[WAR] RP Plot Teaser (Draft stage)

[bronislav84]

Well, here's my take on the situation.

I've heard Bron describe this as the "perfect world" on multiple occasions, and honestly, I think that needs to be nipped in the bud. You don't get too many heroes, action, or glory if everything's fine and good and everyone can just kick back on a hammock and crack open a cold one. Magic should have plenty of uses, but letting it take away the struggle and effort out of everything by being the go-to quick fix for every one of life's little problems isn't a good idea either. In fact, as a long-term RP creator, the more problems and struggles you have going, the more challenges there are to overcome and the more heroic you make the protagonists by rising up to fix these things. Why do you think so many movies, stories, and games start up with such dystopian or apocalyptic settings? If everything was fine, there wouldn't be a need for a story. So it would be best to try and avoid sticking to a status-quo setting by making life "too good." If that means disrupting/corrupting people's magic powers, causing some kind of doomsday event like a disease or where only a limited and selective number of people can survive, or something where relying too much on magic backfires and now people find themselves out of their comfort zone, I think we really need to consider it.

Even on a minimal change scale, I remember WAR Season 4, which had plenty of good-natured teams, and it only took one little spark to set things off. And this is all it really entailed:

The world leader was gone, and one team assumed leadership of the world and thought everyone would be on board for that. Fat chance. The other teams refused to go along with that and it quickly became a "who died and made you god" kind of conflict. If you don't like the whole idea of dramatically changing the setting, this is another possibility. One team (Trainer, most likely) just needs to assume they're kings of the world now and can try to bend the cultural norms and traditions of all the regions and teams to suit their team theme and ideals, while the other teams straight up start a revolution and try to declare independence. The ruling team can be regarded negatively as an imposing dictatorship (which meant well, but got too close to comfort for some people), while the rebelling teams can be viewed as violent instigators or be given the classic "terrorist" label (though they just wanted to be their own identity).

Aside from this, I don't agree with the whole idea of everyone versus Winter or any kind of "all against one" (or two) setup just to get a conflict going. That's rough no matter what RPing skill they have. I've been overwhelmed by opponent RPers before all attacking me at once and it's quite rough and got to the point where I had to let my character realistically have themselves get killed. Besides, the battle between good and evil isn't always so black and white. You can make a good team seem evil just by having them believe the ends justify the means and feel the utopia to come is worth the violence and the sacrifice.

And Bron, if you really don't want this much modification done to your Arcane Pokéworld idea, maybe it would be better to save it for another occasion and we use something else for a WAR RP instead. There's still time before June 7th and together we can make a backup plan work, but we can't wait too long on this.

I think changing the premise to be less perfect would take too long to do now and the RP wouldn't be starting on time. I'd be fine with quickly rewriting it with Trainer in charge, provided they're fine with it. Can't just force it on them.

I'd say something, but Neo and company already said it. There HAS to be a conflict. May I suggest that the 'benevolent' alien benefactors that made the planet the way it is come back at this point, due to unspecified disasters making it the only 'safe' place for whatever reason, and having their high technology and lack of magic conflict? What I mean here is, have the tech explicitly screw with Magic, or vice-versa. That's a whole lot of possible ideology conflicts all at once. That's just my suggestion.

Also, it isn't a REQUIREMENT that a team's player has to follow the team, or that there even is an equivalent team in-universe. For all you know, Team Awesome (just using them as a random example) are going to go completely independant and just wander around with various goals and moralities. You can't prove that Team Magma is actually going to come into this as a team. Or trainer. Or anyone, really. It's merely a preference, if I recall. That's just my two cents, though.

I think you didn't read enough. The Xeth are the source of Pokeworld's magic. To us they'd be gods who transcended material forms and their magic is much higher level than Pokeworld's. What you're suggesting wouldn't work, sorry.

Whew, this was posted in a lot since I went to sleep. Anyway, I'm sort of neutral on being one of the "bad guys" if that route is taken. Originally I didn't plan for my character to be technically aligned with Team Magma (my WAR team), but that can be changed if necessary. I'm not for or against this idea as a whole. The character I envisioned was sort of self-centered/serving but could probably can fit into this somehow (or could be scrapped).

On one hand, having most people against my character would at least guarantee I'd run into other people and up the dynamic a little bit. On the other, everyone is right and it would probably be really overwhelming haha. I'm not qualified to judge my own RP abilities anyway. I've had a couple of years of experience with URPG RP (on PWN and BMG) but those are pretty self-directed and not really like this. Also minor D&D and Pokemon Tabletop (on Roll20) experience. It could be fun, but it might be torture too.

Building on Winter's idea of some wielders not being as good as others, I'm wondering, is there any conflict/stigmas/etc between all the races? Since some of them are vastly different, there might be something to work with there. Elements being better against certain others and such. Or something like that. Since this is world where both Pokemon and "Trainers" for lack of a better term, have magic and work side by side (if my understanding is correct), is there any conflict with that? A magic-wielding race enslaving another magic-wielding race.

The killing of the leaders is a pretty good launching point because it automatically puts everyone under suspicion and creates tension.

Okay so we're not gonna go with you and Sabi as the antagonists. I don't want to force it on people, even if one says she's cool with it.

Talent doesn't really act this way in real life, though, and I doubt that it would be much different when it comes to telling the laws of physics to shut up and sit down. As uncomfortable a truth as it is, some people have to practice and fight more than other people. Some people have to study their butt off for a simple algebra quiz while someone of similar age and upbringing can easily ace their calculus final. And in a world so reliant on magic, having some people who are less capable of using magic is a great way of introducing conflicts both major and minor.

I imagine that a conflict between races isn't all that far-fetched, like WinterVines said. If the Mechari were created to be servants, then it's pretty easy to imagine that some people might consider the Mechari to be lesser beings. Heck, Angels might be considered to be at a disadvantage - they get their fancy thunder and dragon magic, but if everyone is already capable of easily-accessible flight, then what good are an Angel's wings? The Merfolk seem like they would be reclusive and isolated because of their aquatic nature, so maybe they have difficulty understanding the cultural norms that the rest of the races have developed over time.

One thing that I notice is that the exact details on "leadership" aren't present in the story at all. Knowing who's in charge and what sort of government or governments are in place helps to build the story. Are all of the races led by separate leaders? Is there a singular world ruler? Do some races have more influence than others? Having all of the world leaders killed is a start, but it doesn't help move the story much if there's no information on these leaders. What were the leaders doing while they were alive? Do the leaders have clear lines of succession, or is there going to be a big-and-bloody power vacuum? Were the leaders good? Bad? Mixed?

One more question - how do the Pokemon fit into all of this? Are Pokemon treated equally to the other races? Where exactly do they fit in in a world where all of the "people" take care of their own needs and have magic of their own?

Bear in mind that I'm mostly just providing observations here. I'm fond of the idea of the "magical Equalists" trying to remove the magic, since it sounds like the most interesting story. But yeah. Trust me, I know how hard it can be to beat an actual plot into a good premise.

I would like to do a Magical Equalists thing with some who aren't as good just wanting to nix all the magic. They don't know it's the sun that gives the world magic. Really I would like to do this, but we can't. Someone would need to take the reigns for it to be effective and nobody is really going to. I don't want to force Sabi and/or WinterVines to to it.

The stigma and tension between races is an idea that can be implemented into the plot though.

I had hoped to not need to go into detail about world governments that no longer exist once the RP starts. They all cease to exist anyway. There's definitely going to be a power vacuum though. That seems to be most logical to me.

Pokemon are pretty much on the level of sacred and are revered, due to being the first practitioners.

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Okay, so Neo will be doing an update to the plot. We'll be working together, but he's more eloquent than I am. We want to keep the setting and mechanics as intact as possible, but introduce conflict and tension as has been discussed.

By the sound of it we might put Trainer in charge and have the other teams not like the idea, but I think Trainer has to agree to that. Guys? @The Frost Dragon @Pokemon Trainer Sarah

It should be able to start on time. Sit tight, y'all.

[Steel Lunpara]

Okay, so Neo will be doing an update to the plot. We'll be working together, but he's more eloquent than I am. We want to keep the setting and mechanics as intact as possible, but introduce conflict and tension as has been discussed.

By the sound of it we might put Trainer in charge and have the other teams not like the idea, but I think Trainer has to agree to that. Guys? @The Frost Dragon @Pokemon Trainer Sarah

It should be able to start on time. Sit tight, y'all.

Sorry, friend, Sarah isn't here this weekend. It's just myself right now. Regardless, as for handling the RP, I'm not exactly sure why it needs to be handed off to another team, much less to ours in particular. What's the issue of a group discussion on the matter, like we're doing now?

Team Trainer: Lawful good. Team Trainer believes in the idealistic, almost naive, why-can't-everyone-get-along within the means of the law kind of good. Primarily making decisions with a long-term plan in mind (ie if we don't feed our people this week we can feed everyone for a year!)
The Phoenix Battalion: Chaotic good. They don't believe in inefficient or slow ways of doing good. They want forceful change now. Short-term thinkers (ie if we don't feed our people this week, they will die).
Prism League: Neutral good. Religious zealots that have a very specific, uncompromising, and dogmatic sense of justice.
Team Awesome: I have no idea what tickles XaiakuX's fancy these days.

Just create some catastrophe that only allows for a singular solution and have the good teams duke it out over who gets to implement their sense of justice upon the world.

Wait, wait! I know I'm late to the party, but as I've said on the general war discussion thread, I don't think "good" ideals necessarily have to be positive things. Just like a character flaw doesn't quite have to be a bad thing, i.e. a character that's far too trusting or willing to forgive others, a "good" team could easily take their ideology too far. My current idea for my team was a Splinter Cell of sorts, a group of extremists within the team that want something that's good on concept, but either by it's methods or implications could be awful to the rest of the world.