RPGs

Can anyone suggest any good RPG sims to start out on? I have experience of RPGs in RL... well.. one that aren't online but... bah you know what I mean. But I don't want to join one thats too involved incase I don't adapt well to the style of play at the outset. Are there any that are more newbie friendly than others? Sword & Sorcery, sci-fi, horror I'm happy with pretty much any genre and have wardrobe to match. hehe

My suggestion is to go and trawl through the last about 8-9 weeks of Metaverse Messenger Issues at www.metaversemessenger.com .

We have been taking a look at sims, showing what they have going, what type of RP takes place and pictures of the sims. As such they should be good for giving you an idea what is available for Roleplaying in SL.

Thankies

I tried Dark City as I'd heard the name a lot but when I got there it was one group of three standing together doing nothing and one group of four shooting each other. Is this indicative of SL RPGing? I thought there would be much more variety and depth.

Pick any sim

There are a plethora of Star Wars sims, my own included, that host sci-fi RPG. Some have loose rules regarding RP, some have tight rules, most are owned by one faction per sim. Go mad, have fun.

[EDIT: Just type Star Wars into search->places to find them]

Danke

The level and type of Roleplay varies from sim to sim.

Because most of freeform in design the quality of Roleplay is very dependant on the people who participate in the sim combined with the tools for roleplay that the owner of the sim owns.

My looks at the sims just give an overview of the sims and aren't intended as a review ( i.e. I don't rate them ) but they definatly vary in quality.

I would reccomend looking around the different sims and finding one that suits you.

Remember also it does depend on time of day, if you go to a sim where there are few people there there tends to be a greater chance of people socialising rather than RPing.

Look for Dark City - Urban ruins. The creator of the original dark city has made good there, and we encourage rp before combat.

If you are a Harry Potter Fan a Hogwarts RP is about to begin in the Oahu sim. Look up Harry Prefect and IM for information.

If you like Dune, there is a very hard core Dune RPG region.

Caledon is great fun to get all Victorian and interact with other fellow Victorian-ites. There is presently a friendly war going on with another sim region

And then there's the adult RPs (i.e. Beauty, Gor), and I think some Vampire.

Just like clubs, sometimes you can go into a region and nothing is happening at that moment -- which doesn't mean it's not a lively place at other times. Always contact group owners of an RP to get the details.

have fun!

Thanks for all the answers folks.

Outside of SL I play Noir, Shadowrun, Feng Shui, Paladium, In Nomine, Cthulu and a bunch of others but I'm drawn to play along the Noir/In Nomine/Cthulu lines in SL. I like my pulp novels, things like Doc Savage and The Shadow so yeah, Caledon looks like a great idea. I worry about film/book specific RP just because I might not have the required background knowledge, I've seen the Star Wars and Potter films but I'm sure that's just scratching the surface of the universes. Somehting along the lines of the X Files would be good too and let me use the "Scully" outfit I picked up hehe

Your best bet is another game, if you are interested in magic/combat style fantasy roleplay. Although some people have managed to hobble something together in SL, with lots of duct tape and elbow grease, the results are just not up to par, given the limitations of SL as a gaming platform.

If your roleplay is more of an erotic sort, well, SL is quite well suited to that. That's why I came here. That's also why my refusal to participate in their intrusive, ill-conceived, and completely ineffective so-called "age verification" means that I will not be here much longer.

I'm not really looking for combat and levelling up and all that jazz just some places where everyone RPs along the same lines. Erotic stuff is fun too but I'd also like to get my teeth into some good old character development fun. I'd like to make an alt specific to my RP... if SL would actually let me hehe

Of the ones I've visited :-

Caledon - Massive, RP isn't strong but good community. The war is an awsome storyline though.
Beauty - Well run Erotic RP sim.
Midian City and Toxica - both very popular post apolocolyptic RP world, both have combat but Midian especially a good amount of non-combat RP.
EverWind - brand new tolkein inspired world - This sim I looked at in this weeks ( the one that shoudl come out tomorrow or weds ) Metaverse Messenger.
Avalon Mist - Well established Medieval minimal combat sim.

Are all worth looking at.

They are not the only ones of course but these are sims I've found which seem very well run and high on character development rather than out and out combat.

There is currently an active discussion in Caledon about how much RP we wish to do and how to incorporate it. The war has been absolute fun, but at the same time most don't want to be constantly "on" as it were. You will find that most of us use Victorian manners and etiquette--but that is less RP than a liking for the customs of the time. Not to fear, as a visit to Caledon will demonstrate, it is hardly like the 20th century there--crinolines and clockworks abound.

This weekend Victoria City was invaded by a dastardly bunch of Schnitzel lovers, and there was smoke and shouting and all sorts of derring do. Your humble narrator flew wing with two other Steam Ornithopter pilots in a desparate raid against the Flying Battleship Brynhilde. Very pulse quickening stuff, and there should be a Machima coming out of the whole affair (as an aside--we've been using the "war" to raise funds for the SL Relay for Life via selling commissions and the like).

Colonel Edward Pearse has some photographs of the entire affair up on his blog-
http://victorianaesthetic.blogspot.com/

Look for NORSIM or CoLA

Focus on finding a group of people who are also interested. Make sure they are genuinely interested and are not passive. Given that, finding or creating a place should follow.

Freeform RP only works in small groups. Be very wary of any place offering Freeform RP to the public. It will either split into subgroups or fall apart. There are many Freeform RP places that inviting the public in only in the hope that those people will become victims/subjects/worshippers etc.. - not just in SL, but all over the internet. Also, in general, avoid freeform RP areas where the administrator also plays a starring role - they always generate drama. Just take a look at Castle Marrach if you don't believe me

for sci fi, some that i've seen are:

Tatooine - Star Wars RP, combat is allowed, built to look like Mos Eisley starport
Naboo - Star Wars RP, Combat is not allowed, built to look like the city of Threed
Galaxy - Star Trek RP, Combat is not allowed, built to look like the Federation HQ

Byss - Star Wars RP.... i've heard conflicting things from the people who go there. Primarily a Sith themed area, some tell me combat is allowed, others tell me no.

There are also some smaller parcels for RP.
There is a Firefly themed parcel that i've read about.
More small Star Wars themed parcels than you can count.
The Star Trek RP'ers have several parcels that they do their "away" missions at.

Stargate RP... the last one that i've heard of was an even that took place at Galaxy. It was griefed, and all but 1 person (me) showed up in SGC uniforms (including the jaffa players). I haven't heard of any since. There is Stargate HQ that gives away stargates and sells Stargate related things as well as store called Jaffa Nation that sells some of the best sculpted costumes i've seen (especially the Horus Guard) and they are not adverse to custome orders (they made me a Bastet Guard costume, since Bast was one of the few with female Jaffa). There used to be a place called Abydos tech which sold Stargate weaponry, it gone, but the owner merged with Crazy labs and some of the items are still there. There used to be a strong Stargate RP following in SL, so the potential is there for it to start up again.

Babylon 5 RP... very little. There is a group or 2. And at Chosen Few's Sci Fi Museum, they sell a B5 uniform. There is another merchant who sells some excellently detailed Starfuries, and i've heard of another who sells a Minbari Flyer (but i've never seen it). There used to be a beautiful Vorlon Transport hovering above the Phase 5 Airfield, a year ago. And just to have something to shoot at them in the dogfighting sims, I built a Shadows fighter. But no RP activity that i've heard of lately.

Farscape RP... Also at Chosen Few's museum, there is a Crichton outfit (complete with Wynona). There is also a skin maker who sells a Zahn skin and a couple of weeks ago put up a sign indicating that she was about to release a Nebari skin. I haven't heard of any Farscape RP events but the potential is there.

Hope this gives you some ideas

I'm currently trying to make RPG turn based HUD system that requires a GM, mine is months away, but there is another one that pretty much has the same ideas as mine to with probably minor differences that is basically in Beta testing, talk to Avery Gladstone they are going to start a Traveller d20 campaign soon

Thanks to all of you. Hopefully I'll get to chew on some scenery soon hehe

EDIT: In light of all the developments maybe I should change my criteria to include the qualifier "must not be adult"

As a former Starsider/SWG exile and avid rp'er I have to look this up! Thanks for the info.

I have been playing in Tombstone and enjoying myself. 1880 wild west sim based on Tombstone Arizona. It has a flair of historical reenactment and rp.

Rox

I popped by there on a scouting trip, looked pretty good and gave me a use for some clothes I bought on an odd whim (think tart with a heart hehe).

Port Cos is having a festival from Friday through Sunday. Might be a safe way to explore Gorean Roleplay.

If you're into Mad Max post-apocolyptic stuff without the gratuitous sex stuff then hit up the Wastelands. They have a salvage/combat system where you find boxes of stuff in the area and can make stuff out of what you find...such as weapons, armor, ammo, medic kits, etc.

It's going a little slow right now but I'm working with them to plan an event to try to kick off a decent story for everyone to be a part of.

Come in and get involved!