Restless: Post-apocalyptic demonic war plot with a RL twist

Do you like this idea?

  • Yes - and I love it in Tokyo

    Votes: 2 50.0%
  • Yes - but in a different city

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • No, not interested at all

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I love it and would love to help get it started

    Votes: 2 50.0%

  • Total voters
    4
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H

Haruhi

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Many, many years ago I ran a fandom specific board with this plot. It was immensely popular and ended up being a hell of a lot of fun. Sadly the place died with the fandom.

So I thought I'd throw up the old plot here and see if there was any interest in it being set up as a stand-alone, non fandom, original character RP.

The Restless
Tokyo; 2037!

TokyoShinjuku.jpg

It is a city that never sleeps. Neon lights, fast cars, romantic trysts and quick money keep the multicultural population thriving despite what has been nicknamed The Fear.

The Fear began almost twenty years ago. At first it was just an unsteady feeling felt by those in the medical profession and government, but when the media got hold of statistical information, the truth came out. It was shocking; it didn’t just stop a nation, it stopped the world.

The number of child births had decreased. Dramatically.

Four years passed, each showing less and less children until eventually in 2021 there wasn't a single child born. A further fifteen years passed with no sign of change and while the economy flourished and day to day life eventually continued, it left a dark spot in the hearts of everyone. Propaganda started, religious groups going up against each other as whispers of the apocalypse travelled far and wide.

With no children there was no future…

But now a new horror is terrorising Tokyo at night, distracting people from The Fear by way of violent murders. A hooded, masked figure kills at random. There is no pattern; no common murder weapon and the victims share no apparent ties.

Police and civilians alike call this murderer Yogensha, or The Oracle for the only constant MO is what he leaves behind. No matter how the victims are killed, their chests are always carved open, their hearts cut out and the cavity filled with a single tarot card…


Mid Heaven!
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Mid Heaven has always been ruled by two; The Justice and The Corruption, beings of light and dark respectively. Their purpose is to guide the souls of the living into either heaven or hell according to their deeds while letting those that remain neutral pass to the Keeper of the Gate of Resurrection.

Balance and structure saw the heavenly city as a resting place for deceased souls; a time to reflect on their life and to prepare for the next. Forty-nine days was the duration of the stay and come the fiftieth, the choice was made for them; light and peace, dark and fire, or reincarnation and a second shot at life in the realm of the humans.

At least that was always the way until The Corruption took matters into his own hands by laying siege to the Gate of Resurrection. After a bloody battle, the Keeper was murdered and the forces of darkness took control of the gates, preventing anyone from passing.

Those of the light retaliated. Lead by The Justice the battle to reclaim the gateway to the human realm began.

Now the gleaming haven is at war; what used to represent a city metropolis has turned to a slum where the sky is darkened with clouds and streaked with fire. Buildings crumble, the pavement cracks and wind and rain storms tear across the lands as elemental foot-soldiers collide. Ash falls heavily, cloaking the streets in a bleak grey that sticks to everything.

With the path to resurrection severed, the human souls have been left in limbo, subject to the harshness of the land and the hunger of the beasts of darkness. Even worse, The Corruption and his followers have introduced something new to the human souls; a powerfully addictive drug called Sin. Those who take it feel the world and its horrors fade away and feel themselves at peace; what they don’t realise is that each injection carries a harsh price. The drug pollutes the system, corrupts the mind and heart and is the equal to murder in the land of the living.

Take it once and you are damned for the rest of eternity.

Those who resist the alluring pull of Sin are preyed upon as demonic food, picked at and worn thin as more and more demonic forces spill into the battle-ravaged land. The Virtues and those of the light do their best to protect the human souls but causalities are a part of war.

However, a small group of human rebels known as The Lost Souls are out for blood; killing both light and dark in an attempt to be able to govern their own future and judgement.

Some souls have been stranded there for ten years, neither passing into judgement or rebirth. As time ticks steadily by and the battle grows stronger, these human souls are starting to notice a change within themselves; something strange and twisted just like their surrounds...


Other Details
The original was set in Tokyo (again, due to the fandom) but could easily be changed to any large city. Set in the near future, the world was in a state of subdued panic. Children had stopped being born years ago (meaning that the youngest a character could be was 17) and no science could explain or change this fact. Life was going on, commerce still worked but there was that sense of devastation in the world. More and more people stopped working and spent their time living in the moment, while others dedicated themselves to their careers in order to better ignore reality.

There was a second half to it that was played out in the afterlife/Limbo, where demons and angles and trapped human souls were at war.

So it had your slice of life and realism for those that wanted to wine and dine and have their characters live life. It also had that supernatural element for those that liked things a little on the darker, crazier side of things. Then, obviously, if your real world character died, they would wake up in Mid Heaven, in the middle of a war they knew nothing about, and have to adapt and fight to survive.

The serial killer was a mod run plot device to help encourage people to kill their RL muses and send them into the afterlife. There was also a big twist plot behind who the killer was and why he chose his victims.

Ideally I’d run it as an off-site, dedicated board, with two distinct parts for the Living and the Dead, with subcategories for places/districts etc.

There would be pre-made/adoptable character list for people to use as a base for character creation. For example the Seven Deadly Sins and Heavenly Virtues would be playable and encouraged as main players in the plot. Key figures in the world of the living would be available as well, such as the chef detective in charge of the serial killer case. All pre-mades would have little breadcrumb links to others to help create instant character connections. (For Example, 'The Leader of the Lost Souls arch enemy is Wrath' blah blah).

It would work on a faceclaim concept. Real faces (actors, musicians, models etc) would be the preference and would be necessary for the Living. There would be more leeway for the Dead, however so artwork could be used here, especially as Sins/Virtues or as the human souls start to become twisted and morphed.

LGBT+ friendly, both IC and OOC and hopefully very multicultural. We used to play it with the notion that sexual preference wouldn’t be stigmatised in a world where procreation isn’t possible. Of course there are always religious groups that might say otherwise. After 18 years with no children born people are truly living for themselves with a lot of social stigmas tossed out the window.

I'll stop ranting there to try and avoid any information overload. XD

Anyone interested? And, if so, anyone interested in helping out with the start-up and being a mod?
 
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This actually sounds really cool and I would be willing to help out in any way I could. I'm pretty flexible with everything so the city doesn't matter much to me. I wouldn't mind being a mod either. It seems like you have a lot of this planned out very well and if you just need help executing it, I would be more than willing. I can try to supply ideas if they are needed as well. This really seems like a great idea.

I do have a question though. Do the Angels, Demons and Lost Souls have any special abilities or are they relatively normal and fight with weapons?
 
@Haruhi

Wow, this actually looks pretty darn cool. I'm not sure if there's supposed to be more information below the first box since it's just a big wall of nothingness, but I would like to ask a few questions before confirming my interest as a whole. :)

Are you using real life face claims or anime face claims?

How often do you expect us to post? Is there a paragraph minimum- if so, how much?

What will the CS be like? Is it basic (e.g. name, age, personality, history, etc.) or more detailed (e.g. likes, dislikes, strengths, name, age, personality, etc.)?

How many people, including the GM(s), do you plan to have for the group?
 
It was such a fun game! And I think the board went for almost two years which was kind of huge for a fandom thing those days.

I do have most of the plot idea worked out and all of the old rules and stuff all saved on my laptop. So mod wise I’d really be looking for someone to bounce ideas against, someone to take up a key character to help move the plot forward and someone to help out with the setup of the board and promo and stuff. Then just general maintenance and newbie welcome and stuff like that.

The Sins and Virtues did have powers, all based on what they embodied and they were the strongest things in Mid-Heaven. For instance, Envy was always scatter brained and stealing things because he wanted what everyone else wanted or had. Diligence was always really active and perky and moving around and trying to help people. Lust used to be a sort of demonic brothel owner and the main peddler of the drug Sin.

Then there were the dark and light foot soldiers who were the underlings of the Sins and Virtues (we tried not to use ‘demons’ and ‘angels’ as titles just to keep it a bit different). They were very elemental based which was why the once tranquil Haven was now scorched and crumbling.

The humans who had been trapped there the longest started to slowly adapt powers as well. I think we only had two in play back in the day, both Lost Soul leaders who’d been stuck there for 6+ years. One was getting very bat like qualities while the other was getting very feline.

The other thing we did with Mid-Haven was that there was no modern technology. It was, after all, meant to be a place to relax and come to term with your deeds. So it was a full post-apocalyptic thing with crude swords and cross bows and scavenged supplies. We had the Lost Souls sort of jimmy up some generators for rudimentary, sporadic electricity and it was always good when a new ‘Dead’ character came in to see what sort of skills they had and how we could all work it into being useful and, hopefully, advance the technology that they had.
 
That is really cool, and yeah the terms 'Sins' and 'Virtues' does sound more unique. I would love to be a mod then and help with ideas, plot pushing and just generic upkeep.

Like rhea said though, the black text you have underneath of the box will be hard to see for most, since they use the black background. If you give the text a white background or just change it to white or a neutral color it helps a lot.
 
Wow, this actually looks pretty darn cool. I'm not sure if there's supposed to be more information below the first box since it's just a big wall of nothingness, but I would like to ask a few questions before confirming my interest as a whole. :)

Are you using real life face claims or anime face claims?

How often do you expect us to post? Is there a paragraph minimum- if so, how much?

What will the CS be like? Is it basic (e.g. name, age, personality, history, etc.) or more detailed (e.g. likes, dislikes, strengths, name, age, personality, etc.)?
Big wall of nothingness? That's odd. Does the other random points and thinking not show up for you? Ek. I'll have a look at the coding as that does answer most of your questions.

- I prefer real life face claims and they would be mandatory for those Living in the real city. Anime or artwork would be allowed for 'Dead' characters in the afterlife/Mid-Haven given that it is mostly populated by demonic creatures etc.

- Posting... I'd normally say once per week per character though more is preferred. I'm not a big fan of paragraph and post minimum's, but I prefer upwards of three paragraphs. One liners or one line with some dialogue as the next paragraph would not be accepted. (I do remember having the leader of the Lost Souls in a fight with the Sin of Wraith, back in the day, and their posts got pretty huge. Like, 1000+ words huge. We were both quite advanced writers though, so we really got into it and had them tumbling around breaking things while trying to kill each other).

- The place would be aimed at serious, intermediate to advanced RPers, so the CS used to be lengthy, especially for those dead. A living history needed to be supplied (what did this character used to do when alive), how old were they when they died, plus details about their death and how long they'd been stuck in Mid-Haven. Likes, dislikes, skills... all that came into play. The idea was to make sure that people spent a good day or so thinking and building their character and making sure that they had some direction.

I know that scares some people but then others love it. <3

Hope that helps.
 
That is really cool, and yeah the terms 'Sins' and 'Virtues' does sound more unique. I would love to be a mod then and help with ideas, plot pushing and just generic upkeep.

Like rhea said though, the black text you have underneath of the box will be hard to see for most, since they use the black background. If you give the text a white background or just change it to white or a neutral color it helps a lot.
Ahhhh! That's what's wrong. Lol. Total blonde moment about the text there, and I use the Evening skin so I didn't even notice. Thanks for pointing that out. Should be fixed with just another box now.

And fantastic! I guess we'll see how many other people are interested and then take it from there.
 
Big wall of nothingness? That's odd. Does the other random points and thinking not show up for you? Ek. I'll have a look at the coding as that does answer most of your questions.

- I prefer real life face claims and they would be mandatory for those Living in the real city. Anime or artwork would be allowed for 'Dead' characters in the afterlife/Mid-Haven given that it is mostly populated by demonic creatures etc.

- Posting... I'd normally say once per week per character though more is preferred. I'm not a big fan of paragraph and post minimum's, but I prefer upwards of three paragraphs. One liners or one line with some dialogue as the next paragraph would not be accepted. (I do remember having the leader of the Lost Souls in a fight with the Sin of Wraith, back in the day, and their posts got pretty huge. Like, 1000+ words huge. We were both quite advanced writers though, so we really got into it and had them tumbling around breaking things while trying to kill each other).

- The place would be aimed at serious, intermediate to advanced RPers, so the CS used to be lengthy, especially for those dead. A living history needed to be supplied (what did this character used to do when alive), how old were they when they died, plus details about their death and how long they'd been stuck in Mid-Haven. Likes, dislikes, skills... all that came into play. The idea was to make sure that people spent a good day or so thinking and building their character and making sure that they had some direction.

I know that scares some people but then others love it. <3

Hope that helps.

So, you say the CS used to be detailed, but is it going to be that detailed now with the likes and dislikes and what not?
 
Yeah, it's not showing up.

So, you say the CS used to be detailed, but is it going to be that detailed now with the likes and dislikes and what not?
The coding should hopefully be fixed now. XD

And yes, I think so. It assures that people have a good grip on their characters and understand the lore of the world they're playing in.
 
The coding should hopefully be fixed now. XD

And yes, I think so. It assures that people have a good grip on their characters and understand the lore of the world they're playing in.

Hm, I think I may have to back out then. I don't mind detailed cses, but things like likes, dislikes, skills, are just personally things I'd rather have develop organically. No hard feelings. Good luck on the roleplay though. It's a fantastic concept!
 
Hm, I think I may have to back out then. I don't mind detailed cses, but things like likes, dislikes, skills, are just personally things I'd rather have develop organically. No hard feelings. Good luck on the roleplay though. It's a fantastic concept!
Ah, see I'm pretty old school, I guess. I like to have it all there and then run wild with the character and see how it develops and changes given the situation they're in. But all good and totally cool. Thanks for stopping by! :)
 
Will look into this a bit more after work when i can actually read everything in depth.
 
I'm intrigued by this concept as well!
 
@Haruhi

Woah, I really love the idea and I'd love to help out as a mod if I'm allowed! I hope this isn't dead yet or anything, it sounds like a lot of fun! Right now I still don't know how much spare time I'll have for the next two/three months, but I'd love to give any minute that I'll have for this.

Though, I wanted to ask somethings. I'm really curious for what fandom was this made back in the day? And if you must have an artwork for the Character sheets, would possibly a good description work?
 
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