Devil Survivor 2 - Not just a retelling!

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Blighted_Agent

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~ Peaceful days are over. Let's Survive. ~

An ordinary Sunday takes a turn for the worst when a devastating and impossible quake hits your city. Communications are down, and people murmur about strange, bestial sightings all over the place. The agents in yellow and black seem to know what's going on, but nobody else does. Will you live long enough to discover what truly happened?

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Greetings, fellow Iwaku residents. Blighted Agent here, your friendly local RP participant. GMing isn't something I do often, but I've had a few runs before and I've participated in enough RPs both here and outside Iwaku to have a good grasp of how things go. This'll be the first time I do this on Iwaku and I hope to make this a good and fun experience for anybody who wants to participate!

A little background for you. I do like the Shin Megami Tensei series of games, having played more than a few in the series. For better or worse, the Persona sub-series is what gets the most attention (I'm not mad or indignant here, as I do like those games a lot, have to finish 5 sometime!), so I don't recall ever seeing much fan material or RPs for the Devil Survivor sub-series, which I really, really like. Knowing this and recalling the age-old adage of "If you want something done (and done right), then do it yourself", I present precisely my attempt at rectifying this shortage!

1. I'm basing the RP, regardless of the details surrounding it, on the game, not the anime. As anybody with experience in the medium knows, adaptations tend to change a lot of stuff, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. In the case of DS2, it's very much the latter; the animation, while very pretty and what-have-you, tried to do too much in too little time and is overall a decidedly sub-par representation of an otherwise excellent game. There are a few details from it that will be kept, but the core will be based on the game.

2. The RP will deal with the storyline of the original Nintendo DS game, not the Record Breaker sequel/remaster for the Nintendo 3DS. There is a chance for some elements from it to show up, but for the most part, it is not relevant for our purposes, which is why I didn't even include it in the resources.

3. As the thread title says, the idea in this RP isn't just to have absolutely the same story scene-for-scene and dialogue-for-dialogue as the game but with your OCs to the side. While the baseline is the game's plot, the RP can and will diverge from it depending on character interactions, be it between your OCs or between OCs and canon characters. There are a few key things that are absolutely set in stone, but beyond that, we'll cover scenes and situations that the original game alluded to but didn't feature prominently. The dealings of the characters can and will at times intersect with the scenarios one sees when playing the original game, but it won't be them exclusively. If any veterans of the game sign up, I hope this will be to your liking and interest.

4. Assuming I get enough participants, once the RP starts, we can expect this to be moderately long. Unless things go way off course, the expected in-RP time is 8 days. Considering how many posts can go into just small time frames, it'll add up really quickly. The plan is to divide the RP into days, much like the game did. The aim will be to finish each day individually even if everything is connected to each other. That way, if things have gone too long and somebody wants to drop, we can organize around that while changing from one day to the next.
5. Shin Megami Tensei by its nature is not for everybody. If you would feel distressed by the idea of supernatural entities not just intervening but directly affecting mortal matters, and mortals deciding that they don't like it and fighting back (up to and including punching Yahweh in the face), I would recommend not getting involved with the source material and hence also skipping this RP. Some of the designs for these supernatural entities (as the game and series does, we'll call them all Demons even if they're not all what we would call demon in the Judeo-Christian/classical sense of the word) can be quite different to what you would've seen in other media, at times going for shock factor. Viewer/participant discretion is advised even if nothing is ultra NSFW.

6. As the title of the series says, the key aspect of this specific SMT sub-series is survival. Naturally, this is only an issue under the threat of death. I will say this now - Character Death can and will happen if you (or well, your OC) are not careful and don't play your cards right. I consider myself from my prior GM experiences to be a considerate/merciful GM; I can and will work with participants to make sure things are as smooth as possible, but the fact of the matter is that the RP hinges on circumstances where danger can lurk at every turn. If somebody's character does die, the participant can make a new OC for the following day if they so choose. Revival doesn't happen in this game and neither will it in the RP. Tread lightly.

7. The Dead Face Videos from the game will be making an appearance, of course. For the unaware, a mysterious site called Nicaea, once you register, will send you a video of the way one of your acquaintances will die, in chilling realism and detail. Make of them what you will~

8. Participants would be expected to make their OC within the realms of acceptability for the setting, which I'd detail far more in a proper OOC thread assuming this gets enough responses. For the moment it suffices to say that your OC must either start as a modern-day civilian, or a member of a secretive government agency called JP's.

9. In case the parent-series title didn't give it away, yes the game is Japanese, and while it's not a JRPG per-se, it's a J strategy game. Yes, the art is in the anime/manga style, and yes, the story takes place in Japan and thus your character must also be Japanese unless you want to pilot something like a student on an exchange program or an expat. If you don't handle this well, I would recommend you skip.
10. While I am open to the possibility of participants piloting existing characters, the idea is very much for participants to create OCs. Interaction with existing characters is of course planned for all this, so I wouldn't worry about that! The cast of DS2 is colorful and has something for everyone, so I wouldn't dream of not having the OCs interact with them. Those kinds of interactions are the reason I like fandom RPs and fanfiction so much. If you would insist on piloting an existing character, let me know and we will talk about it.

11. My initial intention would be for each participant to pilot their OC and a partner. Partners are chosen from a pre-existing roster and can change over the course of the RP, but outside of certain specific parameters to be followed, participants can play the partners as they see fit. This is something taken from the animation as opposed to the game, in order to simplify things for all involved. Partners are the demons mentioned above.

12. I'm a fairly patient person so I've no problem with people not posting every day. With that said, participants are encouraged to post once every-other-day (or more/more-often if they so desire), and I would enforce an upper limit of once every 5 days, barring a proper explanation either on the OOC or a PM for why this cannot me met. On a related note, I'm not asking for novel-length posts, but I would ask at least one paragraph of 3 sentences per post.

13. Posting order is largely freeform except for situations where I declare a specific posting order. Once they have been resolved, we go back to freeform. Said situations can be anything in which I deem appropriate, up to and including but not limited to: confrontations, important conversations, tense situations like infiltrations.

14. Regarding the Japanese aspects of all this, I will not be super recalcitrant/anal as long as you are consistent. If you want to use honorifics, go ahead. Romanizations, when needed, will be established prior to them coming up in the IC. You do not have to include Japanese words or interjections in your dialogue and unless appropriate they're probably better avoided ("Oh my kami! Ano, Yamato-sama, we aishteru you very much, cuz you're super kawaii and sugoii... eto, can we just like have some quality jikan together???"-styled posts will not be accepted).

Phew, that's a lot to take in, right? I'll boil it down below, but the point is - I'm up to the task of GMing an RP based on the Devil Survivor 2 game, and will try to make it as inclusive for veterans and newcomers alike. Drop a line if you'd like to participate! I'd be willing to accept up to F O U R players other than myself. As the tags say there is mystery and exploration to be had. Please keep in mind, Devil Survivor and Devil Survivor 2 are completely indpendent from each other, so no experience with the first one is required!

TL;DR
a. The RP is based on the Devil Survivor 2 game for Nintendo DS, not its sequel/remake nor the anime.
b. RP will strive to include original dialogue and scenes, not just a replay of the game.
c. We aim to complete a single in-RP day for each RP, culminating in 8 days (assuming things don't go off the rails).
d. The series prominently features supernatural, mythological, religious entities from most if not all mythologies/stories/religions.
e. Character death is possible
f. The setting is Japanese and the RP takes place in Japan.
g. Participants would make their own OCs as long as they fit the setting.
h. Aside from their OCs, participants will pilot a partner demon to be decided later.
i. Variable post length and posting rates to try and suit everybody's needs.

(beware of spoilers!)
[btn]SMT Wiki[/btn] | [btn]Wikipedia[/btn] | [btn]TVTropes - Game[/btn] | [btn]TVTropes - Anime[/btn] | [btn]Crunchyroll[/btn]
 
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An RP based on my favorite game ever?

Sold.
 
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Where are all the cool people at?
 
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Hard to be sure, unfortunately.
With that said, now that we are 3, I can get a proper OOC done so you can start working on your character sheets and the like.
I'd be willing to do it with just the two of you. If this is acceptable, we can go ahead!
@Pravitas @Dawn ✧ Quixotic
 
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Anything is fine with me as long as we're doing it. I'll start brainstorming.
 
Baller. I'm still up for it.
 
Glad to hear that. If things go as planned I should have the proper OOC up sometime tonight.
 
Will be here.
 
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