When did you start roleplaying?

[Sighter Tnailog]

Here's a poll, Althanas, and the question is simple. Some of you will answer this easily, and others will have to dig out their calendars and start counting back the days...

How old were you when you first started text-based roleplaying? I don't mean Althanas...I mean any kind of play-by-post online roleplaying. And don't just vote in the poll...tell us where you got your start!

As for me...I was ten years old when I started. Good old "The Castle - Stores," an ancient site for kids that some people had turned into a roleplaying haven. Lots of good memories...although I was a terrible, terrible writer. Far worse than anyone who has ever posted on Althanas, and I mean even darkninja and mairoallstars.

[Sir Fedlund Overby]

18 and it was right here at Althanas.

And that was when it was connected to the old ALLRPG site, I believe it is known as the tan incarnation. I think my first fight was against Aequitas, who is now gone, from what I understand.

That was a long time ago. I took a while off (5 years) , hopefully I can stick around long term this time.

BTW, I wasn't Fedlund back then. All my characters from then have LONG since passed into oblivion, I am certain. And this makes me sad. I thought some of them were rather good (I am a multi-account addict, I just like trying out new things to see if they work)

[Nova]

well since it's online Roleplaying, I started here on Althanas about two years ago. my first character was Melody Shadespirit (A fox spirit raised by elves^^). Didn't really get into the roleplaying until I made blight tail. I don't think I've cahnged much though.

that would make me around 21^^

[grim137]

I was about 13. And it was actually on Gamepro of all places. Even though such things were considered spam, me and a lot of others n00bs at the time did it anyways. The first time I actually RPed somewhere made for it where you had to register a charcter and all was when I was 14 on a site called PGNx. I was worse than anybody you had ever seen, believe me, even my early stuff on this site looked good compared to the crap I posted on PGNx and Gamepro.

[Ashiakin]

I started in March of 2000 when I was thirteen. Madison invited me to role-play on the AOL message board Castle Treline (although I didn't even know what "role-playing" was at that point.) I role-played on a few other AOL boards, too, before making the transition in February 2002 over to Althanas--which Madison also told me about.

[Atzar]

A friend got me into Kings of Chaos at the age of 15, and I went to look at their forums - which just happened to be GUA. I took a look at the BA, which was cool at the time, and have been more or less hooked ever since.

[Artifex Felicis]

13-14 for me on Althanas, though before that I was always trying to do something that was RP in one form or another. Mostly through video games and stuff. Actually writing was also around 12 as well. Either way, nothing stands out better in my mind that when I actually made up diffrent things like magic and whatnot. Fun story, it was around here I made yarn magic.

Goddamn was I a newb. My first score was a 16, and I was ecstatic when I got a 36 the next thread I finished.

I know I'm gonna get something for this, but I still remember all my charectors. Black hole, gbaman, Maia, Amy, Leon, Kate and Maeve. With a couple spatterings of chars who didn't work.

[Zook Murnig]

My start was on an old board that I still visit, even though it's gone dead within the past year. This board was the first I had ever joined, and it was devoted to a webcomic by one Rosc Man. One of the Mods there had petitioned for a re-creation of something called Rhydin, calling it Neo-Rhydin. I had a half-kitsune ninja that everyone called a raccoon, and a half-giant geomancer, and a kitsune mage who weilded katars on his tail, and a moogle that I remember nothing else about, and a Genome (like Zidane from FFIX) whose hair and tail were made of fire, and a bunch of others. All of my local friends who were on the board teased me about having too many characters, but I was obsessed with it. I was a horrible writer, putting actions separate from dialogue with ::action goes here:: stuff going on.

Later on, I started writing better on a different board when Neo-Rhydin died from unknown causes (I guess everything at once). Chaos RPGs was the new board, and it was full of good RPs, with only a couple I partook of. On there, I experienced my most hilarious death, by tripping and falling on a sharp stick. There, I also played a warrior of the faith of St. Cuthbert reluctantly teaming up with a succubus and a demon to hopefully learn from a half-avariel monk. That RP died the same way that all of OtakuGuy's RPs died, with him losing interest. He'd tried that one several times in several different ways, all under the name Allure of Faern (really spelled Faerun, but he was retarded like that, I guess). That character lives on, though, as Marcus Naïlo on Divine Salvation, though the faith part is gone. I'm considering making a version for Althanas, too.

Anyway, I'm sure this was way too long, but oh well.

[hamnat]

I reverted from Live Action to Text-base last year, so 15 for me. Honestly, Althanas was my first Text-based RP. MY first thread went into a pit quickly, but my second and more famous thread, Shenjara's First Encounter, scored a little lower than a 40. I thought I could do better. Mostly because I've been in the RP and Fantasy businesses since I was, what...6? I've got more of that kind of experience under my belt than anyone my age should. But ah well...Althanas kicks when compared to the stuff I've got.

[Karuka]

Text-based, eh? I had just turned 15 not even two weeks before, started in a Yahoo chat.

No, I lied.

I did a few AIM RP's with a friend who was absolutely stuck on Harry Potter and Snape or Lupin/school girl romances. Bleh. I'd have been fourteen.

[Chiroptera]

It's almost been a year since I submitted my first RP post ever, a lame thread-starter in Scara Brae that turned solo and got an embarrassingly low score. Yeah, good times . . .

[Elrundir]

Let's see... *scratches chin* By 1999-2000 I was already RPing at Pokemasters... I remember that because of my user name there. Oho, I feel geeky now. Before that it was the GameFAQs RP boards, and that was where I RPed for the first time ever (if you could indeed call it that). So I guess I started in 1997-1998. That would be something like 10-11 years old. Good lord. >_<

[Sighter Tnailog]

One of the Mods there had petitioned for a re-creation of something called Rhydin, calling it Neo-Rhydin.

Castle Treline was actually on Rhydin for a good long time, if my memory serves. I actually came to Althanas after Rhydin had started its fading.


I was a horrible writer, putting actions separate from dialogue with ::action goes here:: stuff going on.

That's how I did it too...that's another good topic for discussion. Has anyone ever had any different ways of roleplaying text-based?

[Farmboy]

I began RPing when I was 11 years old. Back in my 'vampires pwn all!' phase. So yeah, I've been RPing for over 6 years, although there were short term breaks in between diff. places.

[Lost Without You]

I began text-based RP on a MUD actually. Oddly enough my older sister got me involved in mudding. I mudded from age 13 or so up until recently. When I found Althanas in um...02 or so...I found myself less addicted to mudding and more addicted to stories.

Muds I've been on: LooneyMud, BatMud, RevolutionMud, RevelationsMud, and DragonStone.

[Elrundir]

That's how I did it too...that's another good topic for discussion. Has anyone ever had any different ways of roleplaying text-based?
Heehee, I used to write actions in italics when I first came to Althanas, if I remember correctly. And mind you, my posts were probably a paragraph or two long at best... *shudder*

I don't know exactly what you mean by "different", but a site that I currently RP on (and that I've been RPing on since before Althanas existed) is a little bit more real-time than forum-based RPs are. Basically you RP as usual, but whenever you make a post it refreshes automatically on-screen, and so on. I think it's... Java based or... something. I don't know that computer crap. It's a little bit more D&Dish too, with a dice system and stats and stuff, though that's where the similarities end pretty much; it's *much* more freeform than D&D is. Their whole philosophy of RP is different too (i.e. you aren't really "writing" the character, you're just "seeing" them as they live their lives).

I never realized how impossibly difficult Vaxia is to explain at a number of angles. ^^;; Anyway, I can PM anybody the link if they're interested.

EDIT: OMG! Lost Without You, you played DragonStone?! My first incarnation of Elrundir came into existence on that MUD!

[AdventWings]

Ah... Good times...

...Well, not so good times.

The first time I started Play-by-Post roleplaying was around... Four years ago? It was a site by the name of "Souls of Justice" that died about a month after Yamihara's alternate-dimension cousin, Asuka Winters, started her adventure there.

Since then, I've hung around Althanas while little Yamihara and the other Girls play out their lives here. 'Tis only been a few months that I have this account but I draw experience from novel-writing.

Sadly, none every went beyond chapter 14... :(

[Letho]

My first contact with written roleplaying was Althanas, about two and a half years ago, so you could say that I'm still pretty green compared to a lot of people here. I did some writing in my free time before joining Althanas for years, but it was Althanas that upgraded me to a writer I am today. That's why, ever since I got here, I saw no point in searching for greener pastures somewhere else because I doubt I'd find it. I fell in love with the setting, the people (most of them anyways ;)), the system, the characters, the way you fall in love with a really good game.

[Storm Veritas]

A friend got me into Kings of Chaos at the age of 15, and I went to look at their forums - which just happened to be GUA. I took a look at the BA, which was cool at the time, and have been more or less hooked ever since.

This is my story as well, although I was much older when i happened across KoC looking to kill time at a boring old job.

[Devin Argente]

A friend got me into Kings of Chaos at the age of 15, and I went to look at their forums - which just happened to be GUA. I took a look at the BA, which was cool at the time, and have been more or less hooked ever since.

Same for me. I was 13, maybe 14 years old at the time, and Dutch. So, I sucked. It's been a fun four years between then and now, though.

[{Kid disasteR}]

I was 12. It was here on Althanas and I still remember my very first character. It was on the old brown site er w/e. His name was Matoran. He was an elf with white hair and could manipulate fire lol. since then i've been role playing on Althanas off and on through the years, creating hundreds of characters, none of which I ever leveled even once. I just can't commit lol. Every time I get really into it life interferes. :P

[MaxBlade]

It was GUA I was such a newb (and I still am) I now laugh and see how much I have grown in RPing.

[The Valkyrie]

God I feel old. I've been roleplaying for 12 years now, since I was 12 years old back on Rhydin. My best friend got me into it. When I stopped having AOL, I went over to Chathouse.com and the Castle. Then of course came D&D and Vampire the Masquerade while I was at college. When I came back home in 2002 my brother got me into Althanas. I sometimes still RP on Chathouse or in MIRC chats, but the level of writing here is so much more inspiring than anywhere else. I feel so old compared to you guys. Almost 25 years old... wow.

[MaxBlade]

And you're still sexy ^^ lol.

[Raelyse]

I've been at the IV on the old Allrpg when I was about 12.

[Sevellus]

Since the day I picked up the Dungeons & Dragons players handbook, which was grade 5.

So ten.

[Foresaken By War]

my friend, (slayer of the Rot), brought me back when it was www.allrpg.com/iw
and i've been here mostly ever since, there was this past year where i wasn't.

[Darius]

March 2006. I was thirteen and started at Giveupalready. My first post was such a godmode it wasn't funny. But now I'm good but I still suck more then any of the n3wbs there.

(P.S. If you've read my writing in the B.A. or ToL (I'm .:Joey_Leon:. on GUA) and think otherwise, don't tell me. I'm an emo bastard like Legion.)

[Darkness Impulse]

I've been role playing even since I grew hands while in my mama. Okay? That's all there is to it.

[Vamrsh Skylare]

I started actually role playing when I joined this site... never had a good site to do this on and always had ideas, but too lazy to write on paper :P

[Sighter Tnailog]

I fell in love with the setting, the people (most of them anyways ;))

I love you too, Letho. :p

[Komosatuo]

Just before I turned 16. So that counts me in the 13-15 category, if by just a bare margin. :)

[Kyrie Phra Davara]

Ever since the internet was new and my mom actually let me on it, hehe. I haven't heard of any of the things anyone else has mentioned though. So about eight years now? Yeah...

Wow...so old. -_-

[The Emerald Hind]

Eh, I started role-playing when I turned twelve, and now I'm twenty-one going on twenty-two. That would be nine to ten years worth of text-based role-playing? Gah, I feel old...

I got my start on Rhy'Din, a very large and unorganized world hosted loosely by a number of role-players over AOL.A friend of mine pretty much forced me into role-playing, and, boy, was I aweful. *Bows head in shame.*

I did improve—and greatly. You role-played over IM and in chatrooms, which really puts you on the spot creatively, but it forced you to be quick. That is where I developed my style, although, my current form of writing is much more subdued and far shorter than what it once was. I have to say my final years in that community were probably my best writing-wise, then I went on a year-long hiatus due to family issues and have been role-playing off and on ever since.

I'd never go back to it, though, since that would require that I get AOL again. Not to mention an actual reliable internet connection to begin with... >_>

[Zephyriah]

I started back when I was 14 (UGH! 8 years ago!). The first site I was on was this dragonball Z-based play-by-post site. It was bad....real bad....though. The first character I used for some strange reason however, was Jenova, from Final Fantasy VII.................

[Reinhardt]

On this site, years ago; I was 11 or 12. Just after it came back from the first crash, If I recall. Tyler and Molly were huge, as was Jess, but I haven't been here in a long time now- maybe they're still here, maybe not. Some of you may remember me as Amiadon, and I can say I recall some names. Like Grim137, DDR_fREAK, you Ashiakin- although I think you perhaps joined (maybe for the second time) a few months before I left. Needless to say I was borderline illiterate at that age, but some experience on some other sites who were not bound by the experience system really helped me. Or so I like to think, anyway.

Nice to see some of you.

[Uukan Kimari]

I first role-played on the IV. Cyrus was cranky(ier) back then too.

[Massacre]

I was 18. Started today. Hehe.

[Nadia]

Neopets, to be honest. I don't even remember my SN on that occursed site.. I think I was 12 or somethin

[Elijah_Morendale]

When did I join... A little over a month ago?


Yeah. Started at 21.

[thorn aldsmith]

er yeah i started less than a month ago on here and before that i'd table-toped since i was about 15ish but never on a pbp site then i saw here and loved it i wanted to be part of the comunity which is really wierd for me because beofre now i have gone out of my way to avoid writing and now look at me really trying!

[Amaril Torrun]

I started Althanas when I was fourteen. Now I'm nineteen, wow. I'm pretty sure this was the first text-based RPG for me, but I'm not quite sure.

[streak101]

Let's see...started on a different site, then most of the people left that one, and they invite me to Althanas. By that time, I was thirteen, now i'm fourteen and I think i'll be writing for awhile.

[Ranger]

Started on a chat rp site, about four months before starting here, and then have been stuck on Althy ever since...

Started when at the end of beginning of my second semester of 10th grade, thanks to Ciancth. So... I guess when I was 14... lol

[Amaril Torrun]

You were 14 in the 10th grade?

I thought you turn 15 by the end of 9th.

[Ranger]

I was a smart kid and skipped a grade... But your right, I was 15 in 10th... not 14. So it's ALMOST 5 years of rping.

[Silas Kilam]

I got started about a year ago. when I was (deleted).

I had been playing a shooter series from CrazyMonkeyGames, and I decided to see more of the creators work, and landed in a forum that had several rather cryptic text-based rpg threads. this lead to several offshoot forums I know of (only one of which is still active) and somehow found my way here to althalas, my first character being "Xale Arms Manix".

[AdventWings]

Heya, Xale. Welcome back! :D

[Mutant_Lorenor]

I been roleplaying since I was 14 or 15 back in the old AD&D second edition days. Plus I remember playing old-school Final Fantasy 1 and & 2. Phantasy Star 1 and 2, all those classic old games from the sixteen bit era and 8-bit eras. Damn I'm old.

[Amaril Torrun]

I got into D&D 3rd edition, and my first Final Fantasy game was IV. I guess you got me beat.

[brickshoemaster]

My friends had gotten me into it because they knew I wanted to write. I got into my first R.P. in last February, two days after my borthday, it was about dragons.

[Isalidi]

At about 11 (Hell, it could've possibly been ten, but I doubt it)

Don't remember well, or where for that matter. It was what got me hooked... The Rockbell Home (a site based on the anime Full Metal Alchemist, though it's since converted to general media), from more recently was what really developed me, though. Since I joined that site, I've been a part of 4 very extended RPs (one of which was just us testing the waters with specific characters and setting) and become the admin of a (unfortunately, now dead to a degree) site dedicated solely to RPs, "Rpingarena". We have two regular visitors (including myself) and most RPs are currently scheduled (by me) for moving to the trash for inactivity for a certain amount of months.

Unfortunately, RPing has also turned into a dead practice at RH. (Though there is a rumor that a new one may be started soon, which I find interesting).


Ultimately, it means I've had plenty of times to develop and gain better skills.

[The Bloody Son]

Good question. I suppose for those of you who don't wanna hear me talk about myself and gloat, skip this. ;D Lolol.

I've been writing in story since I was eleven years old. That doesn't mean much to anyone here, but if you think about me being twenty-four right now, I've been in this shit for thirteen years.

I originally started in Yahoo! iChat for the Java Applet in about 96' when "Ayenee" was born. A realm built and Copyrighted into Yahoo! Chat rooms. SO much SO, that Yahoo actually had to change it's name from Arts and Entertainment to Entertainment and Arts - because Ayenee = A&E.

In Ayenee, they held a tournament called D-10 or the Deadly Ten. And each 10 was considered the best in a certain class. Powers, Mild Powers, Hand to Hand, Melee, Teams, Magics, Psionics, ... and so on. For a quarter, I held Melee and Powers as one of the Elites. n_n;;

Geek to the Extreme, right?

Ayenee - .Com, .Org
Rhy'Din - ThoughtsInChaos
Eden
Starthra
Exodyus
Valucre
Renovatio
RPG Gateway


I've been apart of all of these Forums and Realms in some form or another. Lol. Exodyus is a realm I created as well as a site I run with my cousin, who will probably shortly be joining Althanas. ;D She digs your set up like I do.

On Ayenee's forum for a Quarter - out of 10 Medals awarded for their Quarterly Writer Winners, I took 6 of 10, including:

Best Storyline
Most Innovative Role Play
Best Villain
Best Plot that Pulled Everyone Together
Veteran Status
and Epic Battle.

[Huntress]

I actually discovered text-based RPGs today. I was reading a fanfiction and it mentioned that the idea for an OC was spawned from a character they had made on an RPG, so I checked out Althana! At the moment I'm twelve years old.

However, it doesn't surprise me that i's mostly 13-15 year olds who first discover these types of things. They're obviously goign to use the computer more, and they know how to use programs like Althana and Wow better then adults who just start playing or preteens and children.

[Rith]

Text based RP? The day I registered this character was the day I started text RPing. I played FF2 translated into English, FF VII, Oblivion, Dark Alliance, and other RPs and stuff like that. I loved RP games but never got into it until I heard something about actual playing post by post and such and was referred to here then I signed up. After I signed up, I did one HORRIBLE thread because it was my first ever... Then I started something else, left because of life, came back then left agian because of life and now I'm back again. I've always loved writing but never had a real way to get into it.