- Invitation Status
- Look for groups
- Posting Speed
- 1-3 posts per day
- One post per day
- Multiple posts per week
- 1-3 posts per week
- One post per week
- Slow As Molasses
- Online Availability
- 8 AM - 6 PM and 10 PM - 2 AM
- Writing Levels
- Intermediate
- Adept
- Advanced
- Prestige
- Douche
- Adaptable
- Preferred Character Gender
- Male
- Female
- Futanari
- No Preferences
- Genres
- Fantasy (High and Low), Sci-Fi, Modern Fantasy, Modern Realistic, Apocalypse, Drama, Romance... I have lots of interests!
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Link to the world map
I have had this idea floating in my head for quite a while.
Recently, the last Iwaku WARP contest passed and I was in the middle of creating a high-fantasy world to use for it, but I didn't hit the deadline. Then I realized, maybe instead of doing something which is more sort of generic high-fantasy, I could do something with a bit more of a twist. If any of you are familiar with HBO's Westworld, imagine that in a fantasy setting rather than as a western.
Set in a near-distant future - approximately year 2070 - guests can attend an ultra-luxury fantasy theme park. It is a constructed fantasy world populated by androids (called "hosts") who are entirely controlled by AI. Every inhabitant, every beast, every monster, every critter, every plant, is built and printed using organic material, so they are virtually indistinguishable from their real-world counterparts. The hosts not only look like humans, behave like humans, and interact like humans, they think that they themselves are humans.
The park is huge - approximately 600,000 square miles, about twice the size of the state of Texas. The park has its own self-contained economy, and basically all the details, down to the tiniest of minutia, are overseen by staff from the headquarters of the park.
The park is essentially a live-action MMORPG. All guests begin in the starter town. There are quests available, treasure hunts, bounties, games of skill, games of chance, and every host can be interacted with. Some give quests, some can be seduced, some can be fought, etc. Guests are free to harm the hosts, even kill them, although doing so may have negative in-game consequences like jail time or poor reputation depending on the situation. Hosts are incapable of severely harming guests (beyond minor cuts and bruises) due to restrictions in Host AI. However, hosts can and often will find other ways to punish you - stealing your coin, taking you captive, throwing you in a dungeon, etc.
Technology embedded in the weaponry in the park renders them useless for use on other guests.
The starter town has enough accommodations for most tastes, and for families looking for a fun vacation, it provides most things with minimal risk. Guests seeking more adventure will find that the further out from the starter town they travel, the more intense the experience. Large beasts, dangerous bandits, mythical creatures, and exotic locales await bold adventurers.
As mentioned before, everything in the park is controlled from a central hub. Trillions of microscopic nanomachines are present in the park, which help to maintain order as well as to aid in providing the fantastical elements. For example, if you learn a fire spell and cast it in combat, you are not actually creating fire; the nanomachines are, with permissions clearance from the central hub. Basically every guest interaction is closely monitored in this way to provide guests with the best possible experience.
As for the hosts, if you are familiar with HBO's Westworld this will not be new to you. Every host is on a "loop" - a predetermined set of actions they do in their daily routine. Those two bandits getting into a bar brawl in the tavern, the beggar child asking for help being reunited with his family, the eccentric elderly man rambling to guests about his peculiar treasure map… all of those things are scheduled events. If nobody interacts with them, they simply go about the rest of their day, only to repeat their loop the next day. Think of them like NPCs in a game. Most of them don't do anything until you interact with them; otherwise they continue to mill about their daily lives.
If a host is taken up on a quest, the other hosts' are advanced enough that they are able to adapt and improvise. If you occupy one of those bandits in the tavern with something else, he won't get in that bar brawl. If you take up the child's offer to find his family, the town guardsmen won't have a fit trying to shoo him away. This continues on until you complete a quest, or until your quest companion dies and you fail the quest. The host is then cleaned off, repaired if necessary, then put back into rotation on their loop the next day.
(Westworld spoilers here - read carefully if that kind of thing bothers you)
Anyone who has watched Westworld knows that the end-game of the show (at least, in Season 1) is that the hosts achieve consciousness. While this adds a VERY cool depth to the show, I have concerns about whether it makes sense to do that in an RP.
Because the hosts are the NPCs of the story, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me to only allow players to RP as guests, since then that would essentially involve players writing out all of the hosts' actions (or me writing the hosts' actions), which seems un-fun. So, ideally, I would like to allow players to RP hosts as well as guests.
BUT, if we're going to try to angle the story towards hosts achieving consciousness, I have my doubts about our ability, as writers and roleplayers, to do that in a convincing way. On one hand, I don't want to assume anything about anyone's ability, but the process of an unconscious being "achieving consciousness" is actually a lot more abstract than it seems. If I do decide to run it, I would want to entrust a writer whom I know is up to the task. I'm not sure if I'd want to do it myself, because as the GM, that almost feels like cheating. On the other hand I don't want less experienced writers to feel left out if I "wake up" other hosts that aren't theirs.
If we DON'T go with hosts achieving consciousness, I worry that the RP will grow stale. If you consider the world to be like an MMORPG and you sort of think of me as the dev team, I can introduce new events or new beasts or new quests or new loot, but… is that a real incentive to continue participating in the RP? At some point I'm afraid it will all just become more of the same, without a real end purpose or end goal.
What do you guys think? Is this something that interests you? Do you want the RP to have deeper, more complex themes of consciousness and self-discovery, or are you content to have it essentially be an RP playground that runs indefinitely?
Link to the world map
I have had this idea floating in my head for quite a while.
Recently, the last Iwaku WARP contest passed and I was in the middle of creating a high-fantasy world to use for it, but I didn't hit the deadline. Then I realized, maybe instead of doing something which is more sort of generic high-fantasy, I could do something with a bit more of a twist. If any of you are familiar with HBO's Westworld, imagine that in a fantasy setting rather than as a western.
The Premise
The park is huge - approximately 600,000 square miles, about twice the size of the state of Texas. The park has its own self-contained economy, and basically all the details, down to the tiniest of minutia, are overseen by staff from the headquarters of the park.
The park is essentially a live-action MMORPG. All guests begin in the starter town. There are quests available, treasure hunts, bounties, games of skill, games of chance, and every host can be interacted with. Some give quests, some can be seduced, some can be fought, etc. Guests are free to harm the hosts, even kill them, although doing so may have negative in-game consequences like jail time or poor reputation depending on the situation. Hosts are incapable of severely harming guests (beyond minor cuts and bruises) due to restrictions in Host AI. However, hosts can and often will find other ways to punish you - stealing your coin, taking you captive, throwing you in a dungeon, etc.
Technology embedded in the weaponry in the park renders them useless for use on other guests.
The starter town has enough accommodations for most tastes, and for families looking for a fun vacation, it provides most things with minimal risk. Guests seeking more adventure will find that the further out from the starter town they travel, the more intense the experience. Large beasts, dangerous bandits, mythical creatures, and exotic locales await bold adventurers.
The Mechanics
As for the hosts, if you are familiar with HBO's Westworld this will not be new to you. Every host is on a "loop" - a predetermined set of actions they do in their daily routine. Those two bandits getting into a bar brawl in the tavern, the beggar child asking for help being reunited with his family, the eccentric elderly man rambling to guests about his peculiar treasure map… all of those things are scheduled events. If nobody interacts with them, they simply go about the rest of their day, only to repeat their loop the next day. Think of them like NPCs in a game. Most of them don't do anything until you interact with them; otherwise they continue to mill about their daily lives.
If a host is taken up on a quest, the other hosts' are advanced enough that they are able to adapt and improvise. If you occupy one of those bandits in the tavern with something else, he won't get in that bar brawl. If you take up the child's offer to find his family, the town guardsmen won't have a fit trying to shoo him away. This continues on until you complete a quest, or until your quest companion dies and you fail the quest. The host is then cleaned off, repaired if necessary, then put back into rotation on their loop the next day.
My Concerns!
Anyone who has watched Westworld knows that the end-game of the show (at least, in Season 1) is that the hosts achieve consciousness. While this adds a VERY cool depth to the show, I have concerns about whether it makes sense to do that in an RP.
Because the hosts are the NPCs of the story, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me to only allow players to RP as guests, since then that would essentially involve players writing out all of the hosts' actions (or me writing the hosts' actions), which seems un-fun. So, ideally, I would like to allow players to RP hosts as well as guests.
BUT, if we're going to try to angle the story towards hosts achieving consciousness, I have my doubts about our ability, as writers and roleplayers, to do that in a convincing way. On one hand, I don't want to assume anything about anyone's ability, but the process of an unconscious being "achieving consciousness" is actually a lot more abstract than it seems. If I do decide to run it, I would want to entrust a writer whom I know is up to the task. I'm not sure if I'd want to do it myself, because as the GM, that almost feels like cheating. On the other hand I don't want less experienced writers to feel left out if I "wake up" other hosts that aren't theirs.
If we DON'T go with hosts achieving consciousness, I worry that the RP will grow stale. If you consider the world to be like an MMORPG and you sort of think of me as the dev team, I can introduce new events or new beasts or new quests or new loot, but… is that a real incentive to continue participating in the RP? At some point I'm afraid it will all just become more of the same, without a real end purpose or end goal.
What do you guys think? Is this something that interests you? Do you want the RP to have deeper, more complex themes of consciousness and self-discovery, or are you content to have it essentially be an RP playground that runs indefinitely?
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