Hedgehawk

The First Magical Incursion

@HaleyTheRandom May I create a Guild character and reserve that Dark character for later use if it becomes available ?

@HiippoAF

I will have to read the sheet in more detail, but DS slots won't be open for a good while, So for now i would focus on creating a Guild character

The First Magical Incursion

After Ty and Jaz left, Aloysius stayed in his office for a good hour. He had no idea what to do right now. Ty was pissed at him, and despite Aloysius's devil may care, I am superior attitude, Ty was the only one he cared about when it came to what he thought of Aloysius. He had contemplated texting him, or doing something to convey how he felt, but the closing words of the conversation previously had rooted his hands away from his phone.

In reality, Aloysius didn't know what to do next. The attack was mostly out of revenge after discovering the evidence that led Al to conclude that Lana was dead. It wasn't part of some master plan like he made out to Ty and Jaz. He knew Salem was pissed right now, and that she would be looking for any excuse for revenge. The Dark Shadow HQ was possibly the only safe place right now. Well, as about as safe as could be; Salem had broken the door down once before.

Standing up he walked over to the office window overlooking the main atrium. There he saw his followers gathering around and eating pizza, acting like a family. His eyes scanned around as he picked up familiar faces, others he hadn't bothered learning their names. But they were his followers. He had a duty to protect them, from both the Non-magi and Salem and The Guild. With a hefty sigh, Aloysius lifted his hand and ran his finger through his black lockes, trying his hardest not to suddenly crack and have a break down as the reality of the situation sunk in.

Lana was gone. Dead. Finished. No longer of this mortal plane of existence. As much as they didn't get on, spent a good part of their time together arguing or physically fighting, Lana was an important part of the Dark Shadow equation. She was the glue that bound everyone. Most people found Aloysius too egotistical to listen to, or perhaps he was just crazy. Lana was the down to earth one, able to translate Aloysius's crazy ideas into a format that people could understand. With her gone, it was just Aloysius alone in his ivory tower again.

Moving back to his desk he opened up his phone and rather than opening his messages he instead opened his Spotify app and began to flick through artists. He needed a pick me up and he knew exactly who to choose for that: Willow Fitzgerald. He knew that she was a Magi, and she worked for the Guild, but he also knew how nice it was to just feel happy from time to time. Putting a song on he melted into his leather seat and began waving his fingers in the air like a conductor as the music played.

His body entered a state of bliss, his mind numbing and muscles relaxing. He knew if Lana was here she would be lecturing him about how he shouldn't be listening to the enemy, and how it was quite sad how a low level mage could influence someone like Aloysius. He could imagine her pointing out that it would be just as easy to have Willow imbue orders like 'shoot yourself' into her songs and silly old Al would do just that.

That very thought pulled Aloysius out of his trance and straightened him up like a stiff bolt. "Ohhhh…. Music… that's it. What better way to control large groups of people." Aloysius muttered to himself as got up and began to walk over through the bookcase the opposite side of his desk. His fingers scanned each book, specifically each edition of the Magi Encyclopedia. Eventually he found the book he was looking and made his way back to his desk. Flicking through the pages he eventually found the article he was looking for: 'Sirens' The fabled destroyers of ships. Of course, no one believed they did exist, they always had assumed the sailors had been drunk, lonely or riddled with disease to think straight. But no, a bunch of voice welding magi in the early 1400s thought it would be funny to play pranks on ships by singing at them. Of course, nowadays it didn't really work that well for ships, but what about large groups of people at concerts?

With a smirk, Aloysius collected his phone stopped the music and began to phone up his business department, the ones who held all his money and had no idea he was actually a Magi. "Bill it's Al. Yeah Hi. How are the kids? Good. Glad to hear. Listen I need you to incorporate a new company for me. I want to make a new record label. Yes I am more than aware I have no idea what makes good music, but that is beside the point. Just message me when it is made." With that he hung the phone up and placed it on the desk, a smirk forming at the corners of his lips.

The First Magical Incursion

@everyone Just a reminder the final deadline for the first cycle of posts is next Thursday. If you are going to have any trouble posting do let me know.

Numbers Don't Lie, Why Narrative Nation RP's are Doomed to Fail

<Snipped quote by Mae>

"People come to this website and find this forum specifically because they are looking to write and create stories. If they wanted to just play a game they could go on Steam. Even tabletop RPGs still focus on creating a narrative at their heart, even if you've got someone who just wants to kill everything and become all powerful, that's still a story they're telling about who that character is.

I like this quote from you because it proves my point.

The action--the character wanting to kill everything and become all power--BECOMES the narrative.

@Theodorable

Actually Theo you are defeating your own point. You can't even argue rationally. Your argument is that Stats are superior to narrative. And yet... Honestly I can't keep typing with this level of stupidity.

Yes the action becomes the narrative, because it is the narrative to start... Geez... What poor @Mae was trying to say is people come here to tell a story, not to pull up a spreadsheet and work out stats and numbers. If they want that they play Civ or games like that. Of course your brain can't seem to understand this point. Despite the fact multiple people tell you otherwise. Why don't you just run off to your little closed group NRPs before you scare other people from joining the genre?

Numbers Don't Lie, Why Narrative Nation RP's are Doomed to Fail

@Mae I totally understand one of the reasons I have never really gotten involved with NRP here is because the entire group seems rather cliquey. Once my other RP is ticking over well I can look into it for you. I would gladly put on a NRP

Numbers Don't Lie, Why Narrative Nation RP's are Doomed to Fail

@Theodorable No one has even accepted your points as even credible. As a NRP veteran I can tell you that other sites outside of RPG do rather well with narrative NRPs and they live far longer than mechanics based ones.

Your last sentence literally proved my point in my post as well. Roleplaying is a story process, not a game process. We do RP on here not RPG. There is a difference. Not hat I expect you to actually comprehend that as you keep drinking further into that armchair of yours.

If I wasn't so busy with Uni and GMing another RP I would create a NRP and actually show you how you can create a good hybrid that is popular and has good narrative.

Numbers Don't Lie, Why Narrative Nation RP's are Doomed to Fail

@Archetype Zero Sorry for the ammedum, but naxtially you will find most NRPers are like this. The reason why NRP sections on forums do so badly is because the core player base is a bunch of twisted wound up armchair generals who can't adapt to 'Normal' RPs.

They see NRPs as a game of Risk or Civ, where they play to win. If they are losing, they throw their toys out of the pram and say the mechanics of this game are broken and leave.

I have been RPing in both RP and NRP for nearly 11years and I have always gotten involved in each forums NRP section... Except this one... As it seems the core players are the worse group I have ever met and they seems to have alienated most of the rest of the forum.

Numbers Don't Lie, Why Narrative Nation RP's are Doomed to Fail

I do have to agree that is article isn't exactly worth the bits and bytes it was typed on.

If you look at just narrative and just stay based NRPs they Fail (In the broadest and first sense possible) at around the same rare. In fact in my experience, Narrative NRPs survive just that bit longer.

Each system has its pros and cons, Narrative Nation RPs are great for quick and easy social games. I loved the ones I used to do on another site, writing about what was going on and really feeling like I was doing something. Every Star based NRP I ever touched just felt like some basement dwelling meeting where I spent more time with a calculator than I did actually getting a feel for my nation.

The true success of NRPs relies on the middle ground between the two systems. Give the players the ability to exercise their creative mind, but when conflict and cross roads appear have a stat system to resolve things. It's a simple system to play with. Not so exactly easy to set up as a GM though.

One last thing I will say. All NRPs rely on a good GM that will be impartial and fair. The OP mentioned that GMs are open to manipulation based on previous disposition. However, I am inclined to take that with a pinch of salt. All GMs know that if they are not impartial it damages their reputation and makes further RPs more difficult. I am guessing the OP has been subject to it in the past and now holds onto that point like a dog with a bone.

Hope that all makes sense. Still waking up xD

The First Magical Incursion

Guild

Salem Adelaide de Silva - Leader - Played by @HaleyTheRandom

Marcus Stone - Lieutenant - Played by @FunnyGuy

Jun-Seo Kim - Captain - Played by @PureHeroine

Benjamin Olin - Captain - Played by @Carbonatter

Willow Fitzgerald - Member - Played by @Ezmeralda

Jordan Magana - Member - Played by @Hedgehawk

Rachel Cristalle - Recruit - Played by @sassy1085

Mikhael Guetzkov - Recruit - Played by @Strange Rodent

Persephone Masers - Recruit - @Cerces22

Dark Shadow

Aloysius Leighton - Leader - Played by @Hedgehawk

Tiberius Nero Delamar - Second In Command - Played by @HaleyTheRandom

Circe Masers - Lieutenant - Played by @Cerces22

Lex Lockhart - Captain - Played by @FunnyGuy

Sierra Foster - Captain - Played by @Strange Rodent

Emily Warring - Captain - Played by @SouffleGirl123

Brynn Foster - Member - Played by @PureHeroine

Lola Cordelia Leighton - Member - Played by @SouffleGirl123

Cleo Alexandra James - Member - Played by @HaleyTheRandom

Jasper Vivionna Delemar - Member - Played by @HaleyTheRandom

Heather Radcliffe - Recruit - Played by @savannahssu

Liam Donovan Fitzpatrick - Recruit - Played by @Helo

Next Deadline is August 8th.

Already Posted

-Aloysius

-Persephone

-Mikhael

-Lex

-Salem

-Rachel

-Circe

-Jun

-Benjamin

-Willow

-Brynn

-Sierra

-Fitz

-Marcus

Pending

-Cleo

-Ty

-Jasper

-Jordan

-Emily

-Lola

-Heather

Hiatus

-None yet.

The First Magical Incursion

@savannahssu Looks good and interesting to me, so throw her on over.