Hidden 7 yrs ago 7 yrs ago Post by Mitheral
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Mitheral

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Setting - a Trailer Park in the shadow of the Old City filled with dilapidated single wide mobile homes, RV’s well past their prime, old busses converted into RV’s. Those units that were once mobile no longer are.

Time - Noone knows the date, the year, or even how they came to be in this place. Only a few know where and when they are from. But none has any recollection as to what they were doing when they were last there and then.

Antagonists - The Antagonists of our story are passive. That is they are obstacles by virtue of being helpless, hopeless, or simply annoying. But that will grow on you like family. Most are “warped” in some way. Good examples will be the stuff of old carnival freak shows. Good examples might be a fat lady who resembled the Penguin as portrayed by Danny DeVito in Batman Returns. Some are more normal like the elderly lady with a dozen cats that never leaves her living room glued to the TV watching Soaps or Game Shows.

Protagonists - These are the heroes of our story. They look normal, maybe even Hollywood star quality. The more heroic their potential, the better the world reflects on them. The downside to being a hero is that everyone looks to you for solutions to life’s problems - little or small.

Problems -
Gramma’s ‘Lectric has Gone Out (again) - this could be a simple problem or turn into a mission just to find a part before Gramma has a stroke. Getting a part would likely mean entering the Old City. And noone wants to do that ‘cause you don’t know what’s out there.

Food shortage - This is a big one. Everyone’s gonna die. The End is coming. (Again?)

Looks like a storm is coming. Time to batten down the hatches.

Plague of bugs

Drama
Life can’t be all problems. People have to interact after all. This is a family. Oh maybe they aren’t related by blood. But family is more than that.

Spoiler Alert:
It is possible for a Protagonist to become an Antagonists just by failing. If this happens it will warp them physically. Their mind will start to go. Conversely, an Antagonist could recover some of their humanity.
Hidden 7 yrs ago Post by baranica
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Sounds depressive in a good way. I like these slice of life stories reeking of post-apo despair and uncertain future.
Hidden 7 yrs ago Post by Mitheral
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LOL, yes. Very much the opposite of my usual theme. I normally shy away from depressing theme. But I am not actually aiming at depressing here. Some Acts could go that way as one of the 'heroes' falls into despair over a failure and become a wastrel antagonist. (This is the equivalent of 'death' in this RP.)

Group members are expected to run a 'hero' / protagonist / normal person. But I am also hoping they will create an extra NPC or two that are antagonists.

Personally I hate using literary terms like this so much. (I hate the Muse A and Muse B stuff too.) But the antagonists here are NOT villains. Villains are what lurks in the Old City.

I need to look up some old TV shows and movies that I am likely drawing from for concepts. Let's see ... brainstorming. To name a few ...

Carnivale (carnies)
Tim Burton themes
Last Starfighter (trailer park)
Hidden 7 yrs ago Post by baranica
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Perhaps that was not your initial intention, but with my setting today I´m getting very eerie vibe. Cant help myself, now when you mentioned Burton and Carnivale(haven´t seen this one tho), I see it as a distorted sandy wasteland based on 1920s cabaret aesthetics and freakshow combined with those weird scary glitches that are part of American Horror Story intros. But again my visualisation can be miles from yours ;D
And it also reminds me of a point-and-click adventure game called Shardlight.

Do you have more detail description of what this Old City and its dangers are? Or that´s suppose to be a point and reason of anxiety that nobody knows for sure?
Hidden 7 yrs ago Post by Mitheral
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You have the right idea about the land surrounding the RV park and Old City - think scrub desert giving way to a wasteland. Old City might resemble a larger version of Las Vegas, but looking like a gigantic ghost town. Of course, everyone knows it isn't COMPLETELY empty ... imagine horrors like midnight ghost wolves, Moorlocks, and such ... If you recall the twin Wraiths from Matrix, there might be creatures like that, the stuff of nightmares. So if you don't have to go into Old City, best to keep out. Of course, try to tell the heroes that when their family needs supplies ...

Carnivale was a TV show heavily steeped in magic and prophecy. It was essentially a war between good and evil. I am just referring to the Barnum and Bailey type freakshow stuff, maybe even a fortune teller.

Ultimately I want the members to write the story.

Hidden 7 yrs ago Post by baranica
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more you speak about it, the more I´m starting to do dig it!
Definitely drop me a message after more players would sign in. :)
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