Back in the days when I used to RPG in the AOL chatrooms it was when the Xenaverse was alive and well. When I first started, I was known as Xenaprncss and I even had my own sidekick WarriorGabrielle. She was the best sidekick around might I add. :) Well we hung out in the Xena chats and we had our own camp site. Camp Xena. We had a Joxer and numerous other characters from the TV show pop into the room.

The best things about RPGing online was the fact that you were with friends and you were able to join or form your own guild. A guild is a community you can join. As you earn points your status and rank goes higher. The person who made the guild is always the one who makes the rules, so make sure your able to follow someone else's rules.

The first thing you need to do is to make a character. This character sn should reflect your character. For instance if your going to make an assassin, put the word assassin in the screen name. After a while and when the show ended I created a character that I end up putting into my stories. Her name is Leena. She has RPG'd in many fandoms and still does to this day. She has been a Defense against the Darks Arts teacher at Hogwarts, she has been an Amazon, a Goddess and a Druid priestess. For my characters that I portray, I always put their history in my AOL profile for other's to read and to see if our characters are in the same fandom.

When you are a newbie at role playing, it's OK to go into a chat and just join in. Make sure your character fits into the setting though, for example, you don't want to have a Greek God go into a tavern filled with Marvel Superheros. A history of your character is needed to.

My advice would be to observe the chatroom and see what the RPG is like. Don't just step into someone elses RPG though, alot of times certain characters go into the chats to do storylines. If you do decide to join in it's best to start off with an entry of your own. :: Slowly he wanders into the tavern, not really looking for anything but a drink and maybe some conversation::

Alot of the guilds use dice, luckily AOL has a dice roller that is used in the chatrooms. It's great fun and well for newbie role players, just be patient, it takes time to learn how this works.

Here's a few of the AOL slingo you might see in the chats these days..

:: :: - You put the actions between these. For example..

::she walked to the waters edge and slipped her shoes off, then stuck her feet into the cool water::

Mun - This is you, the person controlling the character, all mun talk should be done in IM's or in the ( )'s.

" " - Some have started to use these for the spoken words.

Learn more about this author, Lisa Steinmetz.
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