Cancer Arms: Splatterpunk Superhumans

[Salsacookies]

Alright, thanks for the answers. Just a few more;



So basically this RP would have a very strong PvP vibe? I mean with cancers wanting to eat each other, I imagine player interactions would be quite antagonistic.
Answer:Yes, though I'm thinking of changing this so that Coop would be possible. I like the idea though, so maybe have it so there's a rare few who cooperate like a pack? Especially with the Cancer Arm's human component, teamwork would be possible. Do you have any ideas?



Could you give a few examples for reference?
Examples:
1. Body Armor
2. Increased natural ability
3. Lesser Secondary Weapons.(Like the scalding blood or possibly the sound cannon)
4. Amputation autonomy(Individual body parts work away from the whole, instead of when attached to the Core or the Host.)
5. Cellular Teleportation(Leave behind a living carpet, and use it to move quickly and invisibly from one place to another, because you deconstruct yourself and move through the living tissue carpet.
6. Further Cancer Arm enhancement.
7. Etcetera.

 

[Kestrel]

Giving players these reasons to kill each other's characters, while the roleplay itself is sandbox, well... If you want the RP just to be a bunch of deathmatches, alla this is fine. It's just not a very favourable set up if you want plot or develop character relations.

While you can probably read between the lines that I do have my preferences, this is of course your RP and I have no intention of telling you what to do.

 

[Salsacookies]

I definitely want horror and combat to be part of it, but I also want the characters to be able to develop as the game goes on, both in relations and power. I'll think of something to fix that issue. Death matches don't stay fun for very long, and I'd like this RP to hang around for awhile.

Anyways, based on what you've read so far, what are your thoughts on my setting?

 

[Kestrel]

Maybe certain cancers are not compatible with one another, depending on exact specimen they can either be a power boost or a very bad case of food poisoning? Maybe obtaining a new power puts the arm in a vulnerable state of metamorphosis that can be sensed and easily preyed upon by other cancer arms or monsters? Maybe the player cancer arms haven't matured to the point that their instincts tell them to hunt each other (or vice versa they've matured past that point)? Maybe it's breeding season and cancer arms seek out each other for completely different reasons?

Just a couple options.

As far as the setting so far goes, it's pretty cool. I'm in the process of figuring out what I can do with it. The answers so far have definetely helped in that aspect.

 

[Salsacookies]

I'll go with certain Cancer Cores being incompatible as meals do to being made of the allergen the other Core's poisoned by, that sounds like the perfect fix.

Also, I've read that you're an experienced GM, and you usually run deadly but fair games. I want this to run like Bloodborne or Dark Souls, or one of the many rogue likes out there. Advice?

 

[Duwang Chew]

Gonna make a guy that eats day-old hamburgers 24/7. Yeah!

 

[Salsacookies]

As long as it's day old Human and/or Cancer burger, you'll do fine :)

 

[Salsacookies]

Updated The Sheet. Here you go.

Character Sheet:
Appearance:(No photos unless stylized, and anime and cartoon pictures are good to go. Give information not seen in the picture, like height and weight, or alterations to the character.)

Name:

Skills:

Lifestyle:

Job or Career, if you have any:

Natural Abilities/Faults: (Things your genes and lifestyle bolster or diminish.)

Relationships:(NPCs and other PCs.)

Are you infected:Y/N

Tell me about your First Encounter/Infection with the Cancer Arm:

---(For those Infected)---
Cancer Arm Sheet:
Weapon Name:

Appearance:(Living Weapondry, something biological and gross.)

Cancer Arm Weapon Description:

Other Cancer Arm Enhancements:(What the Cancer Arm did to set you up above the rest.)

Personality:(I will be playing the Cancer Arms, so give a description of its personality. These creatures are like highly intelligent animals, and Cancer Arms don't speak, they only sound like an alien animals at most.)

---(PRIVATE QUESTIONS. SEND BY Conversation.)---
Cancer Core Location:(This will be your weak spot, where the parasite merged itself at.)

Cancer Core Allergen:(What substance the Cancer Core is deathly allergic to. It'll swell up and explode if it directly ingests it, and if you ingest it, you'll feel deathly ill. Try to find something somewhat uncommon, the Core has adapted to most substances, it's just something it's never encountered before.)
---Private Questions Over---

Would you like to play as a NPC?
Would you like to play as a Cancer Monster?

And Last, but not least...
Theme Song:(For when things get serious and epic)

 

[Kestrel]

Also, I've read that you're an experienced GM, and you usually run deadly but fair games. I want this to run like Bloodborne or Dark Souls, or one of the many rogue likes out there. Advice?

Character death is a very tricky and specific element. I do not recommend it unless you are confident in your ability to GM to start with. If you lack the right judgement, communication and people management skills, you're going to have a bad time.

The first thing you want to do is communicate the possibility of player death. Preferably very big, so that people know what they're getting into. People are often attached to their characters and killing them, well, doesn't feel right for many of them. If they're not explicitly informed it will extra-suck.

Now that is clear, Including character death is, in it's very essence, removing plot armour. Understand the effect this has on your players. To keep their characters alive they have to balance risk of death versus completing their objectives. Very often, the objective suffers because of this sense of self-preservation. This is why, personally, I try not to be as punishing. That is personal preference, however.

To make it feel fair, you really have to establish the foreshadowing hard. This is not easy to do with text. While with Dark Souls you can carefully look behind a corner. In an RP you don't want to simply state "There was a narrow passage that took a sharp turn near the end." all the time. I mean once or twice is fine, but if you get too into it you will get posts of people carefully checking the narrow passages all the time. That's a lot more boring in RP's than videogames. Also, to make this actually feel dangerous and have players react properly, you need to establish a hostile atmosphere before throwing in the turn in the passageway. You have to both foreshadow and set an atmosphere before attempting these things to make them feel fair.

Lastly there's punishment. This is a beast all it's own. I touched upon this earlier, but how hardcore do you punish your players? In the end, it means you will be forcing hits and a lot of players are not comfortable with that because they consider it godmoding (again, communicate). If you go down the road of forcing hits, you better be good and confident in your ability and judgement.

There's two types of play that can invite punishment. Taking risks and bad decisions. Risk vs. reward can, IMO, best be handled by dice. This shifts the responsibility from you as a person to the random factor. Secondly, a dice roll can be used to determine the severity of the punishment. That means that this failed ambush doesn't automatically kill the player, but it's possible they get captured, injured, etcetera. Giving other players an incentive to act/not act. I'll get back to the effect of punishment on other players in a minute.

Bad decisions... Well as a GM you will see these a lot. Some of them are character-driven, but a lot of them are player-driven. Hey, let's charge that line of pikes head-on and also solo. We know there's a sniper out there, but maybe if I run really fast I can cross those 2 miles without getting shot. Maybe these bloodthirsty orcs will listen to me if I go as an unarmed convoy even though I personally killed all of their mothers. Players make a lot of bad decisions and the worst part is; they're often unaware of this. Dice can come to the rescue again, though less favourable I guess, but as the game progresses they're supposed to learn from them, be it on their current or next character (always allow people to make new characters if their current characters die). However, this means that bad decisions should be, when looked at logically, unquestionably be bad decisions. So again, foreshadow hard and communicate limits of characters and enemies.

Lastly lastly, we have the impact of punishment on players that aren't directly punished. One person getting punished shouldn't make an objective impossible. This can be tricky in a ton of situations. Like, don't do stealth missions. Stealth missions are horrible if only for this reason. But if the one ambush guy goes in solo, he also alerts the enemy of the presence of your group. Maybe you picked a specific strategic position they now have the opportunity to flank. Etcetera. This is really tricky and requires a lot of thought of you as a GM. Punishment may make a scenario more difficult but it should by no means mean the objective or survival of other players are now doomed.

So, that should cover most of it. Also rogue-likes are terrible examples of what you're going for ;p

 

[Salsacookies]

@Kestrel

Yeah, I'll wait before running a game like that for now. Don't want to ruin it by going overboard.

 

[Salsacookies]

Quick bump. Everyone still interested? I can't really tell time in forum RPGs, everything feels like forever here, even though it really isn't. Am I just being impatient?

 

[Duwang Chew]

Still here. And no, the giddiness of awaiting a prospective new adventure gets to everyone. Especially if you're a GM.

 

[Salsacookies]

A question. If I were to make this a Libertine Roleplay, what sort of potential gain would there be to it? My main focus so far is to make this Roleplay A Splatterpunk Lovecraftian Horror type game, so what would the restriction less Libertine section add to this idea?
I know that sort of forum is basically for uncensored smut, but would it work for alien horror? How many times will I rephrase the exact same question? I just know with the extreme gore, it'd be very much 18+, just thought I'd see about going ahead and going for the unrated version, over the R-Rated one.

 

[Zarrock]

Oooooooooooooooooooooooh, horror gore stuff. I already have like 12 different ideas for a character. Oh my god this rp will be so wonderful. Count me in my friend.

 

[Kestrel]

I'm alive. Just been working most of yesterday... And probably today.

A question. If I were to make this a Libertine Roleplay, what sort of potential gain would there be to it?

Sex and exclusion of potential players under 18. Iwaku rules aren't exactly the ESRB rating system, Libertine exists mostly so that the site doesn't gets sued when an adult tries to cyber with minors.

 

[Zarrock]

Can I just say that I am the physical embodiment of hype for this RP right now? The idea for it is just so cool, and it's made me do some legitimate research for my character ideas. I have one that I'm particularly excited about. I won't share the entirety of the idea, but I will say as a small spoiler of what he will do. It takes less than .005 ounces of cyanide to kill a 200 pound man. That's a lethal dose of 1/100 of a tablespoon. Ohhhhhhhhhhh, my character is going to be so lethal. This is going to be GREAT!!!!!!!!!

 

[Salsacookies]

Glad you're hyped! I promise the setting will be rather gloomy and sunny.

 

[Zarrock]

Oooh, yay! Gloomy setting! Quick question though, have you watched the anime "Parasyte, the Maxim"? This RP reminds me a lot of the anime, but you mentioned it nowhere in the intro, so I'm a bit curious to know if you've seen it, or if your mind is messed up enough to come up with the concept all on its own. :P

 

[Salsacookies]

Yes, I know of it. Parasite Horror is one of my favorite genres, so I've seen many of those types of movies. This is an abomination of all of them.

 

[Zarrock]

Oh, lovely! I'm really looking forward to this! I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!