Thread: Group Story?

Basically an RPG, but with an actual story. Fully plotted out beforehand an everything. And long posts (chapters of 500-2000 words, maybe). Preferably not more than seven or eight writers as an absolute maximum.

Ok, now that's over with...

I propose that a few of us get together and write a proper story. Like an RPG, we post up characters and bio's, but then we sketch out the storyline and make it into an actual story (y'know... beginning, middle, end, all that). Then, of course, we write the damn thing.

I'm mentioning that so much because most (if not all)of the RPG's I've seen on this forum are ultimately directionless. there's a start point and a load of characters, and then they all just wander off doing whatever they feel like doing.

Nah. I want something with a bit more direction. Something that, when it's finished, reads as a proper, complete story.

So...


Anyone interested?

If anyone is interested, then say so here and we'll start dreaming up the storyline.

I have some ideas for characters and quests I was planning on using in a RPG game I never got around to coding.

I think that’s a great idea, that way at least it will be interesting to read to everyone not just the people who write it!
Is it alright if i help out I’ve got plot ideas, i don’t know about RPG's but I’ve got ideas. If you want me to help I’ll get started with you immediately, if you have any specific ideas or things you want say and we can get started.
sounds like a good idea!

Sounds good. I'm in, I've got no end to the amount of characters and names (for anything) that i can make up.

I'm not a regular at writing forums, and I'm not well versed in RPGs, but I'd be willing to give it a shot, even if what I write isn't what is looked for.

For me I won't write unless I have a theme, so I think I'd be a good idea if we had a theme or message that the story as a whole can convey. For example, I remember from english class that a running theme in ancient greek plays was hubris, excessive pride, and it was always the downfall of the hero. Or, maybe another could be "Beware of entrance to a quarrel" which may or may not have been a theme from Hamlet from where I quoted it. We can even think about philosophical ideas, like just say we have a person who is leading a bunch of people, and we can illustrate all forms of power are intrinsically flawed, and just say the people turn on the leader person b/c of this. Those are just a few ideas off the top of my head, I always like trying to think of creative ways to convey the theme, if you all would like.


Anyways, with stuff like this I think the problem is the thread has all the support needed, but nothing goes anywhere. So sdavis2 I think the sooner you share your ideas and people can talk about them the better. Again, I'm not very versed with RPGs so I can't think of any ideas to post, so everyone else, don't hesitate to post 'em, so the ball will start rolling instead of the thread dieing

Brief synopsis of what I have idea wise, we can use some of it or scrap it all. I have no real idea for a setting, originally it was a post apocalyptic piece, but only due to the fact it let me mix ancient and modern. I am horrible with names, so I call the main character either MC or Hero, until someone has a name for him. Hero is in a pub in the city of Kezbian having a cocktail, alright a stout ale, when two bounty hunters enter. Everything is quiet, Hero notices an old man sitting with his back to the far wall of the place, like he is trying to watch all the goings on, this seems interesting to Hero. Does the old man think something is going to happen or does he know it ? Hero returns to his drink and within minutes both the doors to the pub are busted off their hinges by invading Orcs. The Orcs were originally just a gang of semi-mutant humans, in my more futuristic setting, but it can go either way. A large brawl starts betweens those who want to fight the Orcs and those who want to flee. The two bounty hunters, Dom and Ashe start fighting back, as does the old man Arch, and of course Hero. The four are soon joined by two other who enter the fray claiming to have been tracking the Orcs unusual movements, since they rarely invade towns. The two others are Jenna and Ben and they work for Arch the old man. Arch is searching for a chosen one, prophesied in some ancient books he found. I had originally written for both of the brothers to be the chosen one, only their powers untied as one could be The One. The two brothers are joined by the others and embark on a quest to gather pieces of a artifact that could return the world to its former glory. Vague I know, I am sorry I haven't figured out every detail yet.


These are my ideas, if anyone wants to take em and work more of a story out, go with it. If you think its rubbish and want to start over go ahead.

I'd like to keep the sci-fi / post apocalyptic setting. It gives us the scope to include pretty much anything.

The way I was thinking of doing this was to have each person write from the perspective of one (or two) characters. That way we see the story emerge from everyone's perspective.

Sdavis, I like the idea, but the ending seems a bit too cliche'd. Here's a rough idea off the top of my head:

The story is set on earth, in the year 2130. A space mission has discovered and recovered a box from under the surface of Mars. Nobody knew how to open the box, but analyses showed that there was a source of tremendous energy inside it, which could, if harnessed, solve the world’s drastic energy problems.

Blah blah blah, the box is deemed unopenable, and is quarantined. By media rumour, the box is named “Pandora’s Box”.

A group of misguided Satanists steal the box and manage to open it (somehow). The box fractures, but does not break completely, and a horde of Demons (possibly aliens instead, but that would screw up the misguided Satanists part) pour out.

Bye bye America.

Now the main plot begins. We have our characters (possibly military, possibly civilian, possibly even demonic) all set in the middle of a massive, planet-wide war with the Demons.

Some character dependant stuff (intro’s, etc) follows…

We learn that it is possible to trap a Demon in a human body, although doing so would destroy the human soul forever and consign it to unending torture in a place worse that hell. For this reason, it is restricted from ever being used. Ever.

However, our little group of characters find a little boy (possibly), who is possibly the rarest thing ever. He has been born with no soul. Ta-da, we get the idea to trap one of the demons in his body and use its power to attempt to reseal Pandora’s Box. Someone comes out with the idea that it would be best to use the most powerful demon; their leader.

Whoop-de-do, we go on a little quest to find and subdue/bind the Demon’s leader. Some stuff I haven’t worked out yet follows. We get the demon bound and use it to force the others back into the Box and then seal it.


Maybe...


Anyone else have any ideas? If we all post up any thoughts, and then we can mash them all together and try to make a workable plot out of them.

First of all, that’s a really cool idea, if were having demons though we need to know what powers they possess. We don’t want them to be too strong otherwise they’d be killing humans all the time anyway. Maybe they can only come out at night, I know its been done, but something like that anyway.

Also when the misguided Satanists release the demons there could be a big killing scene where they feed on their releasers. Also I’m not sure if it should be Mars, we will probably get there before 2130, and it could spoil the story, maybe pick a planet further away? Maybe.

Also I’ve thought of a way the box can be opened, what if a few years before the story starts a strange object was found on the planet and is now kept in a museum. The Satanists steal it and use it to crack open the box.
You say the world of the future has drastic energy problems, so I’m guessing that it’s a bleak future with little technology so we should try to come up with ideas of what things look like. E.g. streets, houses, vehicles and so on.
Maybe before trapping the demons in human bodies is made illegal, they could use prisoners, murderers and rapists.

Also how do they know they go somewhere worse than hell?
Does someone manage to come back from the dead and tell them?

Ok what do you think of my ideas, I’ve got more but I wana see what you think first.

I look forward to working on this.

Originally in my story Arch, the wise old man uncovered what we know now as Area 51 and found numerous scrolls which lead him to seek out the one chosen person, it seemed the government had been working on it previous to its demise. Having the box located in Area 51 and having Arch unknowingly open it and release the demonic hordes would give him ample reason to be tracking down those who could help return the evil to the box.

Okay:

The demons - I envisage their powers to be something to do with shadows. Maybe they can come out whenever, but their strength is directly proportional to the darkness / amount of shadow. That way, they can be beaten in the day or the evening, but the nights really aren't safe. At all.

The planet? We could make it Pluto. The Box could have been found in an underground tract of ice / frozen whatever-pluto-is-made-of.

That's a good idea about the opening of the box.

The future I envisaged had brilliant technology, loads and loads of it. That's why they were able to get to Mars/Pluto, and that's why there's the huge energy problem. Obviously, after the war starts the whole place starts to look a bit more battered.

The demon binding thing, I thought of as a secret millitary/scientific research thing, trying to discover ways of shutting Pandora's Box and re-sealing the demons. After they decided it was too high a cost then it was filed away and never spoken of again.

Maybe the future society places a human life / soul above all else. That way, ending one to trap the demon would be unthinkable. And it would give us some good opportunities to work on the contrast between a humanitarian, enlightened culture, and the brutal reality of war with the demons, where life means nothing.



EDIT: Sorry, I was writing this while Sdavis was posting...
Yeah, the box could have been taken to Area 51 when it got quarantined. And that gives a convenient explanation for how the box got opened in the first place, rather than the ever-present misguided cultists. I'm a bit wary of the scrolls, though. They're overdone as it is. The One chosen person could be the soulless boy that we all find.

Maybe the demons need to kill the humans to gain their power and stay alive, that way we can say their vulnerable to the light but they come out anyway if they need human flesh. that’s when the humans are strongest against them. During the night people rush in early and have tight security on the houses. Only highly trained people set out to fight them.

Pluto, great idea, far away, not likely to be searched in our lifetime. Perfect!

Just a question about us writing from different points of view, do you want it to be, 1 chapter from one persons point of view, then the next chapter is of the same day/event but with a different persons point of view? Or would it be better to do a chapter or scene from one persons point of view then in the next chapter/scene the story continues from another’s point of view?

Good idea about the humans placing human life above all else. Maybe funerals are a really big deal that go on over a period of days. Obviously when the war starts that will have to stop, depressing the human race.

What about this soulless boy, where does he come from, does he arrive from the box with the demons or is he something else?

The writing should be like this: 1 person writes a chapter / excerpt from one characters POV, then the next person writes about the events immediately after (obviously this depends on the characters, but there shouldn't be too much time difference, and I want to try to avoid staying static in the timeline) from the POV of a different character. Repeat until the story is over.

Maybe the Demons just really really like killing stuff. So the powerful ones don't go out in the day, but the weaker (and weaker-willed) ones do, and then promptly get killed.

I've been thinking about how to actually kill the demons, and I came up with this:
The demons are weaker in the light. It actually hurts them, but they exert strength of will to resist it and keep together (and keep their power). What if the army developed guns that didn't fire conventional bullets (since I don't see them doing a lot of good against demons...), but instead fired toxin pellet type things. The toxins could be a blend of psychoactives (to break down their will) and phtotoxins (to increase their susceptibility to light). Shoot them enough times and they go all crispy.

Doesn't work at night though (or; it does, but the only light is moonlight, and so it takes a hell of lot more to kill them, never mind that they are much stronger at night), which is why it really isn't safe.


The soulless boy shouldn't (I think) arrive from the Box. Inside the Box is where the demons were imprisoned, so he shouldn't really be there. I picture him as just a genuine mutation (stop thinking of x-men and stuff like that. I meant as in natural selection and evolution). He could possibly be autistic, or have some other mental disorder, as well as being soulless (or as a result of it). he'd have more mechanical functions that emotional ones (what with him not having a soul and all)


And the change from the pre-war society to the actual war would be more than depression. More like culture shock, if not actually mentally disturbing. It would go against everything they would have ever believed in.

And that's another thing: the army would be a draft / recruitment drive sort of thing, as if a human life is valued above all else, then I don't see much need for a big millitary. Ther would be some, yes, but nothing near large enough to fight the demons. That'd be another cause of shock.

So, what do we want these demons to look like? Keeping with the fact you want them to be more powerful at night. I think dark colours would work best, black evil things with sharp teeth, what do you think?

Can we give the demons some really different powers, something to destroy their prey. I’m not sure what though, it needs to be something original, that’s not been done before.

The humans are obviously a bit different from us if a life is valued above all else. That would mean no murder or anything, so the demons would be even more of a shock. Also if they didn’t want to waste lives TV’s wouldn’t exist. (someone’s not going to like that idea)

Now about the Demon leader, how is it different from the others apart from being more powerful? Maybe it can create other demons? Or he could be the one keeping the rest alive and when his destroyed they will all be destroyed.

Do you have ideas for characters? I don’t at the moment but I can come up with a few once I know more about how these people live and what they believe in.

Do you want transport, I know you want a load of technology so what elce did you have in mind?

Theme: I know we’ve got a futuristic Sci-fi Genre, but what message do we want to send. That were wasting our lives?
I think a theme would help build characters, but I don’t know how you like to work, what do you like to start with?
Is there any other Genre you want to incorporate into it, I know horror might come in when we release the demons. What else, do you want a love story in there or anything, I don’t mind what, I like writing anything.

How far do you want to go with this, I mean do you want it to be a story for everyone or above a certain age. Does anyone die. Maybe its to early to think about that yet but how about graphicness. Blood and gore and stuff, or should it show danger but it all turns out well in the end with no one dying?

Just a few things to think about.

I think Mars is the best planet to discover the box on because it was named after the Roman God of war and because the box was opened a terrible war began so it sort of fits.

Also the powers of the demons should include something like (i said like) mind control so that the weak willed humans can be controlled or lured into the lairs so that they are easier to kill. The demons should have some other powers but i think they should be more physical like twice the strength of the average human.

The demon leader should be male and he should be the military leader of the demons while the spiritual leader should be a queen who produces more demons.

Mr Write:

The demons... as their powers are stronger at night, how about making them formed of corporeal shadow? They are darkness itself, pulled together by force of will. Their powers should maybe vary with the strength of the demon, but that's about a far as I've got with original ideas. Something to do with darkness and shadows would be fitting.

TV's would be there. It's not that they don't like wasting lives, they just don't like ending them. Besides, take out the crappy clelebrity culture we have, and you actually have actors. They are people that work to entertain others and improve their quality of life. That'd be a big honour in future-land.

The leader... I see the demon command structure as being hierarchical, based on power. The most powerful demon is the leader, and he can exert control over the demons under him. This would allow him to order and lead the various (highly individualistic) demons in one force. Thus; tale him out of the equation, and they are directionless, until someone new steps up to take the crown.

And we're not killing him, we're binding him into a host. That way he's (theoretically) out of the way, but we can still use his power and ability.

Characters... we've got sdavis' old man, for one. Then I suppose a couple should be from the millitary, to give us an actual view on what's happening with the war. Then maybe a couple from wherever. Possibly the old man's companions.

Technology... okay, let me dream up a few basics about life in the year 2130...

Life for the average person is based around the extended family. The various members of the family may not live together, but keep in touch regularly, through telephone/holographic devices, allowing you to hear and see the person you are talking to. It is common for each house to leave their device (not thought of a name for it yet) on for extended periods of time, located in a spare room, so that people can be in that room in both houses at the same time; holographic in one house and real in the other. This allows easy conversation. Society takes precedence over money.

Society is relaxed capitalism. Major corporations pretty much run the buisiness side of things, but they already have pretty much everything they could want, and (as before) social things are generally considered more important that monetary gain. Greed is considered despicable, as it is worsening other people's lives for the benefit of your own.

Travel is almost free, and extremely fast. Sub-orbital jets fly nearly straight upwards, and orbit the planet at tremendous speeds until the are above their destination, at which point the jet descends. The air resistance in its turbines as it descends is used to power engines to slow the jet, ensuring it does not crash horribly.

Ground transport... I dunno. Any ideas?

I don't usually bother with a theme. I just get a cool idea and run with it. See where it takes me. If you want to work out a theme, great, but I don't think I'm going to be much help there.

Lots and lots (and lots) of people die. Whole continents of people die.We are in the middle of an apocalyptic war with supernatural demons, almost impervious to normal weapons, and not not exactly vulnerable to the ones we've developed specifically to kill them. Blood and death will be an integral part off this. Anything else would just make the story kind of wishy-washy and unrealistic.



Nef: That's what I thought, but...