The meeting

On Saturday the 14th of November we had our first meeting to talk about the future of the Isle of Tidra and the question, if we furthermore allow non-human AVs on the island, as there seems to be a lack of interest in RP especially of the non-human savages.

The meeting was a bit of a mess but well, it was our first one, so next time it will get better.

Present were: Franziskus Ninetails, Sieg Refenoir, Jaap Sands, Lutz Melody, Mickael Pevensey, Kenshiro Pevensey; Chaz Toxx, Freki McGillivary, Sora Bluebird, Paddington Blackheart, Xaxat Sabretooth, (Icarus Cvercko), Marin Urdaneta, Conny Osterham, (Walker Brune)

Many problems were broached, so I try a little summary of the main points + my personal view:

1. Traffic

The main complaint & problem was and is, that there never would be someone on the island. - Well, I have to say: I know who is when for how long on the island. If everyone who complains, would stay a bit longer then 1 minute, then there would be enough life on the island. And I also have to add: Neither me, nor Kenshi, Freki or Mick are responsible for your entertainment. It's you yourself! We gave you the opportunity to play, so make the best of it!

But there were some good suggestions made. Here are a few:

a) Use the group-chat for a call for RP. You can even RP it, which would be prefered. For instance there are drums in the tribal-cave. Use them, emote it and send the call to the group-chat. Something like: "/me looks around the island, feeling a bit lonely. He walks to the cave and sits down to the drums. Their sound soon filling the cave... echoing all over the island to call for his savage brothers"

b) of course the group-chat can also be used for a call for help if you have the possibility to RP it. When you are already down and bound, you won't be able to call for help. But otherwise you can use other possibilities in emoting, like blowing a horn or using a special tribal battle call. IC the savages would be somewhere on the island, even if they are OOC somewhere in the rest of SL

c) a meeting spot. Well, actually this exists, as the upper cave is meant for the savages and their "social life" (drums, plants to care of, campfire, a totem to dance around, beds, kennels etc.)

d) special events on a fixed schedule. - Which is a very good idea to get to know each other and to have fun. Sora offered to DJ from time to time. So for instance how about a IC-thanksgiving party? Think of the origin of american thanksgiving and you get the idea!´Or a full-moons (yes, there are 3 on Gor) festival. The colonist unpacking a mysteiour crate that has washed to shore, like Xaxat suggested.... - Ideas are welcome!

e) the election of a "chief". - This was a suggestion of Almasy who couldn't take part at the meeting; what do the savages think about it? Although I personally liked more a community of equal brothers, maybe it would be good to have one to lead the others and take some administration burdon off my shoulders. You decide!

f) Bring your friends in!

g) Explore! The island might look like a maze, but it all make sense. Get used to the paths. Get to know where the traps are. All group-members have access to (almost) every door. The better you get to know the island, the better you will be able to defend yourself and the island. (Eventually I'm making a plan of the island for you soon, but please understand, that I'm very busy)

2. The "nature" of the tribe

There were complaints, that the tribe would be peaceful and they don't want "Gorean RP". - things were said like: "You give us the gorean RP Franzi, it is nice, but i don't want to do that in my RP". - Well, this is a bit strange, as the Isle of Tidra IS a Gorean RP SIM. Don't confuse Gorean RP with Gorean society. Even if the savages have no idea of the Gorean society on the mainland, it is a Gorean SIM after all.

As Freki already mentioned: "Using the term "Gorean RP" first line means to follow the general rules in how to RP not about laws and such things." - The island is on the planet Gor. There are Goreans coming from the mainland. It is a bit difficult, as many other Gorean SIMs don't accept non-human AVs in Gorean RP. But some come. Thieves come to steal from the server. Slavers come to capture "Barbarians "for the slavemarket. Others will shipwreck. There's also the dangerous shadow of the Dark Lord hovering over the island (hopefully!)... So, yes! There might be attacks and you better know how to defend yourself. Actually we HOPE there are, even if we don't want to have GorCraft, but sometimes it's necessary to fight.

~*~ Gorean RP lives and dies with interaction between Gorean SIMs. ~*~

To demand to be "all by ourselves" is not a Gorean RP and if you tell me you don't want Gorean RP, then sorry, but there are enough other non-Gorean SIM for RP with elves, dragons and whatever. But that's not what we - the builders - want, that's not what we worked for and that's not what we pay for. We wanted a Gorean SIM that allows non-human AVs.

About the needing to transform into a human form if leaving the island to the mainland, either if forced (catpurr... uhm... I mean capture) or for rescue-missions, raids or whatever... we might talk in the next meeting.

Read the rules and get informed about the planet Gor. {"What is Gor"} It was hard enough to figure out a reasonable storyline to allow non-human AVs on the island. To demand now, that we should NOT care at all about the other Gorean SIMs is ridiculuous. Better to think about how to integrate, not how to seperate.

According to the storyline so far, the Priest Kings (= the race that brought the humans thousands of years ago from Earth to Gor in a kind of biological experiment) have forgotten the island as it is so small and unimportant. That's how the DNA for transformation, that sleeps in the humans but is surpressed by the technology of the PKs on the mainland, could enhance on the Isle of Tidra. Another idea was, that hundreds of years ago the PKs ran biological experiments on the DNA of humans on the island which created the "exotic creatures", but then for some reasons left the island and the results of the experiment alone. That would explain the temple of the "anchestors" as the "creatures" might have worshipped their creators as gods. But that's just an idea yet and gives enough room for exploring the storyline, the "history" of Tidra.

About the tribe being "peaceful" and unarmed as some of you mentioned... That was never planned. Such a tribe might exist in Utopia, but neither on Earth nor on Gor. Look at the tribes in Africa and South-America, at the American Indians or the Australian Aboriginees! They have arrows, spears, blowpipes, boomerangs... They hunt and they fight.

Of course "our" tribe didn't know much about the threat from the mainland, but it is there. And it will be necessary to defend themselves or they at least have to learn how to hide effectively. Of course some will be more peaceful, others might be more hunters. That gives the opportunity for more RP - some caring for plants (if you haven't recognized: There are plants to care for), keeping the campfire burning (it's there), collecting berries and stuff, others hunting deer and sleen (yes, they are there) and bring meat to the tribe; shamans collecting herbs and brew potions in the cattle (it's there) etc etc etc. There's more to do then playing the poke-poke game all day long... :-)

3. The conflict settlers vs. savages and other storylines

Well, some said, it wouldn't have been clear, that the settlers keeping their slaves and living their lives "in a Gorean way". That's not exactly true, if you look at the chat-logs (you can read them in the blog). It was never a secret and we never hided the master-slave-relationship.

But okay, we can play on that after the short convergance we had, now the tribe is going to be suspicious about the Goreans keeping slaves and making prisoners. They might not understand, that the settlers see themselves as guardians and protectors of the island and the tribe, which is "the heritage of the anchestors".

There also was talking of "more place for the tribe". Hm, this was a bit strange. If it is not clear: The upper cave is meant for the tribe to live in there, even if it might be occupied by the settlers at the moment. But the settlers are moving step by step to the lower cave, to give back the tribe it's room to live.

So, we have four main storylines going on:

1. The settlers with their Gorean lifestyle

2. The tribe with their wild lifestyle

3. The relationship between settlers and tribes

4. Influence from the mainland

A short remark about the babbler: It was fun in the beginning to use the babbler and play the communication-problems. But now we experience some problems with it: 1. The babbler is very laggy. 2. The babbler isn't available to purchase anymore. 3. It complicates a fluent RP between tribe and settlers. So we abandonned it and try more to communicate in "broken English".

I hope I got all the main points of the meeting. If I forgot something, please feel free to tell me.

Freki has stored some RPs in a bookcase in his cave. Feel free to get copies of it. If wished, I could place an object with a notecard-giver like the bookcase in the upper cave. Like a "story-teller"

Feel free to send me or Mick notecards with RPs (summary and/or chatlog), if you want to have it posted here.

So, we will see (and we hope) how and if the life on the Isle of Tidra develops in the next weeks. Just one personal note: We are aware, that all of you have your RL or don't want to stay every minute of your SL-online time on the island or in Gor; neither do we. But you also have to accept and realize, that Gorean RP is nothing you just sneak in for some minutes and to sneak out again, if nothing happens in these minutes. It's a permanent and fluent progress. If you can accept this, then you will have the fun and exitement in RP that the Isle of Tidra is meant for.