Would you believe I actually use RPGs to practice conversational English over here? (I see that I get a cute flag so you all know where here is.) RPG language class is pretty labour intensive for me the native – like a normal lesson plan built on a theme but with characterizations and some armchair theatre. People get into it and participate so I do not have to worry about no shows, besides billing is in advance! The preparation allows for lots of flexibility at game level but there is alot of preparation. Because it is practicing language, the game is not: “ok, you see the orc. How many squares do you want to move?”

I started with the original in Canada: AD&D 1st ed. I have played a few but I am more of a Cyberpunk2020 fan than anything else. I use both depending on the language group.

But, I am tired of being a “GM for language practice preparations” and I was thinking I might look for some other native speakers in this city who would be up for a game. And I found you.

BTW, I can pronounce your name. And my computer already has a cookie from you.

Yep, we’re 6 people in 5 different Norwegian cities- We’re playing live over Skype (almost) every Wednesday evening, as long as at least four of us can “get there”.

Ars Magica revolves around a troupe of characters, each player controlling one Mage – and possibly a companion (Hero) and/or a group of “normal” people.

Not every character is in every story; those who are not in the action is updated between play sessions. Mages study, others train, work or otherwise occupies themselves. This also yield experience.

I’ll try and elaborate in a blog post :)

I keep hearing praise being heaped on Ars Magica. I will need to try it at some point. :)

I’m amazed the online thing works for you. I’ve been in a few groups that broke up due to logistics (people moved, spawned offspring or simply could not commit to a weekly or bi-weekly sessions). Every time we tried to move the game online, in some sort of play by mail/forum format and each time we have failed miserably.

Do you actually use the voice chat feature of Skype and play it “live”?

Well, I don’t… OK, I do. I started with AD&D 2nd ed.(English) back in 92 or 93 or something. I’ve been through a lot of systems since then, but the highlights are the real Star Wars (D6 system), GURPS and Ars Magica (By Atlas Games) – since around 95 or so.

I’m still playing Ars Magica – 5th ed. now. It is great for role-playing, stories and continuity. We’re mostly playing in the same group, using Skype and a wiki, sharing the role of Storyteller.

Great to hear that. The site does seem speedier, but I don’t think this is anything that I did. Perhaps Dreamhost finally got their shit together.

I disagree about the front page. While it is still a bit slow, it’s nowhere near as slow as it used to be. It used to take at least a minute to load, now it takes 12 seconds (I timed it :P)

Also, I have no clue about the speed increase. My guess is that Dreamhost rebooted the server and the load didn’t skyrocket yet or something.

Or maybe they did something to improve their infrastructure/load balancing. The front page still loads pretty slow, but individual post pages seem a tiny bit faster. Go figure.

Heh, in Polish neither Dungeons (Lochy) nor Dragons (Smoki) start with a D so I believe the original name was kept in in the Polish D&D related releases. :P

Interesting sidenote; D&D translated to Swedish is actually Dragons&Demons, because Dungeons doesn’t start with a D in Swedish.

Also, Luke, has your site gotten faster? Used to take about a minute or two to load, now it takes ten seconds.

Wow, interesting. I guess it is fair to say that most of Europe was playing WFRP then. I believe it was big in Germany too (or so I’ve heard) and England of course (where it was created).

Interestingly enough in US it was never anything more than a tiny blip on the radar. D&D seems to still be dominant and it never seemed to “go out of style”. Go figure.

Chthulhu and Shadowrun were also huge in Poland. So was most of the World of Darkness line – especially Warewolf for some reason.

Earthdawn was becoming popular around the time I was leaving the country – possibly because of the huge marketing push and hype that preceded it’s Polish release.