Tag: Exploring SL Archives

Clifton Forge is a half Full region offering “modern supernatural para role-playing,” featuring humans, witches, vampires, and werewolves.

Supported by its own website, the setting is distinctly urban, representing a small city nestled within a mountain environment. It is intended to offer a place where, “blissful everyday living masks a darker and more turbulent truth”, the website setting-up a place where normalcy forms a blanket over a range of strange activities which those interested in role-playing within the environment can then take-up:

All manner of depravity conceals itself behind a flawless veneer here; the Hotel’s façade is cracked by stories of staff suicides, the Church here asks for alms – but whether it intends to divert these funds to charitable causes or fill its own coffers is unknown. A harried city cop turns Sheriff in what some might see as a peaceful retirement plan, while others wonder why she has escaped to a more pastoral clime. Everyone has a secret – what is yours?

Like many RP environments in Second Life, the official landing point sits in the sky over the parcel in the sumptuous setting of a grand hall. Here visitors can contact the Clifton Forge administrators, and follow browser links to the RP back-story, rules and apply to join the group to participate in local role-play. Those arriving at the landing point will also be asked to join the local Out Of Character (OCC) group prior to making a visit down to the city proper. The group is free to join and helps mark visitors as non-playing characters during a visit, and you can always leave it following a visit if you have no interest in remaining a member.

Taking the main teleport to group level will deliver visitors to the east side of the parcel, and a further teleport board ready to take people onwards to some of the principal points of interest in the city which might conceivably be leaping-off points for role-play opportunities. These include some typical locations for any city setting: the local church, the hotel, the medical centre, the police station, places to sit and eat or find entertainment, and so on. However, the setting is far better seen by exploring on foot or by using the local bicycles available from the rezzer located close by.

The town is split into two, with the portion that contains the landing point also offering the main square, the city hall, the emergency facilities, various businesses and paths to some of the local residencies (note that some or all of the latter are available for rent, so do be aware of the potential to trespass into someone’s home when exploring). The second of the city’s districts – reached via a single tunnel – is home to the church and the hotel, together with further local businesses, before giving way to a more rural setting, of rocky bluffs and woodlands in which sit shacks and cabins.

Given the city only occupies a half region, attempts have been made to make use of elevation in places – notably the woodland area mentioned above, and with some of the rental properties and the church. This, together with at least one underground parking area both adds literal depth to the setting as well as making role-play more interesting by providing a sense of greater space than had things been kept more-or-less on the one level across the parcel.

When exploring, notes that there are NPCs dotted around. some of these – such as the bouncer outside of the Castle House – will provide note cards when touched, and these cards contain game play information and local rules (e.g. such as player being frisked and fully disarmed before entering an establishment).

One or two aspects of the setting look like they might still be under development – I noted a couple of floating pieces of vegetation in the sky above the town, and the ground around Castle House looks like it might be awaiting further landscaping. However, the setting is, overall, as it is presented in the description: an urban environment representative of a small city; one that is awaiting a cast of role-players.  If you’re into the supernatural and are looking for a role-play environment that offers in in a modern setting, might be interested in taking a look – just note that for the purposes of this article, I did adjust my windlight settings away from the local default.

SLurl Details

• Clifton Forge (Shadow Mountain, rated Adult)

Highland Hills is the name given to a quarter Full region designed by EloiseBlake, and it is a place that packs a lot into it. Open to the sea on two sides, the parcel is described as the “Highlands of Scotland. A forgotten era. Ruined, rural and rustic. Where nature has claimed its home.”

As a representation of the Scottish highlands, I’d perhaps suggest the parcel is intended to offer some the many aspects of the highlands – the rugged hills, the rough, weather coastline, hints of glen-like slopes (al be they narrow), rushing streams, and so on – rather than any single place within them. In doing so, it presents a rough-hewn landscape that is entirely its own, one that invites exploration.

The ruins referenced in the description come in multiple forms, from the great round bulk of a coastal tower, sitting atop a shoulder of rock and protected on two sides by open sea – or perhaps intended to command an offensive view over the waters – to the squat rectangle of a castle keep brooding against the western cliffs of the land.

Between and around these two are multiple signs of what might have once been an extensive fortification – the ruins of curtain walls, ached entrances that might once have been guarded by stout gates, the remnants of a chapel, and so on. Are these all symbolic of a once might castle that dominated the landscape at some point in the past? Or are they indicative of multiple attempts to fortify and hold the land during different times in its violent history? That’s one of many questions the visitor might be tempted to ask, although the lay of the land perhaps points to the various ruins being somewhat separate in nature.

More recently, the land has become home to a small farm, the house of which sits in the lee of the great round tower, with a cattle barn sitting across the parcel from it, overlooking the eastern coast. The latter is intended to be the home for shaggy highland cattle, but the cows appear to have had other ideas, an open gate affording them the opportunity to wander down to the rocks sitting above the coastal waters.

Also down among the rocks can be found the detritus of human life: abandoned crates, broken rowing boats and so on – some of which offer places to sit. More places to sit and relax can be found scattered across the parcel, most of them easily reached from the landing point by following the dirt tracks that roll away from it. One of the latter will take visitors past the great tower, then the little farmhouse, and onwards to where beehives have been carefully set among the heather. Just to one side of these a great tree has, at some point in the past collapsed, its aged trunk now a convenient bridge by which to reach the rectangular castle keep.

In truth, getting around parts of the region can require a bit of scrambling and / or searching. Take the main steps up to the castle keep, for example. They link keep with an entry arch and one of the tracks running through the land – but the entrance itself is blocked by the stones that have fallen from the top of the arch, the keystone presumably having given way at some point in the past. On the one hand, this leaves visitors struggling to get over the fallen stones in order to climb the steps beyond, but on the other it cleverly encourages people to look for an alternate route – and those who do can be rewarded by further discoveries of hidden spots on their way up to the keep.

Similarly, finding the way up to the round tower is – without cheating – a little bit of a game of exploration. While it is possible to get up to it from inland, the easier route perhaps lies elsewhere. All I’ll say by way of a clue is that to go up, you first need to go down.

Finished with a sound scape fully in keeping with the setting, Highland Hills makes for a diverting visit with plenty to see without taking up a huge amount of time, and opportunities for photography, and pictures can also be submitted to the parcel’s Flickr pool.

SLurl Details

• Highland Hills (The Crossroads Event, rated Moderate)

Designed by SimoneFiore on behalf of region holder ThisIsMyAltsAlt, Alternate Reality is a homestead region open to the public on the basis of joining the local group (no fee required).

Offering a simple, low-lying island, it is a place with plenty of space, most of which is open to the public, with the exception of the house located towards the north-west of the region, sitting within a private parcel clearly denoted by ban lines should you get too close.

Predominantly sandy, Alternate Reality is home to scattered clumps of grass, all of varying sizes, which break through the surrounding sand like islands poking up above the surface of an ocean.

These little islands of green sit under the shade of trees that grow above them, tress that largely suggest that this is place located within temperate, rather than tropical climbs – although there are a few palm trees and other suggestion that perhaps we’re not that far from the warmer tropics.

Within this setting are numerous opportunities for photography (as group access is required, rezzing of props is also possible) and some fun activities – including a see-saw, beach volleyball and swings. There are also multiples places to sit and relax. These can be found along the beach  in shaded little hideaways. Or, for those who prefer, there is a bar, with indoor and outdoor seating, again offering opportunities for photographs while the deck across the sand from the bar is a DJ’s set-up, suggestive of music events.

This is an easy location to tour, requiring little in the way of description, offering a quiet getaway that demonstrates that when it comes to landscaping, sometimes, less really is more. So, this being the case, and unusually for me, I’ll leave you with a couple of back-to-back photos.

SLurl Details

• Alternate Reality (Five Fathoms Deep, rated: Moderate)

Nevglide Gaard is described by its designer and holder, Neaira Aszkenaze as “the second chapter in the Nevgilde Story”, continuing as it does the Nordic theme of Neaira’s builds, which are intended to offer something of a feel of the wilds of Norway. We visited the first chapter, Nevglide Forest, back in late 2018 (see: Nevgilde Forest in Second Life), so when Shawn Shakespeare poked me with a reminder that Nevglide Gaard was open for exploration, we were happy to hop over and resume explorations.

This second chapter sits within a new – and slightly smaller – location: a parcel of some 8176 sq metres. It sits with a north-south orientation, two sides open to the sea and the entire design once again proof that you don’t actually need an entire region to create something eye-catching and worth visiting.

The parcel offers a rugged finger of Norwegian coastline, knuckled by bare rock that cut by a single west-flowing stream that tumbles down from the northern wooded uplands to reach the sea. No landing point was enforced at the time of our visit, so I’ve arbitrarily set one for this article using the small island located at the southern end of the parcel, and separated from the rest of the setting by a shallow neck of water spanned by flat-topped rocks for easy crossing.

The island, with its little camp site, offers an excellent vantage point from which to view the rest of the land, looking northwards over the narrow curve of a beach sculpted into the landscape by time and water, past the single house that stands above it, and onwards towards those northern highlands. Reindeer graze on the upper slope of the island, while a set of wooden steps lead down to the water’s edge and the rocky crossing to the beach.

Backed by a shelf of flat rock, the beach is a mixture of sand and shingle, a partially-finished raft lying just offshore. Steps lead up to the lone house, a marvellous and cosy wood-framed abode designed by Neaira herself (as an aside, her store sits in the sky over the parcel – see her profile for a TP – although the house does not appear to be offered for sale, sadly).

The house is clearly the home for the largely self-sufficient: chickens and goats are being bred, apples are being grown, and a and pump offers the means to get fresh, clean water from deep below ground.  Meanwhile, the bric-a-brac around the house and grass yard further adds to the sense that this is  very much a “working” home, those occupying it enjoying their lifestyle and the freedoms it brings.

A path winds down from the north side of the little plateau on which the house sits to meet with a log bridge for those who wish to cross the fast-flowing stream and climb the rocky uplands. Wooded but with shallow and deep ledges of their own, these uplands can be scrambled up using further log climbs and offer another vantage point for looking out over the land, as well as an alternate landing point should you opt to take a landmark of your own.

Like Nevglide Forest before it, this is a place that is easy to explore and that encourages people to tarry for a while, whether they wander, or relax on the wooden deck to one side of the house or down on the beach or out on the little southern island.  Rounded off with a subtle and immersive sound scape, Nevglide Gaard is a place to lift the spirit as well as offering plenty of opportunities for photography.

SLurl Details

• Nevglide Gaard (Cocteau, rated Moderate)

Totem Beach is a Homestead region designed by Tlaloc Beresford designed to give visitors a range of land and water activities for their enjoyment.

Nestled along the Pacific North West, Totem Beach awaits those enjoy the ocean and forests of the region. Surf the waves, dive the canyons, or walk through the forest and lay down some roots of your own in this beautiful region.

– The About Land description for Totem Beach

The ground level of the region is largely given over to water – a rocky bay caught in the arms of tall hills. These lie partially open the sea to the west, but curl around to the east to form a backdrop to the region’s single landmass, a range of high cliffs oriented north-to-south, overlooking a west-facing ribbon of sandy beach.

The setting embraces the Pacific North West’s  reputation for rain, which falls from the sky to the beach and the cliff top woodlands alike. Up on the cliff tops, the rain causes a ground mist to rise, which lurks around the trunks of the trees.

The woods are cut by a path that follows the western lip of the cliffs that connect various tepees, tents and cabins that are available for rent (note that those that are rented nay have parcel access control enabled, and thus blocked from public access.

Another path winds down to the beach, where surf boards and a jet ski rezzer await those who join the region’s group (which includes rezzing rights), allowing them to enjoy time out on the water and surfing on the region’s incoming waves.

For those who prefer quieter pursuits , there are places to sit and watch the action along the beach and up on the cliffs, while those who like their action on land can take any of the region’s teleport points up to the go kart track area hidden in the sky.

The latter offers two courses to race either against the clock or other drivers – or both. The system is based on the Mario Kart franchise, including the ability to chose one of several of that game’s Karts (I opted for Yoshi’s because – well, Yoshi  🙂 ). As it is based on Mario Kart, it also includes power-up boxes that provide weapons to take out your opponents (bursting the balloons on the back of their karts with each hit) and bonuses, allowing for something of the full measure of the game to be met.

For those looking for a public region that offers things to do that aren’t too taxing, Totem Beach offers an easy-going diversion that can be fun when visited with one or more friends.

SLurl Details

• Totem Beach (Belize, rated Moderate)