Tag: Second Life Men’s Fashion

UPDATED: Fantasy Faire in Second Life Runs from April 18th to May 7th, 2024

So, it’s a very lazy springtime Sunday morning, and of course, I have my main Second Life avatar, Vanity Fair, slow dancing with my main male SL alt, Heath Homewood, at the LOVE romantic dance club, dressed up as a medieval queen and her knight—you know, as one does. 😜 It sure beats just turning on the radio while you’re doing laundry! (Hey, don’t judge me; we all have our obsessive little hobbies to help keep us sane in these trying times.)

This is my rather roundabout way of saying that it’s Fantasy Faire season once again in Second Life, and this year there are no less than 20 regions, each with its own unique fantasy theme. Roleplay opportunities abound, as well as hunts and quests, auctions and shopping, arts and entertainment, a literary festival, a film festival, and a grand masked ball. Something for everyone! There’s even a special radio station!

Fantasy Faire (running from April 18th to May 7th, 2024) is Second Life’s annual fantasy roleplay festival and shopping event, and a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society:

Celebrating its sixteenth year, Fantasy Faire 2024 is the largest gathering of fantasy designers, enthusiasts, roleplayers and performers in the virtual world, bringing their own visions together to support the American Cancer Society’s vision of a world without cancer.

Fantasy Faire is one of the megaevents of Relay For Life of Second Life. RFL of SL is a part of American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life fundraising. You can visit their page of the Second Life Teams to see how much various SL events have earned for Relay For Life during the year.

In 2023 Fantasy Faire ranked 12th out of 40,000 Relay For Life Teams worldwide in terms of money-raised. In addition, Relay For Life of Second Life was the 8th highest RFL fundraising community event worldwide.

Participating stores usually have several special offers on merchandise, with the proceeds going towards the American Cancer Society. For example, Heath’s wonderful Caelan armour (with its Tree of Life motif) and chain mail suit are available at the Poet’s Heart store at Fantasy Faire. The Caelan armour is L$300 for a fatpack of 13 different colours, including the green shown below, and the chainmail is only L$100 for a fatpack of 19 different colours. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the sale of these items during Fantasy Faire goes to the American Cancer Society. I don’t know if you’ve ever been shopping for armour in SL, but I have, and I can tell you that L$400 for a full fatpack of armour and chain mail, is an exceptional deal! You can easily spend up to ten times that amount, on just one colour of armour!

The armour and chain mail comes in the following male and female sizes, and includes everything except the helmet and whatever weapons you choose to carry:

Sizes for Male Mesh Bodies:

  • Belleza Jake
  • Inithium Kario
  • Meshbody Legacy male body

Sizes for Female Mesh Bodies:

  • Belleza GenX Classic
  • Belleza GenX Curvy
  • Maitreya LaraX (but since you are probably going to alpha out your entire body underneath the full-body chain mail anyway, this would likely fit Maitreya Lara 5.3 or earlier versions as well; please get a demo and check first, though!)
  • Maitreya Lara PetiteX (and probably older Petite bodies, for the same reason)
  • Meshbody Legacy female body
  • Meshbody Legacy Perky
  • eBody Reborn
The Caelan armour (in the Tree of Life motif), and the chain mail are available at the Poet’s Heart booth at this year’s Fantasy Fair (please note that the helmet is not included; I picked up this one a couple of years ago from the 10th anniverary giveaway at Eleran’s Crafts, as part of complete set called Faraam, and tinted it green to match the armour here).

Here’s a closer look at Vanity Fair’s magnificent (and, I must confess, rather intimidating!) outfit:

Full style credits below

Madame Noir has a store at Fantasy Faire (SLURL), but you’ll have to go to their mainstore location to pick up this gloriously over-the-top Queen ballgown (please note that the main store location is rated Adult, as it also stocks festishwear, as you might have guessed from this tightly-corseted gown!). I believe the Madame Noir store is currently undergoing a renovation at the moment, but trust me, it’s worth a visit! The proprietor seems to have gone of her way to rig for the new Maitreya LaraX mesh body, and I see so many amazing things that I want to buy there!

Madame Noir has a free group join, that gives you a bit of a discount on your in-store purchases, as well as a lovely selection of free group gifts:

The group gifts wall at Madame Noir

The Imperium head chainmail and the matching Regium crown are from Unholy (SLURL). They can be used together or separately, Both the crown (unrigged; resizable) and the chain mail (rigged) come in sizes to fit male and female avatars, and each has a HUD with many options, including ten different metal textures for various parts of each item. I decided to choose a silver metal tone to match the metallic sheen of the outrageous sleeves and collar of the Madame Noir Queen ballgown!

Complete Styling Notes

Vanity Fair is wearing:

  • Head and Makeup: the new LAQ Era2 female mesh head (UltimateHD version)
  • Body: the new Maitreya LaraX mesh body
  • Skin: LAQ Susanna UltimateHD head skin and matching Next Level Maitreya body skin (the Susanna head skin fatpack is currently one of the gifts at the Bellisseria 5th Anniversary Gift Plaza)
  • Crown: Regium crown by Unholy
  • Head Chainmail: Imperium by Unholy
  • Gown: the Queen gown by Madame Noir
  • Shoes (not shown): silver Heidi pumps by Garbaggio

Heath Homewood is wearing:

  • Head: Catwa Daniel mesh head
  • Hair: Boy Next Door by Exile
  • Body: Belleza Jake mesh body
  • Skin: Blaze head skin and matching body skin by Birth
  • Helmet: Faraam helmet (part of a complete knight’s outfit) by Eleran’s Crafts
  • Rest of Armour: Caelan armour and chain mail by Poet’s Heart

PRO TIP: Looking for free weapons? Jomo has a small stone building next to its main store (exact SLURL), where you can pick up dozens of free swords, shields, spears, staves, axes, and other weapons. No group join is required, and everything is free!

Please note that these are not scripted weapons, but they can be resized and modified as you wish. I use them with a very handy HUD I purchased from Antaya, called the Unisex Roleplay HUD, which offers a variety of static Bento hand and arm poses for use with unscripted accessories such as the sword I picked up from Jomo. Here’s the exact SLURL to find the roleplay HUD at the Antaya store.

Of course, most roleplayers would probably use some sort of scripted weapon attachment, part of a system which allows you to draw and sheath a sword using special keystrokes, etc. (there are many such systems already well-established in Second Life). The Antaya HUD is used more for static items, or for photography in SL.

Jomo offers a treasure trove of swords, spears, and other weapons—all free!
The unisex roleplay HUD from Antaya offers a wide variety of useful hand and arm poses, to use with accessories such as books, lanterns, purses, and weapons.

Be sure to explore the many different regions of Fantasy Faire; some of the best landscape designers in Second Life work their hardest each year to wow visitors, and each region has a different fantasy theme. Even if you don’t buy a single thing, it’s great fun!

UPDATE April 29th, 2024: Ava Bloodrose Delaney has informed me, “[Fantasy Faire] got extended to [May] 7th by the Lindens at the Jail & Bail event on the 19th.” Thanks, Ava! I have updated my blogpost accordingly.

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Ryan’s Quick and Dirty Guide to the 2022 Holiday Shop and Hop

Yes, I am still percolating, but of course, the holidays wait for no one! This year, the annual Second Life Holiday Shop and Hop covers 16 sims, simply groaning with discounted items for sale. And each vendor booth has a free Christmas present for you—and a few have more than one!

I have spent the past week scouring social media for information to learn which stores are participating in this year’s Holiday Shop and Hop, and what gifts each store is giving. Then I drew up a draft list, loaded up Second Life supermodel Moesha Heartsong, and hit all 16 sims, to pick up, unpack, and inspect each gift from that list. As more information came in, I edited and updated that list, and it is now at version 3.0!

This final list consists of my picks for the best gifts from this season’s Shop and Hop (mostly fashion for female avatars, but also some male fashion, as well as any offers of gift cards or free store credit). Each item on the list includes an exact SLURL, so you can teleport directly to the gift, pick it up, and head on to your next score! Having all one sim’s gifts grouped together means less teleporting back and forth between sims, a factor to consider early on in the event, when some popular sims get congested with avatar traffic.

I have posted that detailed list to my own Second Life group, called the RyanSchultz.com Steals, Deals & Freebies group (just search for “ryanschultz”, all one word, under Groups in Search, and you will find it easily). More information on the RyanSchultz.com Steals, Deals & Freebies group can be found here. The group join fee is only L$50, and you will find it money well spent, as I often share many bargains and freebies throughout the year, which never make it to this blog!

As an alternative to my list, or if you really want to make sure you haven’t missed any gifts that I skipped over, I still feel that the single best way to tackle the Shop and Hop events is to watch Naria Panthar’s videos on YouTube.

Naria always posts one or two videos where she unpack every single gift from the event, both non-wearable items and avatar clothing, and shows you what they look like. Watch the videos with the audio at two times normal speed, and keep a pen and paper handy to note the stores which have gifts you want (Naria herself recommends watching and listening at 2X speed, so it doesn’t take as long!).

Then, use this handy list which Linden Lab has provided to find your Shop and Hop store by name, teleport in, and snap up your present! (Note that, in some cases, a store SLURL from this list might accidentally stick up behind a wall or, in one case, on top of the roof! This is another good reason to join the RyanSchultz.com Steals, Deals & Freebies group—I have tested all the SLURLs, and that should not happen!)

The Holiday Shop and Hop event is on now, and runs until January 2nd, 2023, so you have plenty of time to pop in and scoop up some fabulous freebies for yourself!

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Free Gifts to Celebrate the 12th Anniversary of the Firestorm Viewer!

Second Life is probably unique among metaverse platforms in that the most popular viewer software is not a product of the company that makes Second Life, Linden Lab! That would be the Firestorm viewer, created by the community itself by a non-profit company called the Phoenix Firestorm Project:

The Phoenix Firestorm Project Inc. is a non-profit, incorporated organization whose mandate is to improve the user experience in Second Life and other virtual worlds by providing an advanced open source viewer with greater features, options and interface flexibility than the standard offering by Linden Lab. The project has approximately 80 volunteers working for it and are managed through departments divided up as Development, Support, Quality Assurance and Gateway. We provide live support 24/7 in nine different languages inside of Second Life through our support groups and on the web via our issue tracker.

And to celebrate its 12 anniversary, Firestorm threw a big party yesterday, Saturday, September 3rd. And in a circle around the four-sim event stage are free gifts from Firestorm and other Second Life vendors for you! All gifts are free and you do not need to join a group to pick them up.

The present from Firelight Hair is a new unisex fatpack of hair called Glen/Gwyn, which comes in both male and female versions, rigged and unrigged, plus a HUD with 32 different textures:

Firelight is also generously giving out the same gift to SL users that it put out a year ago, for Firestorm’s 11th anniversary! This shorter unisex hairstyle is called David/Davina, and also comes in male and female versions, both rigged and unrigged, with a texture HUD as shown below:

Next up we have a casual outfit featuring three more free gifts:

The T-shirt is the present from Addams, and it comes in a wide variety of sizes to fit most female mesh bodies, and in two colours: white as shown above, and black. (Note that there is also a men’s T-shirt gift, which also comes in black and white!)

The gift from Firestorm is a fatpack of this unisex baseball cap featuring the distinctive Firestorm phoenix logo, with comes the the HUD shown below, where you can mix and match the colours of the cap and the logo as you please. There are two versions of the baseball cap, one for smaller heads and one for larger heads, and both can be resized simply by clicking on them, which pulls up a menu. It’s the perfect accessory for any fan of the Firestorm viewer as your avatar strolls the grid!

Finally, there’s a very nice gift from virtual shoemaker Versov, these wonderfully detailed sneakers, which comes in sizes to fit men and women! These special-edition Firestov sneakers come in sizes to fit feet for the following mesh bodies: Maitreya Lara, Signature Gianni and Geralt, Legacy (male and female), Belleza (male and female), and Slink (male and female). There’s also an unrigged pair in the folder, which you can adjust and resize to fit other brands of feet. They are a keeper!

There are also many gifts for you fans of breedables (which I am not). Here’s the blogpost on the official Firestorm blog listing all the free gifts. I’m not sure how long all these gifts will be available, but I seem to remember that the Firestorm 11th anniversary gifts were available to pick up for at least a month after the events held at the stage. As I said, the event stage is a circle covering four adjoining sims, with the same gifts available around the perimeter of the stage in each sim. According to the event listing:

SLURLs: LOAD BALANCING! If your first initial starts with…click a corresponding SLURL:
A-J http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Firestorm%20Ghost%20Town/14/240/3902
K-R http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Firestorm%20Aerodrome/238/15/3901
S-Z http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Firestorm%20Dow%20Forest/237/238/3902

Since the big party was yesterday, you could choose any of these SLURLs and you shouldn’t have any problem getting in! I wouldn’t wait too long to pick these wonderful presents up, though.

PRO TIP: Did you know that you can pick up many other free gifts at the VERSOV main store, including three fatpacks of high-quality unisex sneakers of various designs and colours? Join the VERSOV group for free to pick up the fabulous freebies, which are located on panels at the front counter of the store…here’s your taxi!

Happy freebie shopping! 😉

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Free Outfits, Accessories, Weapons, and Vehicles from ECHELON!

Second Life is home to many combat roleplay communities, as well as science fiction roleplay. ECHELON is a store which caters to these players with outfits, accessories, weapons, and even vehicles, and they are generously giving away a HUGE collection of such items for absolutely FREE! Just teleport to the store, join the – E C H E L O N – group for free, and click on the rotating white sign in the middle of the store:

There are no less than sixty-five separate gifts in the box you receive, a wide variety of outfits, weapons, and other objects (there’s even a cup of tea with a Bento hold pose!). Let’s start with the outfits first.

Please note that all these outfits (except where noted) include system clothing layers, which are intended for classic, system avatars and Bakes on Mesh-compatible mesh bodies, like version 3.0 of the Belleza Jake body this male avatar is wearing. (By the way, Belleza is still running their 50% off sale on the Jake, Isis, Venus, and Freya mesh bodies! It’s a real bargain, but I honestly don’t know how long this sale will last, so if you are shopping for a high-quality male or female mesh body, don’t delay!)

If you’re a fan of Star Wars roleplay—or if you just feel like strolling around Second Life dressed as a kick-ass Mandalorian!—feast your eyes on this complete set of Alorian armour, courtesy of ECHELON! The package even includes a special animation override (AO) with three sets of animations you can easily switch between during your roleplay: stand-by, sneaking, and combat. (There’s also a separate Alorian jet pack in the ECHELON gift box; it’s not shown in this picture.)

There are four different versions of this Imperial Soldier outfit (white, red, blue, and special forces), and the helmet comes in versions with and without the glow, as well as a chestplate variation for female stormtroopers!

Imperial Solder

IF you’d rather be a samurai, there’s a complete samurai outfit with armour:

This seven-piece medieval armour set is suitable for historical roleplay purposes (please note that the system/Bakes on Mesh clothing and the boots pictured below are NOT included in this package; I just rummaged around in my existing inventory for something suitable to wear with the armour):

Now let’s turn to accessories. Below are pictured two gifts, the aptly-named Crown of Light and the floating, rotating Heroic Heirloom (both are fully modifiable, so you can adjust the colour and the glow of each as you wish to match your outfit):

The Duality Mask domes in seven different versions, and is also completely modifiable:

And, as expected, there are weapons galore in the ECHELON gift box! All weapons include both stashed and deployed versions, as well as gestures which you can load and activate for your avatar to draw and sling them during battle.

First up is the AKG Assault Rifle, which comes in versions with or without the silencer:

The Slayer Sword is just the ticket to get you out of a tight spot in any fantasy battle!

The Big Heckin’ Gun is well named, as you can see!

Here my avatar is armed with a sci-fi laser rifle (there’s also a pistol, as well as all the gestures to swap between the two as needed):

And if you’re old school, how about this Dungeon Raider Halberd? There’s truly something for everyone in the ECHELON gift box.

But wait, there’s more! There are also a number of science fiction vehicles in the gift box. Here are just two, the Corvus Jetbike and the Land Cruiser hover vehicle:

The Corvus Jetbike
The Land Cruiser

So, if you are into fantasy, historical, or combat roleplay and gaming in Second Life, you owe it to yourself to drop by ECHELON and pick up this truly generous gift before it’s gone! Here is your taxi. Happy freebie shopping!