Age Thread!

[Savarah]

One of the most beautiful things about RP is that it bridges the age gap if done well enough. You could be a 12 year old who writes beautifully with impeccable grammar and mesh perfectly with someone who is, say, 35 and been around the RP block a few times. And never be the wiser, for that matter.

 

That being said (so as not to sound like a complete creeper), how old are the members of our community? Getting the early RP start as middle schoolers or high schoolers, maybe college aged, maybe much older than that with lives and children of your own who've been RPing longer than these silly kids have been alive? And have any of you taken any formal writing classes or have you just grown and developed on the fly?

 

Personally, I'm 21 and entering my last year of college (yay!) and I wrote for fun with a close friend or two through most of my teens. Learned what was good, what was cheesy, and what was downright awful. I've never taken any formal creative writing classes because I'm afraid of people judging me (hence why I'm terrified of the mentor program as awesome as it is :blush:). One of the most awesome things in my RP past is that I got into extensive arcs with young teens and adults who had kids my age, and it was really awesome. :love:

[Varus]

I'm a recent college graduate, haha! Good luck with your last year!

 

I've never taken any creative writing classes, but I had friends who did, so they gave me a few writing tips here and there.

 

One of the things they absolutely hated was my verbosity, so I've been trying to cut down on my writing length.

[Asyria]

I'm 31 and English my second language! So while my vocabulary is pretty decent and my grammar is okay, I sometimes have trouble expressing myself as clearly as I'd like and people often misinterpret what I'm trying to say (and they usually misinterpret it in the worst possible way, which inevitably causes drama >.<).

If you're curious, French is my first.

 

I live in the land of weremoose, poutine and pâté chinois.

 

I never took any class related to RP in any way except some drama in elementary school because we had to pick 2 out of 3 of music, drama and whatever it is when you glue stuff and make "art" and I REALLY didn't want music so I picked the other two.

 

I ended up in the most advanced English classes though cause I turned out to be pretty bilingual (I suspect most of my motivation came from wanting to know wtf was going on in Final Fantasy 2(US) at the time). This kept on until college so by the time I dropped out, I was comfortable enough watching movies, playing games and reading books in English, if that was their original language (I feel there's always a loss in translating something).

 

Now as far as actual RP goes... if we skip endless games of make believe and solo adventure books (Fighting Fantasy, Lone Wolf, Way of the Tiger... good times), I guess it started around 12 or 13 years old, when I laid my eyes on some D&D books and from there I started RPing whenever I could.

 

Before RPing in mmorpg's was a thing, though (and that started about 6 years ago for me, I think) I would write extensive backgrounds for NPC's and PC's alike, stories for my friends to enjoy (fantasy/comedy starring them and myself in an alternate universe) and even once, a journal for an NPC, that I intended for players to find  and then I'd hand it over for them to actually read (and of course that never happened, but I still had one friend read it).

 

Of course, most of that was in French. o_o

[Ryanti]

 

 

One of the things they absolutely hated was my verbosity, so I've been trying to cut down on my writing length.

 

You better not cut it down with me. :thumbsup:

 

Three/four semesters left in college. I remember when I was the 12 year old keeping up with the 35 year olds. I was able to type like this while very young because my pride wouldn't let me be worse then the others were.

 

I was a second-in-command of a RP guild in SWG at 12. Though I told no one my age until after it disbanded.

[Mayumi Shiro]

I'm 34 years old, a proud father of two and happily married.  I have no formal or informal schooling when it comes to literature and writing.  I like to think that I can RP sensibly enough with few spelling errors, but trust me I abuse the crap out of the comma.  I put that little baby in places it just has no right being in...

 

I've RP'd a lot in heavy heavy RP environments (text based mucks primarily) where the only game mechanic is how to enter your text for the RP at hand.  I've played as villainous sorcerer types, benevolant priestess queens, insane underage psyhopaths, conflicted robot-humanoid hybrids, and pretty much anything else you can put in there.  Some of the better known characters I've RP'd as over the years (I'll only list the ones I got complimented on for playing...hehe)

 

Marcy from Chrono Cross

Magus / Janus Zeal from Chrono Trigger

Phacia from Lunar Silver Star Story

Gambit from the X-men

Naomi Armitage from Armitage III

Lupin from Lupin the 3rd

Largo from Bubblegum Crisis

 

Those were my faves of course.  My point being you're quite right about the skill of a role player being able to fuzz up age gaps.  A 30 year old father playing as a 9 year old semi-psycho military general in combat boots, blue ribbons and a pink dress would've been a hard one to call I think.

[Asyria]

but trust me I abuse the crap out of the comma.  I put that little baby in places it just has no right being in...

 

I used to do that a lot!

I blame my French. Commas see a lot of use in French and I realized it wasn't quite as useful in English when someone compared reading me to hearing Captain Kirk. o_O

I'm still not entirely sure where I'm supposed to use them and where I'm not but I cut down my use of them in half after that comment.

[Y'sehr]

I'm 26, and I haven't done a lot of RP. I did some light RP with a friend, and a little on forums and what not, but most of that was a long time ago now. I haven't even taken many writing classes. I liked reading and trying and the interaction.

[Magellan]

I'm 33, and am new to RP, but have been creatively writing for fun since high school. It's fun to get to be so interactively involved with imagined characters of all makes and types ^^

[Imsey]

31 years old and married here, without a creative writing class to my name.  X] While I'm new to mmo RP (I'm saying that way too often on these forums), I've done forum RP for... at least 7-8 years.  I'm happy to RP with people of all ages.

 

I love to play any sort of character, finding fun it fitting into new roles.  Nervous to start off here, bit I'm sure it'll be lots of fun.

[Averis]

Why do I have to be the first oldest person in this thread??? 36

 

But don't let that fool you, I'm still a kid at heart.

 

Anyway, I have never been to any writing class except what you are required to take in school. I have been writing personal stories since my early teens for my own comic books etc. So that probably helped some when I started to get into MMO role-play. I never did the whole tabletop thing. I'm still learning everyday. I probably overuse commas, but I love them. I think that role-play and posting online has forced me to improve my ability to write, but I still can't spell for beans. >.<

 

My MMO RP history is pretty varied. I've run the gamut of casual to fulltime IC. I started in Lineage 2 (when it came out) and have role-played many characters since then.

 

Outside of that, I have no family of my own. If I'm not gaming I'm working or drawing.

[Nox]

I'm 19 and a sophomore in college (or University, depending upon where you live). I'm not exactly "new" to rp, but I'm not a veteran. I have... maybe 4-5 years under my belt. Kind of fitting that I'd find rping fun considering that I want to be a writer.

 

 

Edit: Wow, I think I'm the baby

[Ellion Goto]

Ah fun thread!

 

I am 28 years old. I graduated from college in 2010 with an Information Technology/Software Engineer major. I have been doing the RP thing now for quite some time (since I was 15) and started out like some of you have, with DnD. Growing up in a staunch traditional home I was always told that such things like DnD was evil and encouraged violence or bad behavior. When I learned that it was just a simple pen-and-paper game, I was floored with laughter from the fears of others with the concept of such a game.

 

I became fascinated with the concept of this "RP" and have tried many different styles of it since then. Except LARPing, that just seems ridiculous... or maybe ridiculously fun... I have to try it to see!

 

ALSO: Hellloooo Asyria :thumbsup:

[Gimlette]

:bouncy:

 

33 here...

 

I've been RP'ing DnD since i was old enough to (sorta) understand a sheet.  I was seven, my brother thought it would be amusing to have me play the most twisted concept he could put together.  Over the years i've played TT and online, via digichats, IRC, forums and MMO's.  I've played DnD, everything White Wolf (yay changeling!) Abberant, Paranoia, Cthulhu and currently Anima.  I write (pages and pages...) and i draw (not so well but i'm practicing?) 

 

Other then that i'm in culinary school currently and y'all are welcome to visit my gastro pub when (if) i ever get the silly thing open.  Desserts and booze!  Woot!

[Amyr Mythweaver]

Averis do not worry I can save you from the "honour" of being the oldest in the thread I am 43 and been Rping since I was a teenager in pen and paper games ( AD&D, Rolemaster, Call of Cthulu mostly) and RPing in MMO's since '99.

 

I have not attended any creative writing classes but often wish I had my grammar is not the best especially when RPing and feeling the need to reply in a timely fashion, beyond that the years have not eroded my enjoyment that RPing brings and although I did not play or RP in 1.0 I look forward to meeting you all when ARR goes live.

[Kassandra Dawn]

I just turned 29 this month...woohoo

[LandStander]

Ah fun thread!

 

I am 28 years old. I graduated from college in 2010 with an Information Technology/Software Engineer major. I have been doing the RP thing now for quite some time (since I was 15) and started out like some of you have, with DnD. Growing up in a staunch traditional home I was always told that such things like DnD was evil and encouraged violence or bad behavior. 

 

Ha, you and I both. I spent some of my really early childhood years in a religious commune in the mountains of Texas and I remember them burning my PeeWee Herman doll telling me it was the devil. I bet that pull string bringer of oblivion would have been worth so much money now. 

 

Anyway...I am 27 and am also a student (started late). Still have two years left. I don't have any training as I doubt a year and a half of English classes actually count. I actually just started RPing last year when Guild Wars 2 came out, but luckily people say that they can't tell that I am new to the party (or maybe they are just being nice >.o). I have always been interested in it since I ran into some RPers in XI, but it just took me awhile to want to try it out. I really enjoy it and wish I would have done this years ago as it creates a level of immersion that I have not experienced with games in a long time.

[Halrath]

I'll be 33 next month.

 

No formal training in writing or literature exactly, but I have a BA and an MA in Religious Studies. I've done my fair share of writing and editing over the years, and there have been a lot of years. Truth be told though my grammar is still pretty terrible. So much so that towards the end of my academic career I had to have my wife edit my papers for me.... she even graded a few of my student's papers (don't tell the department).

 

I've been RPing for a while now, since my mid 20's, with the bulk of it coming from WoW. I RPed in FFXI for a bit, but it was a small community on my server so it was never very extensive.

 

I find it very interesting, and comforting, that I am not the only one of my age on here that not only plays FFXIV, but also RPs. Yay!!

[Eva]

Also 33 here. Good to see some folks around in this age bracket!!

 

I don't have any formal writing training but I like to think I'm still all right at it. I've pondered writing/publishing but it sometimes seems a bit daunting and tough to break into professionally. I think I enjoy it more as a hobby anyway.

[Alothia]

I'm 29 and will be 30 in November. I'm an English teacher and this year I started teaching Creative Writing...although I don't know how I ended up with that position. I've never really done any creative writing before now, but I hear that I'm not too shabby at it. I don't know. All I know is that I enjoy doing it, and that's really what matters.

[ForestGuardian]

23 myself. Got into MMOs at 13, with Everquest Online Adventures (on PS2) and eventually Dark Age of Camelot before the WoW craze started. It's weird how much I still remember about EQOA... I'm pretty sure guild banks weren't a thing yet, so I ended up being my guild's banker, and would hop to an alt to get things for people. And I remember playing my Halfling Druid in their home city, Rivervale and suddenly a group of trolls charged in, killing NPCs and I was like "THIS CAN HAPPEN??? O_O OHGOD! *RUNS AWAY*" I even remember that the trolls were coming from "12" on that map, because I was fishing at the time. 

 

Oh and my best friend joined the game, but HAD to play a Dark Elf. /sigh I remember trying to find a place we could play together, and the many deaths we had on our journey. We even ended up in the most ridiculously over-leveled areas, massive deserts filled with gigantic, terrifying enemies that would have one-shot us if we got too close. Sometimes being a noob is the best way to enjoy a game, but I still can't help but read up and prepare myself for MMOs these days. :<

[Kari Illderthane]

So I'm 23 lived in the UK since dawn of time! or well my time anyway. Been rping since I was about 5 or 6..I cant remember to along ago!

 

I'm a professional goof ball I work voluntary teaching people about 60+ older how to use computers so they can email their children or grandchildren or even do on-line shopping so they don't have to struggle carrying everything around going to the shops.

 

I have a B Tec First Diploma and a B Tec National Diploma in ICT practitioners, and I have a B Tec National Diploma in games development. But no skill in writing I'm actually Dyslexic.

[Yahdo]

I'm 20 years old myself with no creative writing to my name, got 3's on my essays at most. I have just recently gotten into creating stories but I have been RP'ing since I was about 12-13 years old. Infact I have been wondering on if my "Enemy Emerges" thread was taken well or not as that was my very first attempt at creating a story.

[kurai]

I'm 19 and a sophomore in college (or University, depending upon where you live). I'm not exactly "new" to rp, but I'm not a veteran. I have... maybe 4-5 years under my belt. Kind of fitting that I'd find rping fun considering that I want to be a writer.

 

 

Edit: Wow, I think I'm the baby

 

Dear Lord I'm the baby here O_o

 

17 and going strong

[Asyria]

:bouncy:

 

33 here...

 

I've been RP'ing DnD since i was old enough to (sorta) understand a sheet.  I was seven, [snip]

 

You could figure out THAC0 at SEVEN?

What sort of sorcery is this?

[Dogberry]

THAC0 isn't THAT hard. It's all given to you, you just roll a d20, subtract from the THAC0 and if it's under the AC it hits. It's just subtraction and number comparison, which you should know how to do by seven. Sure, I'd rather just roll over the AC, but people act like it's high level math. 

 

I'm 29, and started RPing at 12 when I got my grubby little hands on the Player's Handbook, and had to hide it out of fear that it would be burned. Of course the cat got out of the bag eventually, and was pleasantly surprised that my parents decided that staying in pretending to slay dragons was not the most harmful thing I could be doing with my time. Getting into Vampire: the Masquerade, however...

 

Nowadays, I do tabletop RPGs like twice a week between D&D, Iron Kingdoms, Shadowrun, Warhammer 40K RPGs, Mage: the Ascension, Paranoia, Deadlands, and Mouse Guard. I also LARP in two fantasy boffer games, Darkon, which as I understand is kind of infamous and has a hilarious documentary around it, and Dragon's Claw, a Roman era LARP. I'm also working on the rules for a Steampunk LARP set in Baltimore during the Civil War.