The small town of Grainville was typically a quiet place, seemingly far removed from the epic warfare and magic of the rest of the world. People were friendly to one another and there was no crime to speak of. That is, until recently. It started a few months ago when a dog ran away from its owners near the old abandoned mansion; it went inside the building, but never left. Then the mayor's nine year old daughter disappeared. She had been dared to go in by a friend and nobody has seen her since. Distraught at the thought of never seeing his child again, the mayor ordered the city guardsman to rescue her; he, too, has vanished. In response to this, the mayor has called an emergency meeting to discuss what to do about the disappearances. Someone in the audience proposed that a search party be made of trusted citizens to discover what has happened and hopefully recover the town's missing citizens. The mayor agreed to the plan and asks for volunteers: that's where you come in. You've lived in this town most of your life. Maybe you are on your local recreational athletic team or learned a magic trick to entertain your younger family members, but you don't have any fancy magical or combat abilities. You're just an honest man or woman who does their best to make an honest living and who cares about their town. And as such, you volunteer to join the search party. After thanking you and your fellow volunteers for stepping up, the mayor finishes the meeting and gathers the volunteers in a separate room. He then asks everyone: are you ready to search the abandoned mansion? ----- To summarize the little prompt above, you and the other roleplayers are a group of citizens entering an abandoned mansion to try and find out why people have been disappearing. This is set in a medieval fantasy world, but you are not powerful sorcerers or warriors; instead, you are an ordinary citizen who has decided to help his town. That doesn't mean you're useless though. Maybe you're a skilled carpenter who has always admired the design of the mansion or a stay at home mother whose experience raising eight kids has helped prepare you for leadership. [b]I thought it would be fun to create a story where the players can try out unique character ideas and overcome adversity through creative and unconventional thinking. For those of you who are from the IC, the new stuff starts below:[/b] I try not to bog down players with too many rules, but I do like to establish a few common-sense rules so people don’t get surprised later if they get removed for being jerks. -Post your CS in the OOC; then when it is approved, you can post it in the "characters" section -This is the casual section, so I think a few paragraphs per post is reasonable. You can write more if you'd like, but quality beats quantity every time. I’d rather read 2-3 good paragraphs than a page of gobbledygook that is difficult to understand. -Being able to post at least once or twice per week would be good. -If you need or want to step away from the RP, just let me know. I understand that life happens. -Typical RP courtesy applies here e.g. don’t control other people’s characters without permission, no meta-gaming, no power-gaming, etc. -Keep things PG-13 in the RP. I’m not looking to be puritanical, just use common sense please. E.g. no smut, extremely graphic torture, or gore. -Be civil with each other please. Disagreements are fine and discussion is encouraged; insults are not. -If you have a question or want to talk about something, please do so! I am not perfect, so I will probably make mistakes at some point. -I reserve the right to change these as needed. -Most importantly, have fun! We’re all here because we enjoy writing. If you’re interested in joining, the character sheet is located in the hiders below. I don’t need a massive essay here as I believe developing characters in-game is part of the fun; I just want an idea of what they are like. [hider=Character Sheet] Name: Sex: Age: Species: This is a medieval fantasy setting, so races outside of humans are allowed, but please keep the spirit of the roleplay in mind when choosing your race. An elf with superior hearing is one thing, but an elf that can turn invisible or fly is overpowered. Appearance: A written description or a picture is fine, whatever you prefer. Personality: This doesn’t need to be super detailed, as developing the character throughout the roleplay is a valid technique and something I like doing myself. I just want some idea of what this person is like. History: Again, I’m not looking for a long essay, just an idea of what your character’s background is. Skills: Nobody here should be an ex-soldier with 10+ years of combat skills and expert survivalist training, but that doesn’t mean you’re useless. For example, if you’re a carpenter, you would be skilled with tools and have insights into construction techniques. Other: If you have anything to add that doesn’t fit into any of the above categories, you can put it here. [/hider] Again, let me know if you have any questions. I made a Discord server for our use, so I’ll send you a link to it when your CS is accepted. Discord is a free text chat program, so if you don’t have an account there, I highly encourage you to make one. I might make a CS myself for a character that I’ll control (mainly to help guide along the plot) but I wanted to get this posted either way so you all could get started on making your characters. I hope you all have fun writing here!