VW: Second Life
Location: Venezia / Rocca Sorrentina
Country: IT
G&S - Observations
Drinking tea all day and stuffing yourself with cakes to build a base before moving to heavy foods and wine, and more, is a way of living. but it does get tedious after some time. Roleplaying is very mild and light these days and seems to have moved more to private and rural estates - personally I think that's a good development: it makes people move around to visit and what better than to visit and actually see something. I'm biased to this ever since I entered the Guardian y Sombras (G&S) system - which is, albeit originating in the muddy soils of Gor, thus far still the most suitable roleplay-system to fit our baroque era. But what to do with it - and could we do more with it to reaffirm the community as a whole in its purpose?
At the moment there are three estates producing, with a more than double number of producers (I think). The Queen's Hamlet sticks to her true colours by being a royal dairy farm and vineyard with a diverse side production. Magritte is a real rural estate in the Dordogne with special attention for its vineyards - and not to forget its function as a market town. To this the Barony's vintner Gaspard and I (present there as banker) opened a local brewery and distillery - Le Cheval Qui Rit . And, lastly, Rocca Sorrentina - which I consider my own laboratory for experimenting with genome strains within the wine system 3.0 (also used by the previous two estates); and which I have now updated to be an appellation vineyard as well with a small distillery to produce local specialties.
Both the Queen's Hamlet and Magritte have fully stocked markets that can boast a wide variety of local products, I would almost dare say that with these two the baroque community produces a near full range of what G&S has to offer.
Consuming is always troublesome if it doesn't have set consequences when you do not; same with G&S. So it's mostly G&S producers that consume to gain energy-points to be able to work and get good results. It would be nice if the rest of our community would take notice of what is produced and use it more. Personally I have tried to promote the use of it on Rocca Sorrentina by regularly bringing cakes and such to the coffee hour, and during the last Carnevale festival I supplied drinks and arranged, with the cookery and presenting skills of Madame Ragueneau of Magritte, banquet tables. I hope this will continue. Not all is suitable, but there are some fine items to display.
I'm so glad to see that where Magritte tunes down, the Queen's Hamlet is active again. I hope there will be more activity in trade, and am most willing to participate in it. Although I only produce wines/brandy on Sorrentina, I do need foods and tools. I purposely do not cook, make our barrels or do repairs, I'd much rather order my needs to give someone else the chance of taking up some part of the G&S-economy. And for this we do not need the Goreans or the public OOC-markets. Trade in materials and products that are not available in our own community could also be something to be picked up.
My point in general being: We as the baroque community could do more in using this system to make bonds that have a basic purpose to roleplay; it opens doors to a class diversity we haven't seen yet. After all this already has a set rp-currency that is easily entered in - I would consider expanding the banking activities to facilitate this - and a full range of applicable roleplayinng options to farming, producing, and consuming.
It is my belief that it has a purpose and could quite possibly the greatest way to make our community a sustainable one from the base. And on top of that you can still drink tea and gossip...
Buongiorno! Che piacere vederti, Conti Rezzonico.
This is certainly an interesting discussion. To add, I believe Sanssouci also used the system to produce items, and some of their residents in the past did. It certainly brings a new personalized touch to roleplay by providing from your own stock. Also, the sheer effort of harvesting them keeps one busy.
I would say historical roleplay has certainly changed. Previously, it was court centered and driven. These days, we shifted not too much into the country, but generally as a society.
That being said, I have long considered setting an actual country estate and producing the items. Generally, it sounds fun. And with Georgian London in works to be re-opened in the future, that could also be a new place we can use the roleplay goods. There is also the Russian Roleplay set in St. Petersburg, that could be a potential market if they are interested.
Best Regards,
Delos.
I have not been aware that Sanssouci had been doing this too. From what I see happening in Russia I think they are more court based, they could of course still use items like foods/drinks; good idea to have a talk some time. There's also Antiquity that has some G&S, but it has now developed its own system. In part great that there is more diversity, on the other hand a pity as you get systems that are not compatible and somehow you work past each other.
I would like to hear more about what kind of estate you'd make it. When Georgian London picks up I do know a certain baker that will be interested to have a bakery in her 'home town'.
Claire-Sophie ( @claire-sophie-de-rocoulle ) runs Sanssouci and has been involved in G&S with both her estate and the Queen's Hamlet. I think she's fairly busy in RL at the moment but you never know when she'll be back tending those fields again
I came to SL with the dreaming of creating a working farm on the Queen's Hamlet. Eleven years later and our community is enjoying some "time in the sun" living & working on the land. It certainly was a challenge getting here. In the early days we really lacked the appropriate "active roleplay" technology so I'm delighted to see how well G&S is working out for us.
That time also helped me establish what kind of RP I was willing to manage. It's my theory that one of the reasons (there are many!) a lot of RP groups fail is because the managers burn out. You start a group because you want to RP yourself and if you're not really careful you end up with a ton of work and no time to play. For what it's worth, my personal idea of RP isn't sitting and drinking tea (even though I do own a Tea Room I'm just terrible at small talk) it's "active" as in creating production chains for farming, mining, fishing etc. and interacting with people involved in the same types of activities.
The Queen's Hamlet is meant to be small and self-sufficient which means that for the production chains we tackle we can take them from start to finish. I always knew that the biggest challenge was going to be at the end of the chain, i.e. finding enough consumers. To combat this we sell at the G&S Co-op (OOC as Abbondio specifies). This helps to a certain extent but the biggest breakthrough has been the recent introduction of Black Market which has increased demand both internally & externally.
Finally to Abbondio's main point, extending & enhancing the larger historical RP community. Our local QH Market exists for this purpose. We don't advertise it to the larger G&S community because the majority of items are sold for coins and we don't want resellers taking advantage of us.
Trading is an interesting topic and it depends on your definition of trade. I personally don't do well bartering one item for another because I just don't have the time for it. On the other hand, there may be others in the QH group that would love to enhance their daily RP with this type of activity. I suggest contacting them directly or posting wanted notices in our Forum.
If your definition of trading is buying and selling, I do a substantial of that on behalf of the QH and I would go out of my way to buy items from other historical RPers before I bought from the G&S population at large. Perhaps it would be useful to post LMs to other market locations?
Exchange of information is another way I can see of bring groups together. I know I've been picking Abbondio's brain about winemaking and I'm always happy to share my experience of other activities. I'd also like to hear more about the banking system. Perhaps Abbondio can post a discussion outlining the ideas behind it.
Looking forward to hearing other ideas … now it's time for a nice cuppa
I agree with you on the rp management; this kills most of them. That - and the fact that they sit on it and not let others take over parts. This whole G&S system just invites to pick up something and ease slowly into it. Although I know quite a few that are farming on an industrial level, thus having another dayjob... To each their own.
I have campaigned at Magritte for setting up a community-based economy, completely cut off from the greater commercial/ooc G&S markets. To enhance rp and stimulate the use of G&S on the estate; and moreoever to give the rp-currency a chance and be used also for other services and products that were not necessarily G&S. Sadly that didn't get picked up.
But I still have the bank I set up for it, the Banco Rezzonico, a total fit to our rp as a Venetian merchant-banking family. We set up an institution where people hold accounts by depositing and withdrawing the G&S-Coin (at Magritte 'livre'). It is, again, mostly used by G&S users. We had great rp with it. People would come in to make a deposit or withdrawal, give orders for transfers to other accounts (paying bills), set up standing orders for paying staff, we even financed setting up business. Interest rates and bank fees even each other out. And during the visits there's always time for rp about other things like business, events, and the town's latest gossip. I think that with the bank we added some kind of key position. And even though I'm less active at Magritte currently, I still have several clients (among them our own brewery's account) for whom I handle affairs. Especially the transfers have become something of a service as people do not always catch each other online, and bills do have to get paid. And of course, we work with actual bank statements in notecards, so each client knows what he has and what is being debited and credited. All is G&S-coin based, but we do provide a service for entry into the system - i.e. starting capital. We maintain an honest rate of 350 coin / 1L$, which was possible because I was able to buy gold at a decent rate and still do at times to keep up the bank's reserves.
It was exclusively set up for Magritte, but I would certainly consider opening it to other baroque players within G&S.