Introducing The World of Twitter Role-Play
By Dre Willis
I’ve been geek of color since birth. My favorite shows growing up were Marvel Comics Spider-Man, X-Men: Evolution, Justice League Unlimited, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. This set the foundation of my love for the medium of animation and dreams of being a Superhero. I realized I wasn’t wearing spandex anytime soon, so I began creating my own heroes. It surprisingly took me another twelve years to read my first comic book, my freshman year in college (Manga was the first kiss to my geeky virginity). Ultimate Spider-Man #150 popped my cherry, not knowing that at the end I would find my brother from another mother, Miles Morales the Ultimate Spider-Man! Hundreds of comics, hundreds of dollars, and dozens of new comic book movies/TV later, I’ve become fully immersed into the geek culture and have been needing more and more ways to express the thoughts and emotions being in this world creates.
Around the time I got into comics, I was also getting back into Twitter. After tweeting and retweeting some geeky content, I was followed by an account pretending to be a comic book hero. Like any normal tweeter, I snooped around their profile, looking through photos, likes, followers, (I’m like the Batman of Twitter) and discovered a whole other world in the Twitterverse. RPing!
RPing, or Role-playing for you newbies, is where people take upon the personas of characters from TV, Movies, Comics, Book Series, etc., and act out as that character. Now this has been going on for decades, centuries if you count Halloween. From the days of Dungeon & Dragons to Star Trek conventions to obscure fan forums across the Web and now with the rise of the Superhero and Comic genre, Twitter has become the birthplace of a new generation of Role-Players. Many RPers, Role-Players, do it to have fun and meet new friends. For others like me, it’s practice their writing. And for some, RPing helps with dealing with problems like depression, anxiety and other things that many young people, especially the geeky, are faced with today.
No Fandom is off limits here, if you like a character all you have to do is make an account. If you want to be The Dark Knight, get broody and go ahead. Spider-Man? Pick one and thwip away! You want to be a vampire (sparkly or otherwise), bite on. You want to be a anthropomorphic blue fox who’s a DJ, by all means my friend. If you haven’t guessed, I am a proud member of Twitter RPing. I’ve done quite a few characters in my couple years of Role-playing, mostly heroes of color (for the culture). For example, Virgil Hawkins aka Static, Kaldur’ahm aka Aqualad, Sam Wilson aka Captain America, and of course my favorite Miles Morales aka Spider-Man. I have even gone to the less mainstream parts of Twitter RP, such as Furries (weird but interesting, not for everyone) and Power Rangers (also weird but interesting).
Because of the hectic life of a young GOC, with college, work, catching up with all my shows, movies, and comics, I had to take a hiatus from RPing this academic year. So this summer I joined a RP group, a usually closed group where people RP together using an established plot or story, often in an “Alternate Universe” to avoid canon issues. Prepare for Shameless Shout-Out in 3… 2… 1…
Check out @MarvGenerations on Twitter if you ever wanted to be a child of a Superhero or Villain and fight for your and your friends freedom from a Hydra controlled island or be the one in control! Roles are filling up quick, so if interested please DM them!
If Marvel isn’t your cup of tea, what’s wrong with you??, then just try a quick search on Twitter for RP, Role-Play, or Parody with any Fandom you choose and see what’s out there for you. Chances are you’ll find something you like.
So fellow geeks of color, RP and Prosper! 🖖
P.S. If you rather try a non-Twitter RP or can’t find your Fandom, check out RPNATION.com one of the best forum based role playing websites.
