Top Story!

"If you want your life to be more rewarding, you have to change the way you think." - Oprah Winfrey, O Mazagine, US actress & television talk show host (1954 - ).

It is a little known fact, one that many are prone to conveniently forget, that role-players are people too.  Behind the mask handles we wear, beyond the computer screen, far and wide through a network of thousands of miles of cable and wires, there sit people.  Honest to goodness, living breathing, flesh and blood human beings with lives and thoughts that extend beyond those which are portrayed through the characters they play online.

The day I realized that there were real people on the other side of those wires, sitting at home in their own desk chairs, probably still in their pajamas quite like me, is the day that I realized for certain that online life really isn't so very different from offline life after all.  Especially when I noticed how frequently people argue; publicly or privately, and all of the strange spaces in-between on the internet.

I thought long and hard about how I've dealt with situations like this offline, and another realization struck me. Many times, my friends and I have blown up on each other, turned sharply on our heels, tossed up our hands, and marched off in mutual huffs...only to come back several hours, maybe days, later and apologize to each other about how big of a couple of stupid jerks we were to each other.

That's a perfectly natural situation.  It's only human nature.  We love, and we fight.  We throw staplers at each other.  We scream and we bicker and we argue.  In the end we feel better for it.  We realize what we might have done wrong to each other, come back and call a truce.

If you are a role-player, which I'm certain nearly all of you are, then that means you are a person too.  Many role-players, people, I know keep something known as a LiveJournal.  Essentially, for those who don't know, that's an online diary, one often left open for the whole of the Internet to read.  In some cases that access may be restricted to friends on lists.  One's own personal little mundane space to gripe and complain or rave and ramble excitedly about things that have happened to them in life.

For role-players, there exists a community that was designed with the less polite portions of the human psyche in mind.  That community has existed for six years now, and it's known as BRPS, short for Bad RPers Suck.  If you'd like to find out more about this crude little gem in cyberspace, read more... 

Storyline Spotlight

"I never guess. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four, A Scandal in Bohemia, British mystery author & physician (1859 - 1930)

Much to my disappointment, we have no Storyline Spotlight for you, our readers, this week.  At the beginning of the month of February I did present one of our members with an assigment that I thought she could handle with ease.  Unfortunately, I have heard nothing from this potential author and UM reporter since that time.  So I have no idea how the project is progressing, if at all.

I had wanted to run a feature concerning the election and government storyline in Rhydin taking place on Dragon's Mark.  More precisely on the Red Dragon Inn community run by Dragon's Mark.  The only facts I have concerning it are the few I've placed in this month's headlines, and I'm afraid those summaries are a little biased.  I had wanted an unbiased article that covers the basics.  Where the idea for the storyline came from.  Who came up with it.  How it has evolved since then.  Where it currently stands in activity and so forth.  Ah well.  Perhaps we'll have better luck with the April issue.

It's never too late to cover this story, and anyone interested who thinks that they really can succeed in writing an article up for us is free to contact the Ink Wire Associates at any time.  I can only ask and hope that someone out there in play-land has the motivation and desire to help make our newsletter the very best it can be. 

This Just In

"The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German dramatist, novelist, poet, & scientist (1749 - 1832).

Hmte Strikes Again  :  It was expected to be a calm and relaxing evening at the Rambling Rose Tavern on the night of February 4, but nothing happened as planned.  A mysterious cloaked figure came into that bar that evening.  One that tried to communicate in a horrifically broken immitation of the common language.  After the owner, Seamus Wylie, served the foreigner three large pot pies, that's when things got out of hand.  The figure threw off its cloak to reveal itself as one of the larger warrior drones of the fearsome Hmte empire!  A grueling battle took place in the tavern between the rune-protected and sword-weilding soldier ant and some of the Rose's better known patrons.  Donatello Harada, Morgan Knight and an elf known only as Aaron all worked together and successfully vanquished the threat.  Afterward, Salvador Delahada was reported to have gone chasing after some of the smaller scout ants.

New Governor of Rhydin  :  Perhaps the polls were held in secret, for the most important election of the year was not quite as worldy advertised as the one held a month previous to decide the candidates themselves.  Had to have an attentive eye to have seen it coming.  Whether prepared or not, it came and went.  On February 8, election day came.  At a small margin of three to one, those citizens who decided they wanted a government in their fair city made their choice.  Governor Matthew Algiers Simon is to replace the honorable Kitty Helston this year, but when?  The governor's office has been quiet since this victory.  Just what is going on now?

No Confidence Unheard  :  Is it true that only 15 citizens stood up to have their voices heard?  Two days after the start of the "official" election, some voters were seen entering the polls with a different plan in mind.  Instead of punching a hole for the candidate they wished to see in office, these citizens took with them another idea.  Some ballots were counted in as having the words "No Confidence" written large and in charge across them.  This did little to dissuade the efforts of those who have taken the reigns and instituted a government in a city that once had none, however.  A new governor was presumably voted in anyway, but little has been heard of him since his victory. 

What's In a Name? : March seems to be a month that celebrates much in the way of names all around.  Our announcements section this month lists many days in which the overall theme seems to be knowing or learning something or other about your name.  These simple little identifying markers may not mean much to some of us, but our parents certainly went through a lot of trouble wracking their brains trying to come up with the perfect label to call their children (you) for the rest of their (your) lives.  We role-players aren't much different from our parents.  In fictional ways we create our very own children.  We mold them and make them and name them and send them out into the world(s) to make us proud.  So take a look around, search and browse, and celebrate yourselves as well as your imaginations.  Take the time to think about and appreciate the importance of names, yours and those of the characters you call your own.

Character Spotlight

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." - Helen Keller, US blind & deaf educator (1880 - 1968).

This month's top five character spotlight nominees were as follows:  Colleen MacLeod, Corlanthis, Lola, Sinjin Fai, and Maia d'Thalia.  The poll ran for two weeks as scheduled, starting at the first of the month of February and ending on the sixteenth.  Our nominees received a total of 14 votes.  With the new program this means that 14 individual people actually voted on the poll.  I must confess that's actually more than I had expected, and this pleases me greatly.

The end results of our March Character Spotlight poll were as follows: Our winner, whose interview article you will read shortly, was the character Maia d'Thalia, who closed in at a one vote lead, a total of 4 out of 10, for a 28.57% victory.  Close on her heels were the characters Lola and Sinjin Fai, both with an equal number of 3 votes each, at a 21.43% tie for second place.  Third place was also tied between Colleen MacLeod and Corlanthis, both with 2 votes each, and taking home the bronze medal split in half with a 14.29% total.

Our volunteer interviewer/reporter this month, the same as last month, informed of us a mind-boggling fact.  As it turns out, the player of Maia d'Thalia herself "ended up writing this and then sending it to me.  She and I have had a back and forth, and I honestly don't see anything that needs done to it as it stands.  I mean, it wasn't an interview; she just offered to type it up, and did, and it came out like... like Athena from Zeus's fucking skull kind of perfect."  After reviewing the submission, I'm prone to agree.  So this month we're presenting you with a surprisingly pleasant deviation from the norm.

To save on space, the editorial staff of Ubique's Monthly has decided not to include the entire article in the final format of the newsletter.  To read the complete story, please follow this link to the origins and history of Maia d'Thalia, as written in the player's own words. 

In Other News...

"Only solitary men know the full joys of frienship. Others have their family; but to a solitary and an exile, his friends are everything." - Willa Cather, US novelist (1873 - 1947).

Once again my tremendous thanks goes out to all of you who saved me the effort of having to wrack my brain and dig through my memory in order to come up with individal character news this month.  Those of you who actually sent me updates in your own words: thank you very much.  Now I give you all we know that happened to the characters during the previous month of February and what they might have to look forward to this month of March!

Dris  (BardGaIIant):  That new dog Dris got is an Irish wolfhound pup that he has named Gussie, short for Augusta.  He left the pup in Seamus Wylie's care for about a week this past month, providing no reason why other than the fact that he had some business to attend to and didn't like the thought of burdening his lover Icarus with the load of taking care of Gussie.  What this business trip consisted of as of yet remains a mystery to all except Icarus, Dris, and someone named Cheruth.

Elias Montero  (Deslustrado):  Reports are coming in about a police inspector from Earth's Madrid, Spain coming to Rhydin and asking around about a man named Sin.  Word is that he finally came into contact with the man he was looking for at the Rambling Rose Tavern sometime in the middle of February.  There are further rumors that he is truthfully looking for a man named Salvador, which has attracted the unwanted attention of a chaos spawn by the name of Havoc.  There has been no end to the warnings from those involved that perhaps he's better off giving up this fool-hardy quest and just going home, but he insists that he cannot.  For Elias Montero, all that is left to him is seeing justice served.

Faye: She Who Tends the Dead  (Faye Random):  Still hibernating for the winter.  She is scheduled to wake up on the first of spring this year, as she does every year, however.  Be prepared for March 20th.

Haydee  (Dark Harp String, Her Dark Strings):  A life spent in the shadow of a great man has taught Haydee many thing, one of them is to take everything in slow, like a fine wine. You may not get the chance to do so again. The harpist is enjoying her time back in Rhy’din with the company of the same black-robed man she spent time with before and has decided to spend this time searching for spring. She looks forward to getting herself reacquainted with Piper and those she knows.

Havoc  (Chaos Reclaimed):  Not too long ago, Sin took Havoc to Earth on a visit to Egypt.  Havoc enjoyed his stay so much, finding the lives of regular humans in their natural environment so interesting, that the sinner agreed to take him on another trip.  He, Sin, and Sal both took a trip to New York this past month and had themselves a good old time.

Icarus Marcotte  (SubtIe Iies):  Icarus has spent the last few days in complete torment while his closest friend and lover both disappeared at the same time! Although Cheruth and Dris both returned to him relatively unharmed, Icarus has his mind set on vengeance -- amongst other things.

Jacob Arche  (Jacob Arche):  Jacob’s pretty much become a hermit. Two things in this man’s life right now: work and sleep. He keeps telling people he’ll be having a vacation soon, but there’s always some crisis to pull him back. Tech’s that work under Jacob have a running bet now as to when or if he even will take one. 

Joscelyne Hirsch (Aversion Toward):  Jos is still pretty much living with Irina.  When she makes a promise, she doesn't go back on her word.  Or maybe she just adores babies all that much.  Helping take care of her namesake is a pride and a joy.  Earlier in the month, she was surprised to discover a mysterious package on the front stoop.  Someone seems to have left Irina a present for her and the little one.  Good thing too!  She really needed a stroller.

Maia Cyrene d'Thalia  (Spirited Corsair):  Between constant business at Dockside helping her partner, Harold Lowe, oversee their fledgling shipping company, and a nearly daily visit to the ailing Zonker, Maia has not often been spotted on the town.  After the Hausenfelters, her landlords, surprised her with a freshly repaired flat in the city, she has taken solace there most evenings in Harry's company.  It is rumored that around dawn, she is often spotted practicing her swordplay quite intently on a quiet rooftop or an unused dock.  No telling why.  Also: See this month's Character Spotlight.

Mesteno  (Bronze Mesteno):  As usual, Mesteno has been spending most of his time in the company of his winged companion Tanziel.  Rumor has it they've been trading off pampering and spoiling each other.  Has Mesteno finally found someone in which he can share a lasting relationship with?  Only time will tell.

Ran (A Fox Mask):  It seems the flower prophet has finally gotten herself a job. Dish washer at the famed Red Dragon Inn may not sound terribly glorious, but it’s certainly been a learning experience and a half. The odd flower girl actually delights in the hard work and in exchange, has scored herself a room at the inn to settle down in. For the first time in several years, Ran has a place to call ‘home.’

Renley Killian  (A Common Cur):  The blind psion has not been seen much at all within the past several months.  Last he was spotted was when he dropped by the Rambling Rose Tavern with a new dog.  On the 22nd of February, he returned in the company of a young girl by the name of Haydee, as well as this new dog who is reported to be named Nod.  Does he secretly have some ulterior motive regarding his friendship with this girl?  Some have been rumored to suspect as much. 

Rose Wylie  (Katie Rose Wylie):  Word has it that Mrs. Wylie is pregnant again.  This makes number six in the Wylie clan.  Will it be another boy?  Or will they actually get a break and finally get that little girl her husband has been wanting all this time?  Stay tuned about six months from now to find out!

Salvador Delahada  (Karmic Venganza):  Earlier this past month Salvador took a trip to New York with Sin and Havoc.  He has also visited the Rambling Rose Tavern periodically as is usual.  Rumors have spread throughout the month of February that an inspector from Madrid is looking for him as well.

Sinjin Fai  (Sinjin Fai):  After a weekend in New York with Havoc and Salvador, Sin had been puttering around and learning how to walk in Ambrose's shoes. However, word has it that Sinjin does have a cranky vampire sending him death threats, as well as a somewhat persistent inspector from Spain by the name of Montero.

Suliss'urn Xukuth  (Natha Oreb, SulissurnXukuth):  The female drow, after spending several weeks ki—recuperating within the realm of Rhilshen has been seen traveling back into Rhy’Din. Spotted once atop the snowy roof of the Medieval Tavern searching for some one, she was spotted again this month outside of the Rambling Rose. Rumor has it that she was seen not only speaking to, but shaking the glowing tail of a larger, violent colored beast—and no one died. There doesn’t seem to be anyone else with her or shadowing her. 

Valentine Shyre  (XValentineShyreX):  February went by quick, too quick.  And with it, she turned 19 and celebrated with a trip to the Rose.  After cake and cocoa and cuddling, she headed home making sure to take Sal with her.  It's the first time in 4 years that she's put any effort into her birthday.  She even received a number of gifts from Sal, Vee, Jonus and Rach.  The best gift, however, might be the length of time Wren has been spending at her place.  It's nice not having an empty apartment all the time.  To top the month off, she's met a few new people, including a Spaniard by the name of Elias and a tavern owner who reminds her quite a bit of Seamus.  All in all, a good month for the girl.

Classifieds

Unfortunately, our color-coding system to differentiate between IC and OOC news does not work quite as well when dealing with advertisements.  Links themselves will always show as the bold red highlight that you see them on the rest of our Mutual Endeavors site.  With no real way to segregate the two, we may be forced to revert back to our older system of listing these advertisements in categories as can be seen in archived issues of Ubique's Weekly.  This of course strictly depends on whether or not we receive any future contributions from our readers and member base that deal with in character ads as opposed to links that lead to player informational sites such as our own Mutual Endeavors.

Advertising Policy : If you are wondering what qualifies as a good advertisement for our classifieds section, the Mutual Endeavors website has a FAQ that covers all the basics of what is acceptible and what is not.  Please review the guidelines in our Ubiquitous Guidebook for any questions or concerns you may have regarding these sorts of issues.

A History of Rhy'Din : Here's a gem we hope to hold onto in our links section for as long as it sticks around on the world wide web. Though the player himself is no longer with us, Fayalki's RDIGroup is still around.  This site still stands as a well-spring of forgotten knowledge and useful information all related to the realms of Rhydin.  We're advertising it here as a reminder to those who don't frequently check the Mutual Endeavors links section.

Bad RPers Suck! :  As featured in this month's Top Story! BRPS is a LiveJournal community dedicated to the role-player's freedom to rant and rave and generally gripe about anything and everything that bothers them about the game they enjoy most.  If you have a LiveJournal of your very own and would like a place to blow your top, perhaps this community is just what you've been looking for.

Encyclopedia Rhydinica : As featured in the February 2008 issue of Ubique's Monthly the new Encyclopedia Rhydinica is the third attempt to create an open, free-for-all-users wiki for the fictional realm of Rhydin, based on the cooperative ideas of free-form roleplay.  This wiki began mid-November of last year and currently runs strong with a total of 320 various articles relative to role-playing in and around the entirety of the realms of Rhydin.

LiveJournal :  The number of role-players who have personal, mundane online blogs never ceases to amaze me. Some even use them for their individual characters!  There are even some communities dedicated to the use of LJ for their interactive role-play needs.  If you don't have one of your very own and would like to findo ut how to get one, follow this link.  It's easy!

Lyran Tal Press : Lyran Tal Press.com is a site dedicated to online story-gaming (interactive fiction) where writers and players create and play story games. An exciting aspect of storygames is that the whole tale is not written out in advance, and no one knows beforehand the twists and turns the story will take. Text and/or chat-based, the world of Lyran Tal is one of high fantasy, of swords and sorcery, where your adventures are limited only by your own imagination.

Rhilshen : Rhilshen is a setting for collaborative creative writing and online free form role-playing in chat-based "live RP" and in play-by-post "forum RP". The realm is primarily a high-fantasy / dark-fantasy adventure setting on a magic-rich world riddled with Nexus portals to the Multiverse, an infinite set of various parallel universes.

Sralos : Sralos.com has been around since 1998. It was created as a depository for stories, pictures, reference material, etc., revolving around [the creator's] online free-form roleplaying.  The new Sralos.com is a place where [the creator] can express all of [her] thoughts, ideas, and creative notions. It's not just about RP anymore.  This and more of can be read in the About Sralos section of the site.

The Writer's Lab : As started by DM's founder, the informational and hopefully also instructional Writer's Lab remains up and operational. It is a site geared towards providing tips and resources for the creative writer, with a focus on those who do collaborative writing in a free form role-play environment.

Ubique's Guidebook : Want to contribute to Ubique's Monthly but not quite sure where to start?  Not to worry!  The Mutual Endeavors team, also known as the Ink Wire Associates, have compiled a collection of various FAQs (frequently asked questions) for all your newsletter needs.  If you don't see the question on your mind with an answer that satisfieds, you may also contact the editorial staff at inkwire at mutualendeavors.org to drop a suggestion.

Announcements

As much as it amuses me to think of the many varied possible uses for silly holidays, listing the entirety of celebrations in our newsletter just takes up too much room.  Especially considering the fact that there are on average at least 30 days in any given month.  So we're going to try something a little different this month.  We'll pick and choose a few that relate to other things mentioned in the rest of this issue, and we're going to format it somewhat like the headlines Just This In section.

Once again, we owe a great deal of thanks to our Census Keeper AG for providing another monthly list of character and player birthdays, anniversaries and whatever else have you.  She is also the one who sends us the list of silly as well as normal holidays that may be useful if not just plain entertaining to put to use in your general role-play experiences.  All dates listed are for the month of March, and the number of the date will be listed in parentheses.  Let's see how this works out.

Character Birthdays  :  Alexander Camael "Alex" Woods (13), Alexander Camael "Xander" Woods (13), Brenna Teague (17), Caelan Camale Driscol (15), Calleana Camale Driscol (16), Jame (14), Joscelyne Hirsch (8), Mairead Elizabeth Harker (17), Rei (21), and Salvador Delahada (20).

Wedding Anniversary :  Kislara and Sylver Melniboné (5).

Player Birthdays :  Construct Reality (12), Dragon (24), Gemethyst (15), and ReversedHaIo (4).

Real Holidays :  Daylight Savings Time Begins (9), Easter (23), Good Friday (21), Ides of March (15), St. Patrick's Day (17).

Silly Holidays :  Act Happy Day (19), As Young As You Feel Day (22), Fun Facts About Names Day (3), Genealogy Day (9), Learn What Your Name Means Day (5), Make Up Your Own Holiday Day (26), Middle Name Pride Day (7), Namesake Day (2), Nametag Day (6), Snowman Burning Day (20), and Unique Names Day (4).

There now.  I think that saves some space and makes the newsletter look much more neat and tidy, don't you?  We'll try to compact everything down in just such a way as this every month from now on.  Hopefully I remained satisfied with this layout.

Final Thoughts

"There is no stigma attached to recognizing a bad decision in time to install a better one." - Laurence J. Peter, US educator & writer (1919 - 1988).

My only hope is that this new system of formatting and compiling the newsletter has allowed for these final thoughts to make it into the e-mail version of Ubique's Monthly.  Last month the end got cut off unexpectedly because of the astonishing length of our news!  If all goes according to plan, that should not be the case this time around.

Perhaps not my only hope.  It would be nice if every issue of Ubique's Monthly contained three feature articles: Top Story!, Storyline Spotlight, and Character Spotlight.  So far we're guaranteed to have at least one.  The Character Spotlight is a section that everybody seems to be willing to participate in.  Mostly concerning the voting process that helps us decide which character to rave about.  The other two sections are not so easy to come up with ideas for, but we're doing our very best with the limited amount of staff on call.

If you have any ideas or suggestions for what you might like to see in any future issue of Ubique's Monthly, please do not hesitate to contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it at any time.  We value your opinions as well as our own.  It is our hope that you enjoy reading about role-play in general as it happens anywhere and everywhere.  Until next time, I'll continue to be... 

Keeping you informed,

-- The Nefarious SM

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Ubique's Monthly
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