I'm a role playing gamer. Yes, Dungeons & Dragons. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, sorry, I can't explain it right now. This is for my fellow initiates of geekdom. Though it verges on true dorkdom.
Gone are the heady days of yore, our pasty white skin sheltered from the blistering rays of the punishing sun by the fortified walls of our parents' basements, where we dined on Mountain Dew and Papa John's often for 10 hours straight, 2-3 days a week, throughout our adolescent Dark Ages of high school. Now we are those that ought not be named, though I blithely call ruin upon myself and utter the truth we can no longer deny: we are adults. And adults don't get to play fun games anymore. Well, at least not for 10+ hours a day several times a week.There are lots of "RPGs" out there, but these days the term invariably means a computer game, which is not role playing. All today's MMORPGs are merely visually souped-up Diablo treasure hoarding, plus chat. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I was as much a Diablo 2 addict as anyone. But current computer gaming in any form is a very different hobby from real role playing games. We can't gather with buds in the basement anymore, if we are even so lucky to live in the same town as any of our friends anymore (which I am not). So the internet is the only medium left. Luckily many other disenfranchised maturing gamers are out there, and play by post is the digital role playing medium pf choice for the old skool hardcore elite.
Play by post is role playing via creative writing on forums. Play by chat is another popular medium, but it's brevity and simplicity places it more in the modern computer gaming camp than traditional role playing. Role playing on forums isn't the same either, but it's the closest we've got until full VR comes around. This medium merges a lot with creative writing as well as role playing, each player responsible not only for stating character actions, but also creating the atmosphere and setting the scenery of the game. Not quite huddle in the cellar swilling Dew, but rewarding nonetheless.
There are lots of lame sites for role playing, but let's not bother with those. Two good ones are Plothook and Myth Weavers. I've looked around at Myth Weavers, but actually only joined and played on Plothook. It's a great community of mature role playing gamers who are all seeking that creative thrill one can still only get from traditional role playing. It's also a huge site that hosts all kinds of games, heavily weighted toward the grandaddy D&D but also rife with great games like Cyberpunk 2020, Vampire, Call of Cthulhu, even Paranoia. Anyone can join and play, or even run their own. And if the game isn't there, start it yourself and watch a horde of voracious gamers leap at the opportunity for a novel game.
The beauty of play by post is that one can actually bring to fruition the grand character concepts and setting ideas that role players have floating around their heads, as much as one can in writing a novel or short story, and at the same time still get the gamer thrill of controlling the characters and actions. The pace is very slow, but as long as enough players participate and keep supplying well-written scenes, the games can provide a daily diet of rpg fun better than any blog, keep your youthful imagination active, and help hone your creative talents to levels beyond the funny voices and accents that passed for role playing in our younger days.
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