Ok, guys -- very important. You absolutely have to remember your primary audience when you're in a role-playing game. And for every game, your Primary Audience are the players around you. When that gang of players includes people under 18, then you have to always be conscious of that fact. Just like "The Tribe" on tv was rated "PG", our Keep the Dream Alive rpg strives to follow those same standards. The target player-age we write for is maybe 18. So we may come closer to PG-13 sometimes, but we do our best. This isn't a visual game -- all our actions are text-based. We're not including pictures with gory details or "graphic" anything -- but people still have very good imaginations. We can't control others' minds, but we can control our own words & actions in the game.
That's not easy, in a game where we try to keep what happens in the realm of possibility. Truth is, with all our characters anywhere from age 8-10 up to maybe 19, in the "real world" there'd be a lot more violence & a lot more...umm...hormone-related issues to deal with. We've done the violence thing (yeah, we had a head or two chopped off & body parts strewn around and some wicked wounds). We've done the sex-thing & the one-night-fling-thing & the she's-having-a-baby thing. But our players have done this according to the developing storyline and NOT just to shock somebody or prove their writing skills. All of the action in-game has come about because of where a story took us. And the players have handled some pretty difficult situations with grace & common sense. You don't have to use graphic language to get a point across. You don't have to "spell out all the details" to create a scene. We've gone only so far...and then stopped & moved on. Story completed.
From time to time, we have some under-15 players; those are usually friends or family members of older players, so the older ones have been good about doing a bit of censoring when needed.
KTDARPG is a game that is open to the public & played by all ages (and we've been good about putting the proper warnings & disclaimers in place, just so everybody who visits or becomes a member knows what's going on here).
Most of our stories are focused on character development, on describing our world, and on the relationships we build among characters in the game. We're not perfect -- neither the characters, nor the players who create & move them around this chessboard we call Fort River. We're learning as we go, and that's what has kept the fun in the game.
It's probably why we're well into our 2nd year of playing, too. We take chances with stories. We try new strategies & new directions. (We also try not to stray into scifi or fantasy...well, we try...). And we're really never sure where the next plot-twist is gonna come from!
If you aren't a member, stop by & give us a try. You might find something you like.
-Chyna
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