ariadna
Spider Lady
Loosely based on Game-of-Thrones-meets-House-of-Cards, allow me to introduce A Game of Cards!!
Just kidding, although House of Thrones doesn’t sound much better.
In a vaguely Renaissance-with-some-magic era where, while the arts flourished, literacy abounded, and the printing press gave rise to journalism, the feudal system held tight. Tensions simmer, and while both sides hope to avoid a boiling rebellion, it’s only a matter of time before the lid blows off the pot entirely. Either the intra-elite intrigue will lead them all to kill each other, or the journalist-spy network will spark a rebellion, or the recently-democratic neighbors to the west will invade and force their perceived equality though sheer military might. There is also, unbeknownst to the powers-that-be, a bastard child looking to claim their birthright, willing to side with whichever faction grants them the greatest chance of legitimacy. In these tumultuous times, will peace prevail? Probably not, after all, that wouldn’t make for a very good story. But I’m fond of the idea of a multi-faceted political intrigue story and I have a good setting I can recycle for this.
The plot will begin at an unofficial peace meeting held under the auspices of a gala. As nobody has officially declared war or rebellion, and it would be rude to imply otherwise, the powers-that-be (intentionally leaving vague as depending on player choice we could have a strong queen who called the meeting or an advisor that’s sleeping with both the king and the queen (who knows maybe they’re swingers) or a moron king who depends on his bastard daughter who hates him and called the meeting hoping to start displacing him or any of a million other story combinations) called the meeting. Everyone who’s anyone will be at this gala, whether they have a direct stake in the meeting or not, and many innocent bystanders could easily overhear a stray whisper, so even if your character wouldn’t have a reason to be there politically, they can still easily come to know too much and depending on player choice either become a vital member to the organizations or a moving target to be killed on sight once the faction discovers their knowledge.
I’m hoping for a decently sized group, after all, we need enough people with enough competing interests to make this work. Originality is encouraged, and this is a good place to try out those characters that were maybe a little too ~experimental~ for other RPs. I’m new to this site but I’ve been RPing for 6 years now and seriously GMing for about 3. You may notice I’m a bit old-fashioned sometimes due to this, as when I started a “character sheet” was called a “skelly” for “character skeleton” and I may still slip into outdated terms. One term change I am glad of though is the shift from literate to detailed, and I’ll be looking for fairly committed, semi-detailed to detailed posts. I’ve always found the implication that if someone doesn’t enjoy writing a full reply to every post that they’re “illiterate” to be a tad offensive so I like this new vocabulary!
Some roles I’d like to see filled before I go through and make a full thread:
*Leader of current nobility
*Leader of armed spy network (the whole journalist thing was half a joke, the details are up to you guys, but the idea of the powers of the unrestricted, militarily-backed press in an era before free speech was an understood right intrigues me personally)
*Neighboring diplomat
*Bastard child (royal parent may or may not know)
*Innocent bystander who knows too much
*Some sort of artistic character who may or may not be mad (think Hamlet, we should never know for sure, and when someone takes this role I’ll PM them about some secret-y secrets they know)
*2-3 generic assistant/friend/lover/arch-enemy/anyone-who-has-a-prior-relation-to-the-characters characters
Collaboration on backstories and such are encouraged! Doubling of roles where possible is also allowed but doubling only, no tripling. (IE the spy leader may be the neighboring diplomat with a convincing enough story as to how their personal and professional interests are so far apart, but not also the bastard child. I want people to be able to get creative, without taking away from someone else’s creativity.) You may have prior relations with as many characters as you like/can arrange! If you want to be lover to the king and hated by the neighboring diplomat because the two of them are secretly brothers and you, the leader of the spy network, broke off your engagement to the diplomat to be the king’s most recent in a string of mistresses and you can get everyone involved to agree to a consistent backstory, consider this my blessing to be as scandalous as you can imagine.
For questions, please don’t PM me, drop a comment here; it’ll bring the thread up higher and other people probably have the same question.
Just kidding, although House of Thrones doesn’t sound much better.
In a vaguely Renaissance-with-some-magic era where, while the arts flourished, literacy abounded, and the printing press gave rise to journalism, the feudal system held tight. Tensions simmer, and while both sides hope to avoid a boiling rebellion, it’s only a matter of time before the lid blows off the pot entirely. Either the intra-elite intrigue will lead them all to kill each other, or the journalist-spy network will spark a rebellion, or the recently-democratic neighbors to the west will invade and force their perceived equality though sheer military might. There is also, unbeknownst to the powers-that-be, a bastard child looking to claim their birthright, willing to side with whichever faction grants them the greatest chance of legitimacy. In these tumultuous times, will peace prevail? Probably not, after all, that wouldn’t make for a very good story. But I’m fond of the idea of a multi-faceted political intrigue story and I have a good setting I can recycle for this.
The plot will begin at an unofficial peace meeting held under the auspices of a gala. As nobody has officially declared war or rebellion, and it would be rude to imply otherwise, the powers-that-be (intentionally leaving vague as depending on player choice we could have a strong queen who called the meeting or an advisor that’s sleeping with both the king and the queen (who knows maybe they’re swingers) or a moron king who depends on his bastard daughter who hates him and called the meeting hoping to start displacing him or any of a million other story combinations) called the meeting. Everyone who’s anyone will be at this gala, whether they have a direct stake in the meeting or not, and many innocent bystanders could easily overhear a stray whisper, so even if your character wouldn’t have a reason to be there politically, they can still easily come to know too much and depending on player choice either become a vital member to the organizations or a moving target to be killed on sight once the faction discovers their knowledge.
I’m hoping for a decently sized group, after all, we need enough people with enough competing interests to make this work. Originality is encouraged, and this is a good place to try out those characters that were maybe a little too ~experimental~ for other RPs. I’m new to this site but I’ve been RPing for 6 years now and seriously GMing for about 3. You may notice I’m a bit old-fashioned sometimes due to this, as when I started a “character sheet” was called a “skelly” for “character skeleton” and I may still slip into outdated terms. One term change I am glad of though is the shift from literate to detailed, and I’ll be looking for fairly committed, semi-detailed to detailed posts. I’ve always found the implication that if someone doesn’t enjoy writing a full reply to every post that they’re “illiterate” to be a tad offensive so I like this new vocabulary!
Some roles I’d like to see filled before I go through and make a full thread:
*Leader of current nobility
*Leader of armed spy network (the whole journalist thing was half a joke, the details are up to you guys, but the idea of the powers of the unrestricted, militarily-backed press in an era before free speech was an understood right intrigues me personally)
*Neighboring diplomat
*Bastard child (royal parent may or may not know)
*Innocent bystander who knows too much
*Some sort of artistic character who may or may not be mad (think Hamlet, we should never know for sure, and when someone takes this role I’ll PM them about some secret-y secrets they know)
*2-3 generic assistant/friend/lover/arch-enemy/anyone-who-has-a-prior-relation-to-the-characters characters
Collaboration on backstories and such are encouraged! Doubling of roles where possible is also allowed but doubling only, no tripling. (IE the spy leader may be the neighboring diplomat with a convincing enough story as to how their personal and professional interests are so far apart, but not also the bastard child. I want people to be able to get creative, without taking away from someone else’s creativity.) You may have prior relations with as many characters as you like/can arrange! If you want to be lover to the king and hated by the neighboring diplomat because the two of them are secretly brothers and you, the leader of the spy network, broke off your engagement to the diplomat to be the king’s most recent in a string of mistresses and you can get everyone involved to agree to a consistent backstory, consider this my blessing to be as scandalous as you can imagine.
For questions, please don’t PM me, drop a comment here; it’ll bring the thread up higher and other people probably have the same question.
