Seth Astra
Jul 23, 2011, 03:01 AM
Well, it's time to vote for our next RP. As a refresher, the two candidates are below:
Siyamak's Surivival-type RP/Writing Exercise:
[spoiler-box]
Name: Don't know, I never care about names 'till way later. For now lets just call it "Survival," since that's what it's going to be about.
Universe: We could make our own, but we could just as well be crash landed on Ragol or any other planet.
General Location: See above.
Rough Time Frame: Ending could easily be set, as the "goal" of the characters is basically just to survive until they are found or find society. So you could make it 1 month or a whole year, I don't care.
RP Style: Mostly social, combat can be there, but should be mostly minimal.
RP Type: Limited open-world (the world is going to be open, but there are rules I'll list in the summary.)
RP Length:Ending could easily be set, as the "goal" of the characters is basically just to survive until they are found or find society. So you could make it 1 month or a whole year, I don't care. If it gets boring, it'll be the type you can end on the spot if everyone starts disliking it.
Summary: Alright, here's the deal. For whatever reason we/you decide, our characters are stuck in a survival situation. We don't have a lot of food, we are not hardcore grizzly survival vets or anything, we have limited resources when we get stranded (low on food, water, one or two weapons might be prevalent but not enough for the whole group) none of us are superstrong, superfast, or have 20+ years of martial arts/battle experience blah blah blah. You will be, in effect, a normal civilian. Specific details of what we have can be decided upon if the idea is even accepted.
Now here's the very special rule that limits things, while also kind of forcing you to write in a fan fiction style. When you want to use something as a resource, you cannot create it yourself. You can only use what's been described by other users. For example, you cannot just say "I pick up a sharp rock and tie it to a stick to form a spear." Someone first has to describe that there is even a rock bed existent in the first place, perhaps by a creek or something (keep in mind that would also create a creek, so now the next person can be the one to come up with the idea of spears, and/or do something with running water. You can do as much as you want, but only in the confines of what has been described by another user.) Even the stick itself may need to be described, if we aren't in a woodsy environment where sticks would be abundant (if we're stranded on a beach/island that mostly has palms, which don't really branch to have sticks, someone would have to describe driftwood branches on the beach, and someone could use that for their stick. The describer doesn't have to have their character specifically tell anyone, but it has to be somewhere in their description of the landscape.) You'll also need something to hold the rock to the stick. You are only allowed to describe things that are actually visible to your character. They cannot know things beyond their normal senses (for example, you wouldn't be able to tell when a forest ends and turns into a plain, and you can't describe that as a 3rd person narrator either, someone will have to actually go exploring to find that out.) Because of these rules, you are not allowed to have more than one character. I know some of you like to control more than one, but for the purpose of this RP, you cannot do that.
Keep in mind contacting one another outside the confines of the RP to preplan descriptions to get what resources you want is cheating. The point is that everyone actually pays attention to their environmental detail descriptions, so other players have the most to work with. Characters can also make things harder for everyone to survive if they so choose. For example, lets say you describe it as we're stuck near a large body of water (since it might be an ocean or a large lake, you can't see to the other side, but there are plenty of lakes big enough even here on Earth where that's the case, so it's totally plausible that it could be either.) The next person could taste it, and declare it freshwater (which would make things easier as we have something to drink) or salt water (which would make things much harder.) You could also describe the weather as being harsh (hot and dry) or we could be blessed with a cool rain (which would also be supplying us with a source of fresh water, unless we're in a very cold environment, in which case it'd suck because it would be to cold. Last I checked rain in 35 degree weather wasn't fun.)
Combat should primarily have to do with hunting or perhaps keeping a monster at bay that's trying to attack the group. However, you're supposed to be normal civilians (no exceptions) so your character cannot just walk in and slaughter 5 Boomas and say we're set for dinner. You could also fight amongst one another, but when you're dead, you're dead, and due to the nature of the RP, just adding in another person isn't going to fly. So I wouldn't encourage violent in-fighting. Though bickering and arguments and the like are totally encouraged, development in which characters start to hate one another's guts is still development.
So that's pretty much the idea. It's more of a writing exercise than anything, but in the confines of an RP play style.
One more note: if people start being inactive for so many days, but others still want to play, you could always have their character killed off from starvation/sickness/monster attack, etc. Depending on how they die, you might even be able to use them (take their clothes/tools and ditch the corpse; be a cannibal; use their bones for tools, whatever. Though I wouldn't keep rotting meat around to long as that leads to sickness, which could really fuck over a survival party.) Though obviously I'd PM that person on the matter before killing them off (or even let them kill themselves off, so they get to determine what's done with the corpse. If it gets dragged off by an animal, then you can't really use it, can you?)
The primary purpose of these rules is a writing exercise to make you better at detailing your surroundings. Rather than just "My character does/says X thing," you will have to write out the environment, how they alter it, and add things to the environment others may not have noticed (or go exploring and detail your find to the others, though for survival purposes it should usually be at least a group of two, plus because of the previous rule you would not be able to utilize anything new you see on the spot if it's just you.) It's no longer about just what your character is doing right that moment.
In retrospect, this kind of sounds like "Hatchet: The RP."
[/spoiler-box]
An idea I stole from Neona, featuring your average act of terrorism.
[spoiler-box]
Name: I'll figure this out some other day.
Universe: Gurhal
General Location: Parum
Rough Time Frame: Somewhere in the year between the end of PSP2 and the epilogue.
RP Style: Somwhere between open world and overarching plot. Everyone will know their objective and will move towards it as they choose.
RP Type: Primarily Combat... Well, actually primarily action. Really should have called it that from the start.
RP Length: Long
Summary: Although the Illuminus have been thought destroyed for some time now, fragments of their organization, combined with smaller, less powerful organizations with similar missions, have banded together to form a group calling themselves the New Illuminus. This group has set up a thourough offensive on a Parum city (if anyone knows any cities on Parum, please list a few, I haven't played PSU, so I wouldn't know any). After bombing the city from above, a group of foot soldiers took control of what remained. They have set up a series of EMP devices that prevents the AMF and the Guardians from making any large scale offensives. Lastly, a large bomb has been set up to destroy the city. The Guardians and AMF have each sent in a few skilled operatives, while the Parum senate has sent out a call for all available mercenaries to help as well. The objectives are to disarm the bomb and to disable the EMP barrier. By doing this a large scale offensive will be possible.
From our perspective, first, we'll have to devide our characters into squads, primarily based on allegiance. Our characters will then work their ways towards their objectives, some of them meeting up along the way.
[/spoiler-box]
Now that you know the contenders, vote!!!
I will be voting for my own, for two reasons:
I straight up like the idea (hence why I stole it from Neona)
No offense, Siyamak, but I'm just not into your idea. Partly because I feel that the level of detail your RP would all but require us to write in is a bit absurd, and partly because I am a horrible writer, and, well, reflecting on that gets me depressed.
Siyamak's Surivival-type RP/Writing Exercise:
[spoiler-box]
Name: Don't know, I never care about names 'till way later. For now lets just call it "Survival," since that's what it's going to be about.
Universe: We could make our own, but we could just as well be crash landed on Ragol or any other planet.
General Location: See above.
Rough Time Frame: Ending could easily be set, as the "goal" of the characters is basically just to survive until they are found or find society. So you could make it 1 month or a whole year, I don't care.
RP Style: Mostly social, combat can be there, but should be mostly minimal.
RP Type: Limited open-world (the world is going to be open, but there are rules I'll list in the summary.)
RP Length:Ending could easily be set, as the "goal" of the characters is basically just to survive until they are found or find society. So you could make it 1 month or a whole year, I don't care. If it gets boring, it'll be the type you can end on the spot if everyone starts disliking it.
Summary: Alright, here's the deal. For whatever reason we/you decide, our characters are stuck in a survival situation. We don't have a lot of food, we are not hardcore grizzly survival vets or anything, we have limited resources when we get stranded (low on food, water, one or two weapons might be prevalent but not enough for the whole group) none of us are superstrong, superfast, or have 20+ years of martial arts/battle experience blah blah blah. You will be, in effect, a normal civilian. Specific details of what we have can be decided upon if the idea is even accepted.
Now here's the very special rule that limits things, while also kind of forcing you to write in a fan fiction style. When you want to use something as a resource, you cannot create it yourself. You can only use what's been described by other users. For example, you cannot just say "I pick up a sharp rock and tie it to a stick to form a spear." Someone first has to describe that there is even a rock bed existent in the first place, perhaps by a creek or something (keep in mind that would also create a creek, so now the next person can be the one to come up with the idea of spears, and/or do something with running water. You can do as much as you want, but only in the confines of what has been described by another user.) Even the stick itself may need to be described, if we aren't in a woodsy environment where sticks would be abundant (if we're stranded on a beach/island that mostly has palms, which don't really branch to have sticks, someone would have to describe driftwood branches on the beach, and someone could use that for their stick. The describer doesn't have to have their character specifically tell anyone, but it has to be somewhere in their description of the landscape.) You'll also need something to hold the rock to the stick. You are only allowed to describe things that are actually visible to your character. They cannot know things beyond their normal senses (for example, you wouldn't be able to tell when a forest ends and turns into a plain, and you can't describe that as a 3rd person narrator either, someone will have to actually go exploring to find that out.) Because of these rules, you are not allowed to have more than one character. I know some of you like to control more than one, but for the purpose of this RP, you cannot do that.
Keep in mind contacting one another outside the confines of the RP to preplan descriptions to get what resources you want is cheating. The point is that everyone actually pays attention to their environmental detail descriptions, so other players have the most to work with. Characters can also make things harder for everyone to survive if they so choose. For example, lets say you describe it as we're stuck near a large body of water (since it might be an ocean or a large lake, you can't see to the other side, but there are plenty of lakes big enough even here on Earth where that's the case, so it's totally plausible that it could be either.) The next person could taste it, and declare it freshwater (which would make things easier as we have something to drink) or salt water (which would make things much harder.) You could also describe the weather as being harsh (hot and dry) or we could be blessed with a cool rain (which would also be supplying us with a source of fresh water, unless we're in a very cold environment, in which case it'd suck because it would be to cold. Last I checked rain in 35 degree weather wasn't fun.)
Combat should primarily have to do with hunting or perhaps keeping a monster at bay that's trying to attack the group. However, you're supposed to be normal civilians (no exceptions) so your character cannot just walk in and slaughter 5 Boomas and say we're set for dinner. You could also fight amongst one another, but when you're dead, you're dead, and due to the nature of the RP, just adding in another person isn't going to fly. So I wouldn't encourage violent in-fighting. Though bickering and arguments and the like are totally encouraged, development in which characters start to hate one another's guts is still development.
So that's pretty much the idea. It's more of a writing exercise than anything, but in the confines of an RP play style.
One more note: if people start being inactive for so many days, but others still want to play, you could always have their character killed off from starvation/sickness/monster attack, etc. Depending on how they die, you might even be able to use them (take their clothes/tools and ditch the corpse; be a cannibal; use their bones for tools, whatever. Though I wouldn't keep rotting meat around to long as that leads to sickness, which could really fuck over a survival party.) Though obviously I'd PM that person on the matter before killing them off (or even let them kill themselves off, so they get to determine what's done with the corpse. If it gets dragged off by an animal, then you can't really use it, can you?)
The primary purpose of these rules is a writing exercise to make you better at detailing your surroundings. Rather than just "My character does/says X thing," you will have to write out the environment, how they alter it, and add things to the environment others may not have noticed (or go exploring and detail your find to the others, though for survival purposes it should usually be at least a group of two, plus because of the previous rule you would not be able to utilize anything new you see on the spot if it's just you.) It's no longer about just what your character is doing right that moment.
In retrospect, this kind of sounds like "Hatchet: The RP."
[/spoiler-box]
An idea I stole from Neona, featuring your average act of terrorism.
[spoiler-box]
Name: I'll figure this out some other day.
Universe: Gurhal
General Location: Parum
Rough Time Frame: Somewhere in the year between the end of PSP2 and the epilogue.
RP Style: Somwhere between open world and overarching plot. Everyone will know their objective and will move towards it as they choose.
RP Type: Primarily Combat... Well, actually primarily action. Really should have called it that from the start.
RP Length: Long
Summary: Although the Illuminus have been thought destroyed for some time now, fragments of their organization, combined with smaller, less powerful organizations with similar missions, have banded together to form a group calling themselves the New Illuminus. This group has set up a thourough offensive on a Parum city (if anyone knows any cities on Parum, please list a few, I haven't played PSU, so I wouldn't know any). After bombing the city from above, a group of foot soldiers took control of what remained. They have set up a series of EMP devices that prevents the AMF and the Guardians from making any large scale offensives. Lastly, a large bomb has been set up to destroy the city. The Guardians and AMF have each sent in a few skilled operatives, while the Parum senate has sent out a call for all available mercenaries to help as well. The objectives are to disarm the bomb and to disable the EMP barrier. By doing this a large scale offensive will be possible.
From our perspective, first, we'll have to devide our characters into squads, primarily based on allegiance. Our characters will then work their ways towards their objectives, some of them meeting up along the way.
[/spoiler-box]
Now that you know the contenders, vote!!!
I will be voting for my own, for two reasons:
I straight up like the idea (hence why I stole it from Neona)
No offense, Siyamak, but I'm just not into your idea. Partly because I feel that the level of detail your RP would all but require us to write in is a bit absurd, and partly because I am a horrible writer, and, well, reflecting on that gets me depressed.