Forums » Smalltalk » AMA- I started to Text Roleplay in 1995.

I started to Roleplay online in 1995 in chat rooms on Aol I was 15 years old. Ask me anything!

What was the formatting like back on AOL? Did you guys use stage-direction asterisks or did you write them as paragraphs? Was there anything like that very particular to AOL RP?

Thoughts and actions where done with various symbols. :: :: -= =- and multiple other styles but it would commonly look like this:

:: Fred, a tall man in a long black coat walks into the bar. Thinking, It would be an excellent place to stay:: Hi everyone!

(( )) For out of character

* * when using telepathy

##Spells##

to roll dice:

//:roll dice:2/Sides/20 (that might be off a little)

you would always Enter post first our you would not be acknowledged.

Have to keep posts 1-6 lines. to large and you would spam the room
OOC was limited.

you could not kick people out of the room. getting a mod's help was hard.

no PMs at first.

in about 2000 people started to use the " " for speech and evenly all the silly marks fell out of fashion.

Para posters use to get kicked a lot because they would spam the room. so concise rp was the norm.

MUD DUGEGONS. came in a little before Aol chat rp so some of there chat ideas spilling into that, MUDs where multi user dungeons the first MMOS

Edit: added in.

I think the most particular, or rather what is the most different compared to today. is that there were hardly any girls 1 girl to like 20 boys. geeky rp kids went really cool yet.

I got my start playing by E-mail because I couldn't do a a Table-Top RPG in person thanks to moving away from the group.

So, what exactly got you interested in Role-Playing to begin with back then? Did you hear about it from someone who thought it would be fun? What were the circumstances that lead you into this hobby?

I started in yahoo groups with Marvel stuff and SG1. I got into more direct rpg sites after that

What attracted me to RP as a teen that I could play out all these worlds and characters that have been living in my head and in my sketchbooks for years.
my older brother was into D&D but "girls" didn't play D&D and he didn't want his little sister hanging around his friends. but I already started reading weird things on fantasy creatures. And I was already really interested in the concept of world-building Tolkien rock my little 12 year creative mind I was already heading in that direction. MY Ex-husband and I met on Aol rp as well and where together 11 years I Did D&D, LARPS, and medieval reenactment then.

all those things kinda had there time but I really like that no matter what in my life I can explore and create other worlds with people.

one of the frist charaters I built I still play my character if was a real person could vote be married and have kids by now. if that is not a trip I don't know what is

I Know allot who started on yahoo. I went from Aol---> IMVU---> to sights like RPR with out places like this I think it would of died off into Internet history.

I am also from older times. I started right around in 2000 on yahoo. The good old days where anything went and everyone was fine with it.

Do you still play any of the characters you used back then? I still have my main set and most of them are on rpr.

It sounds like you've had an incredible journey with this hobby.

I also created characters before I started Role-Playing. Most of which are long since forgotten but of few of them still linger in my mind or are still being played to this day.

I do some more then others or I just have them on the self just in case. Red Raven and Nimune were both made in the timeline but I have revamped them a million times over. I have cannibalized many over the years to make new characters and worlds even when you say I RETIRE THIS CHARATER. that character still creeps up. But I also find that others don't age as well over time. it is very hard to give up those brain babies. lol

there was still players I rp with as well for old times. after we spend about our saying things like... back in our day... lmao. turning 40 is weird lol

Do you ever read your old roleplays again? Have you saved any from the AOL era?

Gosh! so many computers ago I don't really hang on to rp I remember lots of it. I do have some old character art from that time.



*correction. this is an old room banner 2001ish

Aww cute

o no RPR's OOC brackets broadcasting my age

they might be. They are still the best ooc indicator out there! if it's not broke don't fit it!

Were you ever on Elfwood? I loved that site so much in its first few years.

I got my serious start on Ezboard (though maybe there was something before that, I'm not sure that was the very first one I used) and I fell in love with collaborative writing.

I had art on elfwood. I never rped on there. I moved a chunk of my character pinups to deviantart and it has survived threw time.

Masquerade is a fantastic person and a dear friend of mine. Here is the question

Have you ever created a character based on a nightmare or something that you think would be the manifestation of the term fear of the unknown?

Thank you for the love Vozhad.
I have used night mirror images for more world-building so it may be more scenarios from night mirrors. I do have one character that I based off a night mirror which is not played on RPR. I have used dreams to give me idea for unique races and places. These are pretty old ideas since I Don't really dream anymore.

Very interesting, thanks for the reply