The Master/Slave Aspect in my RP

I've been getting some flak for this, so I'll address it. Again.

Honestly, I've gotten a lot of flak for it over the years. Whatever. I'm not changing my character(s) so that I try to please everyone. It doesn't work.

I'm also not going to stop mentioning it on my RL account, either.

So here is a brief explanation for both the RP aspect and the RL aspect.

Shara The Orion:

Shara has no desire to lose her freedom. To her, there would be no worse fate than to be put back into a situation where she has lost her freedom, where she is someone's property. She has no desire to be a slave.

For the most part.

Her experience as a slave wasn't always unpleasant. She had several Masters over the years that were benevolent and kind, and they treated her more like a treasured pet than their property. With those Masters, she was pampered, treated well, shown a great deal of affection.

No, it wasn't ideal, but it wasn't bad. Not compared to the Masters that beat her, hurt her, and far, far worse.

So she has what Ian refers to as her "Dark Side." The part of her that craves that type of relationship. Being "owned" by someone, but with the safety of having her freedom. A roleplay within a roleplay, if you will.

It also explains her attraction to dangerous men. Powerful men. Deadly men. The type of men who were her Masters.

Shara O'Ryan:

My reasons for my love of collars and cuffs are far different.

I own and run my own company. I also run a household. I am in charge, making decisions all day - every day. I often need to channel my inner bitch.

And I am okay with that.

But the appeal of finding someone worthy of my trust - someone that I can hand over my control to for a time - is a very attractive one for me.

I'm not weak or submissive as a general rule. Quite the opposite.

But to be able to find someone worthy of collaring me, strong enough to handle me, who can take control behind closed doors? Whose pet I can be? Who would treasure me and allow me to adore him in return?

Someone who would treat me as an equal outside of the bedroom, but who would relish a gentle touch on my collar and a knowing smile when we're out in the public eye, enjoying it when I blushed at this gentle, private reminder of what goes on behind closed doors?

That, my friends, would be my Heaven.

"Air Tweets" - a follower's opinion

First of all, let me say that the following is just my opinion and I'm not saying that every role-playing group needs to do what I suggest. I am just giving my opinion as a follower of a lot of RP groups.


Let me also say that this comment is not directed at any particular person or group - I have seen it a LOT. From a lot of different groups.


Now, on with the blog post.

"Air Quote" - A tweet that's directed at another RPer, but there's no @. Sometimes no name is mentioned, either.

This is different from what our RP group calls a "stand-alone tweet." A stand-alone is more like a monologue. We use it when we are trying to either convey the thoughts of the character or if we are trying to make sure that followers are up to speed on what has happened already in a storylines. They are used to try to help followers to understand what's going on, and generally are used as some type of explanation. 


These are particularly helpful in a long or complicated storyline, especially if something profound has happened and if followers missed that crucial development, they'll have trouble following the SL. They can also be helpful when you are trying to set up the scene.


There are some groups who will also make tweets that are not really directed towards anyone, but they are basically breaking down the fourth wall temporarily and making a comment to followers - again, it's generally to let the followers know what the character is thinking, or maybe what the writer is thinking.


Air quotes are entirely different.


There are times when two or more characters will have an entire conversation without a single @ reply.


If you are following everyone involved, it's hilarious. If you are not following one or more characters in the conversation, it's very confusing and annoying.


What makes it worse is that you can't follow the person that the other one is talking to because you don't have a username mentioned. What makes it even worse than that if the name that is used in the air quotes is the name of more than one character, so you don't have any idea of who you need to follow.


I have checked the profiles of people doing this so that I can find out who the air quotes are directed to and follow that person, and that is also a lesson in frustration many times.  I can't find the username of the person they're talking to! They have used all air quotes! If they don't have too many people that they are following, then I can try and go down their followers and try and find out who I need to follow, but sometimes that doesn't work either.


Then I will try and find a list so that I can see the entire conversation and see who is speaking to whom. That does not work very often, either.


I love to find new role players to follow. I love to watch role-playing scenes and storylines. But it's very difficult to follow along in situations where you're only seeing half or one third of a conversation and you have no way of knowing who the other person is.


I know that sometimes it's hard when one person in a conversation has fewer followers than another. The only people that will see the conversation (if you @ the other person at the beginning of the tweet) are followers that follow both characters. This can be especially difficult if it's a new character and has only a handful of followers.


What we will do in that case is to have the user name at the end of the tweet. Or somewhere in the middle. Or whatever. But we always try to tag the person being spoken to somewhere in the tweet.


This actually does two things.


1. It's a courtesy to the followers - they can see who you're talking to and they can follow that person if they choose.


2. It also helps to build a follower count for other people. I know that there are times when @SharaTheOrion interacts with new people and the new person will get followers simply because she's interacting with them and people see that there is a new role player around. Or maybe not even a new person, but someone that they haven't seen before. 


Again, I am not saying that people have to do what I suggest. I'm just saying that if I'm having this kind of frustration, I imagine that other people are, too.

I give credit where credit is due

I follow a lot of role-playing accounts and role-playing groups. I easily follow dozens of groups.

Many of the ones I follow are good. In every group you have at least one or two excellent role players. Some groups have more than that.

But every so often you have a group that simply has an amazing combination.

• All of the characters that are canon have the voice of the character down pat.
• The storylines are compelling.
• The out of character interaction is fun to watch.
• The action flows nicely and there aren't any major time lags in the RP.
• All of the participants have good grammar and spelling.
• They interact with followers both ic and ooc.

There are very few role-playing groups that actually have me looking at the list and hitting refresh so that I can see everything as it happens.

But there is one that I have started to follow that does this.

It's a new Firefly RPG. You can see the list here:

https://twitter.com/#!/DiffDimensionRP/firefly-rp

You can choose to follow the list and/or to follow everyone that is on the list - I recommend both.

In case you are wondering: no, I do not play any of the roles in this group. I simply love the RP.

I hope you'll take a few minutes to check them out. They have a great story line and running now, and I know they're going to have some awesome ones in the future.