Pregnancy

[Yummri]

I was randomly thinking, and I remember seeing someplace in a thread that admins had made people pregnant for not taking Mulmix and it got me wondering.

How long does that last here? If you went with the standard 9 months...that's 3 years in game. So that is my question.
How long does each race have before they give birth to babies? If that is something you want to roleplay

[Cutthroat]

If you consider the year in Zalanthas to be the same length as a standard earth year (backed up by how aging works similarly between Zalanthas and Earth), we can say that a pregnancy on Earth is 3/4 of a year (9 months).

3/4 of a year in Zalanthas would be two and a quarter Zalanthan months. Or in other words, about 5 RL weeks. That is how long a normal pregnancy would last.

[Riya OniSenshi]

http://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,35066.0.html

You really should try the search function. I doubt a screen-reader is going to impede it very much.

[bcw81]

I did the math on this once back when I was in... Math class.

If you were to calculate from a week to week conversion, it would be around 34 RL days.

If you want to calculate it from a day to day (Or maybe it was hour to hour, can't remember, I'm pulling this info out of the back of my head) conversion it would be around 83 RL days.

Most people go with the week to week.

[Lizzie]

It's however long you interpret 9 months to be. Just make sure you -always- have twins. That's like some kind of rule or something 

[FantasyWriter]

If you consider the year in Zalanthas to be the same length as a standard earth year (backed up by how aging works similarly between Zalanthas and Earth), we can say that a pregnancy on Earth is 3/4 of a year (9 months).

3/4 of a year in Zalanthas would be two and a quarter Zalanthan months. Or in other words, about 5 RL weeks. That is how long a normal pregnancy would last.

This has always made the most sense to me. The calender is wonky relative to Earth's, but the year seems to be the closest reference point we have.

[perfecto]

On the bright side, if you manage to survive the 83 days and then child birth itself you only have to keep going for another RL year and eight months until you can option for your invisible baby child to be played by a real life PC . . .  Given that its a human baby

[Desertman]

My favorite phenomenon in regards to getting pregnant in game.


Talia says, "Oh, Amos and I , we are so in love. I am so pregnant and happy and we will have such a happy family."

One RL week later....

Talia says, "Oh, I'm not pregnant anymore. Amos died hunting and I conveniently lost the baby leaving me open to find someone else to get pregnant by and continue to try and have that happy IC family."

Nothing says consequences like convenient naturally induced abortions at a whim depending on if your mate survives.

I can think of four times I have seen this exact thing happen in exactly this way.

There are probably more instances, these are just the ones I can remember the names of the PC's involved that I witnessed first hand.

You know what they say, once you kank a hunter, you're a single mom.

[Narf]

You know what they say, once you kank a hunter, you're a single mom.

I like to think this is true even if you're male.

[Potaje]

You know what they say, once you kank a hunter, you're a single mom.

I like to think this is true even if you're male.

Except the Zalanthan equal rights have yet to hit genetics, and men are still unable to bare children, hence on one hand not quite in keeping with the meaning. However, if the child was born already, then it could be a true idiom.

[Desertman]

You know what they say, once you kank a hunter, you're a single mom.

I like to think this is true even if you're male.

Wieners don't work that way.

[Sardaukar]

Nothing says consequences like convenient naturally induced abortions at a whim depending on if your mate survives.

I can think of four times I have seen this exact thing happen in exactly this way.

There are probably more instances, these are just the ones I can remember the names of the PC's involved that I witnessed first hand.

You know what they say, once you kank a hunter, you're a single mom.

I think it is important to keep in mind what the dangers of childbirth are in the real world.  For instance, for a woman in Chad the lifetime risk of dying in childbirth is 1 in 15.  As I've pointed out previously, the risk of other terrible complications is much higher.  Again, childbirth in Zalanthas doesn't need to be as dangerous as it is in modern day Chad, but the RL facts are an important frame of reference.

[Desertman]

Nothing says consequences like convenient naturally induced abortions at a whim depending on if your mate survives.

I can think of four times I have seen this exact thing happen in exactly this way.

There are probably more instances, these are just the ones I can remember the names of the PC's involved that I witnessed first hand.

You know what they say, once you kank a hunter, you're a single mom.

I think it is important to keep in mind what the dangers of childbirth are in the real world.  For instance, for a woman in Chad the lifetime risk of dying in childbirth is 1 in 15.  As I've pointed out previously, the risk of other terrible complications is much higher.  Again, childbirth in Zalanthas doesn't need to be as dangerous as it is in modern day Chad, but the RL facts are an important frame of reference.

Oh I'm sure they are capable of making perfect IC sense of it.

But the OOC motivation is what I'm making fun of here.

[Sardaukar]

Nothing says consequences like convenient naturally induced abortions at a whim depending on if your mate survives.

I can think of four times I have seen this exact thing happen in exactly this way.

There are probably more instances, these are just the ones I can remember the names of the PC's involved that I witnessed first hand.

You know what they say, once you kank a hunter, you're a single mom.

I think it is important to keep in mind what the dangers of childbirth are in the real world.  For instance, for a woman in Chad the lifetime risk of dying in childbirth is 1 in 15.  As I've pointed out previously, the risk of other terrible complications is much higher.  Again, childbirth in Zalanthas doesn't need to be as dangerous as it is in modern day Chad, but the RL facts are an important frame of reference.

Oh I'm sure they are capable of making perfect IC sense of it.

But the OOC motivation is what I'm making fun of here.

I believe I agree with you.  The axe that I'm grinding here is that I think in the gritty hardscrabble world of Zalanthas that childbirth should IC'ly include some dread and perceived danger for those involved.

[Desertman]

Nothing says consequences like convenient naturally induced abortions at a whim depending on if your mate survives.

I can think of four times I have seen this exact thing happen in exactly this way.

There are probably more instances, these are just the ones I can remember the names of the PC's involved that I witnessed first hand.

You know what they say, once you kank a hunter, you're a single mom.

I think it is important to keep in mind what the dangers of childbirth are in the real world.  For instance, for a woman in Chad the lifetime risk of dying in childbirth is 1 in 15.  As I've pointed out previously, the risk of other terrible complications is much higher.  Again, childbirth in Zalanthas doesn't need to be as dangerous as it is in modern day Chad, but the RL facts are an important frame of reference.

Oh I'm sure they are capable of making perfect IC sense of it.

But the OOC motivation is what I'm making fun of here.

I believe I agree with you.  The axe that I'm grinding here is that I think in the gritty hardscrabble world of Zalanthas that childbirth should IC'ly include some dread and perceived danger for those involved.

I completely agree.

I would love to see some sort of pregnancy code actually.

I would also like to see a random pregnancy code that was affected by random factors and the use of mul mix.

Never going to happen, but, I would like it.

[ale six]

Nothing says consequences like convenient naturally induced abortions at a whim depending on if your mate survives.

I can think of four times I have seen this exact thing happen in exactly this way.

There are probably more instances, these are just the ones I can remember the names of the PC's involved that I witnessed first hand.

You know what they say, once you kank a hunter, you're a single mom.

I think it is important to keep in mind what the dangers of childbirth are in the real world.  For instance, for a woman in Chad the lifetime risk of dying in childbirth is 1 in 15.  As I've pointed out previously, the risk of other terrible complications is much higher.  Again, childbirth in Zalanthas doesn't need to be as dangerous as it is in modern day Chad, but the RL facts are an important frame of reference.

Oh I'm sure they are capable of making perfect IC sense of it.

But the OOC motivation is what I'm making fun of here.

I believe I agree with you.  The axe that I'm grinding here is that I think in the gritty hardscrabble world of Zalanthas that childbirth should IC'ly include some dread and perceived danger for those involved.

I completely agree.

I would love to see some sort of pregnancy code actually.

I would also like to see a random pregnancy code that was affected by random factors and the use of mul mix.

Never going to happen, but, I would like it.

Desertman, when your pregnancy code goes in, I'm going to roll a rinthi merchant who sells rusty bone coathangers. I'll make millions of sids.

[Desertman]

Desertman, when your pregnancy code goes in, I'm going to roll a rinthi merchant who sells rusty bone coathangers. I'll make millions of sids.

For some reason all I could think was, "How will she get the bone to rust?"

Then the abortion joke hit me.

Allmychuckles.jpg 

[Harmless]

Dman cracks me up in these threads.

[Barzalene]

Sigh, I am too late.
I wanted to point out to Yummri (making some assumptions) that even with the total equality on Zalanthas and the fantasy setting with magic, men still can't have babies.

I am too late.

[tiptoe]

It's however long you interpret 9 months to be. Just make sure you -always- have twins. That's like some kind of rule or something 

Yes, have twins so you can sell one to afford having the other!

But seriously. Why always twins? Masochists.

[FantasyWriter]

Evolutionary advantage due to high mortality rate in childbirth?

[Tyas]

The statistics for this.

100 billion people born.
50 billion children have died.
Pre-birth deaths are at 100 to 300 billion.

1/2 died as children
3/4 died pre-birth

http://www.gspaulscienceofreligion.com/

[ShaLeah]

I totally micromanage my characters babies.

First I decide if they're barren. Then if they want any and to what degree. Then if they kank I roll, every.... single.... time. Mulmix or not. Then if it's a yay I roll for multiple, then gender, then viability, then miscarriage likelihood, etc, etc, etc.

My chars have aborted, lied about the baby daddy, killed the infants, sold them, abandoned them. I have never taken a baby into the pub though. THAT somehow always annoys me. Murdering them seems so much more appropriate.

[Yummri]

Yummri would like to point out that they were just curious and know babies can't be delivered by men even with magic.

You need to wait for the erdlu to bring it silly.

[MeTekillot]

can't they just get pregnant and poop it out? everybody's happy and they get to keep their wiener.

[Fujikoma]

can't they just get pregnant and poop it out? everybody's happy and they get to keep their wiener.

Sudden idea for a half-giant that carries large turds around caring for them like babies.

[RogueGunslinger]

A whole new lower class of society.


The Shitborn.

[MeTekillot]

If homosexuality is as common as the quickstart says it is then everybody's butts should be loose enough for it already

[Potaje]

If homosexuality is as common as the quickstart says it is then everybody's butts should be loose enough for it already

This conversation is.. Asinine..

[RogueGunslinger]

I agree, this is absurd!

Women should birth from their asses too, to make things truly equal.

[MeTekillot]

If homosexuality is as common as the quickstart says it is then everybody's butts should be loose enough for it already

This conversation is.. Asinine..

fascist.

[RogueGunslinger]

If homosexuality is as common as the quickstart says it is then everybody's butts should be loose enough for it already

This conversation is.. Asinine..

fascist.

Let me assist you for you have assumed wrong...

Potaje is an Asscist.

[MeTekillot]

tru

[TheWanderer]

[LauraMars]

can't they just get pregnant and poop it out? everybody's happy and they get to keep their wiener.

Sudden idea for a half-giant that carries large turds around caring for them like babies.

I'm pretty sure there is a Sandman story involving Thor, Loki, and a squirrel that exactly addresses this.

[Potaje]

You both are obviously lost on the humor of my word, though I enjoy Asscist, much.. for the word not the meaning.. But at least we are both in keeping with the conversation on -asses-.

[RogueGunslinger]

You both are obviously lost on the humor of my word, though I enjoy Asscist, much.. for the word not the meaning.. But at least we are both in keeping with the conversation on -asses-.

I should at least get extra poins for assume and assist.

[FantasyWriter]

Speaking of Loki, he -did- give birth to three children.

[Malken]

Speaking of Loki, he -did- give birth to three children.

He only gave birth to one eight-legged horse child, and that was while he was in the form of a mare and was impregnated by a stallion.

[Zoan]

There is literally no reason for babies in Arm except as emergency food that doesn't spoil.

[Malken]

I always thought of pregnancies as one last ditch effort to put some "excitement" in two characters' life or a character.

One character who I had like 2-3 children (+ inheriting like two previous children from random dead hunters) with drove me to the edge of insanity with her perfect role-playing of what having babies in a world like Armageddon would be like, so kudos to that, but krath did I go insane each time I would log in and be way'ed that the child's fever wouldn't go down and I had to drop everything to come and take care of the baby or that the little bastard had puked all over my favorite shirt and she had to junk it.

And of course, she didn't want to just leave those 4-5 kids in our tiny apartment so we could go hunting, so we had to cross halfway through Tuluk just to go drop five screaming children to my virtual PC's mother and then the virtual mother wouldn't just let us leave, she'd invite us in for a meal while my PC's mate and her discussed life and and.. Urgh!

[RogueGunslinger]

That's fucking beautiful.

[Lizzie]

I always thought of pregnancies as one last ditch effort to put some "excitement" in two characters' life or a character.

One character who I had like 2-3 children (+ inheriting like two previous children from random dead hunters) with drove me to the edge of insanity with her perfect role-playing of what having babies in a world like Armageddon would be like, so kudos to that, but krath did I go insane each time I would log in and be way'ed that the child's fever wouldn't go down and I had to drop everything to come and take care of the baby or that the little bastard had puked all over my favorite shirt and she had to junk it.

And of course, she didn't want to just leave those 4-5 kids in our tiny apartment so we could go hunting, so we had to cross halfway through Tuluk just to go drop five screaming children to my virtual PC's mother and then the virtual mother wouldn't just let us leave, she'd invite us in for a meal while my PC's mate and her discussed life and and.. Urgh!

You can avoid all of these virtual roleplaying sessions with virtual npcs and virtual children with virtual vomit, by simply rendering all of your characters virtually, permanently infertile.

[Malken]

I always thought of pregnancies as one last ditch effort to put some "excitement" in two characters' life or a character.

One character who I had like 2-3 children (+ inheriting like two previous children from random dead hunters) with drove me to the edge of insanity with her perfect role-playing of what having babies in a world like Armageddon would be like, so kudos to that, but krath did I go insane each time I would log in and be way'ed that the child's fever wouldn't go down and I had to drop everything to come and take care of the baby or that the little bastard had puked all over my favorite shirt and she had to junk it.

And of course, she didn't want to just leave those 4-5 kids in our tiny apartment so we could go hunting, so we had to cross halfway through Tuluk just to go drop five screaming children to my virtual PC's mother and then the virtual mother wouldn't just let us leave, she'd invite us in for a meal while my PC's mate and her discussed life and and.. Urgh!

You can avoid all of these virtual roleplaying sessions with virtual npcs and virtual children with virtual vomit, by simply rendering all of your characters virtually, permanently infertile.

Being driven insane by women we love is a huge part of being a man.

[Ourla]

I always thought of pregnancies as one last ditch effort to put some "excitement" in two characters' life or a character.

One character who I had like 2-3 children (+ inheriting like two previous children from random dead hunters) with drove me to the edge of insanity with her perfect role-playing of what having babies in a world like Armageddon would be like, so kudos to that, but krath did I go insane each time I would log in and be way'ed that the child's fever wouldn't go down and I had to drop everything to come and take care of the baby or that the little bastard had puked all over my favorite shirt and she had to junk it.

And of course, she didn't want to just leave those 4-5 kids in our tiny apartment so we could go hunting, so we had to cross halfway through Tuluk just to go drop five screaming children to my virtual PC's mother and then the virtual mother wouldn't just let us leave, she'd invite us in for a meal while my PC's mate and her discussed life and and.. Urgh!

You can avoid all of these virtual roleplaying sessions with virtual npcs and virtual children with virtual vomit, by simply rendering all of your characters virtually, permanently infertile.

This is what I do. Realism be damned. I'm raising a kid IRL and my preferred form of escapism does not, and will not ever, include children.

[Inks]

I think Malken's story is awesome.  And I think props to anyone who can rp it like that. If I see people getting instant abortions the second the mate dies my finger slides towards the kill button. Kudos to you virtual single mums

I don't actually kill people for this reason. I just want them to give me IC motive.

[greasygemo]

I always thought of pregnancies as one last ditch effort to put some "excitement" in two characters' life or a character.

One character who I had like 2-3 children (+ inheriting like two previous children from random dead hunters) with drove me to the edge of insanity with her perfect role-playing of what having babies in a world like Armageddon would be like, so kudos to that, but krath did I go insane each time I would log in and be way'ed that the child's fever wouldn't go down and I had to drop everything to come and take care of the baby or that the little bastard had puked all over my favorite shirt and she had to junk it.

And of course, she didn't want to just leave those 4-5 kids in our tiny apartment so we could go hunting, so we had to cross halfway through Tuluk just to go drop five screaming children to my virtual PC's mother and then the virtual mother wouldn't just let us leave, she'd invite us in for a meal while my PC's mate and her discussed life and and.. Urgh!

Ahh but it's so fun when bebe gets his first bludgeoning weapon.. toy.. er.. *cough* Zalanthian Parenthood. Sometimes, it's awesome.

VNPC kids and pregnancy, are only great, if you sign onto it with full intent to attempt to keep that brood alive, know they will barf on people, cry, get sick, get hurt, hurt you (especially if you're a woman, you best be puking and mewling sometimes from all that heat and the smell of those midden heaps!) And just like in real life, some people will go omg stay away with those monsterous brats, and some people with be bloody delighted with them.

It is -HARD- to consistently RP it, but holy damn it can be fun as hell. Not everyone will enjoy the style of play, but I personally love a really vile and hilariously awful VNPC family if I so choose to start with or obtain one. ^^

[Lizzie]

The problem with VNPC children, is that they can't be codedly stolen. For instance -

You're at the bar, bouncing your 1-year-old on your knee. Because, y'know, that's where people bring their 1-year-olds. To bars, where there are thieving elves and magicker gemmers and rinth-rat backstabbers and corrupt soldiers and drunken Bynners.

So you're there - and one of those backstabbing rinth-rat elven thieves is hiding under the bar - and..

emote grabs %greasygemo babeh in mid-bounce and whooshes the kid away from the bar.
n

So - how is the templar going to know where the kid is being held - if the kid doesn't codedly exist? No one will EVER be able to find it. Or the corpse. They won't be able to find it, because - it doesn't exist, in this world where people codedly exist.

Or let's say...your kid is really the stuffed gwoshi doll with an arranged ldesc.

This room <NESWUD LEAVE>
It has a description.
A tow-headed little boy is here playing with a stuffed gwoshi doll.

Except - you did that an hour ago - and logged out for the night. And the game crashed 5 minutes later, and the ldesc didn't get saved.

So Joe Burglar shows up and sees a stuffed gwoshi doll is here, on the floor.

He thinks oh cool gwoshi doll for my f-me Muarki girlfriend. And he takes the doll.

You log back in the next day and OMGWTFBBQ MAH BABBEH IS STOLED!

But no one stole your baby. It's right there, virtually, exactly where it was when you virtually left it there. But because it's virtual, you can't see it anymore. But you don't know that, because you logged out prior to this. But your -character- didn't log out. Your -character- was virtually there the whole time, virtually taking care of her virtual baby.

The whole baby thing is just so convoluted - not to mention that the baby ceases to exist as soon as mom and dad get bahameted.

[Malken]

I always thought of pregnancies as one last ditch effort to put some "excitement" in two characters' life or a character.

One character who I had like 2-3 children (+ inheriting like two previous children from random dead hunters) with drove me to the edge of insanity with her perfect role-playing of what having babies in a world like Armageddon would be like, so kudos to that, but krath did I go insane each time I would log in and be way'ed that the child's fever wouldn't go down and I had to drop everything to come and take care of the baby or that the little bastard had puked all over my favorite shirt and she had to junk it.

And of course, she didn't want to just leave those 4-5 kids in our tiny apartment so we could go hunting, so we had to cross halfway through Tuluk just to go drop five screaming children to my virtual PC's mother and then the virtual mother wouldn't just let us leave, she'd invite us in for a meal while my PC's mate and her discussed life and and.. Urgh!

Ahh but it's so fun when bebe gets his first bludgeoning weapon.. toy.. er.. *cough* Zalanthian Parenthood. Sometimes, it's awesome.

VNPC kids and pregnancy, are only great, if you sign onto it with full intent to attempt to keep that brood alive, know they will barf on people, cry, get sick, get hurt, hurt you (especially if you're a woman, you best be puking and mewling sometimes from all that heat and the smell of those midden heaps!) And just like in real life, some people will go omg stay away with those monsterous brats, and some people with be bloody delighted with them.

It is -HARD- to consistently RP it, but holy damn it can be fun as hell. Not everyone will enjoy the style of play, but I personally love a really vile and hilariously awful VNPC family if I so choose to start with or obtain one. ^^

I knew my parenthood horror story would summon you, you masochistic rper you

and Lizzie, really, there are tons of stuff that can be screwed up majestically due to the virtual world that surrounds our PCs, your example is just another example of what ifs that could include so many other stuff.

and like I said, it wasn't in our habits to just leave the virtual children without supervision by either us or another virtual character, so unless that burglar also decided to kidnap my PC's mother (something I wished for so much!), that just wasn't going to happen.

People also have virtual brothers and sisters and no one bitches that you can't attack or kidnap these people..

[greasygemo]

I would hope if anyone tried to steal mah bebe, they wouldn't power emote it, and instead, give me a chance to put the bebe down and attempt to fight them to the death for rights to the aforementioned bebe. xD

[Lizzie]

I always thought of pregnancies as one last ditch effort to put some "excitement" in two characters' life or a character.

One character who I had like 2-3 children (+ inheriting like two previous children from random dead hunters) with drove me to the edge of insanity with her perfect role-playing of what having babies in a world like Armageddon would be like, so kudos to that, but krath did I go insane each time I would log in and be way'ed that the child's fever wouldn't go down and I had to drop everything to come and take care of the baby or that the little bastard had puked all over my favorite shirt and she had to junk it.

And of course, she didn't want to just leave those 4-5 kids in our tiny apartment so we could go hunting, so we had to cross halfway through Tuluk just to go drop five screaming children to my virtual PC's mother and then the virtual mother wouldn't just let us leave, she'd invite us in for a meal while my PC's mate and her discussed life and and.. Urgh!

Ahh but it's so fun when bebe gets his first bludgeoning weapon.. toy.. er.. *cough* Zalanthian Parenthood. Sometimes, it's awesome.

VNPC kids and pregnancy, are only great, if you sign onto it with full intent to attempt to keep that brood alive, know they will barf on people, cry, get sick, get hurt, hurt you (especially if you're a woman, you best be puking and mewling sometimes from all that heat and the smell of those midden heaps!) And just like in real life, some people will go omg stay away with those monsterous brats, and some people with be bloody delighted with them.

It is -HARD- to consistently RP it, but holy damn it can be fun as hell. Not everyone will enjoy the style of play, but I personally love a really vile and hilariously awful VNPC family if I so choose to start with or obtain one. ^^

I knew my parenthood horror story would summon you, you masochistic rper you

and Lizzie, really, there are tons of stuff that can be screwed up majestically due to the virtual world that surrounds our PCs, your example is just another example of what ifs that could include so many other stuff.

and like I said, it wasn't in our habits to just leave the virtual children without supervision by either us or another virtual character, so unless that burglar also decided to kidnap my PC's mother (something I wished for so much!), that just wasn't going to happen.

People also have virtual brothers and sisters and no one bitches that you can't attack or kidnap these people..

Because most of us are content for our virtual families to be virtual, and not try to bring them to life as non-virtual people by using emotes and ldescs.  My virtual brother and sister might die, or get kidnapped, by virtual killers and kidnappers. And I'll roleplay my reaction to learning about it. But I'm not going to emote their presence in a bar, I won't be emoting that they're talking to me or someone else, I won't be emoting that I'm walking around with them up the street. And they're all of an age that they can get up and leave when they're in a virtual apartment, so I don't have to worry about who is taking care of them when my character isn't at that virtual apartment taking care of them.

My virtual family is a roleplay device to explain my character's existence. Beyond that, they are just that: virtual. Non-existent. Out of sight, not available for PCs to interact with. They are the people off-camera in the TV show called Armageddon.

[Malken]

I always thought of pregnancies as one last ditch effort to put some "excitement" in two characters' life or a character.

One character who I had like 2-3 children (+ inheriting like two previous children from random dead hunters) with drove me to the edge of insanity with her perfect role-playing of what having babies in a world like Armageddon would be like, so kudos to that, but krath did I go insane each time I would log in and be way'ed that the child's fever wouldn't go down and I had to drop everything to come and take care of the baby or that the little bastard had puked all over my favorite shirt and she had to junk it.

And of course, she didn't want to just leave those 4-5 kids in our tiny apartment so we could go hunting, so we had to cross halfway through Tuluk just to go drop five screaming children to my virtual PC's mother and then the virtual mother wouldn't just let us leave, she'd invite us in for a meal while my PC's mate and her discussed life and and.. Urgh!

Ahh but it's so fun when bebe gets his first bludgeoning weapon.. toy.. er.. *cough* Zalanthian Parenthood. Sometimes, it's awesome.

VNPC kids and pregnancy, are only great, if you sign onto it with full intent to attempt to keep that brood alive, know they will barf on people, cry, get sick, get hurt, hurt you (especially if you're a woman, you best be puking and mewling sometimes from all that heat and the smell of those midden heaps!) And just like in real life, some people will go omg stay away with those monsterous brats, and some people with be bloody delighted with them.

It is -HARD- to consistently RP it, but holy damn it can be fun as hell. Not everyone will enjoy the style of play, but I personally love a really vile and hilariously awful VNPC family if I so choose to start with or obtain one. ^^

I knew my parenthood horror story would summon you, you masochistic rper you

and Lizzie, really, there are tons of stuff that can be screwed up majestically due to the virtual world that surrounds our PCs, your example is just another example of what ifs that could include so many other stuff.

and like I said, it wasn't in our habits to just leave the virtual children without supervision by either us or another virtual character, so unless that burglar also decided to kidnap my PC's mother (something I wished for so much!), that just wasn't going to happen.

People also have virtual brothers and sisters and no one bitches that you can't attack or kidnap these people..

Because most of us are content for our virtual families to be virtual, and not try to bring them to life as non-virtual people by using emotes and ldescs.  My virtual brother and sister might die, or get kidnapped, by virtual killers and kidnappers. And I'll roleplay my reaction to learning about it. But I'm not going to emote their presence in a bar, I won't be emoting that they're talking to me or someone else, I won't be emoting that I'm walking around with them up the street. And they're all of an age that they can get up and leave when they're in a virtual apartment, so I don't have to worry about who is taking care of them when my character isn't at that virtual apartment taking care of them.

My virtual family is a roleplay device to explain my character's existence. Beyond that, they are just that: virtual. Non-existent. Out of sight, not available for PCs to interact with. They are the people off-camera in the TV show called Armageddon.

You're sounding like someone here said that you should be forced to role play pregnancies in game.. I can understand your hatred for it and respect it, there are roles and things I'd never want to role play in the game as well.

I'd take a pregnancy role play over sparring all day long anytime, but that's me, so to each their own fun, yeah?

[Yummri]

I'm pretty sure it is expected that you do include them in some way if the are alive from time to time to create a better background. So while you may choose not to do this, if you turned around and openly refused to rp with someone introducing their brother, mother, uncle or daughter to you then you are acting against the spirit of roleplay.

Babies happen or else the game's population would die off and there would be no game. Peoples brothers and stuff could be kidnapped and I'm sure an admin would, if they were able, create an npc for this temp mini-plot to allow for a further branch of roleplay.

The babies while vnpc can't be targeted but an admin could maybe do this too. Especially when that baby is then old enough to be played by a player. But I would whole heartidly encourage people to play these things out more. It gives more of a story and more of a realistic feel than to suddenly never see your parents or siblings again and anyone doing this I personally feel is bad form.

Though anyone playing out these details you have my deepest thanks. Hopefully I will get to enjoy the  in depth roleplay you wish to provide. But it is to each their own.

[Delirium]

Keep the gameworld in mind, think outside the codebox, and you'll do just fine. Geez.

[greasygemo]

No way! VNPC's are awesome for a flavorful world! I've seen people do wonderful stuff with VNPC's. I knew a half-breed with a neglectful, brutish VNPC mom who worked in a bar and we'd visit them and the breed would get cussed out even as they tried to curry her favour, or the hilarious siblings of other PC's who we're always just so displeased with the PC's actions and chiding them constantly... or the VNPC hookers that PC's would emote leering over and paying and then taking a trip to a booth..

Done well, a VNPC can make a scene just that much more amusing.

EDIT: Not to derail, but it's all about remembering the game world has a way larger VNPC population than a PC or NPC population. As it's been said, all our PC's are just the unfortunate VNPC's we elected to give more prominent lives. And since we can't roll a baby PC, then VNPC's it is!

[Malken]

If I wanted to spend my time babysitting a bunch of real crybaby PCs who have the average IQ of a five year old, I'd play a Byn Sergeant anyway.

*ducks and crawls out of the thread*

[Tenua]

I miss the days of coded babies.... That you could eat.

[ale six]

Keep the gameworld in mind, think outside the codebox, and you'll do just fine. Geez.

I love that term. Wanna have my babies?

[Barzalene]

I miss the days of coded babies.... That you could eat.

I like you, Tenua.

[Tenua]

I miss the days of coded babies.... That you could eat.

I like you, Tenua.

Thanks! I like you too!

Also, the days of coded babies there wouldn't been none of this "virtual" issues arrising. People could actually STEAL the babies. But then the Imms(as staff was called at the time) had to code all these baby items. First food, then as weapons....

Code Select Expand

etwo baby

>You brandish the blue-eyed baby in both hands.

[boog]

Just es a blanket or something. Bam. Stealable bebe.

[Lizzie]

Just es a blanket or something. Bam. Stealable bebe.

Except when noob burglar #479 comes along and steals the blanket. Or when the game crashes shortly after the ldesc was set, and comes back with "a blanket is here, on the floor." Or when mommy grabs the wrong "brown" by mistake and logs out. And when the ldesc'ed baby IS there in the apartment, playing on the floor - where's mommy? Where is someone to feed the kid, diaper the kid, water the kid, make sure the kid doesn't crawl into the hammer-carved wooden chest filled with 47 obsidian daggers?

And what happens if you es it, and someone just wants to steal the blanket? If you're sitting at a table, you can't set your ldesc to show that you're carrying a baby. Noob maxed master pickpocket #862 walks into the bar, peeks at a few people. Sees the obsidian-bladed blanket of doom in your hand, and before you can throw down an emote to make sure everyone in the bar knows, for the 400th time, that you are holding a baby (since you have to do that EVERY time someone walks in or they won't know), your blanket is gone. But the baby is not? Or is it? How would you know? How would anyone know, other than the thief, who knows damned well he didn't steal any baby, because he only stole a blanket?

[perfecto]

I too found it extremely challenging to keep coming up with different things to carry or emote to show the world I was supposed to be caring for an invisible baby. Even more challenging were the first couple years of its life when it should be up and walking and learning to talk and now it doesn't even make sense to carry a blanket around! I found that I had to come up with a sdesc which I had to physicaly type out every single time I was refering to my invisible young infant child. Which was a pain in itself, though even after I did that, anyone who knew what I was using as the sdesc could use it just the same way like ~ the dastardly elf holds out his arms for the waddling fat-headed infant, scooping it up and running out the door! ~  I guess it boils down to much of what is parenthood in real life, you gotta keep yer fecking eyes on those kids at all times!  Still, I think it would have been a lot easier to RP with if they still had coded baby objects.

[RogueGunslinger]

This is a roleplaying game, Lizzie. You sometimes have to suspend disbelief and go along with things for the sake of fun roleplay.

All I see you doing is bringing up obscure problems that I've never seen happen in the game. If you want to steal someone's VNPC baby coordinate with staff. It has been done before in this very game, so maybe stop coming up with crazy scenarios that make interacting with VNPC's a bad thing. VNPC interaction is a good thing.

Like someone else said there are numerous problems that might arise is someone isn't corroborating with others over a virtual thing... But I've never seen that happen. Usually everyone gets what's going on and get to have a little fun and interact with the VNPC too.

I've never even remotely heard of the situations you are describing arising.

[ShaLeah]

I found it easy to foreplay crumb snatchers in a tribal environment, where I found it appropriate to follow the "It takes a village to raise a child" philosophy.  

I don't see Zalanthas doing that in most places. It's you and your mate and whatever vNPCs you manage to create. I think there would be a lot less babies if we had to get an object but the roleplay would be so much more realistic because it forces the PC to be accountable.  Remember, don't log out with your babies left in the room unattended! Hah.
I highly doubt staff would want to deal with that shit.

[Ourla]

I found it easy to foreplay crumb snatchers

[ShaLeah]

I found it easy to foreplay crumb snatchers

Damn you autocorrect! Roleplay not foreplay!

[Kalai]

One of my characters got pregnant, I realized I had a crippling fear of any possible outcome aside from being assassinated and had to store.
Probably should have gone with being assassinated now that I think about it. But the stress got to me.
I admire anyone brave enough to roleplay such things.