The Hidden Valley
Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2009 1:24 am
Starting a new RPG! We'll see how it goes, if it rocks or sucks... Please keep OOC (out-of-character) comments and questions in the other RPG thread. At this time, anyone is allowed to join in... The rules to start are simply that your first post here should do some amount of introducing your character, either through dialog or narrative description (or both). At this early stage, introducing a character will be easy. Later on, introduction of new characters may be more difficult, given the settings. In those cases, you should pop questions into the RPG thread before posting here.
For events such as random chance and accuracy, I'm going to trust that people can handle this themselves. In this form of RPG, the point is to write a story - not so much to play a game. No winners and losers, just characters and events. Writing your own character's death can be a major event, so don't rule it out - and there is always the possibility to kill your current character and trying to introduce a new one. In fact, after you've been a part of the RPG for at least 3 pages, you can request in the other thread to run a second character at the same time.
I would ask that all participants read the posts of the RPG which take place before they join. However - after the RPG gets long enough, this will become less practical. In those cases, you should do your best to become familiar with just the basic premises of the RPG (ask questions in the other thread) and then play your new character - with the very real perspective of not knowing what's happened to the other characters before you came, also giving them the opportunity to tell you in character.
You should not make any "decisions" for other played characters.
There may occasionally be non-player characters involved (I may likely introduce some - such characters will have only limited dialog, mainly reacting to what else is happening), but mostly not. For those which are there, any player is allowed to "manipulate" them, but do not attempt to take the character for yourself or develop it/make it a major character.
For creatures, we're going to be entering an unexplored land.. so you can get creative, but don't make anything too powerful or just plain ridiculous. I will not hesitate to delete silly or inappropriate posts from this thread if they come up. If you check on new posts and see that something obviously not allowed or unreasonable has been posted, just wait for me to moderate before posting again, so we don't lose continuity.
Also.. the length of a post can be either short or long, but please do not make it more than that of a typical page (in a word document) unless you have some very descriptive storytelling to do. Do not advance the story too far without allowing others to post how their characters react.
That's all I can think of for now! New rules may be appended to this post as necessary. Let the story begin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~The Hidden Valley~~~~~~~~~~~~
Professor Lester McComb sat in the den of his mansion, staring idly at the wall. The blank faces of bison, lion, rhinoceros, snow leopard, white elephant, pygmy hippopotamus, giant panda, orangutan, and others stared back at him from the wall, floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall. He looked over to his right, stroking his white beard. On this wall was an encased collection of arthropods from around the world, including many massive spiders and flies. On the left wall was a collection of stuffed cats. He loved cats. Most of these prized mounts were from his own hunting expeditions. Some of the cats were bought at auction. He sighed.
Lester was a hunter-taxidermist who was now 50 years in age, though without any loss of the young vigor which started him on his quest long ago for private collections of animals. Dead animals, of course. Live ones were too much trouble. Living alone in his mansion, visited only on professional business by fellow taxidermists and the occasional protest towards his way of life, he spent most of his hours simply admiring his collection. Even as large as it had now grown, he found that it invariably became too boring within half a year of his latest catch. It had now been since 1918 - two full years - since his latest catch. His last expedition had been cancelled by local waring peoples. The other, a year prior, had ended in disaster when his ship was caught at sea in a terrible storm and barely made it to land in one piece, where the crew refused to take him back. Some superstition or other nonsense.
The lack of success only fueled his desire for another hunt, but it was getting more difficult with each expedition to recruit a team of willing adventurers to follow him. Finally, he'd decided to double the payment each member of his expedition would receive for joining, posting a wanted ad in the local paper just the other day. Of course, he didn't mention that only a fourth of the payment would be given prior to the expedition. He knew from long experience that this was essential to cut costs when the occasional death occurred. Now, he waited patiently for a reply to his ad, hoping that the doorbell might ring at any moment...
For events such as random chance and accuracy, I'm going to trust that people can handle this themselves. In this form of RPG, the point is to write a story - not so much to play a game. No winners and losers, just characters and events. Writing your own character's death can be a major event, so don't rule it out - and there is always the possibility to kill your current character and trying to introduce a new one. In fact, after you've been a part of the RPG for at least 3 pages, you can request in the other thread to run a second character at the same time.
I would ask that all participants read the posts of the RPG which take place before they join. However - after the RPG gets long enough, this will become less practical. In those cases, you should do your best to become familiar with just the basic premises of the RPG (ask questions in the other thread) and then play your new character - with the very real perspective of not knowing what's happened to the other characters before you came, also giving them the opportunity to tell you in character.
You should not make any "decisions" for other played characters.
There may occasionally be non-player characters involved (I may likely introduce some - such characters will have only limited dialog, mainly reacting to what else is happening), but mostly not. For those which are there, any player is allowed to "manipulate" them, but do not attempt to take the character for yourself or develop it/make it a major character.
For creatures, we're going to be entering an unexplored land.. so you can get creative, but don't make anything too powerful or just plain ridiculous. I will not hesitate to delete silly or inappropriate posts from this thread if they come up. If you check on new posts and see that something obviously not allowed or unreasonable has been posted, just wait for me to moderate before posting again, so we don't lose continuity.
Also.. the length of a post can be either short or long, but please do not make it more than that of a typical page (in a word document) unless you have some very descriptive storytelling to do. Do not advance the story too far without allowing others to post how their characters react.
That's all I can think of for now! New rules may be appended to this post as necessary. Let the story begin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~The Hidden Valley~~~~~~~~~~~~
Professor Lester McComb sat in the den of his mansion, staring idly at the wall. The blank faces of bison, lion, rhinoceros, snow leopard, white elephant, pygmy hippopotamus, giant panda, orangutan, and others stared back at him from the wall, floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall. He looked over to his right, stroking his white beard. On this wall was an encased collection of arthropods from around the world, including many massive spiders and flies. On the left wall was a collection of stuffed cats. He loved cats. Most of these prized mounts were from his own hunting expeditions. Some of the cats were bought at auction. He sighed.
Lester was a hunter-taxidermist who was now 50 years in age, though without any loss of the young vigor which started him on his quest long ago for private collections of animals. Dead animals, of course. Live ones were too much trouble. Living alone in his mansion, visited only on professional business by fellow taxidermists and the occasional protest towards his way of life, he spent most of his hours simply admiring his collection. Even as large as it had now grown, he found that it invariably became too boring within half a year of his latest catch. It had now been since 1918 - two full years - since his latest catch. His last expedition had been cancelled by local waring peoples. The other, a year prior, had ended in disaster when his ship was caught at sea in a terrible storm and barely made it to land in one piece, where the crew refused to take him back. Some superstition or other nonsense.
The lack of success only fueled his desire for another hunt, but it was getting more difficult with each expedition to recruit a team of willing adventurers to follow him. Finally, he'd decided to double the payment each member of his expedition would receive for joining, posting a wanted ad in the local paper just the other day. Of course, he didn't mention that only a fourth of the payment would be given prior to the expedition. He knew from long experience that this was essential to cut costs when the occasional death occurred. Now, he waited patiently for a reply to his ad, hoping that the doorbell might ring at any moment...