Almost five years ago, I started SL and spent lots of time hanging out in a club. There I met a rather nerdy young man who entered something like "His Name swings her around the floor." I was enthralled. I asked him how he did that, and he explained the goodness that is /me

Fast forward slightly. I was collared to someone, but it was to learn about submission, not roleplay. I didn't even connect that my actions were roleplay. I was just acting as me. I wanted to learn how to do things better, how to write better serves, and I thought I could learn more by observing others. I also wanted to see what else was out there.

But my owner was overly protective. Long story there and not worth telling anymore. I ended up playing on another account, and "Yummy" was created. I went to CARP to see what that was like, and I met a guy who ended up teaching me about roleplay in a very subtle way. I just observed him.

I'm glad things unfolded the way they did. I'm totally addicted.

So tell me about your first experiences in roleplay.

It was long long ago...(in a galaxy far far away ) that I first entered rp. I had a friend in rl who introduced me to the goodness of fantasy rp. Back when msn chatrooms were up and going. It was pretty much all downhill from there. Of course it was all text based, and had absolutely nothing to do with Gor. That came later. Much later.

Rachael once wrote about her first roleplaying experience, as a child making forts with pillows and blankets in the living room. That's stuck in my mind as very true, and really the essense of roleplay for me. Nowadays I equate roleplay with writing, but it's that same magic I think I hope to capture.

I don't recall ever being bored when I'd sit in the tub for an hour with my barbie dolls and wash their hair pretending it was a salon, or have them dive off the soap dish and pretend it was the olympics, or have them eaten by the shampoo bottle after my baby sitter let me watch Jaws The possibilities for stories limited only by your imagination, and the characters still to me can be fictional, which is why I don't mind playing with NPC's I or others create.

Fast forward many many years and I discover SL. For a long time I was satisfied with just exploring it in general, until I met a great guy who told me he was into roleplay. He brought me around to several RP sims, but never Gor, becaues Gor was filled with a bunch of wierdos LOL. We'd tour sims with Drow, or Knights of Arabia, or dark urban and watch as observers. I was fascinated.

Soon after I decided to try it myself, and of course I wanted to try Gor. I went to a big market and bought silks and got an IM asking if "Girl was interested in a home" I jumped at the offer and spent the next while confused and miserable and quickly grew to hate all things Gor.

Went back to exploring SL OOC'ly and randomly happened to meet Ari. When he said he played on a Gor sim I wrinkled my nose up, telling him I tried it and it was awful. We talked enough to interest me in actually reading a few of the books, and then eventually interested enough to try Laura. That was about a year and a half ago now and here I am. Over that time I've seen so many styles, been inspired by great wordsmiths as well as creative geniuses. I wouldn't be half the player I am today if I hadn't of had so many amazing people to play with.

One thing I notice about this drug I call RP, I'm constantly needing a new or bigger fix.
/me slaps her arm to find a vein.

I remember the excitement of a person I never met walking up. I remember being genuinely scared when I got scowled at by a free woman or kicked by a man. I remember being so nervous about serving. A lot of that is gone which is sad, but I don't forget what that feels like so I try to give the same to new players, and for those not so new players, I try to remember that they might be as saturated as I am so with them I make sure to kick it up a notch.

I've been fortunate enough in these last few months to have a dedicated RP partner. I don't feel I ever had that before. There were always people I played with regularly and whose stories were tied to mine, but not like this. I've been collared a few times of course, but the level and intensity of the RP, the weaving of stories and character development was not like this. I don't even know what to call this new phase, and maybe others have experienced it, but it's new to me.

Not only am I fortunate enough to enjoy OOC closeness, but when we play, when we write, our characters comes to life. Every post of his brings me new places and has me responding often in way that even surprise me. Well sometimes his posts actually make me want to type fdsalkjkjfdslkjdslkjfdkjfdl because I feel like I've got nothing to contribute, but then I sit back, dig deep and my fingers start to fly over the keyboard seemingly on their own.

I love when we can talk about our stories and characters, either before or after a scene, and... LOL I have no words, I'm just gushing now sorry about that. I'm just absurdly happy and it's hard to contain somedays. I think this experience helped me grow as a player and a writer.

Mindar takes a DEEP breath and begins....

I joined SL back in early June of '06, right after the credit card requirement was lifted. Those of you who were around back then might remember what that was like. SL was just starting to break in the mass media and the Grid was starting to groan with the influx of new residents. I had had some experience in Lamba MOO and later ActiveWorld, so the idea of a virtual world wasn't unfamiliar. I logged into SL on a Wednesday evening when my family was out of town and literally did not log off for 48 hours. I was that addicted.

Three months later I embarked on a career as a live music performer in SL as "Niko Donburi" a/k/a the Weird Al of Second Life. My love of songwriting and SL caused me to focus extensively on satirical songs about Second Life, which certainly guaranteed my popularity amongst those familiar with SL. If you've ever heard Dear Linden, Dear Linden, It's the End of the World as we know it (in Second Life), or Escape (The Second Life Song) then you've probably been to one of my shows, listened to Second Cast or heard me being played in a SL club. Those of you who happened to have attended the 2007 SLCC in Chicago may have picked up a copy of my CD "Tales from the Grid," caught my live show, chatted with me in the vendors area or saw me busking in the hallway. (One funny story: Philip Linden was being interviewed by one of the local Chicago TV stations in the same hallway where I was playing. The reporter came over and asked me not to play. I politely declined, pointing out that he was free to take his interview somewhere else as I was there first. After a few minutes, we came to a resolution and I made a quick $20 for not playing!).

By the end of 2008, however, I had started to get burned out. I had just finished performing the largest live music performance held in SL (over parcels across more than 400 sims, complete with live video feed from SL to the web) and was left feeling bored, like there was nothing else to accomplish. Through perhaps chance, luck, who knows, a few weeks later my AV was actually attacked by someone while at an art gallery opening. I took advantage of the opportunity and cued an "exploding body" ani that I often ended my shows with. I stopped performing in-world and rarely even bothered to log in.

Last June my annual renewal came up on my premium account and I considered just dropping it to basic, but ultimately couldn't. I've had the same 512m2 from the very beginning and frankly couldn't part with it. Fortunately, LL gives me more in stipend than the annual premium runs so I'll get the money back. When my domain name came up for renewal, however, I decided to let that go. That SL life was concluded, but I did keep the blog up on blogspot, machinima on YouTube, etc. as people still appear to be finding the material of interest. I also took the time to "formalize" the conclusion of Niko by ending with a letter to my fans and putting things in a past tense.

One evening a few months back I decided to log into SL and see if my computer could still even run the app. Much to my surprise, the old graphics card still worked. I logged in, poked around, checked to see who was around and was getting ready to log out when I realized how much I missed it. This probably sounds stupid to a lot of you, but some of you I think will know what I mean. I love SL. What I had grown tired of was always having to "be" the same person in SL. It had stopped being fun and become work. I was tired of being Niko.

So, I got to thinking that perhaps I'll come back to SL as someone new and do something new. I had had a number of alts over the years which had never been used for anything (no time!) so once I was able to remember their names and passwords I started logging in and getting reacquainted with them. While out shopping one evening I happened to run across some AVs and out of habit checked out their profile and picks (an obsession of mine). One particularly colorful character belonged to a number of SL's adult-oriented sims and since I had never been to such a corner of SL, I just randomly selected one and TP'd over to check it out. It turned out to be one of the darker parts of SL, a forced sex sim.

I had a blast.

Unlike my prior SL life, here people were actually interacting in character. Well, sort of. Maybe I should better describe it as some of them were acting as some type of character. Most of them weren't very good and evidently just wanted to chat with each other OOC. Some others, however, were actually trying to advance a narrative, developing their character through dialogue and description. It rekindled the spark from my long ago days of playing D&D back in high school. That got me thinking about serious RP in SL: was there a place populated by those that actually were trying to play a character as best they could? A place where people would identify with their character and that of others enough to care for them, to laugh with them or cry about them?

So, I started to do some Google searches on RP in SL. I IM'd one of my fans who was a "serious role player" for his suggestions and started checking out themed RP sims. I also started creating characters, mulling over backgrounds, motivators, personality traits, story lines, etc. I just knew that once I had developed the right character, the right home would appear. Shortly thereafter I stumbled into the Crack Den and began RPing there. It was there that I learned about "RP" basics such as titlers, para-RP, turn-based multi-party RP, etc. I'd read the forums, blogs, etc and for some reason the word "Gor" kept coming up, usually but not always in some sort of derogatory way.

While I'd heard of Gor and Gorean sims during my time in SL, I'd never actually known anyone who was (or at least would admit) into RPing there. The closest I'd come is attending a building class and having to put up with a master/slave combo that was, frankly, bothering the rest of the class with their comments to each other. I don't know if it was any good RPing, I just know I was a bit annoyed as their dialogue in local was interfering with my ability to learn how to rez and shape a prim. Always a great first experience.

Regardless, I began to ask around and someone gave me a notecard set of the books and I started reading them. I also started doing some investigation into Gorean culture, etc., reading various forums to learn what to and what not-to-do, terminology (although I'm still not sure what "pew pew" means; any help?), and pretty much hung around the edges for a while until I found that there was actually a musician caste....

That got me thinking. Was it possible to meld my RP with my love of songwriting? RPing a musician is scripted instruments is one thing, but why couldn't there be LIVE Gorean music in a paga tavern or a cafe? Music that is (a) true to the books; (b) has an educational aspect so that new listeners can actually learn more about Gor and (c) is decent enough to listen to when you are IC or OOC? Music that would capture the heart of both slave and free?

So I sat down and crafted Mindar the Musician... and here I am.

I so relate to that, and you know why.



"Pew pew" describes the sound of weapons, and it's usually used in a slightly derogatory way, such as "It's nothing more than a pew pew sim," or "He's only here for sex and pew pew."

Dear Darling runs around throwing water balloons at people and screaming, "Pew pew pew!!"

Actually, Mindar, Lara posted a video on the forums that totally explains "pew pew." You can see it here:

viewtopic.php?f=48&t=79&start=80

/me totally plays it cool and doesn't ask for an autographed CD.

Welcome Mindar! That was probably one of the most fascinating intro to Gor and RP stories I've ever read. I'm intrigued and hope to run into your character one day.

I'm glad the negative things you heard about Gor didn't turn you off. It's like anything, there are nut jobs, poor writers, juvenile drama kings/queens, and some amazingly talented creative writers who can weave a story like no one's business and you'll run into all of those and them run in your adventure I'm sure. Much of what you hear is from those who either had a bad experience, or aren't that familiar with it.

I hope you share some of your work in the Creative Corner subforums
I'd love to see how you incorporate the two.
There isn't enough arts and culture in Gorean RP so I'm excited by this.


((PS... Virtual Stranger has been known to make me cry))

Mine can be much similarly said with Linnet's words of using the barbie dolls. I was a very very imaginative kid growing up, I used to write fables that never made sense to anyone but me, and I was lost in my own little world.


I started browsing the internet about 15 years ago. (I feel old) and stumbled across Yahoo user rooms, that were for Whitewolf RP. I got into it, and it consumed me. I found I was addicted, and it allowed an outlet of me to express all those fantasies and fables that were brewing inside that my ink pen couldn't keep up with. By this time, I had near 50 journals of stories, each and every one of them I felt I was actually experiencing.

Of course, this yahoo world soon grew.. stale, or just full of drama I didn't want to witness. I was in to this (and IIRC, and AOL) for about 5 years until my husband introduced me to MUDs and MUSHes. I was hooked again, in a format that was designed for this interactive play. The thought and idea of having other people actually build a storyline with that went grid wide was something I only dreamed of, as in those text versions were short lived, and storylines tended to only go on for about a month tops. It was chaos. But these specific places I found, via telnet! was like a large family, whom of course, I still talk to many of those first people.

I found love and lust in those places, and I shared them with my husband (Who was only a roomate at this time!) I met these people, and many of them for LARP venues that I discovered I wasn't the only freak out there that had this broad imagination of a world that I could create. I was a goddess in my own right, dictating how I would be, how I would look, how I would act. (yes, I'm a control freak at times). I learned about Gor, but I learned all the bad things that they tell you about. I also got married at this time, and we celebrated on the grid!

A stupid video pointed me to SL. I checked it out, this was oh.. 2006ish. A friend of mine was here, a very close friend, and he told me he was getting into Gor. This was something I decided I would see for myself, so I created an alt (2007) to continue playing a storyline that adapted with other friends from a MUSH, as well as dabble in Gor. Thats when I ended up with Garian.

I learned alot from him, and there was quite a bit of stumbling along the way. He guided me to open my wings and be that goddess of my own right, and find the enjoyment of RP in Gor as I found elsewhere.

Now, Gor is all I RP. I still dabble in the texty versions here and there of RP, but in SL, I haven't quite found a RP forum that I can let myself hang loose and enjoy as much.

In retrospect, I guess I've always been a roleplayer if we go with making things up as kids. I was pretty damned imaginative as a little girl. I used to play with these little toy horses...They all had names, and I'd make them bridles and stuff out of yarn and other little scraps of things I could find. In my head they weren't three inches tall though and I'd imagine riding them...I've always been horse-crazy too. Of course playing house and all those things too. Oh and I used to go digging for buried treasure too. Geeze...can I go back to being five please?

I think all children are "roleplayers" to a great extent, before life, parents, and reality gives you that imagination smackdown.

My first conscious roleplay experience was playing the original edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons back in my freshman year of college. And no, I won't tell you how long ago that was. :p Ok, I really will, because I don't care. It was 1987.

I worked my way from there through Middle Earth, Shadowrun (magic laced technofuture stuff), Twilight 2000 (post apocalypse), Traveller (sci-fi), and many others.

I was active for a long time on some play-by-mail games, where each player mails in (that's snail mail, kids) their move for each turn, and the game master compiles them, determines the results, and sends a reply. I dabbled for a good while in chatroom RP in various flavors, usually involving vampires, elves, or techno-future stuff. I made my tour through many MUDs and MUSHes, and even forums based RP.

As for the truly online roleplay, I was active in the beta test for Asheron's Call, which came out around the same time as Everquest, and ended up playing there for 4 years. I moved from there to Dark Age of Camelot, where I chose to play on one of their "role play only" servers as a bard, where you could find me in a tavern outside Camelot, singing songs to any who stopped in. From there, I played some World of Warcraft, but on most servers, nothing that goes on there can count as roleplay.

My first foray into SL was in the beta also, back before we even had "avatars". I stayed for a while, watching the advent of custom scripts, custom animations, the first dance machines, the first prim clothes and hair. Back then, there weren't many roleplaying venues, since the entire population of SL was a couple hundred folks.

I got bored of that eventually, and wandered off, only to be drawn back later. An unfortunate database incident left my original avie gone, so I had to start anew. I played in some medieval sims, but spent most of my time living in a wizard's tower below the store of one of the first animation sellers in SL. People used to jump off his trampoline and land on my tower.

Quite a while later, I got back into some RP in SL, and ended up in Gor through an unfortunate incident. Eventually I met Ari, and accepted the job of admin in Laura, and I've been here since.