Scifi, Chat Roleplay, and Lots of Writers!

Status
Not open for further replies.
S

SamIO

Guest
Update: ([ Chat RP Thread ])

Well, I mean, that's my hope. I'd considered forging ahead by myself (since my previous Interest Check sunk rather unspectacularly) in hopes that a more refined product would be more attractive, but I'm starting to feel like I'm alienating potential worldbuilders — an audience I really want to include — so I think I'll try a more metagame-oriented approach this time around.

Essentially, I want to create a real-time freeform roleplay with a generous number of players so that unscheduled small-group roleplay is feasible on a daily basis; with so many players, there is potential for interweaving arcs and the impression of a persistent world — especially for those who like to keep up with the roleplay logs.

I'm emulating the structure of a roleplay that finally came to an end nearly a decade after its roots just a couple months ago; it had no official storytellers — no central plot — but sometimes a particularly prolific player would start up something that got the whole community involved in one thing for a few weeks at a time before leaving us with our cliques again. The whole thing was really quite liberating, and I hope to match its scale and freedom here.

I hope to accumulate worldbuilders in addition to more character-driven writers. I want players to feel like they're in a dynamically-designed world, not a pre-defined brainchild of some authoritative inner circle. I hope that worldbuilders will look at the skeleton I've laid out as a springboard, and that roleplayers will feel free to fabricate their own details (later modified by the impressions of other community members and ultimately included into accepted canon by way of unspoken consensus).

Maybe something like a central call list which links players up with each other will help get people connected and writing; suppose one day you just want to go, go, go — so you go take a look at whoever's online and listed as interested in a scene, contact a couple of them, and by the end of the hour you're writing! Sounds a little too good to be true, huh? Still sounds too good to be true to me, and I lived it for half my roleplaying years.

This whole idea is really quite ambitious, and that bothers me because I'm worried it'll end up dying a quiet death like so many other ideas do. That worry, however, also makes me feel like there's a cost to making something this big happen, so I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'll do whatever I can to make it work. :3

Anyhow, if something like this appeals to you, feel free to contact me and have a chat about logistics or ideas or questions or whatever — or take a look at the skeleton I wrote up for the first Interest Check.



Update!
@Thomas McTavish and I got to chatting regarding the inclusion of a brainchild of his into the canon! :D
If you want details, you can read the chat log below, but the short story is aliens!

[Thomas McTavish enters.] -10:08 Sep 06

[Sammeh spawns.] -10:09 Sep 06

Sammeh: Howdy! :D -10:09 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: Hallo. -10:09 Sep 06

Sammeh: So, Ignius. :3 -10:10 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: What about it? :P -10:11 Sep 06

Sammeh: "I was hoping to incorporate a build on my planet Ignius..." confused me a bit. What did you mean by a 'build on'? -10:12 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: I don;t have that much about it actually thought out yet. Just a few vague details andgeneral facts. Not much to it, as of yet. My hope is the more I use it, the more detailed I can make it. -10:14 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: *and general -10:14 Sep 06

[Sammeh headtilts.] -10:16 Sep 06

Sammeh: How do you want to use it, here? :3 -10:17 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: Possibly as a location for a plot or subplot, and possibly as the home planet of one of my characters. -10:18 Sep 06

Sammeh: Aliens! :D -10:20 Sep 06

Sammeh: Have you read the skeleton? -10:20 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: On the interest check you linked? Yes, I have. -10:22 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: The one for Opus Novum, I mean. -10:23 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: *check check czech checkity check* -10:24 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: Yep. -10:24 Sep 06

Sammeh: Awesome. :3 -10:24 Sep 06

Sammeh: So you're wanting to bring up the scale a bit? -10:24 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: Oh yeah. I want to flesh Ignius out. -10:25 Sep 06

Sammeh: Of course. c: -10:27 Sep 06

Sammeh: I'm thinking of how we could incorporate that in a way that feels seemless -10:28 Sep 06

Sammeh: I wrote the skeleton with an air of terrestrial scifi, reserving the fantasy elements for virtual reality settings, but this seems like something that could fit into the tangible world with a bit of work -10:29 Sep 06

Sammeh: Maybe expanding the scale to make aliens normal is a better idea, though —. -10:29 Sep 06

Sammeh: Or perhaps your character is uniquely alien in this manner? -10:30 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: It could be possible that long with the other recent advances in technology, space travel has also improved, bringing a crew to a planet sitting a few light-years outside of earth's solar system. -10:30 Sep 06

Sammeh: So sleeper-pods era space travel? -10:31 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: That could work. -10:31 Sep 06

Sammeh: Have you happened to have read The Unincorporated Man? -10:31 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: From what I read, technology seems to be advancing rapidly on earth. -10:31 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: No, I have not, actually. -10:31 Sep 06

Sammeh: Very much so -10:31 Sep 06

Sammeh: It's not particularly popular; I just thought in my head how it is fairly representative of my cup of tea for intrastellar scifi -10:32 Sep 06

Sammeh: Essentially humanity has turned the inner solar system into its playground -10:32 Sep 06

Sammeh: That would leave the trans-Neptunian range open to exploration without making it seem too far out -10:33 Sep 06

Sammeh: And hanging out just outside our little Oort Cloud is a strange world called Ignius -10:33 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: Perfect. -10:34 Sep 06

Sammeh: :D -10:35 Sep 06

Sammeh: Shall I archive this chat for the main thread? -10:35 Sep 06

Sammeh: Or is there more? >:D -10:36 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: Scientists positioned on the outer rim of the solar system spot a new planet to explore, send an exploratory vessel to the planet, and the Ignians are "discovered". -10:36 Sep 06

[Sammeh likes it. :3] -10:37 Sep 06

Sammeh: Actually -10:37 Sep 06

Sammeh: Desert — is it a hot, arid kind of des... it's called Ignius, of course it is -10:37 Sep 06

Sammeh: Hmm -10:37 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: It's a volcanic desert world. Yes, it's hotter than hell. XD -10:38 Sep 06

Sammeh: Do you imagine it with a nearby sun? -10:38 Sep 06

Sammeh: I was thinking maybe it's gone unnoticed until astronomers got real close because it's mixed in with all the other outer rim chunks of rock -10:39 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: Yes, I did. That works well. -10:40 Sep 06

Sammeh: Well, if it has a nearby sun, then it's a bonafide planet and isn't too close to the Oort Cloud; in which case, this'd be something far more expensive -10:41 Sep 06

Sammeh: Would it have anything SETI might pick up on? -10:41 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: Such as? -10:43 Sep 06

Sammeh: Well, you said this is a tribal world; is that indicative of their technology level, as well? -10:45 Sep 06

Sammeh: I'm also considering that maybe the world's geological spasming may be equally as interesting for astronomers -10:45 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: Concerning tribalism, there are a few exceptions. Some of the probes sent out decades ago landed on Ignius, and a few of the particularly intelligent and curious Ignians use the wreckages to build a radio that could possibly be used to contact signals in earth's solar system. I should think the geological spasms would indeed be interesting to astronomers as well. -10:47 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: While they are a semi-nomadic, tribal race, they have a few advanced machines. -10:48 Sep 06

Sammeh: Perfect. :3 -10:48 Sep 06

Sammeh: So how does your character end up on Earth? -10:49 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: I already have an Ignian character I could use, with a few alterations. When the exploratory teams landed, they came across a Gaaraclan, a clan made of outcasts from actual Ignian clans. My character, a particularly curious fellow about the Outsiders, decided to accompany them back to their outpost, along with a few others of his gaaraclan. -10:52 Sep 06

Sammeh: Communication barrier! -10:54 Sep 06

Sammeh: I suppose there would be a xenolinguist tagging along if there were any expectations of encountering extraterrestrials -10:54 Sep 06

Sammeh: So with the combination of radio signals and evidence of habitability -10:55 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: This is all working out quite well. -10:56 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: Definitely log this. -10:56 Sep 06

Sammeh: Indeedy. :3 -10:57 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: I have to go for now. Shall we continue this tomorrow? -10:58 Sep 06

Sammeh: Of course! -10:58 Sep 06

Sammeh: Just send me a PM -10:58 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: Talk to you tomorrow, then! ^^ -10:59 Sep 06

Sammeh: If I'm not on cbox. :3 -10:59 Sep 06

Sammeh: Alrighty. :D -10:59 Sep 06

Thomas McTavish: Bye! -10:59 Sep 06

[(Logout) Thomas McTavish escapes to a secret lair!] -((10:59 Sep 06))

[(Logout) Sammeh melts away.] -((11:00 Sep 06))

[Chat Cleared by: System::Timeout (THERE IS NO ONE IN THIS BOX. KIDNAP SOMEONE AND MAKE IT LIIIIIVE.)] -11:00 Sep 06
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I might be interested in this.
 
That's good to hear! :D
Anything in particular catching your eye?
 
I am very intrigued. I am mostly into building worlds with magic or mana details though. But if a character could be genetically altered/modified with animal and mutant characteristics I would like to join you. I need something to do in my down time. My own site died out just this month past, so I put it into maintenance mode to do a reboot of it in m downtime. But like most creatives I need something to roleplay in the meantime/while rebuilding the site... again.
 
I'm glad you're interested! :3

A major part of the canon I'm proposing includes virtual reality — the sort that can completely substitute the physical Earth — which I had hoped would appeal to those with more fantasy-oriented interests. :D

Regarding characters with significantly modified biology, I'd imagine they're present but quite strange and on the fringe of science. If what you're getting at is the canon being anthropomorphic-friendly, you're talking to the right person, but I'd rather talk about that sort of metagame when there are more players able to weigh in on the issue; I want to avoid excluding audiences as much as possible, this early in.
 
Perhaps something kinda fast-paced like this could help me re-spark my creativity. I'm in. I'm sure I could come up with some stuff, and even build more on what I already have.
 
Wonderful! I hope this doesn't disappoint; the idea is that it turns out whimsical and spontaneous, but I don't want to discourage people from digging in deeper to some of the as-of-yet unwritten nuances of the roleplay. :D

Anything special on your mind?
 
I was hoping to incorporate a build on my planet Ignius, a volcanic desert world of semi-nomadic peoples with abilities similar to fire and ice magic that, until recent years, was isolated to the high-tech revolutions sweeping the [span of setting, i.e. solar system, Galaxy, star cluster, etc.]. This results in the tribal nations being thrust into a world of new technology and opportunities.
 
For the record, we had a chat whose logs are in the initial post. :3
 
I may be interested in this. I want to run a little character through a dynamic little world!
 
Sorry I didn't respond sooner! I had a real busy start of the week and I just got my first chance to sit down and relax; but it looks all clear at least until the weekend. :3

I'm eager to read about what you've got already! Hopefully I can get this thing going somewhere useful before too long. :3
 
Awesome! :3

I think I might start up a group for this or something, so we can all keep in touch and figure out logistics. :o
 
Do so, and post the link to it here.
 
I'd be interested in this whole ordeal if it wasn't for a single little detail.

I live on a schedule that might not be compatible with anyone, and as such I might only be able to post only once a day.

If you think we can figure something out, let me know. (Though I feel obligated to tell you that while I build extensive worlds, I dislike posting huge posts for the sake of description - I roll like the good old text adventures, if a player needs more detail on a world, I will describe it, but otherwise I keep it short and to the point)
 
@Yiyel (what a euphonic name!);
That's just the point! Of course, an idea is far from practical reality, especially this young. :D

See, the plan is that this would be in the form of Chat RP, as in not written in a thread; this changes the style of the roleplay from extended narration to interactive tit-for-tat — I'd expect shorter posts, naturally, because otherwise the concept of 'real time' doesn't really apply.

Now, with the larger group size I'm hoping to eventually get together, scheduling becomes sort of obsolete; the concept of regular roleplay migrates from a basis in consistent patterns to consistent communication — in the sense that there are enough people involved that there's a decent chance you'll get a bit of roleplay in whenever you'd like if you keep in touch with the right people.

It's all lofty and abstract, albeit, but these things are significant goals. Of course, maybe Chat RP isn't your thing, or perhaps you're not a fan of a format that naturally leads to cliquishness. You know your own tastes better than I. :3

@Thomas McTavish, et alios;
Here's the group in question; I'm curious as to whether the member roster should stand as the call list or if we should set up a spreadsheet for that. Presuming this gets off the ground, I'll bet a lot of people will want to get started as soon as possible. So much to discuss, so little brain to work with at 0335. :o
 
Slight problem.

Are you sure you didn't set the group's security to private? Because I got an error page telling me I "don't have enough permissions to view this group."
 
Nope; definitely public. Maybe it's because that link is from My Groups. I can't seem to find it on the public groups listing, though. I'll chat with Diana and see if there's some sort of server bug involved, here.
 
What's the group name?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom
Back