Role Models

 Our second destination this week was to Wyldwood Bayou Grid, which is celebrating its 5th anniversary this month. Wyldwood is best known for two activities, the music events at venues like Hot Daddy's, and for its Roleplay, and it was the latter that we went to see. 

The RP hub region is a very beautiful place to visit, and full of information about how the groups here work, the backstories and rules, times and types of activities they do here. We arrived in our usual raggedy piecemeal manner.

Petlove Petshop: ty whoever tp'd me!

Forest Azure: pet, you have clothes!

Nara Nook: skin would be nice but I am happy just to have clothes

Dorena Bree: me too Nara

Forest Azure: well, nara, you were nothing but skin in the caves

The welcoming committee. Our guides were Fitheach, left, and Tessa, center.

Thirza Ember: That green tea diet seems to be working, Xenon

Xenon Darrow: It is! Of course...all those tannins are making me a bit rusty...

Contessa Lacombe: Hi everyone!  The WWB Roleplay Hub was formed to give the Wyldwood Bayou Grid roleplayers a venue to exchange information and set up roleplaying between their groups and other roleplayers on Open Sim grids. Crossgrid roleplay offers the opportunity for roleplayers to connect their stories to those of other groups and gives all of us the whole Hypergrid as a playground.

Wyld Five

This month, Wyldwood Bayou grid turns five years old, but to know that is only to have the very edges of the story of this vibrant corner of our hyperverse. Best known for its dancing events and roleplay, WWB grew out of a group of friends who had all had experience in Second Life before coming over to Opensim; their story of grid changes probably resonates with most of us, the best bit of it being that they were able to remain together as a tribe, no matter the vagaries of grid shutdowns, lost assets, and the usual craziness of opensimulator.

Kith Whitehawk 

Kith Whitehawk: Our first OS grid was InWorldz. Kira and I build Wyldwood Bayou on Kitley, then once we had to move, due to IW grid removal, settled in Discovery as a spot for the club. Picked Discovery, mainly due to Jay and Ten-Bears. We met Harmony in IW, was a boon that she was in between hosting gigs. Was the best snag ever!

Contessa Lacombe: I met Fit in Inworldz, which was my first OS grid. I picked it because it was all I knew about, but our open OS is so much better! When I first checked out OS, I thought it was very primitive so I stayed in SL, but on a later visit it had grown and I could envision the possibilities. I could have plenty of space to build!

It's a natural part of life that times change, and with experience, confidence and abilities grow. We all yearn for a bit more independence, which is what happened to the WWD group.

Kith Whitehawk: We wanted a place of our own, an independent grid. One where we had control over the ethos and values. We also had an extraordinary opportunity, due to Durham and Fits computer abilities, to have grid stability and a place to call "Our Own Dayum Swamp". We called it Wyldwood Bayou, since even though we lost Kira in 2019, her spirit is ever with us. She started the club on a parcel called WWB in IW back in 2011, and there was never a question of what we were to call our new home.

Wyld Ride

 Fitheach Eun and Tessa Lacombe were on Wyldwood Bayou Grid to welcome us for the second stop of our Safari this week. Wyldwood is well known for its Rockin' the Blues events, its roleplay groups, and its lovely New Orleans build, a popular stop off during carnival season in particular. Today though we were heading for another sim entirely, Wyld Thangs, a region of rides and relaxation.

Fitheach Eun

Neo Cortex: Safari incoming! Take cover!

Contessa Lacombe: runs into the barn... Hey Star! Hi Mal! Hey Forest! Hi Alex!

Thirza Ember: lots of body bits!

Star Ravenhurst: We have a crowd.

Malburns Craftster: Fear and Loadings in the metaverse - has a certain ring to it

Fitheach Eun: Welcome to Wyldwood Bayou’s Wyld Thangs Ride Park. Kith Whitehawk, Contessa Lacombe, Harmony Beningborough and I (Fitheach Eun) built this region as a play-ground for the Wyldwood Bayou Grid. It has always been open to Hypergridders looking for fun. We have an awesome and scary motocross, a skate park with an obstacle course, a beach area, an outdoor cinema and some really beautiful scenery along with 2 music venues where we occasionally offer events.

Star Ravenhurst and Contessa Lacombe consider their options

Fitheach Eun: It’s a great region to tour on horseback, 4-wheeler, or motorcycle. You can bring your own vehicles and rez them in the designated areas. We will take you on a brief tour and then you can choose where you want to play. We also have freebie shops at the Water Park, Skate Park and Vehicle Barn. There is even a Food Court next to the Skate Park. The sign in front of the barn has folders of information on how to fix a number of common Opensim issues. We spent a lot of time re-searching and testing to create those for our music club audiences. Please grab any that interest you.

A Bayou Bye Bye

The final part of the final Safari of the season took us over to the brightly colored N'awlins build on Wyldwood Bayou Grid. It's a great combination of historical recreations, party venue, freebie mall (definitely worth exploring the sim for some unusual, useful, and beautiful finds) , and landscape with both swamp and street plan, a complete delight - HG address at the end of the post, of course! 

On hand to greet us, two Wyldwood stalwarts, Fitheach Eun and Kith Whitehawk. They held over the their traditional Carnival celebrations for us, so that the Safari could go out in style with a Louisiana spring in our step.

Kith Whitehawk: Now that's Mardi Gras brother!!!!

Luna Lunaria: These guys love playing rock blues :-)

Calendar Guys

 Another year, another calendar, this year "Men of Opensim"... no, no nudes, you can get them anywhere with depressingly banal results, instead here the focus is on guys going places, or well not exactly going but staying places and making stuff that you can visit. Of course, the number of interesting people in Opensim is uncountable, but these  just represent some of the goings on in the virtual.

You can get the calendar for free at the HG Safari clubhouse, and it's a gift offered in the Notices if you belong to the HG Safari group on OSGrid. The calendar part is a MOAP or media on a prim, linking to the Safari's Google Calendar, which will show you our upcoming seasons of events, plus the grid birthdays of many places on the Hyperverse.

So, who's in the calendar?