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Old 04-19-2002, 02:09 PM   #9
Maggie
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 64
Maggie is on a distinguished road
I'm not sure if a lot of people would consider my beginnings to be roleplaying, but they were to me. The summer after first grade, a friend and I started a `library'; it was really more like a book rental shop.  We combined all of our books and set up her basement with shelves; kids would pay a dime to take out a book, and get a nickel back when they returned it. I was extremely shy back then, so I would just pretend I was a real librarian so I could speak to those who came;even my sister, brother and best friends got the line "Hello, is there some book I can help you find?" (Unfortunately we went out of business when we ran out of books because nobody ever returned them, and we couldn't write well enough to send out notices on them).

With the money we made from the library, we bought props for plays we would put on. We charged a nickel for admission, and usually had about 20 people at each one. I'm sure they were prety bad since we wrote them all ourselves, but we had fun and made a bit of spending money. Later we also started running carnivals; our rides were spinning kids on a swing, letting them use the pogo stick and stilts, pulling them around in a wagon, etc.  I was the fortuneteller, and would read cards, my crystal ball (I collected marbles and used a crystal shooter), and palms. I charged a nickel for a reading, and was sure I'd be a millionaire soon when I made over $7 in one day.

Several years later, some friends and I got separated, and started writing letters. Eventually we started sending parts of 'stories' to each other, adding some and sending it on to the next person. I'd never heard of roleplaying back then, but I found it was easy for me to talk to people if I was pretending to be somebody else.

When my older son turned 7, he got his first computer for his birthday. He was already reading at a 12th grade level and very bored with children's games, so he started getting text-based adventure games to play instead. He would sometimes have me write up what he wanted to do, and make his own until he started learning to write his own programs. A couple years later, he got a modem and started using BBSs and playing some of the games there; he got me to try a few, and we both thought it was really great to have someone else to play with rather than the simple games we'd been playing.

In 94 we finally got a good computer, and a Compuserve account, switching to AOL later. My younger son, who was 9 at the time, discovered the online RP games, and got us all started on them. He found DragonRealms, GemstoneIII, and Dragon's Gate in early 96, and we all thought they were the best thing we'd ever played. None of the others really seemed to get into the roleplaying much, and it was great seeing how other people played their characters.

I spent most of the next 2 years playing DGate, until AOL started charging by the hour to play. I switched to DR for the next 4 years, and was on staff there for a couple of them. In December 2000 DGate moved to the web and went to a monthly rate; I left DR and went back, and have been there since. Both of my sons still write up their own games at times, and I help them test them, and I occasionally play others when I have the time. At the moment, I've been pretty busy and play little, so I spend a lot more time reading message boards to give me some ideas for when I am able to play.

Sorry, this has turned into more of a novel than a post. I still don't consider myself to be a good roleplayer, but I have gotten better over time; including having 3 characters in a game for oever 4 years without anyone knowing they were all played by me.

Editted because as long-winded as I am, I always miss typs.
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