Roleplaying and Dune in Second Life

Posted on December 30, 2008
Filed Under Fun Places, Roleplaying | 6 Comments

Contributed by Paypabak Writer

Hmmm. I was stood up at my “interview with a sandworm” appointment . . . maybe he got lost in the desert! So, while I am waiting for my dusty friend to resurface, perhaps I can give you some background on roleplaying, and on the history of Dune roleplaying.

One of the things that really grabbed me and endeared me to Second Life was the opportunity to play a “Bene Gesserit witch” in the original attempt at roleplaying Dune at the LemonYellow sim, called The Dune Project. It was a good introduction to the various ways people can communicate in SL beyond just typing in the chat or IM boxes. You may know that you can “emote” by typing “/me” at the start of your chat or IM statement. Instead of the rest of your message being introduced as if your were speaking (e.g., Paypabak Writer: stood alone in the desert, overlooking the seitch), the /me removes the colon (e.g., Paypabak Writer stood alone in the desert, overlooking the seitch). In any sort of roleplaying (let’s abbreviate it as “RP” from here on), being able to describe actions and emotions is essential, so some groups have gone so far as to create attachments that let you name yourself something besides your avatar name and then work that into your chat commands. Thus you can have your character speak, by typing /44 Look out for that sandworm! and instead of you avatar name, and usually in a different text color, the chat or IM will read: “Duke Atreides: Look our for that sandworm!” Using /22 you would describe an action, “Duke Atreides considered his wife’s words and walked to his desk.” (The text would always start with the designated name just as with the /me command.)

In the event of an interruption in the scene being played or an inquiry into what is going on, instead of using IM, there is a way to set a different color and designation of expression to what is generally termed Out of Character (OOC) discussions, set off by another code, /33, for instance, in which case the text looks something like “OOC (Paypabak Writer): Sorry, I have to take this phone call!”

Emoting and describing actions is such a part of my SL lexicon, I often carry on conversations that are half /me-type descriptions. Until animation overrides give us fuller control over our avatars, it’s through this kind of texting that we really live and breath in SL.

Now . . . about Dune. For those not familiar with the science fiction classic, there is the series of books, a David Lynch “cult” movie, and two SciFi Channel mini series that have been spawned. Here’s a fairly good background from Wikipedia for you (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel)) … A Bookshelf game also attempted to simulate the various factions of Dune, what delineated the various families and factions in the novel allows for people to form alliances as well as declare enemies. What stands out for those endeavoring to simulate Dune is that it’s really interactive and full of intrigues … not a lot of fighting. What really challenged the creators of the Dune RP sims that have been developed in SL are the mechanics of a desert planet where the economy is based on spice and water.  And of course, there is the matter of the native Fremen people and the giant sandworms that rule the vast empty deserts where the spice is harvested.

The Dune Project had static sandworms . . . very impressive but hard to get excited over. As the various factions grew and stories began, everyone got very tired of waiting for the roleplay system to be finalized. This system would work out water depletion (strength of a character) with spice addiction and other factors. As a Bene Gesserit sister, I helped work out various rituals that come from the books like the gom jobbar and the water of life test. We had great interactions with training sessions and rituals just within our own faction, but then the challenge was to interact with the other factions. You really get to know the other players and develop strong relationships … I say strong even though some might not be positive!

There is so much that goes into an RP sim, there’s much more to tell, so I’m going to have to end this with “To be continued!” Have a Merry Christmas!

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