Category: Reviews

A  year ago, we visited Somewhere Else BKLYN, a region designed by Littlesquaw and ToXxicShadow and intended primarily for Second Life photography (see Somewhere Else in Second Life).  Now Littlesquaw is back with a another take of a city setting with Midnight in Paris. Once again, it is a region offered as a photogenic setting that presents numerous opportunities for avatar photography – and for those who were in the BKLYN group, that same group is used for rezzing rights in this build.

As the name suggests, the region presents a view of Paris at night – a length of the Seine, in fact, with its familiar bankside roads on either side and steps descending to public walks just above the river’s waters.  A barge is chugging its way along the river, passing under one of the arched bridges, while town houses and business places stand to attention along the roads on either side.

The majority of the buildings at little more than façades, although a small bistro towards the middle of the north bank of the river offers an interior setting alongside a cobbled courtyard, beyond which lies a small park.

This may all sound simple – and in a sense, it is – but there is beauty (and care) in this apparent simplicity. The beauty is in the night-time setting, the use of lighting (you really should have the viewer’s Advanced lighting Model active  – Preferences → Graphics → Advanced Lighting Model).

The care comes from things like the inclusion of static NPCs that add a sense of human presence along the streets, the use of weather to offer a sense of change: rain is falling still on the south bank of the river, whilst on the north, some the the streets still have puddles from the recently-passed shower, whilst here and there cobblestone glisten in  the wake of its passage.

Further life is added by the presence of one or two little side streets of the kind that can so often be found when exploring a city like Paris; streets that carry you away from the familiar cosmopolitan bustle and into places where family businesses can still be found.

Quite where this scene might be in Paris isn’t important. While the Eiffel Tower forms a backdrop to the setting, whether or not Midnight in Paris is actually based on a part of the city simply isn’t important: the atmosphere created within the region is more than enough to carry you there – and have given those who have visited the inspiration to offer their own interpretations of Parisian life via the region’s Flickr group.

SLurl Details

• Midnight in Paris (Marion, rated General)

Seaclaid is a place that appeared in the Destination Guide under both the Recently Added and Editor’s picks category. Described as a fantasy role-play region, there was something about it that caught my eye and had me hopping over to take a look – only to find an intriguing mix of settings, ideas and design that is brought together in the most aesthetically pleasing and attention-holding manner.

Designed by KitKat (KatieLuna), the region welcomes all creatures of fantasy – fae folk, dragons, lycans, vampires (but *no* Bloodlines HUDs) – and even us mortal, ordinary (but nonetheless pesky!) humans too – offering all such folk a warm welcome via the accompanying website:

The fae have returned home. The long abandon isle springs back to life. Light, laughter and magic abound in the air, the water, the very ground beneath your feet. Come find a new home among friends in our role play community.

– Seaclaid website

Surrounded by mountains and sitting under a night sky lit by a mix of the blinking eyes of stars and the flash of coastal lightning, the island is veiled from the world by both. The landing point lies a little off-centre, sitting on a cobbled street tucked under the shadow of the castle that dominates the landscape. Aligned along a north-south line, the great hall of the castle looks out over the enclosed harbour of the town beneath it.

The street itself runs south towards the castle on its raised table of rock, the maw of a tunnel appearing as if it might provide access to whatever lies beneath the castle proper – but as you approach it, baleful red eyes glare outwards from the tunnel’s depths, suggesting that venturing into it might not by a good idea.

Whilst at the landing point, people have the opportunity to follow links to join the local group, find the region’s Discord server and website  and – for those just visiting rather than engaging in role-play – obtain a visitor’s tag.

The town, with European and colonial style buildings and cottages and paved piazzas, offers a curious mix of time frames that is engaging. Arranged around the small harbour with its cosy little beach, both of which are protected by the span of a broad bridge, there is a sense of enormous age within the town that mixes well with the modern cosmopolitan air it wraps about itself in the form of the bicycles racked next to the magazine stand, the little bistro café, the pub on the corner of the piazza and so on.

The town’s businesses also offer a curious mix of the ordinary and extraordinary: again, the café and the pub, together with an art gallery  sitting in the former, while the waterfront apothecary’s coach and the strange blue light spilling from an upstairs window of one of the waterfront houses hint at the potential for magic and mystery to be had here.

From the harbour, cobbled roads flanked by footpaths meander outwards to point the ways that might be taken through the rest of the region. Eastwards, one of these curls between a narrow second bay that cuts into the rocky uplands and the mist-shrouded churchyard with its neighbouring manse. Twisting again, the road runs along the side of a manor house shrouded by trees before turning south and then west, rising to pass by the imposing entrance to the castle to reach the western side of the region and that high, broad bridge where lighting flickers and thunder rumbles.

To the north-west of the town sits a little village of quaint cottages. It can be reached by following the road noted above or by heading due west along the landing point street, passing through another tunnel in the process. Take this road north from where it leaves the tunnel, rather than following it into the village, and it will take you to the wilder parts of the land.

Following the rugged coast, this road uses a humped bridge to leap a gorge that feeds water from the surrounding lake through to where the east side bay cuts into the land. Beyond the gorge, the road runs to an end and an enchanted woodland begins. Within this lie turf-roofs cottages overlooked by a flatted-roofed structure with an otherworldly feel (reached by climbing the green slopes to it or by finding the stone stairs that rise to it from the back of the town). In turn, the cottages and woodland looks down on a the misty stone of a henge hiding from the rest of the region on the north-east corner of the land.

Many of the cottages and houses around the region are available for rent at a modest fee for those who wish to make Seaclaid their role-play home (so please keep this in mind when visiting the region to avoid intruding on people’s privacy), while the role-play itself marked by minimal rules and has a focus on creative, community storytelling.

Rich in detail, sounds and ideally suited to its environment settings, Seaclaid lives up to the idea of being an immersive, atmospheric fantasy role-play setting, and those interested in joining in with activities should contact KitKat in-world.

SLurl Details

• Seaclaid (Fantasy Forest, rated Moderate)