Trains: The Transport System

February 27, 2020February 6, 2020 by Ginny O. ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Now that we’ve talked about the map (3D with Fog of War/Standard Road Map), let’s talk about the other standard to MMORPGs, map transportation systems. Or the ability to jump from one side of the map to the other in a short amount of time. Guild Wars had the ability to jump anywhere in the map to the nearest city or town. Star Stable Online uses a network of horse transports, ferries, and boats (and one hot air balloon). World of Warcraft had flying mount stations. In Mystic Riders, we have trains.

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Yes. Trains!

The continent of Argentum is cut off from most of the world by a complex system of storms that no one is quite sure of their origin. (They think they may be magical in nature.) And it takes a lot of engineering know-how for planes and boats to make it to the continent. So, the natural resources of petroleum are very limited, while horses are much easier and much more renewable (along with wind, sunlight, and water). All horses require are things that the farmers can grow! (And pets, lots of pets.) So, there aren’t a lot of cars in Argentum or tractors for that matter.

In Argentum, backed up traffic isn’t cars, it’s horses and carts.

So it is much more cost effective for the people of Argentum to put their fuel resources for hauling cargo and people across the continent into trains.

Of course, they don’t have just any old types of trains. They have Victorian style trains that have been updated to be top of the line and comfortable for today’s travelers. Smaller trains with a few cars behind them have been converted into electric trains, while larger trains that haul cargo from one side of the continent to the other have been converted to diesel.

trainstation

Scattered across the map in every district there are train platforms that are guarded and proctored by the adorable station master kitties! All the player has to do is “discover” the train station. (They’re marked on the map, the player simply has to go there and find the platform.) The more train platforms they find, the more train stops the player can use. The player can then make friends with the station master kitty by casting a calm animal spell. (That is if the kitty doesn’t come to them first.)

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There are two ways that the player can use the train stations. They can open their map, click on a discovered train station and ‘jump’ to that train station. Or, they can go to the train station, talk to the station master kitty, and ride the train to their desired destination from there.

They also have the option to pet, play, or feed the station master cat as well. (Some riders carry kitty treats in their saddle bags just to feed the station master kitties they befriend.)

Riding the trains in Argentum is free. That’s right. There is no charge to ride around the map quickly in Mystic Riders.

Once the player has found all the train stations in their district, they’ll be granted an achievement. And they’ll get another achievement for finding all the stations in every district. There may also be achievements for feeding all the station master cats or playing with them. One can’t be sure.

All in all, getting from one side of the district to another is easy on an Astranar train… as long as they’ve discovered the platform!

Professions, the Game Mechanic!

February 20, 2020May 1, 2023 by Ginny O. ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

In Mystic Riders, we have to include professions as part of the game. They’re fairly standard in MMOs. In most combat MMOs, professions are the system that determines what weapons you can wield and what spells you can cast. They are things like Knight, Ranger, Mage, Monk and every type of variation of there-of you can think of. (My favorites tend to be the ones where I can populate the battle field by summoning up dead things or ghosts!) However, Mystic Riders isn’t a combat game. So, why should we have professions at all?

Because story.

The story and the focus of Mystic Riders is about the player’s journey through their teen years and growing up. Part of growing up is the ability to put on different styles and personalities like they’re hats and, yes, trying out different jobs to see if they are something that fits your talents to make into a career.

So, obviously, our professions in Mystic Riders are a little different. Outside of not being combat oriented, they work together with the different crafting and farming skills the player can learn in the game. We went over them in general in this post. The professions are jockey, farmer/gardener, archaeologist, fashion stylist, interior decorator, entertainer, chef, and spa owner.

Each of these professions will give the player the ability to customize their game, earn some in game cash, and give them access to items, gear, and equipment that are exclusive to that profession either in stores or making them by hand. (You want the really good cooking tools, become a chef.) These professions can also give them outlets for creating fan content for their social media like Instagram and YouTube. (I foresee interior designer, spa owner, entertainer, and fashion stylist being big social media hits.) And there are professions for those who simply want to get through the story as fast as possible (farmer, jockey) or on the other extreme have to know every bit of lore (archaeologist).

During the story of the Diamond District when the player arrives at the Royal Riding Academy, they will be prompted to start thinking about their future and be able to learn about the different professions from their original district’s mentor. From there, they’ll be directed to the appropriate mentor of that profession who will send them on quests to meet experts who will send them on more quests to teach them the skills and give them the tools to hone their crafting abilities.

Like in the training week tutorial, the player should be allowed to try a basic quest of each profession offered once before they decide on what they want to be for this specific play through.

Remember, the more players craft, the better and faster they get at it and the more difficult things they can make.

This may, or may not, encourage the player to play through the district story of their profession’s mentor. Each district they unlock allows the player to learn different crafting and professional skills. (Until they’ve unlocked them all.) If they haven’t learned the core skills to the profession that they want to pursue, the mentor can gently suggest they take up a certain skill or craft. The professions allow the player to go beyond basic skills and earn those elite items.

Professions help us have a use for all those crafting and farming items we’re putting in the game too. And more chances for the players to use our proposed and hopefully fun mini-games.

With having professions in the game, we can add prestige professions later that can expand gameplay and build upon the mechanics of the mini-Games already in place and provide a more real life story progression as they go from apprentice to master of their craft.

Professions are one of the mechanics that makes the most use out of every level of the game’s design. From races, to areas of the map that only archaeologists can unlock, to mini-games and set pieces that are designed to appeal to social media and story subplots that give the players yet again another way to choose their own adventure. Professions are part of the way of making the game a rich, dynamic, and replayable experience.

The Map!

February 13, 2020February 6, 2020 by Ginny O. ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Let’s face it, MMOs by the very nature of being considered “massive” tend to have huge areas of ‘game land’ for players to walk/run/ride around in. It’s easy to get lost! Especially if the player has never been in the game before. And well, today we have technology that fits in the palms of our hands that can carry maps, our phones. So, why can’t the player of an MMO have a map on their phone too?

And that is exactly what Mystic Riders wants to have, a map, in an in-game phone user interface. (Yes, part of our proposed in game user interface looks like a modern cellphone.)

The thing that I hate the most about many MMO maps is that they are impossible to read. They’re things that are made of pixels that seemingly have been created by the game designers zooming out from the game area and taking a picture. Then, if you’re lucky, they might draw some road squiggles on it.

In Mystic Riders, what we want is a map that is legible and interactive so the player can see how much of it they have left to explore. The closest I’ve seen to this is the interactive 3D map provided by Black Desert Online.

With the BDO map, the player can view the map from above it looks like a Google earth type map and as they zoom in, they can see actual 3D representations of the trees, landscape, and buildings. There’s fog over areas of the map that the player hasn’t explored yet.

Now, another option or ‘layer’ for the map that I’d like to implement into Mystic Riders is a standard cartographer’s road map. The player would be able to see the entire road map that is marked with roads, towns, hiking trails, and train tracks of the entire district that they’re in. Important places would be labelled including castles, stables, shops, overlooks, and forests and so on.

A third option would be being able to take the road section of the road map and overlay it onto the 3D realistic map, much like you can in Google Earth. That way the player can see where the road goes off into the fog of war area that they haven’t explored yet.

The more the player zooms into the map, the more of a specific area and the more labels of shops and lakes and so on they can see. The player should be able to move the map around by clicking on the screen and dragging it to see other areas if they’re too far zoomed in. (Or they can zoom out and click and zoom back in on another area, their choice.)

The player should be able to set waypoints on the map if they like and have either a marker on the ground or a marker in the sky to show where the way point is. The BDO map also has markers for important NPCs. (If it can be done, I don’t see why not.)

The map’s purpose is ultimately to help the player get around and find the fast way between point A and point B that won’t lead them over a cliff!

Because we want the map to have the fog over it, the map could have a completion achievement for players. This would encourage the explorers and not-so explorers to check out every cranny of the map that they can get to. (Possibly only 100% achievable of the entire country if you take the archeologist profession, more on this next week.)

The players would get new sections of the map to explore as they unlock the new districts. They’d only start out with the first district they are in, and then get Diamond District, and from there they can choose any district they want to unlock in whatever order they want to unlock and play the story.

Maps are an important part to me of the MMO game experience and as such, they should be as complete and legible as possible. Especially if your game involves any sort of orienteering whatsoever. Down with pixel maps. Up with road maps and 3D maps!

Can You Hear Me Now? (Main UI)

February 6, 2020May 1, 2023 by Ginny O. ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Astranar is a rather magical place, so much so that cellphones from out of the country don’t work! When the player’s main character arrives at camp, they’re given a cellphone that is connected to Argentum’s cellphone network and works in the magical area. This cellphone is the main user interface for Mystic Riders.

The cellphone looks like your typical smart phone. And it has different icon apps that open up different functions in the game. In short, the cellphone is the game’s main menu. So, what features are in our main menu? A lot.

(Rough Idea of Menu design)

One of the biggest functions of the cellphone is that it contains the game map. The player is going to need this map to be able to orient themselves around Astranar. The map will be a 3D style map they can zoom in and out of, and hopefully, will have a road map overlay. There should be marked locations where there are important NPCs, train stations, and shops and restaurants, etc. As the player explores more of the map, fog will lift on the 3D map for them.

(The Map While Riding Around; Not Full Screen)

The menu also has the Quest Log Book. Here the player can bring up the quests available to them, select which ones they want to do (markers will appear on the map) and the gold calculator will tell them how many coins they’ll earn from doing those quests. (Always helpful if you need to buy something.)

The player can also access their inventory. The player has two saddlebags on their horse. One saddlebag is for their pet, and the other saddlebag is for their inventory. They can keep everything from feed, to different crafting kits, to their brush, pick, and foldable shovel. (Becca note: yes, the second saddle bag is a Tardis (referencing an old meme). No, I don’t care.)

There will be the character menu and the horse menu. These open up interfaces that show the character or horse and what they are wearing. These menus also keep track of the player’s level, care status, currency, and statistics. The player can look at their skill menu, track their achievements in the achievement sticker book, and see how each group in the game feels about them with the reputation tab.

They also will have a friends menu to invite and manage their friends. There will be a club management section if they are part of or run a riding club. They can keep track of their competition results in another menu. They can take pictures with the in-game camera, open the chat function, or send private messages in the in-game email. Lastly, they can access their game settings or get their questions answered in the game help with a report function to message customer support.

If there is an in game radio, the player should be able to access and control what channel they want to listen to through the phone. Channels might include things like orchestral epic soundtrack music, Rose Neptuna’s channel, or channels dedicated to her rivals like Hi-Fidelity (or even an Astranar’s Top 40 that’s a mix of them all? Future thought to chew on).

The player would have the options of being able to customize the phone wallpaper background with game art pictures or pictures from they’ve taken on their in-game camera and to be able to customize the phone case with in-game patterns and colors.

We hope that this style of user interface will be easy to understand and flexible enough that things can be added to it with little trouble if needed. (Maybe we need a game news function for updates, or a section for the game credits.) There are a lot of things going on in an MMO and the in-game phone is the hub for a great deal of it without cluttering the player’s view of the game itself!

Light or Shadow: Which Faction Do You Choose?

January 23, 2020April 24, 2023 by Ginny O. ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

One of the issues with MMORPGs is that the story can often feel railroaded or set in stone as a player goes through the game. No matter what type of profession they are or race, they end up playing the same story. MMORPGs aren’t at the point yet of, say, Detroit Become Human, where every option creates a myriad of other options and endings. However, Mystic Riders has a couple ideas in mind to allow the player to have more ‘control’ over their adventure.

One of these is our faction system.

In Mystic Riders, there are two groups of magical riders; the Light Riders, and the Shadow Riders. They’re at odds with each other and don’t know how to get along. The Light Riders control the mastery of the elements and some say thought itself, while the Shadow Riders control things such as petrification and decay, and they’re rumored to control fear and nightmares.

Why there are two factions is something of a mystery. Once upon a time, there didn’t seem to be Light or Shadow magicians at all. There were simply magicians. No one knows what happened. Now, it is what it is, and the Light Riders and Shadow Riders vie for control of the Mirror World.

Nobody is sure what would happen if one side gained more control of the other, though both sides are determined to try.

During the game, the player will be given choices on what side they want to be part of: the Light or the Shadow. And from that point on in the story, they will experience different story quests as they proceed in the game (until they’re prompted on whether or not they want to switch sides again). The player is allowed to choose and decide their own motivations for doing so. Do they really believe one faction is better than the other? Maybe they’re a spy?

On top of having different story quests, each side will have different areas of the Mirror World that they can enter and exit safely. A Light Rider better be stealthy and quick if they want to enter an area of the Mirror World controlled by the Shadow. If not, they’ll have to hope they can race back home without being caught. The vice versa is also true.

The appearance of the “My Glade,” the Mirror World section of the “My Farm,” will also change depending on whether or not the main character is a Light Rider or a Shadow Rider. And when the main character has enough experience to open up a gate to a Mirror World town, what town they have will depend on which faction they’re part of.

Of course, it is a horse game so there are different special magical horses for Light Riders and for Shadow Riders. In Astranar, there are whispers of unicorns and pegasi if someone can enter the Mirror World and win their trust. However, white unicorns only come to riders of the Light, and dark unicorns are attracted to riders of the Shadow. The same can be said of the pegasi. White, pastels, and true colors love Light Riders. While black, greys, and muted colors adore Shadow Riders.

While there are other magical horses, one doesn’t truly care about alignment and a couple only come around a very special lucky holiday.

There is also one special pet for each faction. Light Riders can keep rabbits of all varities for pets. While Shadow Riders can keep certain species of the weasel family including weasels, stoats, ferrets, mink, and pine martens. These pets ride along in the saddle bag, can be held by the main character, or run along after the main character while they’re walking. And if the player has more than one pet, they stay at the “My Farm/My Stable.”

Each faction has their own special equipment and gear for horses and humans alike. For those in the know, wearing these special styles can hint what side they’re on or have been on in the past.

Hopefully, by adding factions to the game and giving them different rewards will encourage replayability and give the player more freedom and customization in how they choose the play their story and craft their own adventure.

Statistics! The Game Character Sheet

January 14, 2020April 24, 2023 by Ginny O. ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Every good RPG has statistics. These statistics are numbers assigned to the main character (MC) that determines their various levels of expertise in different skills. The player is assigned points when they first create their character from the type of racing they chose in their placement quiz, and are given more as they ‘level up.’

One of Mystic Riders goals is to have as much customizable content as possible and one of the basic customization types that we want to give players over is their own statistics. That way they can choose what type of rider that the MC is going to be! They will also have control over the statistics of their horse, and how they want their magic to work.

Statistics are the game version of a character’s player game sheet in a table top RPG. They determine the strengths and weaknesses of the character. But instead of rolling dice, they are applied to how well the character does things in the game.

The MC has five basic ability stats: Speed, Stamina, Strength, Command, and Agility.

Speed is how fast can the MC move at a walk or a run. Stamina is how long can the MC ride without eating, run, or withstand the heat and cold. Strength is how much can the MC lift or pull. Command is how well do animals obey them. And Agility is how quickly and how tight does the MC turn.

There are three magical ability stats that the player also has control over and can change when they level up; Accuracy, Cast Time, and Power.

Accuracy is how on target the cast spell ends up being and if it works or not. Cast time is how quickly the MC can cast the spell. And Power is how much oomph goes into the spell.

The horses also have five basic stats that the player can customize: Speed, Endurance, Strength, Discipline, and Agility.

Speed is how fast can the horse go. Endurance is how far can the horse go without care, and how well do they adapt to heat or cold, and how far can they walk through a boggy marsh. Strength is how much can a horse pull or carry, and how high can they jump. Discipline is how well does a horse take commands and how fast do they change their paces or stop. Agility is how quickly and tightly can the horse turn.

Certain breeds of horses will have higher stats in different things depending on if they are good showjumping horses, or good western horses, or good dressage horses, etc.

When the horse levels up, the player will be prompted to put the new points they’ve earned into the different horse statistic slots.

The player will have skill tracks that level up as they do things in the game. For instance, they have three skills that are related to horses. Ride, Jump, and Care. The more the MC rides, the better they’ll get at it as the more points they’ll accumulate. The more jumps they take, the better they’ll get at jumping with their horse. And Care, the more they clean stables and care for their horses, the faster they’ll get at it. Arts and Crafting skills falls under this kind of leveling.

The MC’s statistics and the horse’s statistics will be able to work together to do certain things in the game better than others. A player with a good level of command is going to get better results out of a horse with low discipline and outstanding results with a horse with high discipline for example. Better ride stat, the more balanced the MC are on the horse and the faster it can go.

Players will be able to create characters with vastly different skill sets and abilities by playing the game in different ways. A player who spends more time in crafting is going to be a lot faster at it and have more items to craft than a player who primarily plays for racing. Creating a more customized and hopefully enjoyable experience that will want to make them play the game again so they can try out doing different styles of play and different story lines.

Let’s Talk Racing!

January 9, 2020April 24, 2023 by Ginny O. ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

As a horse themed game, one of the most prevalent mini-games that we feel should be in Mystic Riders is the different types of races. We don’t want the game to be focused on one type of race. We want to have different types of races to reflect different horse disciplines and give them different mechanics in the mini-games.

To be clear, when the main character (MC) is out and exploring the world on their own, we don’t really care how well the player clears a jump or how fast they get from one area to the other. They are discovering the map of the game and such things shouldn’t matter. When they enter a story race, or a competition race, or a daily race to train their horse, then the mechanics matter.

In Mystic Riders, we have decided on four different racing tracks: Agility, Dressage, Racing, and Show Jumping. Each of these tracks require different stat combinations between the horse and the rider.

The Agility track is Western riding including gymkhana. This is slalom gate racing, pole-bending, and barrel racing with pony flag racing as an experienced skill. The mechanics of these are doing them quickly and not hitting the equipment. The player would be using their standard movement keys. Just because there is no extra mechanics doesn’t mean that it is going to be easy to take those tight turns.

The Dressage track is cavaletti, dressage, reining, and trail riding as an experienced skill. These are skills that require the horse to have discipline. The player would be prompted to go at certain speeds and to follow a mini-game where they have to hit keys in a certain sequence in order to complete the moves. To get from one area to another, there can be arrows on the ground to tell them where to go and the colors could indicate speed.

The Racing track is flat racing, endurance racing, cross country, and steeple chase as an experienced skill. In the racing track, they’d have to learn to conserve their horse’s strength by keeping watch on an endurance meter. In cross country racing where there are jumps, they would have to jump by hitting the space bar in the right spot on gauge meter.

Lastly, the Show Jumping track is about the different types of show jumping: basic, six bar, faults, and for the experienced, faults converted. (We can cover what each of those means later.) In the show jumping mini game, the player would be required to approach the jump at the right angle and the right speed. As they approach the jump, there would be spots on the ground that they’d have to hit with their mouse at the right time. If they don’t, they miss the jump.

Hopefully, these mini-games will be familiar and at the same time, have a balance of being challenging enough to be interesting and easy enough not to be frustrating. Having seen similar mechanics in other games, these mechanics are possible. They’ve simply not been used in a MMORPG setting before.

We want the mechanics of the races to show how these different races take skill to succeed. And at the same time, give the players freedom to explore the world on their own at will. (Getting from point A to point B shouldn’t be a frustrating endeavor.)

The Core Game Loop

January 2, 2020April 24, 2023 by Ginny O. ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

The core game loop is the backbone of gameplay in any game. It’s what the player is going to experience and how the game progresses. In an MMORPG, the basics of a core game loop is the player receives a quest from an NPC, they leave to fulfill that quest, and return to the NPC with the objectives. This gains them experience and unlocks more quests.

There are main story line quests and there are side story quests, and these quests may have different requirements for unlocking.

A lot of time in MMOs, especially if they are combat oriented MMOs, quests end up being one of two types. There are the ‘kill’ quests and the ‘fetch’ quests. Then a third type, the occasional ‘escort’ quest gets thrown in. The kill quests are quests where the player is asked to kill so many NPC enemies. The NPCs may be threatening something or they have drop items the player needs to fulfill the quest. The fetch quest is the player is asked to go from one place to another to acquire an item. The items may be with another NPC or they may be scattered around the map. The escort quest is when the player is asked to accompany an NPC and protect them from enemy NPCs.

This obviously gets tedious after a while. Thus, there are sometimes a few castle defense quests to hold a particular spot. As you can see, a lot of quests in most MMORPGs revolve around violence.

With Mystic Riders being a non-combat oriented MMO, this takes any type of combat oriented quest off the table and ends up leaving mostly fetch and escort type quests. Having played an MMO that is mostly fetch and escort quests, these can get boring rather quickly. In Mystic Riders, we desire to create new types of quest requirements within the greater game loop, basing them off of mini-games and platformer adventure mechanics. (Like Guild Wars 2 has incorporated jump puzzles into their environments.)

The main question that we’ve asked ourselves while we try to develop quest type ideas for this game is what should an MMO look like five years from now? Bearing in mind that there is a very set idea in this day and age on what a basic MMORPG looks like and what features it should have.

Because Mystic Riders is a horse themed game, there is going to be a story line and an entire subset of quests and mini games that are devoted to racing and leveling the main character (MC)’s horse. Thus, in the core game loop there would be races against NPCs, and races to get from point A to point B. These races can be tailored to the specific race specialty of an areas.

Meaning, if the player is in a Western racing area, their races from Point A to Point B may have super sharp corners and having to weave through trees. Or if they’re in a show jumping area, the race may loop over itself and there will be lots of jumps. In a dressage area, there would be less running and jumping and more having to follow a set pattern at a set speed in order to make it out of one area to another in one piece. The clock wouldn’t be the biggest factor.

Proposed Mini Games include using environment shaped puzzles like platforms, ledges, land types, and even magic to manipulate the game in order to get places or find out clues to the story. Platform style mechanics are a more interactive style of game play and give the player more control and ability to play with their surroundings. Thus leading to more engagement from the player. See Okami or Sly Cooper.

Other mini games are games can be considered games on their own, like bubble shooters, jig-saw puzzles, pattern matching games, fishing, and stop and go style games. Using magic itself is a mini game where the player would use their mouse to trace a pattern on the screen to cast the spell.

These mini-games would hopefully be built into the game in a seamless style manner that they would make ‘sense’ to the player. And that there would be enough variety in the mini-games that they wouldn’t get bored. In fact, we’d want them to want to replay the game over and over again because they find it exciting and/or challenging. (Plus, it is a non-linear choose your own adventure style story where their actions and reactions can shape how the story plays out and what side they are on with them choosing their own character’s motivations. More enticement to play again.)

Hopefully, by using platformer mechanics and mini-games there will be exciting and new ways to proceed through an open world style MMO in the core game loop.

12 Days of Christmas: Magical Time of Year (Day 12)

December 31, 2019April 23, 2023 by Ginny O. ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

When Marcy woke, the fields of Magpie Field were full of Christmas trees! She giggled profusely. She ate, took care of her horses, and then spent a good amount of time harvesting the trees. She planted the seeds that the Christmas trees dropped immediately. The trees were bundled together and ready for delivery to the villages. At the sight of the white air feather fir, Marcy gasped. The tree was literally white, like one of those white Christmas trees from the store, the ‘needles’ like big feathers. It glowed with little blue lights and actually floated above the ground. It pained her to harvest them, they were so pretty. She was very careful with the third one to dig it up without hurting it.

She did sniffle when she turned the other two into boards. They were so pretty. It just wasn’t fair. She wiped her eyes as she saddled Marquees. “It had to be done, but I feel awful,” she said.

Marquees whuffled and blew into Marcy hair.

Marcy smiled at her and hugged her. “Thanks. I knew you’d understand.”

On the way to the Mirror World, Marcy stopped in the villages along the way to set up some of the Christmas trees. The children giggled and squealed as they danced around them as she used magic to put on the lights and set up the ornaments. They were so excited.

Marcy stopped by the blacksmith and picked up the runner polish. The blacksmith and her exchanged salutes.

Marcy tied off Marquees outside of the Mirror World entrance. “I won’t be long,” she promised the big draft horse.

Holda waved at her where the reindeer and horse were pastured.

Marcy smiled at her, her hands too full to wave back.

Holda saw all her packages and laughed. “You’ve been busy.”

“You have no idea!” Marcy wiped her brow. “I’ve got everything for Santa’s outfit, except, well, the things he said that were for magic.”

“Well, you’re going to have to collect them all,” Holda said.

“But where am I to get freshly fallen snow?” Marcy wailed. “It might not snow again before Christmas!”

Holda just raised an eyebrow at her.

“Oh, do you have any ideas where I could plant a white air feather fir tree?” Marcy asked.

“Where did you get one of those?” Holda sounded astonished.

“I grew it!” Marcy beamed at her. “Santa’s sleigh is a wreck.”

“Oh, he must have,” Holda’s lips twitched and she stomped her foot. “Joy riding. AGAIN.”

Marcy’s eyes widened and she burst into laughter. “That’s a horrible pun!”

“It’s his own fault. And I know he won’t admit it.” Holda glowered.

“Well, I had to grow some white air feather firs to get boards to fix it.” Marcy held them up. “And I had an extra.”

“All right, well, to get fresh fallen snow, you’re going to have to use music magic.”

“Music magic?”

“Yes, you’re going to have to do a snow dance,” Holda said. “In the normal world. Go to a clearing in the forest, I’ll mark a good one on your map, and dance and sing.”

Marcy laughed. “That doesn’t sound too hard.”

“I’ll teach you the words and the steps,” Holda said. “Now listen carefully and watch.” Holda danced and sang “Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow.”

Marcy watched and then did a practice song. Nothing happened, but it was summer!

Holda clapped her hands. “You’re a natural!” she said.

“I also need to get unpopped popcorn, chestnuts, and mint leaves,” Marcy said, checking her list.

Holda nodded. “Well, it is the season for those things. I’m sure there are people who will have each item.” Holda continued, “Now, a white air feather fir tree should be planted here in the Mirror World.”

“It won’t hurt it that it’s summer, will it?”

“Not a bit!” Holda grinned. “You take it here and well, there is a very small grove of them there. Their caretaker will be happy to see another one. You might even get a reward.”

“All right. Then, I’ll get started on that,” Marcy said. She waved at Holda. She went over to the horse. “I told the children about you,” she said as she started to take care of him.

He perked up. “Will there be carrots?”

“I did mention you liked carrots and something about the naughty and nice list.”

The horse’s ears tilted forward and he pranced in place. “Oh, I hope there will be carrots.”

Marcy pursed her lips together. “But, now, why can’t you try to be friendlier with the reindeer.”

The horse’s demeanor changed instantly. “Because they aren’t needed.”

“That’s not the point. They think you’re rude and arrogant. It wouldn’t hurt you to be nice to them,” Marcy said. “Maybe you could be friends. Things would go much easier, if you could be friends.”

“We both do the same things,” the horse said. “One of us is redundant and it won’t be me.”

“So, you can’t pull the sleigh together?”

“No,” the horse huffed.

Marcy sighed. “It could much easier if you worked together.” She tilted her head. “Maybe Santa could ride you and there would be more room in the sleigh for presents.”

“Have you seen Santa’s sack? It doesn’t matter how big it is, all the presents fit. It’s magic.”

“I’m just,” Marcy scowled. “Fine. Just. Be that way. So much for compromise and peace on Earth and good will towards reindeer and horses.” She stuck her nose up in the air. “Completely forget the spirit of the season. I wouldn’t want to offend the Christmas spirits. But you do you!” She flounced away.

The horse looked after her vaguely alarmed. “I don’t want to offend the Christmas spirits either!” he called out. “Marcy!”

Marcy ignored him and spread out the food for the reindeer.

The reindeer who seemed to be the spokeswoman spoke up, “Miss Marcy, we’ve been thinking about what you said.”

“Oh?”

“And we don’t want to be replaced with goats, yaks, or…” She paused. “Rabbits.” The last word was grated out as if it offended her.

Marcy raised her eyebrows.

“We didn’t think about how the horse must have felt about us. But it doesn’t change the fact that he was arrogant.”

“So, would you be able to apologize?” Marcy asked.

“If he apologizes to us,” the reindeer said. “We can apologize to him. He wasn’t the least bit friendly.”

“Well, I was thinking about a compromise. Maybe if Santa rode the horse, there would be more room in the sleigh for presents. The world is getting bigger. He might need more bags.”

The reindeer waved her head back and forth. “You are ridiculous.”

“I know, I know, magic bag.” Marcy waved a hand. “It was a thought! It is good you thought of his feelings. I’ll tell him.”

The reindeer muttered but didn’t tell her not to.

Marcy returned to the horse. “The reindeer didn’t understand how upset you might have been at the thought you might be replaced.”

“Well, isn’t that dandy?” the horse muttered.

“Hey now!” Marcy put her hands on her hips. “It’s a start. They feel bad about it.”

“They do?”

“They do.” Pippa nodded.

The horse grumbled. But he didn’t do anything else.

Pippa sighed. “Okay, go on all of you being stubborn and not talking to each other. I’ve got things to do.” She stalked over to the sleigh and pounded the boards in place. She polished the runners and then triumphantly got out the paint and freshened the whole thing up. Almost against their will, the reindeer and horse were interested. They came over and watched. Marcy finished and wiped off her hands. There. Tomorrow she could decorate it once the paint dried. She nodded to herself.

“See you tomorrow!” she shouted at the horses and waved at them, headed back to Marquees.

12 Days of Christmas: It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas (Day 11)

December 30, 2019April 23, 2023 by Ginny O. ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

“It really does look like Candy Cane Lane now!” Marcy said. “But UGH, it’s so much work.”

Vesper groaned and stretched. “It is! Fortunately, for the next bit, we can use magic.”

“We can?” Marcy said.

“Come along and I’ll show you how to make an ornament hut!” Vesper said.

Marcy hurried after Vesper. She stopped. “Wait, what about the trailer?”

“Oh, that gets turned into a float for all the leaders. Big deal or some such. We’ll deal with it soon enough.”

“A float?”

“To follow Santa.”

“Doesn’t that take away from Santa?”

“Not really my call,” Vesper said. “But yeah, I think it’s a bit much too.”

Marcy sighed. “Okay, show me how to make an ornament hut.”

Vesper grinned. “First, you need to cast an ornament spell,” she said and waved her hand. An ornament appeared on the ground in a swirl of red and green sparkles. “Then, you make it BIG.” Another hand wave and the ornament was taller than Vesper, why, it was quite tall enough to walk through! “Then, for a red or white ornament, you cast a light spell,” she said. “And for a red and black check ornament, you cast the red light spell and a bead garland spell, like so!” She cast both spells and grinned at Marcy.

“You just wanted to make a rock’n’roll ornament hut,” Marcy told her.

“Of course!” Vesper wasn’t the least bit repentant. “Now, the shopkeepers can come and set up their wares. Go ahead and do a bunch of them up and down the street.”

Marcy giggled and had fun making different type of ornament huts up and down the street. Some of them, she put smaller lighted ornaments beside them. And as she did so, she felt her phone vibrate. She opened it and looked at her achievement list. “Well, more coupons!” she said and giggled. It looked like there were plenty of ornament huts for her to put up in all the villages. She went back to Vesper. “There, done!”

“And I think that is more than enough for one day. Hey, you better start going around and telling the children that Santa is coming!” Vesper said. “All the villages in the district like to come here.”

“You’re right! And I better tell them about Santa’s horse.”

“Santa’s horse?” Vesper asked, looking confused.

“Santa is riding in on a white horse,” Marcy said. “And, the poor thing, he feels forgotten. I told him I’d tell the children about him. He wants carrots of course.”

“Of course,” Vesper said dryly.

“Well, I’ve got a lot to do then!” Marcy said and waved at her.

“Don’t forget to eat!”

“I won’t!” Marcy shouted.

Vesper sighed and tugged at her hat. “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas,” she sang and twirled her cane as she walked down the lane to inspect their work.

First Marcy went to the library to look for the mince-meat pie recipe. Oh, they had the book, but someone had loaned it out. Could she come back later or would another recipe do? Pippa told the librarian it had to be that recipe from that cookbook. It was important. Well, the librarian wouldn’t tell her who’d loaned out the cookbook. But, maybe, Granny Gette would have the recipe?

Marcy sighed. She stopped at Granny Gette’s. Granny Gette didn’t have it either. “But I’m not the only granny in the district. Try Granny Kay,” she said and gave directions.

Well, the blacksmith was on the way to Granny Kay. So she stopped in and finished forging her pine needle. It glowed green when it was done and the one end looked like a pine cone and the needle part was golden and very sharp! She thanked the blacksmith and asked if he had any sleigh runner polish. He told her that if she brought him the ingredients, he’d make some for her and have it ready tomorrow.

Marcy left with a list. Granny Kay didn’t have the pie recipe. But she did know who’d borrowed the book. It was her granddaughter. So, Marcy went to visit her. Of course, she was running across children on her travels and telling them about Santa coming to town and his horse. And of course, she was able to get the ingredients for the sleigh runner polish as well. And, thankfully, the granddaughter did have the book and was more than willing to let her copy the recipe for mince meat pies.

So, it was back to the blacksmith with the ingredients for sleigh runner polish. And then to the tailor with her needle. There she picked up her wool and dye and was able to dye the wool! There was even some dye left over. Now all she needed to do was collect the dried popcorn kernels, chestnuts, fresh fallen snow, and mint and she could go see Holda and make Santa a new outfit.

And so, it was back to Magpie Field. Where she baked a mincemeat pie, and, with the left over red dye and a paint recipe, she made red paint for Santa’s sleigh. (In different bowls and on different counters of course!)

Once the mince-meat pie was finished, she took it to the carpenter, who gave her in exchange the seeds for the white air feather fir. She also gave him a copy of the recipe with a bit of a scolding not to use it to light fires with. The carpenter looked contrite and thanked her profusely. The seeds were cold in her hand and were light blue and looked like tiny pine cones.

So, just before she went to bed, Marcy planted the seeds. And over one seed she promised it that she would take that tree and replant it in the wild, in the Mirror World. That seed glowed just a little brighter.

Mystic Riders MMO

An RPG Project by Girls for Girls

Author: Ginny O.