Here to Aluminate the darkness

[Aluminator (Kit)]

Whoa! Would you look at that!? An intro board! Okay, I'll bite 

So... my name's Scott. I found this site a little while ago when my mind went on a crazy Animorphs nostalgia binge and I Googled everything I could about them. Funny how I can never keep from circling back to the things I used to love. Looking back, my late-childhood was really defined by three things; Animorphs, a girl, and a board game that my friends and I created. The thing with the girl was over a long time ago (and, actually, now that I think about it, she and Rachel are frighteningly similar). The board game has continued to evolve as our interest in it waxes and wanes. I think it's safe to say that it was very heavily influenced by Animorphs, also. It now has an incredible (and ridiculously hilarious) backstory that goes with it, and if things go according to plan, the game itself should be available for purchase within a year or so (it's actually starting to be fun, now that it's in its eighth revision  ) I'm also trying to write a few stories based on that backstory, but at the moment I've hit a roadblock. Such is life, I guess.

I'm technically a college dropout at the moment. I was so burnt out by the end of high school, and it was a bad idea for me to start college without any idea what I wanted to do. It doesn't help that the administration seemed to have some kind of grudge against me. I'm halfway through a Civil Engineering degree, and for the moment I'm just working and trying to save money while I look for motivation to finish it off. Saving money is a little harder when you go to at least one concert every week. I have the most eclectic music taste ever (in the last year I've seen everyone from Flogging Molly to Pat Benatar to Hit the Lights to Slipknot to Alesana to Minus the Bear to Theory of a Deadman), so there are a lot of opportunities, but I think I'm getting over that phase. I work at a small electronics company- so far I've been checking out RAF from there, so the amount of time I've had has varied with my workload. I have a bit of an Aluminum fetish. Uhhmm... I like typing, and rambling, apparently. Anyway, I'm here now.

[Cloak]

*swirls his cloak and appears into the room.*

Hello, Aluminator.  I am Cloaky.  Welcome to RAF.  I hope you can handle the insanity that's sure to follow.

[Alic]

Welcome Scott! I'm Alic, or patty. Whichever. Welcome to RAF!
Good choice, I love Flogging Molly. I used to go to weekly shows myself.. Now I have to pick out the special ones. That would be one I couldn't miss.
Anyway, hi!

[Gaz]

Welcome to RAF! I'm Gaz, nice to meet you!

[DinosaurNothlit]

Hey, welcome!  I'm DinosaurNothlit, but most people shorten that to Dino, DN, or occasionally Nothlit.  Since you told us your real name, I guess I'll give you a bonus name to call me, too: Tobey.

That board game sounds awesome!  When you decide to publish it, be sure that I'll be buying a copy.  What's it called?

[Darth Revan]

Welcome to RAF!!!

I'm Spartan 281. AKA Spartan, Parker, Park, Brandon, Shaft.

I also dropped out of college from being burnt out by HS. I quit a lot earlier than you though. I tried one year, did different classes trying to find a direction, then said, "**** it."

Animorphs were a huge part of my childhood as well, you'll find a lot of us have that in common.

We have tons of stuff to do! Dameg will be here shortly to share, but one section we have is Role Playing. If you enjoy RPing, we have two different sections:

http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/board,6.0.html
There is the popular http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,2089.0.html where you can just be your character's self and hang out and "talk" to other characters. Though being a bar, sometimes there are scuffles, but big battles are very rare.

And a number of Animorphs based RPs

Then there's http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/board,23.0.html
Here are any other RPs:

I'm currently running a HALO RP, so if you like HALO (I realize not everyone does), read the rules, PM me your guy, and we'll get you started: http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,3888.285.html

We have a fun http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,2223.2370.html RP where you're yourself(ish) and we sometimes have great adventures, right now we're rescuing Moderators that were transported to different universes.

If you enjoy games like Civilization, there's a great story-based RP where you build an entire world and race: http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,3641.0.html. Definitely read the intro, and post your interest here: http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,3900.0.html

There are a bunch of other fun RPs that you could get into should you like RPing.

[goom]

That board game sounds awesome!  When you decide to publish it, be sure that I'll be buying a copy.  What's it called?

i'd buy it. any further information you can give on the game?

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Welcome! I'm Jess.

We're glad to have you, hope you love it here as much as we do, and hope to see you around chat.

[Aluminator (Kit)]

Aww, you guys are all so nice ^_^

Amazing entrance, Cloaky. Very classy, very badass. Alic- Flogging Molly is definitely one of my favorite all-time groups. I've been listening to them since I was little, and they're every bit as wonderful live as I was expecting. Good to know we're starting out with that in common (well, and RAF now). Hey, Gaz! Nice to meet you too  Thanks for the invite, Parker! I've honestly not gotten into RPing in the past, but considering everything you just mentioned sounded appealing, I may have to start. Hey, Jess! You guys are awesome.

Hey, Dino! Goom! Nice to meet you guys. The board game is called Atazin. It's essentially a galactic empire-building game for 2-8 players, but it's also so much more than that. The game is played with cards- there are thousands right now and counting, and because of the nature of the game, anything can be transferred to playable format. You want to use Babe Ruth to draw in a crowd of Romans to watch him play scrabble, it's all totally plausible. Wonder who would really have come out on top if the Yeerks infiltrated the Borg, I could do that too. Of course, the game as it stands is based only on eight galactic empires unique to our world, and it obviously can't be marketed with anything copyrighted if I don't have permission, but there should be more than enough variety in the standard cards to keep it interesting. I could go on about it- I'll probably start up a thread to pick you guys' brains for ideas here eventually, but I need to get some idea of what I'm doing with it first, and it's currently all being changed as it is. I'm excited, though, because I think I've finally gotten the playtime down from tens of hours to just a few- still for major board game geeks (which I proudly admit to being), but at least manageable now (and, I hope it's as much fun as I think it is now- need to complete it to the point of playtesting) There's also the opportunity, potentially, for more than a few of you to help influence the history, which is an active, evolving thing, and we've just hit the biggest crossroads ever... again, I need to get further on the board game before I can dive back into the story. I'll let you guys know when I know, and if there's enough interest, I can bring it full force to RAF.

[Darth Revan]

That sounds awesome! If you ever decide to go for it, you should post it here: http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/board,13.0.html

Glad to have ya, and I hope to see you around!

[Dameg]

*Coming from a cave*
Oops! I'm late! I think I felt asleep in the Pool ^^' Sorry sorry!
*Taking Scott's hand and shaking it* wHELLcome, Alumin!
I'm Vis... I'm Dameg, another RAFian. Come with me, please, I have something to show you. It's here, after this door *Open a heavy door* We call them the RAFprojects. *Lead Scott to a long and dark hallway, with many doors, some in the dark, some with light coming from the other side. Arrive near the first door* Here at your left...

- The Ebooks project: [Help wanted!] Animorphs (http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php?board=14.0), Remnants (http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,157.0.html <= finished) and Everworld (http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,331.0.html); we need somebody to scan the volume #10 of Everworld, and the other Everworld/Animorphs ebooks need to be cleaned a little (mistakes, we don't know where the chapters begin and finish, etc.) so if you wanna be a correcter... call me, I head that projects.

Facing it is...

- RAFipedia: http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php?board=22.0, an encyclopedia headed up by Estelore, our star (a true star, who make light and burn in space... but she has a body to come on Earth);

Next it's...

- the Audiobooks project: http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php?board=15.0, a full-cast audio version of Animorphs who need more "actors" and voices, headed by Kit Cloudkicker (Jess), MrGuy, Morfowt, and Wildweathel;

and here...

- the Graphic Novel project: http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,416.0.html and http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,2276.0.html, a Webcomic headed by Gafrash.

You also have...

- the Smiley project: http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,1691.0.html, we make Animated gifs, smileys about Animorphs (Andalites, Hork-Bajirs...);

here and facing it is...

- the Translation project: http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,1907.0.html, a recently started project/mutual support group for translations into other languages; currently only in French (Tocade, Anidragon and myself), Chinese (Morfowt), Indonesian (Nat), Swedish (Mira and Zana), and Esperanto (Wildweathel); we translate only the volumes never edited in our countries/languages, to make the ebooks;

Next door is for the special project:

- http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,3738.0.html: the adventures of the RAFians;

At the end it's for the little projects:

- the http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,3810.0.html;

- the http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,3911.0.html to make the planets we hear about in Animorphs;

- the paper-RPG project: a role-playing game (on table, with paper, pen and dices...) about the World of Animorphs; I head this project, and it'll be write in French at the beginning, but we need help to find, class and write everything we know about the species, the planets, the powers we see in Animorphs, fix them, see what we keep and what we can't keep (because of the KASU, not clear, exception for the main characters/books, etc.), complete the knowledges about species/planets we know and even create new species/planets...; this project will be on my own website, so if you wanna join, ask me the link ^^;

- the RPG project: http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,4069.0.html to make a video game about Animorphs, with RPGmaker;

- the Command-line game project: http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,3787.0.html for another kind of video game about Animorphs;

- the http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,3773.0.html where we count all the people killed by the Animorphs;

- the RAFkaraoke: http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,3150.0.html, where we make songs and sing them... It's pretty new... But please sing with us!

and some other projects who come and go. Please check the list: http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/board,13.0.html
You can add your projects there.

*Standing in front of Scott* I hope you enjoyed your visit. Oh, and I also invite you to add your species on this list: http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,2154.0.html 'coz everybody isn't Human here. And we like to know who is what... For example, as you'll probably see, I'm a Controller.

Now I have to go, I still have work to do... New sla... members, you know what is it. *Beginning to go down dark stairs who lead to another cave, from where Scott can hear a cry.*
Have fun!
*Scott is now alone in the hallway, but not for long.*

[HiImshort]

*Halberd comes into view and Meta Knight flies down*  Welcome to RAF illuminator. I've seen you around but hi anyways. I was a Mewtwo but am now Meta Knight.

[Aluminator (Kit)]

Wow... delay on my part. Hey Meta ^_^ That was also an epic entrance. And Imma say good call on Meta Knight- way cooler than any Mewtwo in my book I hope that doesn't sound too blasphemous...

Dameg, I know you sucked me into the ebook project, but I guess I'll give you a formal hello here, too. Hello!

[zaprowsdower]

Hello and well met!

[Aluminator (Kit)]

Hey, venomwiththelongnam ewhosenameimtempted toshortentojustveno m! Awesome signature.