I’ve been to Lightbridge in Second Life before, a medieval roleplaying sim set in the year 1529 in part of English controlled France. The thing with Lightbridge is that the roleplay is aimed at human characters rather than the more fantasy based element we usually see.
The other thing with Lightbridge is that it’s set in a period of history that is currently being covered in the excellent BBC drama Wolf Hall. The BBC drama itself is based on the book Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel.
There are of course some key differences between Lightbridge and Wolf Hall. Whereas Wolf Hall deals with the rise to prominence of Thomas Cromwell at a time of great upheaval for the church and monarchy in England, Lightbridge is set in the fictional harbour town of Pont de Lumière, which lies between Calais and The Duchy Of Burgundy. This is a small garrison city and therefore you wouldn’t expect to see characters such as Thomas Cromwell, Anne Boleyn, King Henry VIII or Cardinal Wolsey roaming the streets and popping into the tavern.
Indeed the character generation forbids the roleplaying of such characters :
We do not permit players to play important real life characters (Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Cardinal Wolsey, Charles V the Holy Roman Emperor, etc.) as they are reserved for admins for special roleplay events. Players may, however, play a real life character if there is no significant history to speak of that might be altered by their gameplay. Players must provide references for the existence of the character.
However fans of Wolf Hall, armed with their knowledge of these times could indeed create quite interesting characters whom would know of the politics of the times.
The roleplay here has a historical slant which makes for many interesting possibilities as there’s a lot of history around, obviously it also means people will not need to avoid spoilers to know how matters develop and yet your very own fictional character can slip right in, as long as you follow the rules.
There were of course many other important matters happening around the year 1529 that have great historical significance, the Italian wars were raging across the continent at this time.
Whereas some folk find character applications for roleplay in Second Life a pain, in this case it is actually interesting because the texts as to what happened are around and as I said, if you’ve been paying attention to Wolf Hall, you may even have some extra insight you’d like to share or develop.
Roleplaying sims in Second Life do of course have difficulties and challenges. The ability to get people online at the same time being one. Second Life is a 24/7 world whereas the people behind the characters are not awake 24/7 …. I hope!
A roleplay sim such as this, which has its roleplay based on real events is an interesting concept for roleplayers and history fans. When you add in that the era is topical in terms of television drama, this could well turn out to be an interesting development. At the very least it shows that Second Life can be useful for the portrayal of history, with a little bit of creative and fictional fun added for good measure.
Lightbridge
The year is 1529, on the cusp of the English Reformation under Henry VIII. Welcome to Pont de Lumière, a.k.a. Lightbridge. Lightbridge is a fictional city in English-controlled France near Calais during Tudor times. Peace is tenuous at best, and alliances shift rapidly. Turbulent times lie ahead, where do you stand? Lightbridge is a realistic historical medieval roleplay sim.
Visit in Second Life
The Lightbridge RP website is full of useful information about the roleplay and history of the period : http://lightbridge-rp.org/
SLURL To Lightbridge : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Dreamworld%20Panther/208/131/2001/
Thanks for this, Ciaran! In my mind I can see so many possibilities for interesting characters and I’ve only been hearing good things about Wolf Hall. As an American, I’d love to see the show broadcast over here on my side of the pond.
We’ve been having a discussion in our forums about how much realism we should incorporate, and the fact that it may be daunting to some. I do want to keep a relatively low barrier to entry but at the same time, maintain a high level of authenticity, although not rigidly absolute, and we’re mulling over the means to do it.
I think there is room for well-written characters and also room to learn – it’s a learning exercise for pretty much all of us anyway, as Calais in particular is a thorny subject for some and details of some things appear to be lost. But it’s a good time, and I hope we can get more people who are interested in learning more about the time and playing in it.
I love history and I love storytelling so a project such as the one you’re running Cristalle is one I very much admire.
There is plenty of room for well written characters but the advantage of it being a historical setting is that it should aid people with their biographies, all too often in Second Life roleplay people are stumped about how their character can fit in because the history is so vague.
Hi Ciaran, you’d think it would be helpful but it’s been intimidating to some people. I think that the fact that we have a precise set of standards to work with, historically speaking, is both boon and curse. It should be easy but it isn’t for everyone.