Traveller's Cafe 4: Brainstorming, Discussion, Tea, Advice

[Main Nation Ministry]

I have a bit of an idea for a NationStates RP and for October. Would a Scary Farm/Halloween Horror Night RP be interesting? I was thinking of having several pre-made scare zones, mazes, events, and rides and have nations get the chance to input their own via an app.

[Harbertia]

I have a bit of an idea for a NationStates RP and for October. Would a Scary Farm/Halloween Horror Night RP be interesting? I was thinking of having several pre-made scare zones, mazes, events, and rides and have nations get the chance to input their own via an app.

I believe it has potential.

[GlobalControl]

Alright, I've got an idea.
Forgive me for any mistakes and such, it's been years quite literally since I've tried my hand at hosting my own rp on NS, and I've been trying to get myself back into the groove of things as is.



RP INTEREST AND FEEDBACK REQUEST

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Please provide as much detail as possible.
RP's Overarching Concept: Interstellar Nation Building set after a massive intergalactic revolution.
Genre/s: Science Fiction.
Character or Faction Based: Faction Based.
Detailed Description:

Background:
I came up with this a while ago, and I've been giving it thought. I figure that I could come here to see if I could get the idea polished and maybe generate a little interest.
I'm a big fan of the game Homeworld, and I've recently gotten back into it. I re-read the lore for Homeworld 2, specifically the 'History of Hiigara' piece of which I got the idea from.
History of Hiigara, Prelude to the End Times

The Idea would be able nation building, obviously. The nations themselves would be entirely fictional for the most part, and the universe it takes place in unattached to the Milky Way galaxy, instead of centered in another, say potentially the Whirlpool Galaxy, Cartwheel, Andromeda, or an entirely new one altogether. The general backdrop for it would be that many millennia ago, a precursor empire seeded the galaxy with various races and such, and after these precursors disappeared from the galaxy, these colonies were left to stagnate and then begin to develop on their own until they eventually ended up becoming their own cultures and had no real recollection of their past. One race, of which would exist but be NPCs by and large, would develop, or well rediscover, FTL travel and begin to give it to the advanced races of the galaxy(advanced meaning space capable in this case).

They develop a large network of protectorates and build a trade league, but end up basically slaving the nations of the galaxy to their will through this. Expansion is hindered by the range and travel time of the FTL Drives. Fast, but not fast enough to facilitate great leaps across space. Some nations grow in size through the use of economic might and grow to rule many new worlds and have colonies across the vastness of space, but would not be in large enough numbers to truly make this precursor race grant them autonomy. Anyone that'd try to conquer someone would be faced with the might of this Precursor trader empire's navy, which was significantly more advanced than most. Ultimately, however, they can't stop galaxy scale revolt, and when it actually happens the galaxy is cast in a massive several day's long state of conflict that would see the rise of new empires.

The Traders/Precursors end up so thinly spread they can't stop it from happening and effectively can only deal with some isolated cases. By the end of it the nations all gain full autonomy, economically and politically, and the traders withdraw into isolation. These new nation states are left to contend with one another in seeking out prosperity, glory, conquest, so on.

How I want it to work

The nations run by players use and send characters to perform acts such as the signing of treaties, signing of orders and proclamations, so on. They use other characters or their leader to go to diplomatic meetings and such, and generally, they would post a status report on the condition of their nation.

This is the best I could come up with to describe a past rp I've done with a small group. The best I've got at the moment really, and I'd really appreciate the help refining this into something that'd work.



Need Help With: Refining and developing the idea / working out the kinks.
halp



#Mentorhelp

[The Batavia]

a While ago GCCS made an Napoleonic rp where your character would be the captain of his/her own battalion and all player characters were one whole regiment. I kinda like the idea but it died before I could participate. Would anyone be interested in doing something like this?

[New Castillan Empire]

RP INTEREST AND FEEDBACK REQUEST

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Please provide as much detail as possible.
RP's Overarching Concept: Action/slice-of-life character RP set in the Wild West
Genre/s: PT/Western. Steampunk may-or-may-not be included if we get any scientific characters in the RP, but I'll try and limit it to be as non-sci-fi as possible.
Character or Faction Based: Character
Detailed Description: Set in 1905 in a rural border town between Texas and New Mexico, whilst most of the West had been tamed at this point, some places had held their values since their founding, including the unpredictable and hard town of Barbarossa, where many people of many backgrounds and stories live out their exciting lives. Will you be a courageous vigilante bounty hunter, or the menacing bandit or desperado, or maybe just the lawman bringing order and paychecks to himself, maybe just a Mexican, Irish or other cultural migrant settler or perhaps a member of the local Apache natives living in the area? You decide.

Need Help With: Establishing the lore better and advice for some rules to make it fun while not too crazy (e.g. no superhuman-tier gunslinging abilities or too steampunk-y tech, things like semi-automatic pistols and maybe a 'horseless carriage' is fine)

Please leave this hashtag in place: #Mentorhelp

[Harbertia]

RP INTEREST AND FEEDBACK REQUEST

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Please provide as much detail as possible.
RP's Overarching Concept: Action/slice-of-life character RP set in the Wild West
Genre/s: PT/Western. Steampunk may-or-may-not be included if we get any scientific characters in the RP, but I'll try and limit it to be as non-sci-fi as possible.
Character or Faction Based: Character
Detailed Description: Set in 1905 in a rural border town between Texas and New Mexico, whilst most of the West had been tamed at this point, some places had held their values since their founding, including the unpredictable and hard town of Barbarossa, where many people of many backgrounds and stories live out their exciting lives. Will you be a courageous vigilante bounty hunter, or the menacing bandit or desperado, or maybe just the lawman bringing order and paychecks to himself, maybe just a Mexican, Irish or other cultural migrant settler or perhaps a member of the local Apache natives living in the area? You decide.

Need Help With: Establishing the lore better and advice for some rules to make it fun while not too crazy (e.g. no superhuman-tier gunslinging abilities or too steampunk-y tech, things like semi-automatic pistols and maybe a 'horseless carriage' is fine)

Please leave this hashtag in place: #Mentorhelp

Well let's toss some ideas around and see what's ok (too steampunky is a bit vague).

I imagine players will have the great privilege of coming up with gadgets and item gemics so I propose giving them some popular examples of fiction with what's allowed; for example Will Smith's Wild Wild West- if it's considered a good example. Mind you it has- a giant spider mech so it's probably not. But some examples should be given for players to have a quick idea of the boundaries.

Lore wise- it's 1905; so this is my pitch- a conflict that umbrellas other plotlines in the town involves events in Mexico. Namely the Cientifico who may have a role in the RP's technology. ... But that'd mean a more focused plot rather then an open world... so... hmm...

[United Anorbonum]

I officially give up on making RP's. Nobody ever joins them. Maybe one day I'll try again, but until then I quit.

[Harbertia]

I officially give up on making RP's. Nobody ever joins them. Maybe one day I'll try again, but until then I quit.

You started two RPs (World In Flames and World of Water) and are not widely known. I had to look at your forum history just to find the RPs you started. I recommend advertising them via the Advertising thread or joining an RP group where you can promote your work.

People joined World In Flames but when the IC came up it was this;

OOC/Lore/Signups: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=448207

Rules:
1: No Godmodding Or Metagaming
2: Be Realistic
3: All Posts Must Be Atleast A Paragraph Long
4: One Page Is 6 Months In The RP

Current Year: 2020

That was the first post of your IC. One may say the OOC's text serves as a prompt; "By January Of 2020, The Polish Control The Entire World. The Battle May Have Ended, But The War Has Just Begun! The Polish Rule The Earth, But Many Survivors Refuse To Accept It." but it really doesn't. One should have made their first post that of Poland- the Polish in a conference of some kind talking about the factions players signed up to play as. This would have given the players a post to springboard off of. A hint or indicator of what to start doing as in it's present state the IC expects the players to start talking about their faction and imagine the world with hope that other players will use what they have stated about Poland.

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As for your second RP- two days- isn't enough time to determine that it's time to close the OOC. As suggested advertise and connect with other players.

[United Anorbonum]

I have a question. How do the advertisements on the advertisement thread get to people? Do they manually have to search through it? Or is there some kind of black magic behind it?

[Harbertia]

I have a question. How do the advertisements on the advertisement thread get to people? Do they manually have to search through it? Or is there some kind of black magic behind it?

For those who have adertised on it before a notification that someone new is on the thread will appear in 'your forum posts' letting you know it's active. We then click 'First Unread Post' and it takes us to what has been added since last time we checked the thread. That's how I found your RP advertised today. Got a notification that a new post was on the thread so I checked it out. For those who have not yet posted they'll see what's new by going to the last page- which has the most recent additions.

There are other ways of advertising but this is the safer way.

[Dayganistan]

a While ago GCCS made an Napoleonic rp where your character would be the captain of his/her own battalion and all player characters were one whole regiment. I kinda like the idea but it died before I could participate. Would anyone be interested in doing something like this?

Something like that but with a Cold War or modern tech level, and maybe commanding a smaller unit like a platoon or company, would be something I'd be interested in. But I'm assuming you also meant sticking with the Napoleonic setting as well.

[Ort]

So, I’ve got this idea right, and I wanted second opinion before I did anything else with it. I think it’s kinda weird, but … well, here it is summarized in the best and most succinct way I can:

“A space fantasy RP where humans were genetically engineered from hyper dimensional space whale DNA by ancient aliens to guide their spaceships to wormholes and travel through space. Modern day humans are now abducted and used by contemporary alien civilizations to perform a similar function.”

Whaddya think? I’ve got a lot of ideas surrounding this core concept, but I want to know if this would be too strange an idea to construct an RP around.

[Harbertia]

So, I’ve got this idea right, and I wanted second opinion before I did anything else with it. I think it’s kinda weird, but … well, here it is summarized in the best and most succinct way I can:

“A space fantasy RP where humans were genetically engineered from hyper dimensional space whale DNA by ancient aliens to guide their spaceships to wormholes and travel through space. Modern day humans are now abducted and used by contemporary alien civilizations to perform a similar function.”

Whaddya think? I’ve got a lot of ideas surrounding this core concept, but I want to know if this would be too strange an idea to construct an RP around.

Well- are we gonna be

A) like the 'Spacejocky' from Aliens (plugged into some seat we can never leave where all our needs are handled in isolation)

B) Like the mutant Navigators form the Dune Series (altered to be worm like and bulbous)

C) Just us (as I hope) but having some aspect of our mind awoken to make our task effective.

[Ort]

So, I’ve got this idea right, and I wanted second opinion before I did anything else with it. I think it’s kinda weird, but … well, here it is summarized in the best and most succinct way I can:

“A space fantasy RP where humans were genetically engineered from hyper dimensional space whale DNA by ancient aliens to guide their spaceships to wormholes and travel through space. Modern day humans are now abducted and used by contemporary alien civilizations to perform a similar function.”

Whaddya think? I’ve got a lot of ideas surrounding this core concept, but I want to know if this would be too strange an idea to construct an RP around.

Well- are we gonna be

A) like the 'Spacejocky' from Aliens (plugged into some seat we can never leave where all our needs are handled in isolation)

B) Like the mutant Navigators form the Dune Series (altered to be worm like and bulbous)

C) Just us (as I hope) but having some aspect of our mind awoken to make our task effective.

I’m glad you asked.

This was heavily inspired by, or at least its inception was heavily inspired by, Dune. I liked the idea of spaceship pilots who use a drug that grants them a sort of prescience, so I took that idea and kinda ran with it and ended up with something else entirely. Basically, there are these giant creatures (that I will call space whales for now) that live in the vacuum of space and subsist on quantum matter. Due to their unique biological structure (and a lot of handwavium), they can flip this quantum matter’s state, so it has negative energy density.

This idea relies on there being predominantly undetectable wormholes throughout our universe that randomly pop into existence for mere moments before disappearing and, with that in mind, these space whales can perceive dimensions beyond our own three spatial dimensions, so they know when and where these wormholes will appear. They can then use this exotic matter to stabilize these wormholes and travel through space. An ancient technologically advanced civilisation that lived on Earth observed these space whales and by splicing their DNA with space whale DNA, managed to create a servile sub-race (humans, or proto-humans) to navigate their spacecraft to wormholes. They then used the exotic matter harvested from space whales to stabilize these wormholes to travel throughout the galaxy and establish a massive interstellar empire.

A disastrous event occurred on Earth, destabilizing their empire and devastating their interstellar colonies. This disastrous event was either a natural disaster or an uprising by their proto-human slaves, I haven’t decided, but either way they were wiped out and their civilisation left in ruins. Jump ahead to a few hundred years ago, and contemporary alien civilizations are using more conventional sci-fi FTL systems (i.e. warp drives) that are powered by that same exotic matter harvested from space whales.

Eventually, some civilizations discovered this ancient terrestrial civilization's remnants and deciphered its records regarding mankind’s prescience, leading them to Earth and humanity. Initially, abductions occurred frequently resulting in a galactic summit being convened and almost all reluctantly agreeing to establish a quarantine around our solar system and adhering to strict abduction quotas.

It was later discovered that a human’s “sight” could be heightened by synthesizing a drug from space whale brains, though it severely impacts their mental and physical condition. These humans, or astroseers as I’m calling them, don a bizarre helmet-mask-thing that’s connected to a central container unit by a hose resembling an elephant’s trunk (that, I took from Alien). This container unit contains the space-whale-brains-drug and is connected to a ship’s navigation systems so an astroseer can interface with them and guide spaceships between wormholes. This strange headgear also functions as a partial sensory deprivation unit that also helps heighten their abilities.

Right now, this is just world-building, your character probably won’t even have to be human. I have a plot idea in mind but it’s still in the early stages.

[Shadowwell]

Does anyone know what the general ruling or thoughts on having multiple threads for an Rp is/are?

[Pax Nerdvana]

I officially give up on making RP's. Nobody ever joins them. Maybe one day I'll try again, but until then I quit.

Don't give up. Most of my RPs aren't terribly sucessfull.

[G-Tech Corporation]

Does anyone know what the general ruling or thoughts on having multiple threads for an Rp is/are?

That depends what you mean- what the function of the threads is, if they are all active, and so on. Any specifics you can detail?

[Shadowwell]

Does anyone know what the general ruling or thoughts on having multiple threads for an Rp is/are?

That depends what you mean- what the function of the threads is, if they are all active, and so on. Any specifics you can detail?

Well for a reboot of a superhero rp of mine i had been planning to have more than one thread, one for each city where Metahuman activity is centered, or at least one or two beyond the starting thread.

[G-Tech Corporation]

That depends what you mean- what the function of the threads is, if they are all active, and so on. Any specifics you can detail?

Well for a reboot of a superhero rp of mine i had been planning to have more than one thread, one for each city where Metahuman activity is centered, or at least one or two beyond the starting thread.

Generally speaking one IC thread is best, if very active.

Of course, if you only use a thread for, a week say, then no worries.

[Harbertia]

That depends what you mean- what the function of the threads is, if they are all active, and so on. Any specifics you can detail?

Well for a reboot of a superhero rp of mine i had been planning to have more than one thread, one for each city where Metahuman activity is centered, or at least one or two beyond the starting thread.

I was doing something like that with the old Private RP and the Sims RP Network on NS. Ofcourse I was relying on others to OP those ICs. Except for the Isla Paradiso thread- that was the first and I thought I'd get it going but then Moonlight Falls really kicked off. So yeah- be sure to have a Co-OP to manage the additional ICs or they'll just die form a lack of your attention.

[Ihury]

Hi everyone, I’m thinking of a sandbox-style fantasy faction RP with the main focus being on world-building and relations between players’ factions and countries rather than on an overarching plot. In other words, we won’t start with a lot of lore, other than what the players write for themselves, and the plot will be driven largely either by players’ actions or by acts of God and/or natural disasters.

Would such a setup be doable, and would anybody here be interested in such a role-play?

[Harbertia]

Hi everyone, I’m thinking of a sandbox-style fantasy faction RP with the main focus being on world-building and relations between players’ factions and countries rather than on an overarching plot. In other words, we won’t start with a lot of lore, other than what the players write for themselves, and the plot will be driven largely either by players’ actions or by acts of God and/or natural disasters.

Would such a setup be doable, and would anybody here be interested in such a role-play?

Yes, I've had an RP going on for a while now called 'The Island' which as you describe is one where the world is built by the players Your project is completely doable. Just be sure to keep the OP post updated That's the challenging part of hosting such a project is recording all the details added by the players so as to keep everyone informed about the state of the world.

[Ihury]

Hi everyone, I’m thinking of a sandbox-style fantasy faction RP with the main focus being on world-building and relations between players’ factions and countries rather than on an overarching plot. In other words, we won’t start with a lot of lore, other than what the players write for themselves, and the plot will be driven largely either by players’ actions or by acts of God and/or natural disasters.

Would such a setup be doable, and would anybody here be interested in such a role-play?

Yes, I've had an RP going on for a while now called 'The Island' which as you describe is one where the world is built by the players Your project is completely doable. Just be sure to keep the OP post updated That's the challenging part of hosting such a project is recording all the details added by the players so as to keep everyone informed about the state of the world.

That’s good to know

As for myself, the only difficulties are 1. Making a map, and 2. Keeping the OP updated (I’m being conscripted in about three or four months time, which means my posting frequency drops quite a bit), so I’m guessing I’m gonna need a Co-OP or two for this.

In any case, I’ll fill in one of those suggestion forms.

[Ihury]

RP INTEREST AND FEEDBACK REQUEST

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Please provide as much detail as possible.
RP's Overarching Concept: A sandbox fantasy nation/faction RP with a focus on player-driven world-building rather than on a pre-established plot.
Genre/s: High fantasy, Political, Sandbox
Character or Faction Based: Faction
Detailed Description:
I've been looking out for a fantasy RP setting that allows for more player-driven development; most of those I've seen thus far already have a lot of pre-established lore and an overarching plot, so I was wondering if there would be anybody interested in a more open setting where lore can be created by the players themselves.

The premise of the RP is as such: a massive multiethnic, partially contiguous empire that has stood for almost a thousand years (think of something along the lines of the Byzantine Empire) has, after centuries of stagnation and corruption, been driven to the edge, and is on the verge of collapse. Players get to play one of the empire's constituent nations, one of the neighbouring independent states, or a rebel militia, with the only overarching plot being the eventual demise of the Empire through secessionist movements and sub-nationalism, as well as external influences (the nature of which will be decided by the players themselves).

Beyond that, I’m open to pretty much anything. My idea is to allow players to be as creative as they’d like to be when creating their nation/faction/group, with as little plot-incurred constraints as possible.

Need Help With:

• Refinement: I’ve got most of the basic lore planned out already, which should be enough. I just need a little bit of assistance fitting it into a playable format.
• Map: seeing as I don’t know how to make realistic and aesthetically-pleasing maps, I’m gonna need help for this too.
• Co-OP: I’m getting called up for military service in about three months, so I’m gonna need a Co-OP (or two, depending on how many people are interested) to help update lore as the RP progresses, since my posting frequency is sure to take a hit.

Please leave this hashtag in place: #Mentorhelp

[Multiversal Venn-Copard]

RP INTEREST AND FEEDBACK REQUEST

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Please provide as much detail as possible.
RP's Overarching Concept: Players work together to remotely command elements of a space fleet in increasingly difficult and hopeless battles à la Ender's Game.
Genre/s: Tactical, Sci-Fi/FT, Cooperative, Political(?)
Character or Faction Based: Hybrid. Players control one character sitting in the fleet command HQ, and a variable number of space assets under their command out in the field.
Detailed Description: In the far future, practically everything about space warfare has been automated: the explosion of artificial superintelligence allows spacecraft to make accurate targeting decisions, maneuver to millimeter precision, and even maintain and repair themselves without any slow, bulky human interference. But since it is humans who want spacecraft to do things to begin with, humans are still left to guide the fleets around the galaxy - remotely, of course, so that no lives are lost unnecessarily.

It has been a very long time since the galaxy's last great war, and the last ships and doctrines to see actual grand-scale use are becoming obsolete. But when a force of horrifying aliens from outside the galaxy threatens humanity's very existence, commanders will need to think and adapt fast. The players collaboratively control one task force assigned to defend systems against the encroaching threat; the assets they are given for each mission are different based on how they and the AIs chose to allocate their ships.

Perhaps one of the more difficult aspects of their job as commanders will be dealing with political constraints - budget cuts, overbearing leadership, and all of the fun little intricate details that plague any large-scale military operation. But if they fight well, humanity will be grateful.

Need Help With: In ascending order of importance and scale:

- What would make a compelling and original enemy?
- How can I ensure that battles remain difficult and stressful for the characters without making them stressful for the players... and at the same time, encourage players to think strategically?
- Honestly, would people even be interested in this at all?

Please leave this hashtag in place: #Mentorhelp