Reintroducing Antonio Montagnha [P] [G]

[Sir Ian Plätschisch]

Ministry of the Interior
IMMIGRATION APPLICATION

[td style="border:1px solid #000;padding:3px;"]Application received

[td style="border:1px solid #000;padding:3px;"]3/19/2022[/td]
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[td style="border:1px solid #000;padding:3px;"]Wittenberg account approved[/td][/tr][/table]
[td style="border:1px solid #000;padding:3px;"]3/23/2022[/td]
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[td style="border:1px solid #000;padding:3px;"]First Witt Post[/td][/tr][/table]
[td style="border:1px solid #000;padding:3px;"]3/24/2022[/td]
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[td style="border:1px solid #000;padding:3px;"]Eligible for Petition[/td][/tr][/table]
[td style="border:1px solid #000;padding:3px;"]4/8/2022[/td]
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[td style="border:1px solid #000;padding:3px;"]APPLICATION OUTCOME[/td][/tr][/table]
[td style="border:1px solid #000;padding:3px;"]APPLICATION ONGOING[/td]
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[td style="border:1px solid #000;padding:3px;"]Official notes:

[td style="border:1px solid #000;padding:3px;"]The Ministry of Interior, using information provided in the application and after investigating to the best of its ability, is satisfied that this application is Bona Fide.

Applicant Name:
Antonio Montagnha

Gender:
Male

Year of Birth:
1972

Location:
Vienna, West Virginia

Have you been introduced to the Kingdom of Talossa by an existing citizen?
NO -

Do you have any previous experience with, or membership in, any "micronations"?
YES - I was briefly involved with the Republic of Talossa several years ago. I quietly left the Republic due to my disappointment in the political climate.  Additionally more than 15 years ago friends and I experimented with the idea of a micronation based on our childhood memories and activities. If has been defunct for some time. I have an academic background in history and political science and have been well aware and informed of Talossa\'s culture and history since its Internet Era.

Is it okay if Talossan citizens contact you by e-mail?
YES

Is it okay if Talossan citizens contact you by telephone?
NO

About Myself:
I have a long career and professional attachment to higher education, having served as an executive and administrator in higher education for over 20 years, and hold a doctorate degree in Leadership Studies, and Higher Education Administration. I have also ran and designed everything from web sites to streaming television channels. I am an avid board and role-playing game player (mostly Dungeons and Dragons, but others as well). I have a self-taught background in graphic design, as well as audio/video production. My ambition, within the bounds of the Kingdom, is to explore the intentional creation of culture and civil society, while admittedly having no political ambitions beyond a citizen\'s common role in participatory democracy.

Why I am Interested in Becoming a Talossan:
As stated above, I have a deep interest in the intentional creation of culture and civil society, and how the interplay of that intention and what can loosely be described as human nature evolves in tandem. Specifically, my cultural interest span from fictional narratives, to sport/competition, the preforming arts, graphic arts, to cultural institutions based on participation. enjoyment, and the creation of meaning. I also have a long-term observational relationship with the Talossan culture and history and look forward to play a small part in its progress.

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

Welcome Antonio

[King Txec]

Welcome to Talossa, from one educator to another!

[Mic’haglh Autófil, O.Be]

Benvenescu!

[Antonio Montagnha, Ed. D.]

Thank you for the welcome everyone! I look forward to adding to the distinctive culture and history of Talossa.  I do have an interest in the Royal Society, and in media creation. If you have questions please ask away.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

I quietly left the Republic due to my disappointment in the political climate.

If I remember right, you weren't in favour of moves towards what became Reunision? And after Reunision you put forward a proposal that Republicans should not take their seats in the Kingdom's Ziu, Sinn Féin style?

If that's correct, then you may be happy to see that ten years of hard slog have produced some democratic reforms in the Kingdom - the secret ballot, the Seneschal elected by the Cosa, no more hereditary monarchy. And schi Allà en volt, there'll be more.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

D&D player, eh? I'd love to hear about that. Do you DM at all?

[Mic’haglh Autófil, O.Be]

And schi Allà en volt, there'll be more.

I feel like inschallà should be a word in el glheþ

[Antonio Montagnha, Ed. D.]

D&D player, eh? I'd love to hear about that. Do you DM at all?

I do indeed. I'm currently involved with two games, one as a player and the other as DM, using the Eberron setting.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

D&D player, eh? I'd love to hear about that. Do you DM at all?

I do indeed. I'm currently involved with two games, one as a player and the other as DM, using the Eberron setting.

Nice.  I ran a game here a bit ago with some Talossans -- we used Foundry.  I also have a long-running game offline that I've been DMing -- current campaign is three years in.

Are you online or off?  And I've never gotten into any of the Eberron fluff... is it good?

[Antonio Montagnha, Ed. D.]

I use D & D Beyond to manage characters and quick reference, and Zoom for my long-distance players. That combo has worked out well. I have enjoyed Eberron immensely, a good mix of traditional D & D lore with a great backstory and a solid injection of steampunk sensibility. We play about once per month.   

D&D player, eh? I'd love to hear about that. Do you DM at all?

I do indeed. I'm currently involved with two games, one as a player and the other as DM, using the Eberron setting.

Nice.  I ran a game here a bit ago with some Talossans -- we used Foundry.  I also have a long-running game offline that I've been DMing -- current campaign is three years in.

Are you online or off?  And I've never gotten into any of the Eberron fluff... is it good?

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

And schi Allà en volt, there'll be more.

I feel like inschallà should be a word in el glheþ

That would be hilarious, considering that King Robert I was not only an Islamophobe but racially prejudiced against Arabs

[Antonio Montagnha, Ed. D.]

I am afraid you may have confused me with someone else. I left before the Reunison was proposed and was not involved with it in any way.

I quietly left the Republic due to my disappointment in the political climate.

If I remember right, you weren't in favour of moves towards what became Reunision? And after Reunision you put forward a proposal that Republicans should not take their seats in the Kingdom's Ziu, Sinn Féin style?

If that's correct, then you may be happy to see that ten years of hard slog have produced some democratic reforms in the Kingdom - the secret ballot, the Seneschal elected by the Cosa, no more hereditary monarchy. And schi Allà en volt, there'll be more.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

I use D & D Beyond to manage characters and quick reference, and Zoom for my long-distance players. That combo has worked out well. I have enjoyed Eberron immensely, a good mix of traditional D & D lore with a great backstory and a solid injection of steampunk sensibility. We play about once per month.   

I disliked distance DMing a lot.  I use a lot of visuals and maps, and found the unreality of online really got in the way.  I could program puzzles into my virtual tabletop, but it wasn't the same.  The virtual stuff just didn't have the same heft.

Like with this newspaper I gave out a couple of weeks ago to my players:



If you're just uploading the text to a box online, no one's going to tend to pick it up during a quiet moment or notice something off about the advertisements.  It lacks the immediacy of a real piece of paper, and I couldn't get past that.

I will say that going virtual for a while really upped my game, generally.  Before I just threw any digital stuff into a Google Drive folder, but after DMing online for a while, I started exploring other approaches and ended up doing things like recording plot fluff as audio (example: https://www.billsville.net/yaqum ...I had to do like ten takes and splice them together since I kept giggling!).

Do you have any good steampunk things that you might recommend?  I've thought about throwing in some of that stuff since my players are in Waterdeep (Forgotten Realms, obv) and thus near Lantan and its mechanical stuff.

[Antonio Montagnha, Ed. D.]

I have experimented with various arrangements. The pandemic forced our groups to find remote solutions. At first, I used a combination of D & D Beyond, Zoom, and Publisher to create a virtual map, and miniatures. This worked well enough. Even with the receding of the pandemic and vaccination status of all of my players, I have half in person and have remote due to continuing health concerns. I now use a combo of D & D Beyond, Zoom, and a HD video camera to broadcast the real maps and miniatures in front of the in person players. This works much better and is favored by all players.

I use D & D Beyond to manage characters and quick reference, and Zoom for my long-distance players. That combo has worked out well. I have enjoyed Eberron immensely, a good mix of traditional D & D lore with a great backstory and a solid injection of steampunk sensibility. We play about once per month.   

I disliked distance DMing a lot.  I use a lot of visuals and maps, and found the unreality of online really got in the way.  I could program puzzles into my virtual tabletop, but it wasn't the same.  The virtual stuff just didn't have the same heft.

Like with this newspaper I gave out a couple of weeks ago to my players:



If you're just uploading the text to a box online, no one's going to tend to pick it up during a quiet moment or notice something off about the advertisements.  It lacks the immediacy of a real piece of paper, and I couldn't get past that.

I will say that going virtual for a while really upped my game, generally.  Before I just threw any digital stuff into a Google Drive folder, but after DMing online for a while, I started exploring other approaches and ended up doing things like recording plot fluff as audio (example: https://www.billsville.net/yaqum ...I had to do like ten takes and splice them together since I kept giggling!).

Do you have any good steampunk things that you might recommend?  I've thought about throwing in some of that stuff since my players are in Waterdeep (Forgotten Realms, obv) and thus near Lantan and its mechanical stuff.

[Sir Ian Plätschisch]

Who knew that you could incorporate bond yields into D&D?

Honestly, a campaign focused on fantasy financial markets sounds pretty fun.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

I have experimented with various arrangements. The pandemic forced our groups to find remote solutions. At first, I used a combination of D & D Beyond, Zoom, and Publisher to create a virtual map, and miniatures. This worked well enough. Even with the receding of the pandemic and vaccination status of all of my players, I have half in person and have remote due to continuing health concerns. I now use a combo of D & D Beyond, Zoom, and a HD video camera to broadcast the real maps and miniatures in front of the in person players. This works much better and is favored by all players.

I see!  The camera and map arrangement makes sense.  I wouldn't have thought to do that.  I just used virtual maps, first on Roll20 and then on FoundryVTT.  I like some aspects of it, since I could make light effects and clickable doors and things.  But nothing beats chairs at the table for me.

I do like being able to Zoom in people if they can't make it.  It's very hard to schedule a whole group of adults, and knowing that we can Zoom someone in if they're stuck at home is great (usually it's babysitting that's a problem, since most of us have little kids).

So you were in the Republic -- what was your experience there like?

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Who knew that you could incorporate bond yields into D&D?

Honestly, a campaign focused on fantasy financial markets sounds pretty fun.

I ran a campaign a few years ago that was predicated on an insurance scam, where the players worked for a caravan company that was trying to take advantage of an arbitrage opportunity in a local market but actually planning to tank their own business for the insurance cash.  That background didn't turn out to be that important to the players, except as background fluff, but it was fun.

I like to think about that stuff all the time, really.  The campaign I'm running for my 5-year-old and her friends is focused right now on preventing an invasion by people from the neighboring country, but the overall plot will eventually lead them to discover that these foreign folks are trying to respond and survive an environmental catastrophe in their own country.

[Antonio Montagnha, Ed. D.]

RE: Republic Experience

I say this with a preface that this was a decade or so ago and we all grow and evolve. Mutual respect and focusing on goals rather than personality is deeply important to me, and looking for ultimately irrelevant gaps in another's armor for short-term political gain is not something I enjoy. I am at a point in my life that I do not engage in that which I do not enjoy or do not find necessary.

Though I have a background in history, political science and leadership, and have led in many roles and have run for public office in my native land, I have no desire here in Talossa to be a political leader or commentator beyond the normal duties of the regular citizen. I hope to participate in intentional culture creation and see how that, long term, impacts society broadly.   

I have experimented with various arrangements. The pandemic forced our groups to find remote solutions. At first, I used a combination of D & D Beyond, Zoom, and Publisher to create a virtual map, and miniatures. This worked well enough. Even with the receding of the pandemic and vaccination status of all of my players, I have half in person and have remote due to continuing health concerns. I now use a combo of D & D Beyond, Zoom, and a HD video camera to broadcast the real maps and miniatures in front of the in person players. This works much better and is favored by all players.

I see!  The camera and map arrangement makes sense.  I wouldn't have thought to do that.  I just used virtual maps, first on Roll20 and then on FoundryVTT.  I like some aspects of it, since I could make light effects and clickable doors and things.  But nothing beats chairs at the table for me.

I do like being able to Zoom in people if they can't make it.  It's very hard to schedule a whole group of adults, and knowing that we can Zoom someone in if they're stuck at home is great (usually it's babysitting that's a problem, since most of us have little kids).

So you were in the Republic -- what was your experience there like?

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

RE: Republic Experience

I say this with a preface that this was a decade or so ago and we all grow and evolve. Mutual respect and focusing on goals rather than personality is deeply important to me, and looking for ultimately irrelevant gaps in another's armor for short-term political gain is not something I enjoy. I am at a point in my life that I do not engage in that which I do not enjoy or do not find necessary.

Though I have a background in history, political science and leadership, and have led in many roles and have run for public office in my native land, I have no desire here in Talossa to be a political leader or commentator beyond the normal duties of the regular citizen. I hope to participate in intentional culture creation and see how that, long term, impacts society broadly.   

I have experimented with various arrangements. The pandemic forced our groups to find remote solutions. At first, I used a combination of D & D Beyond, Zoom, and Publisher to create a virtual map, and miniatures. This worked well enough. Even with the receding of the pandemic and vaccination status of all of my players, I have half in person and have remote due to continuing health concerns. I now use a combo of D & D Beyond, Zoom, and a HD video camera to broadcast the real maps and miniatures in front of the in person players. This works much better and is favored by all players.

I see!  The camera and map arrangement makes sense.  I wouldn't have thought to do that.  I just used virtual maps, first on Roll20 and then on FoundryVTT.  I like some aspects of it, since I could make light effects and clickable doors and things.  But nothing beats chairs at the table for me.

I do like being able to Zoom in people if they can't make it.  It's very hard to schedule a whole group of adults, and knowing that we can Zoom someone in if they're stuck at home is great (usually it's babysitting that's a problem, since most of us have little kids).

So you were in the Republic -- what was your experience there like?

Antonio, that was an eloquent statement on mutual respect and focusing on goals in politics. I hope your sentiment is contagious in Talossan politics. As for opportunities for intentional culture creation I wanted to let you know of Qet Passa or What's Happening in Talossa which serves as an unofficial living compilation of prominent Talossan activities and their contacts. http://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=1142.0