Some thoughts on RP

We lost two Sisters the other day who went to another tribe, and after it happened I started to wonder why they were dissatisfied? They wanted more action, was the comment I got. 

Here is the dilemna. The Sa Jerag are and were created as a proper Taluna tribe, fierce, yes, but living in the jungles to get away from Men and the fierce main world of Gor. And the tribe mirrors that. We have never actively sought fights (well not often), responding only to the capture of a Sister or for revenge for some past slight to one of Us. Oh and yes, of course we fight to defend our lands and our camp against raids and attacks. True to the world of Gor in the books, we never made a fort to defend ourselves - what are we? engineers? - but instead chose a place in the crater of a flooded extinct volcano, surrounded and protected by water. Here we live our own life in the edges of Gor, occasionally venturing in to trade and to visit other tribes , and  making alliances occasionally for strength and survival.

Of course, this doesn't suit everyone. We all come to this world for different reasons.

Here we come to some facts. We don't have one life in Second Life Gor. It is not like the books where each day we wake up with the events of the day before laid out behind Us; with chores to do, with animals to hunt and crops to tend for food. No we can wake up to find that the cage we are looking at is empty where before we went to sleep there was some naked Warrior (or in Dina's case, the Viking who took Her has gone....mean of Me). So what do we do, we wait a little while (20 mins no RP and I TP out....there is something I would get rid of) and then we TP home and start a new story and a new chapter.

If we are lucky, we develop a RP that allows several visits or occasions to search Gor, plant some flags or flirt with someone. only occasionally do these involve the whole tribe as we are rarely on at the same time. 

And so we make many lives, many RP's and live out many fantasies. A lot of the time these are wonderful. Sometimes they are bad. From time to time you see one of Us burn out and leave Gor or go somewhere to fulfil another fantasy - this is SL after all, so there are a world of them out there.

I have no answer to this but some suggestions to make our RP more fulfilling.

The first is to notice that very few Sisters take slaves. This is unusual except in fighting tribes. Slaves add rich variety to the RP of a camp with their own stories and tales and ways of RPing with each other. In a fighting tribe of course, there is no place for a slave. What slave is going to wait all shrivelled up for a Mistress who is never there with no possibility of expressing themselves?

The other is to take suggestions for tribe activities apart that is from warring. We are not true to our life if we never talk, tell stories, offer training to others, bicker and fight and make love (I am not suggesting we need to all be there at the same time to make love though... thinking about it some more, it could be fun!).

The next is for us to be sure to RP actively with our Taluna Sisters. Sometimes these may even lead to fighting, but the main thing is to get out there and to invite them back to Us as well. If a Sister from another tribe appears, then we should make an active attempt to engage them in RP. On several occasions we wonderful times with Mambas, Pigmies and Taluna tribes. We should be seeking them out more.

There is of course another alternative, although it will mean more burn out eventually. Far from engaging in lifestyle, we should become a much more aggressive tribe. Even though I am personally uncomfortable with only being a "fighting" tribe, I am aware that it brings all sorts of Goreans to our lands, adventurers, slavers, explorers and Sisters looking for a place to live. This depends very much on what the tribe wants and who is prepared to step up to become First Bow, but could mean that We take many more captives and then sell them to the auction houses in Port Schendi. And in turn We can expect to be taken ourselves. As our land is small, We would not be able to house everyone We captured if We truly went to war!

Whichever we choose, there are somethings I feel fair in asking from the tribe:

• Honour your RP and play it even if you think someone is cheating against You. Don't whine but get a Mod after the event. Sometimes You will be surprised how well the RP works out with someone you fought with first.
• TPing out of a RP should be a last resort (Of course I realise sometimes people go too far and I would not sanction anything that was not ultimately consensual)
• Play each RP as if it was Your last before You died.
• Yes it's fine to just have fun sometimes and joke and play throwing in RL and non-Gorean themes (being boring is worse), but don't make that an excuse for not behaving as a Gorean Taluna when the RP is serious. So know how to behave in different Gorean situations.
• If You choose to battle or have to battle, always support Your Sisters first. This is how it really would be in a Taluna camp. Don't run away from them unless there is absolutely no choice about it.
• Help to bring life into our lands by inviting others and recruiting for the tribe. Don't expect others to do it all the time for You. If you want more "action" be prepared to make it happen yourself.
• Once you start something, try to finish it, whether it is a raid, a RP or whatever. Things go wrong, but not supporting Your Sisters who came with You is surely not how our tribe would be or we want it to be.
• Have fun because We can't duplicate a real Gor where one event strictly follows another, but We can make a wonderful, rich world.

I will be asking You all for your feelings and thoughts on this. Both Larah and I have more RL things to do than We used to, and We have some wonderful Sisters who We would like to take the strain and help Us. I will be looking to choose a 1st Bow, a slaver and asking You to help lead the tribe as it grows and changes with time.

Your Chieftess, Cath