A serie of Fantasy RP's - Mature

[MaxwellC]

A lustrous world, filled with politics, economics and all kinds of affairs. A world on the verge of a new Industrial revolution. A breathing, living world that develops as we progress through the story ( stories ), that’s what I’ve always been dreaming of. Interactive roleplaying, where the actions of the characters are what shapes the story majorly and drastically changes the arc of the underlying plot. A series of roleplays that constantly develop the universe, that either stagnate or advance the ‘evolution’ of it. Now an universe like that needs engagement, the will to actually drive further into this world, to explore and find what’s hidden underneath the rubble that has been laying there for ages. A roleplay that revolves around the development of a world, the social hierarchy, the politics, the economics, affairs and of course the ‘greater evil’ that threatens it. A high-fantasy RP that on the surface uses the base of a rough, rugged continent, on which even the inhabitants themselves don’t know everything that’s going on, on this piece of land. What kind of things are across the horizon, is evil really the evil we all want to fight? Now, that is what has always been interesting to me, seeing how that would develop.

I've had this idea for a while now, and I'm really excited to ( hopefully ) play it with other people. An RP that not only follows a plot, but changes it as well for the parts of the series that would follow it up. Now, this would be an RP that'd start 'limited' but would grow in options over the course of the RPs, you are part of the universe, and I'd love to see who wants to impact an universe. Who wants to play, who has ideas for it, who wants to know more?

That's what this is for! c:
I have a huge amount of lore/plot ready, those who are interested in it, reply, PM, just ask about, that's what I'd love to see.

[Maxwell]

Interesting idea, but what matters is the execution. Let's hear more. What's the plot?

[MaxwellC]

A majority of the plots I’ve written down, or are lingering around in the sea of ideas that is my mind. A few general examples would be;

The oppression of the users of magic and the regulation by the monarchy, which followed from a serie of cases in which magic was abused for personal gain or to revolt against the local forces. Essentially a kingdom amidst of a witch-hunt, in which the ‘party’ ( as I’d like to call the adventuring characters ), try and find out what has been happening. A large part of this plot involves dealing with the discrimination towards those gifted with magic among their abilities. What has caused the sudden surge among cases in which the ‘abuse’ of magic was found, why does the monarchy react so vigourosly? Is there a deeper, underlying reason why these events have started to develop across the kingdom?

Investigating the situation North, an area secluded from most of the other cities and places across the continent. After the sudden loss of communication between the Northerlings and the rest of the kingdom, awareness has been raised, are they planning something? The information about the North is almost nihil, since they’ve been living away from the rest of the humankin for quite some centuries. All that’s left are the trading routes between the outermost northern villages and the kingdom, on which only the Northerlings dare to travel. Are there internal struggles among the northern villages, or is there something much greater at hand?

Perhaps the party wants to see what’s across the horizon, with the recent industrial developments, the continent is running low on resources and very few entrepeneurs actually dare to cross the ocean to see what’s on the other side. Yet they all know, there is something out there, few have sailed there and never returned, there is something across the ocean the humans don’t know about. Even the monarchy is interested in finding ways of gathering new, better resources, but expeditions are dangerous and too costly fort hem? However, what is there, out there? Reports of boats much unlike ours on the horizon have been around for decades, but never been truly accepted as anything but rumors.

Note that these are really generalized to give a simple idea of what’s going on at the start of the RP, it’s a greatly unexplored world, filled with intrigue and perhaps ‘greater’ things than we could ever imagine. I don’t want to give too much away because that would take away lot of the mystery and exploration that the start of the series would be about.
Yet, questions can always be asked privately, and I’ll try my best to answer everything as complete as I possibly can.

[Peik]

What will be the era (Middle Ages, Renaissance, Early Modern)? Will there be gunpowder?

[MaxwellC]

The idea of gunpowder is something I've pondered about, due to the popularity of guns among characters.
This is a continent at the edge of an Industrial revolution among the style of steampunk, the introduction of clockwerk mechanisms have been around for about 2 years at the start of the story-line and is known to be imperfect at best. Cannons are among the functional things with gunpowder, and I'd imagine simple ( yet volatile ) flintlocks to be around made by those who like to tinker around with such mechanisms.

I'd consider it late Middle Ages, the Knights in shining armor are dying out as a result from the 'technology', religion is a huge thing, it's still very monarchy-based rulership and a lot of old-fashioned ideas. But it all depends on how the story develops how we get ( or don't get ) out of these 'Middle Ages'.

[Peik]

Why not just make it middle 1500's-early 1600's type with knights and guns hand in hand?

[Maxwell]

To my knowledge, early firearms actually lead to armour becoming thicker and more angled rather than disappearing. Those round little pistol balls didn't penetrate solid steel as well as one may think. Then again, flintlocks were pretty advanced compared to the earliest firearms, so maybe you had something more effective in mind.

Anyway, I don't give a rat's ass about realism, so if you want bullets to instant-kill dragons, or if you want powerful enough warriors to be able to deflect them with their teeth, I don't care either way. I like that you have some idea of where to take this story, but I'll wait until you're sure what the setting's going to be like.

[MaxwellC]

I kinda was getting at that, there are knights around, there are these flintlock pistols that shoot one bullet and then take ages to reload because that's the sad part about that form of 'technology', it's also a bit about power-leveling the RP. A knight is essentially obsolete when guns are introduced, seeing there is no intention to fight for your kingdom in heavy armor if the enemy can just shoot through your armour ( cause that was the point of it ). And keeping it a bit fantasy-esque means I've to find a way to keep both options open.
But yeah, I think the middle 1500's-early 1600's work as a general rule of thumb as an example time in which the RP starts.

It's not that I don't know what time-setting it is, it's more that it's quite the fluctuating period. That's what always kept it interesting for me, there has to be a lot happening for me in a period to keep the story 'interactive', I'm big on politics/economics/industrialization, because it gives the world a real feeling. That and thank god it's fantasy, I'm not too limited in the ideas of what the general time-periods will be according to the progress made in the RPs.

Let's just say it's the Dark/Middle Ages according to the time-periods we know. c: That keeps it well, simplified. The rather standard high-fantasy time-period.

[Peik]

Flintlocks might be a *tad* too advanced for armor (unless we're talking about the Eastern miquelet flintlock, which saw use as early as in the middle 1500's). Why not go with early matchlocks?

Then again I'd be all over a miquelet. Sexy shit.

BTW, early muskets were preferred to bows because you didn't need any specialized training. And there was no need for fletching. They were about as effective as a crossbow against armor, with more punch and less pointy.

[Maxwell]

That's the thing, though. You can't just shoot through solid metal with primitive guns. The term "bulletproof" comes from the practise of firing bullets at new pieces of armour to make sure that they could withstand the blast. This is what's called "proofing" the armour.

Besides, it's fantasy. If you say skilled fighters can dodge bullets, they can dodge bullets. Heck, even if you don't allow guns, what's to keep us from simply using crossbows? Later winded models would penetrate most armour.

And besides, if we've got magic, what's a gun compared to a guy who can just lob fire at you? No armour's gonna stop a gout of fire, if you insist on being realistic.

[MaxwellC]

Ooooh discussions, gotta love that. People are into something when they discuss something. That and it helps me a lot with fleshing out some of the details. c; It's not about being realistic, it's about providing a realistic ( and likable ) enviroment, it's still fantasy after all, your point is as fair as it possibly could be. In my opinion at least. There is this thing I don't like, and that's having an RP in which for example as you mentioned, warriors deflect bullets with their teeth. xD Not that I don't like extremes from time to time, but goshdarnit that's just frustrating to read.

Oh and yes the general idea I had in mind was that of a miquelet, but me not being an expert makes it really awkward for me to actually try and explain what I have in mind.

Waaah guns and all the things related to it.

[Sicarius]

Oh, I like this. I like it a lot. And personally give no two thoughts to being realistic to a time period, it is fantasy in a fantasy world and we do have magic I feel like that itself blows it all out the window.

I enjoy the mage scenario, always wanted to play some magic racism but perhaps I'm biased as I always play mages(I have an affair with magic). Speaking of which, what sort of system do you have in mind for magic? How does it work in this world yadayada? Also, religion & gods? Is there a main religion or is it not very uniform? Do we have gods? Are these gods real in any sense or just fictional ideas people put faith into?

Personally, I actually hate it when people just give a world magic for the hell of it. I enjoy magic having a reason to be, from being god gifted to being part of the very fabric of the world or...aliens. I do hope that makes sense.

[MaxwellC]

To me as in my view of the magic in this world is that it’s considered to be a living being. Magic is the moving essence that keeps elements and living beings the way they are and it’s an always flowing form of energy. The usage of magic isn’t as much as conjuring something out of thin air, as it is molding the surrounding essence ( which is nigh infinite ) into the shape the sorcerer envisions and wishes to use. Now the use of magic is considered a gift from the gods, but in all honesty everyone ( in theory ) has the ability to use it, some just are naturally good at it. Seeing magic as a well-known phenomenon the kingdom has attempted to regulate the usage of it through the means of schooling and laws. Some follow these laws, some don’t. Some are schooled in magic, some aren’t.
Oh and as example of laws surrounding the usage of magic is this one;

• One shall not use magic as a way of harming those around him, unless specifically out of self-defense against another form of magic or when placed under military law instead of regular law.

This law has some form of loop-holes due to the inability to distinguish some wounds caused by magic from those who were not caused by magic. Also, mercenaries fall under military law and are thereby allowed to use magic to harm others. It’s a crooked and horrid system, and that’s why I like it.

Religion is a key aspect and is incredibly wide, religion differs in each area of the continent, and religion and views on magic are inheritably tied together. Let’s apply Plato’s Cave here, where Plato says that every person sees the world differently because we’re in a cave, we can only see what come through the light from the cracks around us, we have no idea what someone else envisions as a deity or a form of magic. A lot of religion(s) in this universe are polytheistic, meaning those who are religious believe in the existence of multiple deity like entities. Deities in the North are for example much more animalistic and spiritual than the deities praised in the cities, due to the lack of contact between the two places and their surroundings.

Deities or Gods can be either of two, as you mentioned, something someone puts faith into and beliefs in ( thus making it worthwhile for them ) or actual beings of a ‘greater’ realm. The line between that is extremely vague due to the conflicting views in religions, and because VERY little people have actually encountered such beings throughout history. These beings intervene with everyday lives and other shenanigans for their own personal ideas/gains, and are sometimes called upon for aid and such.
I have a lot in mind when it comes to religion, including some surprises that might shock the entire foundation of the existing ones. That’s the fun part, the options are endless, and I wish to explore that if people are interested.

[Peik]

I'm personally thinking of making Fantasy Spinoza now that you put magic that way.

[MaxwellC]

Hahaha, as a Dutch man, hearing someone mention Spinoza is like, amazing.
But yeah, got some crazy stuff laying around for magic/religion, so, I won't spoil too much c:

[Girlie Go Boom]

Interested!^^

Will wait.for the full on ooc. But yeah this bunny wants to play an oppresseed mage. (or'party mage' as i like to call it^^ ;P)

[Lady Termott]

I'm also interested!

I may try out a mercenary character or something along those lines.

Also given it's a fantasy based, are there an assortment of races, or just humans?

[MaxwellC]

Wooooh, time for me to work on the OOC/IC. Seeing there is interest, and I imagine some people might hop along on the OOC.
Uhmmm, the assortment of races is something I've discussed among myself. Well, there is the opportunity to find other races!
However, I limit the first RP to just humans, I know that it destroys a lot of the creativity but it's to keep exploration alive. I want you lot who are interested feel rewarded when something is discovered! That reward will flow over into the latter RP's, but right now.. There are just humans.

[Lone Wanderer]

Also interested, like the idea of a warrior Viking type from the north, or something.

[Girlie Go Boom]

OOC! Yays!!!! :DDD

~BOING!!!~

Ohhh! I have a questions!^^ So like do the magician types here have to be the physically bleh stereotype because all they do is study magic? AND! Are they taught general magic craft like Hogwarts or are we specialized in only certain arts?