Backstreet's Back

ALRIGHT!

Hello my esteemed fellows who may or may not remember the great and mighty Shawer/Shawie/Jimmney3 from the Sporum! There doesn't seem to be much going on here, but the thought of all my old friends has inextricably drawn me here, to this place of wonder.
Wonder as in, the way you look at the pyramids - I mean, they're great and all, but it's not like you're seeing the slaves drag those giant rocks into formation in front of your very eyes. That would be because they're all dead.

HOWEVER on the off chance you do decide to explore the pyramid you may find yourself in a situation where the dead begin to rise and suddenly you're the star of an action movie SO IN SUMMARY:

Hey guys wattup. Went off on a bit of a tangent there.

I can't believe that on the day I wonder, gee, how is that old forum doing? I can't imagine there's anyone left anymore and what do I see? Brenden Fraser just strolling his merry way in. At least there's one mummy you managed to stir, right?

How's it hanging Jimmney ol' pal?

A reply from the man himself! It's goin' good Patches, been a long time - to be honest I was really just a wee little babby (pronounced bab-ee) when we last spoke but now that I think about it so were you. Been busy since I left, and by busy since I left I mean I haven't had internet for upwards of a year and have just cracked the neighbours wifi password.

How about you man? Starting the HSC and all that jazz?
You may recall that there I starred in a trilogy of movies so hoping to see more undead rising, if only for a moment!

Shawie, it's been too long...

Glad to see that there are at least some people left.

Same here man. Sup Jokie, it's been a while - since Camp Half-blood or whatever that was called right?
Alright I guess I'll have a look through the RPs, even if they're all dead.
Is it worth joining something? Or even starting something? Does anyone think we have hope here?

Ha, hope. What is this thing.

Well, in any case, I'd join one of your RP's, because I quite like your style.  So, that's at least one participant down.

Hope's the thing I personally like to hope all people maintain a little bit of, Jokester. Alright, one of hopefully many potential RPers willing to watch me fail at making an RP, that's a positive sign so far! :D

I guess I'll think on it - if I manage to actually come up with something kind of new-ish maybe then I'll probably post a thread. I mean lets be honest I'll probably make the same old 'teenagers with superpowers or whatever' sandbox that's standard RP but let's try to give it some kind of twist or difference.
Just a quick brainstorm I guess on possible RPs:

A) World (or continent) dominated by a great empire - magic/science are both in play (and each to high extremes), rebellion is sparked due to tyrannical actions by the supposedly benevolent empire - more a war of of Law/Chaos than of Good/Evil. A real sandbox - I might go so far as to draw out a quick map kind of thing of the capital to give us some frame of reference and everything else is up to the players.

B) Characters are some form of monster or freak, hunted down by the authorities (in secret of course) to keep the peace or hide their secrets or *insert generic reason here*. Sandbox once more (mostly because I don't like managing RPs), but a limiting factor here is that the players need some kind of big handicap along with their abilities to keep with the freak/monster thing. Standard would likely be that they have something that makes them LOOK like a monster, but really anything goes so long as it gives them an achilles heel - and the weakness can also be a strength in disguise.

C) Zombie apocalypse - because I've always been interested in seeing one of these actually work without making the characters shoot lightning or be cyborgs. Characters are strictly human (unless someone thinks of something just REALLY COOL), zombies are mostly standard with mutations for dramatic effect when I feel like it.

So anyone who stumbles upon here feel free to take a vote at what type of RP I'm going to try and use to bring some life back to this place. Feel free to offer any criticism or ideas now before I go ahead and make a thread!

Cynicism is good in low doses, it keeps the optimism in check and balances your perception of reality. Too much annoys your neighbors and makes you listen to whiny screaming boy bands.

I'm really up to anything you might have in mind Jimmney. I'll probably end up calling you Jimmney Cricket at some point.

If I can jump in this conversation, B or C sounds cool.

C would be extra cool if it was stat-based.

I do like the idea of C a little more with stats, but because of timezone differences with most people and the fact that the only internet connection I have is stealing my neighbours wifi it's going to be hard for me to manage any dice rolls and stuff - so I guess I'll appoint some kind of game master to run that kind of stuff while I'm gone, or we'll just wing it without dice and use the stats as a basic representation of the character's abilities relative to others (which will help keep everything nice and balanced and to be honest is a better way to keep an RP alive than going D&D on it).

So since the general consensus is now B or C I guess I'll flip a coin or something to decide, then draft up an OP and see if I like it or not. Right after I finish mowing the lawn and shiet.

Btw sup Shade/Silent!

Not much! Just lurkin' about and trying to manage schoolwork. You?

What I did with the only stat-based RP I did a while back was fairly time consuming (I rolled for everything, albeit it was a really watered down version because I've never played any dice-based games and was not entirely trusting of my own system), the representative stats might be a good way of doing it. You could just have really simple stat checks, like Strength of 3 to push a zombie off or something. Oooh, especially if you could somehow work morale/psychology into it. Somebody else might have better suggestions for the mechanics of the game, I'm not super experienced with that type of thing.

Been alright really, just chilling out in general through life and school. I apparently have to start giving a shit about things this year so I guess that'll be fun!

Psychology will be a thing in the form of discipline I think - how likely are you to panic ect. I'm not going to make morales pre-determined in any way because I think in this situation everything becomes kind of subjective.

I like the idea of simple stat checks, might implement that. I'll put some basic zombie related checks around and probably make the rest dynamic according to the situation.

Shawer wrote:

Been alright really, just chilling out in general through life and school. I apparently have to start giving a shit about things this year so I guess that'll be fun!

Psychology will be a thing in the form of discipline I think - how likely are you to panic ect. I'm not going to make morales pre-determined in any way because I think in this situation everything becomes kind of subjective.

I like the idea of simple stat checks, might implement that. I'll put some basic zombie related checks around and probably make the rest dynamic according to the situation.

Maybe Discipline could be one of the few actual die rolls? People could get bonuses for relaxing or finding something meaningful to do (it would give any players who aren't really combat or medically oriented but can cook or play an instrument or something a purpose) and face penalties for going without sleeping or having to do morally upsetting acts or something. I agree, set in stone might be cumbersome, it could be more of a random thing thrown out to mix things up whenever things get too survivable.

Last stat suggestion and I'll stop pestering you-attributes or "skills" of some kind might be interesting to play with. Marksmanship, Hand to Hand Combat, etc.

The only problem with going to in-depth is that tends to scare people away and at times make the RP tedious - things like marksmanship and combat ect I want to leave under umbrella stats like agility and discipline. The actual dice rolls for discipline sounds like a good idea I think, under extreme circumstances - zombie horde may equal a discipline check of 10 with a D6 + base stat. If people wish to give their characters specialities they can mention they are proficient in any skill in their sheet and we can just assume they are good at it from there - I'm not really too strict with these things. I'll update that little OP I posted a bit with some of this.

and don't feel like you're pestering me, ideas are good!