Realistic or Modern Gauging interest for a small, political intrigue focused story.

[CryoLilly]

Very specific, I know, but bear with me... This post got longer than I meant it to.

In Short: I'm looking to get together with a small group of people who are interested in political intrigue. Specifically in a relatively low fantasy or urban fantasy setting. I'd love to include some magic or supernatural elements but I'm quite flexible on how much we'd want to have. I'd love this to be a collaborative venture in world building, political intrigue, courts and kingdoms, and long lasting story arcs. If any of that sparks your interest, please read on. Now... what the hell do I mean by all of that?

What do I mean by...

Note: These might well be obvious but I want to go into this stuff anyway to start off on the same page.

Collaborative World Building: I love to world build. But more than that, I love to talk about worlds, and build them through that. So the idea would be to have a group discussion about things we want to see in the world, and the way those elements interplay. One big part of this will be trying to keep a sort of "Yes, and" mentality, to steal a phrase from improv. I know as well as anybody that it can be super easy to get an idea in your head about what you want out of a world and try to stick to it, but because it's a group developed world, I'm going to resist ever saying outright 'no' to something, and I'll hope anybody involved joins me in that.

Political Intrigue: Well, first off I want to make sure nobody thinks I'm talking about IRL politics here. While politics has a play in everything we do, that is very much not the focus of this stuff. No, instead I want to write about things like the maneuvering of different players in royal courts. It's a little obvious of an example, but think of some of the plot elements of Game of Thrones. A noblewoman gathering support by spreading carefully crafted lies, or maybe even truths, about the royal advisor who opposed her suggestion before the royal family. Courts are usually the most obvious example, but I'm also interested in more modern and urban fantasy settings for building social power. Think Vampire the Masquerade if you're familiar.

How will this work?

One of the biggest and most obvious challenges to a collaborative story like this, especially one focused on intrigue is how to keep things secret from one another. Especially in political intrigue. If the story is built around the idea of deals wrought in shadow and secrecy, but we all know what is happening in the world and decide together on how the NPCs behave, how does that work? Well the simple answer is probably trust. Trusting people not to metagame too hard on this stuff, and trying to be conscious of the fact that we are not our characters. But we can also do a few things to help with that, for one things, PMs can help to keep communication between two characters quiet, though for the benefit of everyone involved, it might be worthwhile mentioning if two characters are having those private, In Character conversations. I'm sure there are lots of other ways we can handle this and I'm very open to suggestions.

Now onto the meat of things. First of all OOC communication will probably be the bread and butter of this stuff, and absolutely crucial to get it to work well. This means that before we start, talking about what the world is like, figuring out some major players, and then developing characters to slot into that. In terms of NPCs and how they behave, they'll probably be controlled by everyone involved, but the person to first conceptualize them should have some weight in deciding things about that character. We'll probably have to come up with some amount of history for them, private motivations and goals, but how deep we go into that probably depends on how much we want to do about it, and how big a part that character plays, it's not like we need to make Jimmy the stable hand a complex and well developed character when for the most part he's really just set dressing.

The Setting

So I've dropped a couple hints as to what my inclination for the setting would be, but it's also going to be up to us as a group to figure it out. Personally I'm torn.

My first thought is of a sort of low fantasy setting, with some amount of magic, set in the royal court of a king or queen, involving the influence of neighbouring nations, and the interests of nobility holding land. We'd probably be playing some mid level characters trying to expand our influence and manipulate those above and below us, for our own interests, or even altruistic ones.

The second thought would be something more along the lines of a Vampire the Masquerade like setting, urban fantasy with supernatural elements forming the stage on which to play out similar things to the above concept. In this case, I imagine it might be more fun to play characters a little newer onto the scene trying to build power and break into the structures in place that until recently were veiled from their awareness.

In either case we'll have to figure out the rules of the setting, what kind of magic and supernatural elements we want, and what the power structures are. As a note I'm not particularly motivated to angle this towards romance from the get go, but that doesn't mean it's not a possible story beat for any of our characters, it's probably another one of those things to talk about.

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And that's about all I got for now. If any of the above ideas interest you guys, or if you have your own that reading this sparked, let me know! I just have this loose concept for now and I'd love to play around with it and come up with something more solid that we can use for our setting. Thanks for getting this far!

 

[diracdelta]

Super interested! Moreso in the urban fantasy setting, but I wouldn't mind running with the low fantasy royal court idea either.

 

[_Wander]

Generally anything with intrigue is a win.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Yessssss, I love everything about this. Both potential settings sound very fun!

 

[CryoLilly]

That's really good to hear! Frankly this would be an experiment for me since I've never tried to do anything like this, I imagine it'll be a bit of work for everyone involved, but fun work at least ^^

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Bump

 

[CryoLilly]

Alright so, today I'm going to go ahead and throw together something... I don't want to call it an application because it isn't really, it's not like we can totally come up with characters right off the bat with no ideas, and I don't really want to make it into a vetting process. I guess a form? Anyway something to fill out and get our expectations set and get an idea for what we'll be doing. And then I'll make a thread for worldbuilding! Right now it looks like we might be leaning more towards Urban Fantasy.

 

[_Wander]

Coolio.

 

[CryoLilly]

Alright here's a rough questionnaire about what we'll be doing. Let me know if you have any questions, or think something should be added. They're kinda vague and wishy-washy so I'll fill one of these out too as an example. Most of these are the kinds of things people would talk about in a session 0 of a tabletop RPG campaign, and that's kinda the queue I'm taking.

What kinds of tropes or elements from Urban Fantasy do you like and are interested in exploring?

Similarly, what do you not like or want to avoid with regards to Urban Fantasy?

What scale of characters do you want to play? (Street level people new to the world and trying to get by? People working in or even near the tops of established power structures? That sort of thing)

What kind of supernatural or magical elements do we want or not want specifically?

How widespread or known are those magical/supernatural phenomena?

How much do we want them to interact?

What do you want to get out of this RP?

Anything else you want to bring up in this vein?

To steal terminology I've heard a few times, do you have any lines or veils we should all respect as players? (lines being hard limit "No I do not want this to be a part of the game" Veils being "if this happens let's be sure to fade to black before we get into it" You don't need to explain yourself for these, and obviously we'll also be operating within the rules of the site)

I hope all that makes sense and it's a good sort of.. starting point to actually get into the meat of this stuff. It's fine not to have long answers to everything, of course, I'm not expecting an essay here, but do think on them and if you have more thoughts feel free to update these, or just say so.

 

[Jigajig]

I am intrigued .o.

 

[CryoLilly]

Realistically I'm pretty flexible on most of this stuff, but here are my thoughts!

What kinds of tropes or elements from Urban Fantasy do you like and are interested in exploring?
- So generally I love both the sort of secret world elements of Urban Fantasy as well as the like... Openly integrated ones. They both have their strengths and weaknesses if I'm honest. Obviously the second takes a bit more worldbuilding but it can also be incredibly interesting. All the same I think I'm more leaning towards the side of an obscured world by a Masquerade or something similar, where there is this undercurrent of supernatural power, but most people are able to go through life unaware of it, and that includes the added balance of characters making sure that things stay that way.

- My favourite trope in anything like this is that... the magic, the supernatural, all of these elements are very powerful, but they are also very dangerous. You know, you can use magic but it has a huge cost to you as a person. Maybe you're a vampire but that's just as dangerous to you as it is to the world around you.

- I also like the intersections that Urban fantasy can have with like... punk genres and noir and such. Urban fantasy can be a lot like, say, Cyberpunk (the genre not the game) where instead of struggling with the impact of technology on us and on power structures, it's magic.

Similarly, what do you not like or want to avoid with regards to Urban Fantasy?
- I'm not totally sure on this one at the moment, but I'll circle back if something comes up.

What scale of characters do you want to play?
- I'm all for very ground level, almost inconsequential characters who are kind of new to the scene or for whatever reason haven't been maneuvering for much in the way of power. I personally think that when you're trying to kind of eke out your own agenda under the feet of significantly more powerful structures which barely care about you. This plays into the first question, in that I think including some elements of punk genres, which is to say pushing back as small characters against oppressive powers in the world and trying to create a space where they can operate more freely.

What kind of supernatural or magical elements do we want or not want specifically?
- I love Vampires and magic both, like a lot.
- For Vampires I want to be careful. Personally I don't want to be playing exclusively a power fantasy, going back to question 1 you know, I want it to be a balance of the danger of losing control of yourself, or exposing yourself and being destroyed contrasted with the power that that comes with
- The same goes for things like magic, maybe witches if we want to include them, where magic can do amazing things but it's also not entirely safe, it's not something you're ever going to have perfect control over and it always has a cost.

How widespread or known are those magical/supernatural phenomena?
- I think I'd like there to be.. quite a lot going on under the surface, but none of it being super well known. Personally I think the most interesting thing to do is to have all of these elements of the supernatural but typically you'd only get to experience what is within your sphere and more vaguely know of things outside of it.

How much do we want them to interact?
- I think it makes the most sense for these elements to have some overlap, and a lot of friction. Competition and differing ends and opinions would probably make it so there is some conflict, but it has to be kept quiet to some measure, and definitely secrecy, with no group knowing too much about one another, since that can lend an edge to one side.

What do you want to get out of this RP?
- I want the opportunity to write, mostly, to get out long posts, talk about world building and create interesting characters and compelling stories through their interactions. That's really the gist of it.

- Honestly I don't have any specific goals beyond that but hell I watched some people do a short run Vampire the Masquerade campaign not long ago and I loved the atmosphere of it, and I love the maneuvering you have to do around these much more powerful people if you play as relatively weak and new to the scene characters so hell I'm even willing to swap to doing this using dice in that system if that's what people are interested in.

Anything else you want to bring up in this vein?
- I think I've said most of the stuff I want to

To steal terminology I've heard a few times, do you have any lines or veils we should all respect as players?
- I can't really think of anything much right now but I'll let you guys know if I do.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

What kinds of tropes or elements from Urban Fantasy do you like and are interested in exploring?

I also really love how uf can have a lot of cross over with other genres, especially the punk ones. (I have a love/hate relationship with Shadowrun specifically because it's so close to what i want, and yet so far.) I'm really interested in magic as a weapon of the disenfranchised and exploring that.

As far as doing the Masquerade or not, I feel like a lot of works that involve it don't really explore why it's there, which is something I'd want to do if we go that direction. Why don't wizards or vampires rule the world openly? It's an interesting question!

Similarly, what do you not like or want to avoid with regards to Urban Fantasy?

I am...not super interested in werewolves or vampires, and especially not werewolves vs vampires. It's very overdone. If we come up with an interesting twist I'm down to explore, but I'm not super likely to make my pc either one.

I also don't like D&D style hermetic magic so much. I like magic that's messy and weird and maybe doesn't always work the way it's supposed to. The D&D style stuff is easier to play, sure, but it just...stops feeling like magic.

Also, I absolutely HATE the trope that magic and technology don't mix. Let wizards do emoji spells you cowards!!

What scale of characters do you want to play? (Street level people new to the world and trying to get by? People working in or even near the tops of established power structures? That sort of thing)

I'm very about street level folks, especially using this as a world building exercise. People with fewer resources do much more interesting things with magic. Anyone can be a witch with a runic knife; it takes real skill to be a witch with an apple corer, as the late great Terry Pratchett once said.

What kind of supernatural or magical elements do we want or not want specifically?

I'm a big fan of folklore creatures, really weird monsters, and things that used to be human but aren't anymore. I like weird magical and/or cursed artifacts, street magic (sigils in spray paint on the subway walls, divination in the coffee grounds at a barista job, leaving offerings for the old gods behind the Dumpster at the Denny's) and immortals who are having an EXCELLENT time. I like dreams that are more than dreams and doors that shouldn't be and secret places with power.

My favorite sorts of magic are tinged with horror; I think they're two sides of the same coin and at their best when you can feel a little of both.

How widespread or known are those magical/supernatural phenomena?

I always love the idea that magic can bleed out into the mundane world. That most people don't or can't notice, but sometimes they'll spot it. And the more you look at magic, the more it looks back at you. That if you do see it, you might never be able to unsee it.

How much do we want them to interact?

I think if we go for the masquerade I'd like that little bit of bleed--the handful of mundane folks who are in the know, or who saw something once--but most folks don't know. But then again, maybe some folks at the top of the food chain are pulling strings in the mundane world too...

What do you want to get out of this RP?

I like to be friends with my rp partners! I'd like to have this as a weird big world we work on together, at whatever pace is comfy, and build it up into something for mutual delight. I want to have fun and write things to make the other players have entire emotions, and to have whole emotions at things they write.

Anything else you want to bring up in this vein?

This seems like a good spot to mention my personal touchstones for uf, which include anything Charles de Lint wrote about Newford, Neverwhere, the Dresden Files, Tithe, the Raven Cycle, Ninth House, the Night Circus and the Starless Sea, and regrettably, Supernatural. Also Discworld, which is not traditional urban fantasy, but has exactly the right spirit.

To steal terminology I've heard a few times, do you have any lines or veils we should all respect as players?

The only thing I don't like to rp out is covered by the site's rules, so we're good lol.

 

[Jigajig]

What kinds of tropes or elements from Urban Fantasy do you like and are interested in exploring?

An entire world hidden in plain view would certainly be an interesting concept to go into. Real power players keeping it all in order and hidden. Underdogs making moves and such potentially causing trouble and vying for power. Big ole yes from me. That sort of potential gritty noir sort of thing would be pretty nifty too. In fact this reminds me of of the book series Darkside by Tom Becker. A whole other world hidden in London; a world run by Jack the Ripper's family, where all sorts of odd things live. It's a truly great series if you haven't read it :p

Similarly, what do you not like or want to avoid with regards to Urban Fantasy?

Ehh not 100% sure as of yet to be honest.

What scale of characters do you want to play? (Street level people new to the world and trying to get by? People working in or even near the tops of established power structures? That sort of thing)

Any scale to be fair. Be it a newbie on the block or someone who is established into the high society of the world. Both have such great potential to weave an intricate web of stories

What kind of supernatural or magical elements do we want or not want specifically?

Vampires most certainly. Werewolves? Perhaps. Magic, but of course, witches/warlock could be a thing as well. Or maybe even none of these whatsoever and we go a completely different route. I'm easy and will go with the flow of what is wanted in regards to that. I mean American Gods certainly could be an inspiration.
How widespread or known are those magical/supernatural phenomena?

Having most if not everything hidden from the world would be good. A secret world hidden, with a lot going on behind the scenes, with whatever we decide to be living along side humans. Perhaps there could be the odd human here and there who know about it some it of, either by accident or who having going looking on purpose. The true extent of power of course could be reserved for those that truly hold it, whilst those newer to the scene may only interact within their social circles... for now anyway.

How much do we want them to interact?

Oh interaction will definitely be there. Just how, when and where is the question. Would some of it be openly, or perhaps all in the shadows? Is that mad rambler talking about seeing some strange creature in the night in a dark alleyway mad... or is he telling the truth? A mask hides the world behind it, but a mask can crack and things begin to be shown for what they truly are.

What do you want to get out of this RP?

Why a truly wonderful and fun time of course! To help build a world setting and to get to make new friends

Anything else you want to bring up in this vein?

This reminds me of of the book series Darkside by Tom Becker. A whole other world hidden in London; a world run by Jack the Ripper's family, where all sorts of odd things live. It's a truly great series if you haven't read it :p

To steal terminology I've heard a few times, do you have any lines or veils we should all respect as players? (lines being hard limit "No I do not want this to be a part of the game" Veils being "if this happens let's be sure to fade to black before we get into it" You don't need to explain yourself for these, and obviously we'll also be operating within the rules of the site)

Hmm I think most of that stuff is common sense

 

[diracdelta]

What kinds of tropes or elements from Urban Fantasy do you like and are interested in exploring?

I love when urban fantasy explores petty, mundane themes with fantastical beings while preserving their intrinsic otherworldliness—office politics in heaven and hell, businesses doing normal business things but serving supernatural customers (e.g., DoorDash for shut-in vampires? maybe they lobby every year to lower human slaughter regulations intended to preserve the masquerade!), powerful magicians who're still paying off student loan debt from the prestigious school of magic they attended, that kind of thing.​

​

I also really like the "secret world" angle where supernatural creatures are living alongside humans, but the latter are for the most part unaware.​

Similarly, what do you not like or want to avoid with regards to Urban Fantasy?

I don't like when there's only one system of magic with very strict rules governing how it works; I think it's more fun when there are multiple disciplines and they're all very different in terms of usage, capabilities, and accessibility.​

What scale of characters do you want to play?

Either street-level characters or characters in the middle of the supernatural hierarchy, where they're by no means new to the scene, but they still have superiors or elders who can and regularly do boss them around.​

What kind of supernatural or magical elements do we want or not want specifically?

• Magic is always neat to have in a setting, especially when it's not just this thing you bust out for grand rituals but something that's incorporated into people's day-to-day life or professions. (I played Max Gladstone's Choice of the Deathless a while back, and ever since I've been obsessed with the concept of magical contract lawyers.)
• I really enjoy fairies when they're whimsical, unreasonable, and very, very dangerous. Bonus points for Seelie/Unseelie Court politics!
• Ditto for godly pantheons.
• In general, I appreciate diversity in urban fantasy settings; even better when they're diverse in the sense that they aren't just pulling from a pool of Eurocentric creature myths.

How widespread or known are those magical/supernatural phenomena?

I like the idea of a world big enough and weird enough that unless you're very old or it's part of your job to know, you probably won't be aware of all the groups you're sharing it with.​

How much do we want them to interact?

I think it'd be interesting if that depended on individual groups, so some might be deeply intertwined while others are strictly isolationist.​

What do you want to get out of this RP?

I want to build a strange and sprawling world with other people, and then have fun exploring the lives of the characters we populate it with!​

Anything else you want to bring up in this vein?

Not really, no!​

To steal terminology I've heard a few times, do you have any lines or veils we should all respect as players?

Nothing's coming to mind, so probably not? If that ever changes, I'll be sure to bring it up.​

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

(I played Max Gladstone's Choice of the Deathless a while back, and ever since I've been obsessed with the concept of magical contract lawyers.)

Oh I LOVE this idea!!

 

[CryoLilly]

^ Ditto on that. I love the idea of magic lawyers in general. And of people like... Writing up contracts to keep monkey-paw like magical power in check and doing what they want.

Thank you guys so much for your thoughts. This is already feeling like a great starting off point for a cool weird world.

 

[ChaosBisexualPirate]

What kinds of tropes or elements from Urban Fantasy do you like and are interested in exploring?

I am actually interested in trying to do like an obscure to the general public, but the highest echelons of society and government know of this secret supernatural/magical world.

Similarly, what do you not like or want to avoid with regards to Urban Fantasy?

Just the general idea of a girl/boy/non-binary friend being a half breed and suddenly being involved in the politics and culture without knowing what is going on, and being put up to the pedestal of the world. (I.e. mortal instruments, twilight)

What scale of characters do you want to play? (Street level people new to the world and trying to get by? People working in or even near the tops of established power structures? That sort of thing)

I think having both types of PC's makes for a dynamic and diverse universe, but it's a lot more fun to play from the ground up.

What kind of supernatural or magical elements do we want or not want specifically?

Different magical creatures, magical beings, the whole shebang.

How widespread or known are those magical/supernatural phenomena?

Most of them should be regional, with more humanoid creatures being more widespread (like any species)

How much do we want them to interact?

Very high interaction rate. The more RP the better.

What do you want to get out of this RP?

I hope to meet some very interesting people, and try to further develop my writing skills.

 

[CryoLilly]

Discord wasn't the plan, no. We absolutely could do some stuff on there, have conversation about the world building could work well on discord but I figure we'll mostly be using the forum and I'd imagine if we did those conversations we'd want to write up the lore for on the forum.

 

[diracdelta]

…This is a bit off-topic, but the game I mentioned is actually free to play once if anyone here likes the central conceit of magical law practice and wants to check it out! The book series it's tied to, the Craft Sequence, has some really fun worldbuilding, too.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Discord wasn't the plan, no. We absolutely could do some stuff on there, have conversation about the world building could work well on discord but I figure we'll mostly be using the forum and I'd imagine if we did those conversations we'd want to write up the lore for on the forum.

For general communication purposes discord is easier for me, I have a full time job with an internet filter that does not like rpn so i'm not on here much Sunday-Thursday. Definitely in favor of keeping lore in a contained page on the forums though!

 

[ChaosBisexualPirate]

Same. I'm a vet tech and can only be online on RPN while I am on my computer. Discord I can access on whichever device I have handy at the moments of my breaks in between shifts at the hospital.

 

[CryoLilly]

For general communication purposes discord is easier for me, I have a full time job with an internet filter that does not like rpn so i'm not on here much Sunday-Thursday. Definitely in favor of keeping lore in a contained page on the forums though!

Same. I'm a vet tech and can only be online on RPN while I am on my computer. Discord I can access on whichever device I have handy at the moments of my breaks in between shifts at the hospital.

Okay good to know! I can set something up for general communication for those who want to use it, that'll probably be helpful. Annd I'll try to set up some various pages on here and grab links for them. I totally get the struggle of a job where you can't check or reply to messages so no worries at all, and I'm not really the type to impose post requirements.

 

[ChaosBisexualPirate]

Oh great! I'd def be interested in RP this then!

 

[CryoLilly]

I think the RP and lore itself will probably make the most sense if it's on here though if that still work for you.

…This is a bit off-topic, but the game I mentioned is actually free to play once if anyone here likes the central conceit of magical law practice and wants to check it out! The book series it's tied to, the Craft Sequence, has some really fun worldbuilding, too.

I'll have to check this out, I used to love these choice of games.

 

[ChaosBisexualPirate]

…This is a bit off-topic, but the game I mentioned is actually free to play once if anyone here likes the central conceit of magical law practice and wants to check it out! The book series it's tied to, the Craft Sequence, has some really fun worldbuilding, too.

OMG I've actually played that game before! It's so good!