Speaking of "Best Homes," we hope to have a "Best Homes of AW" site-wide contest as a feature of Springfest, with winners inter-world and site-wide winners as well. The contest will run concurrently with Springfest - so get out those virtual new drapes and check your ancient Mayan music, awards should spotlight some of our best AW talents!

In last month's ACTA edition, we discussed the various fiction-writing (a/k/a "role-play") groups at AW, and now Maria Marius has kindly offered to be our "roving correspondent" for those who are interested in RP groups and stories, but have no idea where - or how! - to join in. See her special article - first of a series! - below.

"Roleplay." Such a small word to spark so much discussion. Let's think of it as just… fiction. Okay? It's fiction written on the internet by several people who cooperate (more or less) with one another to create a story. Interactive fiction. It's storytelling in "chapters" (individual sequential posts) that can be several paragraphs, or several word doc sized pages in length.

There are many formats from which to choose when picking a group. Different people prefer different sorts of groups, just as we all prefer different desserts! The most popular tales at AW can be categorized either as almost totally unstructured "free-for-all" stories or as "semi-planned" stories. In both these forms, people take turns writing sequential posts that move the stories along. In the unstructured form, nobody seems to know much in advance what anybody else is going to write. "It's a surprise!" The advantage is that it's pretty hard to ruin a story if nobody knows where the story is going. The disadvantage is that one misses the intricate plot twists that can develop only with a certain amount of pre-planning.

Another possibility is to create a game of some sort, in which the stories are created within a matrix of rules. There are several such groups at AW. One of these, Roman Republic, (see our Featured Group, this page!) combines a fairly reasonable set of rules with some highly entertaining storylines.

Sound interesting? You can read at any such group without joining. And if you decide you'd like to give it a go, drop a domus message to the group leaders and you'll find encouragement and good advice!

If you are a more spontaneous sort, who doesn't really want to start out with a lot of planning, why not try the Red Boar Tavern in Germania? I can't really explain the group any better than it explains itself: "Mead! Ale! Fighting! Flirting! All this as well as weapon throwing, poetry, the odd Vandal invasion and fresh bread straight from Amalasuntha's kitchen. Is this Valhalla on earth? No, it's the Red Boar Tavern!" The writing is spontaneous, light-hearted and fun. Happy people having a good time and showing it. Give it a read… then give it a try!!!

Want to become involved, but not sure how to do it? With Springfest '05 coming up in late April, every scribe at AW has the Help Wanted! sign outside their wee offices. If you can do html, graphics, design; if your mind turns toward puzzles and games; contact any scribe or demi and sign up. Half of the fun of a festival is the feeling of contribution and participation; the other half is a special seat at the post-event drinking parties!

Lost? Don't know where to go? Although we are revamping and updating our "Beginner's Guide" to AncientWorlds, in the meantime, there's a wealth of good information here.

We also have our global 'Newbie' help board and welcome area: Welcoming Newcomers.

For avatars, homesite decor resources or code help check out Arachne's Web HelpCenter & FAQ.