Quartz

The Gifted (Reborn) (Looking for more players!)

Do you have a OOP? CS?

@Sailorsadie

Over here.

The Gifted (Reborn)

I'm still interested but I'm a bit short on time. I'm going to see if I can make a satisfactory character on Monday.

Shadow Contract: A Demon-Slaying Action RP

Natsumi Fujikawa

Oh no. Natsumi had hoped that they could quickly move on from this awkward situation, but Nakanishi was still pushing the topic. At least she wasn't threatening sexual harassment, but she was… hitting on her? Perhaps she was joking, but if she wasn't, how could she even respond to that? She didn't want to reject a playful request after causing such a blunder and really end up having a bad start with her new kouhai. But actually dating a colleague seemed irresponsible, and Natsumi wasn't even into girls anyways. Oh wait, of course. Since she wasn't into girls, this didn't have to be weird. She could simply accept a platonic date, and if Nakanishi had other ideas, it wouldn't be rude to issue a correction about her orientation.

"Alright, alright, if that will make it up to you," she answered while turning around to face the cat-girl. "Just don't get any weird ideas about me. It was an honest mistake."

Any further conversation between them was interrupted by Ayako. Natsumi sighed before performing her Shinto prayer once again, reverting her mane of fire into normal red hair, and making her way back to the transport.

---

When Ayako dismissed the operatives, Natsumi spotted Kaida talking to Nakanishi, but she instinctively avoided mingling with them. The embarrassment of her earlier blunder was still a bit too fresh on her mind. Instead, she set her sights on Rika. "Excuse me, Rika-san," she said as she approached. It felt wrong to address her so informally, but she didn't quite remember her proper name. She had seen the names of the new recruits listed in the paperwork, but western names were so much harder to remember. "You fought very well out there. You said you've fought demons before, right? Were you transferred from another branch?"

_@Emeth

The Gifted (Reborn)

I'm tentatively interested.

Can you give an indication of what the central story will be? The sheet gives the option to be, say, a member of the Hunters, but is that a realistic option given the intended plot?

We have to save the world again? I thought we were done with this crap!

@Dragonfly 9 You could help us get momentum again if you post that. But it also depends on whether @Hyyde322 is up for getting the story in motion.

U.S.S.A United Species Space Academy Interest Check

Here's some advice, since you seem to be new to this. You're really lacking an actual pitch for your roleplay. You've given some broad surface-level lore, but like... what is this roleplay going to be about? What role are you going to play? What is expected from the other players? That's the kind of questions you should answer in an interest check.

Shadow Contract: A Demon-Slaying Action RP

Natsumi Fujikawa

"Yeah, yeah, thanks, Shiro," Natsumi mumbled as she scrambled stiffly to her feet. It seemed a bit early to be clapping, because while the multipronged attack had annihilated the demon, Andrea's beams had also unleashed hell on the surrounding walls and ceilings. She could already hear the concrete groaning as it threatened to swallow them all. At a glance, Kaida, Andrea, and the new recruit were in the bowels of the building with her, while the others were closer to the exit. Kaida was agile enough to escape the collapse and Andrea would survive it, but for Nakanishi, she had no idea. From what little she had seen, he seemed speedy but not very coordinated. Afraid to waste time, she made the snap decision to act.

"I'll get the boy!" she called to Kaida as she launched forward with her flame jets. With no more time for a warning, she flew past Andrea and collided with Nakanishi, wrapping her arms around his waist so that she lifted him up over her shoulder and along with her movement. She had practiced this move as a way to get civilians out of danger, but hadn't yet used it in practice, since Kaida was better suited to that task. She wasn’t strong enough to carry a person for long, and she had little ability to steer with her arms occupied, so she was really just relying on the momentum for a quick relocation. The two of them zipped through the big hallway and out the exit, at which point Natsumi slowed down, weakening her jets while angling her feet further down, so they would remain aloft even while losing momentum. If done right, she could have come to a smooth landing like this, but that didn't pan out. Instead, the two of them took a gentle but clumsy tumble, with Nakanishi falling on his back in the dirt and Natsumi landing on top, cushioning the impact of her face onto the soft pillow of Nakanishi's breasts.

Wait, what? She rose onto all fours and looked down at the cat-eared girl. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!" she stammered. "I thought you were, uhm…" Saying I thought you were a boy seemed way too rude, so she stopped herself. Still, she was a boy before, wasn't she? Natsumi had specifically taken note of that. Her formerly flat chest was the main thing that had tipped her off. "Never mind." Feeling her cheeks heat up, she scrambled to her feet and turned away, looking around to make sure that everyone else would make it out.

_{@Rune_Alchemist}

Shadow Contract: A Demon-Slaying Action RP

Natsumi Fujikawa

Oh crap. Natsumi could do all the tactical analysis and cleverly-planned attacks she wanted, but somehow she was never quite prepared for a punch being thrown her way. Could she dodge that fireball? Possibly, but in that brief moment she wasn't quite sure of Kaida's location or the integrity of the wall behind her. If it missed her, it might just hit Kaida or bring the building down. So instead, she stood her ground and frantically raised her arms to shield her face. The fireball came in lower than that and hit her in the chest, exploding into a much bigger and stronger burst of flame than before. The fire itself was like scalding water to her, jarring but not immediately harmful. But the force of the explosion knocked the air out of her lungs and swept her off her feet to land on the concrete floor, half propped up against the wall. "Ow," she groaned as an inelegant way to let Kaida know that she was still alive.

Questioning the GM Format

This is definitely something people do, it’s not an outlandish concept. But it comes with major downsides.

The flipside of the single point of failure is that a GM-based game needs only one competent and dedicated person to keep the roleplay functioning. If all the other players are flaky and passive-reactive, it might not be a great roleplay, but it can continue to function on the shoulders of the GM. Whereas a game with shared control needs multiple competent and dedicated players to work, because one person isn’t going to do the heavy lifting in a story they don’t have any reliable authority over. So you need at least two people who individually would have been competent enough to be GM, or really three to avoid the risk of it devolving into a one-on-one.

On the other hand, with shared control, it only takes one player without a good grasp on plot coherence or setting integrity to ruin it for everyone else. You could democratically veto someone’s contribution, but the effort to do that is so much higher than when you have one person with the authority to just say no. I’ve been on this site much longer than my account indicates and I’ve seen it plenty of times.
_{(This doesn’t apply to anyone I'm playing with at the time of writing, don't worry.)}

Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it. In fact, I think this is the most fun way to play if you can assemble a group of competent and proactive players. But GM-based games are more resilient to the environment we realistically live in, where the majority of players have good material to contribute but lack the competence, proactivity, or time to actively prop up a plot and setting.

Shadow Contract: A Demon-Slaying Action RP

Natsumi Fujikawa

Natsumi sighed in relief as Kaida dispatched the attacking Beast. Moments like those were why she wasn’t confident in taking point. Still, Kaida’s protection didn’t give her a lot of respite before the Monster made its move, carpet bombing everything in sight. Fireballs probably wouldn’t harm her, but it didn’t hurt to be sure. With a flick of her head, she elongated her fiery hair and swung it around herself like a burning spiral. The swirl of hot air deflected a few of the bombs away from hitting her directly, to crash into the wall behind her instead. The ensuing bursts of flame still partially engulfed her, but they weren’t hot enough to overcome her heat resistance. The forceful explosions and the abundant amount of fire didn’t seem good for the concrete, however.

“This is so not going to hold,” she commented half to herself and half to Kaida. Since the Monster wielded fire, she didn’t know if her own would work against it. But since it was surrounded, any attack of hers might distract it enough for her allies to get a hit in. Taking a step forward, she thrust out one hand and shot a narrow jet of fire directly at the demon’s head. The Monster was taller than any of her allies, so if the attack was dodged, it would hit the ceiling with little risk of collateral damage.