Very well, I guess I shall be the first to post a response. I got my start while looking through Avatar fan sites. On Distant Horizon, I came across a RP site, and had no clue what the hell was going on. I read through their rules, and what not. Then I joined, and began RP'ing. The thing that keeps me going is the stories that can be made, I have an amazing imagination, and I use that to envision whatever I play. It totally kicks ass! I haven't considered quitting. Maybe, a few sites, but not role playing.

I've been RPing about a decade, almost eleven years now. Not all of them good, mind you, but that's how long I've known about role playing. I was very IM-speaky [fail! I know!] and I didn't know what godmodding was, and what not.

I got started RPing.. I dunno, actually. =3 I started roleplaying on a daily basis waaay back when Harry Potter first came out. I keep RPing because I love it.

Yeah, I've considered quitting before, when my life got hectic... but I just keep at it, because I love it so much I wouldn't be able to go without. =3

Hmm, well I've been pretending to be 18 in adult RP sites since I was about 9 years old. On and off of course, never actually a constant. Almost there now I guess, it's sort of weird to think about. I started because I friend got most of my 4th grade class onto a real-time rp site. Never really enjoyed that stuff much. I've always liked my characters with depth and personality. Anyways, back then it was all about fantasy and vampires, with the occasional Japanophile who you put up with, at least in my circles.

Then Naruto came, and with it, the end of the world...of rping.

About two years or so. It's been quite a wild ride so far. My first board was a FF (Final Fantasy) site called Dracanis. Eventually, as time went on, I got better. Although I've left the site. (It's been overrun by porn bots.) it still holds a place in my heart. It was there I learned that I am a Canon Hunter (Someone who obsesses over beating the snot out of canons). Wierd, I know, but I just can't help it.

Anyways, over the past two years, I've grown quite a bit. My first guy SUCKED and was pretty much a Stu. >_> Get it out of your system, I bet your first one was too. But over time I got better, to the point where my characters were quite believable. Heck, Akumu Kuroranpu here scored a 7 on the Mary-Sue litmus test!

But over time, I eventually found my way to several sites. The first was a Bleach, then an Inuyasha (Killed Sesshomaru. XD), then another Final Fantasy (Took out Cloud, Sephiroth, Jecht, Kefka, Tidus, and others). There's also been a Wolf's Rain site, a Lord of the Rings. Mainly... it's been really fun.

One thing it's mainly done for me is... fix my English. Before, I'd talk in text-speak (u, r, w8, etc.) It went so far as to make me spell out my words on a text message, but I digress...

Oh lawd, this question tickles me in fancy ways that if I was tickled in this way, I'd say "Oh yeah, that's the spot."

I've been role playing for a looong time. I started role playing before I knew what role playing was - I first role played in a game called The Realm (now known as The Realm Online) and continued role playing in Everquest and Starcraft on Battle.net. Here I am now.

I'd say I grew very slowly as a role player, as I've seen folks that compare to me in role play skill who are fresh off the block for only months. I guess it has to do with what kind of role players and writers you surround yourself with.

EDIT: Oh hell I'll elaborate on this.

When I began role playing I didn't see anyone else doing it for maybe a year or two. I did it myself, role playing with people who didn't have the faintest idea why I insisted on acting like my character and why I seemed to neglect ever speaking of my real life self. It was in Starcraft I first began doing it with other people and knowledgeably so - some Star Wars RP I think. AMATEUR HOUR when I look back on it, lots of god-moding, but we got a long well.

In any case I've never, ever considered quitting, and haven't ever spent longer than a month just not doing it - if I stop in one place I start in another. I never really thought about how much I do it until right about now. Strange, I wonder if it's a negative thing.

In any case nothing keeps me doing it or from doing it but preference. I am an exceptionally fast writer, I can churn out posts in minutes and they'll still come out on par with my peers. So, maybe that's why I have rped so long - no matter how busy I am, I can throw down posts nowadays.

TARP was my very first RP. And I've been here for about 2 years? Saami was my first OC. She didn't have much substance but over the years I've given her and her brother a bit more and they've just grown and changed. And they are by far my favorite characters to work with.

And ever since joining here, I've had a lot of different experience with a lot of different RPs. I ran my own site. I think by far my most favorite form of rping is real time rping and logging. Really helps with getting inside your character's head.

The current RP I run, Family Affair, is a journal based/real time rp. I love it a lot. And because our group is so small, I play all of the characters in my signature as well as a bunch of NPCs. Most recently I've gotten some experience being Ozai. That coupled with playing Azula, makes being heartless and cruel come pretty easily.

Quitting has never once crossed my mind. I think I'll always rp in some form or another, be it on a forum, in a chatroom, or over AIM. It's great fun.

I didn't know what RPG was when I got to TARP. I was the biggest newb you will ever meet. Well, the biggest n00b who had English as her first language. >.< I failed. I struggled to get 300 character RP posts. Then, I was happy if I made it to 1K, later on. However, I grew, as people diligently suffered my evil posts (Fu-Ling, Yoshiro, Yan, when he was here. Joychi and Dereni, too). They helped me, as have all my RP partners, to do my very best. Chiye, Oyushi, Kai Katashi, even new partners, like Katsuo. Amala, Roax, Kame-chan, Honoo, the admins, everyone.

And look at me now. I own Katara. *cackles evilly*

Speaking of which, I should probably go do the prompt Kaoru gave me. >.>

Well, lessee... I got to RP'ing in a very roundabout way. And it was sparked off by Starcraft, of all things. I frequented starcraft.org a lot back then, and from there, eventually wandered over into warboards.org, which served the wider Blizzard game community. One of the forums on that board was set aside for general RP'ing - no set theme, just standalone RP threads. I tried a few of those, but after they dissolved in a rather lacklustre fashion, I decided I should find something with a bit more staying power. I'd rekindled my interest in Zoids at the time, so I eventually wandered onto MetalMachineMusic (don't know if anyone here's heard of that - yes? no? maybe?), however, in a display of amazing timing, I arrived at the site a year before it closed down (and for six months of those I was inactive because I didn't have AIM...). From there, I hung around a pokemon RP site for a while, and then a few months before the end of last year, I was introduced to Avatar. I'd vaguely heard of the series, but never been interested, assuming that because it was on Nickelodeon, it would be a gaudy, sub-quailty program for 7-year-olds that wouldn't catch my interest.

Well, we live and learn, don't we?

After watching the first 2 and a half seasons (finishing just as Zuko joins the Avatar! Waauuggh!) I thought to myself "Y'know, this series has a very well defined mythos and world - I reckon there's some quality RP's out there based around it". And of course, what's the first thing to pop up on Google when you type "avatar rp"?....

So yeah, haven't been RP'ing that long, a year and a half at most altogether. Don't know how much longer I'll keep at it, but I expect it to be a while - the escapism of RP'ing emotional characters is just too hard to resist. ;D

I've been RPing for... I believe it's seven years now. I started when I was 8, it was a total coincidence really. I had been with one of my friends at the pool, and she asked me if I wanted to go to this building with her to play a game. That sounds sorta sketchy, but I can't remember her exact words. Anyway, I agreed. At that age, my friend and I always played dress up with things in her closet because her mother ran a theater, and we always made up elaborate stories. She told me it was sort of like that, so I went. It turned out to be a D&D game, which I'd never heard of. It was at a youth organization dedicated to using RP's to get children to socialize and gain skills. I still remember, the group was in some weird abandoned town, with huge caterpillars chasing them and one of them got stuck in a gelatinous cube. XP I agreed to come again next week and make a character, a Druid for those that care, and I haven't looked back since. It was only around a year ago that I found online text based RPing. I was sort of shocked, but I had been really sick and out of school so I joined a few sites thinking that I'd get bored and leave after a few days. Instead I stuck with it, playing all manner or RPG's.

I'm still RPing because I enjoy the interaction, I love making characters and giving them substance. Role playing allows me to step away from the person I am, and effectively be anything in the world. And other people accept that and are just as obsessed with it as I am. That's what keeps me RPing. As for quiting, nope. I've never thought of it. I've taken breaks, but I always knew I'd come back to it one way or another.

For anyone who would like information on the youth organization I mentioned, feel free to PM me. Yes, this is shameless advertising. ^___^

haha two years... maybe one. I can't remember. I got a good start by RPing with a dude who used to play Dungeons and Dragons, so I caught on really quickly.

I started liking Avatar in January 2008, and still have to watched any of season I [surely the plot of this site is far beyond that though... besides, I have a basic Idea of what happened and, meh, big explanation. I'll worry about it later.]

Anyhoot, RPing... I never really got into an RP site, so even after my 1-2 years of RPing, this is the first actual RP site that I hope I'll be able to take off with, 'coz I've liked RPing since I first got into it. So yeh, this is in essence my first RP site I've joined, so I guess I've just got my fingers crossed that I won't screw something up... =3

~Tenoko~

Well, this is my first year as an RPer. That being the case, I know what I'm doing. xD

I'm in college and if I can write a 255 page book and have it pass my teacher's excruciatingly picky editing process... I think I can write 500 characters/words minimum worth of posts and have it make sense.

I got started RP'ing somewhere around nine years ago, on an couple ancient Parachats, Chara21's and Ace Digimon's. They've long since emptied out, but I can actually remember the old days well. At first I used T2, which is basically a speed style used in chats. With T2, you post a seven word attack, then try to put in a ten word 'hit animation' before the victim can get off his parry. If you have more than about three typos, your attack auto-fails. So I got good at typing real fast pretty quickly, I didn't get good at the description until I moved onto forums and grew up a little.

My first forum was the Final Fantasy Lounge, where I became a mod of the RP Arena in the first few months. Looking back on it now, I was godawful and I know that. But during my time there I met a couple godly RP'ers, and by godly I mean their characters were gods. So I got to follow them around through a few sites when FFL went down, I believe the next incarnation was RPL, then FFW, or something like that. Basically twenty or so sites using acronyms of three or four words.

Over the years I learned that the true focus of RP'ing should be character development and interaction, over description and flash. I pride each one of my characters on being their own unique personalities, and some have actually grown with me. One of my characters was once a black cat, an imaginary friend I used as a defense mechanism as a child. Another was once a knight, as in the little horse used atop a Chess Set, since I was a dirt-poor child.

I keep RP'ing cause I like it, and though I've taken a year-long break or two, I never really left it behind. Above all, I enjoy weaving plots with twists and turns, and if I can complete a plot I'm working on here, I'd like to turn it into a full-length fic.

Lol you all make me look like a little newbie! =P I've only been rping for about two years now. I started on a small inheritance site, I had no clue what I was doing though. =/ Yeah for a while I failed around there, but theyn one I realized what I was really supposed to be doing, I left because I was pretty ashamed. Yeah, so then I went to a number of sites, and didn't really get much better at writing. Then after one of the hp sites I was rping on died I decided to retire as an rper because I wasn't very good at it, and had 'more important things'

As you can probably tell a little bit later I decided that I really did like rping and wanted to come back. At this time I created the Pseudonym; Volcon on another inheritance site. After that I just sorta stuck around there and got better and better at what I did. I did join a few other sites occasionally at that time, but they all died. On that site I learned how to write fairly well.

Later I joined a site where I met the two most influencial people in my rise to becoming an rper. They taught me how to write better, longer, and faster. They were some of the best people I have ever rped with, and even now when the site we rped on died we still keep really good friendships. Recently I joined a starwars site that I really like and have been activly rping in. Then I joined this site =) And here we are. I'm sorry if you've just wasted a few seconds of you life. =P

I've been rping for about 2 years now. And I'm rping with the pros... I started on NarutoC, a great little site that still up on the phpBoards. I keep rping becaue I like creating. As a senior in high school, its time to look at what I wanna do when I grow up, HARD!

I wanna be a cartoonist, so I'm gonna keep rping til my mind is devoid of crazy, explosive ideas and I can calm down and really have the experience to create.

I started RPing about a decade ago, starting with table top games like D&D. Yeah, I know, I was totally awesome back in 1998. I played D&D as well as AD&D (should I not use acronyms? Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, respectively). I started roleplaying online using AIM system and chat rooms that had built-in coded programs to help the players roll dice, and I'm not afraid to admit that I have little-to-no experience with roleplaying fights or battles without the help of dice. I'm just so used to that system! I plan to make use of this board's RPG school to help me with that, actually.

What keeps me roleplaying? Well, I enjoy it, I guess. I've always been given to flights of fancy and writing stories, or "playing pretend". I know I've also said it elsewhere on this site, but another thing that keeps me roleplaying is the challenge it provides me as a writer. I definitely think writing with other people in story-form RPGs helps test my boundaries! That kind of writing experience is invaluable; as invaluable as a good crit group, in fact.

During 2006 and 2007 I almost quit roleplaying due to time constraints, travel, and lack of the internet. I got a little busy protesting and earning a degree to pay for internet service or find time to be online, but once my life calmed down a little, I found I really missed it. Coming to this site really marks a return to RPGs for me, as I have not been very active with them in some time. I have RP partners from various games that I keep in touch with (and/or couch surfed with, during travels!), and we keep ongoing games using services like googledocs — but other than that, this will be my first game in a long time.

Joychi, I think those of us who were actually around back then can testify - yes, you were one of the worst newbies we've ever had, if not the worst. Granted, that was partly - if not mostly - due to the fact that you didn't speak English very well when you joined. Now, though - and I'm being honest when I say this - you do write as well as we do, and since English isn't even your first language, well... that means a great deal.