What is Valucre?

Valucre is a play-by-post roleplaying forum. What does this mean exactly? It means that one "plays a role", primarily but not solely through the perspective of a single character (some play a number of characters, such as armies and battalions, some play out the passage of setting).

The "game" of roleplaying here is that you play a character, having thought out their personal history, personality, attitudes/perspectives/biases, and the content of your writing will be that character's reaction to other characters, to settings, detailing their emotions and personal growth, making new relationships with the characters played by other people. One can have the character move through political office, acquire unique weaponry and armor, or maybe their life is already too full of mystery and intrigue and they open up a café.

These are the factors that make up our game. In all honesty, it's pretty fun. Some people consider the act of roleplaying to be pretty nerdy, and rightly so. The elements that run rampant on any roleplay message board can be found in media that, for a long time, appealed to a very small niche. From the elves and dragons of D&D and DragonLance to the spaceships and lightsabers of Star Wars and Starship Troopers and everywhere in-between.

These things, their parallels, and their constant reference by people like Urkel and the cast of Revenge of the Nerds has caused some roleplayers to consider roleplaying a dirty little secret. They're cool and not at all nerdy in their day to day life, so they don't want to fess up to the love of writing.

For the purposes of something easily defined, I'd like to use boxing as an example. Consider the gang of childhood friends that like to go to the local gym, put on the gloves every now and then and mess each other up for the hell of it. Fine and dandy. Now consider the boxer that trains at the gym every day and competes constantly in amateur circuits. Both are boxers but one engages in the act as a transient hobbyist while the other dedicates him or herself to honing the craft.

I'll refer to one as "rpers" and the other as "roleplayers", the first being your leisurely hobbyists and the other being the committed enthusiast.

RPers are welcome by the bus load. Valucre is the gym and the doors are open to any and all. But it is important to know that Valucre is here for the roleplayers, for the people that want to flourish, that want to sweat and flex their brain in connecting storylines, making plots, testing the limits of your characters, refining your writing skills, and taking part in the closest thing to immediate satisfaction that one can achieve in the literary realm.