HOWDY :D

[Brenda]

Hi lovely people.

It's been a hot minute since you've heard from me! I know this forum is pretty quiet these days, but I know quite a few of you still log on now and then. To those holding down the fort, to those who pop in after long absences, to those who have recently joined - THANK YOU!

I just want to briefly say - not that it really needs stating - that this site would be nothing without you. My involvement has been very limited (understatement of the year) for quite some time, in large part because various life circumstances have led me to essentially entirely stop role playing or writing creatively for the last eight or so years. The fact that this forum I created thirteen years ago still has some semblance of life is beyond astonishing to me - and still so very rewarding. It really is because of you all that that is a reality.

Which is why I'm here to say hello and thank you and maybe start some sort of dialogue about TRPS. I know you all have opinions on the state of the site, where we can improve, and where you'd like to see it go in the future. And I'd love to hear them! I'd love to hear any and all ideas. I'd also love to just chat - how's your day going? Do you have a favorite character or role play at the moment? Do you write or role play outside of TRPS? What's the state of other role play forums - are they as active as in ye olden days or are there just fewer role players around in general? What did you have for breakfast? What's your biggest pet peeve about the forum? What's your favorite thing?

[Hiroku]

MY current favorite character is a prickly fellow named Salamander Johnson, an ex-thief turned mercenary who has abysmal luck and is poor at judging character or sensing magic of any sort. Most recently here he's been turned into a cat, although the roleplay featuring him as a cat never took off due mostly to it being the beginning of the dreaded school year when I created the roleplay.

I love to cause him pain.

Due to the limited goings on here I joined up with four other sites, one like this with multiple genres, one set in the Legend of Zelda-verse and two with a medieval fantasy plot and structure. Only one of the plotted sites is truly active, the other not so much and the other two only slightly better.

There's also Gravatron's site he created a while ago but so far we haven't many members there. I tried Pinteresting one of our roleplay topics for a laugh to get more attention.

We could probably do some advertising to bring in more people to get TRPS more active...

In other news as of 2016 I moved states to live with my sister and Nanny for her as she and her husband are teachers. I have three nephews and we recently welcomed a niece. It's great to be part of my niece and nephews' lives. I moved way south and we were afraid at first that I would have worse allergies than I already had but since I moved here my allergies have been better than ever, as has my depression what with being able to enjoy more sun for longer throughout the year.

[Brenda]

Hiroku - Salamander Johnson sounds like he'd make a good cat. I feel your pain on the bad timing - it probably wasn't the best idea to make my first post at the start of a major move, either.

Do you have any ideas on where best to advertise a role play forum these days? I wonder where all the young writers and role players are hanging out. It seems to me that one-on-ones have essentially killed the group role play, which leaves less traffic for forums. That's probably correlated with there simply being fewer role players to fill a group role play.

My allergies are better in the south too. The sun and the outdoors can be really helpful for fighting off depression. I'm happy you're feeling better and thinking of your mental health!



Omega - What's your favorite thing about winter or cold weather? Mine's that satisfying crunching sound the snow makes underfoot.

Ever come up with anything good on your sandbox site? I used to tinker for hours on this site, testing and modifying until I was satisfied. The graveyard of role play forums is a truly a sad image.

Cookies!! A breakfast of champions.

Thanks for your feedback on the main page's ghost table. I'm mid-move now but will have some extra time starting next month. I'll see what I can do then to clean it up! In the meantime I've fixed the broken affiliates.

Imagination and creativity are two essentials in a fantasy writer's tool belt.

[Hiroku]

I imagine I could advertise on the sites I've now joined, those of them that have an advertising board. A couple take place strictly on "Discord" if you know what that is, but I think they have advertising boards there as well.