JK Franklin Remembers

A reminiscence written by JK Franklin in 2003.

So, heya. I'm JK Franklin. I was playing way back when we started this online game back in the mid ’90s. I've been pretty much a constant factor in the Wold since we went online several years ago. I used to live in Wichita Falls and was a member of Jerry's live game. As I recall, we were playing the famed Gold Dragons at an earlier stage in their career back then.

Jerry decided that the online world offered a way to stay in contact with former players and friends that had moved away. We tried a few combinations like online chats and email games with a couple of different groups of players, and then one of our email games clicked. There were several of us initially, but the core group that lasted became a game known as The Three. It consisted of John Klinger as the elf known only as Jus, David Hott as the tough as nails warrior Gareth Justinian, and myself as the lovable wizard Nonam Firstorlast. Jerry was the DM. Some other players drifted in and out back in those days. I'd have to scrounge through the records to see who all was around, but I do remember the famed Kevin Wimberly played for a bit.

Now, the email game worked ok for a while, but the pacing was slow. It also took a lot of work for the DM to make sure that everyone's separate emails fit together since we all emailed the DM without the knowledge of what everyone else was doing. As you can imagine, this was quite burdensome in combat. So, we decided to try out a web page. I made our first one. I modified a guestbook cgi script to let us post our turns on a message board of sorts. It worked similarly to what we have now except there was no dice roller, there was no way to automatically jump down to your post, there was no password entry, and it didn't look as good either. And, there was no autoarchiving feature. It did give you a little thank you for posting message though. Have you gotten the one that said your soul has been purified? That's the original one from way back when.

This early website was set up on Jerry's AOL web account. After that the game took off. After The Three was pretty well established, we started up the Windhorn Hamlet game. Then came the Emerald Kingdom and more and more and more. We quickly filled up all the allowed space on Jerry's first account, and we spilled over into about 4 screen names for Jerry. Then we used one of mine. Then we started using free space on Tripod. All of it was connected together with messy links, and the directory system was a nightmare. Then John Klinger had a better idea. He made up a completely new message board system for us to use. He made up the dice roller and all the other nifty things that go along with the site now. John did almost everything that you get from the games directory except for graphics. Jerry also moved us off AOL and bought the woldiangames.com name. After that I had a minimal role in web site design. I still did some of the logos and I did most of the front pages, but, heck, I'm a historian, not a web designer or a computer programmer. So, as we recruited talented new players with careers in such things as programming and graphic design, I bowed out completely. I'm proud to say that, other than names of things like Duncan's Travel Agency, there's hardly anything on the site that I'm responsible for now. And if you run across one of Jerry's hand-drawn maps with typed labels, well, I typed the labels. All my other handiwork is gone, and the Wold is a better looking place for it.

So now I'll have to do is sit back and play. And there are so many options around. The Wold's grown quite a bit over the years, from 1 game with 3 players to all the games we have now. Plus we have the LnB, the Catacombs, the Black Genie, the tapestry boards, and more. Whee! Jerry's vision of things keeps the site growing, but as we've gotten bigger he's needed more DMs and more assistants.

While I'm currently enjoying my free time, I've spent a good bit of time in that helping out. At various times I've been in charge of the Catacombs, and I’ve been the DM for the Storm Dragons, Windhorn Hamlet, Emerald Talons, the Swords of Redemption, the Gold Dragons, and the Floating City. Phew. Never all at the same time of course, and it's been years since I've worked on a few of them.

Anyway, there's always work to be done to keep all the games running smoothly, so volunteer to help out and get your character sheets in on time. Anyway, back to the games...

The Three became the Storm Dragons after proving their value to Woldian Society. Valdor the Dragonslayer became Valdor the Dragonstone, and the Year of Ascension came and went. Gods have fallen and others have risen in their place. The Southern Continent is being explored, and the Floating City floated away. Lankhmahr disappeared without much notice. Players have come and gone. Some characters have become heroes, and others have died. We've all made friends and had a good time. And best of all there's no end in sight. So, I'm glad to be back around, and I hope we all have a good time. jkf

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