Haven't Had a Lot of Luck GMing - Well, Here I Go

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Quiet One

My God! It's full of Stars.
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Genres
Scifi, some fantasy, Mature. Anything that gets my gears going. Not opposed to Yaoi or Yuri.
I've not had a lot of luck as a GM for RPs, but I think I know why now. In past roleplays that I've tried running, I've been a character included as part of the main heroes, rather than focusing where I should - which is as the world for the other players. I'd like to try to correct this oversight with this new idea.

The World
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The main world all your characters would be from is just like the Earth we live in. At least on the surface. The Earth - and indeed the universe at large - is a distilled version of seven dimensions, controlled by the Seven Forces. Each dimension is much like the Earth, yet beyond the scope of the mortal imagination.

The Orderly
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The Orderly is the dimension owned by the Lord of Order (duh). From this realm come our laws. Laws of physics, laws of society - all rules come from here. But this world lacks all variety. Every city block is exactly the same. Every man, woman, female child and male child are the same man, woman, female child and male child. They all dress the same. They all look the same. They all act the same. Every day repeats exactly the same. For those who like to spice up their life, this place can be maddening.

The Keepers of Order are his enforcers. They all dress in pinstriped suits with a single eye in the center of their faces. They're like the agents in the Matrix: super strong and fast, but limited by rules.​


Chaos Realm
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The Realm of Chaos is exactly as it's name suggests: disorderly, ever-changing - the brink of madness. It's walls and ceilings are built from the Treasures of the Forgotten. Everything that has ever been lost is squeezed together to make up this world; discarded apple cores, loose change, broken toys, and socks that got lost in the dryer among other things. The dimension is constantly reshaping itself, so you can never find the same path twice. Rules like time and gravity are not fixed there, so seconds can stretch on to hours or with one wrong footstep you can find yourself floating.​

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The Forgotten Children are perhaps the saddest thing you will ever come across in the Chaos Realm, and also the most dangerous. Many of them are dumpster babies - unwanted children the Queen of Chaos decided to save on a whim and raise in her realm. They grow inconsistently, jumping between ages rapidly, and even jumping backwards in their timeline. They accept multiple names, so long as they sound alike. They're impulsive, have zero social skills, and some may even possess the chaos touch, a force that unbalances the delicate equations that make all matter. Hope they feel like helping you if you find one, otherwise you will not make it out of the Chaos Realm alive.​


Nature Garden
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It should come as no surprise that the Purity Garden is the embodiment of nature. Here the water is unspoiled, the grass is green and the wild fruits and vegetables are antibiotic free. On first glance, this world looks like a veritable Eden. But this world has its dark sides, too. Nature is remorseless. Poisonous plants, vicious animals, unpredictable weather - if you're not keen on your survivalist skills, you won't last a minute here. Especially since it is guarded by the Monsters of Evolution: extinct titans or as-yet unevolved nightmares reared by natural selection to be the apex predators. We're not on the top of the food chain here.​


Progression City
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The Realm of Congress is the embodiment of ambition, science gone awry, and the dreams of humanity. There is not a single living thing in this world. At the center is the great machine city, which is constantly under construction. There is a massive tower in the very middle that is constantly being made bigger and taller. Work never stops. Surrounding the city is an all-out war of machines. Drones and pilotless mechs constantly blowing each other apart. Their carcasses are dragged to the Smelting Line, a circular ring of forges that melt down and repurpose every fallen machine. In this way the soldiers are always recycled, so the fight is always endless. Here, death doesn't matter until you leave the Realm. In other words, if you suffer a fatal injury here, you will not die until you exit again.​


The Fields of Light
This realm is quite simply the world of illumination, sight, and hope. It is guarded by Flickers, little light-speed sprites that move at...well, light speed. No one knows what they look like. It's a realm that will blind you if you spend too much time in it. Here, though, the metaphorical lightbulb is cherished, and inspiration as well as raw power can be gained from this world.


The Abyss of Shadow
There's no visual because you can't see anything. Here lies the keys to coldness, fear, and anonymity. Literal nightmares are locked up in cages here, kept at bay. Occasionally, however, one slips loose.​

Desert of Time

This world is a midway point between the Earth and the Afterlife. Here lies the endless Desert of Time, containing the Sands of Time. At the center is a building where this sand is bottled into hourglasses, each one representing a different year in Earth's history. Time is a dangerous Force, and a fickle thing to play with.​


Gates to the Afterlife

The gateway into heaven doesn't look like it does in your typical idea of heaven. The answer for this is very simple: you're not dead. Until you die the Gates are designed to look foreboding: the clouds beyond them are dark and stormy, the metal is rusted and it creaks in a way that sounds like ghostly moans. If the Gates look like they're made of polished silver and there's a white light on the other side of the fence, congratulations! You're dead!​


The Forces

The Forces aren't inherently good or evil. Their biggest flaw is that they aren't gods, they're embodiments of the natural world. All of them are driven by the need to have their force dominate all others. They have neither good nor evil intent, but their desires can have disastrous consequences and it can sometimes be up to you to keep these godlike beings in check.

Lord of Order
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The lord of order appears as a small child in a hoodie, jeans, and baseball cap. Like his guards he has only one eye, one that twitches constantly as his focus shifts from one thing to another. He can be found in the Orderly Realm in one of the millions of identical buildings, playing a fully mechanized pinball game. His score is outrageous as he's literally been playing the same game since the dawn of time.

Don't let his appearance fool you. The reason he looks so young is because aging means change, something he has no tolerance for. He is incredibly powerful, able to set the Earth on a repeat cycle of the same day over and over if something goes wrong. This is an act of preservation, however, and has its advantages when the world is under threat. His real power lies in the fact he made the rules; both the laws of physics and the laws of men. While he does not change those rules, he does know all the loopholes, and can exploit them to deadly affect.

It is often his love for the rules that makes him an ally. He is responsible for keeping the great universal mechanism that is our reality running. He is to thank cause and effect, linear progression, and logic as a whole. However, give him too much power and he can turn the entire universe totalitarian, getting rid of all originality and time. The purest form of order is repetition, and he does not accept the need for variety.
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Queen of Chaos
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Being the Queen of Chaos one thing that always changes is her image. Sometimes she's not even a queen. Her aura is always inconsistent, meaning there is no definitive edge to her physical form. Like her brother's obsession with Order, the Queen is obsessed with change. Change can be good. It causes one day to progress into the next, it makes the seasons change, it allows us to grow up and improve upon ourselves.

However, too much change leads to madness. Entropy is her biggest contribution to the universe, and if we let her add too much matter itself will not behave properly. She is the hardest for you to manipulate because your job is keeping a balance, an established order she is mindlessly driven to upset. Even if a promised change is horrible she'll be tempted to go along with it, simply because it's something new. Combine that with how inconsistent her own rules are, and she just might be your most dangerous foe. Try to stay on her good side.
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Mother Nature
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Perhaps the most beautiful of all the Forces, Purity - or Mother Nature - is also among the least tolerant of man. In the beginning technology and the natural world was at a balance in favor of nature; the world, for the most part, was still wild and free. But we've tamed much of it now, and made it impure. Humans are not welcome in the Purity Gardens.

However, no one really is, not even those who call the realm home. Mother Nature is just like the real natural world: she doesn't care about our well being. Whether you survive or are just a part of the food chain is based entirely on your own merit. She will not make plans to harm you, but it would be very hard to convince her to help you. Her lack of remorse is the most dangerous part of her.
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Progress
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Progress, on the surface, seems to have humanity's interests at heart. He's a machine obsessed with perfecting the technology of our world, and giving us all the breakthroughs we have been struggling to achieve for the last...eternity. In his Vault of Breakthroughs he has the Cure for Disease, the Key to Eternal Life, and schematics for free energy and interstellar travel.

However, in this same vault is How to Destroy Planets, How to Bring About the Rise of the Machines, and How to Exterminate Mankind. Progress cares about the advancement of our ideas. He doesn't necessarily care what happens to us. In fact, he's most likely to upset the established order because he's a capitalist; he'll make deals just to get something he wants. Proof self interest can have a dark side.
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Illumina and Pitch Black


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Both of these figures cannot be seen because of the intense light and darkness of their respective realms. They typically have very little to do with the world, usually keeping themselves in balance with their constant war to illuminate or darken everything. very rarely does one side show any signs of winning.

However, they may ask for your help. For Pitch, it is a matter of the utmost importance if a nightmare escapes his realm. Nightmares in real life cause disaster. Similarly, Illumina may want some stolen power back. The power of a star on Earth is a dangerous thing.
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Father Time
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Child of Order and Chaos, Father Time is responsible for keeping things going in their natural progression. Perhaps the most benign of the Forces, meddling with his dominion can have the worst consequences. Few people meddle with time, but when they do he will loan you the Master Hourglass in order to follow them to any era and correct anything they change.
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What You Are

You are newly minted members of a secret organization known as the Locks. Each of you will have come into contact with a magical key be it through the mail, it somehow winding up in your room, or it dropping from the sky and hitting you on the head. The keys always find their way to their next owners. Sort of like the Green Lantern rings. These keys allow you to turn any door into a passage to any other door in our world, or into a passageway into the other Realms.

The main Forces, and other powers of the more human variety, are always trying to upset the balance to their favor. They might want to change time, advance technology before we're ready for it, or turn whole cities into loopholes for physics. It's your job to try and keep the balance, to encourage things to develop in accordance to their natural progression. You'll be ably to feel when something's been changed. When something's...not right. And it's your job to fix it.

You'll be assisted with special artifacts - magical tools imbued with the properties of the Forces. Most artifacts are only able to do one thing, so you'll either have to stuff your pants with hundreds of pounds of weapons like Link, or have a good team.
Your Enemy

As previously stated, your main responsibility is to keep the Forces in check, preventing any one of them from having too much power over the others. however, how could they gain an advantage in the first place? You Locks aren't the only ones who know about the secrets of the world. There are also the Lockpicks, who see everything the way you do, but for whatever reason are not granted your universal keys. They see the world as unfair in a number of ways, not least of all that they are excluded from the position of power Locks have. Many resent the blind ambition of the Forces and believe they can do it better.

Your big threat comes from them, sneaking around behind your backs, making deals with the Forces, stealing artifacts with special powers much like your own weapons. The Forces are dangerous and powerful, but the Lockpicks are your greatest threat.​
 
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Okay. Willing and waiting to answer questions. Not putting up CS until I have some interest.
 
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Thanks for the tag!

I'm already loving the Chaos Realm! That alone peaked my interest! I hope you get more interested in this because I would like to see the rp go into the OOC/Signup phase.~
 
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Knew you'd like this! <3
 
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@DangoYumi
Also, thanks for the tag.
I find my interest peaked as well - I'm liking Purity Gardens.
 
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I just felt that the people I tagged would like this xD
 
Many thank you's to @DangoYumi for bringing everyone over. I got to say, I was starting to worry I wouldn't get any feedback, so waking up to three who expressed interest is quite a pick-me-up. :)

While I could start this with just you three, I would like to wait for the other people Dango invited to take a look, as well as for anyone else to express interest. In the meantime, is there anything I can answer about the RP while I've got you all here?
 
No questions so far. I think I know the basics of the plot.
 
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Awww it's okay. I know how difficult it must be to be handling "Be Prepared" and on top of that have such a busy schedule so I don't blame ya!
 
I'm glad there's not a lot of confusion so far, and even happier that there's so much interest. @Sinopa, sorry to hear you can't join, but glad this sounded fun to you.

While you may not have questions for me, I have one for you: what would you like your characters to start off as? I was going to begin this introducing you all to the supernatural realms for the first time. In other words, none of you would be veteran Locks, all newbies. Is that alright with all of you, or would you rather have a little more experience?
 
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Defnitely a newbie for me. I feel like that my character will bew able to develop hence deepen the plot that you have in mind
 
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@DangoYumi Thanks for the tag. I'm pretty interested in the Desert of Time and in general. I'm on the fence between newbie and veteran, I'm not really for one or the other. Unless you as the GM think everyone should start fresh. @Quiet One
 
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@Crowley, good to have you! XD Consensus seems to be newbie so far, so I think that's how we'll start everyone. Which means I get to introduce your dimensional tour guide! Everyone, meet the Grim Reaper!

...

...awkward. Okay, so I was going to show an image of a bald black man in a brown suit, so that his entire being was monochromatic. At will his skin and the suit would transform into the cloaked figure we all know and love, complete with brown angel wings. Couldn't find a picture that satisfied either criteria, so instead you get this description. Sorry.

Anyway, he's not a Force, just a guide between worlds. He doesn't command death, he just shepherds you to the Afterlife Gate. He's a pretty good ally to have. He doesn't want an increase in business.

Okay, so we've got five so far. That's pretty good. @DangoYumi invited eight people, and including herself that makes nine. With one unable to join that makes eight people invited total. If no one else can, we'll do the RP with you five. If there's other interest in players that can participate, then at the 7 player mark I'll make the OOC. That sound good? Gives me time to think of a title. *blushes* Yeah, I had the entire world ironed out completely, but never thought of a title.
 
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...@Vex Inertia, does that mean you'd like to join? You're welcome to.
 
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