Just want to say I'm happy to have garnered the interest of (and maybe to a small extent, unite?) the scattered FF fans on this forum into this crazy project idea. (I see so many Marvel/DC and Star Wars fanatics that I'm starting to lose hope to find much JRPG otakus here.) I thank you all for the enthusiasm and I do hope that this isn't merely a sudden impulse to jump the bandwagon, that y'all are truly serious about a long-term commitment to this game.
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@A Common HeroOf course I welcome questions about any aspects of this RP! :) Questions from players actually help me to know the players' concerns, so I'm aware if everyone actually understands this whole game (read: on the same page and know what exactly is going on), and this will help to minimize unwanted dramas from arising as much as possible. On a side note, questions also will prod me to work harder to make this game into something that all players can enjoy - I don't want to be a dictating GM who is deaf to the feelings of the members in my game. Personally I feel that the GM's role is merely to provide the players a generic stage where they can build their world, story and characters on, overseeing the progress to make sure things run smoothly and only step in as a last resort when a possible drama is breaking out. I (and I'm sure this is the same for my Co-GMs) do not wish to interfere with your miniworlds unnecessarily because we respect the hard work you put into your creations.
I'll try to respond in order:
The Omniverse, Celestia - the Base Stage Where All This Madness BeginRather than going with a "solid, real place where our plots are fully ground in a firm setting" which I find it might force unwanted restrictions on how the players can expand their miniworld as they build their arcs (and then things get reeeeeeally complicated when people start fighting over how the world map should look like, which is the last thing I want to happen for this game), I'd say I'm more inclined to go with a generic, "spiritual, surreal landscape" that is fluid and can be shaped to your character's needs if required, a multi-layered veil blurring the lines of reality and dream, probably even the idea of life and death. As far as your characters are concerned Celestia is as real as their original canon world (at least, everything they can feel with all their senses), but it's so vast that you can think of it as an astronomic sphere that contains the miniworlds the players created and expanded within its bubble.
"Amnesiac Dissonance" - a Simple, Complete Mindwipe...or Something Else Much More Sinister?I want to stay far away from the idea of "strictly a hard and fast, no-memories-at-all amnesia" - rather than brainwashing the characters completely clean, I'd say their old memories are something like a surreal jigsaw puzzle thrown into a mess by whoever brought them to Celestia. Your character(s) will embark on a quest to piece back their past; memories aren't like physical objects with a definite form and they are often greatly influenced by emotions; remember that they are creating new memories throughout this journey which will also affect their perception of their previous life, reevaluating with a different light, so the memory jigsaw in your miniworld may deviate from the original canon. Whether or not your character is able to return back to someone as close as their original self, or someone completely different from who they once were, is entirely dependent on how you develop them in your miniworld. Here, I want to encourage players to eventually make complex, conflicting characters which will stretch your limit as a writer/RPer in the art of character development, and this is nothing comparable to the usual kind of characters you make for most other RPs on this site. Consider this a challenge from me to you people. :P
Regarding character positions - as explained in the section above, I hope it's now clearer to everyone why I'm not allowing reservation/claiming of characters in advance. All players will be given equal and fair chance of choosing the characters they wish to take up, but whether or not you'll get the role will depend on how much you understand about the character you want to play, and convince us GMs if you're truly capable to achieving that character mindrape challenge. >:)
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I have noticed a few of you expressed interest in taking up the notable villain roles rather than the playable heroes, I'll be discussing this further with the Cos how we're going about this. Personally I feel it would give rise to interesting development on how these "former" villains look at their past self and judge the deeds they had done back then.