No. Not the real Slim Shady.

Most of us here at Mutual Endeavors know each other pretty well. Many of us have been playing with each other for a good long while now. We know each other by name. We know who plays which characters. We've been such a long-lasting, well-hidden little group for so long that it's strange to realize we've got new blood amongst us that we haven't associated with much before, if at all.

So: I propose a little bit of a getting-to-know-you session. Tell us anything you'd like. If you prefer to keep your identity secret and only be known as the character(s) you play by, that's fine too. But just tell us a little something so that we can learn to appreciate each other better. Something that you think is interesting about you, or that we might find interesting about you.

I'll start by saying: Hi. I'm SM. That's what the vast majority of the people I associate with online call me, anyway. They're my initials and that's what I go by. Sometimes I like to refer to myself as The Nefarious SM, just to sound all that much more mysterious and important. Before I got married, I was known as SJ (maiden name initial) or The Infamous SJ. Over the years, though, I've matured enough to just stop caring about being so secretive and mysteriously important. So you can call me Stacey (my first name), if you like.

Role-playing has always been one of my lifelong passions. It might be comparable to my ultimate passion in life, which is writing. Storytelling as the case may be. I was first turned onto the idea of role-playing in the summer of 1994. My dear grade school friend came to me with a board game called Hero Quest. It was a game designed from the rules and constructs of the table-top role-playing game known as Dungeons & Dragons. It was not long after we played the Hero Quest board game that my friend got his hands on a few resource books for the table-top original. We recruited some of our other geek friends and studied every bit of information that we could on the game. It was all self-taught, but we learned it well.

It wasn't until the winter of 1996 that I learned of the potential playground that is AOL. My step-brother had brought home a computer one day that had a free trial version of AOL installed. I recall the same friend who had introduced me to Dungeons & Dragons telling me about a particular chat room on AOL that was set up to simulate a role-playing environment. So I implored my step-brother to allow me to have a screen name so that I could test the boundaries of AOL. My time online did not last very long, and it was spent under the screen name Arcane79. My father learned of the damage that being online caused towards the phone bill and quickly did away with my access.

Three years later, my involvement in online role-playing became something more. Shortly after the death of my father and my graduation from high school, I moved out of my parent's home and into an apartment with my first true love Brian. My third official boyfriend and the only man that I could imagine spending the rest of my life with. He was so attuned to my personality and interests, that a few short days after we moved in together, he set me up with my own computer and my very own AOL account. January of 1999 is when the legacy of Ehzoterik truly began.

In those days, as is true with all of us, I was admittedly a newb. I was a member of the notorious ranks of thousands who spent their days dashing into rooms to "killz u all". In the beginning, Ehzoterik was best known for following around a vagabond group of self-proclaimed elitists known as the 5150s. The creator of the group once told me that 5150 is the standard police radio code for insanity. I'm not exactly certain whether or not that claim is accurate, but it fit well enough. From the leader of the pack down to the lowliest of peons, we were all crazy in some form or another. There are only a small handful of people these days who recall the 5150s and my involvement with them. But as with all things, eventually there was an end to that chaos. The group was disbanded, and we were left to our own devices.

After some time watching others role-play, I started to develop a better feel for my own abilities. I knew that I could write and write well. With Ehz as a wreck and no longer captivating my attention, I decided to try something different. By the dawn of 2000 I had created at least a half dozen new characters to play around with, all with their own individual screen names. Each one of them has so much history, their own stories to tell. Up to date, with 2008 just around the corner, I doubt that I could cover them all in one simple autobiography. So instead, I have ventured to create other projects.

One of those projects is what you see here before you: Mutual Endeavors! A little over a decade of my life has been dedicated to role-playing, in one form or another. I am a woman with many masks, and not everyone has been honored with the knowledge of them all. There comes a time in everyone's life, however, in which we no longer feel the need to hide behind our perspective masks, no matter what they are. Finally, after all these long years, I have grown to the stage of not caring.

I'm a gamer geek and proud of it! How about you?

::laughs:: Well, I probably won't have a ton to say, but...

My name's Steff. I'm twenty-seven, married for eight years, two babies (one just over two, the other four and a half months old; some of the RDI people get picspammed with baby pics), two dogs and a wild cat living outside. I'm an Ohioan, currently residing in possibly the worst place in the state, which is Youngstown.

I've been storytelling, RPing or something like it since before I can remember, but I didn't start formally writing until I was twelve and have busted ass ever since then to get decent at it. I love writing. I can't take much credit for my characters for any number of reasons -- they're all individuals and I just happen to be the one telling the story, for one.

I have two mains: Harold and Mike. Harry you've seen, Mike inhabits a whole other universe in a closed 'family' game -- in fact, Mike's universe is the same one my sister and I built together before we even knew what the internet was and has become a stable thing that will always be there.

RPing and writing are about my only outlets now -- I used to drive as a hobby and do a lot of other things, but between babies and gas prices, I've been a bit limited of late on what I can do.

So, that's kind of me. Steff is fine, unless you're one of those people who like full names, in which case it's Stephanie. ::grins:: So, there ya go.

My name is Mel.

My writing likes to zig zag all over the place and can’t ever pick a tense. Deal, bitches.

My first role playing character I ever dared to claim was Maiyannya. And she was as awful as I was, back then. She was a Mary-Sue and I had no tutor to tell me the difference between IC and out.

I was picked up by a vet and taught 2d20 just before it went the way of the dinosaur in public rooms and he let me know a little about IC/OOC and the unspoken common-sense guidelines.. Sci-fi was still considered the odd man out for role play characters, and you could get laughed at and out of a room for trying modern.

I retired Maiya as I grew up, grew out, and understood many things experience and time had taught me. The second character I made during that time was a drow, Suliss’urn. But she had little time spent on her to develop who she was and was also, at the time, Mary-Sue-ish in the evil sense. I created several characters that never stuck; I don’t even remember their names.

As I am fond of writing: years passed, seasons changed, the wheel tur—oh, wait. That’s not my line..

I came back to role playing to a different ‘world.’ Fantasy had taken the place of modern, modern had overwhelmed fantasy, magic still existed but it was different. People had adapted, and so I though to do the same with my character, Shadow. I hadn’t forgotten Suliss’urn however, and decided that I couldn’t have her remain the way she was. So I had her survive being recaptured, had her return and set her loose on the realm. For obvious (or not) reasons, she didn’t get very many positive responses. So I focused on playing Shadow.

I learned even more with Shadow and grew a bit more. But, as with all good things, too much of it can wear a person out. Two years after starting her I wrote her ending in a fit of weariness and frustration. Her ending is permanent, but mine is lingering and teeter tottering between riding off into the sunset or being a brand new beginning.

Suliss’urn, of course, remains. As it is fitting for an elf that never ages I do bring her out every once and a while just so all the goody-two-shoes characters can gang up on her and feel better.
Anyhoo—in between all that, this and the other-- I threw a character at the Silvery Moon or The Rambling Rose and that’s how I met the group here.

I then volunteered to make the livejournal site all purdy for the eyes, recommended Mike and Ez gave me admin status.

I am told that my manner when first being met is stand-offish and perhaps stiff, don’t let that fool you. I warm up.

I can be a right royal bitch if you’re a complete and total idiot or if I think you deserve it. Chances are, if you’re posting on this board or we’ve role played together –you aren’t and you don’t. And if I make a mistake? I’ve no issues with accepting that I have and apologizing.

I have two hamsters, a cockatiel, two cats, a dog and a husband. I want very badly to be a digital artist, but can’t draw. I used to wish I was a singer, but I can’t sing either. I read books in the same manner of time it would take a few to cook a fancy dinner and my imagination still yearns for that magic which can happen in role play when you are taken away.

And that’s me in a long winded-jesus-does-it-ever-end-nutshell.

Rofl.


Hi. I'm Kelsey. I'm significantly younger than the rest of the crowd here; I'll be breaking twenty September 7th. I'm a college student and a full time nerd. I don't really like bringing age into the mix since people begin to assume things I'm not entirely comfortable with. That being said, other than profuse use of obscene langauge, I'm fairly mature and I prefer people to act similarly. I don't take to idiocy well. If you haven't noticed from my (few) posts already, I am honest to a fault, sometimes to the point of being offensive. I promise I'm not trying to be an asshole on purpose, though.


My introduction to writing and roleplaying was relatively uneventful -- I started out on an old Redewall Roleplay board named The Sali. I met one of the best writers I've ever had the pleasure of reading there and it was through her I learned the basics. She's a published author and artist now, and she fucking deserved it.


At some point I discovered the AOL roleplay scene and started fumbling around with the animal that is chatroom roleplay. I bounced between All Creatures Tavern, the RDI, and the MT since late 2000; it wasn't until 2001 when I made Sinjin. Although I have a handful of characters and storylines I enjoy, Sinjin's stuck through it all fairly well.


After writing and roleplaying for so long, I began to learn the differences between writing with someone and roleplaying with someone -- while I enjoy the latter, I crave the former and it's an urge that's rarely satisfied these days. If any of you want to write or roleplay, please, by dear God, don't hesitate to contact me. I am always, always interested in writing with new people and new stories -- it's one of the things that keeps my brain chugging. I believe strongly in complex characters that are portrayed simply; I love simple, effective writing, although I am occasionally struck with bouts of verbosity.


My AIM name is Sinjin Fai and my email is This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Feel free to drop me a line if you have ideas or just want to chat.

Hi my name is Sev and I'm an al... Oh wait wrong meeting....

I've been playing for ages and ages and ages... my parents actually started me out with pen and paper tabletop RPs when I was 5 or six so, about 20 odd years.

Sev's the latest in a long line of characters, most of the rest being semi-retired because of various forms of Ick.

I don't have any pets, unless you count five year olds as pets, then I have one. But I'm totally up for trading him for a kangaroo

HGLowe wrote:
I'm an Ohioan, currently residing in possibly the worst place in the state, which is Youngstown.

Oh em gee. You're like a whole half hour, maybe 45 minute, drive away from me. I forget how far Youngstown is. Never been that good with distance and travel time. But: I'm in North Canton. Small effing world, huh?

Seriously? That's so cool! My grandparents live in New Philadelphia, and I have to go through Canton to get there. ::laughs:: Someday, we oughta meet in a well-lit public place with our respective axes in the trunk and have a cup of coffee.

Hello, my name is Cathy and I used to be an AOLaholic.

I'm.. uh, just L (Which isn't even the first letter of my real name). I'm super paranoid so I don't give out my real name or location to people. Sorry. ^_^ I will say that many times I do feel like a youngin' since everyone else in the world of RP seems to be mid twenties and up. I'm not as young as Kelsey, but not much older at twenty one.

I started playing on AOL shortly after getting a computer in 2004. I had no idea what RP is, but happened to see a link that said Red Dragon Inn. I clicked it out of curiosity, and boom, I was in a chat room. I rolled my eyes and was about to click out when I noticed.. these people weren't talking about stupid stuff or ASLing... I watched and was just.. hooked immediately. Hopped in without knowing what I was doing and it was, well, a disaster. Heh.

Then I created a whole slew of disaster characters as I was learning the ropes, eventually creating Terra Wynsor who was my main for a while. Then I created Cecilia LaCrosse, who kinda slowly took over as my main. Eventually I learned silliness was good and would do random things.. like Fred the Rat. *grin* Sadly though, things happened, the drama bomb exploded, and I just left sometime in 2005.

About a year ago, I stumbled upon Dragonsmark and after much debate, I created Lydia Loran, a character who had been in my head for quite some time, and gave it a go. The rest is.. uh.. history or some such. And I've learned a great deal through trial and error. Lots of error... LOTS. I'm guessing most, if not all, of us have though?

Oh em gee. You're like a whole half hour, maybe 45 minute, drive away from me. I forget how far Youngstown is. Never been that good with distance and travel time. But: I'm in North Canton. Small effing world, huh?

Quite small indeed. I grew up in Steubenville and now live in Central Ohio...