HeySeuss

On Tour Where No Man Has Gone Before (Sci Fi, Rock n' Roll, Parody)

Also, highly recommend going Rolling Stones if you're looking for inspirational music here. That's definitely what I am digging into as I get ready to write here. Beggar's Banquet (1968) - Goat's Head Soup (1973) era. Should also research this: Altamont Free Concert

On Tour Where No Man Has Gone Before (Sci Fi, Rock n' Roll, Parody)

Titanpad is the most up to date, I did a typo on the sheet page. Now the sheet page is corrected to the Titanpad standard.

Blood Debt (Medieval/Fantasy, Rangers)

Masef

Name: Masef
Age: 22
Gender: Male
Species: Human with a questionable ancestry.

Physical Description:

Image

Swarthy and dark-haired, Masef has always been possessed of a certain grace in form that took him from wiry and skinny as an adolescent into a flowing grace reminiscent of the elves. When he was a boy, he was pale of skin, but it grows darker with age. His eyes are similarly dark, but seem to be turning into a more amber color of late. In Vendish fashion, the land he grew up in, he goes clean shaven with hair tied back, and has turned the heads of more than a few in that country of light skinned people with his exotic look. His clothing reflects his most recent travels; a sand colored cloak with a deep hood that helps reflect the light and heat of a harsh noon sun back over a much-scuffed breastplate of lamellar scale. He now wears a bronze ring through his ear, signalling that he belongs to the Masad tribe of the Ibir.

Skillset:

Masef has a sharp eye; easily distracted, but nonetheless able to spot things that are overlooked. It makes him a superlative tracker and explorer. He prefers a longbow, but that is no surprise given how he was raised. He is a ghost over sand and meadow alike, but those are skills that all of Brand's Brood have. His years in the deserts gave him lots of practice however. There was not an oasis he wouldn't trek to or mountain he wouldn't climb.

His thirst for lore remains as ever, and he is starting to accumulate lore on the arcane, which is where his interests are compelled for a variety of reasons (more later). His favorite part of being a ranger always was the joy of discovery, whether a goat path or an ancient city, and he is adaptable, creative.

History:

Masef wasn't even a toddler when his parents were killed in an ambush on their caravan upon the Pilgrim Road leading into Vendland, near enough the Nightwood that Brand found the survivors, including his dying mother and the baby she'd given her life to shield. She breathed his first name, nothing more, and expired. Brand, not being hard-hearted enough to leave a boy to fend brought him back to his other adopted children to take care of while he tracked the bandits to their lair and rooted them out root and stem.

As one of the youngest of the brood, Masef was also the one that would follow a sound into the wilderness, climb a tree just for the challenge and find his way into trouble in Bosfyrd with the village girls. Things seemed to whisper to him, even in the wild, though it might be a voice embedded in the wind or the way some rocks were aligned. He always found particular interests in some of the ancient ruins of the Nightwood, often spending time exploring them even though others had looted their treasures in long past days. As he grew older, there seemed to be the hint of powers and abilities neither he nor his adoptive father could fathom, and that was what led him away from Brand.

He bid a fond farewell with a promise to return and see him again, and then headed down the Pilgrim road that took the life of his parents. He followed the trail, using an amulet of his father's, all the way into the Tahzad desert, where he quickly acquired the language and learned the fundamentals of survival in the deserts and hills, plateaus and valleys, of that arid region, particularly around Daramalsh, the Great Whore. Working from that infamous city, he managed to glean a little about his father's ancestry; he was originally a member of the Masad clan of the Ibir tribes that set out as an adventurer and a merchant, afflicted with a wanderlust. When he located his father's clan, there was considerable surprise, but he showed them the amulet and gave them his tale.

They held a great celebration and hosted him for a few years as he familiarized himself with his ancestral desert home and took work that kept him afloat; eschewing mercenary work, he preferred to scout and survey, work with treasure hunters and academics looking to explore the ruins in the region -- a passion inherited from his days in the Nightwood. Of his mother, they could say little -- they knew her not, or that Jalal had married.

One such expedition took him into the depths of the ancient city of Mari, into a crypt none had found before. There, bathed in a fey light, he found more answers to disturb him, such as an ancestor by the name of Qazar the Cruel, the Warlock King of Mari, and the reason the Ibir were nomads (after their city was destroyed, and Qazar with it) that had been waiting for centuries for a suitable vessel to pass by that he might possess and live again. For reasons unknown to him, though Qazar's spirit claims its because he's a 'half-breed', he was not fully possessed by Qazar, but instead wrestles with the intruding consciousness within his skull, vacillating between his hunger for knowledge (including magical power) and caution against Qazar's power-mad ambitions.

Then, one day, he felt an overwhelming compulsion to return to the Nightwood; no news reached him where he was, but he bid the Ibir adieu and set north to see his adoptive father and beloved mentor. He heard the news further up the Pilgrim road, and that only hastened his step; he bought and sold horses along the way so that he could fly up the road more rapidly, exhausting the modest income he'd built up. Some things were more important than money.

Psychological Profile:

Masef seems like an easy going, rougish sort, but he lives by a strong code of ethics imparted by Brand -- he might have grown into selfishness left to his own devices, but has always been surrounded by family of one sort or another. His siblings under Brand's wing as well as the Masad. Sometimes, it translates into an 'us versus them' mentality with Masef, but he generally is a man that will not harm innocents and noncombatants, even if there is some profit to it. He was raised better than that. Some of Brand is in him in that he cannot help but lend a hand to someone in a plight.

Masef has learned that once he gives a promise, he is compelled to keep it -- that's how he wound up on the road North before the news even reached him that Brand died. As best as he can reckon it, he was compelled north the day Brand died. It's happened before, but never quite like that, and he still isn't sure what it means. In any case, he is learning to be wary of promises, though the promise to see Brand again apparently is now a promise to see Brand honored properly.

Masef is naturally inclined to be a talker, an amiable companion and a man that enjoys good company and a story, but his ancestor, Qazar the Cruel, is different and sometimes that bleeds out -- he finds himself impatient when he would be more tolerant than before, and sometimes, when engaged in 'frivolity' starts tapping his fingers or toes in irritation. Inside his skull, there is a war on for control, and he's learned the hard way that taking the offered magic means letting more of Qazar in -- right now, he has a few minor spells at his command, and that already has Qazar doing more of the talking. Masef doesn't want to go there...except, well, he owes Brand much and he knows his siblings. There is no doubt he is riding into war, and with the knowledge and powers of a great and fell Warlock riding along with him. He understands, from Brand's strong imparted morals, that a ranger is a guardian, and his burden as a guardian is to ensure that Qazar the Cruel does not dominate again. The problem is, however, that Qazar is tempting.

Both Masef and Qazar are fans of knowledge and lore, it's one of the areas where they are in complete agreement, though Masef worries that the Warlock's spirit might try to use the gained knowledge to further the goal of usurping Masef.

Equipment:

• A longbow, carved from Vendish yew and maintained. Masef isn't the strongest archer, but he's damned precise. His arrows are a mix of various types.
• A hatchet, though wickedly curved and with a counter-weighted spike on the back of it that has many uses against armor.
• A kindjal, long and nasty. Damascened steel.
• His skinning knife.
• A poinard, which is good for getting in between the cracks of armor.
• Pouches, belts and sash overlaying it, all containing many different essentials of survival. Notably, waterskins, though he's less worried about them as the lands get greener.
• His armor; leather lamellar acquired in the desert lands. It covers his torso, a bit of his groin and thighs and his upper arms when worn. It has the advantage of flexibility; its like is not generally seen in Vendland.
• Cloak and clothing -- he has not gotten anything in more locally-appropriate coloring, though tan tends to blend well in a variety of environments.
• Horses; a couple of them, he rides them in shift. These were acquired nearer to Bosfyrd than not, as he's bought and sold (at a loss) all the way up the road trying to make record time without killing the animals.
• His father's amulet, as well as a bronze ring through the ear to symbolize his membership in his father's clan.

Yes, and...

Varrick and Masef are of a generation, but it's always been a sibling rivalry attitude that's prevailed, exacerbated by the differences. Masef prefers to play the rogue, and Varrick is just a little too full of his own noble shit sometimes for Masef's tastes. There was a taste of resentment in those days to Masef -- he had no idea where he really came from, and Varrick was always parading around with daddy's sword. Of course, daddy was no great loss except for the digestion problems he gave his serfs after they got a little too tired of the oppression and were pretty damned hungry...

On Tour Where No Man Has Gone Before (Sci Fi, Rock n' Roll, Parody)

I'll be honest; if you want the character role, get the sheet up. The whole dibs calling thing is a little restrictive as I've seen people call it and then never deliver.

On Tour Where No Man Has Gone Before (Sci Fi, Rock n' Roll, Parody)

OOC and character sheet template is up.

On Tour Where No Man Has Gone Before (Sci Fi, Rock n' Roll, Parody)

Space. The Final Frontier...OF ROCK AND ROLL!

_{UFO sighting at a rock concert...they're breakin' the law, breakin' the law.}

Instructions:

• Using the provided template, please post a character sheet here.
• Everything else goes on the OOC tab, thank you.

Character Sheet:

(Template Here)

Name:
Age:
Gender:
Birthplace:
Instruments played:

Physical Description:

It's probably best to actually describe the character if you are going to rely on a picture, or you can do without the picture if you like, but definitely describe.

Skillset:

Talents one has either naturally or through education or training of some sort. Not just the character's instrument of choice or musical knowledge, but let's go into a little more details with skills besides the immediately musical.

History:

Get up to the point where the band is formed, how your character got into music, family history, romances and so forth. Anything significant. We will work out band history together.

Psychological Profile:

An idea of how the character thinks and so forth; should be linked to the history.

Equipment:

Yes, and:

This is a character exercise for how our characters know each other and relate a bit. See the OOC thread for more details. If posting the first character, go ahead and make your 'Yes, and:" whatever you like as to how they joined (started?) the band, preferably in amusing terms. Everyone else that follows will write about their relationship with the character ahead of them, preferably in amusing terms.

On Tour Where No Man Has Gone Before (Sci Fi, Rock n' Roll, Parody)

Space. The Final Frontier...OF ROCK AND ROLL!

_{UFO sighting at a rock concert...they're breakin' the law, breakin' the law.}

TL;DR Summary:

• Science Fiction Comedy
• A rock band is abducted from Earth through shady contracting practices and loopholes in Terran and Interstellar law...and put on tour in Space.
• The characters should be the band. If there's interest, we can expand to roadies and groupies.
• Sex, Drugs and Rock N' Roll, but no probing without mutual consent.
• Plot is inspired by "Space Jam," "This is Spinal Tap," the Rolling Stones, "Year Zero" (novel) and the work of Douglas Adams.
• Yeah, rock. Let's face it, a rock band is going to get the most out of debauchery on a galactic scale. I don't see J-Pop artists doing all the drugs, do you?
• Please post sheets in the OOC; there are instructions and a template provided there.
• In all OOC and character sheet posts, can you please tag @HeySeuss? This is a convenient way to notify me that there is a post. On all IC posts, we should be tagging everyone in the RP.

In Character Info:

Not everything that's happened at a rock concert has to do with the drugs, though that certainly helps give everything that can happen, such as alien fan invasions at rock festivals, into the category of plausible deniability. Not everyone is smashed or baked, but no one takes reports of weird shit happening at these concerts seriously anymore. Good thing, otherwise the question of whether or not Humanity is alone would have been a moot one a long time ago.

Interstellar culture has been a fan of music since the 1960's, which is when the space race started, SETI was built and other things were put into place. As soon as alien anthropologists picked up the radio waves emanating from Earth in their study vessels, they started studying Earth culture with a heightened interest. Compared to the advanced standards of the aliens, Human art was laughably primitive, acting was 'so bad, it's good' and so on and so forth.

But what humanity had to offer was music. Aliens loved the music precisely because they were so bad at it, whereas Humanity could hit the sweet spot, every time. Often imitated but never duplicated, the hardest core of alien fans would try to sneak onto Earth just to attend a concert. But because of reasons, such as interstellar law, aliens were prohibited from making actual contact with Humanity, who were a long way off from becoming technologically advanced enough to cope with their place in the galaxy. As a stopgap measure, LSD was introduced into rock concerts by the galactic authorities as part of a damage control scheme designed to minimize the impact of these blockade running music fans.

The live concert was the ultimate temptation for whateverillions of Alien fans, dying to see humans first hand.

Enter the band; just getting famous off that first album, taking the rock-loving world by storm...and tragically perishing in a freak bus accident on ice somewhere in Canada.

They're a long way from home, and they have a legion of screaming, tentacle-waving fans waiting for them in packed arenas, literally everywhere.

Out of Character Info:

First and foremost, this RP is definitely a parody. The characters are a long way from home and forced to play for nefarious, shady aliens that want to make money off a real, live touring human band. There's a lot of choices to be made by the characters, such as do they try to escape, do they try to rally alien allies to their cause? Do they bother to go home? Would they even be allowed to go home without being mind-wiped?> So in a sense, they are captives, albeit pampered, beloved captives that have to figure out where they want to go with this.

I personally envision a rock band like the Stones, Guns N' Roses, Motley Crue, Van Halen or Stone Temple Pilots because these groups have a debauched reputation and I think that it's a much more fun RP if our characters are not paragons of self-discipline.

Beyond that, I'm all ears on variations on the plot and where it can be taken. If we're laughing a bit as we write, we're in the right place.

As to standards, I think about five paragraphs per post max, not too much, is a good place to go with this.

Blood Debt (Medieval/Fantasy, Rangers)

Hi; with three interested, I think I can move it to OOC and see what happens from there.

OOC is up.

Blood Debt (Medieval/Fantasy, Rangers)

_{Some badass forest battle artwork to help set the mood by Leos Ng.}

Instructions:

• Using the provided template, please post a character sheet here.
• Everything else goes on the OOC tab, thank you.

Character Sheet:

(Template Here)

Name:
Age:
Gender:
Species:

Physical Description:

It's probably best to actually describe the character if you are going to rely on a picture, or you can do without the picture if you like, but definitely describe.

Skillset:

Talents one has either naturally or through education or training of some sort. Brand of the Nightwood was the character's adoptive father, so it's natural that they know how to track, move silently and otherwise be very much at home surviving in the wild, including how to hunt.

History:

Explain how your character got there -- no 'the story will come out in RP' lines, please -- I want a feel for where your character is coming from. Feel free to work up names and places and so forth. Be sure to mention any specific enemies made as well. Also, since the characters all were orphans taken in by Brand, they started out in a similar situation -- under the old ranger's wing.

Psychological Profile:

An idea of how the character thinks and so forth; should be linked to the history.

Equipment:

Yes, and:

This is a character exercise for how our characters know each other and relate a bit. See the OOC thread for more details. If posting the first character, go ahead and make your 'Yes, and:" a relationship with Brand of Nightwood. Others will post about their relationship of the character above them.

Blood Debt (Medieval/Fantasy, Rangers)

_{Some badass forest battle artwork to help set the mood by Leos Ng.}

TL;DR Summary:

• Medieval/Fantasy
• I am doing a homegrown setting that allows people to invent stuff so they can more easily put together their characters and design what they need.
• The characters are all adopted children of an old ranger that have returned home to pay respects and bury him, only to find that a tyrannical ruler had him, and many others, killed.
• Characters are all similar in certain respects, but differences should be highlighted.
• No anthropomorphic animal type characters -- sorry, I can't deal with furries or lizardmen and the such.
• Plot will turn into an overall guerrilla war against said ruler as the adoptive children decide to take up the path of vengeance in a very Four Brothers/Magnificent Seven sort of way. I've also based this on more recent movies featuring King John as the villain; the Russell Crowe version of Robin Hood and "Ironclad." A bit of "Kingdom of Heaven" in there.
• To keep it moving, capping off at something like five players for this, but if someone comes in after the limit and blows me away, I'll revise that. I suck at saying no sometimes.
• Time is limited, so I'm not sure I want to do long posts here. Shall we try for five paragraphs or so of writing per post? Keep it moving with lots of back and forth?
• Please post sheets in the OOC; there are instructions and a template provided there.
• In all OOC and character sheet posts, can you please tag @HeySeuss? This is a convenient way to notify me that there is a post. On all IC posts, we should be tagging everyone in the RP.
• Skype Chat for brainstorming in realtime. - I honestly prefer to brainstorm in groups, so feel free to drop in. I think we can also help each other out on interaction and posting this way.

In Character Info:

Brand of the Nightwood was a local fixture in Bosfyrd, on the border of Vendland, though a remote one -- a woodsman known to occasionally appear with a story or an act of charity, a guide for those that were lost or otherwise in trouble in the forest and someone that kept bandits on their toes. He didn't spend much time in the towns surrounding the Nightwood itself, but he was known because of his skills and his essentially kind nature. He wasn't the most polished gem, but he was a fine person to know when there was trouble afoot. The old ranger had a reputation for his skill and an adventurous youth. He retired to the Nightwood and became a figure of remote charity -- he seemed to have a way with the stray children that seemed to show up in the area, incorrigibles and the such that he took in. He was the place's sentinel, keeping a watch for monsters and other things in the forests, keeping bandits on their toes. He stayed out of local politics, but he always lent a helping hand.

There was a revolt against King Harold, and it was a powerful one that won a couple battles, humiliating the King in the field, forcing him to make concessions to his barons and other nobles.

Harold did not take the defeat well; he spent money he didn't really have to build an army to put his kingdom firmly in his authority, ignoring all the promises he made prior. One of the leaders, William of Barkstead, was a firm friend of Brand's and the old ranger took the man's two children under his wing to protect them from the bloody chevauchee of King Harold against his own nobility. This campaign of Harold, leading an army that included monstrous troops and dark magic users, was successful but left bodies and burned towns strewn about its wake. But, in the end, Harold had what he wanted; Baron William on a cross alongside the other leaders of the Barons' Revolt. That vengeance was good, but not enough -- the children, heirs, had to die so he could provide land and titles to his cronies. He was known as Bloody Harold, his brutality and tyranny infamous. But it was what he wanted, the people cowed.

Except, not all were cowed. Brand of the Nightwood stayed out of the war, fearing the consequences that came to pass. King Harold's men came for Brand of Nightwood; they found a formidable old man, a warrior in the winter of his years. He did not mince his words when faced with the tyrant's warriors, though he did offer to have the children renounce their inheritance and raise them as his own, with no quarrel. However, there was no intention to give the children up for torture, rape or whatever else the king's depraved killers could imagine. William entrusted them to him to keep safe, and Brand was a man of his word.

The olive branch was not enough for Harold's minions. It was a fight, but Brand lost against overwhelming odds, making a stand. He was in the winter of his life, but instead of living out those days in well-earned peace, he was brutally executed, though not without taking his toll from the enemy. His final stand was the stuff of saga, except there were no bards brave enough to compose a ballad for it. If anything, Brand's death snuffed out the lingering resistance. People resigned themselves to a fate under the heel of Bloody Harold.

However, the Earl's children weren't the first orphans old Brand ever took in. They were merely the latest of a number of children that called him 'Father,' an array of siblings, each different from each other but siblings nonetheless, spread out over the world who made the journey to pay respects to their adoptive father...and to set right his murder.

Out of Character Info:

The characters here are family; they're all rangers that Brand of the Nightwood adopted, and they are back to bury the old man. Of course, the powers that be have already pissed them off considerably, but to add insult to injury, they will of course attempt to clarify that need for vengeance by trying to defile the body or disrupt the burial. Or perhaps, the characters need to steal the body back in the night from where it is displayed as a warning to others, thus creating a situation where they need to fight anyway. In any case, the opening scene will be a local priest risking all to give Brand a proper burial. The King's minions will come to disrupt it. Unknown to them, Brand's sons and daughters will be there, each a dangerous individual on their own, experienced rangers all.

The campaign will center around this band's involvement in the civil war, but they are also family. Adopted family of varying races (perhaps) and creeds, different from each other in many ways, but with a huge common ground -- the same man raised them, probably at the same time, though we should spread the ages out -- some of the characters are older and some are younger, over the span of perhaps twenty years or more.

While the characters are all rangers, that doesn't mean they're the same. We're tossing the D&D books here; so I am down the rangers that have a variety of different talents and abilities, though I'd like to see them develop in the course of the RP, rather than have fully grown badasses spring out of nowhere. The characters start as people coming together in grief. They are forged in the fire that comes afterward. That is to say, start them out kind of basic and narrate how they grow into the role.

For running the RP, I intend to share the GM responsibility a bit -- this is a collaborative process and while I have specific ideas on plot points, I want others to feel free to propose scenarios and quest-items and so forth, as well as to play the role of the antagonists (there will be many and varied) and to add to developing the setting our characters will be playing in. We should, above all, feel invested in this RP together and share a collective sense of ownership. On the other hand, I'll retain the ability to settle disputes as the thread owner, but I'm hoping we don't come to that.

In any case, I want to do a rockin' RP out of this.