Westeros: Digest

New Feature: Tips

2008-05-09T08:26:12-05:00

We have added a new little system to the game, called Tips. Tips is essentially a database of notices about commands, resources and other useful things on or related to the game. Each hour, a random notice is broadcast to anyone who hasn’t turned off the system. The idea is that it will help players (especially new players) learn of these commands and resources since digging through all the helpfiles is perhaps less than fun.

See +HELP +TIPS for the helpfile, which explains how to turn tips on and off, and if you’d like to suggest any tips to be added, use ‘ex #2936/TIPS*’ to see what the existing tips are.

Green Ronin Podcast

2008-05-06T07:08:00-05:00

The latest Green Ronin podcast discusses both the A Song of Ice and Fire Role Playing Game and the Wild Cards Campaign Sourcebook, starting at the 22 minute mark. Among other things mentioned are the forthcoming Quick Start Rules for the Ice and Fire game, which will be made available for Free RPG Day, the great interest the game drew from retailers at the GAMA Trade Show, and George’s involvement in approving art that fits his vision of the series.

Personal NPCs

2008-05-01T14:21:29-05:00

Players who create personal, named NPCs for regular or semi-regular usage need to submit these to the CDB. See +HELP CDB SUBMIT for how to do this. Note that tier for such characters will default to V unless the player asks for something else and provides a reason for why it should be higher. More than IV is very unlikely to be approved.

Dying of the Light Limited Edition

2008-05-01T12:24:58-05:00

Via Subterranean Press, we learn that they will be producing a limited edition of George R. R. Martin’s first novel, Dying of the Light, with illustrations by Tom Kidd. Also mentioned is the fact that Kidd will be illustrating Subterranean’s edition of Songs of the Dying Earth, co-edited by GRRM and Gardner Dozois.

Benioff on A Song of Ice and Fire

2008-04-30T17:19:44-05:00

A small tidbit of news concerning the proposed HBO series adapting A Song of Ice and Fire comes from this interview with David Benioff at Words to Mouth. At the very end, Benioff is asked by the interviewer what’s coming up next for him. He notes a script of his being filmed, the forthcoming Wolverine, and then mentions that he’s, “the showrunner for an HBO series adapting George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels.” While this doesn’t mean anything new, as such, it certainly shows that the proposed series is alive and well, in line with GRRM’s most recent remarks and contrary to some pernicious rumors coming from certain corners.

Tier Search

2008-04-30T14:02:58-05:00

The search code has been tweaked to allow tier as one of the fields that can be searched. However, tier search will only return NPCs, not PCs. This is in line with our policy of not displaying the tier of a PC in the +cdb output. If any unexpected results are produced, let us know.

Miniatures Nominated for Origins Awards

2008-04-30T13:46:39-05:00

As previously reported, the George R. R. Martin Masterworks series of miniatures sculpted by Tom Meier and distributed by Dark Sword Miniatures were semi-finalists for the Origins Award in the “Best Miniature or Miniature Line” category. I has now been announced that the masterworks series is a finalist. The winners will be announced in late June. Congratluations to the good people at Dark Sword Miniatures, Tom Meier, and GRRM!

Official Site Update

2008-04-29T17:24:17-05:00

GRRM’s official site has been updated with new cover art in the Cover Art gallery and a new post to “Not a Blog” noting that he has come down with bronchitis and will not have much energy for blogging until he gets over it; what energy he has will be focused on continuing his work.

Tier Quota Status

2008-04-28T22:00:10-05:00

There is currently (at the time that this message is posted; for up-to-date information, see +cdb/quota) 1 slot for tier III characters available. As this is a slot that has just opened up, there will be a 5 day request period from the date of this announcement. Please see the quota helpfile for further information about how this works.

Cameo & Extra Characters

2008-04-28T21:44:17-05:00

There are two types of characters that we would like suggestions for: Cameos and Extras.

Cameo characters are intended to be fully precreated and made available specifically for MUSH newbies. They are not generally intended as permanent roles, more as a way of trying out the game. ICly they are supposed to be more minor characters, suitable for getting your feet wet with. Ideally, they should be roles that have an easy time interacting with a lot of different people, rather than relying on for example the members of a single house.

Extras are basically named NPCs specifically intended as characters that can be emitted or referenced in roleplay when you need someone fairly generic but you’d like to have a name and some details to work with. They are not intended to ever become PCs, and that way they can be used more freely. For some more information, and some suggestions that we will be adding soon, see this forum topic.

If you have any suggestions for these types of characters, feel free to submit them via +help cdb submit. When it comes to the Cameo characters, we would also love some help with CGing the ones we decide to create, so do indicate in your submissions whether you are willing to do so as well.

Logs

2008-04-28T21:02:59-05:00

Having a few logs added now and then to the logs page is a good way of showing that there’s roleplay going on and it is also a handy way of showcasing the kind of roleplay that goes on. We’re looking at implementing some sort of web form where log drafts can be submitted into a queue and then approved by us, but so far I haven’t been able to figure out how to do that in the CMS we use for the log storage.

This means that currently logs will have to be submitted via email and Balerion and I will have to add them. Given this, there’s a limit to the volume of logs we can handle, and delays will happen. However, now that we have caught up with the backlog of logs, we’ll try to stay as current as possible.

So, if you are sitting on any logs that you want to show off on the site for whatever reason, please consider preparing them according to the instructions on the log page and sending them in to us. If you log a lot and have hundreds of logs to select from, pick some favourites now and then.

Japanese Cover Art

2008-04-23T18:39:08-05:00

Fans interested in the spectacular artwork for the Japanese editions of the A Song of Ice and Fire series (examples of which may be found in George R. R. Martin’s cover art gallery) may be interested to know that The Art Book of Yasushi Suzuki will include at least some of his covers, as well as nearly a hundred other pieces of art he has created in his career.

Possible Origin Award Nomination for Dark Sword Miniatures

2008-04-23T18:25:25-05:00

Word is that the semifinalist ballot for the Origin Awards has been leaked. Each category will be narrowed down to five finalists. In the “Miniatures or Miniature Line” category, Dark Sword Miniatures and the George R. R. Martin Masterworks series sculpted by Tom Meier are on the list. The finalists should be announced soon.

Cameo Characters

2008-04-21T19:02:46-05:00

A new type of characters will be added: Cameo characters. These will be fully CGed characters, primarily of tier V, that prospective players (inexperienced and experienced alike) can use to sample the game with. We hope that this will provide a way of testing the game for players who don’t want to invest the time and effort in CGing a character before they know if they’ll like it.

In order to build up a small selection of Cameo characters, we will need some help, both with concept suggestions and CGing. If you are interested, let us know. Keep in mind that these concepts should be for characters that can interact with the majority of the playerbase (that is, with noble characters) and they should ideally be characters that are in King’s Landing more or less permanently so that players can easily slip in and out of these roles. The idea is that players should stay in these roles for a very limited time period, perhaps a month or two at most.

So Spake Martin Update

2008-04-21T09:43:05-05:00

A few more posts from the Center Stage event, as GRRM has snuck in a few last responses before officially closing out his participation. Of particular interest are his remarks on future books he might write in the setting, and a number of questions concerning Targaryen historical matters.

Search Plugins

2008-04-21T09:11:19-05:00

For those using Firefox, we’ve now introduced OpenSearch plugins to all areas of Westeros.org. There are three primary ones: the main search plugin searches sites such as The Citadel, while the forum and the wiki have dedicated plugins. Just check your search bar and you should see the option of adding our search plugins to your collection. What this will allow you to do is quickly and easily search the site, forum, and wiki from anywhere on the Internet.

Wanted NPCs Top List

2008-04-20T18:42:24-05:00

A new set of commands have been added, to allow players to vote for the NPCs they most want to see in play. Please make sure to make use of this and to point the command out to players looking for suggestions. For more details, see +HELP CDB WANTED.

So Spake Martin Update

2008-04-19T13:36:49-05:00

A massive update to the So Spake Martin collection today, including GRRM’s posts to the Barnes & Noble Bookclub event. The event appears to have been the most popular of the B&N Center Stage events, drawing nearly 300 total posts across four topics, with GRRM posting answers more than fifty times (and often providing answers to multiple questions in those posts); the next largest, by Anne Rice, appears to have drawn slightly fewer than 200.

Dabel Brothers at Comiccon

2008-04-15T06:38:50-05:00

For those fans of The Hedge Knight and The Sworn Sword, the Dabel Brothers will be putting in an appearance at the New York ComicCon. More details of their panel, including some of the topics it’ll cover and an opportunity to get a free preview of their forthcoming Dresden Files comic can be found here.

Official Site Update

2008-04-14T06:16:21-05:00

GRRM’s official site has been updated with several new posts in “Not a Blog”, discussing among other things his big push to try and finish A Dance with Dragons by the end of June, the new Wild Cards comic, and his participation in Barnes & Noble’s Center Stage forum.