Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

tired1680, because he is evil too, suggested I talk about Jusnoctis. I don't really know if this can be considered outside of my comfort zone, because I have no problem with talking about it at all. I just don't usually because I don't want to bore people silly :)

For those not in the know, Jusnoctis aka London by Night is the online World of Darkness RPG site that halcyon_shift founded and that I now "run". I say "run", but I don't do a hell of a lot, to be truthful. I don't run stories, I have very little interaction with players except as a player or the Admin of Doom and a lot of the time, if anything technical goes wrong, I have to cling to halcyon_shift's ankles and wail for help. Mostly I lurk and put out fires now and again. That said, when I have to do that, it tends to be not so much a fire but a raging conflagration that threatens to engulf Tokyo. Not much middle ground with these things :)

I've been the site "owner" for, umm, oh hell....4 years now? (good lord, no wonder I'm deranged) and I'm always kind of surprised the site keeps going. We have a very small player base, finding STs (GMs or DMs to those that know of RP things) is always a battle, keeping STs is even harder, yet somehow we endure. At the end of 2006, we even took the drastic step of having a site reboot - total shut down, deletion of all characters etc. - and to my mild surprise, most of our player base not only came back in Jan 07, but new people showed up and stuck around too.

We've had some fantastic players over the past 7 years the site's been open, some truly brilliant scenes and memorable quotes. We currently have a pretty fine crop of STs who are cheerfully torturing a small but resilient band of players. We could use some new "faces" and I'm sure we'll get a few new people eventually; player numbers seems to be a cyclical thing with us.

I currently don't play as much as I used to, I'm a bit burned out, but when I do, I play either Werewolf, Mortals or Changeling. Sadly, we are currently without a wolfie ST while doccy deals with that pesky real life thing, but I'm hoping when my RP mojo returns, my mortal will be suitably tormented by therealsherbs and I KNOW my changeling will be tormented gleefully by the ever evil thessalian.

The range of ages that have been represented on the site might surprise you - our youngest ever player was, I think, 14 going on 15 when he first started and yes, it showed, but watching him grow up was a delight. Our *cough* oldest player is, well, I won't say her age but let's just say her son used to play on the site and she celebrated an important zero birthday a couple of years back that wasn't her 40th :P The vast majority of our players are in the 18 to 30 category, which means we do tend to lose people now and again as real life gets in the way with work, marriage, kids, divorce etc. I don't think anyone really leaves LbN though, we seem to always lure them back, even if it's just for brief visits (hi again, tyrell!).

Perhaps the most amazing thing that has happened because of Jusnoctis is Sweet Charity, the bi-yearly charity auction that halcyon_shift founded to honour the memory of Danzy, a former player and ST on the site. Danzy died, far too early at 33, due to complications from AIDS, leaving behind her husband and twin boys. Those of us who knew her and played with her during the peak of her activity on LbN can't and won't forget her, she was a wonderful person. And in her name, Sweet Charity has, to date, raised a total of (brace yourselves) $51,802.29 (£28,493.82), for three charities but primarily Danzy's charity of choice, RAINN. None of that would have happened if it wasn't for LbN being there in the first place. And halcyon_shift but I don't want to embarrass her toooo much... (Oh and the Mar 08 SC auction is just getting up and running, please consider moseying over and joining in :) )

I've made some great friends thanks to LbN, some of whom I'm very close to in real life, and we're a pretty tight crowd, by and large. Which can make it tough for newbies but if they stick it out, we're worth it in the end :) All in all, although it occasionally drives me up the wall, I wouldn't (and couldn't) give up LbN, at least not yet. It's not just an RPG site to me.