Topic: The Lesbian Pulp RP OoC

[PatMan33]

Welcome to the Lesbian Pulp RP Out of Character and planning thread! This is the place to discuss our upcoming game. For the time being we're going to be hammering out some planning stuff and collecting players and characters. Before we get to the character sheets though, we should talk about the world and how the game will operate.

The world we'll be operating in is very similar to our own. Round, mostly water, filled with people and things; you know, the basics. It's Earth, but it isn't actually Earth. It's our setting and we'll be playing throughout this diverse world. But for the sake of a coherent story please be aware that we will have to be thoughtful about how we stay together and operate. As far as the style of play, we're thinking something along the lines of super science, but not too super duper. Think less of Superman and Batman and more of Indiana Jones and... other Harrison Ford characters.

This game will also feature the inclusion of a GM to be played by Krakow Sam. There will be no "villain-character" as in past games. Instead the GM will provide us with different events and whatnot. We hope this will allow for more interesting stories to crop up and generally a more organic feel to this RP.

Character sheets will be fairly standard. The usual will apply:

Name:
Age:
Bio:
Abilities:

I think that's about it. Please ask questions! The more you ask, the more we can narrow down how the players want to play the game and that helps everyone out. Ask anything you want! Let us know what you think. Our goal is to take this basic outline and mash it together with the things you guys come up with in this topic. SO ASK QUESTIONS AND MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS! Tell us what you want to see! It'll all go into the blender.

We will be starting in a week or two, most likely. It depends on college finals and whatnot. Enjoy!!

[Raz]

Er... What's it about? And Lesbians or what?

[PatMan33]

It's about having adventures! Sam was saying in the style of Johnny Quest or similar types of shows. So it's less about superpowers and whatnot and more about the adventure.

[eropS]

So, Indiana Jones is like our gauge bar for reasonable abilities? I don't recall anything particularly unique about Indy, is that the point, then? Normal people with a specialized knowledge in some field?

Sounds... honestly it sounds like it could be boring for me since there's nothing fantastic about being a professor. I'm not sure of the hook, so to speak. I'm not saying I need magic and godlike abilities being thrown about, but I do like some sort of element in there that differentiates it from just role-playing as a normal person.

I understand that it would be about the adventure, but Indy only really has one good adventure, two passable ones, and then a final adventure that people try to forget.

[PatMan33]

I can't speak for Sam, but my instinctive response is that it's going to be as fun and adventurous as you make it. If you can't think of ways to inject intrigue and entertainment into the story, that's kinda your problem. That challenge is part of the fun. We should be turning our brains over to try to come up with new ideas and events. It's a really elaborate thought exercise.

[PatMan33]

I'm rereading my last comment and it's more abrasive than I intended.

Basically I wanna hear you elaborate a bit more, which is why I'm pushing back a bit. That's all. Trying to get as much out of each comment as possible, you know?

[eropS]

Yeah I understand; my quandary lies with the fact that it becomes increasingly difficult to make things intriguing and entertaining if the world itself has nothing that draws me in, I am relying solely on the abilities of my John Doe for the draw, and I am not sure what my barriers are.

What makes my guy unique in a world where nothing unique happens? Usually there's a hook; these people have magic, a special cultural event, they use steam power, they are stuck in the industrial age, they are in the medieval setting, there are supernatural creatures, religion actually has some effect, airships, Cthulhu exists, a unique technology or science specific to that setting, etc. If none of these things are to be taken as true for this game, then I can assume we live in a modern-day Earth that isn't Earth and my character is going to be one of these people and I have to make him special within a modern setting, I get that.

I get that we make the story as entertaining as it becomes; but I am not talking about that. What kind of character are you looking for us to make? Am I correct in my assumption that we are normal people with a specialized knowledge in some field? 

[PatMan33]

I agree with you. You're right.

I'm thinking that the reason we considered a lesser focus on powers/world gimmicks was because they ended up becoming more of a crutch than something that could be folded into the story. It cheapened our storylines and degraded the overall quality. Plus I think it aggravated some people. But I feel like maybe we should put more of a focus on an individual skill or some kind of unique ability. I mean, firstly we're all a couple years older now. Some of our players were barely over 13 when were in the prime of our RPs. So maybe now that everyone is a bit older we can all handle that individuality better.

People tended to become very protective of their individuality. I know I did it a lot. Where everyone would end up telling their own story in tandem with everyone else and things got messy. I'm all for what eropS is suggesting here. I think it's good and I think we're all at a place where we can handle having our own individuality while still being able to fail. That's one of the things that was missing from the other games. We would rarely do things that put our characters on the line or in a bad situation.

Having a GM should also go far to relieve that sort of issue. But yeah, some individuality would be nice.

What do you guys think? I wanna hear back from eropS but does anyone else have input? Don't be shy, please!!

[eropS]

Well, I always thought the main issue with the individualistic approach started to arise when two players would fight each other in what needed to be a fight to the death yet neither were willing to relinquish the fight. That's often when things would spiral into ridiculousness, either to save yourself or to 'off' the other guy. Hell, fights in general are tricky because no one wants to, or feels they can, lose. A process would need to be enacted for fights between characters in order to avoid this clash of individuals.

Overall, I think we could manage to fall in line and not try to tell our own stories in a hodgepodge, later RPs seemed to go along with this (the short burst ones and the ones from the random wheel). Player fights, though. Idk.

I would like the setting to be 'upgraded' or throw in something that is special about our characters specifically, or something that is unique to this world specifically. What that 'thing' is I don't much have an opinion on since I'd be cool with pretty much any suggestion. Mine are all pretty unspectacular I think but if no one posts any I will.

[PatMan33]

I think that is what the Hybrid System tried to remedy. It randomized the outcomes of fights. That was its big thing. Do you think the inclusion of a GM will help resolve some of these fight issues? The fights ARE a problem in our system for sure because they generally resulted in characters remaining static unless the author decided to change them. And then those changes were based on that character's story and/or predefined, they didn't really come about organically based on events that had cropped up over the course of the game.

I'm sure Sam will have some stuff to say when he gets time to post here.

[eropS]

I've always thought a system where you get X amount of posts to fight and react and after that the community get to decide the consequences of said fight based off of what the characters had done could be interesting.

Problems of course include personal bias and subjective power scaling...

[PatMan33]

THAT is an interesting idea... I like that a lot.

[Raz]

Personally I've come to the point in writing and, although it's been a little while since I last RPed, I mostly understand reasonable fighting. The problem is often the other person.

[Gorman Conall]

THAT is an interesting idea... I like that a lot.

I second this actually, I've always been a guy to end up letting my characters die to add to the story, and often times i'm the only one (not just RPs here) this alternative is really interesting and more fair in my opinion. I mean its not like you have to stop participating when a character dies, I doubt anyone would suddenly demand that you cant have another part that fits.

[Haseri]

I'd be interested. It would be good to flex my creative muscles before uni.