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Tool Time

© Sandy Brundage

Visages Of Madness Productions

Looking for a game running anytime, almost anywhere? Visages of Madness, a WoD LARP production company, might be the answer. All characters welcome, except Mage. Currently 112 players strong, they are aiming to break 200. Powergamers and cheese twinks need not apply. Contact Jr. Vickery for more information at VisOfMad@thevortex.com or call (330)376-8720.

New Tool for Playtime

Glenn Hutchings at zondo@hunting2.demon.co.uk has released version 3.0 of the popular Interactive Fiction Mapper. The program tracks your progress through an Interactive Fiction game, and offers different output options. Record each room you visit and its relation to other rooms, the initial locations of useful items, and the tasks you need to perform in order to solve the game, for example. The IFM task commands allow you to specify the order in which the tasks must be done, using that information to calculate and print different walkthroughs for the game.

Two utility programs are bundled with IFM: Tkifm and Scr2ifm. Tkifm is a simple graphical interface to IFM. It provides a window to edit IFM input and menus to view the maps. For those of you who hate mapping, Scr2ifm takes the hassle away by doing it for you. It's a perl script that takes one or more Infocom-style transcripts of an IF game and creates a map in IFM format.

Survey

A neglected survey waves for attention once again, courtesy of the fine people at alt.games.whitewolf:

How long have you played?

As a percentage: how much of your time is spent playing?

As a percentage: how much of your RP time is spent LARPing, how much at table top, and how much online?

Do you get in costume for every event? Does everyone else?

Do you own any props for these events? How much did you pay for them?

Do you wear these props or costumes out in public? During times that are not associated with these events?

How much of your conversations with your friends are about your characters?How much of it is held in third person?

If you RP outside of an event do you always use the same character? Same costume?

Do you talk to your friends about how your character would react to situations in your life?

Post your answers in the discussion area! Thanks.

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