I haven't been able to roleplay in years, tho I keep up on systems and stuff and constantly try to set something up irl or online (using maptool for instance)... but nothing come of them...
I too started in dnd, however it is not my favourite... I find it too limiting and number crunching, depending the the DM and players your playing with... I have a soft spot on my heart for everything Iron Crown Enterprise related, (Rolemaster, Middle Earth Role Playing, or High Adventure Role Playing) mainly because their source material is amazing... For GM's (DM's to u dnders) I enterely suggest the book "GM's Law"... which is about 75 pages of system inspecific gold for creating, understanding, and running your games.. from story design, to helping players get the most out of their games... it's a great read...
Lately I have gone over to the FUDGE side of things, for I find it's all encompassing qualities quite interesting.. I'm specifically working with the system called FATE, which has a number of cool features I really like.. one of which is character creation.. in which you actually design your characters background, not pick skills.. in the end your skills come from the background you choose, which is built as a basis of the storyline the GM creates.. it all fits, it all works, and it is so much more then choosing what type of character you want to play.
[haha i went on a rant here.. but i'm thinking of making a blog entry on it.. so stay tuned]
Mapping to me is a passion... I believe my love of maps started with all those juicy fold-outs and such that come when you buy a game.. but my passion really flowered when I started taking GIS in highschool... Seeing first hand the stuff you can do with information blows my mind.. the analysis that you can do with results like the flow of rivers, the best habitat for a specific species based on it's shade requirements, grade, soil, distance from civilization... not to mention remote senseing blows my mind.. and honestly makes me want to create a world using such advanced tools... the data and methods are lacking when it comes to fantasy mapping.. but i believe that one day.. people like waldronate (creator of Wilbur) and many others (many of em here) will end up creating a series of tools that will make it possible to create a world randomly based on a big bang.. create the topography, extrapolate climates, place wildlife and resources and settle cities all in a plausibly sound way... It'd be amazing i tell you.. and I look forward to that day.
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