Ninja & Eklektikos in 2008
ninja serverhops from the US to Europe and HiPSes into eklektikos's computer room
Eklektikos hides his beer and prepares a stiff upper lip to repel boarding yanquis
ninja: lol! thanks for taking the time out to do this interview. my first question, and it is the standard Avlis question, is what brought you to Avlis?
Eklektikos: As I imagine happened with a lot of the player who turned up in the latter years of Avlis, I happened to know a few people online who played here and occasionally went on a great length about how much fun it was. Eventually I checked the forums out - this was when the Great Turiva Hunt was kicking off - saw all the dramatic RP that was going on there at the time and thought "YES!".
ninja: You are a very brave soul. Most people would run from being hunted. Still, it was pretty fun and exciting from a player / DM side. I was on both
Eklektikos: I think IC conflicts bring out the most exciting sides of Avlis - and I also enjoy playing underdog PCs - so it was more than a little appealling for me. I'd probably have done a few things a little differently if I hadn't been such a terrible n00b at the time, but it was fun stuff on the whole.
ninja: I couldn't tell you were a noob! What characters do you play on Avlis?
Eklektikos: Too many for my own good, probably! Mostly I play Orfanos, Ernst Tcharov and Ishra Qiyun these days, though I've got an Annihilator that occasionally gets a bit of IG time now and again as well. Aside from that, a ton of ill-advised alts that go nowhere.
ninja: What do you use as inspiration for your characters?
Eklektikos: Booze. Copious amounts of booze. Other than that, I take a lot of cues from cinematic archetypes. Orfanos owes a lot to shaky British gangster flicks, Ernst draws on numerous stereotypes regarding Englishmen of the Victorian era, for example
ninja: I'm pretty sure you aren't the only one who enjoys booze. I once drank half a bottle of Jameson during an event. My 1 off plot started pretty nice & RPy, but towards the end, I just wanted to spawn a bunch of shit on people.
ICly of course!Eklektikos: Of course!
ninja: Next question is a 2 parter. How long have you been playing on Avlis, and what keeps you here?
Eklektikos: First part is easy: four years as of the beginning of the year. What keeps me here, on the other hand, is partly the community, to dip into clichés. I've made a number of good friends here over the past few years, people whose RP I enjoy and with whom I keep in regular contact OOC as well, which has done a good job of keeping me from drifting away during those periods when my enthusiasm has waned. That tends to come and go, as these things do, although I'm certainly very much into the game at the moment. Interesting DMing also plays a part, though. At the moment I'm definitely looking forward to seeing where Pleth and Sunscream's present plots end up, for example.
ninja: The community is great. Even though I don't really play much anymore, I'm still friends with a bunch of people. I plan on going to meets as well.
Which characters do you play with? This could be presently or someone who had a lot of influence in the past.Eklektikos: A whole rogue's gallery of scum and villainy, for the most part! Silver Fox and Ang have been long-standing and influential fellow travellers for my longest-running PC, though Ulu Elexin taking him on as an apprentice very early in his existence is probably the main reason he didn't end up just another failed alt. For a little slip of an Elf, she was certainly a surprisingly harsh teacher, but always entertaining and fun with it. PCs who are RPed like that - willing to get into conflict with others when the IC circumstances demand it, while their players are good sports about it OOC, win or lose - are frequently among my absolute favourites. I could list many, many more here, but it'd probably take me the rest of the day and send the poor buggers who read this to sleep. so I'll leave it at that.
ninja: Silver, Ang, and Ulu is the Avlis Axis of Ebul. What is your defining moment as a player? Something that you are most proud of.
Eklektikos: "Proud" is probably not the word I'd use on the whole. Most of the more dramatic things my PCs have been involved in have involved a lot of silly panicking over whether I'm Doing It Right rather than pride, though that hasn't made them less fun. However, I think that one of the few Avlis moments that I do take genuine pride in is the time Orfanos abandoned the serried ranks of the Reavers of Maleki, of whom he was not a member, to their fate at the hands of the Kuras guard during a plot event. Much macho preparation for battle, followed by haste > invis > polymorph (pixie) and a run through the streets to the portal, calling out "Help! Malekites!" all the way, just to save his own neck completely craven and ignominiously cowardly on the part of my PC, but completely IC and definitely both chaotic and evil, so I suppose it's simply one of the few occasions when I've been certain that I've not blundered somehow.
ninja: Those Malekites are just little kittens anyway. I"m sure they would have stopped you and sat you down for tea. Let's say you get to start a brand new PC, and that PC gets to level up to 20. What PC would you make?
Eklektikos: Likely something terrible that would be apt to earn me numerous griefing reports, like a critic-priest of the Harpinger that turns up at MMM shows and Implodes performers whose lyrics don't scan. Having to play PCs through the lower levels does an awful lot to keep my worse ideas at bay.
More seriously, though, of the classes/concepts I haven't really done yet, a fairly straight demagogic cleric would be most fun and interesting (for me, at least!). Avlis could do with more of them, I think, though I can kind of understand why there aren't that many: presenting any part of the Avlis pantheon in a coherent and consistent way is hard to manage even in the short term, let alone taking up the task for the lifetime of a PC. I've a lot of respect for those cleric PCs who actually manage to do this so effectively, that they can (and do) proselytise with success, like Kurt Villainova. The Charismatic Silver Fox? His convert. That kind of thing is definitely something worth aspiring to in my book.ninja: There aren't a lot of pure classes anymore. A pure cleric would pwn. Let's switch gears. What other games do you play?
Eklektikos: RPGs are a relatively recent thing with me: I used to be infinitely more into turn-based strategy games like the Civilization series and Europa Universalis. I still play Civ quite a bit these days, though the latest one is rubbish so I've reverted back to Civ4 in a huff. Aside from that, I'm really enjoying the Mass Effect series and more recent Fallout games. As an aside, if a kindly DM would care to reinvent the Avlis setting as an irradiated post-apocalyptic wasteland with a vague 50s kitsch theme, I probably wouldn't be overly saddened. Just saying.
ninja: I love Mass Effect and Fallout, especially New Vegas. My only problem with those games is that there were always a ton of 'expansion' packs to buy.
Eklektikos: True, although at least they're still mostly good games without them. Civ titles don't even seem to be fully functional until the second expansion's done, these days. Bitter? I might be! People have tried to convince me that expansions/DLC are a good thing for developers and players alike, but I'm still unconvinced that most of 'em give you your money's worth .not that it necessarily stops me shelling out for 'em, mind you, but that may say more about me than about them.
ninja: Let's say I steal your iPod, or whatever music device you use. What are the top 5 songs on your current playlist?
Eklektikos: Horrible ear-bleeding pretentious nonsense, probably.
ninja: Aww come on Eklektikos. You can do better than that. Don't be shy
Eklektikos: Well, if you insist. Ball of Molten Lead by YOB, which is kind of proggy, sludgy, vaguely psychedelic doom metal. Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog by Wolves in the Throne Room, which is slightly post-rock-ish black metal. Prison of Mirrors by Xasthur, which is a horrible man making horrible sounds happen because he hates you and the horse you rode in on. Er. apparently Last.fm tells me I listen to a lot of Tori Amos? I don't know.
ninja: Makes sense...if you play a Maiden. Where are you from?
Eklektikos: Ye olde London towne, where suggestions that one might play a Maiden are fighting words. Handbags at dawn, sir, and bring your fighting trousers.
ninja: My apologies good sir. You are my favorite...favourite...erm. Next question: what kind of work do you do?
Eklektikos: I am, in fact, an unemployed bum at the moment. Used to work in mainframe software support but, since it was precisely as boring as it sounds, I'm presently hoping to wander off to some godforsaken northern shithole or other and do a degree in history. In the interrim, I provide possible employers with CVs with which to line their wastepaper baskets. I'm nothing if not generous.
ninja: Awww....At least you have time to play games
Finally, last question: What is something that people would love to know about you that has nothing to do with gaming?Eklektikos: I think people would love to know that sending me cases of Belgian beer is empirically proven to bring good luck. mostly to me, but hey. You can't have it all ways.
ninja: Hahaha. Beer is good. Well thank you for doing this interview Eklektikos. Hope it wasn't painful for you.
Eklektikos: No worries. If it was, then I'll just be sure and nurse the grudge until the Amsterdam meet. Nothing says PARTY! like long festering resentment, eh?
ninja: Fair enough!
Interested in being an interviewee or an interviewer for a community interview, send me a PM!
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