Roleplaying

I've been roleplaying for quite some time now. I was introduced to it in 1988 by a friend at school, but didn't really start playing until the following year. The game in question was Middle Earth Role-Playing (MERP), set entirely in the world created by J.R.R. Tolkien. Since I was reading virtually nothing except for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings at the time, several times as I recall, I was easily hooked by the opportunity to play in that world.

These days, however, I spend more time in White Wolf's World of Darkness^TM. Either in privately run games or at conventions, usually Conquest and Arcanacon. As far as clubs are concerned I don't really bother, though there was one recent exception to this. That exception being my joining the Camarilla in late August 1997. I stayed with that organization until January of 1998, when certain events culminated in a decision to leave the club, despite the fact that memberships last a year. The reasons for my departure have been stated already in a letter to the Camarilla and its members. I won't be putting this letter online, so if any Camarilla member wants to see the letter they should e-mail me, place "Gimme the Camarilla letter" in the subject line, and place some kind of proof of their Camarilla membership (past or present) in the message body. I'll reply with the letter, in HTML format (since it's a universal enough format), file-attached.

My time in the Melbourne Camarilla did, however, produce two interesting things, at least to my mind. The first being the character to which I refer in my letter, Perry Blake, a particularly unsavoury Unseelie Sidhe who infiltrated the Kindred of Melbourne while posing as a ghoul (system note: any mortal Awakened being can do it if they remember to fake the Delerium when a member of the Changing Breed changes form, though this can be dependent upon rules regarding auras). The second little creation of mine is City Chess, which in the game was apparently written by some anonymous party and delivered to most of the players. The best way to explain how the release of this document has affected the game is to describe it as my golden apple which I've hurled in amongst the revellers. It's just that it has something a little different to "Kallisti" carved into it.

Not surprisingly, considering my obvious interest in chess and politics, I'm very fond of roleplaying certain elements of the World of Darkness. In particular members of Clan Lasombra, members of House Ailil, members of the Shadow Court, members of the Tal'mahe'Ra (or True Black Hand), and many kinds of magi (though Orphans, more often than not). I suppose I just enjoy a good conspiracy.

These days I sate my desire for real-time roleplaying with the newly formed Melbourne Asylum. This is basically an attempt to create a more WoD type of game than, I believe, the Camarilla is capable of due to a (relatively) simple conversion of the Storyteller rules system for a more freeform style game. Thus once the mechanics are dealt with, one can simply start playing. The second major advantage is it's free, a non-profit club run just for the game's sake.

I've also begun playing in a series of Killer games run by a friend of mine, Madi. There are three games planned; the first being a Circle of Death, the second a 20's-style Ganglands game set in Chicago and the third an Illuminati-Killer game. The progression will involve more and more actual characterisation-roleplaying as the different game styles allow it. As the games progress I will, of course, be leaving notes and rants somewhere on this site, but people may also wish to see Madi's web page for the current game.

I'm also part of another, fortnightly, political freeform called Tydern's Court, the creation of Jim Vinton. My character is the ambassador from a principality, Ardesi, very much based on Renaissance Italy, to the Council of the High King (Tydern) of the realm. Since the characters I played in the two big political freeforms I played in prior to this were Niccolò Machiavelli and Count Hasimir Fenring, at Arcanacon XV and Conquest 98 respectively, I ought to take to Tydern's Court like a fish to water. The games being The ~~Prince~~ Pontiff by Caitlin May & Django Upton and Dune: The Corronation by Paul Duncanson & Marian Starwatcher. For the mildly curious, yes, I've also played Londo Mollari in the playtest for Loki the Unsworn's Babylon 5 freeform, Moments of Transition.

Now you can either go back, go to the site contents or e-mail me (get my PGPi public keys here).