The Fellows
The One Account to Rule Them All
RpN Monthly : JUNE 2015
...And we're back, everyone! While we're sad to say we had to miss the May Newsletter, we are super excited to get back on track. The May and June months came with a lot of change on RpNation. We thank every user for sticking it out through the rough-patch and hope you all have been enjoying the oodles of new content and add-ons that have been released to improve your site experience. Thank you for your continued support and we hope you enjoy your June 2015 RpNation newsletter!
New Fellows
Aldur has been around the site for a while now, and has always been the first to jump in to friendly conversations. You can see him hanging all around the site. Have a question about art? Ask Aldur.
[IMG]https://www.rpnation.com/data/avatars/s/20/20184.jpg[/IMG]
@Reline's @Dusky is definitely something I haven't seen before and I think it's a very, very cool idea. For all those people who just have some trouble with BBCoding, these wonderful gals are here to help-- free of charge! Go on down and check out the BBCode Shoppe!
~ @Harpyie doesn’t stop at one pet, nor does she feel that two is enough. With her four wonderful companions, she gives us all a little peak into the craziness and fun that her pets bring to the table. Death licks, barks, spazzy playfulness, and an awesome bird. To see the roster, click @TheWretchedEgg found her two little adorable cats a few weeks after an unfortunate event befell her old one. Her mother is a wily one, and the way she introduced the two new lovable brothers, Timo and Tigger. Along with her other assortment of pets in her house, these two really make their presence known! For the full story, click @Roo a much more sorrowful story, this is one that I truly felt should be read. It shows just how much domestic pets rely on the love we give them, and it really plucked at my heartstrings. The recently deceased Bandit died of depression after his older half brother August died. There was a time when Bandit seemed to be making a recovery, but after a quick succession of events and terrible happenings, there was little to be done. To hear the rest of this story, click here.[/size]
With oodles of photographers present on RpNation, we set out to find user's favourite photographs that they've taken. There were many great examples, but here are a couple of our favourites:
Not only is this photograph wonderfully rich in quality, there's so much life in them and they just pop! @Red 's friend did a wonderful job with these photos.
Oh, the cuteness of this photo is just too much. I really, really want to boop that nose. The piercing gaze of your kitty is just stunning, and what gorgeous eyes! Wonderfully done, @Asphyxiated!
...To see these and more, visit Here.
Site Updates & Stats
(Update) Like System Update We have a big update to the like system! Now there's much more than just your 'general like'. Read more Here.
(Update) RpNation 3.0
Omg, so shiny! We got a style update! sparklesparkle! The layout has changed, giving us a new, fresher look to the site. Read more Here.
(Update) Profile Pictures
Now you can add beautiful profile covers to your profile to really make it sparkle! Here.
(Event) Friends of the Nation
Poor Staff-chan wants friends, and since all you users are so mean to baka, she requires some new ones. If you invite three or more users to the site, you'll get a special badge! And you'll be sparred from Staff-chan's wrath.. S-senpai! Read more Here.
(Update) Gallery
Users now have their own image gallery, where you can store, edit, and show-off your images! Just remember to give credit to original artists and not to edit/use if the owners specifically state not too. Read more Here.
(Stats) RpNation Site Stats for May
Site: We surpassed 3 million posts! Woohoo!
Fantasy: All the roleplays
Futuristic: Almost as much as fantasy, but not really
Fandom: WILL TAKE OVER THE WORLD
Realistic: Wat is this?
This Simple, Futuristic roleplay embodies an exciting plot of rebels vs. a tyrannical company. Following several rebel fractions: The Free Arcs, The Locos, Moon Walkers, Friends, and Separate, the story chronicles revolutionaries, from different walks of life, being forced to work together against an evil corporation. Without further ado, we are proud to welcome our next Roleplay of the Month....
What inspired you to start RPing? Was there someone in particular who helped you grow, or did you learn on your own?
The person that really got me into rping was my brother, and him constantly saying what great adventures he's gone on with his amazing characters. My first site that I went to was a lot less this, and more like one large rp, focusing mostly on building the world and your character. That was where I made my first character, Buras. Since then I have made many other characters,But Buras still holds a special place in my heart. But as a gm, my role model is DrTrollinski. Amazing gm, best I've seen. I had an idea, and I told it to bim and ask him to be the gm. 200+ pages later and it's still going.
Where did you come up with the idea for your roleplay?
Funny story that. I was originally asking for ideas. Then along came Grey. He gave me some words, and showed me a link to a thread of his that contained the basics of every genre possible, which I have bookmarked. Cyber-punk caught my attention, so I made a thread so I can get my thoughts down. That was where Bone2pick showed up and helped me create the four factions. From there, it was just an interest thread then the real thing.
What is the first RP you remember being a part of?
Ah, my first rp. I remember it well. It was called Angelic Dome, a mech fighting thing-a-muh-jig. That was where I made Connor McKinley, one of them anyway (I'm not good when it comes to names) and Sparks, his artificially intelligant friend and giant fighting robot. There was where I had my first monumental melt down on a person. I don't like talking about it.
Character of the Month
With her special handicaps that evolve throughout her backstory, and the ways that she makes due with them, conforming to their shackles, but never letting them hold her down. Her special skills flourish with the gift the torture she went through gave her, and even though she has been terrorized her entire life, she has broken through the obstacles placed forth by this traumatic event and has taken it upon herself to make sure that none of her newest friends goes through such travesty. @LadyMatsudai, the creator of this character, did very well with her production of the thoughts and past of the character and I hope she is having fun with this delightful persona.
What is your favorite part of planning an RP? World building, character building or plot building?
When the juices are a flowing, world building by far. I then basically design any npc's to fit that setting. But the world has to be built to fit with the plot.
What would you say is your greatest strength when it comes to writing? And your greatest weakness?
My greatest strength... Well, I'd say it's that I'm willing to work with people. If they say it's to short, then I will do what I can to make it longer. And hopefully all of you would return the favor. Weakness, I know that one. I do a lot of my posting on my Ipod. No spell check, so that leads to stupid spelling mistakes. Some of which I have no doubt are hidden here somewhere.
Do you have any advice for other GMs on the site?
Advice, keep it going. I it starts to slow down and lose momentum, people will start to think 'Oh, this is dead. Time to search for the next one.' And that momentum is hard to get back.
What are you planning for your next RP masterpiece?
Next masterpiece? I'm not sure what made this thing a masterpiece in the first place. But I'll keep you posted.
Spring if finally here! Have any plans for those warm, sunny days??
A tour of the US with my brother and grandma.
After having to skip the May newsletter due to a series of unfortunate events, the Fellows are very proud to introduce the new June Newsletter and, with it, the May/June Member of the Month. The choice for this month has proven to be incredibly helpful, friendly, and awesome towards all members he interacts with. Even with his busy schedule, he always makes times to lend a helping hand where he can. ....We are more than pleased to welcome our member of the month for May/June.....
@SkyGinge!!
And now some words from the MotM:
What are some hobbies you enjoy, besides roleplaying?
Outside of roleplaying (and writing in general), I'm into drama; I was in my city's professional-run youth theatre before a silly funding mishap forced its closure, and have been actively involved in drama stuff at my school. I'm that guy who is consistently typecast as the 'quirky' characters - normally either eccentrics or drunken comics; apparently I'm the only person in the entire school who's up for making such a fool of themselves on stage xD Not that I mind too much, mind; there's a good reason I like to roleplay eccentric characters! I also play the violin and piano, and am working towards my Grade 8 in the latter (I apologise for not knowing the American equivalent). My other hobbies are gaming, procrastinating and catching colds, the latter two of which I am particularly talented at.
If you could have one superpower what would it be? Why?
I would have... the power to use every other superpower!!! Haha, cheated that system, dinnae? Impressed? ... No? ... Cheating aside, that's a tough 'un. Probably the ability to stop time, if only because I've already planned out all the different limitations and stuff, and also that'd make me pretty OP. Limited time to revise for exams, stress building up? Stop time, and I can revise all I want, stressless!
What is, in your opinion, the best thing you've ever written?
Ack, that's a hard one. There's actually a good few many posts that I've made here that I've been proper chuffed with, but obviously in RP posts you tend not to edit as vigorously as individual works. Unfortunately, as interested as I am in writing, I rarely find the time to dabble in much outside of RPN. I'll have to go with my most recent work, a short story for a competition that still hasn't posted the results they said they would over a month ago (aggravated sigh), if only because it's the most technical of things I've ever written. I will be posting it in the Prose section eventually, but want to know the results first. Otherwise, I'm hoping to usurp it when I go on a writing hype after my exams are over.
What is one of your favorite books and why?
I don't read nearly as much as I should, so sadly my reading experience is somewhat limited, but probably David Mitchell's 'The Bone Clocks'. I'm going to presume the majority of people here haven't heard of it, so I'll recommend it to you now: it's this very cool book which is affectively six novellas from different perspectives telling the story of one woman, all in different genres and with an underlying fantasy subplot. That sounds like overkill, and an almost impossible feat, but Mitchell completely rises to the challenge. The climax is somewhat flawed, yup, but he's got such an engaging, clever and artistic voice that the rest makes up for it. But I'll leave it up for you guys to discover for yourselves before I begin to sound too much like Mitchell's market salesman.
If you could do only one of the following things, which would you choose and why?: Bike through Europe, celebrate Chinese New Year in China, rock out to any band from any era for one amazing concert (dead or alive!), build your own home, or learn a new hobby and be amazing at it instantly!
Erm... embarrassing confessions time; I actually can't ride a bike, nor do I particularly have a favourite band (shields himself from the hate), so I'll go with the latter and choose to be good at art, so that I can finally draw my characters and settings without the end product looking like a rodent had a seizure all over it.
How long have you been roleplaying?
I began roleplaying about three years ago, on holiday. There was this small gaming forum which I'd used for tips on a very niche gaming interest of mine before, and they'd made their own wiki, so I was scrolling through the page on the guy who was affectively the Grey of that forum, and discovered he'd been involved in roleplaying. What is this 'roleplaying', I asked myself, intrigued. So I read on, and was instantly inspired. I joined the forum immediately, in spite of how small it was and how little people actually were into RP, and have been writing ever since! As for writing, I'd always been interested in it. Me and my mum used to sit at the computer, and I'd dictate what I'd want written and she'd type it down; we did these really rubbishy Sonic scripts which affectively ripped off Sonic X in little one-liner dialogues (that show was my childhood). I only really graduated to prose about five year ago when I had a short, but valuable, spell of fan-fiction over on Serebii, in which some very helpful critiques gave me some very valuable guidance. Seriously, folks; constructive criticism is amazing!
What is the earliest character you can remember creating? Did you like the character? Do you still?
Oh my, that's an interesting one. Most people have all these tales of super God-moddy, one sided characters when it comes to questions like this... but I was kind using canon characters all the way throughout that period, so none of my protagonists were ever truly original, or 'mine', for that matter. So I'll defer back to the protagonist of that first Pokemon fan-fiction, who is, in many senses, an exemplification of what I just said; 'angsty' would be the best word to sum him up. However, I still kinda like him, and I have reused and developed him over the years too. His backstory is kinda killer, if as needlessly melodramatic as you might expect, but he's not just a one-sided angst machine. I put a decent amount of work into fleshing him out even then, and actually if the opportunity came up here to write him again, I probably would.
Do you have any pets?
Sadly not. My dad is literally allergic to everything, so we can't have anything furry around. We used to have tropical fish, which were kind of cool (especially when we accidentally left the lid slightly off and two of them cannibalised each other...), but we had to get rid of them when we moved house seven years ago. I'm not good with dogs, but I'd probably be fine with a cat. A gecko or lizard, on the other hand, would be amazingly hype.
You are on a bus when suddenly a lion turns to you and says "Excuse me, sir. You're in my seat." - Do you get up and move, ignore him, politely tell him to move on, or fight him for it?
Why, I join in the fight that will give me the right to be free, of course! (cue Les Mis fanfares). I fight the blighter, best him in single combat, claiming an emphatic victory and most revered status of 'Bus Hero'. The pretty girl on the row behind exclaims 'Oh SkyGinge, you're my hero, and your sideburns are amazingly attractive', then we all get married and live happily ever after... at least in the realm of my mind. In reality, however, I'd probably make some overly wordy apology, shuffle awkwardly to the back of the bus, and then proceed to grumble to myself about how unfair the world is and how it's probably the Conservative's fault.''
[/justify][/justify][/justify][/justify]
Also, we'd like to give a big thank-you to @Auren, whose coding, example, and handling of the former Newsletters was inspiration.
Photography Palooza!
Last edited by a moderator:
Meant a lot to me!
