BUILT FOR ACTIVE ROLE-PLAY:

I am a role-player with extensive experience role-playing in Second Life (among other places) in Gor, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, and various Fantasy genres.

When I begin a build, I always start with a plan of “what characters use this space,” and “how will they use it,” followed by “What can I add to help inspire new forms of RP for those players?”  I put myself into the structure as a player and I think it through.

How The Ludus Gigantus Happened…

The Ludus Gigantus, for example, was built for my own Ancient Roman role-play sim.  I was Lanista (yes we know, women didn’t hold that role historically, it’s SL, work with me here … I was good at it :P), and I was Sim Owner/Admin managing a large group of active, power para-rp’rs all of which wanted to participate in Ludus role-play, almost none-of-which had characters that realistically belonged in a Ludus.

This is a viable need for my players, even though it didn’t fit history and so, I was inclined to find a way.  I knew I couldn’t let the common-folk sit with us Patricians on the house’s balcony, so I made a commoner seating area.  I thought about my character’s shrewd business practices and built a kitchen into the commoner seating area, with ticketing sales for commoners to buy tickets to watch the glads train.

Now that I’d gone that far, I realized … it doesn’t enable the common folk to somehow find a way to have actual RP with the Gladiators … and so the whole second side of the Ludus was developed.  I created cages for viewing, with further ticketing options to rent a glad, providing secure rooms to “use” your purchase right there in the facility.  Realizing that there were more kinds of slaves than Gladiators, I included a space for an auction block in the center and made a real slave trade-friendly business space.  All these changes brought the entire sim into the Ludus in a way that could be believable while creating so many new forms of role-play and inspiring all sorts of legal and illegal activities.  IT WAS GREAT!

This is what it means to build like a role-player 😉

ATTENTION TO DETAIL & HISTORY:

Before beginning any of the structures I present to you for your role-play environments, I put a lot of time into researching the history or lore of the genre for which I am building.

The Roman Senate Building, for example, I researched photos from every angle I could and looked up official recreations and real photos of what’s left today. From all this, I extrapolated and recreated the wall and floor textures that adorn the interior of the first floor. The structure itself VERY closely resembles any photo of the Senate building you might find.

EXACT RECREATIONS?

While great attention to detail and research into history was done, it is not always possible to make something completely exact to reality here in SL. Prims and physical dimensions will always impact things built here in SL.

The Ludus Spartacus, for example, in the Starz show Spartacus, the ludus is MUCH bigger and grander than what I could realistically provide for a sim here in SL. I needed to curtail how many rooms and how vast it was so that it was playable here in-world.

Thank you again for purchasing one of my creations. I hope you’ll visit the Gods of Valor website where you’ll find detailed research forums for history and lore as well as my blog posts with advice on sim design and creation, managing lag, and even attracting and keeping active players.

Happy role-play!

All my best,
Filipa Thespian,
Gods of Valor
www.GodsOfValor.com