Do yo Role Play?

[knifex]

I started roleplaying over ipod messages with my irl friends when I was, like 12. Back then I didn't know what roleplaying even was, I was calling it "writing a story with my friends". Eventually I started doing it with people online, mostly over skype.

Then I figured out D&D was a thing and I HAD to get in.
My first game was in a group of like, 10 people, playing pathfinder with absolutely busted stats.

A few years passed, I started dating my boyfriend and playing in the games he DMs, and one fateful school break, I went to his University and unofficially joined their TTRPG club. For the next 3 years, we ran like 9 games / 2 weeks, DM'd by different members of the group.

Around this time I'd also play online with a different group, and started doing HEAVY roleplay one-on-one with the DM on discord. That lasted like 3-4 years, but he became a tar pit so I had to bounce.

Nowadays, I still have a few discord roleplays with friends, tough im muuuuch much less consistant with replies. I keep saying I want to get back into it, but then I overthink my replies for days.

I also have a few ttrpg games running, one of which I DM! They're called the dream team, a nickname that came from when we did project in college. They're so so lovely, and so good at roleplaying!

Oh, I've played a couple solo RPGs as well, but I do find hard to find the time for longer plays for those, since the option of roleplaying with people is often on the table for me.

Im interested in getting into Larping eventually, the ultimate level up to live roleplaying, but I've been saying that for like ten years at this point.

So yea! RP is like at the core of me as a person, I intend to make a zine about it eventually, its just, such a wonderful beautiful thing. Thanks 4 reading!

[Memory]

i love roleplaying! though i could never do TTRPGs, i have always loved PbP.

i actually roleplay to this day. i was out of the scene for a little while initially, until about 2020. thats when i started being active in a multifandom RP with my friends and partners (it started as a homestuck RP, but has since evolved into multifandom). i play around over 40 different characters, using discord and tupperbox. of course, not all at once, and i do rotate between the same couple of characters.

i used to RP on forums, too, as a kid. but i have been somewhat nervous to try again on a forum until recently.

[sphinx]

I used to love RPing! I loved it so much! Like you, I also called it something more like "making a story with my friends" before I discovered the internet version of it. We'd pass notebooks or scrap pages back and forth and write what happened next from our character's POV and hand it back. Oh the wild thrill of furiously reading what the other person wrote. I was always waiting for her to hand the notebook back with bated breath. Sometimes during sleepovers and we couldn't sleep we'd just hash out a whole story turn by turn without writing it down because we were too lazy to do that and instead just sketch certain parts.

Later when I started hopping on fandoms online I would RP on forums and livejournal, even in chatboxes. And much later, on tumblr.

I've been thinking recently about if I were to start a forum, what would I want it to be. And the answer I keep coming back to is that I'd love to revive this Spirit forum I used to absolutely love (yes Spirit the horse), but expand on the RPG section because that was the most fun part anyway. Would it be wrong to rebuild someone else's old forum? The original owner dropped off the face of the earth eons ago and let the board die.



Offline I also did a few TTRPGs I enjoyed, but I only enjoyed them because the DM/players were all like me and just liked writing stories with characters, so the whole stats/math/dice side of things was practically non-existent.

[Horsey Chobunso]

I've been in a D&D group for years and I really enjoy it, but I want to branch out into other forms of RP. Growing up I used to play pretend with my neighbors all the time, even though it wasn't "what boys should do" or whatever shittier adults liked to tell me. I like D&D and the way it handles the game aspect of it, but my group just plays so fast and loose with the rules that we lose the entire dungeon crawling part of it. I want to get them used to trying some other more RP heavy systems so we can really focus on the part of it that we like.

I've never thought about doing play by post and I think I would really enjoy that. I've been trying to work on my writing lately though little vingettes in my journal, but I think writing with a specific character in mind in a forum/web game would be significantly more helpful.

[azalea]

man. i kinda wish i got into roleplaying, and it's not for lack of trying but... i never really stuck with it. it's a shame, because i look at roleplay forums from afar and i see how much fun they're having, and am a bit bummed out that it wasn't something i could really gel with.

[Squidiottt]

i have a current rp with a friend thats been ongoing for like 5 months, its so much fun! and as an added bonus, you get better at writing ive roleplayed pony town a bit too, thats not as litterate though and usually less serious lol

i am considering making a rp blog on tumblr but its a bit intimidating.. if anyone has any tips for how to manage such a feat i'd love to hear them

btw, theres a roleplaying guild on here if anyones interested

[Senkusha]

Okay, wow!  So, thank you for all the replies!  In truth, I kinda forgot about this forum, only because one of the rare times I have available to post-- and that I remember to post, this forum is down... sleeping?  So, I've got quite a bit of responses, and I'll do my best with this jumbled brain I've got.  There were so many replies....

...all the sites i once used have since gone offline. where do you find pbp now, if you don't mind my asking? :0

There's actually a number of forums that still do PbP role playing.  A few Directories have already been mentioned as well.  RPG.NET is one, there was another site I was a member of for a long time, but I've since forgotten the URL for it.  Maybe someday I'll remember it again.  Of course, I should probably mention my own anime-centric role playing forum too-- which I think is in my Profile?  Just so I don't accidentally spam.

I actually met my husband through PBP roleplay! And, not only do we still do it to this day, but it's also how I ended up on my current path to becoming an author! Needless to say, PBP roleplay has a very special place in my heart.

I'd love to do it more frequently with others, but I haven't been on the online scene for a while. The last forum I was really into shut down :(
If anyone has any forum suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Glad to see you're still in the game!

Wh... A forum for browsing whole other forums? And there are so many?? People just... straight up make new forums for various roleplays whenever??? This is a whole new side to the hobby that I didn't even know existed until now what the heck-

Thank you so much for bringing this directory to my attention! This is such dangerous knowledge for me to have.

Oh yes, I had a similar reaction too when I discovered Role Play forums dedicated to specific fandoms/lore.  In fact, I attempted to model my own site after this very concept.  Unfortunately, it turns out that either I didn't do enough advertising, or not many people are interested in magical girl role playing.  So I pivoted to a more general role playing format.

... and I still don't know how to find a group elsewhere!

I've been thinking about finding people to roleplay with again pretty recently but I'm unsure where to begin. Not the biggest issue in the world, but I can't help but wonder what it's like. Oh well...

The easiest way to get into the role play scene is Google (or is it Chat-GPT now?).  As others have mentioned, there are several directories, and even Tumblr to help you find games.  The great thing, I think, about a forum is that you don't need to be all that concerned about being shy.  You can just write-- even if it's BAD writing.  I remember my first forum, there was a member who joined, older sister of another member who wanted to play as Ryoko (Tenchi Muyo!), and she was special needs/special education.  We tried a few different writing styles, turns out she was REALLY GOOD with a screenwriters style.  Granted, I don't consider myself an expert on writing and such, but I do genuinely enjoy helping other people.

I used to love RPing! I loved it so much! Like you, I also called it something more like "making a story with my friends" before I discovered the internet version of it. We'd pass notebooks or scrap pages back and forth and write what happened next from our character's POV and hand it back. Oh the wild thrill of furiously reading what the other person wrote. I was always waiting for her to hand the notebook back with bated breath. Sometimes during sleepovers and we couldn't sleep we'd just hash out a whole story turn by turn without writing it down because we were too lazy to do that and instead just sketch certain parts.

Later when I started hopping on fandoms online I would RP on forums and livejournal, even in chatboxes. And much later, on tumblr.

I've been thinking recently about if I were to start a forum, what would I want it to be. And the answer I keep coming back to is that I'd love to revive this Spirit forum I used to absolutely love (yes Spirit the horse), but expand on the RPG section because that was the most fun part anyway. Would it be wrong to rebuild someone else's old forum? The original owner dropped off the face of the earth eons ago and let the board die.



Offline I also did a few TTRPGs I enjoyed, but I only enjoyed them because the DM/players were all like me and just liked writing stories with characters, so the whole stats/math/dice side of things was practically non-existent.

There's so much to respond to here.  YES.  The anticipation of reading what another person has concocted in this same fantasy world you're living through.  It's like, the BEST high, right?

So, I don't think it's unethical to resurrect an old forum.  I sort of did with my old forum.  I went digging through the WayBackMachine and painstakingly reposted each post that I could harvest from my old forum to my new forum.  Truth is, since the original creator of that old forum has most likely moved on with their life, there's really nothing stopping you from doing the same thing.  For an ancient role play that I dug out of the ground, I attributed the original creator with the idea.  It's a new game on a new forum, but the idea was his, and I felt it was only right to honor that former member with his creation.  He'll probably never see what's come of it, he's moved on with his life.  I'm the one stuck in nostalgia. LOL  I have a fantasy that someday, one of my old forum members will be cruising the Net and trip into my new site and recognize something they wrote as a teenager (cringe) and say, "HEY!  I REMEMBER THAT!"-- most likely won't happen, but I giggle happy thoughts over it.

man. i kinda wish i got into roleplaying, and it's not for lack of trying but... i never really stuck with it. it's a shame, because i look at roleplay forums from a far and i see how much fun they're having, and am a bit bummed out that it wasn't something i could really gel with.

It's never too late to begin.  Every adventure begins with one footstep.  The community is quite friendly too.  Feel free to use one of the many already mentioned directories, google, or even hit me up if you'd like.  I promise, if it looks like fun from afar, you're going to have a blast once you get into it.  I didn't start role playing via forum until my 30s.  I'm 50 now, and STILL enjoy connecting with others via fictitious adventures.