The Sword's Edge

Issue 16: 9th April 2017 - In Ferro Veritas

Welcome to the sixteenth issue of The Sword's Edge! I sat down to start drafting this months intro section before the announcement of Secret World Legends - happily, the message I was writing stayed ultimately quite similar.

As many of you are all pretty accustomed to after so many years of being in Nine Swords - or perhaps learning quickly because you have only just joined our cabal; Nine Swords really aims to help all our members get involved. The focus here is on help - and not forcing people kicking and screaming, honest! We want to help our members have a reason to log in, to get involved, to sign up and have fun with the cabal. We also are mindful as a leadership team, how many small contributions and positive actions of our members can create a huge positive impact. This is definitely something we will be holding on tight to as we edge towards the re-launch of the game we love and prepare ourselves to join Secret World Legends.

Much of this issue is orientated towards giving you ideas on how you can get even more involved in Nine Swords - via feedback in our new survey, organising events and starting some RP!

Coffee, cake and newsletter time! Enjoy this issue!! - Katelin

9S and Secret World Legends

Secret World Legends is coming - and what better time to kick-start new ideas and plan more fun for our cabal. We have set up an internal forum area where we are taking a look at our 9S Directives and seeing how we can improve on what we are already doing as a community. We hope that all our members will get involved in the discussions and initiatives that will be started over the coming period - Head on over to the forums when you are done reading this months newsletter and see where you can get involved.

Together we will help our cabal to succeed in the aim of being in excellent shape for whatever may come, whenever it may come.

The Secret RP: Roleplaying 101 for the Secret World

written by Hit-Parade

Some of the most fun that a TSW/SWL player can have is roleplaying. The game's modern timeframe (a relative rarity in MMOs) and the urban fantasy/espionage setting combine to make a particularly rich setpiece for roleplaying, very similar to some popular tabletop RPGs. Indeed, many players of World of Darkness, Shadowrun, and other games have found a home in TSW/SWL's RP community.

For newcomers to RP, though, it can come off as a little intimidating. So, how does someone get their start? As a veteran TSW RPer, I have a few suggestions. ;)

1) Don't be afraid to get out there!

The best way to learn to RP is to do it! For the most part, the RP community is friendly and willing to help newbies get their footing.

A good place to start is The Horned God in London The God is one of the main hub for RP in-game. While RP in there tends to be tavern RP (i.e., people drinking and flirting), it's a good place to meet people and get your feet wet. Sometimes your character (and even you!) can make good friends in there; many of my closest RP buddies are people who I met just hanging out in the Horned God.

Also, our own Rapier Division hosts Saturday Afternoon RP (12-2 pm PST, on Saturdays). At present, the storyline is "Cryptozoology in the Secret World!"

Finally, I'd like to take this opportunity to propose Monday Night Karaoke! This would be a regular, cabal-centric event on Mondays (12-2 pm PST), set at the Kumiho Hotel in Seoul (but probably ICly somepace else), where the cabal can relax, have a few drinks, and sing some tunes.

2) Join TSW-RP.com

tsw-rp.com is probably the best resource available to roleplayers both new and established. The site is likely to undergo some changes as Legends launches, but the core concepts and features should remain constant.

Here, you'll find character dossiers, story hooks, help and suggestion forums, and even a "Classifieds" section where RPers can seek out contacts and allies among other RPers. The character dossiers, especially, can give you ideas and inspiration for your own character's backstory and abilities. Finally, the site features a calendar of open RP events (such as DJ shows and in-character humanitarian events) that characters can meet and mingle at.

Here is my main character's dossier, as an example of what you can find there. (Feel free to use him as a contact! ;) )

3) Do the research.

Unless your RP character is exactly like you*, they're bound to have job skills and personality traits that differ markedly from your own. It's best to try to build at least a basic knowlege of what they would know. For example, if your character is a doctor or lawyer, you should probably try to pick up a surface knowledge of medicine or law. Similarly, if your character is from Tulsa or Tangiers, you should probably know a few things that residents of those cities would know. Fortunately, much of that information is available on Google or Wikipedia.

This isn't exactly a life-or-death matter; most RPers are forgiving of mistakes (as long as they're not too glaring or exhibit too much ignorance). But there are basic things your character will know that you won't necessarily. It's best to prepare for those things.

*Using yourself as the basis for an RP character isn't a bad thing in of itself. Most RPers, whether they admit it or not, invest something of themself in all their characters (some characters more than others). But it's best to use such a character as a foundation to build on in different directions. Simply by the people they interact with and the situations they experience, this will happen as a matter of course.

4) Don't be afraid to change the things that don't work.

If, as you settle into RP, you find that character or backstory traits don't really gel with your concept, feel free to adjust or quietly discard them. While maintaining perfect1 continuity is an admirable goal, there's no reason to retain something if it doesn't fit.

5) In-game isn't the only place you can RP.

The RP community is very active (one might even say "noisy" ;) ) on Twitter and Discord. In addition, the forums on tsw-rp.com and the lower world feature forum-based RP storylines, and many people use Google Docs as a venue for RP.

Those of you interested in Twitter or Discord RP can follow my main character's Twitter (@goldshield01), or can use this link to join the TSW-RP Discord server.

6) Don't be afraid to step outside the box with your RP.

The default assumption is that your character is a Bee working for one of the three playable factions, but there's no reason this has to be the case. For example, my main character is an ex-Templar who went to work for the Council of Venice after several violent confrontations with the Old Guard.

The game's lore is flexible enough that nearly any character concept can be justified. In my time, I've rubbed elbows with demons, half-demons, fae, half-fae, quasi-possessed envoys of otherworldly powers, minor and/or retired deities, and even... normal humans. There are guides for playing concepts other than Bees, and factions other than the Playable Three, on tsw-rp.com, and they're worth looking at.

7) Be respectful of other players

(and don't be afraid of speaking up if you're disrespected)

This would seem to be common sense, but it isn't always. Most RPers are friendly and try to be respectful, but every community has some who, well, aren't. If you're getting harassed, you should feel free to report it to the GMs and block the player.

It's worth noting, however, that antagonistic RP is not the same thing as an RPer being an asshole. The difference is that someone engaging in the former will usually be upfront, often in a tell, that such is happening, and/or will generally respond reasonably if asked if such is happening. Of course, you're not under any obligation to participate in antagonistic RP either, if you don't wish to.

8) Don't be afraid to seek feedback.

We learn by doing, and by figuring out what we did wrong. If you have doubts about whether you're communicating something you wish to, or want to make sure you haven't accidentally caused OOC offense, talking to the other player is generally a positive way to go. Asking your regular RP buddies about the same works as well. Feedback also helps to make sure that your character doesn't drift towards the dreaded Mary Sue status (i.e., the perfect snowflake who does everything perfectly).



I hope this gives you some tools to get started with RP! I promise you, you'll find it something that'll increase your enjoyment of The Secret World and its incarnations. Hope to see you soon at the Kumiho or the Museum!

-- HP

Scheduling Events!

Now that we have been told about SWL, it does not mean that you shouldn't or couldn't still organise things for our Swords in TSW! We definitely all still need things to do while we are waiting for the launch - therefore, Helixia has some tips and tricks for you to make things happen!

Have you ever wanted to go and do all lairs in a single day? Or hunt rare monsters for achievements? Or show your museum off to your fellow Swords? Or maybe go to the The Horned God for a drink or Crusades club for a karaoke night? Chances are that you are not the only one wanting to do this, but as always, someone needs to make the first step. And why not you? If you have something on your mind that you want to see it happen, best thing to do is to find out if someone else is interested too in your idea among your fellow Swords.

Now, there are various ways to see this happen, easier one being simply asking in cabal chat. This assures a very quick answer to your question if somebody is interested, but what about members that are not online at that specific moment. Nine Swords is a cabal with members around the world, and while many of our playing times overlap, some may be sleeping, at work, or doing other things at any specific hour, but may log in for that specific action. For this, we have the wonderful tool that our forums provides, the noticeboard.

To begin using the noticeboard correctly for everyone's benefit, the first thing you must do is set your timezone correctly in your user profile. For this, you need to go and click your User Control Panel, navigate to Board Preferences tab and at my Timezone, select your correct Timezone. The forum will then calculate the correct local hour for any event posted, so you don't have to spend time wondering if you're in San Francisco what time it is in Germany for example.

Posting the event itself is like posting any other thread on the forum, with a twist. A clear title for the event, like [RP] Horned God - Wed 29. March 2017 will let everyone know what to expect when opening the thread. Now that the surprise factor is diminished to tolerable levels, a paragraph or two about what is intended to happen, gear requirements if applicable and any other relevant info is good to be added at the beginning, so people know what to expect when joining said event.

Now, the twist I mentioned earlier, is adding the respective event to the Cabal calendar, and having it appear at the top of the forums, and also on the front page of the site. To do that, before hitting the submit button, take a second to navigate below the main text window and select the "Associated event" tab, in which you can select your desired time and hour for this event to happen, if you want it to be an one-time event or repeated every week, and hit submit. A new thread will be created and added to Cabal calendar, for members to see your plan and giving them the opportunity to sign up in advance to be a part of it.

Remember, it does not matter if you founded the cabal or you just joined yesterday, our members are and will always be equal in opportunities to enjoy group content together, and we are always willing to support members initiatives. Events are organized all the time, but if you want something in particular to happen, the best way to see it done is to take the initiative and organize it yourself, together with your fellow Swords.

Presenting the 9S Academy Team!

As a leadership team, we are extremely excited that we have had Swords step up and join our new Academy team. The main role of the Academy will be to provide workshops to support our members in gaining knowledge about all things related to The Secret World and Nine Swords. With the impending changes to our game with SWL and the strong desire to ensure that all our members, old and new, are supported in learning new things and helped to feel part of the cabal - the launch of our 9S Academy team could not have had better timing!!

Our super Swords that have signed up to be part of the 9S Academy team are:

• Hinoki
• ChasualBob
• Sonno
• Draym
• CarbonArc
• Sasha
• Scottybear

Discussions are already underway, planning has started for new workshops and ideas for what our Academy team could provide. Even if you are not part of our Academy team, if you have any ideas you would like to share - please get in touch via PM with either Katelin or Mellified. We will then forward your ideas to the Academy team!

What's your name?

What’s in a name? That which we call a Tokrika, by any other word would smell as sweet.

Tokrika has been my nickname in all things online for some time now. Truth be told, The origins aren't that interesting. I used to go by a couple of other nicks prior to taking up Tokrika, but during the same time that I got an invite to gmail closed beta. I wanted to stop 'hiding' behind an online persona and be less anonymous. This in large parts due to the fact that I was getting fed up with the never ending flood of pettiness and hate in various online communities. When people have to be open about who they are when posting or chatting, there is a lot less aggressiveness to go around. So far so good... only problem was, my name was not being accepted in my new e-mail address nor in any online communities I was active in at the time due to it being taken or being too short. So on a frustrated impulse I combine the first few letters of my names into one, thereby ensuring that I wasn't only hiding behind some nickname again, I now had one that no-one could possibly pronounce. Brilliant.

9S Survey 2017!

In this months issue of The Sword's Edge, we want your feedback via our 9S Survey. All members of Nine Swords that complete the survey have the option of entering a Sweepstake for some very cool purple signets - so if you are planning on keeping a character in TSW that you want to play - make sure to enter!! (huge thank you to Dreadzilla for donating these)
The survey will help us know what you are planning, whether you have any ideas on how you see your role in Nine Swords and also how we are faring in terms of time-zone spread etc. It would be great if you can take the time to fill out the survey! Link for more information and where to find the survey : here

TSW in the Real World

The cross on a wall: When Ishco visited Roma, as you read in the the previous The Sword's Edge, she saw several Templar crosses here and there. It is time for some more - this one, engraved in a wall under an inconspicuous little bridge near one of the most touristic places. I knew it was a sign! We are everywhere in Roma, maybe it's where our HQ should have been, and not in London? If you take the weather and the pizze (italian plural) into account, I personally vote for Roma over London, sorry Carbon. :D

The shop: After Talarico in Roma, Here is Constantin Vacheron in Paris! I actually pass in front of this shop nearly every day, but I never took notice of the Templar cross before last week. A sign for the launch of SWoLe? Oh yes, most certainly! I really don't remember what they sell though, and their windows are too clean to see in this picture. I'll check and tell you in the next TSE!

N.B.: You can participate in this section too! Just take a picture of a Templar cross if you see one and explain to us where you saw it! It's a very funny exercise and you won't really be looked at weirdly by other people.