[Marina_Whytetower]

Hello out there! *taps the microphone* Is this thing on?

I've had a user name here for a while, so I thought I'd use it. I've been mudding and roleplaying since I was 12, with my big brother who introduced me to DnD. From there, I immersed myself into role playing games from AOL to board top games. ULRPG.com was my first on-line game play experience. It was an AOL text based role play game. I left there when I discovered Everquest, more lovingly known as EverCrack or EverCoke. There, I been under the aliases of Daya Moontear (my lovable wood elf druid), Falle Ravencry (a sardonic and whimsical high elf enchantress), and my eldest character, Marialla Demioani (a rather blunt and sarcastic sorceress). After losing interest in Everquest when that horrible expansion of extending the Lands of Norrath to the moon (which was ridiculous in my opinion), I started my own role-play compaign of LARP (Live Action Role Play) with the Vampire: The Masquarade. It was an awesome group of people who were booming with artistic and creative talent, but after a few storylines, it just wasn't exciting any more. So I wandered into the internet and just typed role play. There, I found my first mud, Avalon-rpg.com, a pay per play MUD. I fell in love with it immediately and immersed myself into its world as a loving healer who was a part of the Animist Guild. I went by two characters. Anillya and Astartalle. Neither of them were long lived, since it was expensive to pay 25.00 every month just to enjoy a good and short time of role play and creativity. So I ventered, accidently, onto TopMudSites.com. Totally by accident, I found Iron Realms Entertainment and found their two MUDs, Achaea and Imperian. I found it extremely odd that they were very much alike to Avalon-Rpg.com's MUD, which I found out was a bought off version or something to the kin of such. I tried Achaea. I played a winged woman by the name of Fiolli, which was short lived due to the constant bickering their players put up. Imperian proved more of an interesting battle field, but it, too, held much more child-like views and young players than I deemed comfortable. So when Lusternia.com opened up, I grabbed for the world that was so much like Avalon-rpg.com and plunged myself into the world, where I'm currently at, as Marina. So that's my role play history. Currently, I'm still looking around for a MUD that could meet the standards I've drawn for my role playing habits, but Lusternia seems to have caught me by the pony tail, so to speak. So for now, I will stay with Lusternia and see if I can open up a few eyes, and perhaps afew hearts, to Marina's teachings.

And before I forget. Does anyone remember the old roleplaying MUD based on the Wheel of Time or something kin to that? I played for a hort duration (two days) before I shuddered and thought to myself, "Jesus. You've got to be kidding me."

Anyways, that's it. Glad to be here.

Marina_Whytetower

[mudnutx]

Your background of playing both RL board or roleplay games, and MUDs, is similar to mine.

You might like to try the blue rose as a role playing game with real flesh players. It is a modified D&D with minimal dice throwing and there is genuine rewward for role playing; you nominate one virtue and one fault in character making and get a savepoint for roleplaying in either aspect.

I am sure that you avoid all the lliving rpg games. You must avoid the world of ravenloft at all costs. for Count Von Strahdovich is the slayer of all meaningful roleplaying. He will make you do ten billon die rolls, bore to you tears with endless decisions about going north or south, and throw stupid ideas at you like the whole world being evil. He is the evil one. He seeks to steal your roleplay soul and turn it to dust. avoid him, and find half -decent chaallenges instead like vampire LARPs, conspiracy X, and the blue rose, and your imagination may escape Strahd's evil clutches.

May your roleplay journey be safe and the Gods of Rp smile upon you.

[Delerak]

Bah! All that prancing elf, tree-hugging goodness sickens me. Try the harsh world of Zalanthas, which can be found via Armageddon MUD, it's a Roleplay-Intensive (RPI) so you can find some of the best roleplay there, (and some of the worst). But as far as fun and addicting goes, you gotta try it, it's very similar to the ancient Darksun campiagn that TSR released long ago, and has strings of Dune and Thieves World in it. Anyway, welcome to TMS, and I hope I see you on Arm so I can kill you.

-D

[WarHound]

Avalon was my first mud as well. Stumbled on it when looking for release dates for A Song of Ice and Fire and thought it might be cool. I'd never tabletopped before aside from a minute or three in HighSchool when I played with a dork in my class. Didn't really click for me, and I felt kinda stupid saying 'flame' or some such ****. So, I never tried again.

Back to Avalon, I remember thinking 'This would be awesome if not for the... utter ****tiness of it.' I liked the idea of text-based gaming, so I searched and searched before finding wotmud.org, when I was very into the WoT theme. There I stayed, miserable often, but happy enough at times, for two long years.

Then, after voting for wotmud here at TMS, I glanced at the list and saw Armageddon, where I now make my home. It wasn't 'love at first sight', but it was close enough.

Agreed with Delerak. As Larrath, a gansta-fied player of Armageddon once said: "Harmony sucks."

Come to Armageddon.

[Estarra]

Hi, Marina! (Yes, I recognize you!

Avalon was also the first MUD I really got into.

But I can't for the life of me think why you think it's similar to Lusternia...

[Marina_Whytetower]

Thank you all for replying to my post.

Ravenloft was a great series of books (Am I thinking of the right thing?  I read something of a vampire meeting a young man who then became close friends, to only have to fight against each other in the end of the book.  I wept so hard and sobbed my heart out as tears spilled onto the pages of the book I held in my hands, as I read how the vampire wept over his dead friend and threw himself into the flames of his burning castle.  Such a beautiful and well written story).  But I think the spirit and the essence of the books were later forgotten as the storylines became too mercurial and intangible.  The purpose of writing any sort of short story or novel is to make the reader or player become entranced in the story line, thus making them feel they are a part of that story and watching all that is happening unfold before them.  I agree.  Ravenloft has lost its glory.  I'm so sorry to see such a great series of novels lose their light.

I can't remember your name who posted next.  I'm sorry.  A bit scatter brained right now.  But I'm more of a person who wishes to role play in a world where I can choose the destinies my characters take up.  In my role play, I want my characters to learn and evolve through the world they interact with.  Be this with the mortals about them or with the gods, it is their socio-pespectives, emotional-perspectives, and spiritual-perspectives that change through them.  I've moderated a few small communities of role players before, and I'm always sure to give them choice.  Dark worlds offer choice, I will not disagree at all.  However, worlds should be both dark and brilliantly written.  Dark and turmoilous worlds often scare off the new player and the old player alike.  It is my opinion that by having both aspects, the game becomes that much more marketable and that much more real-life based.

Estarra!  I would hope you recognized me. I make enough of a fuss in Lusternia as it is, causing the Serenwilde and its guilds much displacement with Marina's views on the Divine, the Great Spirits, and the Naos. Though, I can only take so much credit for such. When I came across Lusternia, I found the plot lines similar to the plot lines I fell in love with in Avalon-Rpg.com.  Though, the plot lines in Lusternia are so much more complex and twisting.  Unlike Lusternia, Avalon did have a bit of "flare", so to speak.  I followed Aldaron (The god of life.  I think that was his name) with both my characters.  He gave me many favours and blessings to be able to use alot of the healer based abilities and go about healing people.  It got tiresome after a while, but I still hold very fond memories of those times I sat in the Animist Guild and talked with Aldaron, while he would make little orbs of light dance about the guild hall.  Lusternia has a new touch to it.  It is its own entity and its own community, which I am glad still exists.  I'm just glad I was able to find a place that was like Avalon in the aspects of "Druids" and the like.  As well as the nature-based philosophies of the Serenwilde and Glomdoring Forests.

Thank you all again for your posts.

Marina_Whytetower