Environments/Atmospheres You're Interested in Writing About

[Jonathan Meer]

What are some environments/atmospheres that have been tugging on your mind lately, that you'd be interested in exploring and writing about? Be as explicit or as vague as you wish.

[Kayne]

I want to play around with more fantasy/scifi elements, perhaps some crime and drama. A healthy mix of Laurell K. Hamilton, Stieg Larsson and Dean Koontz. Writing fighting scenes has never really been my thing. I like intense situations, romance, and drama, but I do not want it to be too limited to real world boundaries.

[Sigfried Hunin]

I think it's interesting that you bring up the World of Darkness setting (Vampire the Masquerade, etc), because as far as a Pen and Paper system goes I hated it, but I always found myself a little bit in love with the setting. The balance of the different supernatural forces was always very delicate and interesting, vampires, werewolves, mages, etc. Only downside to this is that the world that it's in is VERY well structured, which might require all of the writers to learn a lot about the setting, and some might find it constrictive.

As far as I go, I really would like anything that creates an interesting world to explore and interesting questions to ask and perhaps answer. Like I said before, I much more enjoy a game where I can help contribute to world building, which kind of makes really really structured and specific mythologies unattractive to me.

Also, it's really important to me that there is a large variety of abilities or other options for me to use as a writer, which will allow me to be really creative with the way my characters interact. That makes giant robots kind of boring/repetitive, that makes too-realistic settings kind of boring, and it makes any game with a limited scope of powers/whatever boring or if the ability spectrum IS large, if we can only use them in specific ways. It also means that I like the options to write my own abilities.

I think that a lot of these factors are what draw people to anime-based play-by-posts and also magically based play-by-posts. They're both things that don't really have defined limits. I do think, however, that a more realistic super-hero forum could be fun. "Super heroes" is also a vague enough term that you can go in pretty much whatever direction you want with it. If you really wanted to, you could even set it in a canon universe like Marvel or DC. Just an idea.

[Jonathan Meer]

I think it's interesting that you bring up the World of Darkness setting (Vampire the Masquerade, etc), because as far as a Pen and Paper system goes I hated it, but I always found myself a little bit in love with the setting. The balance of the different supernatural forces was always very delicate and interesting, vampires, werewolves, mages, etc. Only downside to this is that the world that it's in is VERY well structured, which might require all of the writers to learn a lot about the setting, and some might find it constrictive.

As far as I go, I really would like anything that creates an interesting world to explore and interesting questions to ask and perhaps answer. Like I said before, I much more enjoy a game where I can help contribute to world building, which kind of makes really really structured and specific mythologies unattractive to me.

[/QUOTE]

I agree. This is one of the more difficult things to pull together; the last saga I ran (the invasion) was an attempt to let the player do the world-building, with only enough input from staff to keep the thing going (a libertarian's wet dream). It was a roaring success in some respects (basically, everything you guys did on earth), but with significant issues (Jarka's death didn't go over well, and most of the storylines off earth fizzled out).

Essentially, this is my plan:

We start with an environment/atmosphere. That's what this topic is for; gauging interest in what people want. From there, we generate the story communally. It's a democracy.

To structure the world, we use a dedicated RPG Discussion sub-forum to discuss the world and potential changes/expositions. The community discusses these items, and after a time, we take a vote. If a two-thirds majority approves the idea, then we consider it implemented in the world.

I'm confident it doesn't need to be any more structured than that, and I'm confident we can develop a vibrant and interesting world.

For my part, I'm rather interested in a dark, melancholic cyberpunk. Something like Deus Ex, but less noble.

[Sigfried Hunin]

Yeah, I had an idea like that would be well integrated into a board-based forum. You can propose ideas about how something works, an area or whatever, and it gets roughly hashed out, then we'd have a solid foundation and a large RECORD of events and world building stuff.

The only thing I'm afraid of is that the base foundations (environment) of the world won't be too restrictive. Cyberpunk is a good option because it takes a lot of the fantastic elements of the turn of the century "super science." I think one of the most important elements that the RPG world needs will be a "fantastic" element- where seemingly anything can (and will) happen.

[Blue]

I do enjoy me some cyberpunk. Been playing the 40k tabletop recently, and I've been enjoying it. Course, one of my favorite parts is that the PCs aren't all powerful beings of destruction with the world handed to them on a silver platter. Hell, we basically have to beg for ammo, which makes thinking outside the box to get around situations much more fulfilling. It was basically a survival game.

At the same time, I can understand how others feel about wanting to be able to do just about anything. Having a lot of options there can appeal to a large range of writers, since their imaginations are free to roam. Myself, I've always enjoyed having structure to my writing. Not saying other people don't come up with their own rules, but having those restrictions put down by someone else... I suppose I feel it's kind of like improv.

Maybe I'm rambling here, so I'll wrap things up. Survival-style something or another! I do like the cyber-punk theme, but I'd be good with almost anything.

[Dehan]

Zombie apocalypse. Walking Dead type of shit. Never heard of the Vampire Massages. I'll be happy to give it a read though if they have one at my library. Good with writing in a different environment/atmosphere that enables me to kind of do the hero or villain thing.

[Sigfried Hunin]

Well the starting point of power and the possibilities are totally different. Like, 40k is TOTALLY a fantastic setting and now that you mention it it would be a fucking BLAST to write in that setting.

I also thought of Full Metal Alchemist as an awesome setting to write in. Its all very vague, it has elements of technology and the whole alchemy aspect gives it almost unlimited possibilites. It's also fairly dark, which everyone seems to be wanting.

[Sophia]

If we're naming anime fandoms, I always thought Hunter x Hunter lends itself well to an RPG setting.

I like cyberpunk too, though. And please god no to zombies. :| I am so sick of them turning up everywhere in popular culture.

[Blue]

It's not that I want a dark setting per se. It's just that I want to write in a world where the goal isn't to be a god amongst men. When you roleplay weak characters against powerful corporations or deadly situations, there doesn't need to be fighting to make conflict. The conflict is there in all your writing because of the power-balance. I can only imagine how bored Kaden must have been back in his Raditzu days, being the most powerful guy around by a long shot. Give me something where I can struggle to survive against the odds and I'll be happy.

[Kaden]

Flexibility is what's most important. Whether it's high fantasy or sci-fi or anything in between, the world should be created such that a writer can go from their character running errands to saving a city without breaking flow.

One of my favorite plot/ex machina devices in games is when the developers create a parallel world where all of the action takes place. You see this in basically everything the Persona team makes. It was used to incredible artistic effect in DmC and, in general, allows to for creative opportunities for dramatic juxtaposition while also giving writers an easy way to do something like blow up a building. Hell, that's even the entire basis for the combat in LoL.

If I could wave my magic wand and change something about Chubbs' setting, it would be the scope. We made/left the universe too big. Part of that is a result of being tied in to DBZ, but I think there would have been a lot to gain from keeping the worlds limited to Earth exclusively. Again, since it's DBZ, that wouldn't have gone over well (wtf im a saiya-jin i want to go to vegeta! omg) but I think it would have benefited the overall health of the game.

If you're going to let characters have abilities/powers/whatever, they should be done in a way that not only lets the character feel unique, but also gives a sense of how that character fits in with the world around them. I actually really liked that about Anyria, because I thought I did a pretty job of keeping that in mind while creating the setting. That may not strictly be a "setting" thing, but it definitely impacts the atmosphere of the game as a whole.

[Vad]

I'd love to be a pilot of a gundam or some sort of aircraft. Robotech would work too.

I'd love to be a modern vampire living in some Giedi Prime type city.

I'd also really love writing a fictional story based on a rogue dark jedi living on Coruscant secretly. Having abandoned his light saber he only carries a blaster pistol now along with his arsenal of force powers that he rarely uses.

I might actually do that one, but meh.

[Jonathan Meer]

I'd also really love writing a fictional story based on a rogue dark jedi living on Coruscant secretly. Having abandoned his light saber he only carries a blaster pistol now along with his arsenal of force powers that he rarely uses.

I'd totes read that book.

Follow-up topic incoming

[Vad]

I'd totes read that book.

Follow-up topic incoming

I'd create fictional jedi masters on the council and such. The main idea is that he'll be discovered by the council and hunted. He has to convince the council that he's not a threat. Eventually he'd assist them, but that'd come later.

[Rafael]

I'd create fictional jedi masters on the council and such. The main idea is that he'll be discovered by the council and hunted. He has to convince the council that he's not a threat. Eventually he'd assist them, but that'd come later.

End result= ?

[Kaden]

One of my favorite ever RPGs was a Gundam RPG, actually. The concept touches a lot on what I was talking about when I mentioned parallel settings. It's easy to put battles in outer space or under water or otherwise barren wasteland/battlefields. You also have a lot of creative space to work with given the duality of a pilot being all-powerful behind the controls of a badass mech and just another squishy meatbag any other time.

[Jonathan Meer]

Digimon has a similar mechanic. I definitely think that'd be ideal for this group.

[Sigfried Hunin]

Even something like .hack has a strong duality and an intersting seperation of worlds, though now that its down I don't think Id be super into it xD

I don't know if Id get amped for Digimon, personally. Its just not something I can see myself getting invested in.

PS: though I do have the digimon title song stuck in my head now.

[Piper Juunanagou]

No matter what we may go with, I think I'd prefer a completely unique world, rather than something strictly rooted in an existing continuity.

[Jonathan Meer]

I'm not suggesting Digimon as the actual world we write in. I'm with Piper; whatever we do should be strictly custom.