Steven Universe RP

Kagayours

a ghost
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MYTHICAL MEMBER
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  1. No Preferences
This RP has been a long time in the making, and a lot of discussion has already happened here (what you're reading right now is a completely edited version of the OP, supposed to reflect where the RP currently stands and not where it was when I first posted this thread last summer). Right now, there's a more specific set of things that need to be figured out before this RP can get off the ground. But first, for anyone who's new, here are the more-or-less set-in-stone bullet points for what this RP is going to be about (though you're still free to comment on any of these points if you have suggestions):
  • This RP is going to be about our own group of gems living on Earth in the present day (though not all player characters will be gems from this group — more on that later).
  • Our gems (temporarily named the “Renegade Gems” for now) are a separate entity from the Crystal Gems, and they don’t really associate with the Crystal Gems, either.
  • Similarly to the Crystal Gems, though, they are a diverse group of gems with a diverse set of backstories (so, no central backstory that unites the group or anything).
  • The primary concern for the Renegade Gems is simply surviving on Earth. They’ve been here ever since the war for Earth, cut off from Homeworld, and have different personal goals and motivations (unlike the Crystal Gems, who have the unifying goal of protecting the Earth). What the Renegade Gems have in common is that they’re all gems stuck on Earth, essentially banding together for protection and a sense of camaraderie. They all have differing opinions towards the Earth/humanity.
  • It’s possible to play a gem who is not part of this group at the start of the RP, though, who encounters the Renegade Gems for some reason.
  • Human characters will also be playable.
  • Our Gems’ settlement is near the Great Lakes (maybe in Canada), with a human settlement nearby (similarly to Beach City being built right around the Crystal Gems’ temple).
  • Our Gems really don’t associate with humans much (or have any reason to) at the start of the RP (think of how the Crystal Gems acted in “Story for Steven” when they first met Greg — they didn’t seem to understand humans very well and preferred that humans stayed out of their business. That’s basically what our Gems are like).
  • This RP will have minimal connection to canon events and characters. While the events of the canon are still happening, they’re not something our characters are involved with and, for the most part, our characters probably aren’t even aware of most of the events in the canon.
And here are the points that still need to be discussed before I can make the OOC:

1) Our Gems’ opinion on the Crystal Gems. For a while, I’d been leaning towards our gems strongly disliking the Crystal Gems and/or being afraid of them. Perhaps they’d view the Crystal Gems as traitors for siding so strongly with Earth/humanity, or perhaps they’re even afraid that the Crystal Gems will see them as enemies (as they do have a habit of bubbling first and asking questions never). Either way, what this essentially boils down to is the Renegade Gems wanting nothing at all to do with the Crystal Gems, even avoiding them so that the Crystal Gems don’t really know that they even exist. Worth noting: this doesn’t necessarily mean that every member of the Renegade Gems strongly hates the Crystal Gems and what they stand for. There could very well be members within the group who don’t have strong feelings either way or who perhaps even sympathize with the Crystal Gems and their cause. It’s just that the general consensus among the group is to avoid them. To me, this seemed ideal since it gives us a good reason to have minimal connection to canon characters, staying out of the Crystals’ way and all that. But, I keep getting the vibe that there’s a lot of opposition to this idea. So, I wanted to formally put it up for discussion. Also, I had originally intended that the Crystal Gems don’t even know about the Renegade Gems’ existence (again, makes sense for staying out of their way and all that), but that’s another thing I’m staring to second-guess.

2) Warp pads. If the Renegade Gems are trying to avoid the Crystal Gems, that raises the question of how the warp pads could even be used without them being noticed. I know it’s rare that a member of either team would, say, stick their head out of the stream and notice such a thing, but, after several thousand years of living on the same planet, they’d be bound to run into each other at some point. There have been several approaches to solving this problem:
  • A “special system” to tell when the warp is being used, so that they can avoid detection themselves. I know this is incredibly vague — it was vague when it was first suggested, too — but, it could potentially be doable if we had some idea of what that “special system” was.
  • The Renegade Gems have their own series of warp pads and/or some sort of substitute for the warp pads (something like Lion’s ability to warp from place to place). This is something that, again, could be hard to come up with — but still a potentially viable option.
  • Perhaps we could just… not have warp pads (or any equivalent) at all?? I mean, do we even really need them? It’s plausible that the whole RP could take place in one general area and without the need for warping. We’ve seen that the Kindergarten is more-or-less within walking distance from the Crystal Gems’ Temple (as Steven and Amethyst traveled there without warping in “On the Run”), so it’s plausible to think that any gem- related areas in our RP could also be within such a distance. Not to mention, just from an RP mechanics standpoint, warping could potentially make things more confusing and make it harder for characters to more smoothly move from one interaction to another. So, it begs the question of whether or not we even really need warp pads. Personally, I’m most strongly leaning towards the idea that our gems don’t have any nearby warp pads (or maybe they had a warp pad near their residence, but they broke it to keep themselves hidden), thus essentially removing warp pads from the RP. But, I still want to hear everyone’s opinions on this.
3) Plot. This RP isn’t well-suited to be a sandbox, so we need some sort of antagonist or goal to give the RP some greater sense of direction. There are two main ways this could go (or, perhaps we could even utilize both). One is that this RP could be focused on the interactions between gems and humans that will inevitably play out — humans discovering gems and gems learning about humans, etc — as well as the conflicts between the gems that would likely come up due to differing opinions about humans. Another idea is that there could be the more concrete antagonist of a group of enemy gems living on Earth. These gems aren’t necessarily from Homeworld (although they could be). They could be another group of gems simply stranded on Earth like the Renegade Gems (and perhaps they could even be a part of the Renegade Gems that split off at some point…), who have some sort of goal that the Renegade Gems disagree with for whatever reason. Maybe they want to start a new Kindergarten on Earth? There’s room for a lot of possibilities, here.

4) Our gems’ settlement. This is a minor thing, but still something that’s undecided and worth putting up for discussion. While our gems could have a temple similar to the Crystal Gems’ temple, it could also make more sense for them to have a more hidden, secluded hideout — perhaps something underground. There was also talk of the gems living in the remains of a crashed Gem spaceship, similar to the one seen in “Friend Ship”. There are a lot of ways this could go, as well.

5) Our gems’ name. Once again, this is a minor thing, but still worth discussing. The name that’s been used throughout most of this post was “Renegade Gems”, but that was only ever intended as a temporary name. It would make more sense to have some sort of geology-based name, more similar to the Crystal Gems. The only name I’ve taken much of a liking to is Geode Gems, which is serviceable, but, there’s still plenty of room for other suggestions if anyone has any.

I think that’s about it for the big questions that need to be answered before this RP can start (though don’t hesitate to speak up if you can think of anything I forgot, or just have any other questions in general). If you’re interested in this RP and want to see it get somewhere then please try to answer these questions. Even if you don’t have strong opinions on some of them, a little bit of input goes a long way. Agree with something? Great, I’d love to hear it. Disagree? That’s fine, I’d love to know why. Even if you don’t strongly agree or disagree, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Sup Kaga :D

For the gems on earth idea, it could be similar to Lapis' s situation. She was a gem object but not corrupt or anything. so it might have been easy for someone to mistake it as just a weird mirror if the gems hadn't got to it first.

Or (spoilers for keeping it together)
Perhaps one of the gems they were working on in Keeping It Together didn't get clustered somehow and got away?

Either way, it sounds like a fun rp to do (especially thinkong about their weapons and fusion dance style)
 
Sup Kaga :D

For the gems on earth idea, it could be similar to Lapis' s situation. She was a gem object but not corrupt or anything. so it might have been easy for someone to mistake it as just a weird mirror if the gems hadn't got to it first.

Or (spoilers for keeping it together)
Perhaps one of the gems they were working on in Keeping It Together didn't get clustered somehow and got away?

Either way, it sounds like a fun rp to do (especially thinkong about their weapons and fusion dance style)

Hmm, well, I don't know how easy it would be for all our Gems to really be in that 1st situation, since the only way Lapis even got out of the mirror was because of Steven. I'm not sure how all of us could start out the RP being stuck in Gem-powered objects, or how all our characters would get out. I suppose it's possible that some of our characters could've been trapped like that at some point, but were then freed by the Gems who would later become their teammates (meaning that they could've been freed a long time ago). Additionally, it's possible that some of them could be escapees of the fusion experiments. I do like that idea.

But our Gems don't all need to have the same backstory, though. (I mean, look at how diverse the Crystal Gems are.) I think it would be more interesting if they all sort of came from different places (especially since this leaves room for each player to be more creative), but what they really need is some common goal or perspective on things that gives them a reason to stick together as a team (as well as give our RP some sort of plot/direction).
 
Hmm, well, I don't know how easy it would be for all our Gems to really be in that 1st situation, since the only way Lapis even got out of the mirror was because of Steven. I'm not sure how all of us could start out the RP being stuck in Gem-powered objects, or how all our characters would get out. I suppose it's possible that some of our characters could've been trapped like that at some point, but were then freed by the Gems who would later become their teammates (meaning that they could've been freed a long time ago). Additionally, it's possible that some of them could be escapees of the fusion experiments. I do like that idea.

But our Gems don't all need to have the same backstory, though. (I mean, look at how diverse the Crystal Gems are.) I think it would be more interesting if they all sort of came from different places (especially since this leaves room for each player to be more creative), but what they really need is some common goal or perspective on things that gives them a reason to stick together as a team (as well as give our RP some sort of plot/direction).
Yeah. I was just throwing out ideas, not necessarily all of them have to have the same thing going on. Another idea I literally just had 5 seconds ago might have some merit:

Do you remember the monster from Giant Woman? Inside were HUNDREDS of bubbled gems. Gems that were probably released and scattered afterwards. The crystal gems can't feasibly gather up all of those after defeating that kind of monster (at the very least they didn't in that episode), and when a gem is unbubbled it can regenerate. If any other type of gem monster can do that, there's a possibility of one of our gems to have resurfaced from there.


As for the common goal, I don't have much of an idea for that quite yet. Sticking together for survival is certainly a possibility, and there's a chance they knew each other before even if they weren't on the same side. The galaxy warp is destroyed, so they can't get off of earth if they wanted to. Perhaps, being all they have left of their people, they stick together for that reason?
 
I would totally be interested in doing this! I even have my own Gemsona. ^-^
 
Yeah. I was just throwing out ideas, not necessarily all of them have to have the same thing going on. Another idea I literally just had 5 seconds ago might have some merit:

Do you remember the monster from Giant Woman? Inside were HUNDREDS of bubbled gems. Gems that were probably released and scattered afterwards. The crystal gems can't feasibly gather up all of those after defeating that kind of monster (at the very least they didn't in that episode), and when a gem is unbubbled it can regenerate. If any other type of gem monster can do that, there's a possibility of one of our gems to have resurfaced from there.

Hmm... yeah, that's one possibility. Even though most of those bubbled Gems would most likely be other Gem monsters, it's possible that a few of them were non-corrupted Gems.

As for the common goal, I don't have much of an idea for that quite yet. Sticking together for survival is certainly a possibility, and there's a chance they knew each other before even if they weren't on the same side. The galaxy warp is destroyed, so they can't get off of earth if they wanted to. Perhaps, being all they have left of their people, they stick together for that reason?

Yeah, all of them just wanting to stick together and survive is an option, especially if they're afraid that the Crystal Gems would want to eradicate them.

Additionally, it occurred to me that another potential point-of-interest for Gem backstories could be the Earth Kindergarten. It's possible that some of our Gems could've formed there, and feel sort of like outcasts because of it.

Now what we really need is something for all of them to do. Some enemy or conflict -- something to give the RP some direction.
 
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Hmm... yeah, that's one possibility. Even though most of those bubbled Gems would most likely be other Gem monsters, it's possible that a few of them were non-corrupted Gems.



Yeah, all of them just wanting to stick together and survive is an option, especially if they're afraid that the Crystal Gems would want to eradicate them.

Additionally, it occurred to me that another potential point-of-interest for Gem backstories could be the Earth Kindergarten. It's possible that some of our Gems could've formed there, and feel sort of like outcasts because of it.

Now what we really need is something for all of them to do. Some enemy or conflict -- something to give the RP some direction.

I like the Kindergarten idea!

On the subject of direction, perhaps trying to avoid detection by the gems, or trying to avoid becoming gem monsters themselves? I don't really know how gems become monsters, so that'll probably run into issue once there's canon info on it though. Hmm... maybe once other people are interested they'll have some input? Organizing and CSes will probably buy some time to figure that out.
 
I like the Kindergarten idea!

On the subject of direction, perhaps trying to avoid detection by the gems, or trying to avoid becoming gem monsters themselves? I don't really know how gems become monsters, so that'll probably run into issue once there's canon info on it though. Hmm... maybe once other people are interested they'll have some input? Organizing and CSes will probably buy some time to figure that out.

Yeah, we probably shouldn't try fighting against such an obscure concept without there being any canon info on it. I think we might need a more concrete enemy/objective. I'd like to figure that out before we get as far as an OOC, though -- that's why I'm asking for suggestions here. Hopefully more people will turn up with more to bring to the table.
 
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I'm interested, well it looks like you guys have a pretty good idea going here. Each of our gem's could have a different backstory, like one or two be kindergarten gems, one be trapped in an item, one be a forced fusion (that character could be really interesting since a successful forced fusion would basically be like Frankenstein and would be a little bit of multiple gems and stuff).

Two side notes, one for the giant woman bird thing one of the crewniverse said that when Opal shot them with her arrows it bubbles and sent them back to the temple automatically. Also if we wanted to we could go off the canon a little bit and incorporate the gem egg AU which I find really interesting.
 
Two side notes, one for the giant woman bird thing one of the crewniverse said that when Opal shot them with her arrows it bubbles and sent them back to the temple automatically. Also if we wanted to we could go off the canon a little bit and incorporate the gem egg AU which I find really interesting.

I'm not sure I plan on going off-canon, but what is the Gem egg AU?
 
Basically it's that when two gems experience a moment of close intimacy and their gem's touch one or both go the gems can become pregnant, it's not very common which adds to the resets on for the kindergartens. After an unspecified amount of the time the gem will "lay the eggs" which basically means that the eggs will have enough energy to take stable form in the form of geodes and then after an unspecified amount of time the geodes hatch. In the original post it said that the babies gems or gemlings will look exactly like smaller versions of one of their parents but I think it would be better if for this RP if the gemlings would look like a mixture of both parents, like humans, it's cool if you don't wanna do this I just thought I would suggest it
 
Basically it's that when two gems experience a moment of close intimacy and their gem's touch one or both go the gems can become pregnant, it's not very common which adds to the resets on for the kindergartens. After an unspecified amount of the time the gem will "lay the eggs" which basically means that the eggs will have enough energy to take stable form in the form of geodes and then after an unspecified amount of time the geodes hatch. In the original post it said that the babies gems or gemlings will look exactly like smaller versions of one of their parents but I think it would be better if for this RP if the gemlings would look like a mixture of both parents, like humans, it's cool if you don't wanna do this I just thought I would suggest it

Yeah, I dunno. It makes for an interesting AU I suppose, but I don't think it makes sense to incorporate it into this RP since I do want to stick to what seems plausible in the canon, and the whole concept of pregnancy always just seemed so foreign to the gems.
 
I'm in for this. I've also been thinking about Gem OCs lately, so I have a story set.
As for ideas... Maybe the Gems start to move out of their hidey holes after they see the Homeworld ship and they end up meeting in a city and eventually wind up having to fend off corrupt gems?
 
As for ideas... Maybe the Gems start to move out of their hidey holes after they see the Homeworld ship and they end up meeting in a city and eventually wind up having to fend off corrupt gems?

I'm... a little bit confused as to how these ideas connect.

Are you saying that they'd all meet each other for the first time because they saw the Homeworld ship? Because I was thinking that they would already know each other (since I feel like that might make it easier to get the RP started).

Secondly, I figured that fighting corrupt gems would become a thing -- or at least a starting point -- but I feel like the RP will become stale really quickly if fighting corrupt gems is the only objective.

Also, are you saying that we should use the Homeworld ship as an excuse for them to all "meet up in a city"? Because, well, even if we do use that as a starting point, I feel like it's still just that -- a starting point. I can easily see that first battle wrapping up and then activity tapering off as none of us know what to do next. :/ That's why I feel like we need more of a broad, long-term goal or conflict, so that there's something to make an RP premise out of that's set to last for a while but is still flexible to changes in where the RP goes.

Sorry, I get kind of particular about how my RP's are structured. ^^" I just want to make sure our RP has a strong foundation so that it's more likely to last a long time.
 
I'm... a little bit confused as to how these ideas connect.

Are you saying that they'd all meet each other for the first time because they saw the Homeworld ship? Because I was thinking that they would already know each other (since I feel like that might make it easier to get the RP started).

Secondly, I figured that fighting corrupt gems would become a thing -- or at least a starting point -- but I feel like the RP will become stale really quickly if fighting corrupt gems is the only objective.

Also, are you saying that we should use the Homeworld ship as an excuse for them to all "meet up in a city"? Because, well, even if we do use that as a starting point, I feel like it's still just that -- a starting point. I can easily see that first battle wrapping up and then activity tapering off as none of us know what to do next. :/ That's why I feel like we need more of a broad, long-term goal or conflict, so that there's something to make an RP premise out of that's set to last for a while but is still flexible to changes in where the RP goes.

Sorry, I get kind of particular about how my RP's are structured. ^^" I just want to make sure our RP has a strong foundation so that it's more likely to last a long time.
You have good points there. I'm... not really coming with better ideas.

But I guess I mean it'd be like they all decided to flee and ended up together? Look at me and my lazy coincidences
Also, maybe the Homeworld hasn't given up on Earth, because Peridot's still running around sending messages so maybe they got one and Homeworld's bearing down on Earth?

It's good that you're picky. I like it. Tends to weed out the weak from the strong.
 
You have good points there. I'm... not really coming with better ideas.

^^" I appreciate the effort! I just want to make sure everything's thought-out enough, myself.

But I guess I mean it'd be like they all decided to flee and ended up together? Look at me and my lazy coincidences
Also, maybe the Homeworld hasn't given up on Earth, because Peridot's still running around sending messages so maybe they got one and Homeworld's bearing down on Earth?

I still think it might be easier for them to already be a team at the start of the RP as opposed to coming up with some coincidence to bring them all together, especially since, if they're trying to avoid the Crystal Gems, it doesn't make sense that they would so sloppily run into each other.

As for getting one of Homeworld's messages... hmm... well, there was Peridot's message that interrupted TV signals, not to mention the robonoids that she kept sending to Earth, so it's possible that our gems could become aware of Homeworld's presence and want to try to get back. The question is how they would go about trying to contact them and where we would take the plot from there. Already it seems kind of difficult to play out. :/
 
Also just a question, how would we Roleplay fusions, would both RP'ers control it or would one person take over?
 
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Another question, are our gems human-friendly or are we more on the lapis/homeworld side and not really care about them? I feel like that is an important distinction to make as we try and figure out our direction.
 
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Also just a question, how would we Roleplay fusions, would both RP'ers control it or would one person take over?

I think it would make the most sense for fusions to be collab posts, but I think that's a minor issue right now.

Another question, are our gems human-friendly or are we more on the lapis/homeworld side and not really care about them? I feel like that is an important distinction to make as we try and figure out our direction.

Well, depending on what our common goal is, that might be something that our characters might have some differing opinions about. But, as it currently stands, with our only objective really being to survive on Earth, it seems to me that our gems would side more with Homeworld and feel more neutral towards humans. It would also make sense that one of the reasons they're at-odds with the Crystal Gems in the first place is because the Crystals seem to be more concerned with protecting Earth than the needs of their fellow gems. That's not to say that we can't have some characters who might be a bit more sympathetic towards humans, though, especially depending on where this RP goes.
 
Actually, I had an idea just now!

What if the focus of the RP is that our group of renegade gems comes into contact with humans who become aware of their magical abilities and such? This could give our gems a chance to show their difference in opinions about what they should do about the humans, and it also gives players a chance to play human characters if they so wish.

This also gives the RP a direction that I don't see as fizzling out quite so easily.
 
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