h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

just wanted to stop by and say hi if you wish to talk about anything then opti is the name

Hello Opti!

(Does that greeting look familiar? It should, because I just wrote the same thing at the beginning of a reply to a message you left me on my normal home page. A message about tv...)

You see, Asteroid Bill is a character I developed to use in an adventure I'm taking part in. Underneath Asteroid Bill's mask is the real researcher.

ah ha you are .... ? sorry forgotten your other name but know exactly who you are how comes you have 2 names? does this man I'm in your adventure too now? I think I'm getting to like this researcher

Actually, I have quite a few accounts on h2g2. One account was created for a pantomime that a bunch of us were participating in. This started around last christmas when someone was talking about the pantomime tradition in the UK. It seems that around christmas, people get together to act out a story - usually involving nursury rhyme characters. Men play the women characters and vice versa, and the audience participates by hollering comments along the way. It sounded like lots of fun, so we decided to do one on h2g2. So, we all created new accounts for the characters we invented and were playing. None of us knew who was playing who. It's been great fun and we are actually nearing the end of it.

Other characters I have developed have been for virtual adventures. The adventure that this character is playing in involves the disappearance of one of our friends - Afgncaap5 (aka Affy). A bunch of us have set out to find him and have linked up with a bunch of villians who are staging a jail break from a prison on an asteroid. I decided to create a character who actually IS the asteroid and I will influence events as I see fit.

Basically, it is roll-playing. You create a character with specific qualities and attributes and you then post as if you were that character. If you follow the conversation link on my page to "The Dungeon", you will find the group of us who have linked up with the villians and are currently flying in a castle towards the prison asteroid. If you follow the link to "Primary bridge", you get to the prison itself. In both places, Afgncaap5 is posting for the villian characters, not as himself - we're still searching for him. In this case, he didn't create new accounts for all the villian characters. I created a new account for this asteroid character, since I had intended for it not be known who was behind the character. Unfortunately, I goofed on my first post and posted as my true self instead of this character.

Anyway, you're not really in the adventure, you're just conversing with one of the characters in another place/time. If you wanted to join the adventure, you would need to read some of what has happened so far (or I could give you the Reader's Digest version) and you would have to read a little about continuity. Then we would have to figure out a way to get you involved (you could be an asteroid miner and happen to stop by this current asteroid, although we would have to figure out how to get you past the mines ringing the asteroid, or you could have accidentally locked your tractor beam onto the castle and are being helplessly towed along behind, or we could think up something else). As you might have noticed from the potential link-up scenarios I just wrote, humour plays a large part in our adventures.

I love the pantomime idea ... i wish i could have been included ah well ... can i see a bit from what you lot did anyway? how come you are only just finishing it? (sorry about the questions I must sound like a right police woman lol)

lol at your idea of being the asteroid sounds as previously stated I wish I was involved in something like this ... sounds like you are all having great fun I take it this is your escapement from rl

I am readsing your long post with one big smile..look its me ok not quite lol but yes I'm enjoying reading your post. I don't think it is a good idea for me to join this story that you are currently creating as you all seem to know what you are doing and its far from the start of the story. Perhaps I may be included in a new story

Anyway, I think I'll go and have a look at these you've mentioned now

Actually, in the dungeon thread, Affy just gave a more-or-less full recap of the adventure so far.

As for the pantomime, it has gone on so long since it is being performed by actors from all over the world, so postings may not be replied to until a day or two after they are posted. This pace is very common in adventures/roll playing threads. The panto was advertised in the Post. Here is a link to the brocure:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/A921368
I think it has links to most of the action, too.

Thanks for cheering me up today I needed that escapement I think it is brilliant but I think it will take me a year to run through all the guide lines and what has been said etc. Plus I am a bit of a lazy student at the mo but what I've read is fantastic. I especially like the cow.