I have had a lot of questions on how to roleplay on IRC, so I have created this
"guidebook" to help out my readers on how to start from the beginning and get to
the actual role-playing aspect of the job.
- What is IRC and where can I get it?
- Ok I have an IRC client, what do I need to get into a game?
- I have a character, now where can I find a game?
1. What is IRC and where can I get it?
IRC which is short for Internet Relay Chat, is a method of communicating with people in
almost real time. Several clients exist which allow you to chat on IRC servers and
typically are designed to be easy to use for people new to IRC. Some IRC clients
that you can use are: mIRC, XiRCON, and Microsoft
Chat. How these clients work is they allow you to log onto an IRC server and
then join chat channels when you connect. Some of the more popular chat servers that
I know of are: DAL.net, EFnet, and Undernet. Once you log onto an IRC server you can
then select a channel that interests you.
2. Ok I have an IRC client, what do I need to get into a game?
The first and most important item that you need is time. Many IRC roleplaying
games are long and may span several hours for a few days. It is important to note that
when you are getting involved with a group that you have to respect each of your fellow
players. Each person is giving up some of their time for you to play in this game.
If you or they can't make a gaming session or if someone leaves too early it
is possible that the game is ruined for everybody.
The second item you will need is a character, or at the very least an idea of what you
will want your character to be able to do: Such as cast spells, sneak around in dark
places, pick pockets, weld a giant sword with super strength while charging into glorious
battle againist a dragon, etc. There are a few DMs/GMs (Dungeon Master / Game
Master) that will accept people not familar with game rules and will teach an eager
newcomer, this is not always the case. This is the point where if you haven't already, you
might want to consider investing in some roleplaying books to ease the confusion you may
face. If possible though create as much of a character as you can. Type up
your character on your computer, in a text file if you can, and put as much detail in as
you can. I have a really basic sample AD&D character here so you can get a
rough idea of what you might need for a character.
3. I have a character, now where can I find a game?
Now this is where it starts getting tough. Since I am familar with DAL.net I can
point you to towards places that I know about, and other methods of getting the
information that you might be able to use. First this website has a list of games
that take place in the channel #Rpgs! you can check to see if you would be interested in a
game listed there here.
One other channel that I know people can find games at is #AD&D. Other than
that, your IRC client should support a command called /list which will list all the
channels on a particular server and the topics / descriptions associated with the channel.
Through that you should be able to find some games to play in. Also you
can try searching the internet for games. Using this search: +IRC
+RPG should get you a fairly good list of websites devoted to IRC gaming.
Well that's all I have for now. I welcome your comments, suggestions, and
additions to this literary work and you can email me with them here. Good luck in your
pursuit for IRC roleplaying games, and who knows I just might stand side by side with one
of your characters someday.
Magestar
Roleplaying on IRC