Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

So the final LbN scene didn't finish until 4am but it was fun! And despite halcyon_shift's evil psychological warfare, no characters actually died. :) Hurrah!

Today has been about the football and rugby and then general dozing. I really don't have the energy to do much else. I'm getting old, I can't handle these 4am things any more! *whines*

Just over 8 years ago, my buddy Troodler introduced me to this online role playing site she was involved with. She'd introduced me to the World of Darkness RP system and knew I liked Werewolf, and said I'd have a blast on this new site. And she was dead right, I had a fabulous time. The site was called Jusnoctis aka LbN (London by Night). It was founded by halcyon_shift and in those early days, there was a player base of about 30 active people. We had some great STs (GMs) and brilliant players and we soon formed a pretty cool community.

Two years later, halcyon_shift announced she was closing the site down because she was burned out. We begged her not to and persuaded her to let me run the site. Which is what I did for the past six years. It's been a hell of a ride, had its ups and downs, but overall, I'm really proud of the fact we kept going when our detractors said we wouldn't.

However, over the past year, player numbers have dwindled to below viability. This is partly, I suspect, because we couldn't keep a stable pool of STs and partly because the World of Darkness system had been surpassed by New World of Darkness and there just wasn't the interest in the old way. I nearly pulled the plug last October but there was a brief rally in interest which just wasn't sustained as we entered the Christmas season. So two weeks ago, I took the decision to call it a day and close LbN down.

Tonight we're playing one last big cross system scene run by halcyon_shift, in tribute to the year long story arcs that were a mainstay of the site's golden days. It's going great and I'm a little sad it's the last official one and yet.....there's a huge sense of relief that the site's closing, as if a weight's been lifted off my shoulders. I'll miss a lot of the people and I'll miss the great RP; I won't miss the player drama and the pestering for scenes. On balance, it's the right time to call it a day.

And the best thing is, the site will be mothballed so if we ever want to start it up again in the future, we can. We're leaving up part for the forums so people can keep in touch and there may be one-off scenes run as and when if there's interest and inclination. We'll see. But either way, today is the end of an era and that's always sad.

So here's to LbN, the little site that could. And yay to all who sailed in her :)

I got a lovely surprise to see the snow when I scampered out of the flat this morning. I had no idea it was even forecast :) Lovely stuff too, the sort that squeaks as you pack it together for a snowball. Sadly, I had no-one to start an impromptu snowball fight with and had to make do with making the odd snowball out of the stuff I scraped off my car :)

Work had one major advantage today - hardly anyone was in. ShitStirrer had a day off, FogHorn was only in for half the day. She's been poorly for the past two days, poor thing, and today she could only work the morning because her son has come down with an abscessed tooth and wasn't at school. She brought him into the office and I have to say, for a six year old, he was remarkably well behaved. Particularly so when you could clearly see the bulge on his jaw that was the abscess, poor chap.

PartyGirl was out all afternoon, TooBrightTies was out for a meeting. So I had my end of the office to myself. Sadly I also had the boxes of envelopes from hell. Too boring to go into details but suffice to say - School Budget Shares go out to all schools. We have 530 schools so we do a lot of prep in advance, including labelling the envelopes. Every school receives multiple envelopes, 7 all told, 4 of which we have to label ourselves. *sighs* Do the maths, it's depressing! Still, I got a good chunk done and the temp in Battleship's office will do the bulk of it, I'll only have to help out when I'm not busy.

Good evening this evening - watched a great football match between Arsenal and Spurs, first leg of the league cup competition. Arsenal came back from 2-0 down to get a draw. Good game. And then I managed to get my new mortal character approved on LbN and I'm really pleased with the way the character sheet and background have come together. RP glee for me!

Now I really must go to bed. I've only managed one early night this week. *tsks at self*