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The first monsters in the game (very early GemStone beta) were spiders and orcs, in
the whole 6-8 out-of-town rooms that existed. |
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It was at least a couple of weeks into beta testing before GM Bardon mentioned there
was "PARRY," which was like today's STANCE. |
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The default PARRY at the time was PARRY 0, equivalent to today's STANCE OFFENSIVE, so
all the above-mentioned clueless newbies were in essence berzerking at the spiders and
orcs with a rather high mortality rate. |
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Aznell's Armory was named after an old GemStone II GM. |
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Aznell was an old GS2 character, not a GM. His player later BECAME a GM, but that was
not common knowledge at the time. Aznell was a warrior. |
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No one got any experience for combat (even on the occasional times when players did
any damage to a monster) for the first few days of the game. |
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Callista was probably the first character to ever get any experience when she
one-shotted an orc one night. She was more suprised then the orc! |
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Lord Yuri waged a holy war against Lord Lyth |
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Mikhail stole from virgin clerics |
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Helga was the barmaid in the tavern in GemStone II. She made it into GemStone
III, but the tavernkeeper didn't, so she got a promotion. |
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Helga was the cook, and perhaps more, at the old Hanging Inn in Squire Bluffs. She was
notorious for waving a cleaver about, yelling, and well, I remember chicken feathers,
too... The barmaid went by a number of names, some of them might even be printable, that
will depend on your pages' rating... |
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The Hanging Inn (Abandoned Inn) sort of on the way to Danjirland was built by the
family of the innkeeper from GemStone II. |
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The Spider Temple used to be directly west of the Kobold Woods. It mysteriously
vanished a month or two after it appeared (during beta) and reappeared over a year later
at its present site. |
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Trebor the robo-ranger was the first serious scripter. He was a very polite
robot, asking permission to hunt in a room if there were other players in it. The
same player also had a robo-cleric, who'd cast a spell for you if you asked. |
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In GemStone III you could originally carry only 20 items in your inventory, and there
were no lockers. The Players thought it was wonderful though, because in GemStone II
you could only carry 10 items, with no lockers. |
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Valeria the thief was the first person to find their way out of the maze on the first
dungeon level of the old Castle Claedesbrim. It took her almost three hours
exactly. Most of the other adventurers that night wimped out . |
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Lord Earendil (one of GemStone's original Mages, and a GM in GemStone II as well) used
to have a little cottage down in the SouthWest corner of the forest troll/greater orcs
area. You could go there (his "yard" was a node, so it was a great place
to rest) and knock on the door. If he was at home and free he'd open the door and
invite you in and chat with you for a while. |
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Assists used to be simply messages sent to all online GMs, not saved anywhere.
If you assisted when no one was on, or everyone was busy, too bad. After a crash or
major game corruption, one GM would have to be assigned to play "dispatcher" to
keep track of who was in the assist "line" using a pencil and paper.
Tracking and automated response was put in later. |
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GMs with too much time on their hands used to enjoy responding to some poor assister
en masse. Imagine having four GMs poof in within about a second and a half, all of
them intently asking what you wanted. :o) |
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A regular falchion, acquirable only from a barrow wight (the highest level monster in
the game at the time) used to be considered the very best weapon, sought after and
bickered over by just about everyone. Drake falchions came later, and then they were
thought the Best Weapon for a very long time. |
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The Elven Village opened up to much cheering and applause the same night that there
was a party at Helga's to celebrate the one year anniversary of the night one of the newer
GemStone III GMs had first begun playing GemStone II. Helga's was
"redecorated" to look more like the tavern in GemStone II, and there where some
party favors that looked like old GemStone II items handed out, and all the old GemStone
II players that could be found where invited, including folks who didn't like GemStone III
and had quit. It was mostly reminiscing but all had fun, and a few youngsters stayed
around to listen. |
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When both banks where open people used the bank in Town Square because the fee charged
was less than the one on Banker's Square. Aren't you glad banks don't charge you to
safekeep your money anymore? |
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In GemStone III's largest ever recorded environmental disaster, Dirtbeard was actually
taken to a now famous lake and "harassed" with a bar of soap. |
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A hallmark of the pre-UNIX days (The Mark II System) was the system message
"Sorry, Game full, Please try again later" at about the 100 user mark. |
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Strom became the first Legend (Level 50 Charachter). |
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There was once a Bank on Banker's Square
(before Manny and Warble burnt it down). |
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An anonymous player started the rumor that buying cheese and waving it in the
Catacombs attracted Giant Rats, resulting in a great many deaths. |
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Lord Berr posted a "cheat" - if you lick your weapon you gain experience.
Great numbers of "cheaters" bled to death from the resulting headwound. |
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You slung your shield when you traveled and only used it when you really needed it -
just to reduce the chance of the shield breaking? |
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Lord Odd's was the only enchanter in the game. |
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Spell lists where mostly un-implemented. There was no Rezz spell and departing had
severe penalties. Death was avoided at all costs! |
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"When permabless merchants were fairly common? One of my
characters wandered in to the last (tho we didn't know it at the time) permablessers tent
ever on the south dock, and wandered out bemoaning the fact that he was 20K short of the
ghastly 100K silver fee he charged. Dart was standing on the dock, glanced at me, and
handed me 20000 silvers. a fortune for Damorath, my tenth level warrior at the time. I
prolly should repay him that silver...."
- Anonymous |
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Prior to 1993, "Merchant Only" rechargeable items where the norm?
(Manny mumbles about wishing he could recharge his Sleep II wand <pout>) |
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The world's economic system was not defined as "chaos" (kidding?!?) |
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