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ways_back_room2016-02-24 01:22 pm
never_promised) wrote in ways_back_room2016-02-24 01:22 pm
Sister Zoot has been setting a light to the grail-shaped beacon again
Hullo hullo Milliways folk! I come bearing a small mod-approved plot event!
Let's send characters forth on some good old-fashioned quests, from which they can return with character development, feelings, and/or shiny things! I'm looking to kick it off around March 20/21st but since it's mainly focused on OOM writing and threading, people can be pretty flexible with their Millitimes.
Now let's see if I can figure out how to do a read-more cut...
So, what's going to happen is that a Questing Beast of some variety will appear in Milliways. Its appearance depends on the character(s) seeing it: white stags, canny ravens, cute droids with mysterious data, a small child with a flashing exclamation point over its head, a space coyote voiced by Johnny Cash, etc. Players can send their characters off on an OOM quest--either a written-up OOM fic, or if they want to go with someone else they can thread it out OOM, whatever. The end result will be a prize, or maybe just a good story.
What sort of quest should your character go on? Some standard story elements are fighting terrible foes, tests of moral fiber, harsh trials, riddles, hard-to-interpret visions. You can make this complicated or simple--just a single boss-fight sort of thing, or a wandering journey with temptations and problems to solve. Go as serious or as silly as you like; people can adjust tropes to fit their canon, or go right for an Arthurian or high-fantasy style.
Where and how is this happening? Yyyyeah, uh, I dunno, it's, um. Magic. Your character will be led across the grounds into a dark and tangled wood or up to a door that opens onto whatever the heck you need for your character. (Spaceships? Wild West Towns? Postapocalyptic wastelands?) They will eventually return to the same place on the Milliways grounds. You...probably shouldn't poke too hard at logistical details like "but did this really happen" or "where did this all take place really."
What does my character get out of this? Let's try for some suitably cool Character Feelsy Outcomes? The idea is more of a nifty souvenir or small plot device than a huge character stats upgrade or a major AU development. (And of course think about what any results might mean for your canon-mates and other players in general and stuff. For instance, if your character is discovering someone else's secret, you should coordinate that with other players. If your character is learning about some big canonical mystery, think about how that's going to affect canon and canon-mates.) But here are the options:
1. An Impossible Voyage: It could be that at the end of the quest an unmanned magical ship appears to take you briefly to a land of legends, or a strange rocky gate whisks you (for a limited time) to another time and place. (The past? The future? The afterlife? The world if your character had never been born? A really cool party? Many such journeys are possible.) Yes, this includes dead people in Milliways getting a temporary passage to their own worlds. Again, all this is temporary, one to three days at most. (This is, admittedly, a lot like just some more quest happening. I figure it's okay if the line between quest and reward is a little misty.)
2. A Glimpse of What Might Be: Lancelot wasn't good enough to get the grail himself, but he was rewarded with a brief vision of it. What is that for your character? A look into the future, some moment of self-knowledge, an answer to a burning question, a conversation with a ghost, things like that.
3. A Shiny Thing: Think standard RPG rewards. An especially good weapon or piece of armor, a ring/amulet/cloak/thingamajig with some minor magical effect (not super-super-powers like flight, mindreading, invisibility, inter-world travel--something like improved agility, faster healing, good luck), an Ancient Tome of Wisdom, some really cool-looking treasure... A really awesome car? Loot.
4. Coming Home Empty-Handed: maybe you feel like your character just doesn't deserve epic rewards. Or maybe the journey itself is the reward and your character needs to learn things about themself. Or maybe you figure your character will actually get the most out of just having a funny adventure story to tell.
What do players actually do? So--there will be a post in the comm to lure characters off on quests. I'm happy to thread some of that out with people, but it's mostly just a kicking-off point for you guys to go have fun. Write a fic about the quest, join up with someone for a paired adventure, something like that. And I mean, I'm not policing anything here. If you end up just handwaving the actual quest and EPing your character's return from some unbelievable wild ride, I mean, you're not getting graded. It's all good.
The goals are pretty much fun and character feels.
Questions? Complaints? Suggestions?
Let's send characters forth on some good old-fashioned quests, from which they can return with character development, feelings, and/or shiny things! I'm looking to kick it off around March 20/21st but since it's mainly focused on OOM writing and threading, people can be pretty flexible with their Millitimes.
Now let's see if I can figure out how to do a read-more cut...
So, what's going to happen is that a Questing Beast of some variety will appear in Milliways. Its appearance depends on the character(s) seeing it: white stags, canny ravens, cute droids with mysterious data, a small child with a flashing exclamation point over its head, a space coyote voiced by Johnny Cash, etc. Players can send their characters off on an OOM quest--either a written-up OOM fic, or if they want to go with someone else they can thread it out OOM, whatever. The end result will be a prize, or maybe just a good story.
What sort of quest should your character go on? Some standard story elements are fighting terrible foes, tests of moral fiber, harsh trials, riddles, hard-to-interpret visions. You can make this complicated or simple--just a single boss-fight sort of thing, or a wandering journey with temptations and problems to solve. Go as serious or as silly as you like; people can adjust tropes to fit their canon, or go right for an Arthurian or high-fantasy style.
Where and how is this happening? Yyyyeah, uh, I dunno, it's, um. Magic. Your character will be led across the grounds into a dark and tangled wood or up to a door that opens onto whatever the heck you need for your character. (Spaceships? Wild West Towns? Postapocalyptic wastelands?) They will eventually return to the same place on the Milliways grounds. You...probably shouldn't poke too hard at logistical details like "but did this really happen" or "where did this all take place really."
What does my character get out of this? Let's try for some suitably cool Character Feelsy Outcomes? The idea is more of a nifty souvenir or small plot device than a huge character stats upgrade or a major AU development. (And of course think about what any results might mean for your canon-mates and other players in general and stuff. For instance, if your character is discovering someone else's secret, you should coordinate that with other players. If your character is learning about some big canonical mystery, think about how that's going to affect canon and canon-mates.) But here are the options:
1. An Impossible Voyage: It could be that at the end of the quest an unmanned magical ship appears to take you briefly to a land of legends, or a strange rocky gate whisks you (for a limited time) to another time and place. (The past? The future? The afterlife? The world if your character had never been born? A really cool party? Many such journeys are possible.) Yes, this includes dead people in Milliways getting a temporary passage to their own worlds. Again, all this is temporary, one to three days at most. (This is, admittedly, a lot like just some more quest happening. I figure it's okay if the line between quest and reward is a little misty.)
2. A Glimpse of What Might Be: Lancelot wasn't good enough to get the grail himself, but he was rewarded with a brief vision of it. What is that for your character? A look into the future, some moment of self-knowledge, an answer to a burning question, a conversation with a ghost, things like that.
3. A Shiny Thing: Think standard RPG rewards. An especially good weapon or piece of armor, a ring/amulet/cloak/thingamajig with some minor magical effect (not super-super-powers like flight, mindreading, invisibility, inter-world travel--something like improved agility, faster healing, good luck), an Ancient Tome of Wisdom, some really cool-looking treasure... A really awesome car? Loot.
4. Coming Home Empty-Handed: maybe you feel like your character just doesn't deserve epic rewards. Or maybe the journey itself is the reward and your character needs to learn things about themself. Or maybe you figure your character will actually get the most out of just having a funny adventure story to tell.
What do players actually do? So--there will be a post in the comm to lure characters off on quests. I'm happy to thread some of that out with people, but it's mostly just a kicking-off point for you guys to go have fun. Write a fic about the quest, join up with someone for a paired adventure, something like that. And I mean, I'm not policing anything here. If you end up just handwaving the actual quest and EPing your character's return from some unbelievable wild ride, I mean, you're not getting graded. It's all good.
The goals are pretty much fun and character feels.
Questions? Complaints? Suggestions?