Volume Three Issue Thirteen

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VOLUME THREE, ISSUE THIRTEEN                           October 14, 1996
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                                 FROM THE EDITOR
                              
                           DEPARTMENTAL NEWS AND UPDATES
                                     Coding
                                    Building
                                Player Relations
                                 Administration

                                    ARTICLES
			     The LT Roving Reporter
			     Advice From the MUD FAQ
							
                                 SOCIAL EVENTS
                          The Legendary Times Personals
	  		         Trust Is Earned
			       Rosie's Life Story
							
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Greetings!
My apologies for the late issue this time . Hopefully we'll be back
on schedule next time. We'd like to welcome Northstar back to Legend! Hi
'Star, you've been sorely missed! Tad is on a hiatus from the MUD for a time,
while he works hard on school work. In the meantime, he welcomes email to keep
him from going into severe withdrawal. Anyone who would like can reach him at:
[email protected].
-Sabella
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                       DEPARTMENTAL NEWS AND UPDATES
                       
                                 CODING
- SKILLTREES UPDATE:

	The Coding Department has been busy with some behind-the-scenes work
	lately (including updates to immortal commands and help files, new acts
	for the builders, a new herb, and miscellaneous fixes) as well as being
	eaten by their respective real lives. However, along with the whole immort
	staff, they're working hard on skilltrees. Our next issue will include a
	list of the new skills and descriptions, as well as some other information
	on trees, so keep an eye out.
	
- RAISE SOCIAL:

	The new Raise Social went in this weekend. You can use this to raise
	your hand to ask questions during lectures, etc.
	
- NEW CODER:

	Deanna, who has been active as an immort in Building (see the New Area
	listing under Building for information on her area) recently joined the
	coding staff as an Asst Coder. She will be working on commenting the code,
	active in skilltrees work and helping with everything else the Coders are
	busy with. 
	
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                                 BUILDING              
                                 
- WHAT'S UP

	The Builder's have been very active lately and you should see several new
	areas going in the near future. Rufus and Kaige have been busy with many
	updates for the Builders and Rufus updating the docs. Rufus's Ireland
	update (the new area discussed in the Impromptu Meeting) should be ready
	sometime in the near future and Building, together with PR, will be
	putting in an OOC update. The Department is working on hometown updates to
	go in with skilltrees, as well as individual areas, so expect to see lots
	of new and interesting things in the future.

- NEW AREA!!

	Deanna's area, Goldrush Melbourne, has just been added!! Have fun
	exploring. Here's the low-down on this newest addition to Legend:

Thanks to the discovery of gold in the country-side outside Melbourne in the
early 1850s, Melbourne grew during this decade from a small provincial port to
a bustling self-supporting city. Not only did hopeful young men venture hence
on their way to the gold fields, but enterprising merchants, labourers and
artisans flocked to the town in their thousands, seeing the opportunity to
start a new and prosperous life. During the early part of the decade, many
succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, but later, thanks to the labour market
being swollen by disillusioned young men returning from the gold fields,
unemployment was rife and the cost of living extremely high. The union
movement, having been so successful in establishing the 8 hour day in 1856,
was crippled, with their members having to accept appalling wages and
conditions or else lose their jobs. At the same time, a number of civic works
were going on in the city. The zoological gardens were established, along with
the botanical gardens, and a university and public library. The first railways
were being built, and the city was growing at what seemed to some to be an
alarming rate, with public auctions of state-owned land being held at regular
intervals.

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                              PLAYER RELATIONS     
- TOURNEY RESULTS

The following are the results from the individual competition in the Pkill
tourney held on Oct. 4:

	Lightweight Division: Round One
	Bigdawg beats Nakita, Sgt-Harper beats Marc, FlyingFox gets a bye
	round two: Flyingfox beats Bigdawg, Sgt-Harper gets a bye
	round three: FlyingFox beats Sgt-Harper
	FlyingFox is the winner of the lightweight division.

	Middleweight Division: round one
	Stuart beats Diamanda, Kamiya beats Lust
	round two: Kamiya beats Stuart
	Kamiya is the winner of the middleweight division.

	Heavyweight Division: round one
	Satan beats Irony, Fhang beats Krynn, Beam beats Gho, Morphine beats Kidd,
	Jabbaar wins by forfeit, Sinbad beats Tessa, Sharpe beats Densiva, Bulk
	beats Pheasent2
	round two: Satan beats Fhang, Beam beats Jabbaar, Sinbad beats Sharpe,
	Morphine beats Bulk
	round three: Beam beats Satan, Morphine beats Sinbad
	round four: Morphine beats Beam
	Final: Morphine beats Executor
	Morphine wins the heavyweight division.

After the competition several folks stayed around for a free for all (until
the arena crashed of course :) Congratulations to the winners. And we'd like
to thank everyone that entered. Hope you had fun :)
                                    
- BARDIC STORYTELLING!!

	The bardic story-telling group got off to a great start with the first
	episode of Old Eli's stories on the history of the establishment and
	development of King Ranch, the largest ranch in the world (located in
	south Texas). The next chapter will be Sunday, October 20th at 8:00 PM
	Central, at Mrs. O'Leary's establishment in San Francisco. This
	installment covers the establishment of Duke's ranch, the birth of his
	children, getting cattle, and Duke's eventual death. Old Eli hints about a
	tragic semi-romance in this chapter, so come along and listen. The first
	episode is on our web site for anyone who missed it and wants to catch up.
	
- LEGEND'S WEB PAGE:

	There's a lot of information making it to our web site. Soon joining LTs,
	Lecture Series logs, and Storytelling logs will be Dusty's Collected
	Verse!
	
- PLAYER QUESTION AND ANSWER:

	Spencer's question and answer sessions on Wednesdays, at 8:00 central, are
	running well. This is the place for you all to ask questions about what's
	going on, what kinds of changes we've been considering, etc.

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                              ADMINISTRATION

- VACATION AND PROMOTION:

	Chocorua will be on vacation from his duties for the next week or so, if
	you see him on, he may be able to help but probably not. Sandra has been
	named second- in-command and is Acting Department Head in Chocorua's
	absence. Congratulations!! If you have any Administration questions while
	Choc is on vacation, please contact Sandra.

- IMPORTANT NOTICE

	The mud machine has 32 megs of ram installed on it  and we have a memory
	leak which requires us to reboot from time to time. This usually occurs
	when the mud is using 20 megs of what we have. But sometimes any given
	immort who can reboot will choose to do so earlier for one reason or
	another. When the memory gets over a certain point, who knows when the mud
	will crash because it starts having problems. So please understand when an
	immort announces a reboot that its for your own good because the admin
	department does not reimburse eq for crashes no matter the cause of the
	crash.

- PLAYER CODE OF CONDUCT

	Administration, with the aid of the Imps, is still hard at work on a
	player code of conduct which should appear in this space in the near
	future (as well as on the web site, board, etc.).

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                           The LT Roving Reporter
                             by Leila, LT Staff

Last week in the LT, the issue of whether MUDding was a game, or an extension
of real-life with gamelike qualities, was raised. Four synonyms elaborated the
concept of 'game': pasttime, sport, recreation and entertainment. Yet does
MUDding fit into any of these categories? Must another term be coined to
adequately describe that which we affectionately call 'MUD'? Is MUDding really
a "socially-oriented shared experience" and if it is, do we want to keep
playing? This week's issue takes that question to the MUDders and asks: Is
MUDding a game? and if it is a game, is it golf?

- From Abigail:
A MUD is a game in as far as it lets you be something you're not. It allows
the shyest of people to be bold and outstanding, allows for people to be
gunfighters, witches, pretty much whatever they want. But its also a social
community where these same people meet each other have friends, laugh, cry and
just enjoy the surroundings. To some, I'm sure that a MUD is just a game, but
there are people behind those names. In my time here, I've met a lot of great
people, people I do consider friends, and wouldn't have met if it weren't for
the MUD.

- From Tessa:
I guess that the difference between MUDding and other games is that RL is
often brought into the game sphere (as opposed to other games where RL means
you're just a bad loser). A lot of people consider the mud to be an extension
of their social lives whereby they have regular crowds of friends, and MUD to
socialize and interact with people they like and respect. Conversely, there
will always be people who are disruptive or anti-social. I guess it's the
difference between playing a game and gaming. I don't think you can take out
the real-life from the MUD, and this can often pose problems - but it is also
it's beauty. I put my own personality quirks into my character (even when you
RP it's hard not to). My characters are an extension of myself in many ways
and I react to certain situations as I would in RL. Of course, by the same
token, my real-life has some scary gamelike qualities too.

- From Kamiya:
I've seen someone brought to tears IRL after they'd accidentally done
something wrong while doing a quest and had the person who had been helping
them start calling them an idiot because of their mistake.  When something can
have that type of RL effect on a person, it's not a game anymore.  It does
have many game-like qualities, but I'd have to say that overall it's a place
for people to get together and interact.  It's kind of in-between being a
game, and being an extension to RL. How close it is to being a game, and how
close it is to an extension to RL, varies from person to person.  And even
from mood to mood within a single person. I've seen people use "Oh, it's just
RP" as an excuse for treating people rudely when they were annoyed because of
OOC reasons.

- From Nameless:
I never thought MUDding had a lot to do with real life... until I fell in
love. Then it became my life. But now that I'm over that, I think of it as a
game again :)

- From Valeria:
MUDding is a game, but it is a game with a unique social context. I'd say
people initially mud to play the game, but once they realize these social
contexts, for a lot of them it becomes more real than their real lives, and
ultimately, more fulfilling. People often end up staying here not to play, but
to fulfill some social need they're not fulfilling IRL. Some of them, anyway.
That will lead to a huge conflict between people who come here to play and
roleplay and people who use the mud as another IRC channel. I used to almost
always stay in character, yet I would often end up frustrated with someone who
wasn't here to play and couldn't understand my RP. If everyone assumed
initially that anyone they met was role-playing, that would cut down on a lot
of problems. I've had people take my RP personally and even threaten me with
perma because of it. If I hurt someone unintentionally because my RP is
similar to something that happened to someone IRL, I'm sympathetic to that.
But this is a game, and my roleplay is intended to be fun - not to create bad
feelings in someone else over an IRL matter. Some people only role-play when
it's convenient, not that I think those who are prima donnas about RP are any
better. I like coming here once in a while and being a huge, swaggering,
macho, clod like my other RP character, because I'm certainly not... well, I'm
not huge, anyway :P

- From Luis:
MUDding is for sure a game, but MUDding is also so close to real life. It's an
internal life that becomes just as addictive as real life. Addictive as a
life, that's hopefully still a game ;)

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			Advice From the MUD FAQ
	 	    copyright 1996 by Jennifer Smith
					   aka Moira
												
This is from the Rec.games.mud.* FAQ. Just a few things I thought might be
useful to consider.

What's the easiest way to annoy a veteran MUD user?

	Demand something. Whine. Follow them around. Page or tell them over and
	over after they've asked you to stop. In combat MUDs, steal from corpses
	of things they just killed.

What's the easiest way to be a mean veteran MUD user?

	Don't give help to the new players. Kill them, ignore them, shout "get a
	description" at them. These are the best ways to kill off MUDding in
	general, actually.

What should I _not_ do in terms of player interaction?

	You shouldn't do anything that you wouldn't do in real life, even if the
	world is a fantasy world. The important thing to remember is that it's the
	fantasy world of possibly hundreds of people, and not just yours in
	particular. There's a human being on the other side of each and every
	wire! Always remember that you may meet these other people some day, and
	they may break your nose. People who treat others badly gradually build up
	bad reputations and eventually receive the NO FUN Stamp of Disapproval.
	The jury is still out on whether MUDding is "just a game" or "an extension
	of real life with gamelike qualities," but either way, treat it with care.
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                        THE LEGENDARY TIMES PERSONALS
                                            
The Legendary Times Personals caters to the unlucky in love, or looking for
love, those missing children, or welcoming their return, announcements of a
joyous (or other) nature, births, deaths, loss of loved ones, or any other
event. 

	Coldfire, a tall, silver-haired mage, has been spotted recently
	toying with a silver flame.

	CLeo has been back on Legend for about 2 months now. Since his
	return, it was rumored that he and Terror would finally get
	married... but Terror is nowhere to be found...   Months have passed
	and yet no news... CLeo has decided to go look for his love and try
	to find him wherever he is...

	Lethargio, recently lost his dagger, and the search has apparently
	worn him out as he may now be seen around legend as "a tired looking
	journeyman, trying to get some rest."

	Above and Beyond the Call of Duty!
	Myriad died under Condition Red (massive lag) and Donelan rescued
	her valuable equipment to hold and return. She is awarding him the
	Silver Star for this heroic action. Thanks to Donelan!

	McDougan is feeling less klutzy but more confused lately it seems.
	You may notice this confused Scotsman trying to make sense of the
	world around him.

                            \|/ \|/ \|/

 			  TRUST IS EARNED
 			And Lost In a Moment
 						    
Crowe, the long missed and long missing Knight of Legend, has recently
returned to the fold. Whether Sir Crowe was surprised to find how Legend had
turned in his absence is a question only he can answer. But certainly he must
have been somewhat taken aback to discover that events in which he had only
briefly participated are still of import. As many of you know (and some may
not), sometime after the death of Isobel and Bay-el_Lor, Isobel's sister
Abigail began searching for the truth surrounding their demise. Abigail, at
last in receipt of a final letter from her sister, spoke with as many of those
who knew Isobel as she could find. The Knights, at least as far as Abigail was
concerned, were shown to have acted poorly, and she took up her sister's
ancient vendetta against them. Sir Crowe seems to have played some part in
Isobel's story, and his return has certainly added a new element. At long
last, Crowe is able to relate his side of the tale to Abigail:
                                
Crowe says, 'Well, it was a long time ago, but this is what happened as far as
I remember... I was married to Willow. That marriage was happy for as long as
we were together. Then, she vanished...without saying goodbye. I waited
patiently for her for quite a while... and in the meantime, I met Isobel. I
was immediately taken by her in my weakened state, although I probably would
have been so taken in any case. I found her remarkable. She said that she had
loved me since childhood for deeds I had done at that time, and after we spent
time together, I fell in love with her as well. It is important that you
understand...that I DID love her. Very much. I promised to marry her, that I
don't deny and have no wish to. I wanted to marry her, since I had no reason
to believe Willow was ever coming back, and the fact that she would just leave
tore me up. And now that I had Isobel, I didn't really care anymore if Willow
ever returned at all. As for Lirra...' Crowe said sighing loudly, 'It's true
Dominic wasn't around much in those days, and there had always been something
between us...But... As of the time I left, I still wanted and planned to marry
Isobel.

Abigail mentioned that Crowe's clanmate, Tempus, was still around from time to
time and as flirtatious as ever, and briefly explained the final moments in
the saga of Bay and Isobel, concluding that she holds the Knights responsible
for Isobel's downfall, as her death was to Kiera, but the events that lead to
that were not. Crowe expressed his sorrow at news of Isobel's death and asked
that the other knights be released from blame, as none of them were around
during the period of Isobel's life.
	'I see the knights as nothing more than honorless cowards. I've heard your
story, as I've heard from Dominic and Lirra and many others. I have also seen
my sister's words, in her own hand. I have no reason to release the Knights
from the history of their own clan. I continue to hold you all responsible for
my loss. Prove to me that they are honorable, and that you indeed loved my
sister.. perhaps then I will stop attacking them,' Abigail responded.
	'What proof do you seek of my love of Isobel?'
	'I'll have to think on it, I don't trust you. I know not if your word is
truth.'
	'Trust is earned,' Crowe says to Abigail.
	Abigail say, 'Indeed.'
	'And lost in a moment,' a dark druidess says.
	Crowe says, 'That too.'
	'I think that shall be the first..show me proof that I may trust you, and
continue to do so,' Abigail says to Crowe. 'You will find a way to do this,
I'm sure. Until such time, the Coven and Knights are still at war.'
	Crowe says to Abigail, 'I'm not going to spend all my time trying to earn
trust...but I will continue to act in a manner I consider trustworthy,
including towards yourself and your kin. Also, please keep in mind...this
place is essentially new to me; I've been away so long...I mean people-wise. I
may require time to get accustomed to everyone here, including yourselves. It
is at your discretion to grant me this time, of course.'
	Abigail says, 'Understood, and granted.'
	Crowe says, 'Well... I am glad I had the opportunity to discuss this with
you.'
	'As am I. While you attempt to show trust and honor, you may wish to pass
that on to your clanmates as well.' Abigail says, 'Until our next meeting
then.'
	'Until then,' Crowe says.

                            \|/ \|/ \|/
                            
			 Rosie's Life Story

Since I have ventured into this part of the world, it seems there are many
who are interested to know why I so despise men. It is a rather long story,
but maybe you will understand me better if you hear it. Also, maybe it will
inspire some other women to throw off the shackles men have placed upon them,
and learn to live free and happy.
    May the Goddess always be with you in your travels,
        Rosamund Stanthorpe.

My father, Lord Stanthorpe, is a typical English gentleman of his times:
proud, domineering and selfish. He treated my mother appallingly, although she
was ever faithful to him, and bore him 9 children, dying as my youngest sister
was born. He spent much of his time away from home: "on business" was his
excuse, tho we all knew the only business he had was at home, on the estate.
Sadly, for it probably added to his intolerance of my mother, she only bore
one son, and he was a sickly child, dying before his tenth year of some
illness. As for my seven sisters, they have all been perfectly healthy since
they were born, suffering few of even the common childhood ailments. This of
course only made my father worse! Fortunately for my father, all but my
youngest sister have been blessed with perfect looks, and since he has been
able to offer a reasonable, if not handsome, dowry for each of us, he has had
no trouble finding husbands for us, happy to "wash his hands of the lot of
us".

Unlike me, my sisters are a weak, biddable lot (sometimes I wondered if I
could truly be related to them!), and they accepted this calmly. I, on the
other hand, never looked forward to my marriage, though for many years I
accepted that it would be inevitable. I had seen the way my mother was
treated, and how my elder sisters suffered from their husbands, so I knew it
would be a cruel fate.

Then, when my mother died, my father was most anxious to be rid of me. I still
remember the day when he told me who I must marry: Lord Arnswood, the most
vile simpering pansy I had ever encountered! Even before there was a hint of
marriage, he paid most unwelcome attentions to me, and from the way my father
spoke to me, I fear he must have hinted that I received them with pleasure.
Alack, I swear it was not so! My father thought it a good match, since Lord
Arnswood is a wealthy man, but I could see that would not long be the case.
His only two loves in life were women and horses, and between the two of them,
his money was fast disappearing. You might argue that his habits might change
with marriage, but I have no reason to believe this might be so.

For many months I dug in my heels, "I am too young!" I cried (I was only 15).
However, just three months after my mother died, my father wedded one of his
mistresses. She was a radiant bride, but she had no love of me or my sisters,
so the pressure was even greater upon me. Finally, the date for the wedding
was fixed: it was to be in the summer, just one day after my 16th birthday. I
was horrified, but presently events occurred to surpass even that. My father's
new bride was expecting, and as was natural to him, he left home to satisfy
his desires elsewhere. This came as no surprise to me and my sisters, but to
his bride it was devastating! To cut a long story short, she ended it by
trying to take the life of her child, and in doing so, killed herself.

And so, I thought, I would be safe, at least for some time, since I surely
could not be wed whilst in mourning. But to my horror, I discovered that my
father and husband-to-be had no such qualms, and the wedding was to go ahead,
not three weeks hence. For me, such callousness was the final straw, and
although it was against all my nature, I packed a small bag and left. I found
the going difficult at first, but quickly learned how to defend myself,
discovering along the way that my suspicions about men were well justified:
all I encountered were vile and wanted nothing more than my body. It has been
two years now since I left home, I have just celebrated my eighteenth
birthday, and I must say I have no regrets. I have learned to live a new life,
avoiding men totally. And joyfully I have now been accepted as a follower of
the Lady, making my life complete!

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Legendary Times is published by the gods of LegendMUD. Please send all
replies/additions to our address at [email protected] for inclusion in the
next edition. We, however, reserve the right to moderate this discussion, and
may object to some submissions. If you feel we have wrongly omitted one of
your messages, please talk to Sabella online or through EMail and see if she
did indeed receive it in the first place.
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