Join us to celebrate the Return of the Quest for the Golden Prim at Fantasy Faire – and rescue some of our characters!

Wanted: Dr Ephemera Wirefly

Join us today, Saturday 27th April, at a party at the Explorer’s Club (Oriental Branch) from 2pm – 5pm to celebrate the relaunch of the Quest for the Golden Prim.

And – as the party begins, we suspect that some – at least – of the Fugitives will be safely under lock and key!

Wanted: Professor Andrew McMinn

We’re combining a party to celebrate the return of the steampunk/gaslamp fantasy webcomic, The Quest for the Golden Prim with a Jail and Bail event to raise funds for Relay for Life at the Fabulous Fantasy Faire.

Followers of the web comic may recall that the three academics were falsely accused of murder in Steelhead but were fortunately able to escape from jail – only to find Steelhead threatened by a massive volanic eruption.

Wanted: Miss Hortensia Primm

Volume 1 ended with the majority of the Quest attempting to fly before the explosion … their fate left hanging in the balance … and their destinatuion somewhat hazy …

Now we will be serialising Volume 2 on our new website at www.goldenprim.com – and we are planning to release a new installment each week, accompanied by games and contests.

So do come and join us from 2pm – 5pm today, to celebrate the relaunch of the comic, to explore the amazing Explorers’ Club, and to donate some Lindens to a very good cause!

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Have you seen these Fugitives at the Fantasy Faire?

The Fugitives!

More news has come in about the dangerous fugitives, rumoured to be hiding out in the Faireland – as was warned in a recent post on the Fantasy Faire blog. Now further news has come in from Steelhead, where their crimes were apparently committed.

The Marshal of Steelhead and his Deputies

Demetrius “Fuzzball” Ortega, Marshal of Steelhead City, has informed us that he and his deputies – the famed “nun gunnies” – were investigating an anonymous tip regarding a disturbance at the home of a Mr. Carruthers.

The Questers caught!

The Sisters and the Marshal arrived to find the……”Questers” in the house, standing over the dead body of Mr Carruthers.

They were taken in for questioning.

The arrest!

And that should have been that …

Except that a mysterious accomplice disguised themselves as one of the deputies, bringing the Marshal some tea.

The mysterious accomplice

The tea was drugged, and as the Marshal passed out, they made their escape – having previously drugged the Deputies too!

The Unfortunate Deputies

Now the Marshal says that he has received a variety of communications suggesting that these “Questers” are in the Fairelands!

The Marshal says: “If you see one of these Questers, alert the Fairelands officials. They have the facilities for holding all ne’er do wells. Above all, neither approach them yourselves, nor assist them in any way. It is quite evident that they are very dangerous criminals.”

But other people are trying to find the fugitives too …

Note on the Quest for the Golden Prim:
There are several mysterious characters visiting the Faire with the words “Quest for the Golden Prim” or more simply the cryptic “QGP” in their titler. If you speak to them, they’ll be happy to tell you more – and they’ll share their calling cards with you too. It’s said that they’re based at the Explorers’ Club on Lotus Valley Dream – where it is rumoured that this delightful establishment is harbouring secrets of its own (as well as the ONLY washroom in the whole of the Fairelands!).

The Explorers’ Club (Oriental Branch)

In fact, on Saturday 27th, there will be a party at the Explorer’s Club (Oriental Branch) from 2pm – 5pm to celebrate the relaunch of the Quest for the Golden Prim. And – as the party begins, we suspect that some – at least – of the Fugitives will be safely under lock and key!

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Quest for the Golden Prim: an Adventure Starts at Fantasy Faire

As you have doubtless gathered by now, we are re-booting the web comic The Quest for the Golden Prim at Fantasy Faire, and Petlove Petshop valiantly battled the weekend lag to create a short tour of our installation there – the Explorers’ Club (Oriental Branch).

Have you heard about the Quest for the Golden Prim?

The Quest for the Golden Prim is a web comic, captured in Second Life, that first ran in The Primgraph magazine.

The Quest for the Golden Prim

It tells the story of a very mixed group of adventurers who are gathered together to discover what happened to a Lost Expedition that set out to discover the Golden Prim years before. You’ll find out more about these adventurers as you collect their trading cards … available from the portraits in the gallery at the Explorers’ Club (and one of the Foo Dogs at the entrance). Check back to see which portraits are on display – and you’ll be able to collect the full set!

Annabella Scott

Volume 1 was made up of nine episodes (or chapters). You can read all the episodes at Calameo.

Now we are relaunching The Quest for the Golden Prim, this time as a special web comic. From Saturday 27th April, you’ll be able read the comic at www.goldenprim.com on a weekly basis – and every episode will come with games, puzzles or online hunts that will give you a chance to win special Quest prizes!

Please explore the Explorers’ Club at Fantasy Faire to learn more, to find trading cards for the characters and to find inworld copies of the first nine episodes in various places around the Club (where they’ve been left by forgetful adventurers).

There’s lots to see in the Club … including some secret rooms. But no fugitives from stern justice hiding out here – oh, goodness me, certainly not!

And you are invited to join us for our relaunch party on Saturday 27th April at 2pm – 5pm SLT.

Mordecai Watson

(And by the way, the Explorers’ Club also has the only washroom in the Fairelands … there may be a queue.)

But there’s more than this … we are actually staging a special Quest adventure at the Faire – and you can be part of it!

Lola the beagle

As you walk around the Faire, you’ll see people wearing titkes that say “QGP” or “Quest for the Golden Prim”, and their character names. If you talk to them, they’ll give you information about the Quest, and about their characters … they should also give you their personal trading card (you can collect more trading cards by visiting the Explorers’ Club and collecting them from the pictures in the portrait gallery).

And keeping watching this blog, The Primgraph blog, and listening to Fantasy Faire Radio – because a story will be taking shape over the coming days …

Here’s the start …

“Dear Frankie

There is new information regarding our expedition. We would like to engage your services once again.

Please meet us, at the Explorers’ club, Lotus Valley Dream, Fairelands. We will be studying the scientific nature of the Fairelands phenomena and will be staying at the club for about a week from the 20th April.

Please come.

Sincerely

Professor McMinn, Dr Wirefly and Miss Primm”

 

Diary entry 21st April,  11am

I should probably have just burned the blasted card, but I’m somehow still somewhat intrigued by this whole group of haphazard adventurers and, needless to say, I could do with the work. So I kept the card, but moreover, I kept the appointment and now I find myself sat in the Explorers’ club. I arrived last night and so far there has been no sign of the three signatories. I’m not yet sure if I’m worried, it’s a bit too early, they are academics after all, and not renowned for their punctuality or reliability.  I think I’ll save the worrying until after lunch.

Read more here.

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Seraph City celebrates its third birthday with a party!

The Seraph Club

There’s a special event to celebrate in Seraph City!

Seraph City’s 3rd Birthday

Seraph City, the beautiful 1930s dieselpunk city that figured as a key location in The Blackened Mirror – is celebrating its third birthday today, Saturday 6th April, with a party at the Seraph Club from 6 – 9pm.

There have been some changes recently in the region – awesome new sim surrounds, and the region is acquiring more mesh builds.  There are also some available sites for renting, and plans to add some games – like the murder mystery in the offices of The Daily Prim (which will be updated shortly).

For today’s event, evening wear is preferred (1920s – 1930s style would be perfect), and, they say, “tea” will be available from the bar!

It should be a fun evening – hope to see you there!

The Streets of Seraph City

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Designing Worlds explores the beautiful Duchy of the Coeurs

Now available on the web – our latest episode, as we visit the beautiful estate of the Coeurs, sometimes called the Duchy, a series of fourteen French baroque regions, each named after a specific region in France.

This is, however, not the highly formalised world of the Court, nor the seething poverty that led to the French Revolution, but a gentle and gracious style of rural living, with the bourgeoisie and the haut bourgeoisie living in beautiful surroundings with beautiful small towns and elegant homes, graced by the occasional chateau.

Exploring the Coeurs – photograph by Wildstar Beaumont

We are joined on the show by two of the owners of the estate, His Grace the Duke and one of the two Duchesses of the Coeurs – but we have permission to introduce them by their less formal names, as Bedrich Panacek and SkyeRyder Varriale!

In their company, we explore museums, canals, courtyards and carriage rides – because the Duchy has one of the most elegant systems of transportation anywhere in Second Life, as residents can order carriages to come to their door and take them anywhere in the estate. Or – like Elrik – some might prefer to travel by boat and see the amazing locks, based of locks designed by Leonardo da Vinci.

Exploring the Coeurs – photograph by Wildstar Beaumont

The majority of incidental music in this episode is by Kevin MacLeod.

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Designing Worlds discovers the mystery of the stolen books in New Babbage

Now available on the web – our seasonal New Babbage show!

There’s a coal shortage in snow-covered New Babbage, as Saffia and Elrik pay one of their periodic visits to the steampunk city. But they’re just visiting some of the libraries there … what could possibly go wong?

An unexpected encounter in New Babbage

Before long, Saffia and Elrik, aided by the Assistant Maceholder Victor Mornington and Librarian Bookworm Heinrichs – accompanied, of course, by a hapless Mr Biggins – are dragged into an adventure involving stolen books, seasonal curses and a highly dangerous book, fit to be mentioned in the same breath as the Necronomicon and the Book of Al Azarine …

Uncle Tingly’s Christmas Tales for New Babbage Young ‘Uns, secure in its case

Uncle Tingly book designed and created by Edward Pearse
Bells, Bookstand (and chains) designed and created by Beq Janus

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Designing Worlds pays a seasonal visit to New Babbage – what could possibly go wrong?

Join us at 2pm SLT today, Monday 10th December, for the new episode of Designing Worlds at our studio in Garden of Dreams when we’ll be taking a seasonal trip to New Babbage. A rather chilly one too, if all the reports we’ve heard about the coal shortage are true!

New Babbage in the Snow, photographed by Wildstar Beaumont

Now, our trips to that industrial steampunk city have not been entirely without incident in the past – what with murders, dangerous dark mermaids, mendacious Santas and purloined diamonds … to say nothing of Elrik being mistaken for Sherlock Holmes, or that time we discovered the dark secrets under the lost Asylum …

But really, we’re visiting libraries this time! What could possibly go wrong?

Although we might wonder why it’s necessary to keep a certain children’s book chained up in a locked desk …

Uncle Tingly’s Christmas Tales for New Babbage Young ‘Uns, secure in its case

So join us, at 2pm today, to unlock the true terror of Uncle Tingly’s Christmas Tales for New Babbage Young ‘Uns … if you dare.

Or – if you can’t attend in person – tune in at 2pm SLT on Monday for the live show on http://treet.tv/live – where you can now chat with other audience members and even some of the participants during the show – or catch it later in the week on our shows page on the Treet.tv web site at http://treet.tv/shows/designingworlds – our very own version of the iPlayer!

Uncle Tingly book designed and created by Edward Pearse
Bookstand (and chains) designed and created by Beq Janus

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Prim Perfect Jigsaw: New Babbage in the Winter

New Babbage in Winter

Today’s jigsaw is a wintery vista of the industrial steampunk city of New Babbage under a dark sky, captured by Wildstar Beaumont.  Too dark and cold for even the urchins to be abroad, New Babbage is shivering in the grip of a severe coal shortage.

Fortunately (fortunately?) Miss Widdershins and Mr Merlin are on the way …

That’s right, today is the broadcast of Designing Worlds’ Christmas trip to New Babbage … what could possibly go wrong?

Let’s do a jigsaw – full details of the show will be coming shortly.

New Babbage in winter, photographed by Wildstar Beaumont

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Catch up with your Prim Perfect jigsaws (showing images of Second Life and other virtual worlds).

If you’d like to submit a photo of your own to feature as a jigsaw, send it to the Prim Perfect Flickr Group. It should be sized 800w x 600h, or else it will need to be re-sized.

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Farewell, Farewell from The Primgraph Magazine

The Primgraph: Issue 16 - Cover

Today I have some sad news to share with you.

After a lot of reflection and discussion, we have decided to close The Primgraph as a magazine. It will continue as – I hope – a very active blog, with its mixture of news and events and the occasional story.

The Quest for the Golden Prim will also continue as a free-standing quarterly. Indeed, we are looking into ways to bring this to a wider audience outside virtual worlds.

The Primgraph Press in Glengarry will be closed which is, frankly, breaking my heart as I loved that build and the AWESOME printing press created for us by Edward Pearse.

The Daily Prim offices in Seraph City will remain, to be used as the basis for roleplay. We plan to run more murder mysteries from there.

Why are we closing the magazine?

Primgraph No.11 - Cover

To put it simply, the revenue we raise through the magazine doesn’t make it economically viable. Prim Perfect has, in effect, had to underwrite The Primgraph – and that just doesn’t make sense.

This has been despite the best efforts of a whole range of people – including our three ad managers: Diva Regina, Elegia Underwood and Bellaluna Galaxy. They all worked extremely hard, but it became very clear that the market for The Primgraph is, sadly, too small to sustain a magazine of the quality we wanted to produce.

Both Bellaluna and Terry Lightfoot (our amazing designer) have, with regret, stepped down after the last issue for real life reasons. However, Terry has agreed to help us make a Farewell issue of the magazine which will go out later this year, which will contain the second half of Denny Kozlov’s brilliant story, A Clockwork Romance, among other things.

What about Prim Perfect?

The Primgraph Issue 1: July 2008

Prim Perfect is doing very well indeed. We have a very solid core of advertisers and the magazine is financially sound and very popular. So we are glad of having time freed up where we can continue to grow this and other projects.

And we are delighted to say that you will be able to continue to read our great writers and see the work of our awesome photographers in Prim Perfect and – we hope – on The Primgraph blog.

Saffia Widdershins, Editrix
Ceejay Writer, Deputy Editrix

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Celebrate a Clockwork Spring with The Primgraph and win real life tickets to the Steampunk World’s Fair!

The Primgraph: Issue 16 - Cover

Welcome to our special Automata issue of The Primgraph! We have been getting into a mechanistic mood here—as you will see. And there’s an answer to the question, “Where does Saffia get her energy from?” Well, all I can say is—it all runs like clockwork!

And clockwork there is in plenty in our new issue! Mr Linus Lacombe supplies a History of Automatons, while Miss Jedburgh30 Dagger explores some fascinating instances of historical dolls. The Duchess of Loch Avie provides a fascinating history of automated musical instruments of varying kinds, while Miss Serafina Puchkina has come up with a great list of stores that you might wish to visit, if you are in search of Clockwork and Curiosities.

The Primgraph: Issue 16 - A History of Steam Sky City

Meanwhile, Miss Beq Janus explores that most fascinating of automated cities, Steam Sky City in Caledon.

The Primgraph: Issue 16 - The Steampunk World's Fair

We have a special article by Miss Bellaluna Galaxy on The Steampunk World’s Fair, to be held from Friday afternoon May 20th until Sunday evening May 22nd in Somerset, New Jersey, where guests will include Professor Elemental and the artist Bridgid Ashwood (see Winged Things and a Measure of String on Page 130 of our October 2009 issue).

And we have TWO FREE PASSES to the Faire in New Jersey to give away to one lucky reader.  Just submit a short paragraph stating why YOU would like to attend to the.primgraph@gmail.com (heading it Steampunk World’s Fair Competition) and giving the name of your Second Life avatar.

And there’s another competition too – find the FIVE lucky horseshoes hidden in this issue of the magazine, send us a notecard telling us which pages they are on, and you could win L$500!

The Primgraph: Issue 16 - Short story

Also in the magazine, we have the opening part of a splendid tale from Mr Denny Kozlov, entitled “A Clockwork Romance,” and for those seeking more fiction, we have discovered another Lost Chapter, this time the opening chapter of Great Expectations, recovered by Miss Eloisa Denimore, in which young Pip has a wholly unexpected encounter.

The Primgraph: Issue 16 - Etiquette of the Steamlands

As ever, Frau Annechen Lowey is on hand to advise us of the pitfalls and pleasures of receiving and entertaining guests of a mechanised or clockwork kind. And I have been exploring the fashion secrets of the best dressed dolls—while we demonstrate that every gentleman, no matter how robotic, always needs his hat to be well turned out.

Our web comic, “The Quest for the Golden Prim,” makes a welcome return to the magazine as we open Volume 2 (beautifully shot and designed by Mr PJ Trenton as always). And the question on everyone’s lips is… what has happened to the Expedition, last seen making a perilous escape from the ash and flames of a volcanic eruption?

The Primgraph: Issue 16 - The Quest for the Golden Prim

We also have a taster of our new Social Diary. Do you figure in its pages? Perhaps you were among the many fascinating or beautiful Automata to appear at the Primgraph/Steeltopia-sponsored Automata Ball in Steeltopia on April 2nd?

And there is another episode of “The Quest for the Crimson Pirates,” as well as news of various events that have been taking place in the Steamlands over the last few months.

And to illustrate all this, our magnificent team of photographers: Mr PJ Trenton, Miss Twisted Lemon, Mr Wildstar Beaumont, and Miss Tricia Aferdita have captured some stunning images to supply a feast for your eyes.

So, with no shortage of fascinating articles and beautiful illustrations, we welcome you to this sixteenth issue of The Primgraph!

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How do I get my copy of The Primgraph?

Well, there are various ways to get The Primgraph!

The Primgraph: Issue 16 - Automatons!

Best of all, you can join our Subscribe-o-Matic group, which will deliver the magazine to you automatically when it is published.

The Subscribe-o-Matic kiosks are located in historical and steampunk sims across Second Life. And if you can’t find one in your favourite sim, why not ask the owner to install one?

The Primgraph: Issue 16 - Fashion Article

It is also available through SLMarkpetplace (just search on the site for The Primgraph). This will deliver you a copy in the form of a book that you can rez and read inworld.

The Primgraph: Issue 16 - Lost Chapter of Great Expectations

But if you prefer to read the magazine online but not inworld, there are choices too.

Firstly, there’s the wonderful Calaméo system, which allows you to moves smoothly through the pages, giving you the feeling of reading a real magazine. You’ll find Issue 16 here – and please do leave a comment!

But, if you like to download your magazines to read as you commute to work, or in the bath, or wherever, you can also obtain a standard pdf for downloading and printing.

So, really, you have no excuse for not reading The Primgraph. In fact, why aren’t you reading it now?

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