Zeroth

FT | The Sky And The Earth

Anybody else feel their sins crawling on their back?

FT | The Sky And The Earth

@Zeroth Hey, Sunny's been in the guild for a year or so, so I guess Travis and him would know each other fairly well?

@GrafRoy Zeppeli

Sounds good to me. Would they have joined around the same time, then?

FT | The Sky And The Earth

Hey, would anyone be interested in discussing potential character dynamics/ history? Such as history, friendships, of partners in our own guild or rivals from the opposing guild?

@KiltmanBagz

Sure.

Travis has been in Golem's Hand for about a year now, and anyone who spent time with him would probably notice the following:

He doesn't talk about his history prior to joining the guild. There are a few bits of his known backstory that stand out as being a little odd. He's more interested in talking to people around him, and learning their opinions. He has childish curiosity, always asking questions. He often offers to join teams but never tries to lead one; despite wanting to work with others, he doesn't display much teamwork. Every once in a while he'll throw a tantrum, and when he does he'll leave without warning and go somewhere to "vent" by himself. He always comes back with a gloomy expression, but the next day is back to his old self.

Question: When we get started how would you guys like to open up the RP?

@Vongola_Hasayo

Festival for Golem's Hand sounds nice as a mixer, but unless something big happens (a brawl between the rivals, a purse thief taking advantage of the crowds) to involve the players or kick off some kind of introductory arc it seems kind of like filler, imho. I wouldn't suggest a tournament though, because they tend to last forever and we'll probably want to have a better sense of our characters/improve their magic a little before we do that.

If you just start with just a general description of the goings-on at the two guilds, perhaps include information on what posters are already up on the mission boards, rather than waiting until after everyone's done waking up, introducing themselves, and walking to the bar to say to themselves "gee i wonder what missions are up." That way there's a little more initiative for players to take on their own besides just the aforementioned wake-up/intros and small talk.

Rei's gonna be broody mc brooder in some dark corner of Golem's hand or out.

@Inertia

Sunny will be sleeping somewhere in the guild.

@GrafRoy Zeppeli

And Travis will ruin everything for everyone by attempting to toboggan down the staircase on his Lagombi-belly! o/

FT | The Sky And The Earth

Makes me wonder, you think there's gonna be cross relationships between the guilds :o

@Inertia

And betray these bonds of MUSCLE? Never!

FT | The Sky And The Earth

Typical, all the cute girls are gonna be in Harpy's Wing.

Fine, we'll just be over here in Golem's Hand being MANLY. EVERYBODY FLEX!

FT | The Sky And The Earth

@Zeroth I still wished I got to Beast Soul first (or again in my case, Kaiju Soul). Maybe when we can make more characters, I might introduce my said character I wanted to use.

Also MAJOR kudos to having the MH monsters. Mine will have them too plus an extra ;)

@Lmpkio

No offense but Kaiju Soul sounds like something that'd be way overpowered, especially in Full Body Takeover.

I thought MonHun would be fitting, considering Mashima is a huge fan of it and even wrote another, short-lived manga about it. He even tends to take cues from their designs whenever he puts some kind of big beast in Fairy Tail--several of the Grand Magic Games monsters and the beasts on Tenrou Island had some MonHun influence, if you look closely at them.

FT | The Sky And The Earth

All excellent suggestions! But I meant about the transportation subject lol. Most of what you mentioned is a given. I know I said I wasn't that experienced in running an RP but I know that much ^.^; Thanks all the same though~
@Zeroth

@Vongola_Hasayo

Ah, sorry then. Probably sounded pompous.

As far as transportation goes everything you said seems fine to me. The trains will probably save plenty of time assuming more missions will start in/near a town instead of requiring people to head directly into whatever dangerous environments.

Those magic carts like Erza drove that one time would help to, but whoever used those might be out of magic power by the time they actually got to the mission objective.

FT | The Sky And The Earth

Mission boards will be filled by both myself as well as Co-GMs and player suggestion.

Transportation? That I didn't think about. Well, now is as good as any. I suppose there would be multiple ways of getting in and out. Man made underground passage ways with stairs from the early days of the settlement, maintained and updated over time. Gondola lifts as a more convenient option. There are functional streets but navigating the Waterways may be a faster way to reach your destination so boats are quite abundant. Maybe at least one or two train routes running through. Hmm...if you have any other suggestions feel free.
@Zeroth

@Vongola_Hasayo

As far as facilitating the missions themselves go and not just jumping into outright world building, all I've got for suggestions is this:

Give as much info as possible through the actual quest poster/letter/etc, so that tracking down the NPC who asked for the job and shooting the breeze for an hour isn't a necessity. That tends to slow things down and, unless it's going to be an entire arc, usually doesn't result in learning anything.

New towns and any "Named Enemy NPCs" might be better off as bare bones. Compared to the actual CS, all the info we'd need on a non-recurring NPC is a Name, their Magic, and maybe a short blurb of backstory like "Leader of the Thief Guild Robbing Hoods, known for eccentric behavior centering around song and dance and wearing tights."

These first few "flavor of the week" missions serve the purpose of everyone getting to know their characters and each others', right? Only problem is, because there's no real driving force of plot, it's easy for an RP to fall flat or be really boring and slow during this phase. So anything to expedite that is a plus in my book.

It's your RP though, you run it how you want. I'm just throwing out ideas and observations.

The Jade Stream

"Talent is worthwhile regardless of virtue, Miss Kyang." Dai Xin said plainly. "The study of fighting is as the study of sciences and the arts. It must always be pushed further and refined." He walked over to the other bandits--the dead ones--and began nonchalantly dragging the corpses to the center of the clearing.

"You need not worry about the bounty, Miss Kyang." Though, like always, he hadn't reacted much to her accusations, he did seem somewhat concerned about her state of distress over their "job." He picked up one of the bandits by a leg, holding him up like a cat that has slain a mouse. "There are seven here, and I am sure master Fengxian has kept a careful eye on the live one. He can give us more information. The rest of them we can drag back to the magistrate's office."

He looked over at Torako, who seemed to seethe with her barely constrained killing intent now. As he had thought, she was much stronger than first glance might suggest.

"Miss Torako, where is master Fengxian by the way? I saw him hit with an arrow, but the wound did not appear fatal. Still, perhaps we should check on him?"

FT | The Sky And The Earth

So @Vongola_Hasayo, do you already have all the missions planned out, or will that be partially up to player suggestion? And if you don't mind me asking tons of questions about the setting:

Since it's surrounded by a lake and--from the pic anyway--seems to be set below sea/water level, what are the forms of transportation used to get in and out of this town? I tend to find one of the big hangups of any RP where characters are sent on missions--as part of a guild, or a mercenary unit, or secret agents, whatever--is that actually getting to the spot where your mission takes place can become a real time sink, especially in fantasy worlds where you wander from "idyllic green plains" to "murderous volcano super death fire mountain" over the course of days LoTR style.

So are there trains (FT-verse definitely has them) or boats that travel swiftly across the water and then the land beyond it? Do people have their own boats to get around town Venice style? Airships? Teleportation magic seems like it'd be a little too convenient though.