HOW'S THE GAME?

[paradisamods]

It's time for another round of Game Discussion, also known as

HOW'S THE GAME?

Here we come together to discuss the game, its plots, the settings, and just about anything we can think of that we'd like to talk about, expand upon, improve, change, etc.

This is not an HMD for players and their characters; this should be about the game's function as a whole and not the people in it. If there is something you feel is absolutely necessary to address that involves a specific person, please IM a mod first to discuss it. We can be reached at valawie (Valerie), fan of todd (TF), or never die ftw (Ashley).

Anonymous will be on for this round. Sock journals are still allowed.

Please feel free to bring up any game-related topic you'd like to discuss. All topics will be linked in the main post.

➜ HOW'S THE STAFF
➜ ACTIVITY CHECK UPDATE
➜ THE LOST ROOM | CLARIFICATION
➜ PLOTTING 101
➜ INFORMATION REQUESTS

Comments

PLOTTING 101

[paradisamods]

As always, we'd like your feedback on any plots you'd like to see in the future. Perhaps you have an idea but don't know where to begin writing it up yourself, or maybe you have a question about something you'd like to try but aren't sure how it would work. If it's related to plots you'd like to see happen, it goes here.

We do have one request this round! As you may have noticed, we've had an increase in light-hearted and silly plots recently. We'd like to see some suggestions and ideas for less goofy plots, and more plots with action or perhaps that are darker in nature.

If you have an idea but don't want to run it yourself, bring it to us anyway and we will run it for you! The staff is always available to work with players in helping bring their ideas to life. Just let us know. :)

Fatal Frame

[spongetastic]

Okay I know I keep bringing this up every HTG, but I've been working on the plot details again recently. I've had people express interest in a Fatal Frame III type thing, but I honestly know nothing about that game. The plot I've been outlining centers around the events of Fatal Frame II.

I guess what I'm getting at is if someone is as interested in this plot as I am but wants elements of III, please PM me so we can work on it together. I am willing to do NPC work and OOC plot posts but obviously can't do that on a game I've never played.

[frisky]

Fatal Frame is one of my favorite horror games, so I would definitely back you on your making this happen. By all means, write it how you want it, because you will be doing all the heavy lifting, it seems.

Re: Fatal Frame

[heirofficium]

Which events did you have in mind? II is the only game I'm really familiar with, I can help you out however you need!

though jesus god i'm probably going to end up hating everything if it gets my fiction paranoia up again sob

[selfless]

OKAY SO.... I feel like you've been waiting on me this whole time, and I'm so sorry.

I submitted this plot summary, and that's the kind of plot I was envisioning running... But to be honest, months have passed since I submitted that plot, and I just don't have the time to run anything like that these days. So! I had this summary completely over to you. If you want to use any or none of these elements, go for it! Other than that, feel free to do whatever your heart tells you, sweetheart *^*

Gentlemen

[wilder]

I long ago submitted a plot request that I have no idea what happened to it, but essentially it was a suggestion to have the Gentleman from Buffy the Vampire Slayer come to Paradisa.

The big thing about the Gentleman for people who are canon blind is that they steal an entire town's voices, then take advantage of the mute community by cutting out the hearts of seven victims (that they feed on). The only way to kill the Gentlemen is the sound of a human voice screaming (and audio recordings don't work), so it's a race of finding how to kill them, a way to undo the voice spell and stopping them before they kill too many people.

I feel for a game that uses journals, this could be a really fun horror plot. People can play with communication without voices as well as hunt down monsters. They also have demon henchmen that fighty characters can fight. It's also was a one-shot episode, so people don't have to know ALL OF BUFFY to play in it and it can be very easily translatable.

I probably wouldn't want to run it myself, since I'm no good at running plots- but if people would be interested I think it could be a lot of fun? I can at the very least re-submit the design of the original plot if it's been lost in the LJ move.

Re: Gentlemen

[cyan_maid]

I dunno about running it myself but I am definitely interested. Shit, I remember the Gentlemen.

[therealrisette]

I remember this episode! Sounds interesting to me.

(Even though poor Rise would probably end up seriously bothered by it. If not dead. ^_^;)

[frisky]

If you would like to write it up, I would definitely be interested in seeing it being put into action. I am a huge fan of Buffy and this was one of my favorite episodes because it was just simply creepy and a different way to solve a problem rather than "beat 'em up", which is definitely something that would be fun in Paradisa, I think!

[luthored]

+1ing this! You know I'm the hugest Buffy fan, and would love to help you out on this any way I can, for plotting or NPCs or what have you. Generally though I will just be clapping my hands in glee.

Re: Gentlemen

[heloise]

YES THIS. Depending on the timing, I'd be glad to help too.

Jurassic Park?

[tapshoetomove]

I'm not entirely sure how world change events would work, but I've been thinking about a Jurassic Park event for a while now.

[paradisamods]

We had a Jurassic Park plot years ago. But we do have a Lost World plot in the works! So watch this space.

Imscared

[sinsoftheblaze]

I've been kicking around a horror plot idea based on an indie horror game called Imscared (or I'm Scared, if you want the more grammatically correct way of spelling it).

Basically the gist of the game is that the player is plonked into what appears to be a game made by an novice after reading an introduction that apologises for any glitches/bugs/what have you that will eventually crop up. The game itself doesn't appear to be all that scary - fake, pixelated blood, dark rooms, and creepy music that doesn't even last for a minute - and the game crashes after you run into a floating skull called White Face.

But the game's introductory text mentions that more files will appear when the game crashes and then you start finding texts that talk about entities becoming data. Apparently a glitch has taken a life of it's own and has infected the player's computer....

Basically what can happen for Paradisa is that, at first, a blackout can happen and aside from that everything is fine and dandy, but then 'glitches' in the castle start to appear. Things like doors leading to the wrong place, appliances malfunctioning, floors disappearing and dropping characters to the next floor, people being able to pass through the walls, ect. Even characters who are robots/AIs/ect can start to glitch up too if the mun wants.

Eventually sentences start to appear on the walls and floor: "I'm scared.", "Forgive me.", "I didn't want to do it.". Characters can start to find files that talk about glitches taking life of their own and warn that static predicts 'its' arrival. It's at this point that White Face (this thing begins to appear). Characters who run into him will disappear and it becomes a race to find out how to get rid of this glitch before it gets everyone in the castle.

I don't have an ending set in stone (although I do have an idea for what happens to characters who are caught by White Face). Would anyone be interested in a plot like this?

castle invasion (possibly SH-related?)

[asseenontv]

So I haven't proposed this because I never got around to working out the details, but I noticed most of the horror plots last year were either psychological or character versus character, which doesn't work so well for characters who like stabbing monsters in the face until dead.

I hadn't quite decided what the monsters should be, as I don't know enough of the world plot to pick something fitting. But basically, a range of sizes/toughnesses (so that a Badass Normal with a gun can pick some of them off while the superpeople are wrestling the giant in the background), LOTS OF THEM, and not a world change, because having things attack where you and your friends and your stuff all live is a lot more threatening than having it happen some random place you don't care about.

I mostly considered the Silent Hill element because if you think of it as a sort-of-world-change - basically, not actually Silent Hill the down, just having the Castle and surrounding areas get Silent-Hillified, it gives somewhere for monsters to come from, and having the SH-Castle exist at the same time as the normal Castle gives people an easy opt-out.

idk, I AM OPEN TO SUGGESTIONS HERE. Basically Shatterstar likes violence and has no outlet here :(

Re: castle invasion (possibly SH-related?)

[luxe_can_kill]

I'm interested, but I'm not familiar with Silent Hill much to suggest anything XD;

Re: castle invasion (possibly SH-related?)

[savethedarkness]

I know that waaaay back before I arrived there was a Silent Hill plot, but yes, monsterkilling is always good. I think the last thing we had remotely like that was one Halloween, when there was a zombie infestation ... and of course, the spider plot, but those were both a couple years ago, so we're due for another opportunity for gratuitous violence.

Re: castle invasion (possibly SH-related?)

[the_effect_she_has]

Zombies. I always vote zombies.

Shadows??

[foolreversed]

This... just kind of hit me now and I haven't brought it up to castmates yet but I do kinda want to see if there's any interest at all before even considering it.

Basically back when we had a P4 cast before we were all trying to figure out how to do a plot with P4-like Shadows. It got put on the backburner when it was only me and Mimi's Nanako left, because there wasn't much point in doing it with only Adachi around to understand what was happening (he'd probably just encourage it). Now the cast is growing again, so it might be more feasible.

I'll keep this explanation as brief and simple as I possibly can since like I said, I only want to see if there's any interest in it, but basically if you're familiar with psychology (specifically Jung) this will sound kind of familiar to you. Basically a Shadow is everything you deny or dislike about yourself and try to hide from others. All the ugly issues and thoughts you don't want people to see/hear. They are HIGHLY exaggerated and often over the top, but eventually there is a sincere moment out of them. When denied they go berserk and try to kill their host. This is a really good example, although it's not one of the really ridiculous ones. The more ridiculous ones often come with costumes, like a princess or mad scientist or stripper (or a mostly naked boy...) Here's one of the more ridiculous ones if you're curious.

Facing your Shadow, accepting it as a part of you and overcoming your problems in P4 grants the person great power (a Persona) and also allows them to deal with their issues. While the persona part will probably be absent in an actual plot, it might be useful for some characters with various baggage. It's a bit darker of an idea, but not exactly horror, and it's often pretty fun to come up with the Shadows themselves.

Just to make it clear though, Shadows are not evil twins. They're just the stuff you don't want people to see or say/admit out loud, amplified by 9 and then put on display for eeeeveryone to see. Also, as a rule children generally do not have Shadows because their minds are still developing.

Like I said, just curious about the general interest for such a plot, no actual concrete plans yet for anything dfkjhfhdjk.

edit: alternatively we can do something similar to the idea of Jungian Shadows but take out more of the P4 elements so it's more canon-blind friendly!

Re: Shadows??

[luxe_can_kill]

I'm interested. There is no Shadow Mitsuru (unless you count the one in Arena, which... is not), so this would be interesting to see imo.

This would also be a good reason to form the Shadow Operatives >8)

Re: PLOTTING 101

[luxe_can_kill]

Well, I have thought of an "invasion" plot. *le shrug*

Since this world is connected to multiple others, I thought there has to be at least one of those worlds who have known about Paradisa and would be interested in it's wish granting power, and plans to invade the other worlds the residents came from after they are done.

I thought those who don't want to get involved in the plot much could get captured and brought to the enemies' base somewhere in the continent. So some of the castle residents could organize a rescue team, while the rest fight the invaders or retake the castle/town if the enemies successfully flushes them out.

Anyway, I thought this plot could be a mystery too. I thought of making the residents guess as to who these invaders are, what do they really want? Where did they came from? How did they find out about Paradisa? What were they doing to the captured townsfolk? I also want to portray these invaders as human, with lives back home and they're only doing their jobs.

I don't know, it's been in my head for a while. You're welcome to say what you think.

Neverending Story

[gottaknockhard]

I've been thinking about this movie lately and how it'd be fun to play around with in game, so this is a vague idea! I'd love to see if there was interest in this and if it's worth fleshing out into a plot. :)

Basically, the plot will revolve around characters who are becoming apathetic to the world, going home, or basically content with the way things are. In the Neverending Story, the main crisis that they faced was a force called "the nothing" that was destroying the fantasy world that existed in a book being read by a young boy. Eventually the boy learns that he can affect the outcome, and their stories are tied together.

The plot idea is that "the nothing" would first begin to work on the journals -- pages begin to turn blank (only for the course of the plot), and as the slowly get erased into the present, it would be like the events of the past didn't happen. Then it begins to have an effect the real world around them, and those that became aware would need to figure out a way to stop from fading into non-existence.

I'm still trying to think of how it would be resolved, but the goal would be to show the consequences of apathy and give them the impression that their existence makes a difference in the world. Also, the Neverending Story has a ton of cool concepts and fantasy elements that could be brought in, depending on how many plot devices were needed.

Just an idea, but let me know if it's worth exploring!

The Lost Vikings

[molotov]

My Internet is out right now, and I can't really type up an entire plot on my phone, but Odell and I have been tossing around a plot based on the song "The Lost Vikings". Basically, it's a world change that strands the residents in a world of snow and forest - their goal is find and win a battle against a rival tribe. The only problem is that they're very lost, and too proud to ask for help (not that there's much help to be found in a frozen wasteland anyway). There would be openings for NPCs, and the opt-out is simply that your character isn't a Viking warrior, so they stayed in the village. Yay for huts!

Again, I'm typing this from a phone, and it's just something we were kicking around, but it's an action-y idea all the same.

Re: PLOTTING 101

[the_effect_she_has]

Are we going to do anything with the map and the information they found at Lostlook? Because I would love to dive into that.

Toon Town

[heliotroping]

I have literally been sitting on this idea for years but I've never been able to work out details.

Basically Who Framed Roger Rabbit styled, cartoons mixed in the real world. Alternatively Space Jam? Where if you choose to let your character become a cartoon, they could get all the gratuitous violence but not actually get hurt.