| Roleplaying Idea Construction |
Alright, I have been trying to think of a way to figure out what kinds of RPs to make. It would solve some internal issues here and there and make things hopefully popular so that they do not die. I will list ideas basically in a kind of layout to put one together.
Time Periods
-Medieval(Blades, Bows, Horses, Castles, etc)
-Steampunk(Early 1900s with modern or future aspects mixed in).
-Modern
-Futuristic(Spaceships, advanced technology, etc)
-Other(Other time periods that I did not list)
Genre(Select One or more)
-Fantasy(Magic, elves, dwarves, giants, trolls, etc. Takes place in mystical and mythical locations with races and abilities that do not exist in reality. Can basically allow anything to happen.)
-Fiction(Realistic, yet have never happened in history. Can be really about anything. Wars that never happened, people that never existed, etc).
-Drama(Centers less on combat and more on character development. Deals mainly with characters. Can center around tragedies and how these characters deal with them).
-Comedy(Centers more on the humorous side of things. Not very serious storyline, more characters with silly habits and personalities).
-Horror(Centers on creating an atmosphere of suspense and dread in the reader. Many of these stories tend to occur at nighttime due to the number of things that go 'bump' in the night).
-Action(Explosions, gunfire, huge battles, and other related things fit into this area. Focuses less on character development and more on just killing things. Has the unfortunate side effect of sometimes becoming monotonous).
-Adventure(Great journeys, usually takes place with groups of people with varied skills. Long distances crossed. Many locations visited).
Plot
-Rescue a character(A princess, a king, an emperor, a scientist, etc)
-Find a treasure(Could be great power, wealth, or other).
-War(Defeat an enemy/enemies)
-Survival(Could be a "Never-ending battle" theme, being overrun by another race, being wiped out by a demonic race, etc).
-Epic Adventure(Traveling far distances with a group of people. Could take place on a ship(Stormborn).
-Hunter(Tasked with finding and capturing or killing something(s) to achieve an objective.
-Other
Location
-Earth(and other dimensions of it)
-Another planet
-Desert
-Swamp(Bogs, stagnant pools of water, ponds)
-Badlands(Hot, dry, and very rocky landscape with little water and vegetation).
-Grasslands(Very little vegetation other than grasses and small shrubs).
-Forest(Temperate, rainforests, arctic, coniferous)
-Arctic(Snow, snow, ice, snow, ice, and more snow. Get my drift?)
-Mountainous(Tall thingies of rock)
-Valleys(Deep depressions in the ground).
-Space(No air and no sound. Not wearing a protective suit can turn you into tomato paste. Don't worry...you will be fine. No pressure right?).
-Ocean/Sea(Water water everywhere, but most of it you cannot drink).
-Underwater(Opening a window for some water is not recommended. Most likely an underwater city or a race that can breathe underwater).
-Village/Town/City(Buildings of varied height, roads, etc).
-Other(For those who can think of others I forgot).
For any other requests or things that I forgot.
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Most of these are acceptable to me, there are only a few I would deem to be "bad ideas".
First, Drama. This is an RP forum for a war game. My gut feeling is that a drama wouldn't last too long.
I really like survival, but with no defined goals except "survive" the thread won't (survive).
Suggestions:
I have always, always wanted to do a really good RP with a strictly defined magic system, one with rules and limits that are adhered to by all. (If you've ever read Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn, you know what I mean by a magic system with rules and limits, yet still really freakin' cool.)
17th/18th/early 19th century. These three centuries are really fascinating in terms of culture and warfare, and are often under-rated and over-looked. If you could add in a detailed magic system (see suggestion 1) to one of these era's that would be really, really cool. (I don't mean this era era, just the technological and cultural aspects of this era.)
Another idea is that you do a 16th century themed RP with the focus on exploration, with a specific objective, a simple yet detailed magic system and whatnot.
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Drama was just a category I added in because I have seen it done on other forums somewhat successfully(for them). The only problem is that it does not appeal to people who are used to cutting each others' heads off. I have looked at magic a lot and am not 100% sure how to do a strictly defined magic system. It might be something that you would have to discuss with me sometime :)
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If I may say so, bring back the zombies.
*riddled with arrows
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A magic system I like the idea of is the one used in The Inheritance trilogy (the first book "eragon" was made into a film, though it was a poor replica of the details in the book). The principal used is that only a few people have the ability to use magic through a means no one knows how- it cannot be taught. And for a magician to cast a spell he must use a word from "the ancient language"- the first language ever used, as the words in these language capture things true meaning- fire in this language is the word for fire, not just a word for fire, for exmaple.
The restrictions on this use of magic is that casting a spell still makes you as tired as you would be as if you had done it normally- for example, if you tried to move a mountain you would never have enough energy in your body to fuel lifting something so huge, and you would die in the attempt.
It is more intricate than that- for example, duels between rival magicians, and how you can protect people from other magic users and so on. If your interested in this magic system I will go into it in more detail, but it may be a little vague for this use, as what one person would say would kill you, another would say it would knock you unconcious and would use said spell to avert a disaster resulting in your character dying/being captured etc. The reason it worked so well in the Inheritance trilogy is that the writer created this method, and because there is no outside influences he was free to decide on the limits of magic use within the books.
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Demonsul does have a good point.
*Notes to self to add "Apocalyptic" genre and "Kill zombies" to the plots*
The magic system I had for my Alras story was the language of the Gods was what allowed people to use it. When a spell was cast, there had to be the runes written in either the air or on an item, then one must press their palm against it and exert great force. Unfortunately, I have paused Alras for an unknown amount of time and never used much of what I did in that with any RPs. I first thought of the idea while playing Fire Emblem a few years ago and saw how the mages would quickly write in the air and then the spell would burst forth.
I felt that people would not figure it out and just want something more simple. Typically simplicity is what has ran this forum at certain points...you get too complex and people just run.
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Another excellent magic system that is strictly defined are the three directly related systems in the Mistborn trilogy.
The First, Allomancy, allowed a user to fuel powers using ingested metals. There were only so many types of metals, each with a different power. The abilities were all based within the realm of Newtonian physics (for every action there is an equal or opposite reaction) and you could run out of metals, therefore running out of power.
The Second, Feruchemy, allowed you to store abilities in metals. (Again, the metal defined the ability and the amount of storage was limited by the size of the metal/etc). You could store strength in a hunk of metal, enough strength to be as twice as strong as you were for 10 minutes, but you would have to spend 20 minutes being half as strong as you normally are to store the metal.
The third, Hemalurgy, allowed you to steal powers and abilities from others, but you had to kill them with a metal stake which you then stuck into your own body at a specific point, granting you the power (again dependent on metal) that you stole from your victim.
All of them had actions, consequences and reactions.
Hemalurgy was the most flexible as you could steal allomantic abilities, feruchemical abilities and other things like sensory strength and mental fortitude from others. You just had to kill them first.
Allomancy was the flashiest and most exciting, with all it's external powers allowing you to jump off of metal, fly through the air, manipulate emotions and what not.
Feruchemy was arguably the most powerful, as you could spend months moving really, really slowly, the spend a minute moving your body at hundreds of meters per second, for example.
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The thing is, would these be simple enough for RPers to quickly understand and not godmod until the GM just gets pissed and gives up? I once made an extremely strict and rigid magic system when I did "The Exile - Called" RP which involved everyone basically being graded on levels. After each mission or battle, people would level up, receive new weapons, armor, and mages would get new spells. They could not do anything more than what the spells were described as doing.
<---I just thought that this was the coolest damn thing that I had seen for some reason and the game was old XD
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I think that if one of these ways of using magic had a guide written for it, with very clear guidlines and examples of how it works then it would work well. That of course assumes the person involved in the roleplay is willing to take the time to read it, but I would hope that if you are willing to take the time to roleplay, then you are willing to take the time to read and understand the information you need to do so well and without causing others irritation.
I think the only problem with something so strict for magic is it limits imagination. It stops a player inventing a clever spell that takes less energy than you would think to accomplish something, simply by employing a different means of accomplishing what you want, or something their enemies would not have thought of and would add a new dimension to the roleplay. Of course, there needs to be some guidlines- for example, the ability to kill hundreds of people with no more energy than it would take to lift your finger would not be allowed, even if someone could devise a spell that would let them do so.
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That is usually why I tried to let people be more free with their magic. I would let them do a lot of what they wanted and placed trust in them that they would not godmod. If they did, I dropped the hammer. I found that limiting things just made you have to work harder in your posts because you would be thinking "Alright, what CAN'T I do?" more than "What can I do?"
I had written a nice long and detailed guide to RPing, but finally I just removed it because I felt that no one would bother to even read it. It might still be in the forum somewhere or I might have erased it. I don't know if I brought up magic in it or not. I did bring up a lot of interesting things and such.
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EDIT - I found the old POS...I would give it a 7/10 I guess :)
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