Vilageidiotx

WHO WANTS TO BE MAH BFF

Ooooh, we gonna see some deductive investigation up in this mutha.

WHO WANTS TO BE MAH BFF

You kill Broby, and through this act you will become more powerful in your friendships than he ever could have been.

It is the circle of life. The mosquito drinks the blood, the bat eats the mosquito, the bat shits on an island, the United States acquires the island in order to mine the bat shit for some reason, and the mosquitoes prey on the sailors. At the end of this circle, or perhaps at its radius because it is a circle and has no end, lays the truth that killing Broby is the secret to friendship.

Precipice of War - We Write Under The Sign Of The Goat

Speaking of, historical post vandalism is a growing concern that I'll be able to address with my almost-finished post-history system. Imagine going back to a roleplay you poured many months into just to find out that one of the key characters simply vanished because they vandalized their posts.

At least with a post-history system, if someone vandalizes their posts, I can trivially execute a query like "revert all of foobar's edits made after 15 min ago".

Mahz's Dev Journal

Uh-oh Hugs, looks like Potato will become illegal.

Guild secret talents

I am especially good at not sleeping.

I, Arabicus: An alternate history RP set in Late Antiquity

Mercenary Army app

Leader Name:
Sigbjörn "Bláserkr" Ivarsson

Faction Name:
The Blue-Shirt Army (Old Norse: Bláserka Hirð)

Map Province:
Currently in Diocesis Pontica, scouting for employment opportunities and trading

History/Bio:
The Norse peoples first entered into history following their numerous raids across the North and Baltic Seas. Taking advantage of the chaotic state that the Huns and migrations of Germanic peoples had left the region in. Though Frisia and Britannia had been common targets, a favorite was the Baltic, which was now grealy weak and in complete uproar after the migration period. Various Swedish tribes took advantage of this weakness to begin raiding and colonizing the Baltic Coast, gaining access to the complex river system that let the explorers travel further inland, and opening up direct trade routs with the Roman Empire via the Daugava and Dneiper Rivers leading to the Black Sea.

Trade has Made Sweden one of the Dominant Powers in Scandinavia, alongside Denmark to its south; but while Denmark trades with and raids the West, Sweden looks east to the Rivers leading it to Rome. A particularly powerful tribe being the Rus, who have begun extensive trading missions from the Baltic, selling their goods and their services as mercenaries. One of these mercenary bands are the Blue-Shirts, known as the Bláserka Hirð, or simply the Bláserkar in their own language. Founded by the nobleman Ivar Blueshirt of Sweden, this band of mercenaries, around 3-4 thousand strong on average, consisted of Ivar's most trusted companions, including his own son, Sigbjörn. Well known among the kings of Europe, the Blue Shirts have earned their reputation as fearsome warriors and well trained soldiers, who are worth their price to hire.

With the death of Ivar only 11 years ago, Sigbjörn has taken control of his father's land and titles, including the constituents of the Blue-Shirt army, who currently spend most of their time in the Baltic at home, tending to their farms and trades until a call is made to them for employment.

@Nerevarine

I am so sorry for not commenting on this, I just noticed when I was going back to pick up player information for the OP that I had missed this.

Anyway, The Swedes and the Danes does not mean Sweden and Denmark, since the latter terms suggest unified monarchies. I know it is confusing because I marked some Kingdoms with tribal names ("Franks should be Francia or Frankish Kingdom, Visigoths should be Visigothia or Visigothic Kingdom). I should probably go back and redo the labels on the map to be more clear.

But anyway, The Swedes and Danes would not be unified Kingdoms quite yet, but rather petty kingdoms and tribal states. This doesn't preclude them from going about being precocious Vikings, as the Vikings of our world were not quite unified yet when they went a'raiding. That is a minor thing and everything else looks acceptable.

Also, I am finishing up the OP's and should have everything up sometime tomorrow. Everybody who has posted apps so far are accepted, just make sure to repost your apps in the character section of the main thread.

I, Arabicus: An alternate history RP set in Late Antiquity

It's more like Mosques were built to look like Roman churches, whereas the west adopted a more Gothic style of Church building.

I swear I recall the map extending across continental europe.

S'ppose twas just me imagining' things again.

Now where to learn about this corner of the world? All my medieval audiobooks I found all centers in northern and Western Europe. All I know about this place is the Christian Egyptians and the massive mosque the Byzantines- I mean romans- built.

@Nilesapa

The History of Rome

This played a part in why I wanted to do a Roman RP in the first place. Back last fall, I started to listen to these while I was at work. It's an amazing overview that everybody should listen to if they call themselves history fans, and covers everything up to the fall of the Western Empire. There is a continuation of it done by somebody else about the Byzantines, but I haven't listened to it so I cannot say anything about it.

Count Belisarius

This is what I am reading right now (albeit in text format, so I didn't spend no twenty bucks =p. If you can find this at the library, that would be great). Pretty good overview, the narrator explains a lot of the small cultural details of the time, like the religious differences.

In God's Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire

Admittedly, this one forms the foundation of what I know about the rise of Islam. It wasn't a subject I had much knowledge in at all until this year. Pretty good overview of the events that caused it all to happen.

What's the attraction in Sandbox roleplays?

I would like to talk about the issue of the lack of an ending in sandbox roleplays, as @Ether mentioned. I could see the concern that a roleplay without an end point could make things fizzle out due to there not being an end in sight.

One solution I have seen elsewhere is to break up the roleplay into "seasons". These chunks allow players to wrap up whatever they are doing so that there would be some sense of closure until the next "season" starts back up again. Also, one other thing that help makes this work is that eventually there will be an overarching story arc that the GM/co-GMs cooked up. While not everyone is required to partake in the event, the event helps tie everything together at the end.

@Dedonus

This is going to depend on styles though. For me, something the GM cooks up that isn't through their character/faction will inevitable feel artificial and unnatural. I think which you prefer is going to depend entirely on your personality.

If a sandbox RP lives long enough, it will develop a story, but the story will grow out of cooperation and unpredictable sparks of creation rather than pre-planning.

What's the attraction in Sandbox roleplays?

<Snipped quote by Dinh AaronMk>

Have you, like, vowed to spread the good word of Precipice to all that may listen?

@Keyguyperson

Eh, for several of us that is our main RP, so we sort of compare everything to it.

I mean, this is the Roleplayers Guild, you sort of expect us to talk about our Roleplays a little bit.

I, Arabicus: An alternate history RP set in Late Antiquity

Just in case anybody needs it, here is the history that will go in the OP.

It is the year 634 AD, but events have not transpired in the way they did in our world. Urged on by his mysterious Aksumite wife, the General Stilicho overthrew Emperor Honorius and seized power for himself. A series of strong Germanic Emperors ruled in the 5th century, keeping the Western Empire together at the loss of Britain and Soissons.

Further losses would take place as the rising Barbarian Kings in Francia and Visigothia pushed their territorial rights whenever they saw weakness. When Emperor Remus died in battle against the Visigoths in 598, it looked as if the Western half of the Empire up to the Italian border would be lost in its entirety. A young nephew of Remus, Marcus Marcellus Priscus, was declared Emperor by his soldiers and proved his worth by pushing the Visigoths back in Hispania. He was crowned Emperor Marcellus, and the few feeble opposing claimants were assassinated before he reached Ravenna. When the old ruler of the Eastern Empire died childless, Marcellus moved to take control and proved himself again in a skirmish with the Sasanians. And so the Empire was unified.

The Sasanian threat grew larger when the Shahanshah Bozorgmehr made a shaky alliance with the White Huns. He had expected an exiled Roman prince in his court to be elevated in the Eastern Empire, and he saw the rise of Marcellus as a threat. Confident he could get the Eastern court to support his claimant, the Shahanshah invaded. Off and on wars between the two great powers followed, continuing for nearly thirty years and only ending when Bozorgmehr died. With his other sons lost on the battlefield, the Persian Empire came under control of a three year old boy, the new Shahanshah Mazdak.

In Constantinople, Marcellus split the Empire in two so that his son Flavius Marcellus Pulcher could rule the west and be prepared to control a unified Empire. Pulcher placed his capital in the young port city of Venice. In 630, German incursions through the alps became so intense that both father and son were called to fight on the border.

So when reports of increasing Saracen raids reached the Emperor, he decided to send his second son, Marcus Priscus Caesar, who would prematurely declare himself "Arabicus" before disappearing as his army was destroyed in the deserts of Syria.

Emperor Marcellus and his son, Emperor Pulcher, fight the Germans on the borders of Italy. The second Imperial son, the self-named "Arabicus", has went missing after a defeat, and an eight year old boy named Mazdak sits as Shahanshah of Persia. Blood on both sides have been spilled, and the borders of the two Empires are exhausted from thirty years of hard war. Will they be able to defend against the Saracen threat, or will the world's great civilizations fall to the Arabs and their strange new religion?

Crush my dreams!

You never will, because you are a butt.

I wish I may I wish I might.