BrokenPromise

Sum up your week in roleplaying in just 3 words

Character contest intensifies!

What went wrong with Expanding Horizons?

I'd love to just point at indie sales figures, but this is getting really, really off topic.

What went wrong with Expanding Horizons?

@Liaison The movies? probably not. But Disney owns marvel now, and their comics just don't sell like they use to.

What went wrong with Expanding Horizons?

I'm not quite sure why we're talking about star wars in a thread about expanding horizons, as there are plenty of better places to do that.

However...

The primary reason why Disney star wars/Disney Marvel/etc is doing poorly is because of the movement to make politically correct media. It's fine to have minority/female characters, but they work too hard at trying to make them perfect and flawless (AKA, the biggest writing sin ever). Rey is a hard core mary sue. Anikin had to actually learn how to use the force, and Rey just beats someone who was personally taught by luke with zero training. She also just "finds" Luke's lightsaber in a random pub. Not "A" lightsaber, LUKES lightsaber! Anyway, I could rant about this for hours, but other people have done this for me, in less time.

RPGC: General Discussion

@Frizan 'tsall cool fam.

something I did notice, and this one I'll leave up to you, but we have a whole subforum made for discussions that isn't being used. I really think that we should start using that for the discussion threads, and maybe even move this over, just so that contests don't get burred by the rapid-fire nature of discussion threads.

Character Contest #1: Wild West

Quick question! In the future, will you be allowing other people to "submit" new challenges? Or do the voted upon winners get that privilege?

Either way, I'm super hype for this!

@ayzrules

I might take suggestions in the future. For now though I'd just like to see how things go.

did you have a specific year in mind? or at least a specific decade?

@ayzrules

Mid-late 1800's is as specific as I'm getting. If you like having 100% historically accurate backgrounds, you are free to pick a specific year for your character as long as it's in that time range. But I'm not going to disqualify anyone for difficult to spot inaccuracies or anything like that.

RPGC: General Discussion

I made the character contest. I must be an absolute mad man.

But yea, let me know how I did. I'm expecting a small turnout, with the next ones coming along better.

Character Contest #1: Wild West

I think we could all work on our presentation. I've had the pleasure of Rping with a whole slew of people. Some of them were great writers who made me interested in their characters, while others had a lot to learn before they could do the same. What I've found interesting is that a roleplayer's ability to write posts doesn't have any sort of bearing on how good a job they do filling out a character sheet. I've been bamboozled time and time again as great characters come from poor sheets, and sometimes the opposite is true. Clearly, filling out a character sheet takes an entirely different skill set than writing a post.

Alright fam, here's how this works. For the next 5-6 months I'm going to host a character creation contest. Each month, I'm going to post a mock OOC for a fake RP. It will include details about the setting, lore, and rules your characters MUST conform to. Obviously it's all going to be a bit light, as we won't actually be playing said RP. But once you've looked over the OOC, you can make your character. It's pretty much just like a real RP, only it'll never actually start. Instead, a voting thread will open up where the community will vote for its favorite. Once the voting period is over, a winner will be declared. If there is a tie, I will break said tie with my own vote.

Without further ado, how do you guys feel about the wild west?

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G O L D R U S H

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Being born with a pair of beady eyes was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Lee Van Cleef

Welcome to Ashfork! The only town within miles of the old Sanjay volcano. It's been long extinct and people are coming from all around to get their hands on the precious minerals that lay inside. Of course, Ashfork's isolated location also makes it a perfect place for ranchers to build their ranges in solitude, and outlaws like to come here to lay low for a while. But I think you've come at a bad time friend. Lot of weird sorts have started moving into town, and now people are starting to turn up dead! Every morning there's always a few people laying in the street, covered in stab wounds. I hope that doesn't scare you away, most of us are alright people!

But say, what brings you here anyway? Are you one of them miners, or are you the ranching sort? You're not an outlaw are you?

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THE SETTING AND PLOT

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Your roll in this RP can be anyone living in or moving to Ashfork. You can be the bartender at the saloon, the sheriff, a dancing girl, a rancher, a gold tycoon, or that quiet gambler who never shows his back to anyone and totally isn't an outlaw. The sky is the limit, so long as the character makes sense given the scenario. The only group of people that would be off limits would be wild Indians.

Your goal is to uncover who or what is killing people so willy-nilly. Or at the very least, you need to stay alive. As a secondary objective, you should try to get as rich as you can. That's why most people came here, right?

Location

The RP takes place in frontier-era America, some time in the mid-late 1800's. The story revolves around the going ons of the people of Ashfork, which is a fictional town located near the US's northern border. The population is usually somehwere in the 300-400 area, but the recent gold rush has sent that number spiraling into the thousands. The land surrounding it is pretty flat, aside from the giant Sanjay volcano off in the distance. It performed it's last eruption a long time ago, and the land is covered in green as far as the eye can see. So long as you don't look too high up the volcano, which always has snow on it's peak. During the colder seasons, inhabitants of ashfork can tell when winter is coming by how much of the mountain is covered in snow. It's currently mid spring, and lots of people are funneling into town to start up a mining operation. The news of this mineral-rich target has somehow made its way across the globe, and even foreign miners are showing up to lay claim to part of Sanjay. Of course, the large influx of people is providing Ashfork natives with ample opportunities to serve them and line their own pockets.

There have been a few sightings of wild Indians, but they are few and far between. Some speculate that they live in and around Sanjay, but no one has been able to confirm this yet.

People

Most of the Ashfork natives are your standard American frontiersmen and woman, while a few of them are American Indians who chose to live here for one reason or another. However, the miners(?) coming into Ashfork have traveled from all over the globe to get their hands on all that gold and silver lingering in the volcano. Most of them do not get along very well with each other. Racial discrimination and all that.

Night of Knives

Ever since the miners got here, people have started turning up dead. And no one has even built a mine shaft yet. When the sun rises every day, more bodies are discovered. Nobody hears the victims cries, and there doesn't appear to be anything linking the victims together aside from a few stab wounds. What is a bit disturbing is that the number of people who are killed every night seems to grow. Yet no one has actually seen the killer(s?). People gossip about this “night of knives,” but their lust for gold keeps them from running off. Everyone will have to work together if they want to stay alive. But it's hard to cooperate when everyone is competing with each other for gold.

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QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

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Q: Did you have a specific year in mind? or at least a specific decade?

A: Mid-late 1800's is as specific as I'm getting. If you like having 100% historically accurate backgrounds, you are free to pick a specific year for your character as long as it's in that time range. But I'm not going to disqualify anyone for difficult to spot inaccuracies or anything like that.

Q: Can I use images for a description? Any limits to how crazy I can get with a character sheet?

A: Given the nature of the contest, it would be preferable that no one used images in their character sheet. And while you are free to pretty up the character sheet with different formatting code, remember that this is a character contest. A pretty sheet with an ugly character won't win.

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RULES

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1: ~ This is a “vanilla” western setting, so no magical powers, elf ears, sci-fi pistols, etc.

2: ~ This is a contest. While it would be most ideal to have a bunch of characters that are all different from one another, no one will be omitted for filling the same “archetype.”

3: ~ While a CS will be provided, you may edit it however you see fit.

4: ~ New characters are mandatory.

5: ~ Simply post your submission in this thread once it is completed. Deadline is the 19th at about the time this post was made.

6: ~ Feel free to ask questions in this thread as well. I could use the feedback.

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THE CHARACTER SHEET

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Name:

The character's name, silly!

Age:

How old are you now, how old are you now...

Occupation:

Your job, you bum!

Appearance:

Waddaya look like?

Personality:

Quirks, aura, hobbies, stuff like that.

Bio:

Tell me about your characters deep dark past.

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...and for the easy copy/paste.

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Current Mood in One Gif

>Dealing with dramatic people like:

Re: Zero: The High Council

After a bit of discussion, they decided to go with a plan of sorts, keeping things brief enough as to not arouse suspicion. They were not entirely sure how they were going to get out of this one, but they had an idea.

Ashton would go with Fritzi to Pepin's house, Chieko, Aerith, and Hiro would go to the Clinic, and everyone else would head off with Aer. If they could stay alive long enough, maybe Aer would return with reinforcements.

Weren't there a few other people here last time though? Yuuki wasn't present, and wasn't there another kid? It wasn't like anything could be done about their disappearance now.

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Peppin's House

Ashton made the mistake of asking Fritzi about her wages and lively hood, which sparked a conversation that lasted the entire duration of their trip. ”...And if I'm not selling stuff in the golden quarter, I'm usually cleaning some rich guys house. Or girls! We're a progressive community!” She flashed a grin, before droning on. ”As for how well I'm paid, I don't think it's like, the best pay ever. But it's all menial work anyway. You're never going to get rich doing that sort of stuff. Not like I could get a better job anyway. There aren't a lot of demi human nobles around. And the ones that are around would probably want want me for...favors.” She stopped walking in front of Peppin's house. ”And speaking of favors...” She turned her body towards Ashton and placed her hands behind her head. ”I'd like your honest opinion, do you think I look cute enough?” Fritzi was frowning while she arced her back. ”I can't believe you're the only guy I was able to hook! I was really hoping Hiro would come join us. I had it all planned out, I was going to teach him how to use magic and wrap him around my finger!” She smiled. ”But I guess you'll do for now.” In a flash, Fritzi pounced forward and pressed her forehead against Ashton's. ”light huh? That's not a very common one.” Much like with Hiro, Aerith, and Alistair, Fritzi explained to Ashton how to use his gate to cast spells. ”So how about giving it a try?”

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Hero's district

Aer looked over her shoulder at Flame. ”The war has been going for some time now. It must have been at least a decade. No one really knows how it started. Allegedly there were two villages, one filled with demihumans and another filled with humans. The leader of the demihuman village killed the leader of the human village.” Aer adjusted her hood and looked straight ahead. ”The war ended with the demihumans surrendering and entering into a treaty. Even though the war is over though, not everyone is happy with the outcome. The bandit situation here is largely due to the war, but not everywhere is like this. There's less resistance in the larger cities, but that might just be because of the manpower employed there.” Aer coughed. ”But more relevent to your situation, do any of you know about the people who teleported you here? Anything would be of use.” That's right, Ashton wasn't here to explain things this time.

It was probably too early to say, but there wasn't an ambush waiting for them this time. Whew!

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Clinic

Much like the crew had expected, Quill had been called in to help teach the foreigners. But not before Donovan checked everyone to confirm their element.

”Light is an interestin' element to have on hand. Plenty of uses in the clinic too. It's not as useful for healin' people up, but you can do a lot of other stuff. ” He turned to Aerith ”Dark is less practical, sadly. But it has its uses. You can numb someone's body if you're strong enough, but I can't say that's very safe to practice on patients.” He folded his massive arms. ”Still good to have an extra pair of hands.” He presented Chieko with a candle to practice with.

Unlike last time, Quill seemed much more relaxed, and didn't show a shred of aggression. Just like she was right before their fight. “Light, huh?” She waved her hand. “It just so happens we have the perfect specimen for you to practice your magic on. If you would follow me to the back please.” The room fell silent. Quill sighed before looking over her shoulder again. “I keep stray cats as pets sometimes.”

”R-right.” Donovan sighed. ”Sounds like she's got ya covered, Hiro.”