Question 19

[Blaze1616 he/him]

All right, I'mma put my two cents in now. Apologies if my feedback is a bit erratic.

 

1) I am opposed to the idea of making new players adopt an Epic to start with. Like Coma, I believe one of the big draws to this game is the ability to write about the character that you want to write about. Think of all the best characters in the RP today, how many of them came from in-the-moment genius that inspired or directly created the character? All three of my main gals did, for example. Requiring new players to adopt a character as their first character will likely push them away and turn them off to the idea of playing. I'd like the RP be inclusive, rather than exclusive.

 

1.5) With that said, requiring adoption for a subsequent character is not a bad thing. Again there will be times where this could work against us, as people will get ideas for characters while writing the story (Corvallis ex: Broadcast, Skinsaver (I think), etc.), and so I believe that this rule should be a soft one, essentially one that we are willing to break if the idea being pitched is a good one.

 

2) Intro town. I like the idea, for sure, and considering the speed with which this RP moves, having them post a few times in an intro thread won't actually cause them to miss much. To make this work, though, the town needs to be outside of canon completely. If it's not, then we have to deal with time discrepancies for travel, the fact that none of the characters can start as having been established in the city already, and the issue of getting an outsider involved in important events. I feel we should leave the character's intro into a city up to the writer, so if they want to be a new arrival that's okay, and if they instead want their character to have been in the background this whole time that's okay too.

 

2.5) Epic of the Week leading the intro town could be difficult. That means that the owner of the EotW must be more active during their period of leader. It also means that when choosing an EotW, you're restricted to those who have the time to lead the intro thread. For example, let's say that Lightwards is the next EotW. That would require Kobold to become much more active that he currently is, because he needs to lead that intro thread in addition to being active in his actual threads. I definitely like the idea of a rotation, but perhaps make it more voluntary (considering there will be ups and downs to the rate of newcomers). 

 

3) High Epic/Powerful Epic restrictions; I like 'em. A lot.

 

4) Adoption, in general, I think is a good idea. In practice it's going to prove difficult. Different writers give different voices to each character, and the voice that a character's creator gave them will likely be different from the voice an adopter gives them. I feel we need a rule to encourage adoption over creation, but as I said in the beginning we shouldn't force adoption from the get go. In terms of doing my part, I'm considering using Gleeman's Mannequin for my own purposes here soon, if Corvallis folk are okay with it, potentially ToneDeath as well since he pairs with Broadcast nicely. As for ShatterShot, she sounds like an excellent victim for a villain if Corolla (was that her name?) isn't coming back. Shattershot is also an easy post to hide since she didn't interact with anyone. Speaking of hiding...

 

5) I personally feel we should only hide posts if they are completely self contained. In other words, if there is any little interaction with another player, it needs to stay. The last thing we want to do is make things confusing for people trying to read our threads (including future versions of ourselves). But when you've got posts like the single Shattershot post, hiding is likely the best option.

 

I don't think I missed anything. If I did I'll chime in later as well.

[Mestiv he/him]

I'm not a major player, but I think I'll sum up my opinions about matters discussed too:

 

1. Adopting Epics: should be encouraged, but not forced. Forcing people into some else's shoes will result in bad experience for this new player and in result for others too.

2. Tutorial Town: as I said before, I like to idea. It should be OOC to even let characters die there without consequence in other threads.

3. Epic of the Week: bad idea IMO. Judging by the current speed of the game it would be hard to find enough experienced players with sufficient time to make it work well.

4. Power restrictions: I like them. High Epics only for those who deserve them through enough roleplay.

5. Forcing Vanilla characters: That's far less restrictive rule than forcing adoption and I think requiring second character to be Vanilla is a good idea.

[Edgedancer he/him]

Mckeedee, so far I like what you're doing with the catacombs but I'd be interested in knowing what exactly is down there, especially that whole Echidna's spawn thing.

2) Intro town. I like the idea, for sure, and considering the speed with which this RP moves, having them post a few times in an intro thread won't actually cause them to miss much. To make this work, though, the town needs to be outside of canon completely. If it's not, then we have to deal with time discrepancies for travel, the fact that none of the characters can start as having been established in the city already, and the issue of getting an outsider involved in important events. I feel we should leave the character's intro into a city up to the writer, so if they want to be a new arrival that's okay, and if they instead want their character to have been in the background this whole time that's okay too.

 

2.5) Epic of the Week leading the intro town could be difficult. That means that the owner of the EotW must be more active during their period of leader. It also means that when choosing an EotW, you're restricted to those who have the time to lead the intro thread. For example, let's say that Lightwards is the next EotW. That would require Kobold to become much more active that he currently is, because he needs to lead that intro thread in addition to being active in his actual threads. I definitely like the idea of a rotation, but perhaps make it more voluntary (considering there will be ups and downs to the rate of newcomers). 

I definetly agree that the intro should be non-canon, I'm not even sure if the intro should necessarily take place in a town nor always the same one, instead of something more suited to the character in question. (Although having some kind of routine/fallback would certainly help.

 

True, I imagine there are a couple of people around that wouldn't have the time to take care of a newbie as well or just something coming up IRL.

 

On another note, on what criteria should we base the intro on? Amount of posts, word count, time or a mix of those?

[Citadel16 he/him]

I am, personally, conflicted about his subject.

 

I like to be creative. I like to develop a plot, kill off characters, make you cry, make you laugh etc etc. and that sometimes requires room for certain amounts of creativity. earlier someone commented on how I had made five high epics (its actually 3, or four if you count Harkness, Stormeggeddon has no defensive abilities and lives in Canada-ish area.) which I could argue that they are in Astoria, a place that already ignores canon. but I ALSO see the problem with having too many High epics. so I am a bit conflicted.

 

Another thing I should note: if we made more epics foreign to the country,  then that might explain why there are so many of them.

 

does anyone know the epic population ratios?

 

also another idea I had for the restriction rules was that each RPer can have one (this amount is arguable) high epic amongst the Entire RP. then a certain amount of lesser epics, then an unlimited amount of vanillas.

[Quiver he/him]

 

does anyone know the epic population ratios?

 

also another idea I had for the restriction rules was that each RPer can have one (this amount is arguable) high epic amongst the Entire RP. then a certain amount of lesser epics, then an unlimited amount of vanillas.

If you're going that route, it would have to be in reverse; play Vanilla's, prove activity, then get Epic's. Then repeat that process to get a High Epic; otherwise, it leaves the possibility to only have one High Epic character and not play anything else at all. Which is part of the problem to begin with, isn't it?

[Edgedancer he/him]

does anyone know the epic population ratios?

Originally the (officia) ratio was about 1:10.000, althoug the decrease of population causing more normal people to die than Epic increased it somewhat in the favour of Epics. Newcago for example has a ratio of 250.000 people to 1000 Epics to about a dozen of High Epics (That was the number of High Epics in Newcago, right?)

[Blackhoof]

Yeah, about that. And we assume about 1:100 high epic/epic ratio.

So Oregon should have 300 epics statewide, and 3 high epics XD

we have about 30 high epics

[Chandrian]

Potential Vanilla character I thought up. PM me opinions to avoid derailing the current convo.

Name: Anthony Williams

Gender: Male

Age: 43

Appearance: Anthony is 6'2" and heavily muscled. He's African-American and has grey eyes and close-cropped gray hair. He usually wears jeans and a plain shirt with a jacket. However, when he partakes in more *ahem* questionable activities, he has a black hooded trench coat, leather gloves, and a bandana covering his face.

Personality: Anthony is for the most part kind and outgoing, helping those around him in what ways he can. He appears to be a Mr. Rogers type of guy to most people, and usually is. However, if he feels someone deserves it, he'll kill rather mercilessly.

Weapons: Anthony always carries a 9mm pistol and his trusty crowbar. He uses a variety of other items (often homemade) when needed.

Backstory: Anthony was born and raised in Sacramento, California by a lower-class family. Despite their lack of money, the Williams' raised their son well and he graduated high school and college with good marks. He moved on to eventually become an inventor at a company for mechanical design, showing great proficiency. He worked for about a decade before retiring due to success in the stock market and with his job. He got married and lived humbly off the money and continued his wor as a hobby. Soon after Calamity rose, his wife was murdered by a group of looters who broke into his home. He realized that Epics were only half of the problem, and devoted himself to stopping common criminals. About 5 years back, he inadvertently killed a Minor Epic who was attacking a child. Realizing how dangerous the repercussions would be, he fled to Oregon and became a wandering merchant of general goods. Things took a turn recently, however, and he was thrown back into his position as a vigilante.

M.O.: Anthony will ally himself with almost anyone who provides order and stability to society, Epic or not. He never murders innocents, but has devoted his life to ridding the world of those who aren't.

Skills: Anthony is a skilled inventor and can make a wide variety of items, many which are weapons. He is also rather athletic and has gained great proficiency in fighting and shooting on the last decade.

Edited May 24, 2016 by Bluefingers

[Mckeedee123 he/him]

Mckeedee, so far I like what you're doing with the catacombs but I'd be interested in knowing what exactly is down there, especially that whole Echidna's spawn thing.

 

I probably should've consulted you before introducing any half-baked worldbuilding elements into the town, shouldn't I have?

 

Well, anyway, I sort of wanted to have a sort of RPG-dungeon sort of thing going on in there, so I thought of this Epic named Echidna who could swallow eggs whole and then cough them back up so that they hatched into monsters instead of birds or whatever. Some of them would have Epic-ish powers, maybe. Enough to pose a threat to anyone who ventured down there. Echidna's spawn won't attack her, but they don't obey her orders either. She really is half-baked, like I said, since I don't actually have any specific Spawn in mind. I had some vague idea that if anyone actually wanted to go in there, they could sort make it up as they went.

 

As for the caverns themselves, there's exactly one exit, which leads into a shallower section that's sparsely populated by vanillas. There are a handful of passages in there that lead farther inside, and those are the sections that are populated by Spawn. I visualized Corpsemaster and a handful of PI'd Epics sort of having fun killing them and keeping them contained down there.

 

I was planning to maybe mention some of this stuff in the next post, which I'm probably going to write as soon as there's somebody to interact with. For the record, I'm not exactly attached to any of this. Tell me if there's anything that bugs you (as I'm typing this, I'm kind of guessing that you think that Lucentia wouldn't really like the idea of the Spawn roaming around down there.)

[breakingamber he/him]

I probably should've consulted you before introducing any half-baked worldbuilding elements into the town, shouldn't I have?

 

Well, anyway, I sort of wanted to have a sort of RPG-dungeon sort of thing going on in there, so I thought of this Epic named Echidna who could swallow eggs whole and then cough them back up so that they hatched into monsters instead of birds or whatever. Some of them would have Epic-ish powers, maybe. Enough to pose a threat to anyone who ventured down there. Echidna's spawn won't attack her, but they don't obey her orders either. She really is half-baked, like I said, since I don't actually have any specific Spawn in mind. I had some vague idea that if anyone actually wanted to go in there, they could sort make it up as they went.

 

As for the caverns themselves, there's exactly one exit, which leads into a shallower section that's sparsely populated by vanillas. There are a handful of passages in there that lead farther inside, and those are the sections that are populated by Spawn. I visualized Corpsemaster and a handful of PI'd Epics sort of having fun killing them and keeping them contained down there.

 

I was planning to maybe mention some of this stuff in the next post, which I'm probably going to write as soon as there's somebody to interact with. For the record, I'm not exactly attached to any of this. Tell me if there's anything that bugs you (as I'm typing this, I'm kind of guessing that you think that Lucentia wouldn't really like the idea of the Spawn roaming around down there.)

I really like that idea. Echidna sounds like my cup of tea.

 

"Honey! A fire-breathing tree stump is at our door!"

"Again? Well, I'll get the poison."

 

​2 minutes later...

 

"Honey! A water-squirting dragon is at our door!"

"Again? Well, I'll get the gasoline and the matches."

 

​3 minutes later...

 

​"Honey! A... What is that?"

"Is it a velociraptor with 3 wings and a habit of summoning Parity orbs?"

"So that was what it was!"

"I'll get the bleach."

 

I can see where this would spawn some very interesting circumstances. Would the creatures drop "loot"? I think that would make an ​awesome​ setup for The Adventurer. Anyone?

[Mckeedee123 he/him]

I can see where this would spawn some very interesting circumstances. Would the creatures drop "loot"? I think that would make an ​awesome​ setup for The Adventurer. Anyone?

 

I guess it was sort of designed with the Adventurer in mind. He doesn't really have anywhere "dungeon-ey" to explore at the moment, which I wanted to rectify since I have a sort of character-crush on him. On another level, I just wanted something sort of creepy.

[The Swan Dragon he/him]

Finally made a pony for ThunderSpear.

Create Code:

372P1K020097BA75669E46036000000FEUI1839204040000W11C4C06BA575707107F3FCC004CB2

Accessory Code:

066CC66066CC66066CC66066CC66066CC6664E8FBAFFFF8C066CC66066CC66066CC66066CC66

Pose Code: 

000303123243303109270007337307356333325069317341

 

Second option:

Create:

372P1K0200FFC200A09E46036000000FEUI1839204040000W1000000DAE40007107F3FCC004CB2

Pose:

000346324012349340357280358044284000037291000056

 

Any opinions? And let me know if the codes don't work.

[Blackhoof]

isn't a picture supposed to appear?

[The Swan Dragon he/him]

isn't a picture supposed to appear?

What do you mean? Should I copy the pictures as well? Or are the codes not working?

[Voidus]

I'm not a major player, but I think I'll sum up my opinions about matters discussed too:

 

1. Adopting Epics: should be encouraged, but not forced. Forcing people into some else's shoes will result in bad experience for this new player and in result for others too.

2. Tutorial Town: as I said before, I like to idea. It should be OOC to even let characters die there without consequence in other threads.

3. Epic of the Week: bad idea IMO. Judging by the current speed of the game it would be hard to find enough experienced players with sufficient time to make it work well.

4. Power restrictions: I like them. High Epics only for those who deserve them through enough roleplay.

5. Forcing Vanilla characters: That's far less restrictive rule than forcing adoption and I think requiring second character to be Vanilla is a good idea.

They're monthly not weekly And that was why I was thinking of doing a rotation of a couple. It doesn't have to be from the featured characters obviously, that was just my first (somewhat selfish) thought, but potentially having to wait isn't necessarily a bad thing either, it would get the players used to how the speed occasionally is and if that is disconcerting enough that they leave then it's better that it happens in an intro thread rather than becoming another one post wonder.

 

I guess it was sort of designed with the Adventurer in mind. He doesn't really have anywhere "dungeon-ey" to explore at the moment, which I wanted to rectify since I have a sort of character-crush on him. On another level, I just wanted something sort of creepy.

I like these catacombs... for completely objective and impartial reasons. 

[Edgedancer he/him]

Yeah, about that. And we assume about 1:100 high epic/epic ratio.

So Oregon should have 300 epics statewide, and 3 high epics XD

we have about 30 high epics

I think we agreed to reject that reality and substitute our own.

 

I probably should've consulted you before introducing any half-baked worldbuilding elements into the town, shouldn't I have?

 

Well, anyway, I sort of wanted to have a sort of RPG-dungeon sort of thing going on in there, so I thought of this Epic named Echidna who could swallow eggs whole and then cough them back up so that they hatched into monsters instead of birds or whatever. Some of them would have Epic-ish powers, maybe. Enough to pose a threat to anyone who ventured down there. Echidna's spawn won't attack her, but they don't obey her orders either. She really is half-baked, like I said, since I don't actually have any specific Spawn in mind. I had some vague idea that if anyone actually wanted to go in there, they could sort make it up as they went.

 

As for the caverns themselves, there's exactly one exit, which leads into a shallower section that's sparsely populated by vanillas. There are a handful of passages in there that lead farther inside, and those are the sections that are populated by Spawn. I visualized Corpsemaster and a handful of PI'd Epics sort of having fun killing them and keeping them contained down there.

 

I was planning to maybe mention some of this stuff in the next post, which I'm probably going to write as soon as there's somebody to interact with. For the record, I'm not exactly attached to any of this. Tell me if there's anything that bugs you (as I'm typing this, I'm kind of guessing that you think that Lucentia wouldn't really like the idea of the Spawn roaming around down there.)

That would have been preferable, yes, but in the name of all that is weird and insane I shall oficially sanction it. Plus, I can think of a way for Lucentia to at least point them in the right direction.

 

As for Corpsemaster's murder parties, there isn't really room in the city for any more High Epics that are already resident to the city, so that posses a bit of a problem.

Finally made a pony for ThunderSpear.

Create Code:

372P1K020097BA75669E46036000000FEUI1839204040000W11C4C06BA575707107F3FCC004CB2

Accessory Code:

066CC66066CC66066CC66066CC66066CC6664E8FBAFFFF8C066CC66066CC66066CC66066CC66

Pose Code: 

000303123243303109270007337307356333325069317341

 

Second option:

Create:

372P1K0200FFC200A09E46036000000FEUI1839204040000W1000000DAE40007107F3FCC004CB2

Pose:

000346324012349340357280358044284000037291000056

 

Any opinions? And let me know if the codes don't work.

Never was a big fan of those jumpsuits but appart from that the pony looks good.

 

They're monthly not weekly And that was why I was thinking of doing a rotation of a couple. It doesn't have to be from the featured characters obviously, that was just my first (somewhat selfish) thought, but potentially having to wait isn't necessarily a bad thing either, it would get the players used to how the speed occasionally is and if that is disconcerting enough that they leave then it's better that it happens in an intro thread rather than becoming another one post wonder.

 

I like these catacombs... for completely objective and impartial reasons. 

Having a wait like that happen at random seems unnecessary though, not that I would exactly advocate a forced wait either.

On the topic of at random, again, any opinions on what we should base the duration of the tutorial/intro on?

 

I know what you mean.

[The Swan Dragon he/him]

@Edgedancer: Thanks!

[mail-mi he/him]

Who currently controls Frequency and his gang? I had some ideas for them if they're not doing anything. 

 

I like the new rules, and I'll try to put my characters on a bus (figuratively speaking) (except for BusDriver--that's probably literally speaking. ) before I leave either this summer or next. 

 

Does anyone need my characters to do anything?

[18th Shard he/him]

I had an idea for Knighthawk's problem (spoilers for Calamity)

 

what if he made a motivator out of Megan, let his wife die, and the motivator resurrected her?

 

Edit: Also, I approve of the new rules; my two cents are that if someone new wants to create more Epics after a first, they should prove they are dedicated with the first, and have significant plans for the second that relate to the city plot.

 

Also, I feel like the biggest problem with the new Epic surge is the problem I had when I joined: if you look at Phoenix, he's an Epic with a cool powerset and a PI. Look at the Ghost, my second, non-introduced idea: a cool powerset, High Epic badchull. Then look at Jumpdrive. He's an integral part of his city with a backstory, planned future story, friends, family, hobbies, personality both pre- and post-Calamity, and he's also an Epic [with cool powers and a PI]. Jumpdrive is a character first, powerset second. I think we should help the new guys develop characters and plot lines, then develop powers to go with it, not the other way around.

Edited May 25, 2016 by 18th Shard

[Mckeedee123 he/him]

Who currently controls Frequency and his gang? I had some ideas for them if they're not doing anything. 

 

I like the new rules, and I'll try to put my characters on a bus (figuratively speaking) (except for BusDriver--that's probably literally speaking. ) before I leave either this summer or next. 

 

Does anyone need my characters to do anything?

 

We may or may not be doing something with the whole situation in that Washington town. It sort of depends on whether Shattered comes back (if it's just going to be me and Maill writing the thing, I don't think it's worth it.) Shoot us a PM, I guess.

Edited May 25, 2016 by Mckeedee123

[Fatebreaker he/him]

Ugh, another round of Finals survived.

And it seems like alot is happening.

Firstly: Welcome back Winter, We've kept Mistwraith alive and kicking. Glad to have you back.

2ndly: For the following Quicksilver battle, we should probably start a pm, to minimize confusion.

3rdly: I'm going to finally get back to my Portland characters, so they don't get added to the unused list. Thanks for your patience.

And lastly: Any of the Slivers are up for grabs if someone wants them. Reflection, Surveillance, Platoon, Shatterblast, they can be used if someone wants to. I already have plans for most of them, so check in with me if you want one.

[Mckeedee123 he/him]

Alright! It's been a while since anything has happened in most of the threads, so I think it's about time to passive-aggressively post the link to the almighty spreadsheet!

 

 

It may or may not have been updated recently. Probably not. From Spreadsheet's memory banks, and from my own imperfect knowledge of what has and has not been written, here's the breakdown:

 

Portland

 -The Chimera Situation: I double-checked. Kobold's next up.

 -Kidnapping Neverthere: I... think Timeport's next to post. The other people involved could probably write something too, though, if they wanted to.

 -Backtrack and Friends, Back in the House: Backtrack was the last to post here. The interaction with PP and Sach is over, I believe. I'm not sure what their plans are, actually.

 -Corpsemaker: Do something maybe. Whatever.

 -A whole bunch of other tangents which are vaguely waiting on our current set of major events to come to a conclusion in order to continue: Wait for the current set of major events to come to a conclusion, then continue. You know who you are.

 

The Dalles

 -Quicksilver Fight: I'm hoping to write this in a series of collabs, if at all. First, though, me, Kob, and Twy have to make a little thing. This should be extremely fun.

 -The Clinic: Lyla posted last. Looks like Edge or Voidus are next up. Scribbler's reaction is probably more important but Shiny is the one who hasn't posted for the longest. The upvotes are just raining down on this little interaction, so post 'em like they're hot.

 -Freq's Gang: Honestly, I have no idea where this is going. I wanted to have a little out-of-town sideplot happen, but Shattered sort of disappeared on us. If anyone thinks Sunspot and Blindside look fun (they were extremely well-written, for sure,) go ahead and ask to adopt them, then maybe we'll ask for a post occasionally and you can have a character on the dark side of The Dalles. If no one wants them, I think we'll probably just move to infiltrate the city directly as soon as the Quicksilver thing is resolved. I'll have to double-check with Maill about that.

 -Rowena(?): ?

 

Astoria

 -Ragnorok/Antimatter: Something, something, something. I have absolutely no idea where this is going, but I'm guessing it isn't done yet. Edge already wrote a post as a reaction, so I suppose Warrior is primed to continue with whatever he's going to do.

 -Invasion stuff: I assume it's still going on. They were arguing or something (hold on...) mmm. Nope. I don't think there are any loose ends there. I think we're just waiting for more time to pass before actually doing the invasion.

 -Corpsemaster: I have more stuff here, but I guess I'm waiting for someone to interact with. Voidus...? *whimpers for attention*

 -KFC: No idea where this is going, but I'm guessing you guys' PM stalled.

 

Corvallis

 -Whatever: This city has so many loose ends at the moment that I'm not even sure where to start. I don't even write in this thread. Go figure it out for yourselves

 

Salem

 -Hey! We're important!: Yeah, nothing's happening. I dunno. Does anyone even have anything right now?

 -Oh wait, I do: Was planning to write an introduction post for the Rift Cult.

 

Wastelands

 -Just do your thing, Wastelands: Just do your thing, Wastelands.

Edited May 27, 2016 by Mckeedee123

[Chandrian]

Wastelands

-Just do your thing, Wastelands: Just do your thing, Wastelands.

You have my word that Wastelands will continue doing its thing.

On a semi-related note, does anyone know why there's so little out there about the Wastelands? Very few Epic profiles or plot line descriptions are available. Is there something dating back near it's creation which I'm unaware of?

Edited May 27, 2016 by Bluefingers

[Citadel16 he/him]

and you have my word that there is a direction that my characters are going.

[Mailliw73 he/him]

Annnnnnd Cog's back at it again with a post that rivals Teddy Cuddlekin in its disturbingness. 

 

I couldn't really figure out Tank, so instead we shall take a visit with Headshot and his… ​unique… mindset.  

 

edit: Mckeedee, Kobold is also up for Backtrack (who has just been confronted by Adelmo) and Rowena. 

Oooh, I really liked that! Creepy, but well done. I liked Freq's little part too, you got him pretty good.