By Care

While our chatters are the heart and soul of roleplay, rooms are what give their characters a place to become incarnate. Managing rooms can be a difficult but ultimately rewarding task, and each leader has taken their own road to the “top”. In this issue, Care introduces us to the softer side of sensual role-play!

This quarter, we are taking a look at a room new to Roleplay Evolution – Love is All, brought to you from the minds of Hippolyta and Veritas. Going into this interview, I was under the impression that there would be more sex in this room than there is. After speaking with both Hippolyta and Veritas, I learned differently, and it opened my eyes about this room in the Erotic Impulses section of the whochat. So take a read and learn for yourself – it’s a great experience!

Hello, and thank you, Hippolyta, for taking the time to do this Q&A with me.

Hippolyta: Oh, you are most welcome.

Let’s start with your room, Love is All. How did you get the idea for the room?

Hippolyta: Basically, Love is All was inspired by the Kushielverse books, written by Jacqueline Carey, but it is also an amalgam of some other fantasy novels, with a dash of history and our own flair as well. The idea came as I was re-reading the novels some months ago, and I went, “Oh, I want to do this.” But the world is a very rich one, so we needed to trim down on things a little.

Once you had the idea, how did you plan to implement it into a room?

Hippolyta: Well, I cannot say that we have a plan when we implement ideas into rooms, really. We do what we always do. We talk it out, get some basic ideas, then collaborate on the writing. Argue about the bits that need arguing. Cut out the bits that make things too complicated. Then we write again, and re-write until we have something that is easy to comprehend, and viewable.

Veritas: I usually remind her to keep things a bit simpler.

Hippolyta: Well, you are the one getting to do the blurbs and the simplifying, so it works out.

For those that haven’t read the series of books, what exactly is it all about?

Hippolyta: Oh, to explain what the series is about is rather a lot. They are a historical fantasy, set in a sort of renaissance France, where there is one tenet left by blessed Elua – Love as Thou Wilt. The first trilogy is about Phedre, who is an anguisette, and the story is that of her upbringing and her travels through this rich universe.

Would a roleplayer be able to envelope themselves in this universe without reading the series? If so, where would be a good place to start?

Hippolyta: Well, we have been inspired by the series, and lifted out the things that we like from it. So, basically, any player can go to our forum and read the information there, and that is enough to really get started in our roleplay. It is absolutely not required to have read the books, because our world is different one from the world of the books.

And what makes your room, erotic, as it is in the Erotic Impulses section of the whochat?

Veritas: The concept of love can mean many things, from the gentle love shared at the end of life by a long-time couple, to savage, violent sex experienced by two people joining in passing. We wanted to make sure that all potential possibilities could be captured by our roleplayers, so erotic seemed to be the best place it fit.

So even with the historical and fantasy part of the room, you still choose to put it in Erotic Impulses. Interesting.

Tell us, how is the roleplay going within your room? I know it’s only been on the whochat a few short months or so, but have you had any moments where you just went, “WTF?”

Hippolyta: The roleplay going on in the room is pretty much still in its infancy stages, where we are setting up the plot for the room and storylines to take place later. Since we ask our roleplayers in their character sheets to write up roleplay hooks – i.e. ways that might have them connect with other players and increase the chance of roleplay – we have plenty of different possibilities. I can’t say that we have had any real WTF moments, really. Not yet, at least.

Veritas: Yeah, we did. Eroticism isn’t just about fucking people in rooms, or sitting around talking about BDSM theories. It can be about a long, enjoying play, the kind of thing that maybe never involves calling someone a naughty word, or has more aspects of love rather than lust. And it can be the entire flipside of that. The room’s name says it all. Love is All. The setting is a unique way to bring people and characters together, but the apex of everything is the emotions those characters share. It absolutely belongs in this section, otherwise we would have placed it in another section.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I wasn’t trying to imply that it should be in another section. I just find these things interesting because there is a new spin on looking into what someone considers an erotic room. Thank you for the explanation and sharing of why you feel that way.

Veritas: Feel free to use any of that if it helps you make the point in the magazine.

Thank you. So when someone creates a character – I know you mentioned character sheets and a hook? You explained what a hook was, so can you share some of the hooks that have been created as of now?

Hippolyta: Well, in our character sheets, we ask for some roleplay hooks that can be read on every character sheet – it can be family relations, it can be the position the character has, it can be some piece of gossip about them – basically something that other characters might know about, and thereby interact use to with this character. We also ask for a secret roleplay hook, which is only known by the room leaders and the player of that character. We plan on utilizing those to build more storylines, and involve the characters. As for examples of character hooks – these were created for a commoner character of mine, who owns a tavern in the Lower Down (a slightly less good part of the city).

Like wine? Come to the Crow’s Nest!
Like brawls? Come to the Crow’s Nest!
Like gossip and rumours? Come to the Crow’s Nest!
Like beautiful women? Come to the Crow’s Nest!
Like a good meal? Come to the Crow’s Nest!
Don’t like any of the above? Come to the Crow’s Nest anyway!

I have to say, that is an interesting hook. Why the different take on character sheets compared to other rooms? Why did you decide as room owner and creators to have them submit this “hook” with their sheets?

Hippolyta: Because, why not? I like being different, and I like to try out new things that may or may not work out. We also thought that we might simplify things with having players filling out their hooks on the character sheet – it gives others an idea of how they may be related, or know one another. Plus, it makes the players think about roleplays where they might be introduced, perhaps even spark ideas.

That’s a good point, and actually something that interested me, hence why I choose your room for this quarter. Let’s get to the grit of it – could you give an example of a storyline going on right now? I know you said you are just setting up stories, but what is one storyline a roleplayer could get involved with?

Veritas: In the storyline, Love is All seems tranquil, but under the surface, the King’s rule is very unstable. There are rumours, after all, that there could be another child of the old king. An elder child. But nobody really knows who that is – it could be anyone. And a King who has whispers against him, some of the great noble houses may expect that he is hardly a proper King at all.

Hippolyta: There is also a smaller storyline initiated by one of our players, who will hold a fete at some point. For it, she has contracted courtesans from the Court of Night-Blooming Flowers, and several noblemen and women have been invited.

A fete? I’m not familiar with this word. What exactly is that?

Hippolyta: Oh, it is an elaborate party, basically.

Oh, that’s pretty neat! Thank you for that. So is there anything you would like to pass on to the readers, maybe even future roleplayers?

Hippolyta: Well, basically, you do not have to be a well-versed reader of the books from which we fetched inspiration – all you need to do is to familiarize yourself with the information that we have posted on our board. Keep an open mind, because in our room, love is all.

I have to say thank you again, to both of you, for taking the time out of your roleplay and day to do this interview with me. Look for it in the next issue of the ReVo Periodical.

Hippolyta: You are very welcome. We are looking forward to the new issue!