Originally written by qDot for mmorgy.com
Note: This article was written by a guest author, John Evans. He
can be reached by email at jevans at alum dawt mit dawt edu (Yeah,
you have to type it in, I'm not gonna cause a guest writer spam
problems).
With all the talk about upcoming 3D sex games, it may be worthwhile to
take a look at some of the more low-tech sex play environments that
are being used right now. IRC is a text-based medium that has been
in use for some years. Windows users can access it with an IRC program
like mIRC. There are a multitude of sex
channels on servers around the world, but some are more elaborate than
just venues for chatting with random strangers.
Legends of Belariath is one such site. Often
called The Lonely Inn or TLI after the virtual establishment where
most of the activity happens, Legends of Belariath combines a website
with an established IRC channel. Registration is required to read most
of the webpages, but it's free. The site provides the setting and
rules for roleplay on IRC, as well as a forum for non-realtime
interactions. The real point, however, is the IRC channel.
Belariath itself is a fantasy setting that borrows heavily from many
of the standard sources. Players create characters from a possible 27
races, including elves, dark elves, trolls, goblins and centaurs as
well as a few less traditional offerings like cat people, wolven and
vulpines. And of course each character has a class--fighter, mage,
bard and so forth. All these characters meet and interact with each
other in a medieval town. And by interact, I of course mean have
sex.
Yes, as was probably evident from the location of this article,
Belariath focuses on sexual roleplay. It is heavily focused on D/s and
slavery play, at least in theory; reading the rules on the website
will give the impression that the vast majority of sexual interaction
occurs between master and slave. In practice, however, the channel
acts like a fantasy singles bar. Slavery is a vital part of the
setting, though not all characters participate in it.
Aside from describing buildings and races, the rules provide a combat
system. Players are encouraged to roleplay out combat, which makes for
situations where the lowliest newbie can defeat the highest level
veteran, if the players agree. The key here is out-of-character
(OOC) consent. A player must agree to anything that happens to
their character. Rape and forced enslavement happen, but only
because the players want it to happen. This allows hardcore rape and
D/s roleplay, but it has another interesting effect; people can
participate in whatever type of activity they wish, without fear of
being forced to go beyond their comfort zones. (Of course, even if you
don't want to participate in rape roleplay, you may have to put up
with rapes happening a few tables over in the bar...)
In addition to the freeform combat rules, Belariath also provides
dice-based combat systems for resolution of fights. Dice-based means
stats, and every character has them. Characters rise in level by
gaining experience, but the exact methods of gaining experience are
kept secret as one means of guarding against abuse. It is known,
however, that experience can't be gained without roleplaying in the
main channels. This encourages all the activity to happen within the
channels and not in private messages. On a busy night there can be
half a dozen sexual encounters taking place within the Inn, so it can
be a busy place.
There are a lot of people who enjoy Belariath and take it fairly
seriously, roleplaying there on a regular basis. The IRC posts are
often very long and descriptive. Of course, IRC posts have a maximum
of about five lines, but enterprising roleplayers have worked up cut
scripts that automatically chop extra-long utterances into several
posts. They see a lot of use in Belariath, and several examples can be
found in the Public Service sub-forum.
In summary, if you're interested in seeing troll women rape cat men,
Belariath is the place for you. You can't speak in the channels or
read the website without registering a character, but you can stop
in and watch. Just set your IRC program to irc.sorcery.net and
look for a channel named #The_Lonely_Inn. Perhaps you'll even wind
up with a slave yourself...
