(Sorry for the delay. Busy couple of days.)

Our gracious lord and host has deemed us worthy of receiving this lovely corner of Read and Find Out. We are very grateful, and have sent him a basket of fruit and a thank you card, in which I have taken the liberty of forging all your signatures.

This is the Roleplaying Board, and we are happy to see you here. This is a board where you can let your imagination run free and weave fantastic tales with the help of your fellow boarders. Roleplaying is about assuming the personality and characteristics of imagined people, a form of interactive storytelling.

The possibilities of this form of entertainment are vast, essentially there are only two limitations to it. The first is your imagination and creativity. Do not be embarrassed to try new things and play on interesting or intriguing concepts, you may find something that will be a great source of entertainment for yourself and your friends. The other limitation is possibly the fundamental rule of this board:

Roleplaying games are a group experience. Unlike in more conventional forms of storytelling, in roleplaying games you will be in interaction with other players, and everybody has their own ideas and story conceptions that they want to express and play on. Roleplaying requires collaboration and compromise among the players, especially in freeform games without a narrative authority (Storyteller, Game Master, Game Moderator, etc.) so that everybody can feel that they contribute and are a useful part of the overall storyline that is being written as you play.

To use an exaggerated example from a hypothetical The Wheel of Time game, a brilliant, beautiful, legendary Aes Sedai/Asha'man blademaster with great strength in the One Power, who stares Myrddraal in the eyes without flinching and is bonded to ten Warders is liable to get laughed out of the game. The story does not revolve around you and your character. Learn to respect and play together with your other board members, or your stay here will be short.

Aside from that, rules may vary from game to game, depending on the nature of that game. Pay attention to the opening posts of such threads, the creator is responsible for making the applicable rules for his game clear for the good of all involved. If no rules are written, the game is likely freeform - players are free to do and write as they please within the concept established in the opening post. Freeform games allow for the greatest freedom in writing and creativity, unbound by the strictures of more formal game systems such as the Wizards of the Coast Dungeons and Dragons or White Wolf World of Darkness.

Respect your fellow players and respect your games.

And respect your language. This is a writing dependent medium, and the games are story-driven, so deliberately poor writing will quickly get annoying.

As you get started, you may want to join someone else's game to get a feel for the workings of the place. A few threads should be open for you to join, if there aren't, be sure to yell at me, since that would mean I'm not doing my job right!

I am Fanatic-Templar, and I was placed here to serve and counsel you, by the rigging - I mean winning - the last election. If you have questions of any kind, feel free to ask me, and I will do my best to help.

Enjoy yourselves!