Rather, "AS OF YET UNTITLED, PART ONE: The Bones of Good Fortune", but that doesn't make nearly as compelling a title, I think.
So here we start: in a temperate, post-post-apocalyptic 16th century sort of world, our four player characters are searching for the cure to some unnamed king's depression. Aside from your usual monsters and wilderness, they have to navigate the stupid wars of the Aristocrats, the power-hungry lords of the world (no jokes, please -- not yet); the silly rites of the Technopriests, sort of the Catholic Church of this world, but with access to some strange technology (and yes, they are sort of based off of Jodorowsky's work -- as is much of the concept); and the secret affairs of the Hippies, sort of the witches and heretics of this world, only they have real powers and such (it's not that I couldn't think of a better name, but that I found the perfect one). Three of the player characters represent a member of each group, while the fourth is the skilled outsider helping out with problems none of the other three can solve. The fact that all three major factions have invested something into this quest means a lot, though as per their inspirations, these estates aren't exactly homogenous, especially the aristocrats.
The three main conceits of the story should be that the story is all swashbuckler-y, that it follows the general outline of the tarot's trump cards, and that it's post-post-apocalyptic, ie that it has a strange, yet wonderful, mix of science fiction, medieval fantasy, mythological fantasy, and frontier-type western, sort of like the Incal or Adventure Time. Since it's supposed to follow the tarot, the plot is sort of already set. Here -- yeah, spoilers, but I don't think that's the point of this whole thing, at least for us players.
The four characters have to find the five elements of a ritual that would purge the king's depression. These elements are sort of based on the four suits of the tarot (and so, the four elements, and also the items on The Magician's card): the bones of good fortune (not literal bones, but dice, representing perhaps the trump cards), the necromancer's baton, the cup of wisdom, the rose coin, and the imperial blade. The finding of these elements involves a bit of a good deal of initiatory worldbuilding, reminiscent of The Popess.
Once the elements are gathered, chaos erupts, proceeding according to the three cards that sort of correspond with the three key estates: The Empress for the Hippies, The Emperor for the Aristocrats, and The Pope for the Technopriests. At this last junction, something apocalyptic happens (or perhaps recurs?), that forces our characters to leap into a different world (probably using a ship instead of a portal, with that ship being salvaged by the players from some ancient ruin) -- a world that corresponds to something vastly more fantastical, perhaps a marriage between love (Venus; The Lovers; Something Art-Deco) and violence (Mars; The Chariot; Something Martial and Volcanic). It is in this parallel world that they find a way to stop the apocalyptic happening (say, using something inspired by Justice, guided by someone inspired by The Hermit, and leading to a device inspired by The Wheel of Fortune), only to end up being their own agents of destruction (again, The Wheel of Fortune).
The next five cards, Strength, The Hanged Man, The Unnamed One, Temperance, and The Devil, should involve their journey into other parallel worlds, trying to resolve their little mess-up. The final five, The House of God, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, and Judgment, should be a journey of transcendence -- whether successful in the previous arc or not, the characters become like gods. The Fool and The World both represent forces through which they move -- The Fool, the power the characters use to get through the whole thing, and The World, the characters' ultimately unattainable goals.
I'm envisioning the starting world to be all bright and colorful, but with a real mature side to it, considering the 16th century was filled with wars and inquisitions; the characters' ship a cozy evocation of both the age of sail and space operas; the first parallel world to be a nigh-barren, blood-red world, with a lot more technological ruin; the later parallel worlds to be mad varied; and the final act to be as psychedelic as Dimethyltryptamine. I'm looking for four players, each taking up one main character, and I'm hoping much of the setting ends up fleshed out by everyone. For dedication, I need constant users -- posts in the IC could take a few days, sure, but the meat of the story should be continuously developed in the OOC. Some measure of writing skill is a must, although I might end up playing with another sort of system I've long been itching to try out, where all of the good stuff happens in the OOC, and the IC serves only as a sort of artful retelling of everything, written by singular hands over long stretches of time. Also preferred would be someone with visual arts skills -- I hope for this to become a visual project, too, what with its inspirations being tarot and Adventure Time -- and another someone with music skills, I want this story to breathe out songs.
So here we start: in a temperate, post-post-apocalyptic 16th century sort of world, our four player characters are searching for the cure to some unnamed king's depression. Aside from your usual monsters and wilderness, they have to navigate the stupid wars of the Aristocrats, the power-hungry lords of the world (no jokes, please -- not yet); the silly rites of the Technopriests, sort of the Catholic Church of this world, but with access to some strange technology (and yes, they are sort of based off of Jodorowsky's work -- as is much of the concept); and the secret affairs of the Hippies, sort of the witches and heretics of this world, only they have real powers and such (it's not that I couldn't think of a better name, but that I found the perfect one). Three of the player characters represent a member of each group, while the fourth is the skilled outsider helping out with problems none of the other three can solve. The fact that all three major factions have invested something into this quest means a lot, though as per their inspirations, these estates aren't exactly homogenous, especially the aristocrats.
The three main conceits of the story should be that the story is all swashbuckler-y, that it follows the general outline of the tarot's trump cards, and that it's post-post-apocalyptic, ie that it has a strange, yet wonderful, mix of science fiction, medieval fantasy, mythological fantasy, and frontier-type western, sort of like the Incal or Adventure Time. Since it's supposed to follow the tarot, the plot is sort of already set. Here -- yeah, spoilers, but I don't think that's the point of this whole thing, at least for us players.
The four characters have to find the five elements of a ritual that would purge the king's depression. These elements are sort of based on the four suits of the tarot (and so, the four elements, and also the items on The Magician's card): the bones of good fortune (not literal bones, but dice, representing perhaps the trump cards), the necromancer's baton, the cup of wisdom, the rose coin, and the imperial blade. The finding of these elements involves a bit of a good deal of initiatory worldbuilding, reminiscent of The Popess.
Once the elements are gathered, chaos erupts, proceeding according to the three cards that sort of correspond with the three key estates: The Empress for the Hippies, The Emperor for the Aristocrats, and The Pope for the Technopriests. At this last junction, something apocalyptic happens (or perhaps recurs?), that forces our characters to leap into a different world (probably using a ship instead of a portal, with that ship being salvaged by the players from some ancient ruin) -- a world that corresponds to something vastly more fantastical, perhaps a marriage between love (Venus; The Lovers; Something Art-Deco) and violence (Mars; The Chariot; Something Martial and Volcanic). It is in this parallel world that they find a way to stop the apocalyptic happening (say, using something inspired by Justice, guided by someone inspired by The Hermit, and leading to a device inspired by The Wheel of Fortune), only to end up being their own agents of destruction (again, The Wheel of Fortune).
The next five cards, Strength, The Hanged Man, The Unnamed One, Temperance, and The Devil, should involve their journey into other parallel worlds, trying to resolve their little mess-up. The final five, The House of God, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, and Judgment, should be a journey of transcendence -- whether successful in the previous arc or not, the characters become like gods. The Fool and The World both represent forces through which they move -- The Fool, the power the characters use to get through the whole thing, and The World, the characters' ultimately unattainable goals.
I'm envisioning the starting world to be all bright and colorful, but with a real mature side to it, considering the 16th century was filled with wars and inquisitions; the characters' ship a cozy evocation of both the age of sail and space operas; the first parallel world to be a nigh-barren, blood-red world, with a lot more technological ruin; the later parallel worlds to be mad varied; and the final act to be as psychedelic as Dimethyltryptamine. I'm looking for four players, each taking up one main character, and I'm hoping much of the setting ends up fleshed out by everyone. For dedication, I need constant users -- posts in the IC could take a few days, sure, but the meat of the story should be continuously developed in the OOC. Some measure of writing skill is a must, although I might end up playing with another sort of system I've long been itching to try out, where all of the good stuff happens in the OOC, and the IC serves only as a sort of artful retelling of everything, written by singular hands over long stretches of time. Also preferred would be someone with visual arts skills -- I hope for this to become a visual project, too, what with its inspirations being tarot and Adventure Time -- and another someone with music skills, I want this story to breathe out songs.