Pencils & Crayons
You remember that man, the one who has appeared in your dreams since you were young. He who was covered in darkness, always there like a silent guardian. Throughout your life you excelled wonderfully at the the arts more than others, whether it was music, writing, drawing, you were better, it almost seemed unreal.
Then one night, he caught up to you but he did not harm you. He sat at the end of your bed and although you were surprised by his appearance, you were not afraid. He was...familiar. Like a close family member or trusted friend. And for the first time, he spoke to you.
“We have been watching you. We’ve always been watching you. And what we see impresses us. But we know you are capable of much more. So that is why we have chosen to help you. We have a gift for you and a proposal. The gift and the proposal go hand in hand.”
A shadow detached from the wall, you are shocked to realise it is your own shadow, having risen out of the shadow of your bed cast by the light of the moon outside the window. It approaches, its form translucent and insubstantial to your eyes. It produces something from the folds of darkness that make it up. A notebook. A black notebook with red edging around the pages. The shadow hands the notebook to the man and you cannot help but follow the path of the book. A glance back and your shadow is back on the wall, seated in the shadow of your bed as it had always been.
You turn back to the man. He holds the notebook in his pale left hand and taps it gently against the slender tips of the fingers of his right hand.
“This is our gift to you. And our proposal is that you devote your artistic efforts to this notebook alone. No first drafts on scraps of paper, no doodles on the edges of your textbooks, no typing on your computer. It must go here and only here.”, he waves the notebook in the air between you, “What’s in it for you? Well, that’s the easy part. You will find your skills enhanced far beyond your wildest imaginings. You shall construct worlds of your own devising, sculpt legacies that shall stand for centuries and create magic unlike any the world has ever seen, or shall ever see again. Do you accept?”
You cannot find the words to accept, your throat seems incapable of creating sounds, your tongue unable to form words. Instead you reach out for the notebook and take it with eager hands. You reach to your nightstand and flick on the lamp. The man is gone, your shadow diminished by the lamp. You pick up the pencil you keep by your bed to jot down late-night inspirations and set to work.
“The bargain is made”, a disembodied voice says on the edge of your concentration, swiftly lost to the creative process you devote to the page.
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If you wish to join or have any questions/concerns please post below after you read everything.
- FAQ:
1. What is this game about?
A: This game has no story, the above intro was just fun, the concept and goal of this game is to have no main threads, or set plot. The goal is to be able to use characters in any way we want and not be railroaded.
2. If that is the cause how will anything get done?
A: If you require a Storyteller to interact with you then this game is not for you. Since in this game you can make a skit in any genre, we will obviously have approved settings/locations before they can be used with basic/advanced information that anyone can create to allow characters to function. So you’ll be able to submit settings and players will have reasonable control over the environment.
3: Can you give us an example?
A: Sure:
The group of players woke up to a dark abandoned house. You typically wait for the ST to respond and tell you something happens, like the door suddenly opening but that is not the case here.
A player/character could, for example, say that through the eyes of his or her characters the door opened on its own without any ST interaction. So yes, players/characters will have reasonable control in their appropriate skit, it’s up to the players to coordinate and decide where they want it to go and play out.
Example 2: A character suddenly remembered that there was a great massacre in the city and now it’s a part of that setting.
4. What if someone godmods or abuses this kind of power/trust?
A: I will step in, even though I’m not telling a story(Because I want to play as a player) I can reject/not approve characters and ask someone to leave if enough people so desire or they do something completely outrageous.
5. Since this game will allow skits to be in any genre, like fantasy, sci-fi etc, do I have to make multiple characters?
A: No, you can make a character for just a fantasy setting if you so desire, or create modifications to your sheet in the form of “Addons” to make your character fit in other genres but the basic personality must still apply. Likewise you can submit as many characters as you want for each setting, you don’t have to use the same one or modify it.
There are no player/character limits.
6. What kind of settings can we use for each genre?
A: Whatever you want, you’ll just have to submit it ingame so anyone can use it for their skits. For Fantasy, I will allow the use of Shards of Immortality and for Modern I will allow my version of Megalopolis since users have been asking for skits based in those settings, so if you have a character you can bring them over. I’ve also been working on another fantasy setting for this game and as well as one for every other genre. I also look forward to seeing what you guys create so we can have an endless supply of stories/settings to RP in.
You cannot submit a setting from another existing RP that you are not the storyteller of.
7. If players can control the environment like you say, can we control NPCs, Villains, etc?
A: Yes. NPCS will be NCCs(Neutral Controllable Characters) Meaning that anyone can control them through the eyes of their characters just like the environment and have them say/do things as long as they stay true to the character’s bio sheet.
8. What is the skit system?
A: The skit system will get it’s own tab, please head on over there. - Skits - Guide & Rules
A skit is a thread where you can roleplay with other player characters in a secluded setting. What this means is that a skit shouldn’t effect the main plot in anyway, but it is an excellent way to build up the relationships between your character and others.
The Space Time Continuum: I've had this asked to me many times before, and it has been a plague for all RPers on many different sites since the dawn of RPing. The biggest question that almost any RP can race and possibly end it is "What about time?" Using a system like the skits system where people can be in multiple skits at once would just blow up the universe and the real sure way of handling it is having everyone keep track of time in every single possible post in the game, of course that is virtually impossible, so I made another option and just decided to ignore time all together, that is where the mighty timeline comes in, our glorious beautiful timeline.
The Timeline is Almighty God:
The word of the timeline is absolute, if something got added here, then it cannot be broken by any skit to help preserve the continuity of the game and to prevent from anyone breaking the story. This does not mean that every skit will be added here, this is to allow players to be in as many skits as they want and typically only threads labeled "Main" will get added to the official time, that is however not to say that a successful or really good side adventure can't be added in, monologues and dialogue will also be added in if they are relevant.
Example 1: A character is pretending to be nice or good or whatever moral system or word you believe in, then he makes a monologue thread discussing his inner thoughts and thinking about his true goals of murdering you all for being happy do gooders, then that will be added to the timeline as a relevant character development, to note down when it happened in relation to other events.
Example 2: If an important NPC died, a skit cannot undo that. Nor can a skit revisit a part of the timeline, that gets confusing really fast.
Example 3: The timeline's setup will vary between games and storytellers but for Megalopolis it will list each chapter and what happened, side adventures and other skits will fall into place between the time skips of different chapters unless they were crucial to the current chapter.
Example Setup:
Chapter 1:
-Meet Jane
-Meet John
-Important Monologue Skit that fit into chapter 1
-See Jane Run
-See John Run
-End of Chapter-
-Side Adventure 1-
-Side Adventure 2-
-Other Skits-
Chapter 2
We will try to have a timeline for each official setting in the game so we can know what has happened without reading dozens of threads.
There are Three types of skits you can participate in/create:
1. Side Adventure: These types of skits may be created by any player using an approved setting, they are more than just Monologues, Dialogue, and Duels. They are full fledged adventures and scenes within the setting of the game, that the thread creator gets to storyteller and control. If your side adventure is completed and awesome enough it could possibly be added to the timeline! Please poke the storyteller to ask him/her.
2. Monologue: These skits have only your character in it and are designed for them to discuss their feelings, thoughts, and opinions. No other characters will ‘hear’ what you say in these threads, and they are an excellent way to build a personality and feel of uniqueness to your character. A monologue could be a character talking about their ulterior motives, or keeping a journal about their adventure.
3. Dialogue: These skits are a conversation held between your character and another character. You can discuss topics and just hold fun conversations with them. A dialogue skit could be two characters discussing the meaning of life, or what their favourite food is.
4. Duel: A duel is a skit where your character and another character can duel and roleplay fighting each other, these duels are not part of the plot, and have not even taken place, it’s simply there for the fun of fighting with each other.
Of these, Duel is unique. Monologues and Dialogues have actually occurred or have meaning to the plot. (Your character actually did these things, said these things, talk to these people, etc…). In the case of a monologue, it’s more appropriate to state that they actually felt this way. A Duel however, is not related to the plot in any way, shape, or form. They are just for fun. You can die in a Duel – it doesn’t matter because it’s not ‘canon’.
When creating a skit, you need to follow proper naming conventions! This is as followed; you change the prefix to either monologue, dialogue, or duel,. Then, for the title, you would write it as YOUR CHARACTER NAME, OTHER CHARACTER, ETC.. - TITLE. So how would this look? A lot like this:
[side Adventure] Name of the adventure(Name those allowed or invited inside the thread, since these tend to have more then 2-3 people)
[Monologue] Jess - Journal
[Dialogue] Jess, Erik - Food for Thought
[Duel] Tal, Ren - Friendly Duel
You are free to read any skits you want, however please respect the skit title. Unless you are labeled in it, you should not RP in that skit. As well, your character will not know anything that occurs in that skit unless they are told about it, or were there. - -Vitals-
Name: (If your character uses an alias/alter-ego name also state it)
Age:
Gender:
Setting: The main setting yourcharacter is created inexample, Megalopolis, Shards, other
Posting Color: This is the color of your dialog and thoughts, not your entire post.
Appearance: (Try to include Height, Weight and Overall appearance not just a picture)
Character Skills: (Advantageous Skills/powers depending on the setting, 1 major skill, 1 minor)
Major Skill 1:
Minor Skill 2:
Character Flaws: (Things your character is unskilled in, things that are ether their weaknesses or limitations.) You need to have 3 minimum disadvantage but you can have more if you want.
Disadvantage 1:
Disadvantage 2:
Disadvantage 3:
-Personal-
Motivation: (Character motivations will be utilized to shape and determine the plot)What are your motivations and goals(Your goal no matter how secretive must be posted here, characters are expected to not cheat and not use out of character knowledge), if they ever change that will be documented in your character thread.
Profession: (What does your Character do for a living, if none explain why?)
Interests and Hobbies: (What does your character do outside of their profession)
Common Behaviors and Mannerisms: (These are things such as what your character does when they are stressed, angry or bored, that helps add to people's understanding of them)
Personality: (Is he/she an Optimistic? Are they easily stressed? - etc.)
Opinions: How you view the current state of the city, any group, individual etc, anything can go here, but you must have an opinion of something.
History: (How your character grew up and was treated, from birth until present)
-Addons-
Do you want to use your character in a setting that it was not intended for? Like a fantasy character in a scifi?
Please use the same character template but in tabs for each addon you want and change the character’s bio accordingly, including skills, powers(depending if the setting even has powers) equipment, history to fit that setting, etc.