Traveller's Café 2: Discussion, tea, brainstorming & advice

[Constaniana]

Nonesense. Beards are classy.

Believe me, I was not referencing the beard. Muttonchops are the sign of a fine gentleman of quality breeding.

Other things, not so much.

Like the "Sleazy used car salesman named Fabritzio" moustache.

[Ayreonia]

This guy knows what's up.

*High-five*

*High-five*

Nonesense. Beards are classy.

Believe me, I was not referencing the beard. Muttonchops are the sign of a fine gentleman of quality breeding.

Other things, not so much.

"Depends on the light"

"not referencing the beard"

You can go take your x-ray vision elsewhere, G!

[Prospect Landings]

Depends on the light.

You should shave more.

Nonesense. Beards are classy.

Counter: Classy people are classy. Attractive people are attractive. Bearded men are bearded.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Nonesense. Beards are classy.

Counter: Classy people are classy. Attractive people are attractive. Bearded men are bearded.

Counter succesful. Critical strike. Opponent unwilling to continue. You have earned half a cookie and a pencil featuring SpongeBob.

[Prospect Landings]

Counter: Classy people are classy. Attractive people are attractive. Bearded men are bearded.

Counter succesful. Critical strike. Opponent unwilling to continue. You have earned half a cookie and a pencil featuring SpongeBob.

Action Bronson slowly dances, weeping in the moonlight. The Lumineers play my anthem.

[The Empire of Pretantia]

Counter succesful. Critical strike. Opponent unwilling to continue. You have earned half a cookie and a pencil featuring SpongeBob.

Action Bronson slowly dances, weeping in the moonlight. The Lumineers play my anthem.

I leave for eight seconds and this is what happens. Traveller's Café!(2.0)

[Ayreonia]

Nonesense. Beards are classy.

Counter: Classy people are classy. Attractive people are attractive. Bearded men are bearded.

Deep, man. Deeper than the Mariana Trench.

[Prospect Landings]

What is the point of the personality section in character applications? I always struggle with this, because when I interact with other characters, my "cold and distant" doctor or whatever becomes a gregarious social butterfly, or the other way around. Personality isn't developed in a vacuum, but it seems like the default in P2TM is to treat it as such.

[Nightkill the Emperor]

What is the point of the personality section in character applications? I always struggle with this, because when I interact with other characters, my "cold and distant" doctor or whatever becomes a gregarious social butterfly, or the other way around. Personality isn't developed in a vacuum, but it seems like the default in P2TM is to treat it as such.

I use it as a rough guideline and don't expect rigid adherence.

[Gvozdevsk]

What is the point of the personality section in character applications? I always struggle with this, because when I interact with other characters, my "cold and distant" doctor or whatever becomes a gregarious social butterfly, or the other way around. Personality isn't developed in a vacuum, but it seems like the default in P2TM is to treat it as such.

I struggle with the personality section as well. To assume a character's personality will remain the same through the whole RP is kind of silly.

[Tiltjuice]

What is the point of the personality section in character applications? I always struggle with this, because when I interact with other characters, my "cold and distant" doctor or whatever becomes a gregarious social butterfly, or the other way around. Personality isn't developed in a vacuum, but it seems like the default in P2TM is to treat it as such.

I struggle with the personality section as well. To assume a character's personality will remain the same through the whole RP is kind of silly.

The way I usually do it is to give him or her a few basic tendencies or beliefs (as opposed to traits) and then, as situations arise, those tendencies or beliefs influence how the character reacts. It could be religion, it could be greater or lesser emphasis on thrillseeking; etc.

My go-to resource for character creation is WriteWorld. I've found it to be of immense help in that process.

[Rupudska]

What is the point of the personality section in character applications? I always struggle with this, because when I interact with other characters, my "cold and distant" doctor or whatever becomes a gregarious social butterfly, or the other way around. Personality isn't developed in a vacuum, but it seems like the default in P2TM is to treat it as such.

I consider it a semi-necessary evil, but I still prefer just using Likes and Dislikes instead.

[Ayreonia]

What is the point of the personality section in character applications? I always struggle with this, because when I interact with other characters, my "cold and distant" doctor or whatever becomes a gregarious social butterfly, or the other way around. Personality isn't developed in a vacuum, but it seems like the default in P2TM is to treat it as such.

I consider it a semi-necessary evil, but I still prefer just using Likes and Dislikes instead.

I've used a "traits, quirks & habits" slot in my apps for a while now. Makes it easier to both write and read.

[Fraire]

I made a new RP the other day........

RP Name: The Sandbox
RP Creator: Fraire
Type (Character, Nation, Faction): Character
Genre/s: Superhero,
Detailed Description: To make things short, you are a superhero and you can do whatever.

There was a man. This man was Tsadii. He was the ultimate god. Tsadii created life. He toyed with this life. He gave half of these people powers, and the other half lived normally. The super-powered half was separated from the others. They all went their separate ways, finding new powers and breeding with others, making new powers. Some even created other planets with their great power, like Kryptonian, one of the greatest superheroes who ever lived. It all led to you. You are the descendent of millions of other superheroes. You live in the land known as Khalallar. This is the where all superheroes had ended up.

Link to the OOC: LINK

[Swith Witherward]

What is the point of the personality section in character applications? I always struggle with this, because when I interact with other characters, my "cold and distant" doctor or whatever becomes a gregarious social butterfly, or the other way around. Personality isn't developed in a vacuum, but it seems like the default in P2TM is to treat it as such.

I struggle with the personality section as well. To assume a character's personality will remain the same through the whole RP is kind of silly.

(Esty wrote a fantastic guide here.)

I've found that personalities evolve over time but some things remain the same. The trick is to maintain consistency. Build upon what you establish in prior posts.

[OrigamiMaster]

I struggle with the personality section as well. To assume a character's personality will remain the same through the whole RP is kind of silly.

(Esty wrote a fantastic guide here.)

I've found that personalities evolve over time but some things remain the same. The trick is to maintain consistency. Build upon what you establish in prior posts.

Ah.
Also, congrats on being the new P2TM Mentor!

[Neo Arcad]

I struggle with the personality section as well. To assume a character's personality will remain the same through the whole RP is kind of silly.

(Esty wrote a fantastic guide here.)

I've found that personalities evolve over time but some things remain the same. The trick is to maintain consistency. Build upon what you establish in prior posts.

The most difficult thing for me is establishing how my characters are going to speak. Their actions are pretty simple, but their words have to be worked out to get the rhythm down properly. I write practice conversations sometimes.

[Nightkill the Emperor]

(Esty wrote a fantastic guide here.)

I've found that personalities evolve over time but some things remain the same. The trick is to maintain consistency. Build upon what you establish in prior posts.

The most difficult thing for me is establishing how my characters are going to speak. Their actions are pretty simple, but their words have to be worked out to get the rhythm down properly. I write practice conversations sometimes.

I find dialogue the easiest part.

[Tiltjuice]

Would this be a sufficiently 'realistic' basis for something like al-Qaeda trying to deliberately destabilize North Korea so it could try to get its hands on DPRK WMDs? (Pages 6 and 9 are most relevant.) That could be something that Gvoz or others could try to start.

[Nightkill the Emperor]

Would this be a sufficiently 'realistic' basis for something like al-Qaeda trying to deliberately destabilize North Korea so it could try to get its hands on DPRK WMDs? (Pages 7 and 9 are most relevant.) That could be something that Gvoz or others could try to start.

I suppose so. RAND is a good source.

[Gvozdevsk]

Would this be a sufficiently 'realistic' basis for something like al-Qaeda trying to deliberately destabilize North Korea so it could try to get its hands on DPRK WMDs? (Pages 6 and 9 are most relevant.) That could be something that Gvoz or others could try to start.

I don't think I'd go as far as Al Qaeda trying to destabilize North Korea. NATO, Chinese and Russian forces moving in to stabilize North Korea after Kim Jong Un is assassinated would be something I'd probably do.

[Prospect Landings]

Would this be a sufficiently 'realistic' basis for something like al-Qaeda trying to deliberately destabilize North Korea so it could try to get its hands on DPRK WMDs? (Pages 6 and 9 are most relevant.) That could be something that Gvoz or others could try to start.

I'm currently going through the report, but it should be noted that Al Qaeda is, essentially, a collection of training camps, the majority of which exist in the nebulous Paki-Afghanistan border region. When people use Al Qaeda in their roleplays, they're often conflating the ideology of The Base proper (i.e global armed struggle, takfiri, conservative Islamic law) with the organization of other Islamist groups, like Al Nursa, or the Taliban which have a concrete regional focus.

EDIT: Though I maintain that what I just said doesn't matter for military roleplays, really.

[The Blazing Aura]

So, any good, active, open RP's I could look at joining?

[Hornesia]

Would this be a sufficiently 'realistic' basis for something like al-Qaeda trying to deliberately destabilize North Korea so it could try to get its hands on DPRK WMDs? (Pages 6 and 9 are most relevant.) That could be something that Gvoz or others could try to start.

I don't think I'd go as far as Al Qaeda trying to destabilize North Korea. NATO, Chinese and Russian forces moving in to stabilize North Korea after Kim Jong Un is assassinated would be something I'd probably do.

Could have a very small AQ faction in that RP to appease all.

[Reatra]

([url=http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/900994/forumresources%20vol.1/awrp2%20small.png]Image)[/url]
Alrighty, here's a possible map for a 11th Century AWRP I'm toying around with.
Basically, the Migration Period was much less intense. The Roman world has survived; European power is still reasonably centralised, with the Roman hegemony still holding sway over most of barely independent western Europe. With strong governments still in place, cross-cultural ties are significantly less chaotic, with the world still at least on speaking terms with each other. China (under some generic dynasty) is the world's most powerful and populous nation, though only slightly more so than Rome and the Middle East. The rest of the world lags a bit behind, but standards of living and technology are this world is still vastly better than in the RL 11th century.

This is a colonisation RP too. Due to some quirks in plate tectonics, the North American plate has been standing over a hot spot for some time, growing the solar system's largest shield volcano.
(And bits of other continents are also missing. I should add: this was inspired by a someone's short story collection I'd seen promoted somewhere. I couldn't find any excerpts of it, unfortunately, but one of the stories apparently involves a world where Columbus sailed west and ended up in Asia- the American continent simply didn't exist! Deleting continents from the map was a fascinating concept.)

It's a veritable circle of land. The gently sloping, thousands-of-kilometres-in-radius landmass is fringed by extraordinarily fertile fields sited just above scenic, high cliffs eroded by the sea; bountiful lands stretching toward the horizon, under a sky so huge you wouldn't even notice the gentle gradient of the land. But, irrevocably, as one travels inland, after days of travel through lush field and forest, one might notice a transition to alpine scrub, then to tundra, then to a land of barren plains and snow. By then, you'd need to turn back unless you have an oxygen supply- and even then, you'd be less than half way to the centre of the continent- a literally stratospheric plateau of rarefied air, inhospitality, and mystery.
But, about that fertile land. It's like nothing you'd ever seen, and seeing it in its unspoiled state you might well start imagining beautiful settlements erected by colonists, as excited as you might be, on it.

Leif Eriksson, in our fictional world, probably thought so; as of the RP start year news of his landfall is spreading throughout the Nordic world, and making its way south into Europe and the Near East, and will reach the Oriental world shortly after the great Chinese metropolises just north of Persia hear of it. It's quite likely that every nation with coastal access - everyone - will want to investigate this.

Obviously this still has an awful lot of fleshing out to do; more precise timelines, governments, exactly how technology looks like (I don't think it would simply be a facsimile of any RL era), etc. And I'm not a great OPer, considering that I mostly lurk a lot and often disappear offsite. Nevertheless- I'd love to check for interest.

I'm thinking about splitting this into 2 RPs, though both would take place in the same world and focus on colonisation: A more conventional nation-based RP, and another, possibly character or expedition-based RP, zooming in on the colonisation efforts. Also in consideration, if this does turn into an RP:

> another shield volcano continent in Australia. It would heighten the incentive to play as an Oriental nation, as well as potentially make China vastly more powerful, which I think is quite rare in nation-based RPs
> megafauna in the New World! Exotic stuff.
> advanced Native American civilisations

Disincentives against the above would be: well, trying to shift in too much fantastical stuff and making things too complex, drawing the focus away from 'simple' colonisation of the new world.

Righty. So, any interest, or suggestions?

PLEASE! DO IT! If you do, may I be China?