Discuss Black Zeitgeist: Behind the Curtain

[Vicky]

[size=1]Welcome to the colony. You won’t be leaving anytime soon.

Basically, the idea is to play out a game set in a destroyed, corrupt civilisation, with little futuristic technology. You can either play a police officer, a criminal, or a normal person (maybe who plays a hero in the night). Government roles are open, but you’ll have to send me a message first.

After watching the Dark Knight I got my idea from that, so I want people to think about Gotham City or something along those lines when it comes to the game.

I’ll be posting a set of laws soon as well as major cities, technological information and other things like that soon enough.

Right now there’s going to be a villain who’s in charge of most of the colony (on the criminal side) who won’t be revealed until later on. I’ll explain more about this later, but right now he/she’ll simply be referred to as ‘Black Zeitgeist’ after the colony (though the RPG doesn’t revolve around him/her). If anyone wants to work for him/her, feel free. Think about it as Black Zeitgeist and the Government are the two super powers in this world. But even criminals can fight against Black Zeitgeist; we all want to be on top now, don’t we? You’ll learn more about this through the game.

Your powers and abilities are limited. There’ll be no Superman or Green Lantern in this game; you have to use technology and accidental transformation. For example, your character could be bleached with green hair and a permanent grin after falling into a pool of chemicals (but don’t use that, because it’s the Joker =p ). Or your character could be the owner of a company who sells explosive to the police force and, therefore, has access to the most unique explosives and is the most talented character in the game for that account. Be creative.

The story itself will revolve around the criminals but may also move onto bigger things. I guess you’ll just have to see.

Special thanks to Andrew for helping me come up with a lot of these ideas and helping to co-run the RPG. So listen to him as well guys =p.

Any questions?

[B]EDIT: Please note I don't mind characters based off comic book ones, as long as we're not going overboard with the powers. In fact, I encourage it![/B][/size]



[CENTER]- [] -



[B]Main Cities[/B][/center]

[size=1]The colony itself is relatively small, with only half of the actual planet covered and many of the cities small and rather uninteresting. The centre of the colony, however, hosts four main cities which are linked together by mile long roads and separated by vast wastelands between the roads.

[B]The City of Dis[/B]
The capital of the colony, located in the middle of the four cities. It is the location of the Parliament buildings and, apparently, the Black Zeitgeist’s head quarters (though their location has yet to be found). Dis is filled with underground passages and routes and is a maze of concrete, metal and glass. The city is the largest one on the planet and hosts a massive proportion of abandoned houses, factories and other hiding places for the growing criminal world. Though its crime rate is the highest across the colony, its police force is also renowned for its brutality.

[B]Acanthus Runway[/B]
Located at the East and South of Dis, Acanthus is the second largest city on the colony. It is primarily ruled by criminals who run away from Dis as police rarely charge their way across the cities during a chase. Acanthus is home to the more ‘retired’ criminals and also hosts the rise of many, many vigilantes and ‘heroes’. Acanthus is a quiet city, though still dangerous at night, and seems to be in less chaos than Dis. This is because its criminals are more likely to be intelligent, silent killers, who have no desire to be caught by the fuzz.

[B]Neapolis[/B]
This city is to the West of Dis and attracts the more organised criminals. It is known for a Black Zeitgeist present and is one of the richest parts of the colony; Neapolis has dozens of factories that manufacture weaponry, technology and even drugs. The opportunity for business attracts both legal and illegal eyes, and while the crime rate on the streets is considerably less here the dangers of the city are definitely known. Normal people rarely live in Neapolis, unless they work in the factories or for one of the rich criminals that own them.

[B]The Garden of Thebes[/B]
An ironic name for the city that is located in the North above Dis. Thebes was designed as beautiful, peaceful, educational area of the colony but turned out to evolve into a host for the colony’s criminals. Due to the large empty space in Thebes, the city is full of prisons and asylums. There are prisoner camps, training facilities and the only city that is fully occupied by the Government and the police force. The only criminals who dare enter Thebes are either locked up, tortured, or incredibly insane. Many normal citizens venture into Thebes (at a price) to few the ‘shows’ and the executions that take place, or for answers and appeals. Thebes is known for its ‘Justice’, though that it rarely seen by criminal eyes.[/size]


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[B]The Laws[/B][/CENTER]

[size=1]

1. Murder and man-slaughter is prohibited. [I]Punishment: Execution or Prison Camp.[/I]
2. Terrorism is prohibited when deemed as such by the Government. [I]Punishment: Torture, Prison Camp or Execution.[/I]
3. GBH (grievous bodily harm), assault and theft is prohibited. [I]Punishment: Prison Camp.[/I]
4. Anarchy of undermining of laws is prohibited. [I]Punishment: Prison Camp.[/I]
5. Illegal trade is prohibited. [I]Punishment: Prison Camp.[/I]
6. Possession of medical supplies without a warrant is illegal. [I]Punishment: Prison Camp[/I]
7. Homosexuality is prohibited. [I]Punishment: Rehabilitation, Prison Camp or Execution.[/I]
8. Religious worship of false idols is prohibited. [I]Punishment: Rehabilitation, Prison Camp or Execution.[/I]
9. Insanity, mental illness and physical disability must be treated at specialist facilites. [I]No Punishment.[/I]
10. Treason is prohibited. [I]Punishment: Execution.[/I]
11. Possession of weaponry without a warrant is prohibited. [I]Punishment: Prison Camp.[/I]
12. Failure to cooperate with police is prohibited. [I]Punishment: Rehabilitation or Prison Camp.[/I]
13. Resisting arrest is prohibited. [I]Punishment: Rehabilitation or Prison Camp.[/I]
14. Driving without a license or dangerously above speed limits is prohibitated. [I]Punishment: Prison Camp.[/I]
15. There will be no warnings.[/SIZE]



[center]- [] -



[B]The System[/b][/center]

[SIZE=1]The game won’t be played in a chapter system this time round. Shock horror. Instead, we’ll be playing an [B]Event[/b] system. I don’t know if that’s been done before, because I rarely keep up with other RPGs (not out of arrogance/ignorance or anything like that, mind you). Anyway, the idea is, we play out a story that will be posted in the Underground, or rather an event. It’ll be very basic and open to as much interpretation as possible; you all have complete freedom with the given description, no matter who wrote it.

The next even will be posted when we become either ‘bored’ or feel the previous event has run out of gas. Then the challenge is to motion all these events together, and create a story. Think of these events like chapters, only they can be longer than each other, faster paced, with different themes and ideas… the only pattern to be followed by these events is we have to try and link them together.

Seems confusing? Don’t worry about it, it’s a lot easier than you think. Me and Andrew will do the first few to give you an idea, then you’ll have the option to create your own little stories (but remember, the event description can be no longer than about two sentences).

Also, as the story is progressing and something evolves from an event (like a revolution, a character death .ect) then we’ll call it a ‘new’ event and give it a little description. The events are just there to recognise when the story is moving onwards – a rough guideline, a scruffy little sketch.

What do you reckon to that?[/SIZE]

[Doublehex]

This is just a mindless post so that people know that Vicky updated the thread for no other reason than to amuse herself.

After you go "Ooooo", you may resume your previously scheduled life. Thank you!

[Vicky]

[SIZE=1]I decided to post a few characters in the game for you guys to use. Omega already mentioned a a Commissioner moments before I was about to post this, haha. So far, we'll just have the Commissioner as an NPC and I'll add more when we need to. I dun think it'll be necessary to add commissioners from other cities until we actually start playing stories over there. If anyone has any characters to add that they think might be useful send me a PM (I'll probably be adding some government bodies soon as well).

[B]Commissioner Lloyd Harris[/B]
The grim Commissioner of the City of Dis who takes his job very seriously and refuses help from those outside the force. Because of his status, Harris is a very powerful man who holds the entire police community at his arms; he is, like many officials in the city, slightly corrupt and doesn't seem to see the difference between criminals and those trying to help. His son worked as a guard in a nearby Asylum and was killed by one of the inmates (who later escaped) and Harris has, ever since, been obsessed with finding the murderer of his son (as no name was released).[/size]

[DeLarge]

[SIZE=1]Wow, looking at that list of laws, my character could only be in more trouble if he was an insane homosexual false-idol-worshipping traitor.

On another note, is there going to be some kind of event coming up to push some or all of our characters together? I don't see it working too well if we're all spread out - that's part of the reason why I placed Hood in the city that Jess is heading to.
[/SIZE]

[Vicky]

[SIZE=1]Yeah, I only want the intro to be a sort of introduction to the characters so everyone gets a feel for them and stuff.

The event I'm thinking of is actually going to be linked to the silly idea of Jackman getting paint. That's right, paint =p. I was thinking of having Jackman steal a load of paint from a criminal syndicate or something (keeping in mind that the lack of resources on the planet pretty much means nuclear paint, haha) and the criminals send out a 'reward' for the return of their property, as well as the cops getting involved to stop the whole thing all together.

That's an idea I have for event one, which should bring most of the characters together (the vigilantes could be trying to stop all the criminals from getting their hands on the paint or cash, the criminals can try and get their hands on a share of it .ect .ect). As for the other characters (such as DeathKnight's), I'm sure I can find a way to drag them into it.

You may think my paint idea is silly, but I don't care, I reckon it's rather spazztastic for a first event XD

Oh, and as for the laws, I won't be adding anymore but you can feel free to think of some silly ones. Like television - maybe they only show the clock channel or political programmes to keep you under their control. Think V for Vendetta, only a bit more whacked out.[/SIZE]

[Darth Vectis]

[SIZE="1"]Well, I am pretty much screwed with these laws. They probably execute me on the spot if they get a hold of me. Anyways, I was wondering what could possibly count as Treason in this world. I mean, everything is so corrupt that you could probably bump into a government official and be called on treason. God only knows.[/SIZE]

[Vicky]

[size=1]Haha, actually that's pretty much true. The idea is to have a nice peaceful happy world with barely any freedom, to keep people under control. But, obviously, that didn't happen because people won't take these laws, and the only reason half of us won't get caught is because the police aren't up the scratch and the Government is too enthralled in their own little world of money and power.

Plus, some criminals (like the guys over in Neapolis) bring money and power into certain areas.They gotta be careful who they arrest incase they mess up their own game.

Treasons would be trying to assassinate Government officials, make war against the Government, attempts to overthrow it, bodily harm against Government officials, imprisonment or restraint of the said Government officials... and because we're playing in such a fucked up world, I suppose calling Government officials nitwits or idiots could somehow be twisted into treason.[/size]

[DeLarge]

[SIZE=1]I'm going to be away for a few days without internet, so don't expect a post from me until Wednesday evening. Hopefully I won't miss anything too important.[/SIZE]

[Orcus]

[SIZE="1"]I have a... [I]challenge[/I] for P.J. McKrafty. Your character and mine are gun proficient, so I think it'd be interesting to have a confrontation.

What say ye?[/SIZE]

[P.J. McKrafty]

[quote name='Omega'][SIZE=1]I have a... [I]challenge[/I] for P.J. McKrafty. Your character and mine are gun proficient, so I think it'd be interesting to have a confrontation.

What say ye?[/SIZE][/quote]

[FONT=Arial][COLOR=Navy]If I am not mistaken, a gauntlet has been thrown.

I accept.[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Orcus]

[SIZE="1"]=D
Most splendid! So how to go about this...

Would you like to do me the honor of setting up this epic showdown?[/SIZE]

[P.J. McKrafty]

[quote name='Omega'][SIZE=1]=D
Most splendid! So how to go about this...

Would you like to do me the honor of setting up this epic showdown?[/SIZE][/quote]

Oh, Omega. I'm touched.

Yeah, I guess I will take the pleasure of kicking this bitch off.

Be expecting it soon.

[Doublehex]

Guys, I would like to apologize for being non-existent here. I had just re-jumped on the WoW bandwagon, and with me RPing a Norse inspired character, I was just far too drained to do much writing. But, I promise you, you can expect The Query's debut by the end of the day, if not the hour.

[Vicky]

[size=1]That's cool Matt. We're just waiting for Andrew and DeathKnight to give a post now and then we're ready to move onto the next event.

Big O and P.J. (hehe, big O...), are you guys planning on a confrontation during the intro? I was thinking if we waited for Andrew, Matt and DeathKnight you could put your confrontation in the next event. That means I can write about it in the summary too, hehe. But it's totally up to you two and it doesn't mean you can't post again in the intro stage - in fact, you probably can, to build things up a little.[/size]

[Orcus]

[SIZE="1"]Hahaha, big O...

But seriously, I don't see why we couldn't wait to put our confrontation in the next event. I'm sure P.J. McKrafty and I, if and when we post again, could simply post the events leading up to the big battle.

Sound good Vicky and P.J.?[/SIZE]