IRC anyone?

Internet Relay Chat is a protocol for text-based messaging harking back to the early days of the internet. Nowadays it’s mostly forgotten. But interestingly enough the RPG scene is quite active on IRC. There are countless IRC channels dedicated to pen & paper roleplaying games. One of the most well known ones is probably #rpgnet on the Magicstar IRC network. There’s even a #stargazersworld channel on Sorcery.net which I usually hang out all day.

I don’t want to go into the technical details of IRC here, that would definitely be beyond the scope of this blog post. But I think I should remind people out there that aside from blogs, forums, and social media there’s another place where you can discuss our favorite hobby on the ‘net.

The hurdle to get into IRC is not that high actually. If you don’t want to fiddle around with the available desktop clients, you can always use a web-based service like mibbit. And if you want to learn more about how IRC works, ask around in the channels. Most users are more than happy with helping you out.

What is your stance on RPG discussions on IRC? Are you an avid IRC user or have you avoided it so far? Please share your experiences and thoughts below. What’s your favorite RPG-related IRC channel? Please let us know!