When I was young...

My roleplay experience really started on forums, as I was making my characters progress through written words. I was only twelve or fifteen years old, yet I could already write long paragraphs of descriptions and make my characters live through my words. The first roleplay forum I took part in was named "Magical Poudlard" (the French translation of Hogwarts). It was based off the famous sorcery school in Harry Potter. My character was named Cyberiana and she was a fairy. There were dozens of virtual sorcery schools inspired by Harry Potter back then. I was the Director of Hufflepuff and my house won the cup two years in a row. It was great fun but I ran out of time.

My second second experience with roleplaying on forums was on the Bitefight forums. My character was werewolf surgeon, owner of a small private clinic that was specialised in treating fight injuries and rescueing humans that were freshly bitten by a werewolf. Most girls were playing vampires with über awesome powers of seduction and destruction. I wanted nothing to do with that. My character only had speed, agility and dexterity. She could throw needles with a deadly accurate precision but would only use them to knock her opponents silly using anesthetics. She wasn't much of a fighter and that's how I wanted her. She was also known for her sarcasm and very morbid sense of humor. And she wouldn't try to seduce anyone even if her life depended on it.

Then I discovered Live Action RP (LARP) and most of the events I attended had roleplay forums to occupy the time in between events. I interpreted many a character there. My two favourite ones were a healer that brewed beer between battles (every Nordic warrior wanted to be her friend and protector, go figure) and a white mage that aged a little more every time she casted a spell since she was draining her own life force and using it as mana to be able to cast an unlimited amount of spell per day.

What I like of forum roleplay is that you can really take your time to develop your character and think about how he/she should react to what the other person just described. Then you are free to add as many details as you can or want. Some forums put rules such as minimal content requirement in order to ensure better quality. Roleplaying on forums is like a story written by a group of authors. It has its good and its bad sides. The good side is that the story has many surprises and you can't know how it will end (if it ever ends). The bad side is that you have to make sure that people READ what the others have written in order to have cohesion and coherence within the story.

For instance, my thread with the story about my werewolf surgeon's clinic was completely destroyed by some numbskulls who didn't read the story and decided it was now taking place in an hospital with nurses and turned my partner into an homosexual… (what the… uh ?) Such a lack of respect forced me to have the thread cleaned out more than once until I finally gave up and had it archived. It was apparently a great story since I was rewarded for it by the board of moderators before those idiots ruined it for me. After that I just couldn't trust anyone to participate in my stories anymore. Maybe one day I'll need to give up my elitist attitude and try it again.