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History
Oct 3, 2009 12:48:49 GMT -5
Post by Shava on Oct 3, 2009 12:48:49 GMT -5
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[/size] Shava's History[/size] }[/size][/b][/center] I started roleplaying back in the early 1980s with Dungeons and Dragons in Boy Scouts around the age of twelve. With encouragement from friends and mother (unusual for the time as most parents feared the game) I used it to expand my writing skills and my imagination. This process has never really stopped. Over the 80s I continued to advance in the game from Basic D&D through all the various editions up through third edition, adding in Shadowrun (which most people felt I really rocked at Game Mastering; says a lot about my cynical view of government & the business world lol), Champions, Paranoia (a personal favorite), Vampire the Masquerade, and about thirty other not so well known gaming systems.
Along the way I often Game Mastered the games drawing maps, designing traps, and making up adventures which would keep my friends entertained. I was often picked for games as a player because of my tricky nature and success at playing characters everyone else had to either watch out for or laugh hysterically at. Along the way I got quite a taste for theater as well as roleplay and began always looking for ways to expand. Some of the more memorable characters involved a Scottish dwarven paladin (who threw himself bodily in front of others to protect them and to get all the experience points, often leaping into pits to reach the monsters first), a First Nations Minotaur warrior (known for his wisdom and clever thinking as well as his non-interest in treasure), and a Gully Dwarf named Dwub (renown for his inability to count to three successfully yet missed every trap in the dungeon by accident). Many of these characters are still discussed and remembered fondly by a group of nearly forty gamers who drifted in and out of our regular crowd. With a schedule of often six games a week alternating (two games on each of three nights) and nearly forty different gaming systems, we rapidly became the most experienced roleplayers (compared to hack-n-slashers who we felt sorry for their limited imaginations) at conventions we went to as well as vastly different being that half our crowd was female and every one of us had played opposite gender characters.
Games we sat down to often became filled with imaginative ways to solve issues, such as turning the dungeons inhabitants against each other politically (AD&D in particular), invading Japanese Yakuza as a fire department to steal a sword (Shadowrun), and stealing control of the US spy satellites as heroes to monitor the bad guys (Champions). Rarely could the GMs keep up with or figure out what would happen so we had to prepare far more then the average GM and thus we got better and sneakier and trickier. Characters became more detailed and thoughtful as new things happened and as a group we became far more detailed as well in our approaches, planting many different ideas on every character and often needing a notebook to keep up with only one or two characters. Especially their aftermaths, like the dungeons we turned into thriving towns with detailed trade negotiations and loads of fun times of extreme silliness.
I remember having an in-character argument between a kender (from dragonlance chronicles) and a native american Minotaur (don't ask lol) about one of them not keeping the other from marrying a blue dragon by accident while under the influence. Ah, memories.
In all instances we had fun; our side-tracking becoming legends amongst us ourselves and rarely told to outsiders. People came along to watch and laugh, listen in over their computers, or shake their heads when we told them what they had missed. We were geeks in every meaning of the world, but we were fun geeks to hang out with, never falling into other geek trends entirely and being composed of theater, computer, trekkies, medieval, and literary geeks of all kinds. Yet in our minds we were always roleplayers. None of us have ever been interested in, nor been amused by the video games that people so often call rpgs since few of them allow one the freedom of the imagination like the early ones did and still do. When we get together (although we are all behind the times playing out of original first edition manuals with our notebooks or randomly designed group tables for our own laughable preferences) we always sit down for a game, bringing our characters with us "just in case."
Now that I have discovered the world of text gaming (still limited but not nearly as much as vids) I rarely manage to make it back to the group although we still play. I doubt many early rpg groups have been around twenty years plus and our technology has advanced a lot. We now carry our random tables on our portable drives and have computers available to free us up of all the details. We roleplay by second life (actually just using it to communicate; we rarely use our avatars there roflmfao) and trade ideas by facebook. We may be old, but we're still d*mn entertaining and fun to have around as many will admit!
Here is a list of the various online groups Shava has been on and played on. Each name is a link to the site and characters and people will be noted as well as links to Roleplay samples screenshots.
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History
Oct 3, 2009 16:28:04 GMT -5
Post by Shava on Oct 3, 2009 16:28:04 GMT -5
I lucked into this group by accident, just looking to see if any Harry Potter RPGs had been created and found this site of thousands of kids all playing a huge variety of games and making friendships around the globe. Never dull, most of the kids who latched onto me there (for some reason I'm always picked out as the one to be with; must be my 12 year old brain ) still write me by facebook and email, getting advice for their issues and keeping an eye open for the few ones we have lost along the way.
On this site, the Ravenclaws created a roleplay school to teach others how to play and I became one of the tutors for a year, leading others to learn how to watch out for the basics and how to make for great connections. I still remember this crowd fondly, although my friends there have mostly graduated and moved onto to other sites. As a teacher, I taught using a variety of more then six characters, each one with backgrounds and stories which could only be followed by following my posts in sequence so I won't try to list these down.
1) HEX : { Roleplay Certificate }
This was a site I was invited to, by a group of the mods from Hogwarts Extreme and filled with a variety of characters, not very limited in their discussions of sex and usual relationships. I was invited because some of the folks wanted a James Potter and thought I might fit the bill. This was my first online application and several people dropped me notes about how much they appreciated the unique approach James took to issues during this major growing up time in his life.
That one was rapidly followed by two more as I discovered how well the text format allowed me to get into the situations and enjoy roleplay again. Quinn explored his total innocence at the world and grew up during the year to the delight of several of my fellow players and Emmaline was quidditch mad, only discovering boys while she was actually playing the game itself. Both had fun struggles to play out and lots of mess-ups.
1) James Potter : { Sample 1 } { Sample 2 } { Sample 3 }
2) Quinn Gilmore : { Sample }
3) Emmaline Vance : { Sample }
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History
Oct 3, 2009 16:29:25 GMT -5
Post by Shava on Oct 3, 2009 16:29:25 GMT -5
An interesting site on it's own with several thousand people online at a time, the forums are enormous, with each town having it's own sections, countries, and governments running everything from politics to basic farming. The roleplaying was sometimes really good, but often very short and a lot of short speech happens.
I ran a few threads on medieval building and stayed for several months, but the politics began to get on my nerves and I decided to search elsewhere. A number of others also moved on from the areas I knew there and onto the next site where I still play. Unfortunately they deleted all of the threads I was involved with before I left the site; old threads don't always stay around long.
Another interesting site, half game and half roleplaying. I fell into quite a group of roleplayers here from the RK above, but they stopped doing the roleplays here for some reason before they got really started up. A shame, especially as I was all geared up with my native and was building a house, but it died out mostly. They do have multiple languages here though and my dutch got some good practice, although I'm sure my grammar was horrible lol.
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History
Oct 3, 2009 16:31:09 GMT -5
Post by Shava on Oct 3, 2009 16:31:09 GMT -5
PI was introduced to me as Swish went in to Maintenance Mode (the owner had school issues to work through) as a possible replacement that several of us looked at. The fact that they were so active drew me into the very complete application and I was astounded at how much site there really was. I quickly found people there as hyper-active about posting as me and fell into the crowd eagerly. And eventually got elevated to being a moderator as well.
Odin, my first and one of my all time favorites, was a 14 year old future serial killer in Slytherin, a complex child working through many past issues which most people were scared to death of (loads of complex, introspective journals out of this one as well). Next came Miles, my musician turned cook who soon ended up with some recipes that made me drool and he had a take-away place in no time. Then followed my slythie girl who was sorted into Hufflepuff who eventually went the way of exotic and dangerous pets and began an import business while Olivia my Divination teacher made moves on a handsome DE shop keeper. They murder more then just kabobs.
One of my most challenging characters comes from here too, a boy named Art. Art has multiple personality syndrome to the tune of two others in his head. Writing his application was huge and took nearly two weeks and my admin wanted to be sure I was okay with what I did, that he was very playable. The application was stunning to many people, but he writes really well and easily, despite his three sets of issues and fears. And while his roleplays are really good, I thought his application was far more a good sign of what my roleplaying is like as I adore a challenge. Art is a fun challenge to play
1) Odin Burke : { Sample 1 } { Sample 2 }
2) Miles Chevalier : { Sample }
3) Sierra Cullen : { Sample } - Moderator
4) Olivia Ambrose : { Sample }
5) Art Isaacs : { Application }
A different kind of site about another world entirely, magically based on the elements and filled with people from a past time. Lost lands, warring governments, and very different powers to show in a scene of many sub-plots. I'm a Moderator here as well, my first moderator position and working on it was a real privilege as well as a distinct education in how boards work. To know another likes and trusts you to do work on such a place is also a great relationship time and it has a special place in my heart.
1) Finn Mac Cool : { Sample 1 } { Sample 2 } - Global Moderator
2) Princess Mercedes Stratford : { Sample }
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History
Oct 3, 2009 16:32:09 GMT -5
Post by Shava on Oct 3, 2009 16:32:09 GMT -5
A site from a favorite admin whose just starting up, Mas is a supernatural site filled with all kinds of creatures hiding out amongst the humans who, to most, don't even know they exist. The site is well organized (as the admin spent many months working on it before opening for the pre-sign ups) and has lots of possibilities. Unfortunately it hasn't taken of as the admin fell victim to the strike of the economy, but it isn't closed; just put on hold till she has a way to become active again.
Genevieve is based off a character I read in a book once, a solid, strong willed woman who knows where she is going and delights in the journey. She is a half demon, with skin like iron so she rarely uses weapons so much as she likes to use her hands to deal with humans. She does arm-dealing for a living.
1) Genevieve Dieu Donne : { Sample 1 }
Hogwarts Relived is a site designed for literate roleplayers who are looking for a good Post Potter site with real possibilities, not just a rehash of the same story again. Cults, new schools, and a completely new class system makes for a different feel and experience. I have been in on this site as a Global Moderator only recently, but already the site looks like one of the more interesting places around.
Rayner is a long term hidden death eater slowly advancing the cause over the decades while others drew the attention. Vic is the daughter of a serial killer who has a unique way of looking at the world and evil as a 'job' rather then something to be feared. And Fredrik is an ancient wizard trapped in the body of his 13 year old nephew who was killed in his body during a potion accident.
1) Rayner V. Bushwick : { Application } - Global Moderator
2) Vic Burke : { Sample }
3) Fredrik Vaara : { Sample }
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History
Oct 4, 2009 15:19:53 GMT -5
Post by Shava on Oct 4, 2009 15:19:53 GMT -5
My first and solitary made site. While still being designed, I've put a lot of effort in it and thought it deserved a spot on here. Going from roleplayer to moderator is a big step. Going from global moderator to admin of a site was even bigger and I'm glad I did. It's opened my eyes a lot to what all has to be done, what all is possible (and dang they did a good job setting up proboards), and taught myself a lot of code along the way.
Guess you can teach an old dog new tricks
Now more then a year in the process, this site has become a source of inventiveness for me. Often when I have time I go here just to design and work in ideas I see other places. I have several friends who have looked over it with enthusiastic results asking when I am going to open and I just laugh. Making up a wizard university with a graduate system, an wizarding amusement park, and an entirely new Ministry has been very satisfactory work.
It has over the last few months become the writing spot for a book I am working on, testing out ideas there to be used in the writing itself.
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History
May 10, 2011 14:00:33 GMT -5
Post by Shava on May 10, 2011 14:00:33 GMT -5
Wanting some more Harry Potter stuff to do, I did a google search and this one came up. Active as heck to which I loved! I joined and in a short time had all three of my characters finished, some getting up to 800 posts in four months pretty rapidly. Some excellent roleplays happened here and it was a favorite for awhile.
I was also offered the chance to play Voldemort here, not a thing I had tried before as he is difficult to get into for me (my opposite personality lol). I manage to write several posts for him and then for some reason -- the site went dead. Suddenly in a three day span right after Christmas. I was told later that the site goes through periods of inactivity so I stayed on for six months hoping for more, but it simply never recovered during that time so I had to drop it because of time constraints.
Still, it holds a special place in my heart as Lindsey Moon became one of my all time favorite characters.
1) Dyson Bryan : { Sample 1 }
2) Professor Aurora Sinastra : { Sample 1 }
3) Lord Voldemort : { Sample 1 }
4) Lindsey Moon : { Sample 1 } { Sample 2 } { Sample 3 }
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History
May 25, 2011 9:45:44 GMT -5
Post by Shava on May 25, 2011 9:45:44 GMT -5
I always enjoyed super powered games and so one day I went looking for Heroes, expecting to find some comic book group and instead found the TV show. And man! What an active, fun site! It was well laid out, multiple posts a day, and a very friendly cbox following so I found myself sucked in easily.
It wasn't long at all before it became one of my favorite sites. Now since that time I have cut back on my online time due to job and moves, but this site I keep active with multiple characters and it's a great place to play on. In fact, it's going to be a struggle for me to pick out samples for this one....
1) Dyson Bryan : { Sample 1 } { Sample 2 } { Sample 3 }
2) Travis Jackson : { Sample 1 } { Sample 2 } { Sample 3 }
3) Felix Lefebrve : { Sample 1 } { Sample 2 }
4) Maximilian Weisner : { Sample 1 } { Sample 2 }
5) Wilhemina Lloyd : { Sample 1 } { Sample 2 }
6) Ge Shen : { Sample 1 } { Sample 2 }
7) Austin Montgomery : { Sample 1 }
7) Finn Ferguson : { Sample 1 }
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