City in the Desert [Group, Looking for Players]

[dakkon]

City of Summoners

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"Its not who you know, Its what you can summon"

Those enigmatic words are burned into a worm eaten sign just inside the ancient cities faded limestone walls. Behind the sign only shifting desert sand and jutting traces of buried structures can be seen. No one even remembers the name of the desert city. All that people have now are stories; Legends about the forgotten powers that lie buried beneath city streets.

The city and its expansive desert home would have remained undisturbed if not for the shadow of an approaching cataclysm. For the first time in the history of the Continent all races and countries stand on the edge of outright war. To stave off annihilation the peaceful country of Ashura is mounting an expedition into the ruins. The ruling classes hope to uncover some weapon or defense that will spare them from the coming violence.

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I'm looking for a small number of players to take on the role of explorers to this city in the desert. They are tasked with recovering what knowledge they can and bringing it back at any cost. What they might encounter ranges from ancient experiments gone wrong to twisted powers looking to corrupt them.

Some roles that I would like to see taken are expedition lead, a royal (princess, prince, duke, duchess etc) sent to oversee things and a mage/historian. I'll be playing a historian myself so I can help make sure there's always something IC for people to be doing.


Character Template
Name:
Description:
Background:
Role in Expedition:

I'm always open to ideas if there's something else you'd like to see for this plot.

[Blood and Roses]

I like this. The setting is interesting. Did this ever go anywhere? I'm already in several plots, but I could make time for this one, too. :-D

[dakkon]

I ran a variant of this on another site where we played the city, after it fell to an invading army (The party consisted of the occupying armies mage division). It did pretty well so I'd still be up for GMing this original plot here.

Only thing I'd add to the plot description is the idea of players being able to summon early on. Summons are either NPCs you control or other players you bring into the plot. We actually had people who brought in friends from other forums specifically to play certain characters with them. In effect: You know somebody who could play an awesome angelic ranger?, give em the lowdown and bring em over as your summon. Things got a little fragmented near the end but we had a lot of player activity.

I can run this with three or more players not including myself. I'd also like to see a rough balance between male and female characters. An overly imbalanced gender ratio in the chars, even in the most vanilla plot imaginable, has resulted in too many plots failures for me.

Given that, hecks yeah I'd run this with ya and any others

[Blood and Roses]

The idea of having different players for the summons is interesting, for certain, but I can see that causing problems when you have 4 people, with a summon or two each, also run by different players, and trying to coordinate that many at once can be a nightmare. Each will have his own goals and interests, which leads to side-stories and off-shoot plots... Yeah, I can understand the fragmenting.

Perhaps this could be corrected by having the players of the summoners trade off? Say, the Bob summons JoJo the Great Wooden Monkey Spirit, and Sue summons The Gelatinous Blob of Gazz. Bob will play the Blob, and Sue can play Jojo. Cuts down on required participants, and adds to inter-player communication.

Or, the players can run their own. This way, summoned characters work toward the summoners goals unless dictated by the player. Also, it doesn't limit the number of Summoned characters a player can have -- if they have the imagination and organization for it, and the character has the capability, they could potentially summon an entire swarm of free-thinking and independently played bees. Of course, someone would quickly have to kill that character to cut down on the number of posts in the post order...

But I digress.

If anyone else decides they want to give this idea a try, I'm totally in. Willing to play as... well, anything really. Preference toward noble, if I had to choose ahead of time. Will have to watch for other players for this story.

[Moridanu]

If you two are in, then so am I.

Of course, I like the idea of playing a royal.. I AM a princess after all!!

I'll ask Boston too. Hes a great writer and usually likes creative things like this..

[Blood and Roses]

Somehow, I thought you might follow, dearest one. Always hungry for the new RP ;-)

Right, that makes two, three counting Dakkon. If the illustrious Boston should choose to join us, that makes four talented writers ready to create a story (yes writers, for though we call it RP, are we not writing?)

Of course, I'm happy to cede the royalty role to the hostess with the mostess. Other character ideas will come to me.

*wicked grin* Hope you were serious, Dakkon.

[Talisen Phoenix]

I'm in.

[Boston]

I'm pretty interested, but I'm gone for Christmas between December 18th and January 1st and won't be able to post for that two weeks. So I'm not sure if I'd be an acceptable fit for a plot that's just getting started.

Though if you'd have me, I got an idea for a character that I think would fit pretty well with the setting.

[Moridanu]

I am pretty sure given the time of year that we are ALL going to be busy little bees until New Years, so I am more than happy to wait to launch this until the new year? What do the rest of you think?

In the mean time, we can work on character development, Ill create a board for us to play on.. Dak can post up the plot outline, description/setting, character requirements (if any.. ) etc, so when the new year comes we are all set to go.

What say you? ;D

[Blood and Roses]

Hot damn! Glad you're on board, guys. This is turning into a star-spangled story.

I don't see why Boston's absence would be too big a problem. Hell, it's not as though we've even started yet. Even if we DO start between now and New Year's, he's creative enough to explain the post-gap. Or late entry might be an option? Guess it depends on Boston's character idea, and how Dakkon lays down the story.

And about summoned characters... How do you guys want to work that? Separate players for summoned characters? Play your own? Play someone else's? Also, Mori's expressed a preference for the noble character. What about everyone else?

[Boston]

Actually, my guy entering the story a little late would work out pretty well, it would fit with his backstory just fine. So entering late or starting with everyone else, they'd both work for me.

In regards to summoned characters, I'd wanna play my own. I've got that worked into my character's story as well. My guy could call forth his summon in whatever way, and then it'd just be my NPC, like a second character that I use along with my main guy for however long - like if there's a time limit, or if they vanish after sustaining damage or expending energy or something like that.

As far as characters, I have sort of a fallen pseudo-noble in mind. A scholar and a holy man who, up until just recently, was priest to the nobles - maybe like a concierge priest for the well-to-do's. So he could fill an historian role as well.

What sort of technology will be available to the characters? Swords and sorcery, guns and stuff, or maybe like a steampunk combination of the both?

[Moridanu]

Im with Boston regarding the summoners... I want to have my own and use her or him as a NPC.

[Blood and Roses]

If a late arrival works for you, Boston, then so much the better! Your character idea sounds interesting.

Of the pre-determined roles, the only one left unfilled would be Expedition Leader. What say you, Talisen? Is it to your liking, or do you have other things in mind?

I think letting someone else run your Summons adds to the feel of calling forth free-thinking and independent creatures from Elsewhere. You're in control, but they have their own will.

But truth be told, I'm fine running my own Summoned characters. Not that I don't trust any of you to play my them, but it's easier to stay true to the ideal if you're writing their parts in yourself, eh?

This is Dakkon's setting, so he should set the tech level. Personally, I like magitech :-D

[Moridanu]

Me no get tech stuff.. so Im good with whatever.

So.. Im thinking outloud here...

But with my character.. if shes royalty... say shes the daughter of a king or a sultan.. oooh exotic. And he has funded the expedition.. perhaps he is looking for some item in particular.. a certain relic that will give him untold riches or power, ya know the usual.. but nobody knows this apart from his daughter who he sends along to "keep an eye on everybody and everything" but in reality, is looking for this.. "thing".

So she is all mysterious and whatnot.. oh yeah.. a sexy, exotic mystery woman in charge of a group of men? I can SO play that!!

[Blood and Roses]

Since Boston and Mori have already laid out some character ideas, I'll share what I've come up with so far:

Theme would be Treasure Seeker, subclass Exiled Knight . What I have in mind for this character is being a legacy Summoner, from a family renowned in the Art. Perhaps minor nobility, or just notable servants to the nobility. Some major event destroyed (or disgraced) his family, so he struck out on his own. At first, travel and adventure was how he escaped his woes, wandering to places where no one knew his name. Since then he has decided to regain his honor and the renown of his family through amassing powerful Summons and performing great deeds. In his travels, he has heard tales of a "supreme power", rumored to be anything from an artifact of limitless potential to the Final Summon (Knights of the Round, baby!). Of course, that thing resides within the City in the Desert.

Incidentally, this could make tension with Mori's princess, because he'd make no secret of his intentions. Also, it could create a foundation for pre-existing knowledge of his ancestry for her or Boston's ex-priest?

I figured this would be fairly flexible, as far as his role in the group. He could act as Expedition Leader or in advisory capacity (being a treasure seeker, and all). Under the supervision of the Patron's daughter, of course.