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
➜ CHARACTER COMPLAINTS
➜ ACTIVITY CHECK
➜ PLOTTING 101
➜ AGING IN PARADISA

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.

PLOTS ON THE BURNER

[teeff]

So, I always have a few plots waiting in the wings, and I’d like to judge player interest in them, and listen to players comments on them and so on. So the ones I have that I’m working on right now are:

Jumangi Yes THAT JUMANGI. If you haven’t seen it (it must have been nice, living under that rock) basically a magic board game attached to a jungle world brings things FROM that jungle world into the real world with every roll of the dice. Characters would have to deal with monsoons, stampedes and psychotic hunters to name but a few. I’m still working on trying to make the ‘player’ aspect of this plot more accessible to Paradisa at large, as each action does require the roll of a dice. SUGGESTIONS ARE WELCOME!

Sky High - Based on that movie. A high school plot with super powers! Characters would become teenagers (or remain as adults and teach) and get super powers. I’m hesitant with this one because I think we have a Hogwarts plot that’s been submitted, so if this one does go down it’ll be a while off.

Powered and depowered - Residents with powers will wake up to find their powers have gone, Not only that, but residents who DON’T have powers will suddenly find they have the powers their fellow residents once had. I remember hearing that players wanted a way to encourage others to train and learn new skills and the like, and I thought this might be a good way to try it out. The residents who have just lost their powers will have to train others how to use them, and in turn they will need to learn how to deal without powers from the residents who are used to not having powers. There could be a monster or a world change to add to this, to create the urgency in learning these skills, hopefully encouraging characters and players to learn more skills and develop their characters this way in the future. We could even have fighting skills and the like swapped. ALL THE COMMENTS FOREVER ON YAYS OR NAYS OR THE LIKE.

How to Train your Dragon
Based on that dragon movie. Characters would reside in the land of Berk, where they can have Viking-y adventures. Some may even become dragon trainers. STILL ON THE FENCE ABOUT THIS ONE I JUST LIKE DRAGONS.

Any comments at all you guys have on these, I'd love to hear them!

[wilder]

Ohohoho. I love the sound of Jumangi or the Powered and Depowered one.

Also Dragon one because. dragons.

[uncurse]

I'm really really interested in the Jumanji idea. Both Shana (Hook's player) and I play in a game that uses OOC dice-rolling as an imperative for all IC actions, and it works surprisingly smoothly, so we'd probably be able to assist you in working out the kinks of that element if you'd like.

I think it'd benefit from people establishing large groups and assigning a mod or helper to each group to move them through events to a degree?

But yeah in general +1358908 to Jumanji idea do want.

[gentleidealist]

Holy hell I love all of these. The potential for the CR in the power swapping is great. I've seen Sky High and HTTYD, and. Dragons. Oh my god. Jumanji gave me nightmares as a kid but it's still a fun movie lmao.

If you want help with any of these I can try idk. IT HELPS TO HAVE SOMEONE WHO IS FAMILIAR??? ISH??? I'd have to rewatch Jumanji tho.

Re: PLOTS ON THE BURNER

[lupinotuum]

... I really like the Sky High and the HTTYD one. But a mention of a HOGWARTS PLOT.
YES PLEASE.

[spongetastic]

Yes on Jumangi!! Didn't we have a jungle plot way~ back in the day? The older residents who actually remember it can go "OMG NOT AGAIN" or something.

Re: PLOTS ON THE BURNER

[gottaknockhard]

I love the Jumanji and powers/depowers ideas! Especially the second, because I've been curious how that would go for ages and it could create some great CR (especially if they were paired off or some such.)

Actually I'd like the Sky High one too, just for selfish reasons of wanting to use my teenager icons again. :T

Good thoughts! I hope to see one of these. :)

[not_mafia]

DRAGONS

and the powered/depowered plot, both of these sound super snazzy

[heloise]

THE POWER PLOT. It sounds awesome, and yay for the enemy fast approaching part of it too!!

[therealrisette]

+ 1 yay on the powered/depowered plot! Not that Rise really has much for powers in the first place... but it'd be fun to play if she lost them just when they become useful in some way...

Really, all of these sound like they could be fun! ♥

[lord_wizard]

That power swap plot is pretty much exactly something I was considering last year. DAMMIT TF GET OUT OF MY HEAD X|

Just kidding, I love you.

But no really, I like the idea. One of the reasons I dropped it was some logistical issues that you'd maybe want to consider/work around:

- How will people know who they've been swapped with? If not paired, some powers can't be used without any intent or training, and it may not even be obvious to them. Pairing people eliminates this problem, maybe?

- A fight will give people a change or reason to use powers, but less reasons to train them beforehand unless the problem is pervasive or they have a clue that it might be coming.

- Powered people are kind of used to being unpowered by world changes/DZ travel. Would this be as much for for them?

...probably more but those are the big ones. Hopefully that helps.

[cyan_maid]

All of these plots sound great to me! The Jumanji one especially, though I'm not sure how the player aspect could be made to work. Perhaps if everyone was divided into teams for rolling the dice, or the game itself was localized to a few people? Because if we had everybody in the castle roll, it would be overrrun before everyone could have one turn. With the spontaneous changes, though, everyone could get involved with dealing with them.

[uncurse]

The Event Horizon plot was really cool and I'm forever sad that I wasn't here for it but I loved stalking it. I'm really looking forward to the Jurassic Park plot being similarly awesome.

In general, idk if I'm the only one, but I have a huge preference towards those plots where there's room for characters and players to influence things and really DO something as opposed to curse/loss-type plots where it's just a wait it out kind of deal, and so it's good to see Paradisa introducing those types because I know when I left last time it had a huge preference towards the wait-it-out kind of plots. (I hope that distinction makes sense akglrsjg.)

[wilder]

I still want an Angry Birds plot where some residents take some eggs they find on an expedition, and then have to face the wrath of attacking projectile birds out for revenge.

Come on, it can totally work.

...

I'd also settle for a Plants vs. Zombies plot.

[unnaturalpause]

You know I'm pretty sure we could find a couple people to take some eggs if we did that. COUGHJamesCOUGH.

EXPEDITIONS

[encryptedlock]

Now that we have a more detailed map available to the general public (thanks Zelos!) and hopefully we can get some vehicles to help us out, I know I for one would definitely like to see some more exploring going on. One of the big complaints with expeditions is the time needed to get anywhere we haven't already been, which is why I've had York try and help with this problem.

Obviously I like these and don't have a problem running them, but if there's anyone else who has any ideas or wants to run one that would be lovely as well. Places I'd like to visit or see visited include:

-Winchester and Fairfield: the villages from the Old West plot, this would be a good destination since they're actually quite close to the powered zone. Basically just to check them out, no specific goals in mind.

-New York City: Obviously York is burning to visit this one. If the ships from the pirate plot are still chilling in that big lake that could get us a pretty long way fairly quickly.

Where else would you guys like to go? Any ideas?

[pint_sized_carnivore]

Always up for an expedition. Count me in! But New York City, like modern NYC? Are they gonna go to a different dimension and be transported to modern day NYC?

[waterproofed]

Percy wants to go check up on L.A., NYC and Camp Half-blood since they are personal to him. He also has three smaller boats they can use, and plans for a sailing vessel from the giraffes. So basically I am all for this idea :D

[lord_wizard]

I certainly don't mind revisiting those locations (especially since I didn't get to play with them originally). It may do a lot to iron out more about the world plot in general. However I have a larger preference for checking out new places. I know it may actually be impossible, but both ICly (as far as Felix is concerned) and OOCly, I'd really like to learn more about that other castle, Ivara, even if it's just as far as checking out the barrier. I mean, I'd like to find out where the other castles are, but this is the one we know about.

Other than that, man, just throw a dart at the map and see where it takes us.

Re: EXPEDITIONS

[thraxios]

WHAT IF while they're on an expedition, they come across a huge, beautiful mission-style estate right when they're getting too tired to go on any longer. There, they're met by a beautiful woman carrying a lantern and welcoming them inside.

Obviously, if you have the option of sleeping in a bed versus a tent, you're gonna pick a bed, right? So at least some of the party goes in and is led down one torchlit corridor and another, each given rooms by their mysterious, smiling hostess, who won't answer questions about why it sounds like someone's whispering just beyond view.

The rooms are pleasantly furnished, if a little tacky (I mean seriously, mirrors on the ceiling?), but there's prompt room service from a man called "the Captain", and all the other denizens of the hotel seem to be having a great time dancing the night away. So maybe some people tuck in for the night, and others get some fancy drinks (pink champagne on the rocks, delish) and have a swingin' good time. And maybe a few, who have hairs pricking up on the back of their necks, go looking for the source of the low, quiet, disembodied voices they think they hear.

And sometime after midnight, it turns sour. There's a hellbeast to be reckoned with, howling in the woman's bedroom, but nobody's stabbing at it with their steely knives--instead they seem intent on feeding it some supper in the form of their new guests.

So it's time for our fellows to hie out of there, with the nightmen on their tails, and as they leave, like a crack of thunder across the broad, dark sky, comes the second-greatest long outro you ever heard the best is "layla" I WILL FIGHT YOU ON THIS.

Also maybe the woman who greets them in the doorway is La Llorona, because hey, creepy.

That's it that's the idea.

REALLY ROUGH PLOT IDEAS HERE

[heloise]

I haven't had time to research/think these through but it would be great to gauge people's interest and what they'd want to see if we were to do these here plots?

FINAL FANTASY IX WORLD CHANGE PLOT
I'm thinking we can either do it just in Lindbulm before the Festival of the Hunt or let characters spread around in a few cities and react to events when the Mist momentarily disappeared (before coming back with a vengeance!). This would probably be more of a lighthearted and action-y plot with characters turned into one of the Gaia races. Oglops anyone?

ROME/FLORENCE WORLD CHANGE
Can be modern time or renaissance time ;) I can have it revolve around an event so players have something to do, maybe Christmas in Rome or the Carnevale in Florence or the Jubilee in Rome! If it's oldies/renaissance time then I might be able to mix in some politicking or threat of war to spice things up. Any preferences and suggestions would be great!

[therealrisette]

I've been saying this on Plurk a bit already, but I'm really interested in both of these! I don't really know what else to say for details, but yes. Want. :3

Trials!

[thraxios]

Okay, so. Here's something Pel and I have been throwing around while sitting around in diners, and I'd like to see if it's something other people would be interested in.

The Trials of Heth-Eskaladen (generally just referred to as the Trials) are a religious holiday, sort of the equivalent of a Leap Year's/New Year's celebration, in Mélusine in the Doctrine of Labyrinths books. They occur over a five-day period in the equivalent of mid-September in our world and are a big celebration for the Lower City. (The upper echelons don't celebrate because, to quote Monette, "too, too plebeian, darling." Lol.)

Our idea is to bring the Trials to Paradisa sometime in the fall (exact timing is not important, lol). There'd be two main components, so that players could choose to involve their characters in fluffy funtimes, darker horrortimes, or ignore them entirely.

Fluffy funtimes would be the actual Trials celebration. What we know from the books is that one of the major entertainments is a curtain maze you can walk through. We'd plan to port in other entertainments common to festivals during the Elizabethan era, such as plays (morality and otherwise), food, dancing, maybe a bonfire. You get the idea.

Darker horrortimes would be the presence of a serious business maze, a full-on fucking labyrinth akin to the one that Felix, Mildmay, and Mehitabel walk in The Virtu. It's creepy as shit and full of mikkary, booby-traps, and general unpleasantness. (For instance, there's a point in The Virtu where Mildmay can hear his brutally murdered girlfriend calling to him from just beyond a stone wall. Without Felix and Tabby there to pull him away, he would have been there 'til his fingers bled and he starved to death, trying to get to her. Needless to say, that would be coming along with this maze, lol.) And there's something in the center that has to be dealt with. Characters would have to walk the labyrinth and lay the thing in the center to rest.

And since none of this would be a full-on immersive experience (just out on the grounds close to the castle), it would be completely avoidable if your character wants to skip it.

We don't have anything solid written up, but it's definitely something that's been percolating, as evidenced by all this tl;dr. SORRY IT'S SO LONG LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK

Old Vegas World change

[lord_wizard]

I've brought this up before but haven't had much time to develop what is basically a reconstruction of Vegas as it was in the early 50's (I have a whole folder of reference sites and nothing else). Outside of that task, I've been going back and forth on the idea of whether or not to include a plot. The older world changes had them, though I never experienced them myself, and I tend to enjoy plots with a bit more structure as opposed to a total sandbox. A sandbox, however, would be easier to run.

For a plot though, I'm just not sure what it would be or how to run it outside of it vaguely involving the residents in opposition to the mafia. It could be partially avoidable for those that want a more casual experience, but given that, how to make people participate at all?

Input? Help? Suggestions?