Every year, the hashtag #RPGaDAY makes its way around the social medias, and gamers try their damnedest to answer each question every day. Most fail. I probably will too. BUT. I will try!
Today's question: Which 'dead game' would you like to see reborn?
I'm going out on a limb on this one - and this is mostly just for nostalgia sake - not necessarily because it should or even could be 'reborn'. My answer today is Rhy'Din - AOL's chat based free-form role playing world filled with hundreds of rafter-lurking, wickedly-grinning, tragic Super Saiyans doing whatever the hell they wanted, however the hell they wanted, whenever the hell they wanted.
You see, my role playing journey started a little differently than most peoples'. The year was 1994. I was a young boy, age 10 or so, and the internet was just coming into its own. AOL discs flooded mailboxes, $20 a month could get your 56k modem purring, and Kurt Cobain had just died, sending a wave of angst rushing through the misbegotten youth of America.
I found myself freely wandering the AOL chat-o-sphere, calling for and answering a/s/l checks, snickering about 'cybering' with my friends, and landing in some strange place called The Red Dragon Inn. This fantastical place was filled with people who were pretending to be other people, in a strange world where physics and logic had no rightful place. Timidly, I too started playing along.
And I loved it.
I quickly created a new screen name, filled my profile with vivid descriptions of Neo the half-vampire, half-dragon badass. He became a vampire through his sire Nick Fury (I know, I know...). Interestingly, decades later, I realized I was playing some bastardized version of Vampire: The Masquerade with this group, as I was an Xth Generation Brujah. I created another screen name for a conflicted wizard names Raistlin and married a nice elf girl named Aurora (pet name: Auggie).
As out there and ridiculous as this all was, I ate it up, and told some really interesting stories (especially for a 10-14 year old). It taught me a lot about getting into character, and really built the foundation by which I game all these years later.
So I'd like to see it come back. And it's trying, but it will probably never get back to where it was in its hay-day, because the internet has evolved, and gamers have evolved. But damn do I miss those late nights lurking in the rafters of Kimmy Silverflame's tavern ::grins wickedly::.