The Forge Archives

To Whomever It May Concern,

I'm new to this board, as you may be able to tell. I would like to join the Wuthering Heights roleplay, but I am clueless as to how to actually be a part of it. When I come to the site, it gives this persona sheet and stuff, and I have no idea what to do. I am used to rpg's where you post on a board.  If this roleplay entails the same, I do not know where to find it. Could someone please help  me out?

~Anne Blake~

First: Welcome to the Forge. I hope you enjoy your time here.

The reason you're confused is because Wuthering Heights isn't a forum-based game. It's a standard, face-to-face role-playing game (well, "standard" being a relative term here) requiring a GM and a group of players physically present to run -- tho I suppose it could be run over, say, IRC or something similarly live and interactive.

If you're not familiar with "standard" non-forum roleplaying, may I suggest the following link:

http://members.aol.com/essuncius/cover3.html

Also, as an aside, the Forge is for discussion of roleplaying, but not actual roleplaying. So while you're welcome to talk about forum-style play, these forums are not for playing games in. The "actual play" forum is for talking about actual play, as opposed to theory.

To get an idea of the sort of discussions that go on in the "Actual Play" board, here are links to some threads about Wuthering Heights and other games that my group has played:

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1503
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1563
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1983

Oh, and as another aside, and this is just my personal preference: Cool it on the huge pictures, eh?

Thank you for this information. I now realize that this is not the  kind of roleplaying I prefer. As to the picture, I apologize sincerely, for I had not realized it would be so large. Thank you anyways for the information and welcome. God Bless.

~Anne~

Well, there ain't nothin' stopping you from *talking* about forum-style play here, you just don't *do* it here, if you see the distinction. Forum-style, freeform play has gotten very little attention here at the Forge, but that doesn't mean people aren't willing to talk about it, eh?

And they said I was crazy when I said that lots of people these days get their only role-playing as forum free-forms, and know little of tabletop.

Lily (Anne?), can you tell us about your preference? How familiar are you, if at all with face to face RPGs? Is your preference based on experience, or do you just not know much about FTF RPGs?

Mike

You know, you bring up a very interesting point. I wish I'd talked more about freeform forum roleplaying in the HeartQuest rules. You could probably write up Heathcliff quite easily with them.

I agree with mike that forum free-forms are going to continue to be significant for a while to come, and if we small-press publishers don;t address them we're missing out on an opportunity to sell games, at least to the gamemasters.

Quote from: Michael HopcroftI agree with mike that forum free-forms are going to continue to be significant for a while to come, and if we small-press publishers don;t address them we're missing out on an opportunity to sell games, at least to the gamemasters.

And at the risk of topic drift, here's a whacky idea: Instead of buying a game, you buy access to a web site that contains all the rules for the game (mostly background, probably) and a set of fora for playing the game in.

Or has someone already done this?

Hey Kirt,

Great topic, but it definitely belongs in RPG Theory. Take it there, folks.

Best,
Ron

Quote from: LilyThank you for this information. I now realize that this is not the  kind of roleplaying I prefer. As to the picture, I apologize sincerely, for I had not realized it would be so large. Thank you anyways for the information and welcome. God Bless.

~Anne~

It's true the text of "Wuthering Heights" is unclear about how a typical RPG session runs ... maybe I'll add a paragraph about it (I'm supposed to write a revised version in 2002, but maybe it will be out only in 2003).

This is not the first time someone confuses my RPG with an LARP or another kind of "non-tabletop" RPG. By the way, most of the visitors on my site are non-gamers (type "Wuthering Heights" on google ...) and many times I had to explain the confused visitor what tabletop RPG is about.

Anyway, playing the game on a forum might be a very good idea ... maybe I'll experiment someday (but not in the English language).