So with my time I need to devote every day to FF14 dwindling to a few hours each morning and night (thankfully x-x) and the general lack of other activity in my life for at least a month or two, and the sheer volume of ideas and concepts floating through my head on a daily basis, I've come to the conclusion that I really wanna role play again with you guys. I miss it. Not sure how many are still active or what, but I have two possible ideas I might wanna turn into role plays if there's anyone who'd actually be interested in joining up with either one. Both of them are loosely based on previous concepts/ideas I've worked with in the past, but considering my own lack of discipline to sit down and write fiction and my literal inability to create a game from scratch on my own, I figured role play would be the best way to bring one of these stories to life.
[ IDEA #1 ]
Codename: Crossover
The world is Earth, more or less as we know it. 21st century, age of technology, all that jazz. The main wrench in the setup is the presence of these... Void Pockets as we have come to call them. They lead to other places - alternate worlds parallel to but entirely different from our own. Earth happens to be the only world throughout the multiverse to be experiencing such odd phenomena - ignoring those in which portals TO EARTH appear. Each of these alternate worlds come with different names and are each populated by strange and exotic creatures - some friendly, some sentient, some malevolent; it runs the whole gamut. Most of the population of Earth remains unaware that these things exist.
They are the things that go bump in the night - the monsters under the bed, the scratching at your windows... passing shadows in the night... perhaps even your best friend. The Otherworlders come in all shapes and sizes (I'd only be defining a small handful of possibilities myself, to showcase the endless possibility in creating new lifeforms) and have gotten good at avoiding detection on this side.
The Coalition of the Strange and Mysterious (COTSAM) has tasked itself with preservation of the peace and the rectification of any and all Malevolent and Strange Anomalies (MASAs) on Earth. They are a coalition from across worlds - some are Human but most are not. Their self-given task takes them to all corners of the globe and pits them against infiltrators as tiny as ants to those large enough to topple cities with a swing of their globulous tendrils.
One such incident serves as the impetus for the story, as a matter of fact. You would be a new recruit to COTSAM tasked with investigating and rectifying this event. I have a very vague concept of where such a role play could go, but it will largely be open-ended and based 100% in role play. Statistics will not be calculated; there will be no D&D dice rolling or any shit like that. Combat will be minimal and based more on using your surroundings to advantage against creatures and beings you've never dreamed could exist. So yeah.
Also of note is that each person who signs up would be allowed to (but not required to) create their own race of sentient creature from beyond the void. You would also not be required to make your character a member of said race, even if you choose to create one. You could even just make up a race and make no character, if that's what you'd prefer. I will make it a point to include every creature everyone dreams up in the overarching narrative (if one even exists), no matter how ridiculous the critters are.
This one would be really casual and kinda fun; designed in such a way where people could participate at their own pace, not really requiring anyone to wait for anyone else, since it would be open-ended, rather than battle-to-battle.
Naturally, its core concepts would be mystery and discovery. There's a few big questions that you all are likely asking, including:
Why is Earth so special? Why is it the nexus of all of these infinite worlds?
If the Otherworlders are so peculiar and unique, what is it about Humans that is so intriguing?
Why would Otherworlders even be attempting to save a world that is not their own?
Hm. All these and more would be addressed if the role play gets any legs. :D
[ IDEA #2 ]
Codename: Walkers
This one is more fantasy-oriented. The world is a relatively medieval setting, with people living with straw roofs in villages or stone walls and parapets in the larger cities. Commerce is carried out largely by overland travel or shipping lanes up and down the coast. We would only be seeing one rather large continent in the world and what happens there.
Legends from the old world long before the age of Kings and Kingdoms speak of those called Beastwalkers - ones who walked with beasts as equals. The magics that let them commune with the beasts have been long since forgotten - relegated to naught more than myth and legend... except in the farthest reaches of the world. Nestled deep within forests, in the untouched realms of the world lie hamlets filled with the old magic - though they have recently given up their old traditions when the last generation of Beastwalkers were conscripted to a war their King declared - a war they knew nothing about and a war in which they had no stake. But it was conscript or be put to the sword. Most chose the former.
They left behind stories for their children who were then too young to grasp what it was to walk with beasts. The elders have become old - most have died. The stories are all but gone from the villages, and it's up to this new generation to pick up the pieces and move on. Their parents have abandoned them to fight for who knows what - and none ever returned. Their elders have fallen. They are practically alone, holding up a village they have no stake in all on their own.
When something amazing happens.
The last of the elders decided to hold a contest - a competition among the youth to determine who would succeed them in ruling the village when they passed on. This test was simple. Head deep into the forest and bring back the horn of a mature Salamander. Whosoever returned with the horn first would be crowned the new chief - the others would be his or her subjects - it was simply a means of maintaining order once the elders were gone.
However, a small collection of the children - those whose parents chose the sword, rather than the war, had a sort of inheritance. Something their parents left behind, but was mostly meaningless. A blank journal. Each of them had one, and each had filled it with doodles and writings and chronicles of their adventures in the forest and in growing up. They all kept it on their person at all times; it was all they had of their parents. The only real family they had left.
And during this challenge, this trek into the forest... something incredible would happen. Some might call it fate, others might call it coincidence. No matter which way you look at it, a new generation of Beastwalkers was about to be born.
You'd be one of those kids - aside from the journal and dead parents, you'd be completely free to do whatever you'd like in terms of reaction to their parents' sacrifice, how they feel about it, etc etc. This one would probably be stats-based, and would be a quasi monster-raising RP. You'd each get to invent a species of monster (if you'd like) within some relatively loose boundaries (certain sorts of skills they can have and "elements" they can be and whatnot) and I would draw concept art of each different type of monster to let people more easily decide which kinds they'd like to capture and raise! You'd obviously be able to name them and control them and give them a (silent) personality and all that.
It's loosely based off a game I was sort of tossing around possibly making, but it proved to be WAY too difficult for the limited time and manpower I was able to scrounge up at the time.
SO YEAH. I'm kind of partial to the first one because I've put more thought into it recently, but really both of them are my babies so I'd be totally happy doing either one. Or none. If you guys aren't up for it, I won't be upset, honest. :D I'll just end up writing the first into a novel eventually and the second will probably stay on the backburner until I can find a team and a platform to make it a reality as a video game... assuming neither of these go anywhere here lol. So if you're interested, let me know which you'd prefer! Lack of preference but interest in either is TOTALLY FINE! If it turns out to be pretty balanced, I'll go with the first idea, just to say.
