New Chronicle, New Character

The Isles of Darkness are currently in 'Reset', and my home game is forging a path for others by play-testing the new system. Consequently I have a brand new character! Yay!

So, meet Gemma Lucille Murtagh:

Gemma Lucille Murtagh is 5ft 6, with short grey hair and strikingly dark eyes. She wears finely tailored suits or 'posh frocks' and seems to take great pride in her appearance. Her favourite colours seem to be grey and pink. Those who have the skill to notice such things will observe that her jewellery is all 'real', even though some of it looks more like tasteless 'bling'. 

Gemma Lucille Murtagh purports to be the CEO of a company called 'MW Logistics', advertising services in the fields of 'Transport, Personnel and Financing'. She seems to have a lot of confidence in her own abilities and those of her company and is keen to promote her business. 

Gemma claims to have only recently returned to Manchester from Eastern Europe. If you pursue this it quickly becomes clear that she has a good grasp on current political situations in the area. 

In conversation, Gemma regularly refers to her 'partner', Srebrenka Dragutin, though it's not clear what sort of partnership they share, unless you enquire further. She makes frequent use of her phone; she seems to have a lot of friends and contacts, and is always delighted to make new acquaintances and exchange contact details with people. 

The setting for the new Chronicle is a post-civil war era. After terrible losses, the Kindred are starting to look for peace and stability.

In Manchester, the Prince is called Sloan, his Seneschal is Garrett. The city has a fairly balanced population, with the Crone, Carthians and Ordo Dracul all vying for eminence and control. A tentative peace has been established and the first Court proceeded calmly, with people warily exploring the situation.

Catfish

Watching 'Catfish' and pondering.  . .

I've been very lucky with my online relationships and the people I managed to fall in love with after knowing them online first. They have all, so far, proved to be at least 85% who and what they said they were. We had our own rules about online behaviours versus real life behaviours and in general stuck to those rules and got it all to work. I'm not still with any of these people, but I have met all but one of them in the flesh and we eventually parted friends.


It startled me at first, then, to learn that some people make up completely fake facebook identities and then have romantic and sexual lives with others via the internet, with 'real' people.

I'm not talking about people who lie about their marital status when online (I tend to assume a man is married if he is trying to talk with me sexually... sad and judgemental of me, I know, but based on experience).

I need to make it clear at this point that I am not talking about people who are transgendered or transitioning either, because using a a name that's the gender you feel you are isn't what I am talking about here. Nor am I talking about roleplaying characters online, because in that situation both parties KNOW that they are players acting out roles.

What I am talking about is people making up fake profiles . . . Let's say for example 'Lily' the budding pop star and Beauty Pageant competitior, . . . and then interacting online with people as this fake identity whilst never fessing up that Lily doesn't actually exist and is 'just words on a page'. . . Meanwhile, the person(s) they are talking to may have fallen in love with / proposed cohabitation to / asked to marry 'Lily'


As a roleplayer and BDSMer, I do kind of get it, but I also know the difference between 'IC' (In Character) and 'OOC' (out-of-character) and I try to keep those borders well patrolled.

My exception is the names (pseudonyms and nomme de plumes) I am known by online, but people generally know where the names fit in and why they are in use. The names are also false because I don't believe in giving my real personal details to faceless megacorps whose data security has already, several times, been proven to be too weak and not fit for purpose. That issue alone is enough to justify using 'pen names' online, for me! ;. . . Also, despite my relatively high vigilance when online, someone (non-malicious, thankfully) managed to discover my real name and location by back-tracking through my online presence after just a couple of days of chatting to me. I was able to close that particular loophole, mercifully (the heads up was much appreciated 'Tallulah', big hugs to you!), but took it for the 'warning from the Universe' I believe it was.


If you are 'playing' anyone right now, please stop. Many truly lonely and distraught people are more honest online than they feel they can be in their real lives (which is a whole 'nother issue) and by playing them you are embedding very real harm in their (already very hard) very real lives. It may not have started for you as anything more than 'a bit of fun', but leading someone on in the way described is a malicious act even though it's just an amusement for you.

Very Sad Announcement

It is with much sorrow that I have to report the death of one of the players of Shadows. The player made many important contributions to the game and it will be very hard continuing without him by my side at the table; he was my partner and friend. The character, Michael, will continue to exist in our game; we do this in the player's honour and because Michael is a crucial and integral part of the game, the party and the world of Shadows. Rest easy, my dear Adacanthian.

Who am I? #2

Okay, I am an adult and I play games with adult themes. Please don't click any of the links in this post if you have issues with characters who kill, who have sex with each other, who emote or who are LGBTQ, and all of whom are generally very human, despite some of them being vampires.

I am currently playing the following characters:

Elijah James Wood in the Isles of Darkness Requiem LARP. Elijah is a Nosferatu, a member of the Ordo Dracul. He is a forger, a fence, a Victorian reprobate, an Occultist and a Politico.

Tegan Wormwood (Tiwan) in the Isles of Darkness Requiem LARP. Tiwan is a Gangrel. She is in the Ordo Dracul. She is a lowly member of that esteemed body and is also the devoted Slave of Master Tallow of the Ordo Dracul. She aspires to be a Crimson Sworn Dragon when she grows up.

Keira Dubhglas in the Isles of Darkness Requiem LARP. Keira is an ancient Gangrel and a fervent worshipper of the Dark Goddess. Her hatred of the Lancea Sanctum knows no bounds.


Hattie Carroll (Kiwu-Ati-Menchit)in the IoD Troupe game in Manchester. Hattie is a bit of an enigma to people at present. She has a business which specialises in transporting fragile and valuable items around the world.


Lyle Ashley Tate over at the online soap, Redemption Reef. Lyle is an absolute sweetheart. He's a transguy on the run from some powerful enemies who want him dead. Mystery Island is his havan and his jail. All he wants is to complete his transformation into a guy and to find someone to give him love again.


Lilithai in Shadows. She's a human now. She sacrificed her alien genetics and her parents' planet for the greater good. Now she is the go-between for two of the Hopes and acting out the role of a Vadic Beautesque in order to gain intelligence on the Black Square, the military power built by Nathaniel whilst the rest of the party was off on their travels.


Ianto Harkness-Jones in an online AU. He has twins and a husband, and life was never more complicated than now.


John Watson in an online AU. Sherlock is back from the dead, but can John ever forgive him for three years spent believing the lie?


Gareth Jones in an online AU (Ianto Harkness-Jones' twin brother. See 'Double Trouble' by Jessie Blackwood for details). Gary Jones finally found the man of his dreams, and the man of his reality. Can he keep both?

Yes, I love romance, I love adventure, I love angst. Roleplay gaming gives me all three, I love it!

Latest Picture of Lyle Ashley Tate

This is the latest picture for Lyle Ashley Tate, my Redemption Reef character. Lyle is about to change his life once again, by accepting an offer he really can't refuse. The US Italian Mafia have been after him for eight years, and now the Russian Mafia, the Bratva, are looking at him for the murder of their man Henry Vale (though it was Flynn Atcher who killed the Bratva's mortician). In steos the mysterious 'Eidolon', a company that doesn't exist, but yet they have virtually unlimited resources and want to send Lyle, and his friends, to a private tropical island and have them participate in some sort of disaster relief effort for the storm-tossed natives.

To read more, head over to Redemption Reef. Third part of the story goes up this evening, 7pm GMT. It's HOT, so make sure you are over 18 and not likely to be offended or arrested for reading consensual M/M sex scenes! Click on the end tab to get to the story posts.

Time for an Update I Guess

I'm still playing with the Isles of Darkness (was Camarilla UK). We have two games running in Manchester, one which is part of the National continuity and the other which is single-city based. I'm still playing my Nosferatu, Elijah, in the National game and am playing Sister Oblongata in the single-city (Troupe) game.

Sister Oblongata (aka Sister 'O') is a Lancea Sanctum Mekhet. She's a and former nun who now runs a brothel and acts as the (Lancea) Cardinal of Salford's private secretary.


'Shadows' is still running too and I am still playing Lilithai. We are, according to our GM, in the penultimate scenario now. The game will be taking a break shortly as one of the players is going abroad for an extended period, but will resume later in the year when she gets back, and hopefully we will manage to save the world then!


I've been participating in the Haven Falls online Gay Romance rpg too, and loving it. My characters there are Lyle Ashley Tate (trainee undertaker)and Mike Romano(Nightclub Security Chief and Bodyguard).


The 'Torchlight' online rpg has stalled presently but I am still hoping it may yet be resurrected as I have lots of tales to tell for my characters there. Otherwise fanfiction may benefit from their existence instead (AU).

I'm probably also going to start playing in a Fourth Edition (Essentials?) D&D game next week. Character for this is yet TBA.

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Haven Falls

I'm participating in the Haven Falls online RPG at present. I have two characters, Lyle Ashley Tate and Mike Romano. It's a great project, designed by Remmy Duchene as a way for authors of M/M erotica to say thanks to their readers by offering a free-to-read prose based soap opera. The players are nearly all published authors, many from DreamSpinner Press or Loose Id.

Lyle is a mortician, a female-to-male transexual (Transman)and a Brit abroad. Mike is an ex-cop, bodyguard, and Chief of Security at the Renegade Steele nightclub in Haven Falls.

Haven Falls is a beautiful town filled with beautiful people, all of whom have secrets. There's a more than normal amount of gay and bisexual men and women living there, all of them looking for Love, or at least hot sex. It's an Adult website, not surprisingly.

Haven Falls