I always get asked where did the ERT come from? Well it's 12 years old as of 2020, and it's had a long history for a game like this, but here's the full history.

In the Spring of 2008, I decided to start up a game for a text based roleplay. I'd found a similar game online for firefighters only, but it had been defunct for over a year. I'd signed up, reached out to membership, everything, but there was no answer. After a couple weeks, I took on the task of setting up the site with a hoster called ipbfree. They ran copies of Invision Power Board (the predecessor to what we use now) for free, and also, as we later found out, illegally. 

During this time, membership grew to around a dozen dedicated players. We each took on roles within our fields of interest, and were all members of a super organization, based off of the Emergency Services within the game series Emergency. The ERT was an organization that provided fire services, as well as EMS and police to a fictional city that was yet to be named. The three primary services joined with a technical support team of engineers and tow operators, as well as a county run hospital service, all located in a super complex, supported by the ERT's Center for Operation Planning and Administration, COPA. Version 1 of the ERT was in place, and would lay the groundwork for what we play today.

After about 5 months, the ERT RPG joined forces with a GTA SA clan by the same name. During this time, roleplay was experimented in GTA, as well as in a voice dispatch game, where players operated a station or unit and played voice dispatch. The biggest struggle with this was maintaining activity, as to play multiple members were required to be online and able to play at the same time. for this reason, Version 2 didn't last long. Within 6 months, this project was abandoned and players returned to the original format, updated to have more personalized units, uniforms and so on. During this time we brought in version 3, with lots of units, uniforms and badges, all designed to look as if they belonged to the same department, not a mashup of units like before. ERT grew during this time and Version 3 brought a lot of players in. We named our cities Phoxlind, for the major metro area, with Trulit representing the small rural town to the east. ERT and its complex was centered between the two. All this culminated in a major call where terrorists attacked the Phoxlind Stock Exchange, which played out creating lore that still gets talked about by the original members today. Shortly after the call ended, ipbfree's luck ran out and they were shut down for running illegal software. With no notice, the ERT disappeared almost overnight. 

Fortunately members had contacts outside of the site, and Version 4 appeared a month later on Forumotion, a similar free host supporting the site on php.bb. There the ERT grew and refined themselves, maintaining a single department, but developing the story more. During this time, the ERT grew and many calls came into place. The Phoxlind Attacks was replayed, this time with a larger call lead up and the first real story arc. Members who were around and played for that call still show their phoxlind attacks service bar on their profiles, a black bar with a red and blue center line. 

As we grew, the need for more flexibility became apparent, and in 2011, the site created version 5, with its own domain, professional hosting and fully licensed (and legal) Invision Power Board. We developed the story, toying with ideas for community growth and engagement. A website was made, with history, vehicle updates, and even a form called the EAT, or emergency access terminal, where users could sign in, update their unit status, and it was easy for dispatchers to see what units were available and when. 

Version 5 was highlighted by changing technology and a core group. During this time the idea for multiple characters was adopted, which brought in the advent of a character switch system, letting people play less active roles like dispatchers, while also playing firefighters, police, and EMS personnel. The EAT was later dropped in exchange for shifts, where members report in and are assigned units. 

Version 6 was the switch from the traditional Phoxlind Trulit area to the current day Saratoga State and the Shiloh County ERT. Zach Russo led this charge, with support from members to help create this new story. ERT was disbanded as a super agency, instead being several county agencies, to provide for more realism, based off of actual departments. The lore for the game continued to develop, giving histories and more. 

In 2019, a host change took place, and ERT moved to Version 7, at its new domain, and this is where we're currently situated. Over the years, we've had hundreds of members come and go, hundreds of stories and even some lore spread, such as the exploding lawnmower, and the armed firefighters. 

And for every badge, picture and uniform the ERT has used? That's all on a special drive saved on my computer. So when you join us on Discord and see the OGs, they're the ones that hung around from the early days of unnamed cities with mismatched departments, into the fluid agency that is ERT.