That big collaborative RP thingamajig: Thread, show me on the doll where Patches touched you.

The Grouch wrote:

Cursive Writ wrote:

right, but why would it create the electric shock?

... though now I've got an idea for a fortress... That'll work well...

The Grouch wrote:

friction.

It would seem realistic to me that in the future, us humans could solve the problem of telephone poles going down. So if a wire is cut for any reason, the wires inside every chord would be able to create some form of friction to generate electricity whether it be vibrating or more subtle matters that could result in the generation of electricity.

The point Eo wants to get at is the making on magic talismans; which of course could be contributed by the inventions left behind by the human race, but magic is by definition unable to be explained. So a full throated explanation would either be unadvised or impossible because one or the other would either result in it no longer being magic, and the other being that a group of internet roleplayers would be unable to define and create plausible inventions created by future mankind.

I've already made several. I'm not asking for complete explanations, but something complicated enough to make me feel like we have all the information we need to understand how it works.

Also, due to boredom I think my character is going to be Genre Savy. Why? because it's fun!

Okay, so who was going to work on the magic system in general? I know we had someone for that, I just don't remember who.

rix?

Has anyone seen him in a while?

He's been in General Discussion with his own rp planning. Or should I say... RPPlanning! Yeeeaaahh!

No?

Dammit.

Anyways, what can I help with?

I was incorrect, it was Imp.

He PM'd me what he had. Shall I post it here?

Yes, please.

Certainly interested in helping anything that needs help. Though I admittedly have no idea about the build up to this, except for what I can read here.

I think we may have it covered, unless you want to volunteer to be a starting GM for a quick adventure.

Woah man, I don't think that's ever a good idea. You've seen me run adventures.

I could probably GM something we collaborate on a little, though. I tend to run on bare bones too often to be trusted alone.

Quote :

The magical force that permeates the world and everything in it, nanites from an ancient past. The nanites themselves are tiny, able to manipulate the molecular structure of objects, alchemy basically. They can be infused in anything, and generally every living creature has them in them, but most cannot actually use the nanites, an invisible force.

Depending on what Eo goes with, the last idea is the sun is expanding, releasing tons of radiation, and the nanites repair tissue and stuff so radiation does not kill the creatures of Earth, but enough radiation does get through to mutate them. This is subject to change depending on Eo, but gives a reason why every living creature has nanites, but most cannot use it.

There are two forms of nanites, as of now. Again subject to change. One is the normal nanite swarms all across the world, invisible to the naked eye, inside every living creature, in different pockets around the world. It is not just a stable evenly spread out swarm, but pockets of swarms. Some place are more magical then others.

The second form of nanites, are translator nanites. The normal nanite swarms use a programming language beyond our knowledge, but with an injection of translator nanites, I kind of want to call the Catalysts myself, it allows you to interface with the nanite swarms, and use magic.

I am fairly sure there are subtypes of nanites, some subtle, that can cause insanity and devolution, while others causing hyper intelligence, to perhaps something like biological immortality. Have yet to fully decide on that, this gives us great customizability.

I am sure we got all this down already but wanted to go through it again, you can give your input on parts that maybe seem redundant, or need to be expanded on. Whatever.

Now on to rules/laws of magic itself.

The nanites pick up on emotions, negative emotions can be infused to create more powerful spells, but it has a corruptive influence on the person, and even others and the environment around the corruptive swarm, which creates a feedback loop of worsening corruption and more power. Eventually the person would, I would imagine, turn into something along the lines of a lich, a hollowed husk of what they once were, but extremely powerful. Maybe even insane.

Positive emotions can have a more positive influence on things like healing magic and such. Positive emotions create a more healing and less intrusive influence on the nanite swarms, thus leaving you sane. Calm mind and inner peace is needed to balance the power.

Again nanite infusion is required, the Catalysts, to allow you to even use the nanites, and then to what degree, is highly variable. This is where we will need more specific rules. We do not really have anything explaining the difference and why some gain power, others go insane, and others just become hyper intelligent people. Could depend on like genetics and such, or certain brain patterns allow different amounts of influence, the Catalysts to the biological system of the body, and then to the nanite swarms around us.

To what degree the nanites can be used, has not been decided. Has to have good limits to keep back godmodding, and perhaps the corruptive negative attributes can do just that.

You imprint your own brainwaves into the nanite swarms, able to leave echoes in the nanites, “ghosts”. To what degree and influence they have, is unknown.

Some thoughts on Imp's stuff:


As for why magic has emotional feedback, it's probably just a side effect of linking the worldwide nanite soup to your brain with devices whose expiration date passed centuries ago.

As for why the nanites are in everyone, I like the anti-radiation idea, and I think that may be part of it. What I had in mind was that since the nanites are a fixture of the environment, the biology just incorporated them, like symbiotic bacteria (which is excluding the possibility of a species being engineered to rely on them). For that matter, some species may use nanites to digest plastic or even stone [/random idea]. By given locales, some might incorporate a slightly higher concentration of a specific-purpose nanites (such as subterranean species who live in the old sewer system, what might they have? Something that lets them eat decayed matter with impunity, perhaps the ability to induce decay?). As for why not everyone can use them consciously, well, they're in your body, but they're not hooked up. So even if you knew how to give them instructions (which learning is an arduous task when literacy isn't guaranteed), you wouldn't have a way of getting the instructions to them. It would be like knowing how to use DOS but not having a keyboard.

As for different sub-types of nanites, I don't think they should be considered different types so much as different grades, barring specific locales with a bunch of specialized nanites. Since humanity left, their nanite-based technology eventually sort of started to leak, so what was once a whole bunch of nanites for a bunch of different purposes has turned into an all-permeating nanite soup. As far as which ones are safe to put into you, let's put it this way. You can put vinegar in your salad dressing and make a tasty assortment of greens. If you tried it with industrial sulfuric acid, then that's poison. In the case of nanites, trying to brew a concoction that will approximate Catalyst, many people are willing to experiment with things that they really shouldn't. And you thought bathtub gin was dangerous...

(As for why Catalyzing works sometimes and doesn't, I'm just going to riff, feel free to take this with a grain of salt) Catalysts are a very specialized type and grade, and there's only a limited supply, so people are bound to experiment with alternate sources; venom of magic-laden creatures, mage's blood/body part distillations, etc. The former will probably kill you or cause brain damage. The latter, being very, very recently connected to a user, will likely induce psychosis. There is also something to the tune of a 5% chance that a mage who has a kid will pass on his gift hereditarily - more in the case of a mother, since the kid gets all kinds of things from Mom. This usually doesn't cause insanity and is usually the most stable (if least interesting) way to go.

If someone starts with magic, they should get a couple minor utility spells and a slightly bigger one that could be used as an attack; say, magic light, summon a small fog, and minor fireball. If they have some sort of magic-enhancing artifact, such as a wand or staff, that could increase the intensity of their spells. I think a mage could get more powerful over time not just by learning more spells, but by strengthening his connection with the magic through meditation and such. Every mage would have a certain broadcast range for influencing the ambient nanites, and that would improve the longer they had since they were Catalyzed. Modding spells would be bloody hard for someone new, and less so for someone experienced. Magic isn't a systematized body of knowledge; it's a piecemeal set of rules of thumb and syntaxes. Goofing up on a cast will either result in failure to run or an extended glitch.

With regard to ghosts, maybe it does more than just imprint your brainwaves sometimes. Maybe it produces a save-state of all of your nanites in your body, and in appropriately magic-rich locations, one might be able to summon a spectre. Else, mages probably have a random chance of hearing voices of ghosts in the system.


Also,
Anthropics (somebody please name them something better)

The Anthropics are less of a single race and more of a wide classification of races. They were engineered by the humans as a way of saving the DNA of various endangered species in a living organism (thus bypassing the potential problem of the DNA expiring before it could be used) and making exotic pets. This was done by combining the human DNA with animal DNA and making loosely human-shaped human-animal hybrids. As such, the majority of them were made from rare or endangered species (which by the time the humans left, was quite a lot), but also a large number were made of common household pets, since that was what sold easily. Anthropics are reliant on nanites in a particular way unique to them; as living gene repositories, they carry an incredible amount of genetic data - enough to reconstruct at the very least several species out of the genus, if not the whole genus. This is so much information that if the creature's cells had their way, the extra information would either be used chaotically or thrown out over the course of reproduction. This is where the nanites come in for them - they ensure proper gene expression and retention. This overwhelming suffusion of nanites makes Anthropics excellent mages, on the whole, but it also makes them weak to magic.

In the case of hybrid Anthropics, the nanites will pick a reduced complement of genes from both parents, and the child may express any combination of those, from entirely from the mother to entirely from the father, or anywhere in between. With the proper equipment and training, Anthropics can be switched from breeding after their own kind to producing feral offspring. Solar Disciple stories occasionally mention an Anthropic getting turned feral on the spot as punishment; however, reality isn't nearly so clean about it. Screwing with an Anthropic's gene expression is ludicrously complicated, especially for members of the post-human civilization, so attempting such a procedure is likely to either kill the subject outright, induce mutation, or scramble the subject's brain, rather than produce a clean reversion.

The weakening of magic has started to, in rare instances, cause some Anthropics to start mutating into rampaging monsters and/or going insane. While this is generally rare, it is extremely worrying to some.

Given that Anthropics were made to fit in an overpopulated world with limited space, their height (while it varyies by species) rarely met or exceeded five and a half feet. Over time, they started to break the 5'6" barrier more often, although that's not always tied to species. Rumor has it that somewhere in the far North, there lives a seven-foot-tall rat. The average height still sits around 4'7" for more average-sized species.

I think I saw in Hawk's tumblr that she's basically been kicked off the comp, so... I'm going to post what she had for races, when I find it, and I'll get working on those. Anyone else who wants a particular race, feel free to run it by everyone.


EDIT: Here's what she showed me on Skype.

Sihar (see-HAR)
The Sihar are a fairly advanced race. Then again most of the species that inhabit Earth nowadays are advanced in their own rights. The Sihar, or more frequently referred to as ‘Har, are reptilian in nature. They estimate to about 6’ at shoulder height (when on all fours) but can easily reach 11’ when standing on their hind legs. They have long, thin bodies with even longer tails that taper down to a point. Their sternum and ribcage, however, jut out slightly, making their chests seem particularly large and muscular. Their arms and legs are all fairly lean, their thighs and triceps/biceps being particularly muscled, making Sihar pretty damn fast when running on all fours. They have long narrow claws on the tips of all their toes. They can easily switch from quadrapedal to bipedal much like bears supposedly could. They do, however, have an unfortunate lack of opposable thumbs. Their colours range all over the spectrum, although the most prominent schemes are ones of a dull nature: browns,  greys, silvers, and blacks being most common. ‘Har with more vibrant coats are rumoured to have be spotted every now and again, though.
Vulk (VULK)
The Vulk are somewhat primitive when compared with other species; them being more feral and ‘animal-like’ than most. Don’t mistake them for beasts, though; they are still fairly intelligent, being able to speak and learn as many languages as an average human can. They are solely quadrapedal and rely on their speed and predator’s dentition to survive (although a few silver-tongued Vulk have been spoken of). From afar, they might be mistaken for large feathery lions, in fact they often are. They are quite a bit larger than even the biggest tigers, the crest of feathers on their heads reaching the average human’s shoulder height. They have large muscular limbs and big paws. Their fur colours are almost exclusively grey and white with various solid colour patterns and/or stripes thrown in.
Sahltuk (SALL-tuk)
The Sahltuk are dragons. Well, okay, not dragons dragons, but to any human who saw a Sahltuk for the first time, the first word to pop into their head would be dragon.

I suppose I should get some details on my species then.

While the scientific term would be "homo mutata", the racial name is known as Permian.

Appearance: A Permian - by Hawk
Permians are basically omnivorous monkey people. These monkey people, when standing are their full height are statistically speaking about 5'7" most of the time. They are rather unique for having two tails that share a base by only two or so inches, and having two legs with four extra arms up front, each completely separated from the other. Their eyes are also different. They're black and beady and each side of the face has three black marble looking eyes in the shape of a side-ways triangle, so that would make six eyes all together. With these traits, other species appropriately nicknamed the Permians "spider-monkeys". They are most often seen having shades of grey with white being the most common. There are also grey Permians, black Permians, and the occasional brown one. Their face and skin (hands and feet) however are always pink and their faces are long. Like a hunting dog, their fur is thick and they have a lot of skin so that if they were to be grabbed, they wouldn't be too harmed. Unlike a dog though, it isn't just around their scruff but everywhere except on their face, hands, feet, and tails. The tails do have a little extra skin however, but nothing noteworthy. While the do have nails, they are not long or strong enough to be considered as weapons, and are mostly used to pick off ticks and other parasites.

Abilities/Traits: They are extremely intelligent and cunning and even during their early creature phases, they were able to pick up sticks or stones and use them as tools to get food. They are really fast on the ground, but not enough to outrun a greyhound, but they are the best climbers in all of the forest. With two tails and four arms, they rarely ever fall from a tree and move through the trees with amazing agility.They have very good eye sight and are able to spot food from the thickest of trees and would be able to see a predator coming from nearly a mile away if they were on flat ground. They have managed to develop their own form of communication, an entire language, if you will. They are also capable of learning many other languages as well, and while they are typically a primitive culture, they are capable of easily adjusting to living outside their village life. Culture shock is no stranger though.

Culture/Disposition: While the Permians aren't a tribe, they are close to being so. A single pack works together obediently, and there is a type of caste system in a pack. It is determined by the color of one's coat. Black coats were of the highest respect to put it simply. A black coat would be the leader of a pack and other black coats would act as another pack member would take whichever duty they choose, but when the leader dies, one of them are allowed to step up. Be it a battle to the death, or that all but one refuse the position. All coats must be present to witness the new leader. Grey coats basically guard the pack and the camp of said pack. Brown coats are the hunters of a pack and bring back fresh kill for the pack. Brown coats are among the stealthiest of a pack being stuck with their position. They may choose whether or not to lay down scent markers which tells others that they're in their territory. White coats are the lowest one can get, and probably the most common. They gather fruit and vegetables, put down scent markers, do things for the camp, et cetera.

The Permians as a whole aren't too aggressive to other species, but they are very territorial, especially around the main camp of the pack. The camp isn't so much of a camp, but the general area where all the Permian rest and sleep and shelter themselves, which makes this place the most valuable to them. When faced with a predator too large, they all join up together, flex their arms and stick out their tails wide. The numbers and suddenly becoming larger often scares away most predators. If they don't leave within the next few minutes, they attack in overwhelming numbers. They would use anything as a weapon and would like hit them with a stick or smash them with a large rock. Speaking of which, they aren't the strongest thing around, but they're stronger than you would expect and could move a small boulder using all the strength in their four arms. Permians are very thankful to the forest for the gifts of life and while they do sometimes tear off branches, sticks, and leaves and flowers, if they see creatures acting trying to damage the forest or trees, they can get pretty pissed.

Let us not forget to mention their ability at craftsmanship, which is extraordinary by the way. They make rather fine bows and homemade knives using natural resources. Although making the knives is admittedly difficult, and bow making consumes an extensive amount of time, getting a Permian bow is definitely a valuable ware worth keeping. The wood is both strong and flexible. The sheer size of the bow requires strength which is needed to pull back the tightly strung string can be difficult but most bows are almost perfectly aligned, and it packs a wallop. Permians are able to use these bows with ease due to their spare set of arms which provides more strength and distribution.

Many Permians are also herbalists, making medicines and poisons with their surrounding environment.

Miscellaneous info: They don't like water too much, but are able to tolerate it. So if they suddenly fall in a river or some body of water enough to actually get them wet (excluding puddles) without expecting so, they will freak out. This includes being forced into water, or accidentally falling in it. They also react badly to something scaring them, so jumping out of the bushes is probably a bad idea. Like most species, they're very protective of their young.
Also, fun fact. Venom in insects such as bees, ants, or spiders won't really affect them and the most they get out of it is getting high. So they often times eat them and when they find it, spider webs as well! Webs are considered to be a candy-like treat in their culture.

I want in on this. :3 Is that okay? Or are you guys full up on team members? o:

We need everyone we can get. Who do you want to help?

What else do you guys need? o3o

I think we have everything we need covered, but I'm sure there are people who could use some help.

Oh. Okay!

If anyone needs help doing anything, just message me and I can help. >3<;

Here's a sheet template I made last night. If anyone has anything to add, please let me know.

Name: No s***, sherlock.
Gender and Species: Once again.
Age: Chronologically, and modern human equivalent if the two are drastically different.
Physical description: We have species norms, so you don't need too much detail. Keep in mind this can also include how your character carries him/herself, likely first impressions, etc.
Motivation: Adventuring is dangerous. What specifically do you get out of it, when you could just as easily stay home and probably not have the wildlife eat your eyeballs? The group as a whole doesn't have to know, but it helps the GM to know.
Belief: Your character's guiding principle. For instance, "Everyone's got a good side; you just have to find it," or, "All of life's questions can be answered with a sufficient knowledge of history."
Instincts: In a given general situation, what will you probably do? For instance, "When I'm in a new situation, check for traps," or, "when meeting someone, locate and/or steal their wallet." Pick three.
Backstory: Much of this will probably be evident from the last couple fields, but this is your chance to elaborate. If you're magically inclined, be sure to say why.
Virtue: What aspect of your character's, well, *character* stands out the most? Wisdom? Bravery? Compassion? "Cunning" and such doesn't count. When you come to the Shining Gates to the afterlife, Sol Invictus won't take "I was smart" or "I was strong" as a valid reason to let you into paradise.
Vice: What's your biggest moral shortcoming? Greed? Malice? Cowardice? Something more exotic?
Gear: Your important stuff, such as your weapons, armor, most important utility items you *always* have (don't bother listing the little stuff; you can be generally considered to have at least the bare essentials unless stated otherwise). If you have an artifact, this is a good place to put it. To start, let's keep it to one or two fairly minor items.
Spells: Mages only. Two utility spells (mostly non-combat, like "make light" or "purify water") and two minor combat-useful spells (think Spark or Flame from Skyrim)

So I have been trying to think of a couple side effects of two thirds of the worlds population just removing themselves from the face of the earth, and leaving behind vast wealths of technology. Now of course this technology, after a thousand years or so is going to be pretty useless unless it was taken care of. Or took care of itself. (Now even though that probably just gave away what I am going to end up with, I am going to continue with this speel.) No doubt if we had entire infrastructures based on Nanites, would would have full size ones intelligently doing dangerous or menial tasks. Most of these would be left behind, having no real purpose in Space and just taking up precious weight. Most of these robots would be dead, but every now and then there is a Ghost in the machine. A small bit of code that inexplicably makes the machine different from the others. No one knows why, but these few survived for a long time. These machine called scraps by the rare few that get to see them. They scavenge off old technology and have "evolved" in a way, much quicker than the nanite aided biologicals.

These, scraps are machines, much like transformers without the ability to transform. They are intelligent, diverse, and their temperaments vary.

I imagine that the descendant creatures would think of these beings as Golems, because to them the stuff the Scraps would cover themselves in the materials of the environment. And though a lot of the information is going to be corrupt, many of the robots would still be sociable to anything with nanites in it which being everything would make them rarely hostile.

Good idea? Yes/No

Goblins: Little greenish-skinned subterranean dudes. You know what they look like already, so I won't bother explaining them. They're the primary sentient residents of the sewer and subway systems. It's a little-known fact that they're actually human. Or rather, they were before degeneration set in. Now they're just short, sniveling husks that have trouble with the daylight.

Desert-striders: Loosely-put, they're the enlightened descendants of enlightened desert reptiles interbreeding with Anthropics, with some living next to a contaminated waste disposal... The end result is a six foot tall bipedal creature that resembles a snake strung through a tortoise, with slightly longer limbs. The species is native to the desert surrounding the Great Saharan Sludge Pit, and as such has a very high resistance to quite a lot of things, particularly poison. Thanks to a nanite-fueled synthesis system, they can duplicate the effects of most toxins they find and reproduce it through their mouths. They're very slow-moving and bad at climbing (which makes them ill-suited to highrise urban environments), and technology-wise, they're on the low-average end of the scale. They're also cold-blooded, which is their main weakness.

I'll make more later

Crow-dudes
....and their cronies the pigeon-dudes

Octodads

Robots/AI's

Uploads

Looks like we've got a nice start. Does anybody have any ideas for a race or branch for a particularly war-mongering species?

Definitely the Octodads. Though they prefer subtle war where in no one suspects a thing.

Though legitimately, uh... basically anything that seems either really smart, or tailored for battle, would make a convincing war-mongering species.

I was thinking a bulky, not-too-smart race. Particularly inhabits deserts or dry lands.