| The two that I have been involved with are City of Lost Angels (CoLA) and Midian.
CoLA is set in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles where humans and other mortals try to eek out a survival among the city's other denizens. Roleplay is encouraged and appreciated by all there, but CoLA is a CCS-environment so you will need to wear a CCS-meter (which is free, BTW) if you wish to get involved in combat or confrontational play. The staff tries to administer the environment so that the RP isn't squashed by combat-happy players but combat does sometimes outshine the roleplay. Races supported by the setting include human, neko, vampire, demon, angel, lycan, supernatural (which is a sort of catch-all allowing other races such as hybrids, sidhe/fae, reptilian, etc). Creativity is encouraged and the RP environment is free-form so all types of roleplay styles are seen. Players are encouraged to develop their own stories but the staff do also drive citywide stories. Be sure to pick up both a meter and a login to the supporting website as it details the rules and instructions for the meter. Note that I am a staff member for CoLA so consider this when reading my description.
The other area that I have played in is Midian, which was described above. Midian is certainly more roleplay-centric and less metered combat so it is a good fit for those that aren't entirely interested in combat though roleplayed skirmishes are occasionally done and are done quite nicely. The setting is again, post-war, the island being an area that was long abandoned by what was left of earth's civilization. The best way to think of the environment is almost Bladerunner-esque with a nice accent of vampires and nekos. For the vampiric roleplay, the sim supports and in some cases enforces a Masquerade for the vampires. For those that aren't privy to White Wolf's Vampire the Masquerade/World of Darkness theme, the vampires are set to conceal their existence from the rest of the population. The sim staff actively supports this so any that wish to play as a vampire character have to speak to staff in order to get blessing to play that type in the sim. It is really just a check built-in to foster this type of play and to ensure that roleplayed abilities and powers are not abused.
Both are "Dark RP" areas which means that pretty much any and all types of play can be found, i.e., kidnap, torture, sex, etc, with CoLA probably having a bit more of an "adult/mature" theme to it, but all that sort of RP can be found in Midian as well. When comparing the two, I think of CoLA as having a bit more of a supernatural feel to it since there are demons and angels involved along with magic play sprinkled in, whereas Midian is more futuristic technology driven with the added element of vampires.
Hope that at least helps expose other areas for folks. |