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

Valkyrs

When stood the shielded Maidens
Of the gory sword, strife-eager,
On the isle; the Bold of Mood then
Received the meat of wound-blood.

Fólkvangr 't is called, where Freyja rules
Degrees of seats in the hall;
Half the kill she keepeth each day,
And half Odin hath.

From her name comes Frú, by which noblewomen are called

Auction?

now PLEASE Sisters, you CAN T DO that!?

I mean…sharks in the water, training with bows, rescues and now YOU offer yourselves in an auction?

hey THAT made me ponder, rosa??

do not try explain logic to me…tribe psychology is beyond understanding.

But being En you have to be pragmatic. OK, they go to auctions. So I went and purchased an auction thing. Worked all right, although the auction board seems to be for goods, but it can be adapted to our purpose.

So we set it up…not enough boards, some are saying…enough boards some are saying…we ll see. And all of a sudden it seems that these sisters, dressed in rags, smeared faces, hissing and giggling have a lot of FANS??? Where are THEY from?

You impress me a lot, Sisters. The whole tribe will now be on their knees for three days it seems, serving and being all cute…I d love to play mouse: How will THAT look? *neener neener!*…I ll wait for the reports. About your nights…erm…ok, no don t tell me please!!!

However it seems like you all have to spend your share on silks these days, I mean…not becca of course *winks*, but everyone else!

The auction is nearly over, and 19258 L$ including the auction board itself were donated to the sim. I thank you so much, Sisters! its YOU! and I m sooo in your debt.

What are you saying?...HA! NOOOOOOOOOOOO I don t have deep pockets!!! *pouts*…I remind you that the grandfather rule will end in june, and I put it on a separate account to fund the sim when the tier rises to 125US$ and I can still only afford 90US$. But yes, your donation belongs to the tribe. I won t forget that. And hey, its not scary: We are busy lil weasels and we ll ALWAYS come up with something! Because we are Sa Jerag, we do what we want!

Lovers of Gor is YOUR home, the home of Sa Jerag.

thank you, Sisters for all that you do!!

Larah

p.s.: I may have seemed a bit absent to you, these days. I apologize. Something came up in my life that made me sad. But I m a strong girl, I won t let you down: Promised! Thank you for all your help and for giving me time, Sisters.

rules for dragging a captive

1. Sheath your weapon
2. rp the leash
3. set to walking

Why we roleplay
(by courtesy of Candy Rockett)

"Angry Role Players lose it big time again!"

"Another Role Playing Group Implodes!"

"IC Role Play and OOC Emotions Collide!"
___________________________________________

Here are our Vendara / Vagabond Group Survey results. The question was "Why do you think/ feel Adults do Role Play?"
A huge thanks to the 48 people who responded to the question. They made 139 different points in their answers.
Their answers can be arranged in the following 5 Groups:

GROUP A. ESCAPE from RL/ SEEKING FREEDOM
57 answers
Points included escape from:
Ill Health
Stress
Guilt
Boredom
Aging
Marriage
Unemployment

GROUP B. SELF FULFILLMENT GROUP
27 answers
Points included
Learning
Raising Self Esteem
Becoming Someone
Stimulating the Mind
Exploring one's own character
Personal Experimentation

GROUP C. IMAGINATIVE GROUP
19 answers
Points included
Creativity
Fantasy

GROUP D. SOCIAL GROUP
12 answers
points included looking for:
Friends
Care
Company
Love

GROUP E. FUN GROUP
11 answers
Answers included seeking:
Excitement
Adventure
Laughter
Thrills

Additional ANSWERS:
9 people mentioned the need to play, and 5 of these made a connection to Childhood.
Single answers included:
Professional interest
Learning a foreign language
Story telling and writing
Making love with multiple partners

_________________________________________________________________

Some thoughts for discussion.

People come to SL Role Play for Multiple Reasons (35% of respondents pointed this out).

For the players involved their reasons may be very serious ones.

The reasons we come to SL RP may be regarded as significant "DRIVERS" at the keyboard feeding into our IC Play.

Players whose OOC Drivers are frustrated in RP, by accident or intentionally, may be expected to leave the RP Group.

We should do our best as players to accommodate other players, (or even to try to understand what drives them).

Explosive misunderstandings can arise between players who are in SL RP for very different reasons (with little overlap in drives).

Ask yourself who you most like, (and who you least like), to RP with. It may help you on reflection to understand where they are coming from. And on reflection to consider again what makes you tick too.

______________________________________________________________________

3 Quotes from Survey Respondents

"Role Play is like a living breathing alternative life."

"Every person still has what little kids do, a need to play."

"I love Role Play."



Love to hear from you with ideas and comments about Role Play
Candy Rockett
Thanks again everyone

our lil sims’ balance sheet

thank you all for your help, Friends and Sisters!
We are happy that you are here with us, that you enjoy with us and for our love and friendship
We opened our sim the 28^th of June and until now we payed

230.200 L$ for our sim, but thanks to your help we got
31.132 L$ for spots on our market and for our bows. My very special thank you to those that helped us, and donated for our sim:

26.576 L$ were kindly donated by

Bee,
Darren
Isalia
Neil
Ladda
Nessa
Alexx
Dina
Areba

thank you so much, dear friends and Sisters!

I m very very grateful

Larah Oh

bored on Gor? how to be a happy Kajira

You all know them and they are legion: Kajirae complaining about being bored.

The reason is that a multitude of people on Gor use the safe environment to test and to enter a submissive role without properly reflecting on the role itself. Education about the role, creativity, and making it a LIFESTYLE are the only lasting ways to shape a stable Dominant/ submissive relationship.

The spiral

It all starts with the descent into submission…what I call the spiral: Spiralling into less and less freedom is a thrilling event for submissives, so the descent into submission starts eventful enough.

However, after some amount of freedom is removed from the sub, a halt in the spiral causes the heated atmosphere to cool down and the submissive reconsiders…depending on the inclination but also on the personal creativity, the submissive suffers because of the limitations of the new situation. That is not bad, it can promote creativity.

Some submissives seek to spiral further into more abusive or restrictive situations to enjoy the spiral again. However every spiral has its end: One day there will be no more abusiveness or no more restriction possible.

The drawback of spiralling far is the loss in creative possibilities to maintain a role that still remains interesting for the Domme, eg someone who is entirely muted, deaf, blind and immobile has lost most ways to raise any interest in continuing that relationship.

That is the end of the spiral.

Dom and sub will be BORED

What ways do exist in continuing a Dominant/ submissive relationship?

1. Seeking the next spiral.

Subs may leave the spiral then and enter another, or they will leave entirely, disappointed with the situation. Entering another spiral is however not rewarding in the long run, it’s a repetition of things that have been. I went to Pandora and had a peek, surprised I know names there: It’s a spiralling of Goreans that sometimes takes its continuation there.

2. Variations

Bondage situations DO demand a degree of patience of the submissive, even if that is not hard while spiralling. Depending on the nature of the submissive and the creativity of the Domme AND the sub there is a multitude of variations in enjoying each other which can be rewarding for both partners for quite a long time.

3. Aiming for rl

Our very LIVES are roles! use your sl and work on it. If it does not work in sl, it won t in rl, that much is for sure. If your hero is boring in sl, asking for rl all the time I can assure you he will be boring in rl too, asking for another thrill: Dump him.

However I am sorry to say: What works on sl not always works in rl. Be realistic in your expectations: You fell in love with the superhero? Once you move to rl your gorean superhero may be the bald chubby postman living next door: if you took him for his looks you lost. If you took him for his character and for his way to love you, you won t mind and will be the happiest girl in the world!

3. Entering a long lasting relationship

However even varying the theme will not carry a relationship on forever:

There is more needed to make the Dominant/ Submissive relationship to last. Daily life will not be a neverending chain of thrills, Dom and sub get used to their lifestyle, they accept their role and love each other. With the exception of occasional bedroom/ dungeon adventures and larger differences in the roles these partners take there is no real difference to any vanilla relationship from an observers’ point of view.

However, it’s the differences in the roles the partners take in daily life that makes a long lasting Dominant/ submissive relationship rewarding for both: Our modern lives impose more restrictions on us than we are aware of. It is expected of every adult citizen that they take their lives into their hands and that they take responsibility. The desire to be protected, cared for…the desire to be cherished and to be loved, the desire to be admired, pampered, the desire to feel SAFE are easily forgotten.

Both Dom and sub experience their relationship as ‘safer’ than a vanilla relationship, as the visual bonds create the emotion of keeping safe and of being safe, the sub feels cared for in bondage, the dom feels cared for in admiration and in focusing the love of the sub.

There is more to a Dominant/ submissive relationship than only that, but these points can’t be emphasized enough:

Being submissive does NOT mean to be passive! Being Dominant does NOT mean that the bound submissive can be neglected.

Since most partners are not really conscious about the mechanics of their relationship too many of them end prematurely and with disappointment, which is a pity.

It is the very first duty of the sub to be THERE for the Dom, to be seducing, entertaining, loving, caring, admiring, and working hard to make life for the Dom as pleasant as possible.

And it is the very first duty of the Dom to recognize the driving and lasting elements of the relationship: A passive sub is a boring sub! Make her MOVE, make her ACTIVE, make her to come up with ideas and push her into being creative, let her take part in your life and let her be supportive. A well trained sub will not only lift your status: Imagine a polititian without a supportive wife! (that does not mean that polititians wives were subs, but she is quite often good in her role, and she DOES help her husband to be successful: Admiration is contagious!!).

She will also be there for you in good and in bad times, she will be around to organize the party for your victories, she will be around to care for your wounds and grievances when you lose. She will help you to make friends and allies, she will organize your daily life and keep your household, she will take care of a multitude of tasks just to make things easier for you, she will not bother you when you need to focus on your next step and she will be there for you and in your arms when you enjoy what you achieved.

submissiveness is focusing on what used to be defined as the FEMALE role. Its what we miss in our modern society where we are only accepted as equals in male roles: We miss being accepted as equals in our femaleness.

Generally there is no large difference of a Dominant/ submissive relationship to any other: It’s just the symbolisms and it’s the part behind the closed bedroom doors that is different.

All these bedroom games, pain, humiliation, bondage, restriction of various forms are expressions of sexuality. They may be fun and be vital part of a relationship. But they are not THE relationship. Never forget that. It was my Partner who taught me that.

Now why enter a Dominant/ submissive relationship at all if there is so much emphasis on the similarities to vanilla?

Because it’s much more rewarding: The wealth of strong emotions, the number of variations are without comparison. The well defined roles of the partners can make the relationship stable and happy. But don t set your expectations too high: Our sexuality is not our life, its just part of it.

Just remember to avoid the trap: A dominant/ submissive relationship is NOT an Active /passive relationship! CREATE your roles, make it FIT to who you really are, be honest with yourself and your partner, talk!

And again, we are vanilla: Who mows the lawn? NOT! ME! who washes the dishes?...sighs…ok,ok…I will…eeeps…

If you remember THAT always, I am positive that you will find love and joys beyond imagination in a bdsm related partnership!