Discuss You Have Choices Now

[Raiha]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]So I'm working late at night several months in a row and then ideas for RPGs start flying around me like so many moths to a flame.

I give you two choices. And then questions. Which would you rather play as an rpg? Which needs more work? Do you have ideas for plots? Help me here. Save me from my own crushing inability to choose.

[center]Graph Of The Heart
[/center]
[i]Once upon a time, there was an alchemist. A powerful alchemist. The kind who studied human hearts. The type that didn’t bother messing around with potions to make gold, or stones to grant eternal life. Oh no. This alchemist wanted to understand the intricacies of the human heart. Once upon a time, there was a mathematician. A lonely mathematician. The kind who studied magical theories and properties of the soul. The type that didn’t bother with the exciting theories of the age. Oh no. This mathematician wanted to understand the very core of the human being.

In time, the alchemist and mathematician found each other and began to collaborate on their studies of heart and soul. Years passed, and the two became older, but not much wiser. Dissection of human bodies, walls of computations and errors filled the building they occupied. Scrolls of studies and notes on the human being. If you put all of the ink they had used up on parchment into one vat, you could’ve drowned a cow. But they were no closer to understanding what made a heart a heart and a soul a soul, than they were in being able to graph the human heart. Their work remained for the most part a secret, although if word had gotten out, religious figures and philosophers alike would’ve condemned their activities.

Eventually, both gave up their fruitless studies and retired in relative solitude. The alchemist went home to his family and they received him with a grudging responsibility. The mathematician, socially inept and bereft of family stayed in the mansion that had been his home for what felt like centuries, and wasted away without friend or any form of comfort until his timely death. The year was 1000 A.D., at the heart of the Middle Ages.

Over a hundred years later, the mansion was discovered by a particularly curious prince on the typical quest and his overbearing manservant. Perplexed by the writings he discovered, and the large amount of skeletons in the basements, he began to read the texts, and ended up spending the rest of his lifetime adding to their research. His manservant was not amused, but the kingdom he had originated from certainly didn’t miss him. He too died, and his bones laid in the bed where he had come to his end.

Another fifty years and the mansion was discovered yet again by another curious adventurer, but this one had brought along his best friend. The two discovered, again, the writing and murals and the bodies and the death. But instead of seeking to further the research, they simply studied their discoveries.

“You realize that what we’re reading is almost total sacrilege.”

“Oh absolutely, but this makes it fun and forbidden at the same time. I think it adds a little flavor, don’t you?”

The two finished the codices, the encyclopedias, and innumerable scrolls in a timely fashion, then returned to their homes, thirst for adventure quelled. Once life had settled down to the dull and everyday, one of the two said to the other,

“We should go back and catalogue their writing.”

“Are you completely insane?”

“No, seriously! Who knows what we could find!”

“......I won’t do it.”

Several weeks later the two were back.

[strike]While one friend began to take stock of the enormous volumes of work, arranging them into some semblance of sense, the other began to draw the outline they’d need to organize everything. As he drew, patterns began to form between the lines of both biology and psychology. In more archaic terms, the lines of blood and soul began to form a more cohesive whole. Sensing an end in sight, and a final answer, the two friends threw themselves completely into their work, much as the others who had come before them had. And as the final line was connected, the final pen-stroke completed, things began to come together. Unconsciously, the two had created something that all mankind would’ve given their souls to posses.

The two had drawn a complete magic circle, glyphs, their minds inhabited by both their own thirst for knowledge and sheer psychic burden to find the truth impressed on them by the ghosts of previous scholars now departed. It was odd to be sure, and unwittingly, the two men went forward, touching the circle at the same time. Both were pulled through to another world. And it is in this world now that the two find themselves.[/i][/strike]

[center]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[i]Meteo City: Low Tide Of The Night[/center]

Year: 2027

The State of Things: There's no one world government as of yet, huge urban cities have sprung up to replace suburban sprawl with the advent of desalination plants capable of converting salt water into fresh for relatively low costs. Global warming, as it appears, was a big hoax, but be that as it may, the earth seems substantially cleaner than it once was. Even so, with all the technological advances of the new century, the cities remain a mix of both good and bad. The nightlife is great if you know where to go, but if you stray down the wrong alley, you’ve opened yourself up to the dark hearts of mankind. These are the things that will never be expelled from society. Things that can never be fully taken away no matter how comfortable people’s lives grow.

There’s several areas and several cities of mention, but there’s one that’s worth taking notice of above all else. Meteo city. The city of high rises, dark alleys, elites, rabble, proletariats, plebeians, angels, and demons. Once upon the far distant future, events would take place that would change the course of both the city’s heart and the evolution of humanity. But this is not that time. This is present for some, past for others. Either way you should find people to stand with you in this place. It’s a good time to have friends. Do you have them? Did you bring them with you?

In this story you’ll be on a search to survive the city’s life while making rent and enjoying the pleasant distractions of the night. Strip clubs, bars, joints, casinos, peep shows, all of them reach out to get you. But you won’t be safe going it alone. Find a partner to sign up with you, or make your partner known when you do sign up. It’s necessary for your survival, but there is safety in numbers, and more than two that is. Stories will generally be left to the imagination of the couples that sign up together. Eventually, should other couples meet, the story line will change from two posting together to four or perhaps even six, depending on who we get. And note that your occupation, once you’ve signed up can be wildly varied. Mobster, dancer, DJ, performing artist, teacher, philosopher, movie critic, homeless guy, crack head, be creative. Just make sure you’re not going to be completely at odds with whomever you sign up with.[/i][/FONT][/COLOR]

[Andrew]

[Size=1]I can see why you had trouble, they're both very interesting ideas. You had me riveted all the way through the Graph of the Heart one, right up until the end where they went to another world, that just didn't sit right with me. Doesn't seem right that mapping the heart would lead to a magic circle that takes people into a different world, perhaps a revision there?

The Meteo City one on the other hand had my attention from the get-go. Naturally, that's why I'll say that I'd rather sign-up for that than the first one, sounds more fun and appealing. I haven't really got any thoughts to add, plots to thicken or anything, I don't like giving my opinion unless the receiver specifically wants it.

That way, I avoid looking like an idiot when I start spouting silly ideas, as is usually the case when you're involved. Good writing though, as ever.[/size]

[James]

[color=#606060]I moved this thread to Backstage, since it concerns RPGs.

Graph of the Heart doesn't make a lot of sense to me...there seems to be a very long preamble and no real concept of what the story would be (in terms of what the players themselves would experience in the other world mentioned towards the end).

Meteo City obviously reminds me of the Hybrid Vigor RPGs; are you intending to set the RPG in that universe? Or is it unrelated?

It's a concept with potential, but again, there's no real story outline here. There's a basic premise, but it would be hard to know what the actual plot would be when the players start. Is it all just about survival or would a larger plot unfold? (The latter I presume).

For me personally, Meteo City is the more interesting possibility. I think if it were fleshed out a bit more it could attract a lot of attention.[/color]

[Raiha]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]Sadly I agree with both of you. Graph of the Heart was linked to a college assignment for one of my Writing classes, and since it concerned time travel, I had to get a little loopy, but eh. That's what I get for writing at 4 in the morning.

But as far as Meteo City goes, yes it'd be in the same universe, just years before the hybrids were created. Fortunately my friend was kind enough to supply me with further plot. I quote him here for your convenience and edification.

[i][QUOTE]How about a story line where each section of the metropolis (and following, all cities across the country) have split into mini-countries, following a national civil war of sorts - you would have factions including what's left of the original us of a, trying to get back it's territory and power; along with so many mini-countries split up along ethnic, religious, or idealistic lines -- chinese, german, white anglo saxxon suburbian soccer moms, neo-cons, anarchists, hispanics, catholics, muslims, etc - so many, so small and fragmented, it's almost like walking into a food court at the mall and choosing which citizenship you want. Each with their own military / police force, laws, gangs, and so forth.

Depending on the history you're working with, it might be something that happens not too far from now, thus nothing is hard set in tradition or certainty yet - and may not be permanent, either, since I'm guessing the future version of the city isn't split up anymore.[/i][/QUOTE][/FONT][/COLOR]