The Fireflies Settlement

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A grey stone wall surrounding streets, houses and buildings. A large gate, guarded by a selection of men and women that received extensive sniper training. Barbed wire laid out in the woods and streets surrounding the walls. A settlement, in the middle of an old village in Europe, at the foot of a mountain, now surrounded by woods and greenland. The buildings outside the settlement broken down and in ruins causes by The Quakes and time itself. On the inside of the walls, people walk the cobblestones on their way to their appointed task. In the middle of the settlement: a tavern called That Damn Pub.

The people in the Fireflies Settlement are safe, or so they think. The Lily, the dam nearby supplies the town with power. The river supplies the town with water and fish. The gardens grows vegetables and fruits, the fields filled with wheats to feed the town. This is how the town survives and thrives. The settlers have tasks that help the settlement survive. The teachers teach the younger ones about dam engineering, hunting, gardening, cooking. The knowledge must be passed over, in order to survive. There’s cooks, medics, builders, guards, gardeners, hunters, teachers and maybe most important: dam engineers. The dam engineers keep the dam running, make sure the power stays up and the water flows freely. The two settlements below the mountain, Fireflies and Water Leafs have lived in harmony all this time since The Quakes, with the dam in between them.

But an accident happened. Two engineers, one from the Fireflies Settlement and one from the Water Leafs Settlement fell in love. They climbed their way to the top of the dam, to see the fireflies that show up at night. But, what should’ve been romantic, turned into disaster. Jess, the female engineer from Water Leafs tripped and fell off the dam into the streaming rough water below. The death of his lover shocked Jacob, whom returned to his settlement with news of the accident. But once the other town found out, they blamed Jacob for killing Jess, and the two settlements cut ties as a result of this feud. The only neutral ground is the dam, where engineers from both settlements still work on the dam. But lately, there have been accidents on the neutral dam, and the Water Leafs settlement is slowly trying to take over the dam.

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80 years ago, earthquakes over the entire world have left lives, countries and cities in ruins. More than 70% of the population died. Now there’s settlements, where people live in groups to be safe from the wild animals and The Roaches, which are basically land pirates. There is power in the settlements, but no tv’s, radios or cellphones. There is however lights, stoves, some machines that work on power (like drills), fridges, some slightly unreliable media equipment. The power turns off everyday at 10pm and turns on at 6am. This is also the curfew for most of the settlers. The Fireflies settlement counts about 300 people.

More info to come as we discuss and pitch ideas.

• The Leader of the Fireflies Settlement
• Dam engineers
• Bartender/owner of the The Damn Pub (the pub is going to be a big central thing in the RP)
• Settlers that have one of the available jobs (cooks, medics, builders, guards, gardeners, hunters, teachers, cleaners)
• Settlers from Water Leafs (preverably not much)

I'm Daisy, hi! I'd love to have a good group of RP'ers that are quite active. I'm looking for casual to high casual, but activity is maybe most important. I'm from europe, that would be the best timezone, but ofcourse other people from other timezones are welcome too! This would be my first time as a GM, so I might need some more imput than other GM's, and I'll hope you guys can help me with it. Please let me know if you're interested, and if you have any ideas to pitch in!

OOC -> roleplayerguild.com/topics/171402-the…

So a few questions;

- When is this set/when did the earthquake take place so that we know the technology level of the time.
- Just for flavour, how is the agriculture and land of the settlement?
- What other areas or groups of interest would there be in the local area or that people would know of?
- Where in the world is the settlement as well as the ethnicities? I wouldn't wish to create a Canadian and it is set in Japan, etc etc. (I'm assuming that it's somewhere in America?).
- What rules would there be? Is gun-carrying permitted? Are guns permitted?
- Did religions survive the 'quakes or have new ones sprouted?
- What would be the average education level of the typical adult of the camp, also is there a general education or are people raised to carry out a specific job for the future, for example an engineer school or a military academy.

Thank you for your questions. They're obviously good ones, that I had not thought to specify.

- When is this set/when did the earthquake take place so that we know the technology level of the time.
In my mind, the Quakes happened in like 2020. So, the lever of technology would be our own, as of now.
- Just for flavour, how is the agriculture and land of the settlement?
The agriculture and land would be very green, sunny with sufficient rain and trees. The settlements are still standing parts of towns that are broken down. The dam is below a mountain, and the two settlements are across from each other on each side of the river.
- What other areas or groups of interest would there be in the local area or that people would know of?
This is open, if someone likes to be from a settlement miles off, that's fine by me. In my vision, there are settlements everywhere, but far apart and travelling between is hard and dangerous.
- Where in the world is the settlement as well as the ethnicities?
I have specified it to be Europe, which holds a lot of ethnicities so in this case anything is possible. In my mind, I was thinking somewhere in France, maybe?
- What rules would there be? Is gun-carrying permitted? Are guns permitted?
No guns, except for the guards and hunters. Guards go with engineers up to the dam, and with gardeners to the fields.
- Did religions survive the 'quakes or have new ones sprouted?
Everyone is free in this, I think. I do believe that new ones didn't sprout, considering the amount of atheists in the current day and age.
- What would be the average education level of the typical adult of the camp, also is there a general education or are people raised to carry out a specific job for the future, for example an engineer school or a military academy.
Good one. There are people doing the jobs that they do. Kids do a sort of general school, learning about The Quakes, about what's outside and general life skills and basics like reading/writing. Then, when they are a certain age, they get to do like a traineeship with one of the professions. I'm still on the fence about being able to choose the profession or not.

Does this answer your questions?

Does this answer your questions?

Thanks for the fast reply! I had forgotten a few other questions but you've answered everything I had asked.

Those questions that I hadn't mentioned were;
- How obtainable are guns in the wilderness, as well as the ammo for them? Since it's Europe/France I'd assume that it would prove to be difficult.
- How equipped are Roaches and bandits? Vehicles, power, weaponry.
- Would the settlement care for animals and livestock as well as crops? How scarce are animals and what would you expect to find in the area as you have stated that there are wild creatures already
- What governments or powers are there in the settlement? Are there families with greater influence than others and seek for their own gain, is there a democratic leadership?
- Have you planned any important NPC or locally famous figures already?

A few meta questions;
- What would be the expected writing length?
- What is to expected on the character sheet? Is it open or stat based?
- Will this be sandbox (with or without an overarching plot) or is there a specific story that characters will follow such as the repairing of relations with the neighbouring settlement?

All in all I'd most probably be interested in this, again thanks for replying so soon.

Glad to know you’re interested. I must admit, I have not thought about it that far concerning most of your new questions. Animals, mainly cows, dogs, sheep and horses will still be there. I don’t feel like guns would be easily findable, and most characters will not have these in possession.

Concerning leadership, the way I see it is that, atleast for our two settlements, there will be like a leader, a sort of mayor. And he can have a council that helps him/her. It would be cool if someone was willing to play our mayor. The mayor and leaders of Water Leafs would be NPC’s, and so would Jacob be, but it would also be interesting is someone would like to play Jacob. Further, because it’s not a lot of people, in my vision everyone knows everyone, and all of use can make use of some npc’s to fill up the town.

Concerning the story, I think the main idea is keeping the dam save. I plan on Water Leafs trying to take it by force, for instance. However, it could be a mix between sandbox and that.

I will make a character sheet once people are interested. And the expected writing lenght is more up to yourself. It’s casual, high casual, so a paragraph of 2 of 3 is good. Sometimes however it’s just not possible and one paragraph will do.

(Excuse any mistakes, I am on phone right now)

I'd be interested in this as well. The tone of the story you've shared speaks to me, makes me think this'll have plenty of room for intrigue and/or physical conflict.

From the options presented, I lean towards playing a bartender. And because I usually try to be versatile, I try to have my characters take on multiple responsibilities. Would a bartender/hunter be acceptable? I figure it'd make for an attractive hire for the owner to have a part-timer who could provide additional food (and protection, if hunters are allowed personal weapons) to the table.

@SonofJET

Good to hear. Yes, I figure that would be quite alright. After all, hunter is a dayjob and bartender a night job ;)

Looks good, I'm interested.

Great to hear. 4 interested up until now (one in PM)

Interested, as stated in PM.

A couple of questions:
- The engineers that are working on the dam are from both settlements, but are they neutral to the politics of the settlement?
- Do the engineers go back and forth from the settlement and the dam every day, escorted by the armed guards?
- Since the setting is post-apocalyptic, and the settlements are quite small and far apart from each other, what’s the state of the economy? (Are there still riches, money, trade, etc)

Sounds pretty interesting so far!

@Gojiralis Thank you for your post.

1. Since, in my vision, the engineering of the dam, keeping it running etc, needs quite a bit of people, BOTH settlements are needed. The engineers that work there are on a sort of truce. Most engineers knew Jacob and Jess, and prob know they were in love. So, in my vision, most engineers that work on the dam are not as busy with those politics.
2. Yes, they do go back and forth.
3. Economy wise, I have not thought about it. Maybe someone is willing to pitch in about this?

Since I know have 5 already interested, it may be wise of me to turn this into an OOC and get that going.

3. Economy wise, I have not thought about it. Maybe someone is willing to pitch in about this?

I'd imagine that people either traded in general goods, a specific good like food or batteries/electicity if it was possible(unlikely).

Probably some kind of payment as a reward for working. Being able to pick ip food and such. People that aren’t able to work anymore, get a standard amount. When Water Leafs starts it’s “attack” I recon it might be harder to get food and supplies.

Perhaps each settlement could be specialized in a certain type of produce because of geographical differences (fish near the river, cattle on the countryside, and other man-made goods, scraps, and so on), and they trade between each other, without needing any kind of coin.
And yes, meals and a place to live in exchange for work sounds the most plausible.

I'm also curious about the Roaches:
- Are they nomads, or have they found a hideout and live in an occupied settlement?
- Have they ever attacked a settlement, or do they just watch the roads?
- Are there various clans within the Roaches, perhaps in conflict with each other (like an organized crime group)?

I will think the Roaches trough. In my mind, they’re criminals etc thaf afe not allowed in or kicked out of settlements. They roam, live in tents, etc. And they may be dangerous. It’s just another factor for the need of settlements.

By the way, I made the OOC. I'll still be working on it, concidering topics discussed. I will ship out a CS as soon as I can, too.

roleplayerguild.com/topics/171402-the…

So, noob question, do we continue talking about it here, or on the OOC?

Also, sorry for the big lot of questions, but is there any culture, like art, music literature and such? What's their relationship with the past?

So, noob question, do we continue talking about it here, or on the OOC?

Also, sorry for the big lot of questions, but is there any culture, like art, music literature and such? What's their relationship with the past?

No prob love, let's continue in the OOC

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Check it out roleplayerguild.com/topics/171402-the…