NiceMarmot

Wow! What a comeback! From 0 on the first try to 130 on the second! That was amazing. Talk about suspense.

Ye olde welcome wagon - for my (somewhat overenthusiastic) welcoming to new Kaliphlin Guild member Medic!!!, probably by Si-MOCs, but maybe Tazmaniac. Thanks for the new title; was getting a bit tired of the old one.

Great job! It is very evocative of an ancient temple's atmosphere and style. And a really nice job with all the plants too. Can't wait to see how they escape from this! Good storytelling too, and really excellent photography; the quality of the pics on Flickr is excellent -- I'd encourage everyone to look at them on Flickr in the lightbox mode.

If you think that's fantastic, you should see the welcoming party! Barrels and barrels of ale and wine. Endless delicacies from all over Historica. We had an elephant pull contest. Mustafa's Mummies did their wild streaming bandages dance. The Spice Islands Girls gave a concert. Someone's giving flying lessons on dragonback. There was a dwarf tossing contest. We've been sandsurfing on the Great Dune, which is quite difficult after all that ale and wine. Not to mention DaMaximus' archery contest. And we're only on the first day!

Yes, it's difficult to keep up with the demands of your admiring public!

Yes, well, I took the existing intro to the Introductions thread and reorganized it and added some more info. Thanks for putting into into your sticky -- good place for it. And thanks for adding information about scoring. I didn't expect such quick turnaround; I can see that GoH is a customer-service-oriented kind of place! Couple of minor edits: I think you need to add a few words to the first bullet under Organization. The text should probably read "The sticked Guilds of Historica Introduction/Questions Thread is to be used for general discussions, questions on which guild to join, how to 'play', generic questions or inquires etc.", with the "Guilds of Historica Introduction/Questions Thread" part as the link text. There probably shouldn't be a link in the second bullet in that list, as that references the individual guild topics. I find the yellow text for Kaliphlin under Scores to be very hard to read. And no, I don't mind if you used the entire text -- that's why I did it, hoping that someone would take the bait and make the change. Having been a site admin once, I know that if someone supplies all the necessary text for you to make the change with minimal effort, it's a lot more likely to get done!

He's the second person who's said something like this. I don't think it's hard to understand at all -- sign up in a guild thread and post your name, figure pic, and a backstory if you want, then contribute MOCs, build to challenges, and generally chat with other Historicans. Doesn't seem that hard, but I've been in it since the beginning, and maybe it's a lot more confusing now because we have so many topics to plow through... Perhaps we need a Read This First item somewhere? (I hate to suggest yet another sticky...) Maybe we could change the subtitle of the Guilds of Historica Introduction/Questions Thread to something like "New to Historica? Read this topic's first post first!" And update that thread's first post to be a bit more organized and have additional information for newcomers. Something more like this:

What a great entry! So many really awesome MOCs, and a really good story. Well, I guess now there's no chance I'll win. I agree, it would have been nice to have a final scene with Grimm triumphantly holding the crystal and the dead wyrm below.

Really nice trees! The three layers 1x1 round plates adds a nice texture to the wall also. And I agree that the roof might look a bit better if it overhung the walls a bit. There are so many interesting techniques for things like trees, roofs, doors, etc, that I wish there was an encyclopedia of techniques for various building parts. I know there's a roof tutorial. Anyone know of a larger, more comprehensive guide? Maybe I'll put something up on the Wiki...

Great stuff! I especially like the spiral made of arch-halves, and the one with the chains. And nice trophy from Siercon and Coral!

Wow! What an exciting first day! Congrats to Olaf and Bastian, that was some amazing archery. I still can't believe those two bulls-eyes in the last round, at that distance. I have to say, Bastian's bulls-eye cost me some gold, as I bet against there being two bulls-eyes like that. The pre-tournament show was very entertaining; I don't think I've ever seen the native Ximus dances, and the dragon tamers were most impressive. Everyone seemed to be having a great time. I only hope there's enough ale in the city to keep the Mitgardians happy for the entire duration of the tournament. They appear to be going through barrels and kegs of ale like crazy! And I must say, Mpya Stedor is really decked out nicely for the tournament. The missus has been practicing quite a bit over the past day or two, so I've been taking in the sights with one of my factors, Growlfarghh the werewolf. He's really enjoyed the meat markets in the central bazaar. I especially liked the new palace, and have been admiring the city walls. Messahmuk's walls are quite decrepit these days, and the Council has been dithering of late on repairing them. I'll have to report back to them on the strength and design of these walls. The harbor also is very nice and quite extensive; very well situated for trade. Thanks for all the hospitality!

I second the motion!

Yes! The very act of posting your name and figure in this thread completes the incredibly ancient and complex ritual of joining the Kaliphlin Guild! Now commences the three ritual days of partying... Sorry to hear about Avantia! We will send two ships of supplies from Messahmuk post-haste. Looking forward to some fish.

Very nice MOC! Great landscaping, and nice concept. And I really like the roof technique. Have to add that to my ever-expanding list of roofing ideas.

Close... paper towels. Only white background I had handy at the time! Was rushing to get the photo taken before midnight, and grabbed the first white thing I saw in the kitchen.

Well, we just got back from vacation, and I see that I might have missed the entry for the tournament! Still the 8th here in California, so maybe it's still OK. If not, we'll just be spectators. May I present our contestant, my wife, Countess Wyndifera Ed-Wardhi Marmota? Don't be fooled by the pretty face and the fancy clothes; she's a crack shot with that longbow! Growing up in the Spice Islands, she spent her childhood shooting sugar-weebies as they flitted from palm tree to palm tree. She was also the first one since Waddatiki the Great to put five arrows through the hollow eye of the Idol of Wanahokalugi before a tossed coconut hit the ground. We met when she shot through the eye a cyclops that had me pinned after a smuggling run gone bad. A clean shot right through the pupil at over 300 meters! I fell in love at first shot. She still practices regularly, and keeps up to date with the latest developments. She's sporting a homemade composite bow fashioned out of five layers of alternating dragon rib and basilisk scale, for the ultimate in compression and instant release.

There is an outside chance that I may be able to swing a work trip to Chicago that week, in which case I'd definitely attend. Probably won't know until a few weeks before the event. In any case, I'm trying to revise my Kaliphlin map into a poster before then, so at least we can print it and show it off with whatever MOCs we have. As for challenge 3, two caravans arrived last week from the BrickLink quarries while we were on vacation. Not sure when I will have time to start building however. I will get something done in time, but it will probably be the lamest of all my challenge entries so far. Sorry, what with work, family, vacation, and taxes, I haven't had much time to devote to this one at all. I'll try to post some WIP shots once it's actually in-progress...

I think this is a great idea! I second the motion! I think the community is probably the best part of GoH, and I'm disappointed whenever I check EB and there haven't been any GoH updates. Our guild topics are good for intra-guild chatter, but a place for inter-guild in-character chats would be great. On to the questions: Gex Marmota, (fairly) active builder, and member of the Kaliphlin Guild. In general, I think Historica is going very well. I'm very happy with the community. I think the rivalry between guilds just about has the perfect tone -- there's a nice rivalry going, and some good trash-talking and teasing, but fairly friendly so far. The challenges and builds have been good and motivating so far. I was a fairly inactive poster before GoH, and didn't really post my MOCs at all. So the guild has really gotten me to build more, and definitely to post more. It has also caused me to stretch my building techniques a lot (still a lot more to go). As for things to improve, maybe just some minor stuff: It would be great to get more detailed feedback and scoring on builds, but I realize this would be a huge burden on the leaders and staff. I don't really care about my score, but do appreciate hearing more details on what was good and what could be improved. The score would only be nice to realize how far I have to go before I really get to be an MOC expert. More mini-challenges would be great. (Even though I missed the last Kaliphlin mini-challenge) Between work and family, I'm fairly tight on building time, so having a nice little challenge that I could knock off in an evening or two or building would be great. Perhaps some mini-challenges organized by technique would be fun too. For instance, we're all going to do something with a round wall, or using Derfel Cadarn's 1x1 round plate technique... We could also have some ongoing mini-challenge series that focus on particular areas of interest for people. These would always be running concurrently with the big GoH-wide challenges. For instance, a series of ship/boat/sea challenges for those interested in those type of MOCs. Or a series of trading challenges for those view their characters as merchants and traders. Or a series of battle challenges for the warlike ones amongst us. Then there's always something going on for people that are interested in that subject. Otherwise they'd be waiting for their guild to do sea-oriented mini-challenge, and might get bored in the meantime. The all-guild community chat thread that Erynlasgalen suggested above. As for the challenge prizes, just knowing I was first (or second) is prize enough for me. I'm lucky to be at a point in my life where if I really want a Joust set, I'll go buy it. But I realize that to a lot of (especially younger) builders, prizes are a real motivator. I'm a bit worried about GoH getting to be a burden on the guild-leaders eventually. So feel free to reach out the guild-members for assistance. Not everyone has the time or inclination to help, but probably a lot of us would help out fairly regularly to keep things running smoothly. ISC, SoT, SIm, and DC -- keep up the great work, and thanks for all your efforts!

Wow, thanks! I didn't expect to win at all, certainly not after Robuko posted his epic saga. However, I cannot accept the title of Composer, as I have no clue about music, and certainly didn't compose any music. I could be talked into Court Lyricist, I suppose, although I really don't need any titles. And I'm quite happy with Master Cartographer actually. This was a fun challenge, and a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I've never really written any lyrics or poetry, so it was a new experience for me. I did find it interesting that it turned into an all-Kaliphlin contest! But we are such huge benefactors of the arts, and our culture is renowned the world over...

Love it! So many great details. With your previous build, Berigora is turning out to be a very well built city.

Wow. Just wow. I think this is going to take me a few days to go through all the details and figure out how you did it all. I sure hope that your MOCs don't count as Historica free builds, otherwise Avalonia will load up on so many points the rest of us will never catch up!

Wow! As usual, absolutely stunning, and innovative. Great job with the afros and the muffins. They're not very chatty, but check out the MOCs on their Flickr photostream, and you'll see how they got the well-deserved MOC Expert badges!

Robuko, it occurs to me that a technic skeleton frame with plates covering it might be good for your piscithopter. I'm not much of a technic guy, but I put together a quick proof of concept: This style has the advantage that for the crashed pics, you can take a few of the big outer plates off and substitute some smaller plates to give the skin a broken up, jagged look. You could also substitute smaller liftarms in the broken-up area, or even the liftarms with a bend in them to make it look like the skeleton has been bent and twisted. This is half of the airship body; you'd just repeat this and attach to that same technic axle in the middle. The ends are probably going to be difficult however; maybe one of those new Star Wars planet halves would work (or any sort of big dome? If you wanted the plates to be studs-out, you could probably use technic bricks instead of lift-arms and make it work somehow. I probably should have put 1x plates between the big plates and the liftarms, so the studs on the big plates don't push the technic axle pins out of the liftarms a bit; you shouldn't be able to see blue there. Gex

I've worked out the story and design idea for my challenge 3 build. It focuses on the various phases of water. I was hoping to make a bunch of vignettes showing our heroes' adventures, but I think I will only have time for the final scene. But I have outlined the full story and all the vignettes. If I ever get the time, I hope to make a big story out of it, like Sirens-of-Titan's Return of the Mage series. I finally placed two BrickLink orders for build, so I should have all the parts I need by the end of next week. Unfortunately I'm travelling for half of April, so build time will be very limited. I don't think the build will be very big or very innovative; I just won't have the time.

If it was up to me, you'd have it! Along with quite a few other people in Historica, actually. Who makes the badges/tags actually? It would be nice to get a Historica badge for everyone who's an active Historica member / builder.