Do you have a gorean story?
Have you created a history, to go along with your roleplay, or did you simply drop yourself in the midst of others, hoping something will develop?
Some are luckier then others, some have been around for a length of time, and have had a 'story' develop over years. My personal 'story' has developed with time, and included every Gorean chat I have ever been in. I don't 'reboot' it with each interface, or community I join. I take what went before, and build upon it.
From telnet chat, to irc, to Second Life, its one cohersive story, spotty perhaps, with wholes and gaps perhaps, but one story, one character, one roleplay which builds upon what came before.
Some, are not so lucky, some roleplayers drop themselves into a environment and have no idea to some extent what they are doing. I believe, its time for everyone to stop, and consider their characters roleplay history. In short it doesn't really matter if you make it up, get someone else to help you fabricate it, or wing it, but you should, have at least a beginning to it, so it can be built on as you travel through the roleplay environment. This of course works regardless of what community, or theme your apart of.
One of my goals, over the years has been, to require of slaves to formulate their history, where did they come from, where they bred to be a slave, where they a free woman of fabulous wealth, where they a peasant girl, or a daughter sold to cover family debts. Your imagination, and the books are your only limits. John Norman's books on Gor are your guidelines, your imagination, takes you from there, who are you real life? Who do you wish you were? Do you want to be something different, or do you wish to mix who you are now, with who you might be if you where dropped on Gor?
Sit down, and summarize who you are, then, if you know the books, you can formulate who you might be on Gor, make small adjustments for the society and its rules, how you might have been treated, or might have treated others. Would you have had more patience, or less patience, would you have been enslaved into debt service, or would you be a noble warrior, who is on the front lines with many memories of brothers lost in battle.
Are you a peasant, who watches from afar, while men of noble birth battle in your fields, destroying your crop, defending only your homestead, and family from those who wander from the battlefield. Are you a man, or woman transplanted from earth, to find your fortune, your future on Gor.
In my ten plus years, sadly I have only come across a very select few who have taken the challenge to heart, and been able to create a cohesive storyline which flowed, and indeed, allowed you to escape into the honest, and in depth journey.
If in doubt, find someone in one of the groups, to help with putting together your character. Use some dice to randomize some facts if you need to, put some things to chance, and then build upon that. I'd love to see what some of you might come up with, and see it role played to its richest.
There is however one other thing I see, sadly, in day to day Gor, that makes me wonder, if we will ever be able to truly enjoy a rich, diverse environment inside the virtual world of cyberspace, and this doesn't matter if its Second Life, irc, telnet chat, or any other 'virtual world' construct that might exist out there.
When your role playing, or in a role play environment, leave Real life behind, and unless your STORY involves a history that would include EARTH, then you should, in my opinion, leave it behind. It does little to advance your storyline, or the role play you are attempting to create. It does however, put people on edge, especially those who have read the books in depth and are trying to recreate a role play environment based on them. You need to be able to suspend reality, to suspend your real life, earth based beliefs. Not completely but enough to realize, and role play effectively with enjoyment.
A second thing I find disturbing, is the never ending need to 'add on'. I have seen the requests 'seeking daughter', 'seeking companion', 'seeking father' and so on, and so on. I hope, that these people are doing at the very least what I did, when someone asked if they might become 'family' to me.
I literally make these people jump through hoops, see what I wrote above? Yea, that's right, that's a NECESSITY for them. You best HOPE you can come up with some sort of storyline, showing our paths crossed, or met, or intersected to some degree to cause you to exist and mean something to me.
My sister, Anthea, had to create a storyline, telling about our childhood, and how we got seperated, sure, this was cheating a bit, it helped ME fill in blanks, and consider for a moment, that not EVERYTHING should be under your control. Anthea, having created a storyline of value, and something I found creative enough, filled in some of my history, some of my culture, that she was allowed in.
My daughter, Sylvia, had to create a storyline. I shared with her some small details, surrounding a possible 'history' for her character, and through discussion, I assisted her in creating something that fit with my previous roleplay. Something that felt right, and something that would give her an understanding for how Gor worked. Something I would feel good about, when it was introduced into roleplay.
My companion, everyone that decided they wanted to try to connect to her, as family, I required of them the same thing. With my companion taking time out for real life, it enables a deeper storyline to continue, and develop as opportunities arise.
Take some time, take some care, and do yourself a favour, require of yourself a storyline, require of those around you a fulfilling storyline. Free, or slave, man or woman, require it of everyone. Make sure they know, and understand the extreme environment of Gor that we role play in. Use the opportunity to mentor, and enhance our Gor.
