InsaneJournal

Nestled at the foot of Mount Thompson, Ice River is a unique settlement. Like its neighbours to the north (Jasper) and south (Banff), it is the namesake of a national park: Ice River Valley. Being located in federally protected land creates some interesting challenges for the village; only those who are employed by the park, or businesses sanctioned within the park may reside there. Furthermore, development (shopping complexes, residential condos, any/all things civilization) is rarely allowed to discourage a heavy environmental footprint in the precious park ecosystem.

The village itself is very small, but bustling with activity. During the winter months, they see a great deal of tourism from snowmobilers, skiers (nordic and alpine), and nature enthusiasts. In the summer, camping, hiking, and biking are also incredibly popular in the park. With hundreds of miles of trails, six mountains in the park, and more than twenty lakes, villagers have a natural bounty at their doorsteps. They also have black bears into their garbage, avalanches blocking roads for a week at a time, and travelling more than an hour in any direction before they can find civilization. But, hey, that's the price you pay for all of that nature, right?

One wouldn't expect it in the backwoods of Alberta, but the Parks Service offers a high-speed satellite internet service (ParksNet), and hosts an Ice River intranet as well. Because being paper-free is environmentally friendly (and in Ice River, we care about the environment), ParksNet allows all of its subscribers to have a blog network to communicate with others, as well as an e-bulletin board to keep the community up-to-date with anything and everything relevant to their interests.

Thus, this forms the basis for the game!

With a plethora of businesses, volunteer associations, and local government, Ice River is the perfect place for anyone who wants an active, interactive home for their characters.

A lot of town games start out, and eventually, they peter off. With Ice River, the goal is to create a game where people don't just randomly live in the same setting. Instead, they work together, interact on a daily basis, and genuinely get an opportunity to create and develop organic character relationships. By using the setting itself, the moderators can create a multitude of events that can spur plotting, threading, and material for updates.

The game will not be abandoned after first adds, or if forty people don't join at once. If five people join, then great! RP is about getting to do some quality RPing with people who want to do the same - it isn't a popularity contest.

The mods will be open, friendly, and responsive to the ideas and suggestions of the players. We'd love to see this run more like a group PSL than having the mod play Big Brother.

Not to tolerate any OOC drama, period. Taking RP too seriously is very passé. We also want to respect people's privacy. We don't expect anything from you, OOC, and we don't care who you are, or who you are friends (or not friends) with. All we ask is for some good, old fashioned friendliness.

Not to get caught up in the superficial crap. We don't care if you play teen starlet of the week, or have shiny icons, or have an amazing journal layout. You don't need to have an in-character AIM name to play in this game (though, we certainly would encourage it!). All we are looking for are good characters, and RPers who want to write, and can write well.

Not to accept crappy RPing. Seriously. If you join with a great application and then play like you don't understand what the OOC line is, didn't take tenth grade English, or are inactive, we'll kick your ass out. That's a promise!

If this sounds appealing to you, then please check out the rest of our mod journal.