[PXFIRE] Roleplay Discussion

[LKWayvern]

Playing a villain is fun. I'd totally volunteer to be a villain in an RP!

Something simple... Perhaps each team has a certain artifact that grants its members particular powers. The evil team's goal is to steal the artifacts that the other teams have. The other teams are trying to defend themselves, and if possible steal or destroy the evil team's artifact.

I dunno. Just an idea off the top of my head, trying to keep it from getting too complicated.

[Neo Emolga]

Playing a villain is fun. I'd totally volunteer to be a villain in an RP!

Something simple... Perhaps each team has a certain artifact that grants its members particular powers. The evil team's goal is to steal the artifacts that the other teams have. The other teams are trying to defend themselves, and if possible steal or destroy the evil team's artifact.

I dunno. Just an idea off the top of my head, trying to keep it from getting too complicated.

We could totally be villain buddies!

But yeah, that's exactly the kind of simple idea I'd want to roll with. The thing is, if there's room for things to grow, it will grow. One team's strategy, in response to artifact plundering, might be to get NPC helpers or get ordinance while another's might include building some machine to help their cause. It keeps things ever-changing and dynamic, which allows the RP storyline to become exciting and suspenseful.

[LKWayvern]

We could totally be villain buddies!

But yeah, that's exactly the kind of simple idea I'd want to roll with. The thing is, if there's room for things to grow, it will grow. One team's strategy, in response to artifact plundering, might be to get NPC helpers or get ordinance while another's might include building some machine to help their cause. It keeps things ever-changing and dynamic, which allows the RP storyline to become exciting and suspenseful.

Okay, so if we're rolling with this idea... And you mentioned earlier wanting to use something we're all familiar with-- we could maybe use Arceus' Plates as this artifact?
Like, each Plate allows Pokemon access to moves of the Plate's type that they wouldn't normally have access to, or it gives the entirety of that team a specific power, or a power that goes with the theme of that Plates type-- like the team bearing the Splash Plate might have one member who's a non-aquatic Pokemon who can breathe water, one member who's aquakinetic, one member who can purify water, etc.

So it's an object we're already fairly familiar with, and is easily enough expanded upon to fit the plot.

[Chakramaster]

I haven't said too much on it since it was posted, but I do agree. Keeping it relatively more simple sounds best.

I do still think a PMD setting would just work out better, but as to story it could be anything. Even something simple as a "small Explorers Festival" or Tournament like setting. Where Exploration Teams from all over the world are gathering in Treasure Town. Where this year's festival was chosen to be hosted. It could somewhat be similar to events like Harry Potter's Goblet of Fire. Except you work with your team to complete challenges.

But to simplify what was posted would really take a lot of tweaking too. I'll need to read back over it a few times too

[AD]

If I was ever a villain...i tend to go too far.

[Noblejanobii]

Aww I really really liked that idea. But then again I'm a sucker for complexities.

But oh well. If it's villains we're going with then someone might want to come along. We do venture hand in hand after all.

[Soups]

Well, let's at least save what was for a later time. I actually thought it was interesting. However, I do understand how it can be viewed as a bit much for what we're trying to do. Nevertheless, we'll need something fresh. I agree that whatever we come up with has to be simple. Does that mean it can't have ANY complexities? Of course not. Complexities will naturally reveal themselves with time. That's the result of great RPing. I just don't know necessarily what we should do. You're the mastermind, Neo. I'm sure we'll enjoy whatever you conjure up. xD

[Neo Emolga]

Okay, here's the preliminary idea I have in mind using a kind of blend between Chakramaster's idea and a few other thoughts I have in mind. This feels a lot more manageable.

I'm thinking of going with a PMD setting since people seem to really like that. And sure, we could have a Festival thing, but we kind of need a crisis situation as well, so here are my thoughts.

Just note that in this RP storyline, we would use a new world for the setting. I just don't think the already existing ones would fit all that well, though an emergency were to arise, I would roll with PSMD's.

A while ago, I wrote Trial of Juno and the third installment dealt with Juno traveling to the Pokémon-only world of Egatept that was ruled to be so dirty and evil that it was actually scheduled to have an Armageddon. Well, Juno decides he wants to step in and try and save it as a last resort. The tech level was kind of Vietnam War era, but it wasn't particular. They did have machines, computers, firearms, and things like that, but nothing into sci-fi areas like robots and laser rifles.

We could have a similar PMD world that's very dark, very gritty, very Orre-like, and essentially a world where the bad guys won. It's a world where evil teams would actually have a much easier time than the good guys since when it comes to violence, smuggling, theft, and cheating, you've got plenty of options whereas the white knight looks like a joke. So imagine a PMD-like world where dark cities are bathed in hellish glows of trashcan fires and imposing neon lights and there's violence, theft, smuggling, drugs, and other bad things everywhere. In Egatept, there was also a genocide of normal-type Pokémon going on. We could have something like that as well as a sub plot. Meanwhile, most of the world is ruled under a North Korea-like regime with a dictator in power. Speak ill against the dictator, and say goodbye to your butt. We'll call this faction "Schism" for now. I'm still deciding on what the dictator would be like, but he or she would be pretty cold-hearted and ruthless and would be regarded as some kind of demigod even though they're a normal Pokémon.

The surprise here is I'll be solely commanding Schism's forces (and weee, I don't care if my characters and NPCs take heavy casualties!). Expect a force that exploits plenty of sickening propaganda, military oppression, and obey-or-else standards. Meanwhile, as with Charka's idea, they're having a "Tempest Festival," but it's NOT the kind of festival you'd want your kids to see. Blood sports like arena fights to the death (with gambling on winners and losers), deadly vehicle racing, and endurance competitions where fatalities are common would be the highlight. Think of an Olympics gone completely wrong and you'll have the Tempest Festival.

Teams will need to decide how they want to deal with the issue. So much of it is being televised that a team that actually wants to send a message could have opportunities, or you could have other teams simply taking advantage of it. Or even participating in the events themselves. You decide how you want to deal with it!

During said festival, we could have it where a convoy was supposed to bring the dictator the Arceus Plates, only it was intercepted by an unknown attacker, and now they don't know where the Plates are. These Plates are special in that they can change a Pokémon's type just by physical contact, and the type changing stays for as long as the older wants. The user also gains the power to use any attack of that type as well! They can pop off the type change at any time, but then they would need to touch a Plate again to change types again. But there's a rumor that the Master Plate was lost as well, and this one has the power to take Pokémon to higher evolution states that what they could naturally achieve (think permanent Mega Evolutions that technically don't exist yet). Naturally, that was supposed to go to Schism's dictator, but now it could be anywhere and Schism is out in full force trying to find it. If the Plates have already hit the Black Market, they could be anywhere by now.

So those are basically my ideas for now. I wouldn't make it get any more complex than this. The fight against Schism and your other team rivals is your main storyline plot, but the Tempest Festival and Arceus Plates would also serve as great sub plots that can easily become part of the main plot as well. I definitely think this would be enough to get a decent RP going without too much complex stuff going on. Plus, with me taking command of Schism's forces, team rivalries or not, you'll definitely have Schism to deal with. So something will definitely be going down.

What do you guys think?

[VeloJello]

This actually fits the character I was wanting to create even better than the old premise does. I love it.

I feel like noting that I'm planning a chaotic neutral character - someone who's not going to go out of her way to bother other "good" factions, but someone who won't hesitate to mess with them if she feels like she can handle things better.

I'm not sure about the genocide thing, though. The fact that I'm planning on playing a Heliolisk aside, I can't see a logical reason for it. Normal-types aren't overly weak (so social darwinists wouldn't go for their throats) or overly strong (not a threat to the current power). I would possibly consider making the Plates stronger or implementing Shards so that teams could gather more power, though command of ordinance, weapons, mercenaries, etc could also serve that purpose. Also, I'm still not sure where the team rivalries would come up - unless everyone has a very different worldview it feels like this kind of thing could actually encourage cooperation over confrontation.

[LKWayvern]

sounds extremely interesting! maybe i'll get to read that section of trial of juno at some point in the eventual future!

Okay first of all, I am very very interested. I am usually interested by both PMD and dark situations with no easy solutions, so this has me doubly interested.
I'd like to hear a little bit about the technology levels, though it did give me a pretty good idea of what does and does not exist at this point. Not exact, but pretty good.
propoganda? military oppression? obey or else? sounds just like night vale. i'm sure i'll love it.
Joking aside, I am digging the darker themes. I have read a couple darker PMD stories, but none anything like this. I think the closest I've gotten is the fact that there's a draft in Evolving Worlds, and the government there is... Benign if inexperienced and somewhat incompetent. So this is something totally different and new to me that I'd be very interested in exploring.

One thing, though. I think that this was brought up before when discussing the previous War RP.
What's the incentive to create conflict between the teams? Do we have wildly different morals from each other, like Team Red believes that Schism should be taken down at any cost while Team Blue believes in pacifistic methods of victory while Team Yellow is purely interested in keeping the Plates out of impure hands? Or are we all different units in a massive overreaching resistance movement?