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Freezing Shadows, Book 2 Prologue
🕑 Added 2024-12-21 13:02:53 +0000 UTCPrologue: Trade Chat
(Shadowmen In-Game OOC Forum, Seattle Section)
Reminder: This forum is for Out of Character (OOC) discussion only. Please direct in-character discussions (including business dealings and the like) to the appropriate in-world forums.
GreenGirl, Yolo, Scholar, RedFox, Rerun, ThirsT, SliceNDice, GrimDarkKawaii, NoNoNo, YesYesYes, FoldingChair, Squeaker, Anonymous2, Anonymous5, Anonymous8, KittyKat, HurtMeMommy, DaddyIssues, Inquisitor, BattleSister, Wolfgirl, Spirit, Chill, and HoldMyBeer are in the chat.
Wolfgirl: Well, this is probably the weirdest MMO I’ve ever played. Like, yeah, it is an MMO, since there’s people from all over, but it seems like everything is more focused on roleplay and all the RPG elements, rather than the kinds of things you’d find in an MMO.
Squeaker: Tell me about it. I tried to go and kill some mobs for XP, and found out quick that killing people doesn’t give XP. Also, bullets are real deadly, so those gangers killed me quick.
Yolo: Yeah, that came as a big shock for me, too. Also, for the record, fall damage is a thing in this game, and it sucks.
Spirit: Did none of you actually read the info MetaTech put out in advance of the game launch?
Wolfgirl: Yeah, but there’s a difference between reading something and really knowing it, you know? Every new MMO says that it is an immersive world where choices matter, but most of them are you murdering your way across the world, with the only choices that really matter being your faction, class, and build.
Anonymous2: In the Beta, people decided on the term VRMMUSH, instead of VRMMORPG. Stands for Virtual Reality Massively Multi-User Shared Hallucination.
Yolo: Where’d they come up with that name?
Anonymous2: One of the gals in the New York part of the beta was a game history nerd. Back in the old times of the internet, before even the simplest MMORPGs, there were text-based games online. According to her, the Multi-User Dungeons, or MUDs, became what we know as MMORPGs, once they were able to do online games with graphics. But there was a different part of the community that focused more on roleplay than killing shit, and their games were called MUSHes. So, toss on VR and an extra M for the size of the player base, and there you go.
DaddyIssues: Yeah, that’s great and all, but can we talk about how wonderful it is to be in a world so full of men? All types, for every kind of preference! Glorious!
ThirsT: You know it, sister! I actually got a sideline at one of the brothels. Getting paid to get laid? Even if they suck at it, it is still more action than I was getting in real life.
Scholar: I expect the shine will wear off, in time. But it is interesting seeing how women adapt to a world where we aren’t 90% of the population, and power dynamics have reverted to pre-Plague tropes.
NoNoNo: Especially since a large portion of the player base is too young to know the world before the plague.
Wolfgirl: Really? I mean, it was thirty years ago, but the game is age-restricted, so there shouldn’t be kids playing it.
Scholar: According to the stats MetaTech put out, 83% of players are under 50, which means they’d have been 19 at the oldest when the Plague hit. 35% of players are under 30, meaning that they literally weren’t born yet. They only heard about it from older folks.
RedFox: Hey, speaking about the numbers, did you see that bit about how almost a third of the under 30 players are men?
BattleSister: Wait, really? I haven’t seen any male players! Where are they hiding?
Chill: Hiding is the operative word. Three of the four men in the beta had stalkers after them, thinking that’d be a great way to get a husband. From what I’ve heard, most of the guys in game are sticking together, and since most of the organizations in-world are male-centric…
RedFox: Hiding in plain sight, then?
Chill: Yep.
Anonymous2: Wait, I recognize that handle! ‘Chill’ was the name of the Mysterious Seattle Man in the beta! No one could figure out who he was, or find him in real life!
Chill: I’m allergic to stalkers, what can I say.
RedFox: So, any words of wisdom for us?
Chill: Sure. Obviously, look for opportunities. There are no quest markers or areas to grind XP. Treat this as a real world, and LIVE it.
Chill: If you are going into a combat situation, and you see one guy who clearly doesn’t have armor or any obvious weapons, they die first. Because they probably have either magic, or something scarier on hand to waste you with.
Chill: Most importantly though? Watch your back, shoot straight, conserve ammo, and never, ever cut a deal with a dragon.
Inquisitor: There are actual dragons in the game world? I thought they were just made up for part of the lore.
Scholar: Players in Denver and Warsaw would very much like to inform you that you are wrong. Dragons rule those cities directly.
Rerun: I heard that some of the big corporate types are dragons, too.
GrimDarkKawaii: Huh, speaking of magical weirdness, the ork hacker who hired me for a bit of work in the Underground was muttering something about ‘immortal elves’.
Scholar: That has never been proven, as far as I’ve been able to find.
SliceNDice: I mean, elves definitely don’t age like normal people, though. So, maybe?
Scholar: Current theory is that their lifespan is about 500 years. Not immortal.
YesYesYes: That’s great, and all, but what about the game itself? Anyone found good ways to level up?
Chill: There are no levels. You get Karma and nucred from doing jobs. You can upgrade your gear either by buying it, or ‘acquiring’ it out in the world. You upgrade yourself by spending karma. But the costs aren’t cheap, especially when you get up in ranks.
Scholar: Yeah, I looked at the karma rules. Cost to bump up an Active Skill is the new rating x 2 karma. So going from 4 to 5 is 10 karma. Going from 4 to 5 in a skill group, though, costs 50!
Chill: Yeah, after character creation, most people will break up skill groups.
Rerun: You can do that?
Chill: Yeah, buy a specialization for one of the skills, or buy a rank in one of the skills, and you break up the group. Of course, you can’t improve the whole group after that, but there ya go.
Rerun: Good to know. But man, the Karma requirements are gonna get nasty in time.
Chill: What, you didn’t think this was going to be one of those games where you could max everything out in a week, did you?
Comments
Robert Gardner
TFTC. These chats are always good and give info about the world
Sanginius
Whats the point in playing a game where you can max out everything in a week? Takes all the fun out of it! TFTC.
