well done. There really is something for just about anyone there, and I think it appeals to players because there are so many options for story.

No need to be candid! I love working with Goss! I know that being a Storyteller on Miz isn’t quite a job, but it's easy to make comparisons. One of the biggest problems I’ve run into working with people is a lack of or breakdown in communications. What I love about Goss is how easy it is to communicate with her and get questions answered in a timely manner. She’s also pretty serious about making sure I’m having a good time and not overworking myself, which is always a nice reminder. It’s really helped to make Storytelling an enjoyable experience for me.

4. If there is one thing you could change about player behavior or attitude, what would that be from a storyteller perspective… and of course why?

One of the really great things about Miz is how devoted the Storytellers are to, well, telling stories. Because of this, we’re absolutely over the moon when people come to us for advice on how to proceed with their plotlines, or ask for help fleshing things out. I think in an absolutely ideal situation a storyteller doesn’t have to do very much work with developing city wide plots because the players in their cities are creating plots for them, and they can use their ideas as a springboard for where the city’s story will go. On that note, I think it would be fantastic if more people came to Storytellers for help. I think sometimes players worry that the ST is too busy or there are more important things for them to do, but speaking from personal experience if someone comes to me asking for plot or character advice, that’s the first question I want to answer because it’s the most fun. Players, talk to your STs! Ask for advice! We want to make your stories cool!

5. What is your favorite part of Mizahar’s operating system - meaning how it functions as a game? Do you think it’s fair and balanced?

I’ve done a lot of roleplaying and I’ve played D&D, but prior to Miz I had never done written roleplay in a system with checks and balances the way Mizahar does it. You mostly just had to trust your roleplaying partner not to be a jerk and metagame and the mods to intervene if they did, which doesn’t really work very well with strangers unless you’ve got a mod in your pocket and you can trust said mod to be fair. The skill, lore, and grading system is a really unique way of quantifying what a character is capable of in a way that is more focused on story than math the way D&D is.

Although the elements are numeric, it’s flexible enough to allow the writers to be creative and come up with their own basis for what they can accomplish while also ensuring that they play to their power level. I also love how every single player has to work for what they want. Everyone starts in the same place, and if you want something you write for it. Only people who are consistent writers and devoted to Miz get to reap the benefits of having a character with beefy skills. It’s the fairest roleplaying system I’ve encountered.


6. I know you are a brand new ST, but I’d like to ask what is the nicest and the worst thing you’ve done to players in your domain? If you can’t think of any examples from your own moderating to date, how about sharing something another moderator did?

I am way too new to answer this question! I’ve only directly interacted with a handful of people on mod terms! Ask me again in a few months and I’ll probably have a better answer!

The mods in the two cities I play in, Prophet in Ravok and Gossamer in Syka have both been really hands on with me as I began getting involved in their cities, and both of them have had a really strong influence on how I want to run my own city once I get there. My introductory thread to Syka ended up probably being like a thousand times longer than it needed to be because my character wouldn’t shut up with her questions, and Goss kept on having the Founder answer all her questions, then adding more details, so our posts just kept on getting longer and longer with each post. It was a crazy amount of fun.

As for worst thing, that Deplorable plotline Prophet has going in Ravok has been having me cringing. I know a bunch of people who play Ethafael and Dhani characters and were moving to Ravok, so when I read the calendar for the season I probably said “oh no” aloud several times and with increasing intensity.

7. What would be your IDEAL domain? Please talk at length about this in terms of detail.


All domains are made amazing by the players. Storytellers can only do so much within the scope of their abilities to influence plotlines. They can come up with the coolest story, but unless people respond to their quests, and work off of their calendars, then their city is just going to be an empty void. My ideal Domain would be a city where the players are active and excited about the plots going on in the city, and their own plots add to the grander scheme of things. To put a metaphor to it, it’d be like a bee hive: everyone doing their part to keep things functioning cleanly and everyone getting exactly what they needed.

To put it in less evasive terms, I already know exactly what city I plan on taking over once I’m finished with my training as an AS. I just don’t want to say yet, because I don’t want to ruin the surprise. That said, this city has been on my heart from pretty much the moment I first joined Mizahar, and if anyone in the discord chat was paying attention to a silly wolf kelvic player during the months of January and February, it’s probably not going to come as a huge surprise as to which city I’ve picked.


8. Do you think ST presence in chat helps or hinders players and their planning? How do you like to ideally use chat as a tool to assist you in getting players on track in your domains?


Anyone who’s talked to me on the discord chat can probably guess how much I love it. If everyone hadn’t been so cool to me in the discord when I first joined I probably never would have stayed, since my original intention in joining Miz was to find a writing community to be social amongst. In my opinion it’s a quicker and more efficient means of getting questions answered since there’s pretty much always someone there ready to answer a question pretty much any hour of the day considering the mods varying time zones.

It’s also easier for mods to reply to people rather than wading through all their messages in the forum. Plus if someone has a series of questions, you can get them all answered in one go rather than sending pm after pm. Also other people can join in on the discussion, and add their own questions, which often gives more comprehensive answers. That said, since anyone can answer, there’s always the chance of misinformation spreading before an ST can correct it.

I love chatting with new people in the discord, pointing them in the right direction to get started, then listening to what kind of character they want to play and giving them ideas on races or cities or careers that might suit their concept. I feel like chat is a lot better suited for that kind of fluid planning and advice than the forums are.

9. If you could share something about Mizahar that you think makes it stand out from other games, what would it be?

The community! I’m going to sound like a broken record here, but the community for Mizahar is so freaking amazing! A lot of the times, roleplay sites or settings wind up being cliquish or unwelcoming to new people. Mods play with their favorite people, and invite friends and those friends have certain privileges over other players, can get away with stuff normal players can’t, etc etc. That makes it really difficult for people to get started, because you have to get in good with the clique crowd and if you want to get anywhere you have to act in a certain way. It’s really not fun or good for keeping a diverse community.

Miz is so incredibly inclusive for new people. Since everyone starts in the same place, and your skills are only as good as the effort you’re willing to put into it, you have a long standing community of oldbies who come and go, and a constant stream of new people coming in, trying it out for a while, then either leaving or staying. I don’t know if it’s because the veterans are used to the stream of new people, or if it’s just cause they’re all wonderful people, but pretty much every time a new face pops into the discord, there’s a long stream of hellos. When I first joined Miz, I was totally blown away by how nice everyone was. I’m so used to people in chat just being deep in their own worlds and treating new people like they’re unwanted intruders, so I was immediately charmed. That was really the major thing that led to me deciding to hang around a little bit longer to see where things went...and six months later, I’m a storyteller!

10. What is your favorite Mizahar memory. It can be anything IC, OOC, or anywhere in between. Why do you carry it with you?

I am constantly absolutely fubbernucked at how tremendously nice people are to me on Miz. To be brutally honest, I was sorely lacking in a social community and extremely lonely when I decided to join, and that loneliness is all but gone thanks to how social and fun the community is. I’ve got tons of hilarious stories from things that have happened both in and out of chat.

My favorite memory includes both an IC and OOC moment. When I first started playing my parrot tamer character Tailyn in Syka the first thread I did was my introduction thread with the Founder Randal. I was expecting it to be a quick cut and dry set of posts, have Tai learn what she needed to know, and then move on with plotting other things. Little did I (or apparently, Gossamer) expect, Randal ended up falling head over heels for Tailyn. The thread winded up being huge because the two of us kept bouncing questions off of each other, and in it’s penultimate moment, Randal kissed Tailyn, which lead to Tailyn’s pet parrot attacking his face.

Gossamer. Wouldn’t. Shut. Up. About. It. For. Months. I swear to god, it became like an inside joke within the chat. I never knew when someone was going to bring it up! “I guess I’ll do the introduction for so-and-sos character with Randal. Do I need to worry about his pet attacking him?” “Well as long as he doesn’t try to kiss him, he should be fine”. I had late night giggle fits so hard I was afraid I was going to wake up my family! It still comes up in the chat sometimes too. The memory is really special to me I suppose because it’s the first time I really felt...included if that makes sense? Like I was actually a part of the things happening within Mizahar rather than just observing it.

11. This next question is your soap box. Use this space to talk about whatever it is that’s on your mind. People actually read these interviews so know that this section will get noticed.

Graders! Ravok’s grading queue is overloaded! There are some people who have been waiting since February! Please, please, please go grade there! It really needs it!

In that same vein, Miz can always use volunteers. More Storytellers would be fantastic but if you don’t feel like you’re capable of it for whatever reason, then become a grader! Even if you’re only grading your own threads, that still cuts down on the grading backlog. Plus you get your grades that much faster. You only have to be active for sixty days to apply as a grader. I highly recommend it for everybody.

That said, Miz has been an absolutely fantastic experience for me. I am so totally delighted to have gotten to be here and write with all of you amazing people. I’ve spent years roleplaying, and I’ve never been a part of a writing community that makes me feel quite so at home. I love all you guys! You’re the greatest!

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July 2018's Featured Contributor Is...

Postby Zeva on July 1st, 2018, 5:03 am

Yay Solstice! Thanks so much for everything you do <3
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July 2018's Featured Contributor Is...

Postby Anibesa on July 1st, 2018, 5:43 am

Great interview to read! Thanks for volunteering Solstice!
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July 2018's Featured Contributor Is...

Postby Raeyn on July 1st, 2018, 8:42 am

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I loved your interview dear! So much insight. You really REALLY deserve it so keep on being awesome sunshine <3
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July 2018's Featured Contributor Is...

Postby Madeira Dusk on July 1st, 2018, 6:04 pm

Wonderful interview! Thanks for all you do Solstice <3
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July 2018's Featured Contributor Is...

Postby Prophet on July 5th, 2018, 10:54 am

Congrats, Solstice! Your enthusiasm is an inspiration to us all.


Also- you said fubbernucked! XD
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July 2018's Featured Contributor Is...

Postby Solstice on July 7th, 2018, 4:35 pm

Thank you so much everyone! I'm gonna keep doing my best! :)
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July 2018's Featured Contributor Is...

Postby Allassanachassanya on July 23rd, 2018, 9:31 pm

Late to the party, but I loved your interview so much. You brought up so many good points, and you're a star! Congrats. :D I'm also equally amused by fubbernucked. xD What a word!!
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