alright shit man it's 1:30 on a Sunday night and I feel full of energy. Let's pitch something stupid.
The premise is a roleplay between two characters, that functions on two different levels. One is conscious, concrete, well populated with npcs and a consistent setting, full of its own intrigue- In other words, a standard 1x1. I'm open for suggestions on that. Schoolkids? Fantasy warriors? Rivals? Romance? What the hell, anything goes. However, other than superficial details about what they look like and what they're doing in the conscious world, no information is shared about the motivations, personality or history of the characters before the roleplay begins.
The other level is the dream world. In this level of interaction, the players are alone but for one another- If not completely alone. The scenery changes nightly between serene and strange and horrifying, as do the bodies of the dreamers, always reflecting some aspect of each character's psyche, the furthest stretches of their imagination and the deepest aspects of their desires and fears. Often it will be things that they don't know or don't want to admit to themselves. Yes, it'll sometimes be a scenery wank, but that's what appeals to me about the idea: That I and my character will learn about yours through abstract, cryptic symbolism that can be physically and dynamically explored, and that we'll get a chance to try and establish an emotional connection through imagery as much as through dialogue.
That's most of what matters before I nod off, but there will have to be a catch- that the night world most strongly displays each character's dreamscapes to the other player. They can't use the dream world to monologue, and may end up knowing more about the deepest desires and memories of the other dreamer than they do about their own. This information will feed into how they interact with each other in the overarching story of the conscious world.
For a trashy simple example: Alice is a mysterious witch who gained her powers long ago. She knows she hates rabbits, but writes it off as a random phobia. Cheshire sees that in Alice's dreams, oversized, feral rabbits appear often, but they're not harming her- They're leading her down a rabbit hole, which closes after him in pitch blackness when he tries to follow. Cheshire deduces that Alice once chased a rabbit, or something represented by a rabbit, and got stuck in a bad place- Probably when she was little, since the rabbits look so big. Alice doesn't remember this, but Cheshire now has a vague idea of an important event in Alice's mysterious past- A piece in the puzzle of who she really is.
And now I'm freezing and it's 2am so I'm going to come back to this tomorrow and toss it in the trash where it belongs.
The premise is a roleplay between two characters, that functions on two different levels. One is conscious, concrete, well populated with npcs and a consistent setting, full of its own intrigue- In other words, a standard 1x1. I'm open for suggestions on that. Schoolkids? Fantasy warriors? Rivals? Romance? What the hell, anything goes. However, other than superficial details about what they look like and what they're doing in the conscious world, no information is shared about the motivations, personality or history of the characters before the roleplay begins.
The other level is the dream world. In this level of interaction, the players are alone but for one another- If not completely alone. The scenery changes nightly between serene and strange and horrifying, as do the bodies of the dreamers, always reflecting some aspect of each character's psyche, the furthest stretches of their imagination and the deepest aspects of their desires and fears. Often it will be things that they don't know or don't want to admit to themselves. Yes, it'll sometimes be a scenery wank, but that's what appeals to me about the idea: That I and my character will learn about yours through abstract, cryptic symbolism that can be physically and dynamically explored, and that we'll get a chance to try and establish an emotional connection through imagery as much as through dialogue.
That's most of what matters before I nod off, but there will have to be a catch- that the night world most strongly displays each character's dreamscapes to the other player. They can't use the dream world to monologue, and may end up knowing more about the deepest desires and memories of the other dreamer than they do about their own. This information will feed into how they interact with each other in the overarching story of the conscious world.
For a trashy simple example: Alice is a mysterious witch who gained her powers long ago. She knows she hates rabbits, but writes it off as a random phobia. Cheshire sees that in Alice's dreams, oversized, feral rabbits appear often, but they're not harming her- They're leading her down a rabbit hole, which closes after him in pitch blackness when he tries to follow. Cheshire deduces that Alice once chased a rabbit, or something represented by a rabbit, and got stuck in a bad place- Probably when she was little, since the rabbits look so big. Alice doesn't remember this, but Cheshire now has a vague idea of an important event in Alice's mysterious past- A piece in the puzzle of who she really is.
And now I'm freezing and it's 2am so I'm going to come back to this tomorrow and toss it in the trash where it belongs.