 Hello Fellow Mizaharians!Keeping with our tradition, the Founders Circle is proud to announce that the Featured Character of the Month for the month of November 2010 is Torc Ironwood!
Torc has taken this opportunity to get interviewed and pass on some of his tips and advice for surviving the jungle that Mizahar can become. Please sit down and have yourself a nice long read with a warm cup of coffee or a lovely rich cocoa and settle in for an interesting read. |
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The Interview
Gossamer: It is unique in all of Mizahar that you are playing a half-Isur, which admittedly is an unusual choice Please tell us what motivated you to choose an Isur of mixed breeding and how that’s effected your game play.
Torc: When I was coming up with a concept for Torc, I realized that I wanted to draw heavily on my own life experiences. As a teenager, I always felt like an outcast and never really knew where I belonged. It took a long time and a few great people in my life, for me to realize that I define my place and my family.
As for picking Isur, it made the most sense for me. I have always been a builder, someone who loves to creative. I actually do stain glass for Christmas presents and build Chinese logic boxes to hold them. Working with my hands is one of the greatest feelings and writing about it helps me share a lot of myself with everyone in the game.
I guess, Torc just helps me get all those old feelings out of my head. In a way, he’s my best therapy and comes from a big part of my past.
Gossamer: The ladies of Mizahar have undoubtedly enjoyed the numerous bodybuilder avatars you’ve chosen for Torc Ironwood. Please talk a little bit about the challenges playing a character with a very distinctive look – like an incredibly different arm – has in terms of the artistic side of the game. Have you had to pick up new photoshop skills or have you ‘contracted’ the work out? Other players might have avoided playing this race due to their distinctive nature. Any advice to those sorts of players hesitant because of the physical differences in playing non humans?
Torc: I must admit, I laughed a little when thinking about this one. My first and foremost advice when picking an Isurian is…. Don’t be a teenager! You can’t believe how much trouble that has caused me looking for an avatar. I finally gave up and said Torc was in his twenties.
Hmmmmmmm… my original plan was to create comic artwork of Torc. I went over bodybuilder photos and muscle arrangements, and have a complete drawing notepad full of arms, chests, and faces fully shaded. I wanted to create a line art drawing of Torc, so I actually did a great deal of research on Conan. Some of the Conan comics perfectly use line art for shading and suggestion of movement across muscles. Sadly, I am a shading genius, but a horrible line art man, so I set about looking for photos. After finding a bodybuilder model, I spent close to two days working with photoshop and the photo coming up with the look. It has taught me a great deal about photoshop, and a lot of respect for comic book artists.
My tips would be, if you can draw… Conan art work is great for modeling the body of an Isurian. I would use Photoshop for coloring, since you can mask areas easily. If you can’t draw, choose a bodybuilder/model with a lot of pics. Photoshop can do some amazing things, but the more photos you have to work with the better everything is going to look. If you are going to farm out the work, then I would still choose someone with a lot of photos. Otherwise, it’s going to take forever for the artist to get back to you. Colorings are tough, a pure Isurian is easier then you think, using the plastic wrap filter over the arm can give you some great silver veins, if you choose your Isur or Mixed Blood to have different colorings you are going to be spending a lot of time with layering and shading tools.
Gossamer: What sort of scenes are your favorite in play by post scenarios? Torc has been involved in quite a few varieties and regardless of the scene, you as a writer tend to make what can be something rather mundane seem epic. Is that on purpose or does that just come from your style as a whole?
Torc: This is a tough question, I actually find more enjoyment in bonding and sharing of a group then in the adventure itself. For great example is Gossamers quest thread. Though the story is awesome, it also has Leo, Ulric and Shaml in it, and what I love most about the thread is that all of them feel so real and generally the friendship that is slowly coming about. Leo, with his analytical side, I laugh because every once and a while the player lets slip that deep passion in the character. Ulric has a great back story and is working so hard to find a place in the world and be rid of his past. Sham, the gentle giant, he brings a great kind of innocence but mixed in with just enough young self doubt. Really, I enjoy every thread because there are moments when you can really bond with an NPC or PC, and I treat those moments as precious things.
I have played all kinds of characters and scenes, and I can say whether its adventure, mystery, or just a crafting thread, it’s all about the bonds we form with others. That’s where my pure enjoyment comes from, and it’s also why I can’t play an evil character. Violence and struggle are always present, but to be the one who causes chaos means that it’s about power and forcing your views, which I am just not into. However, that’s not saying that I don’t read evil characters. It’s almost a guilty pleasure reading about some of the more evil like characters, and hating them every moment.
As far as making something mundane seem epic and is that on purpose…. Well secretly I am trying to beat Gossomer’s word count. Wait did I say that out loud?! In truth, it has more to do about my writing style then anything. When I originally did a PBEM… I was a paragraph poster, but slowly I began to realize that we don’t just experience the world around us with our eyes. Smells, sounds, and touch are so very important in how we interact in the world, and I began to expand slowly on the senses I used, and to me it made the character more alive.
A friend of mine told me it’s about finding your voice as a writer. Interweaving experience, thoughts, and emotions is how we live, and for me I would be cheating Torc if I didn’t let those things come out. I remember writing about how would you describe yourself if you received a dirty glass at a bar. Slowly, I wrote over and over again trying to make the scene more real every time. Adding in my thoughts, “Yuck a dirty glass!” Running my thumb over the smudge realizing that it was caked on and using my fingernail to scrape it off, smelling the beer with a faint foul odor, and tasting it as it has gone flat and bad; somewhere between the smelling and feeling, I realized that I was in the scene and getting upset with the establishment.
Finding your voice as a writer is a wonderful thing, because when you do, you write for your enjoyment and that comes out in your writing. My suggestion is write about how you experience the world, and sometimes you will find yourself experiencing things in greater depth so you can write about them.
Gossamer: Unlike a lot of brand new players, you came to Mizahar well versed in Play by Post games having experienced at least two of the bigger games out there – your most beloved being one that closed down. Please explain how this experience helped you with Mizahar and how Mizahar differs from other games you’ve played – if it does at all.
Torc: Well, coming from some of the bigger games really helped me with understanding the rules and social standards of Mizahar, like posting rotation and PC interactions. I also came into Mizahar with my own full writing style, which allowed me to keep up passion for the game.
As far as, how Mizahar differs from my two other games? Well, though Miz is set in a Fanasty setting, it’s original in ideas and how magic works. I really think that it’s wonderful how you have setup the game. You have great guidelines for skill level of magic and what you can do, but you also give a lot of free room to make interesting effects and creative decisions. I can from a system where it was complete freefrom in magic, as well as, here are your cookie cutter spells. I think overall Miz has a balance system that doesn’t make the world fair apart with mages.
I also love that Mizahar has dead gods. A part of me, has always been frustrated with the idea that no matter what you did you couldn’t hurt a religion. Personally, after talking with Satu, I want to start up a group to either trade with Sag for Aquiras heart or craft a new one for Aquiras. Though granted this might take us all a great time, but the awakening of Aquiras shouldn’t be done in two days.
Gossamer: We’ve noticed as staff members that you tend to absolutely infuse your posts with vibrant color describing the texture, flavor, and visual dynamic of the world around your PC. This makes you both a joy to read and a joy to moderate for. Is this a habit you’ve picked up over the years or is this a writing style you began with?
Torc: I think it’s a little bit of both. Though I have shortly answered this question above, let me give you a better in depth answer. Finding my writer’s voice/style took me about 5 years of rping, and a lot of people trying to help me improve. When I started rping in a White Wolf World email game, I posted perhaps two paragraphs of actions and reactions. The game was very fast pace, you were expected to post several times a day and overall the players didn’t focus on quality of writing. However, I met one person who would spend several hours writing for one post, and it seemed so real that I actually enjoyed the game more. We became friends and when the email game tanked, he showed me another site he played on. It was an off shoot of the last major one I played, started by players who didn’t like the main system or the site owner.
At first the forum based game felt slow, I mean I wouldn’t have a response for my character for a whole two days! But then I started to realize that everyone’s posts were so much better and real, my friend helped me adjust to the pace of the game, and his wife… I was about 16 at the time, gave me the best advice someone can give. Below you can find her quote that she gave me, I have printed it out and every time I post I read it for inspiration.
Find your Voice
The first and most important thing anyone who is half serious about writing should do, is make an effort to find out what exactly their style of writing is. Knowing what suits you and, consequently, what you can and cannot do means that you won’t get bogged down trying to pull off something you simply don’t have the building blocks for. A lot can be learned, but you don’t ask someone to dive to the bottom of the ocean without any equipment to help, and you can’t win a marathon unless you’re a really good runner. Knowing your limits and strengths allows you to play on your strengths and hide your limits. That’s not cheating, it’s what all great writers do.
I always try to explain to people that there is a simple test to get to know your own style more. You could just write a lot, but you don’t discover a talent for tennis if you only play basketball. The test is easy, but it does require some effort.
Imagine a simple scene. A man walks into a restaurant, up to a woman at a table; the woman gets up and slaps the man in the face, storming off. It can be in any era, any town, it can be realistic or imaginary. This is the scene you’ll be describing.
First, try to just write the scene. Keeping with standards, attempt to make four paragraphs of at least three or four sentences each (a sentence here means something that ends with a full stop, and only that), telling from third person perspective. Try to fill in the details a little, but don’t overdo it: in this instance, less is more.
Secondly, write about that exact scene again (again in third person), but this time, make it at least five paragraphs of three or four lines minimum. Use anything you want; thoughts, extra characters, intricate descriptions of furniture, whatever works best.
Finally, write the scene again, and this time, get into the head of either the man or the woman. Write the mandatory three paragraphs of three or four sentences each, and never leave that person’s head.
Having done that, you will have come to the conclusion that at least one of these three was remarkably easier, and two of them were probably very dull or just plain hard. The one that was easiest also comes closest to what your unique voice is, so it should become the focus of your efforts.
Does it stop there? No. You’ve only been pointed in the right direction. This is where you start writing a lot; you have to experiment, trying different variations on the same theme. Find the voice that gives you most ease of writing, that truly carries your pleasure for it. Writing is very much about pleasure: readers can feel if something had been written with at least a degree of pleasure, or if it is devoid of even that. The latter will often be thought lifeless.
Is it worth the hard work? Yes, yes, and then again, yes. The primary thing about writing is that it’s hard work. The process is exhausting, and at some moments, you will lose its joy, and even interest in it. However, few things measure up to the pleasure of really finishing something, and of people reading and liking it.
My friends dropped out of that game, to start a family and home together, but I am thankful every day for her advice. Slowly, I began to continue writing, with the above quote in mind. On my downtime, I wrote scenes about almost anything, and though my grammar has never really improved, my voice is clear to me and I write with it every day. I moved onto different games and even conducted Mod Seminars for my beloved game. However, it all started with the above message and my dear friends that I have met through writing.
Gossamer: I’ve known you over several amazing characters, and from a staffer’s point of view I’d love to have you – as someone who creates well rounded in-depth characters – give the new players and outsiders to the game some idea of how you come up with these PCs. We’d like to know what you think makes a great character. From birth to playability, can you give the population of Mizahar some idea as to how you go about character creation and what aspects you tend to focus on in terms of personality, skills, etc before the PC is even put into play?
Torc: During my old games, I would help contact new players and help them build up their ideas. The first thing I always told them. Don’t think about skills. Coming from table top games and other forums, Skills seemed to be everything. I want to make a fighter, so I take 200 in swords. I want to be a mage, I take the most advance level in fire magick… *Facepalm* Fire magick, again. I always said what makes a great fighter? Mike Tyson is a great boxer, but he will never be known as a great fighter or hero. The first thing in character creation is understanding their core strength and weakness. Why does the fighter fight? Why does the mage throw fireballs? What brings her joy? What does he fear of losing?
Torc’s strength is his place in creation process. He feels strength and belonging with the world when he creates. Torc weakness is his lack of understanding about family. (Though this has changed because of him meeting Cheva, and I have replaced it with his fear of never seeing peace or having a family.) These are the times your character will feel happiness and despair. Just like us, we try to capture happiness all the time, while ridding ourselves of despair. A fighter fights because he tries to gain control over the chaos within or without. A mage aspires to scholar heights, because he fears that his name will never be known. Understanding your characters strength and weakness starts you on why they do what they do.
Next, I tell people to develop the characters history. Why is this mage afraid that his name will be lost? Why does your fighter fear losing control of himself? Was the mage, a middle child in a house of eight? Was the fighter a drunk, and he fights to fight the cravings inside himself? Slowly as they develop their characters past, I ask questions about how would they feel about this? Why did he do this? I tell people think of all the moments in your life, what are some of the big ones and how did they effect you. I remember my first love, and wrote in Mola for Torc. I remembered the first time realizing that my stepmother was my family, and made Torc an orphan with a mother and father that weren’t his blood family. Some experiences are small, but also big… I remember feeling completely great the first time I made an original piece of art. So I wrote in experiences about Torc building things.
For starting players its easier for you to write about things in your own life, because you have experience them and know the pain, pleasure, sadness, and joy they bring. So though your character may be some ideal part of you, you still have the experiences that you can share with the world.
Once you know what your character is like, and what his past is like, pick your skills based on those past experiences. These are the first things that began rooting your character into your brain, and for a lot of people it’s the first time they feel like their character takes a life on its own. Once, you have experienced that you can try doing other parts of your personality. I know that if I were ever to try and make Kelvic, he would be a base creature, his desires and animal instinct forefront in his mind. A Konti character would have patience that is close to sainthood. Her thoughts would be about past and future of actions. Calm and thoughtful, she would probably be a scholar that if ever confronted would smile and patiently wait to get revenge. Calculating the right time and place like a master chess player, one who rewards friends and punish enemies.
Once done, I write three or four posts, roughly half a page each, before I ever play the character. If I can’t write a post of them talking to someone, moving down the street, in combat, or simply doing something they love. Then I shelf the character as a good concept, but not something I play, for your character should inspire you to write, not another a chore to do.
Gossamer: Many players don’t know that in a lot of ways you are an incredible sounding board and muse for the staff of Mizahar, supporting us – namely myself – in ways that most players won’t begin to remotely expect. You give phenomenal advice – pure and simple - both to players and moderators alike. You've soothed and calmed nerves, and above and beyond that volunteer in other ways that contribute highly to the success of this game. I’d like to know, now that we have you as a sort of captive audience, what motivates you to do so much behind the scenes to keep the wheels of Mizahar going. In that same vein of thinking, do you have any advice for the playerbase as a whole – a message you’d like to send out to everyone playing and reading this interview today?
Torc: A part of the reason why I help out, is the idea of ownership. For me, this game has taken on an entirely more personal level when I volunteered. Adding to the skills, asking about exciting quests, telling people they are doing a good job, all of it has helped me realize a deep love for the game, and when you love something you put work into it. I have to admit; my first skill write up was on alchemy and wrote up a huge thing about it. After writing it, Tarot said that it was his special project and he was close to completing it. Now was I hurt? A little, but I also understood that he was doing it out of love and fun for the game, and not to hurt my feelings. So I asked some questions, and I got excited about Tarot’s write up, and I went on and wrote the skill carving, looking back on it I think I would have liked a whole lot more proof reading on it, but I was happy with helping out.
When everyone has different visions sometimes it’s hard to compromise, people either do it way too much or not enough. I remember an old engineering story, get a group of people together and have them design a horse. In the end you get a something that looks like an ugly camel or nothing at all. This is due to everyone throwing their ideas together, or not allowing to hear someone else’s input. We are here to make a collective story, and if we all pitch in, expect some of your work to be thrown out. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t valuable or good, and try to think of a new idea for the next step. Besides when one of your ideas are picked, it makes you feel that much better, because other people saw the value in it.
I guess the other part of why I help out is… Gossomer told me to get off my bottom and get to work. It’s partially a joke, but in a real sense it’s the truth. I am not a mind reader and when people ask me for help, I believe it’s because they really need it. So I try to pitch in and lighten the load. Goodness knows that when I need help, a horse has to drag it out of me, but once it does, I feel great about the people helping me out. Like I said, we are here to make a collective story, which means if we all help out the story can become that much richer and enjoyable.
I suppose what I would tell the players are two things, the first being… Let your voice be heard, but also expect to be overruled. All you can do is give suggestions and feedback to your storytellers, but do so while trying to keep their vision in mind. I remember a storyteller in a different game, picking up my character and throwing them off the drawbridge into a moat. I was really upset with them and asked them why, he said the city was very racist and that they wouldn’t allow me to come in. So thinking on that I replied, that makes sense, but you haven’t allowed me to finish my quest which I have in this city from another storyteller. He was embarrassed and quickly made an underground moat system that I could get into the city. I changed the game, because I was nice to the storyteller and because he realized that characters like myself needed a way in and out without being beaten up and left for dead.
The second thing would be, pick one character or storyteller and tell them good job once a month. It can be something minor like, I really like how you wrote up this location. Or hey, I love your character. Storytellers do a lot of unseen work, and good characters or players don’t always get recognition like character of the month. So tell them they are doing a good job, because God knows no one can hear that enough.
Gossamer: If you can go anywhere or do anything with your PC in terms of the Mizahar Experience, what would that be? We want to know the innermost dreams of Torc Ironwood’s player in regards to the character’s outcome. This could be a place he wants to experience, someone he wants to meet, or even the type of death he might like to experience.
Torc: Once again I have to laugh! My dreams for the character and the characters dreams are two very different things, but first thing first. Since receiving a mark from Cheva and experiencing the phantom of Syliras, I would really like to go on a quest to bring love and peace back into Priskil and Aquiras life. It makes sense for Torc to go off and try to obtain this goal. Followers of Priskil hate Sag because of the thief, while the watchtowers have been failing because of the theft of Aquiras heart. Overall, the adventure would probably span several cities and have several key factors in it. Though I would never sign up other players, I can think of a bunch who would love to do so.
As far as someone he wants to meet… whew, I have maybe dozen PC’s in mind. Satu, Jilitse, Vanator, Kavala, Hatot, Raiha, Kashik, Malia, Ialari, Siiri, and Miharu that’s just to name the few off the top of my head. Granted, I know that I wouldn’t survive most of those encounters, but it would be fun to meet them. As far as NPC’s, as the player I would like Torc to find his parents or a parent to ask the question why. Granted that has lowered on my list of people since Torc is beginning to understand who his real family is. Two Gods would be Kelwyn, because of Torc’s history, and Isur because of Torc’s mixed half. I think they would be great plot devices to change Torc’s life in dramatic ways. I would also, like to meet the infamous Areesa Tallshade, just for that moment when you meet a hero. Areesa has that past of creating without thought, and then the realization that in doing so she changed the world in a profound way. I see her, like one of the scientists from the Manhattan project, someone who did it to push the boundaries and then realized what exactly they created. It would be a sweet and sorrowful moment to meet her.
Ah the death of Torc… In truth, I can see Torc dying to infuse some type of artifact for a good purpose. I guess that comes from that fact that Torc isn’t a fighter or schemer. He’s a good man and through his craft he wants to help people. I have thought many times about making Torc a weapon smith or armor smith, and that little voice in my head says, “Weapons! Armor! A good man stops the fight before it starts!” Torc is forever the village blacksmith, making plows and tools for the common man. He would only make a weapon or armor in great need. However, he would set his hammer ringing to forge a masterpiece for the Gods and Goddesses. Once, again he speaks, “The worth of a smith isn’t in fancy swords that kill hundreds, but in the plows that help feed thousands.” Needless to say, it should be entertaining when he dies.
Gossamer: When you created Torc Ironwood did you have a set vision for him? Did his vision remain the same or have you noticed him evolving and changing on his own despite your best wishes? Do you feel, like some of us, that your PC is alive somewhere in your mind with its own hopes and dreams and demands? If so, how often do you give into his needs or do you keep him on the path you’ve envisioned for him?
Torc: Oh I had a set vision for Torc… Master mage and craftsmen! Grand fighter with a mace, and eventually demigod to Isur… That lasted about two months and then Torc woke up in my head and started telling me who he really was! He sure can be bull headed! I have almost changed everything about Torc, from my original vision. Torc was suppose to be shy around girls, turns out he has confidence and a smoothness that I wish he would take over for me. Torc was suppose to be driven by finding his family, instead he’s driven by starting one. We both agree that he believes himself sterile, not sure if it’s because he has been lucky and not fathered a child or if it’s a part of his birth. I had him dreaming of great and powerful magick creations, and he dreams softly of a wife and kids.
Overall, Torc is a spoiled child and often gets what he wants. There have been a few times, like meeting Cheva that I had step in and filled his personality with previous experiences. However, I have to admit I have enjoyed the evolution of Torc in my mind. I think we are going to see Torc come out to be a strong man, one who leads by bringing the best out of others, and sacrifices for the good of all. Somehow, Torc started out as this vision of hardworking craftsmen, now like Altas, hes ready to hold up one edge of the universe.
Gossamer: If you could change or develop one thing in regards to Mizahar, what would that be and why? Certainly there is lore that has been left unfinished or is only slowly being developed, same with regional and city domains. But in terms of the ultimate in play by post gaming – is there something missing? Is there something that needs attention to make us even better as a whole? We are always interested in other people’s views no matter how critical so we can grow and thrive.
Torc: I like the whole city state idea. However, I think it doesn’t give much flexibility, as far as, folding up old cities and or races. As the game progresses, Mods and Forums will shrink and grow, and it’s entirely possible that player rate may drop off. So in the interest of long term flexibility, I would like to see something like the Syliras Knights in every city.
Now a lot of players are probably thinking, “Yes! War!” My thinking is that groups like the knights could be used to expand the forums playable area. Why not have a quest thread asking players to help the knights clear some forest or cave system of a monster so that you can increase farm land. Or when a city has lost most of its players, we collapse the city into another forum so the players have a story arc on why they can post both in Zeltiva and Syliras. “Hurrah! The knights have secured the lands between Zeltiva and Syliras making travel easier and roads safer.”
Granted someone needs to rise to God of Civilization and take over Sylir’s spot, but when that happens, the cities should began to organize and clear the land around them. Eventually forming small kingdoms with multiple cities, I don’t think we will ever see royal PC’s, but having an eventual court would be possible. Not to mention, I have seen PC run merchant caravans, they are interesting and developing safe routes between cities would allow that type of travel.
Another advantage to this is that the populations of the cities can start to expand. Syliras no longer needs to be one complete castle. With safety around it, they can build multiple walls and have a population boom, giving a dark seedy underbelly to the town… since they have made stable contact with Sunberth. |
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by Gossamer on November 1st, 2010, 7:18 pm 
Congratulations man, you earned it. (Not that i have the power to say it, but it has an awesome ring to it)
