Interest Check & Idea Thread

[Nolrai2]

[] Human, one of many. Safe in cities, careful in their villages.
[] Created Race, unnatural creatures made for battle in the last war. Their creators gone, they try to find a place in the world.
[] People of the Sun. Strict, powerful, victors of the last war striving towards the Pure World.
[] Demi-human. The tainted world has given birth to many horrors, loss of morality, sin, corrupted places in the world brought forth twisted forms from humanity.

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[X] Created Race, unnatural creatures made for battle in the last war. Their creators gone, they try to find a place in the world.

 

[iamnuff]

The idea I'd had there was that you weren't quite sure if she had deliberately 'messed up' the contract enough to be able to hang around or if she had really gotten confused about who was who when writing a horrible complex contract which referred to the 'the party known as the party of the first part in the second instances of the first reference'..

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I wasn't sure if she was supposed to be fairly canny (and a mentor to us) or some poor dumb devil who fucked up her first contract.

Either/or could be fun, I suppose.

It wasn't going to be a full canonical Bleash Quest, or to close to it at all, and I wanted to avoid the power levels surging higher and higher. Instead it was a case of having an adaptable toolbox and being able to add more to it regular, or improvise a flawed solution, rather than 'NEED NEW POWER-UP!'.

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That's the main draw of grabbing a rank and file Shinigami to me. She probably has one unique ability in her Shikai, and not much else.
A Low powered Bleach quest would be fun, but playing as a spiritually powerful human in the same (low-powered) setting would be better.

Less bullshit ichigo powers, more "ichigo's friend from school has a run in with the local unranked Shinigami while Ichigo is away saving the world" sort of thing. Well that level, different location/characters though.

Shunpo might be barely possible for the shinigami, for those split-second dodges that barely save your life, but even that would be stretching it. full-on Speed-blitz attacks and glowing battle auras would be a complete no-go.
Just your relatively standard "superhuman physical abilities" package that comes from being a "strong" spirit, a sword (with shiki) and maybe a couple of signature Kido, if they happen to be particularly skilled.

Keep in mind, the closest we really see to "rank and file" is Rukia at the start, and even then she was apparently good enough to be a ranked officer if her brother wasn't sabotaging her promotion prospects to try and keep her safe.

I can see an unseated officer having Sai, Sho (the two starter Kido, for Binding and destruction, respectively) a sword with a single relatively standard gimmick (More like Renji's whip-blade, less like Aizen's Total Hypnosis.) and enough personal strength or skill to kill a single minor hollow in direct combat without (too much) risk.

Give it like a 40% chance to hurt her, lower numbers means more damage, ranging from "it barely scratch me" at 40, to "I fucked up pretty bad and I'm probably not going to survive without help" on a 1.

Fighting two at once would be putting her life in serious danger (actual combat rolls, instead of just "does it even touch you before you kill it?") Three would require tactics like using Kido to separate them before she even bothered to go into combat with them.

Basically, she'd be physically on par with a low/medium ranked devil, but without any Evil Piece to give her a single OP trait like Kiba's speed.

The sort of person who would have the King-Fisher Hollow as a genuinely challenging boss fight, despite the fact that it's a stage-one hollow.

Possibly even going the route of not being a direct combatant at all, but being quite able to call in a favour/binding to get something (or someone) else to fight for you while you stay back and do fiendishly complex things.

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Well, in your quest idea (and my own twist to the idea) you wouldn't be playing as the Shinigami, you'd be the necromancer/spiritually aware human who works with her, so she would be your "bound" person/thing that does (some of) your fighting for you.

I see it more as a partnership than you controlling her though. Maybe working with her to bind or defeat Hollows?

Hmm. If it's a multicross like your Necromancer idea, then have the Shinigami be one of the most powerful players that the main character is aware of at the start.

He's running around trying to bind things to fight for him so he can fend off the hungry ghosts, and she's a trained warrior/minor divinity, sent directly from the spirit world to kick ass and take names. Someone who was first introduced by diving into a swordfight with a soul-eating monster and cutting it's face off.

From his perspective, she's a complete badass monster-hunter, and honestly? She kinda is.

We readers tend to lose sight of them though, because in canon, these street-level fighters are mooks who get mowed down by the dozen in a single battle.

Man, i'm really getting into this idea now.

 

[Least Devotee]

The High School Necromancer idea sounds really interesting and fun to play, both the original idea and Iamnuff's expansion of it.

 

[iamnuff]

The High School Necromancer idea sounds really interesting and fun to play, both the original idea and Iamnuff's expansion of it.

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I'm always a fan of taking a setting like Dragonball, Naruto or Bleach, then continuing the story at the level it was at for the first couple of episodes.


Shave away all the giant monsters (or keep them rare enough that they are still a big deal) cut out all the screaming and multi-form transformations, and general shonen "No, I am the more powerful" crap and just have your guy go do whatever it is he's supposed to be doing, then he's not interacting with the protaganist.

Shinigami hunting hollows instead of fighting hybrid bullshit created by a traitor Shinigami, Ninja running missions instead of spending every episode fighting S-class threats and doing training montages. DBZ that's still about martial arts, and not about who has the biggest, chi Beam or the most transformation sequences.

Basically, I want to see a story about all the Yamcha's of the world going out and proving that just because they can't wrestle with the protagonist and his absurd Aryan-Master-Race-Yet-Somehow-Still-Japanese-Superman world-exploding Chi-beam nonsense, doesn't mean that they aren't still an interesting character.

Small scale plot, low powered setting, use that to bring the more "normal" characters back into focus.

 

[Mu-Sensei]

I'm always a fan of taking a setting like Dragonball, Naruto or Bleach, then continuing the story at the level it was at for the first couple of episodes.

Small scale plot, low powered setting, use that to bring the more "normal" characters back into focus.

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THIS. Why can't I like this thrice or ten times.

I like Black Lightning God Negima as much as the next guy, but I liked the festival fights much better than Rakan and onwards, because martial arts made as much difference as the magic. Also, too much beams make the pages hard to look at, and its hard to take a spam type attack seriously when the protagonist don't even sweat to use it, and I'd like to see a story where numbers also matter, instead of, lets fight one on one because my followers are on our level.

 

[Xicree]

... So Hunter X Hunter quest you say.

 

[iamnuff]

THIS. Why can't I like this thrice or ten times.

I like Black Lightning God Negima as much as the next guy, but I liked the festival fights much better than Rakan and onwards, because martial arts made as much difference as the magic. Also, too much beams make the pages hard to look at, and its hard to take a spam type attack seriously when the protagonist don't even sweat to use it, and I'd like to see a story where numbers also matter, instead of, lets fight one on one because my followers are on our level.

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Yeah, Negima is good for it too.

Though the festivle had it's far share of OP characters, for the most part, the fights were better.

HSDK is the same, sorta.

When kenichi fights, you get fairly well thought-out fight scenes where each fighter's strengths and weaknesses are taken into account.

When two masters fight, you get a blur of fists, then someone keels over.

 

[Mu-Sensei]

Yeah, Negima is good for it too.

Though the festivle had it's far share of OP characters, for the most part, the fights were better.

HSDK is the same, sorta.

When kenichi fights, you get fairly well thought-out fight scenes where each fighter's strengths and weaknesses are taken into account.

When two masters fight, you get a blur of fists, then someone keels over.

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At least HSDK has the excuse that Kenichi does't understand what is happening when one of the master's level guys are fighting, but Dragonball crew... nope.

 

[iamnuff]

At least HSDK has the excuse that Kenichi does't understand what is happening when one of the master's level guys are fighting, but Dragonball crew... nope.

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Well, once you've used "a blur of fists" to show one master type battle, you can't really go back to having them fight like normal people, it wouldn' t make sense, but then you've locked yourself in.

DBZ just has crappy animation though. when they DO go hand-to hand, they tend to loop the same three attacks over and over to pad the fight out.

 

[shaderic]

This is meant to be short, simple, and idiotic.

___________________________________________


There comes a time in a man's life wherein he questions his life choices. Where he wonders what decision led him to this point. Was his fate his own fault, or simple happenstance? An uncomfortable series of coincidences, or someone else's bad day? Could you have stopped this somehow, or predicted the consequences of your actions?

After spending a few seconds contemplating this, you decide that no, there was no fucking logical reason for a god-damned high-school girl to jump off a building, explode in a sphere of blinding light and sound into a fetishistic costume (you refuse to say transformed) with a skirt that's impossibly short, and start then shooting beams and lasers made of hearts at purple skinned man who also exploded into a fetishistic costume with a skirt so short you don't even want to think about what you saw during the scant seconds the wind blew by.

Being a sane and rational individual, you know what you must do.

[ ] Run like the dickens you son of a bitch. There's lasers and explosions and MEN IN TINY MINISKIRTS here.
[ ] Get some Video Footage. No one will believe you anyway, but maybe it'll help convince you that you weren't slipped hallucinogens.
[ ] Absolute. Zero. Fucks. Ignore them. They're not here. They don't exist. You're clearly hallucinating. Continue business as normal.
[ ] You should actually... [Write in]


And opinions go here...
[ ] You MAD GENIUS, I must have more!
[ ] Not bad. Might be worth something once there's actual content.
[ ] Dude this is cool, but don't you have half a dozen other things to be working on?
[ ] BACK TO THE PIT FROM WHENCE THOU CAME, VILE DEMON.

 

[Heaven Canceler]

[X] Absolute. Zero. Fucks. Ignore them. They're not here. They don't exist. You're clearly hallucinating. Continue business as normal.
[X] Not bad. Might be worth something once there's actual content.

 

[Biigoh]

[X] Get some Video Footage. No one will believe you anyway, but maybe it'll help convince you that you weren't slipped hallucinogens.
And opinions go here...
[X] You MAD GENIUS, I must have more!

 

[Odysseus2099]

[X] Get some Video Footage. No one will believe you anyway, but maybe it'll help convince you that you weren't slipped hallucinogens.
[X] Not bad. Might be worth something once there's actual content.

 

[Silversun17]

[X] Absolute. Zero. Fucks. Ignore them. They're not here. They don't exist. You're clearly hallucinating. Continue business as normal.
[X] You MAD GENIUS, I must have more!

 

[Megaolix]

[X] Get some Video Footage. No one will believe you anyway, but maybe it'll help convince you that you weren't slipped hallucinogens.
[X] Dude this is cool, but don't you have half a dozen other things to be working on?

 

[kinglugia]

[X] Get some Video Footage. No one will believe you anyway, but maybe it'll help convince you that you weren't slipped hallucinogens.
-[X] Maybe after you confirmed that, yes, this is real...dissect and research the video and see what exactly are you seeing.
[X] Not bad. Might be worth something once there's actual content.

 

[Valette-Serafina]

[X] Absolute. Zero. Fucks. Ignore them. They're not here. They don't exist. You're clearly hallucinating. Continue business as normal.

And opinions go here...
[X] Embrace your muse, and write things. Like this. Write this.

 

[EvaUnit01]

You are on a school bus, heading for a place called Youkai Academy. You idly ponder the choice of name, wondering if the directors have a strange sense of humor, or if it's indicative of something else....

A young man boards the bus, and is summarily creeped out by the driver.

After he takes a seat, the boy turns to you to start up a conversation, but hesitates. You're sure this is because...

[] you are an albino. You acknowledge that most people are unnerved by your appearance, yet the reasoning for it puzzles you.

[] the seven scars on your chest are clearly outlined against your undershirt. Never again will you entrust your vest to the dry cleaners.

[] your hair blends into your hat. What a pain in the ass...

[] oh no, are the combat sensors over your ears showing? Your owner is going to be really upset with you if you broke your promise before you even got off the bus...

 

[Mr_John]

I find myself bored at 2:00 in the morning. It's been... Two or three days since I last had a decent night's sleep. I just recently injured myself repeatedly because I found it entertaining.

Sounds like a great time to write!

Please donate random ideas to the desperate John.

 

[kinglugia]

I find myself bored at 2:00 in the morning. It's been... Two or three days since I last had a decent night's sleep. I just recently injured myself repeatedly because I found it entertaining.

Sounds like a great time to write!

Please donate random ideas to the desperate John.

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Hmm, are you into Pokemon? I am quite thirsty for a fic involving it. I prefer crack, btw...

 

[Nyrath]

Objective: Acquire mission (aka Sette does Fallout) [Nanoha/Fallout]

This is Sette. You are not Sette.

Sette is many things. Tall. Athletically proportioned. Possessed of naturally pink hair and eyes. The youngest of twelve sisters. A former terrorist. A freshly released ex-con. A gene-tailored magi-tech cyborg clone super-soldier. And horribly messed up mentally.

She's got pretty literal mind, very little social skills, and what can be seen as a terrifying degree of faith in authority. Moreover she's got a terribly misaligned moral compass and next to no capacity too see things from a non-military perspective. This carries with it an odd degree of paranoia as well as next to no skills with a non-military capability. To top it all off she desires quite deeply to just have others tell her what to do; if without a mission of some kind she'll endeavor to acquire one.

All in all she's pretty potent and very much lacking in agency. This is where you come in. Being as you are entities, some might call you spirits, able to influence her mind in a fashion she can't quite perceive you could certainly help her out. And she'll likely need it since she's currently wondering why she isn't in a proper teleport reception area rather out in the open looking at, well.

And just what is she wearing?
[ ] Her Numbers-class armored suit
[ ] A rather, tribal, outfit with a pair of pouches, a knife and a spear
[ ] Nothing at all. Which is sub-optimal. Unsecured mammaries are uncomfortable when moving vigorously.

A bit behind her and to the side stands a muscled young man with a spear and an outfit consisting of just a leather loin-cloth. There's an expectant look in his eyes as he keeps glancing between Sette and the building. He's standing on the only path out of this dusty little space, everywhere else is either sheer cliff, dense vegetation or that building.

So, what do you try to get her to do?
[ ] Just enter the building, seems to be expected.
[ ] Approach the man and seek some information.
[ ] Try to pass the man, forcefully if needed.
[ ] Write in?

---

Alright, this has been bouncing around in my head for at least a year in one form or another. Figures it's worth giving it a go as a quest if anyone's interested.

While I'd start this as SFW it can certainly end up migrating over depending on what happens. Fallout 2 does contain a long list of unsavory stuff that gets at least a passing mention if not allowing for outright Player participation. Drug use, slavery, child killing, pre-meditated murder, prostitution etc. Seriously, Sette is gonna need help.

And yes, for this one I don't mind Meta-gaming based on game experience. Just keep in mind this won't be as static, or that details can certainly change from the game's depiction. It probably has too, Sette is a rather more combat capable than the Chosen One straight of the bat.

 

[Nekraa]

[X] Her Numbers-class armored suit
[X] Approach the man and seek some information.

Ready. Sette. Go!

 

[Least Devotee]

[X] Her Numbers-class armored suit
[X] Approach the man and seek some information.

 

[iamnuff]

[X] Her Numbers-class armored suit
[X] Approach the man and seek some information.


I don't know the setting or character, but this-

She's got pretty literal mind, very little social skills, and what can be seen as a terrifying degree of faith in authority. Moreover she's got a terribly misaligned moral compass and next to no capacity too see things from a non-military perspective. This carries with it an odd degree of paranoia as well as next to no skills with a non-military capability. To top it all off she desires quite deeply to just have others tell her what to do; if without a mission of some kind she'll endeavor to acquire one.

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Speaks to me.


Though as I was reading it I had an idea for slightly different spin.

Rather than playing as spirits that never directly interact with the character, i'd love to play a social character in a setting like that.
You have no combat skills, and almost no survival skills, and you're stuck in a deathworld, fortunately, you have Little Miss Supersolider Mcwatdo to help you. Unfortunately, she has no reason to help you or do what you say, and little reason to like you. That said, she's a sheltered super-solider, or a fresh-clone, or a living robot or whatever, something that's expected to follow orders and not think for itself.

Basically? She's a born follower, not a leader. I'd say "submissive" but she isn't, really. it's not a sex thing, it's more of a "I finally got freedom after years of just doing as I was told, and it's way harder than I thought it would be" type thing. No moral compass, no sense of right or wrong, no real agency.

Sort of a deconstruction of the whole "Free the slaves" tropes. So Kirk lands on an alien planet and somehow ends up freeing a race of aliens that were kept as slaves their whole lives, or some dude from the past travels to the future and frees the robots, or so on and so forth. what next?

These people have never had to think for themselves or make even the simplest decision, everything from what to have for dinner, to what to wear, to where to go and when to fight has been decided for them. How do they cope with "freedom" and is being free always better?

In this case, maybe she's a cyborg or a robot or something, she was freed from her creator's control, and now she doesn't know how to cope. She can argue or be abrasive, she can pick a fight with you or call your plan stupid, but the moment you back down and say "ok, what do you think we should do?" she just kind of locks up for a couple of seconds, because she's never had to decide anything before.

She's not stupid or docile, it's just that she's never even had to decide what to have for dinner before, and when you put her on the spot when there's any sort of moral or non-tactical choice to be made, then she's more likely to just defer to what someone else suggested instead.

As time goes on, depending on what happens and how the Players treat her, maybe she starts shaping up like they always do in the movies and begins to like this newfound freedom, or maybe she makes a choice that ends up turning out really badly and she decides that being responsible for her own actions is just a burden.

"happiness in slavery" not because she's in love with her slavemaster (as is usually the trope) but because she's genuinely more comfortable with someone else making her choices for her.

Freedom from choice.

edit: I thought I was being clever, but Freedom from choice is already a trope.

then again, everything else is, so why not?


couple of notable examples that jump out at me

Some interpretations of Two-Face play with this: is surrendering to the judgments of the toss of a coin simply a way for Harvey Dent to escape the moral consequences of balancing his two sides?

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Yeah, i can see this applying.

If someone else makes all your moral decisions for you, then you don't have to worry whether you're a good person or not, you just did as you were told, and none of the responsibility for what happened lays with you.

In Moscow on the Hudson the main character, a Russian emigrant to the United States, freaks out when he looks for coffee in a grocery store and is confronted with innumerable different brands. In the Soviet Union, there was precisely one medium-quality brand of everything.

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wow, this one really leaps out. It ties back into the whole "never even made a choice on what to eat" thing. seems especially fitting in a futuristic setting, where they can survive on paste, or I suppose you could work it as gruel, or even MRE's if you want to go the "child soldier" route.

Even People from first world countries can balk in the face of too many choices, someone who's never had to make one before in their entire life would be paralyzed by it.

 

[EvaUnit01]

[x] Her Numbers-class armored suit
[x] Approach the man and seek some information.

 

[Priapus]

something rather cool

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Thi is interesting, insightful, original, and actually avoids being skeevy despit the subject matter. If you make it, I will play it.

What about 'Useless Bastard Quest' for the name?

quest idea

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[X] numbers class armoured suit

power armour is best armour, and this sounds like power armour.

[X] a little voice speaks from the darkness behind her eyes: "Approach the man, and find out what he knows. He seems to want you to enter the building, but you whould find out why, first. Reveal as little about yourself as possible."

we are the spirits that guide her, are we not?
Surely we can only direcly choose our own action, not hers.

I know fallout, but not whatever Sette is from. From the sounds, she would be a perfect fit in the Enclave.

 

[Nekraa]

I know fallout, but not whatever Sette is from. From the sounds, she would be a perfect fit in the Enclave.

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Sette is from Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Strikers, which is the third season of the series.

 

[Biigoh]

We need this... we need this now... meiji era PMMM

 

[iamnuff]

Thi is interesting, insightful, original, and actually avoids being skeevy despit the subject matter. If you make it, I will play it.

What about 'Useless Bastard Quest' for the name?
.

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Eh, Don't want to play up the MC being useless.

He'd be the one having to deal with pretty much any issue that doesn't involve violence.

Silver Tongue quest?

that said, i'm probably not going to write it.

If anyone wants to take it on then feel free, cuz I just don't have time.

 

[Reverberate]

Would anybody be interested in a quest in the Worm setting which doesn't take place in Brockton Bay? Might be slight AU to avoid some of the story destroying stuff from late Worm (i.e. Scion destroying everything in the setting). Here's my preliminary OP:

Spoiler

Fannin, Texas. A city located right on the border of Mexico. In 2006, the population was estimated at 603,182. It had a substantial parahuman population, the estimate hovering around 100, with 16 Protectorate heroes and another 8 Wards.

Things changed. In September 2007, Behemoth attacked, killing most of the local parahumans, leaving large parts of the city irradiated and uninhabitable. Tens of thousands dead, hundreds of thousands displaced. An estimated 16,388 people still lived in the city by November 2007. The Protectorate shut down shop, its heroes moving away to elsewhere. The city was looking to be dead.

Somehow - no one is quite sure how - the city has recovered, albeit not quite to it's former glory. The Exclusion Zone - the area too irradiated to be hospitable - is shrinking more quickly than anticipated. Over one hundred thousand people have moved in (or moved back), and the population has bulged in part due to the steady flow of Cuban refugees making their way through Mexico. New gangs have been born and old ones have bounced back. Some villains chose to use the city as a safe zone, doing operations elsewhere and setting up shop locally in some safe-but-as-yet-unreclaimed building.

You were one of the people living here before Fannin collapsed. You struggled through everything, hung on after losing family, never left it for even a moment. Never considered. Your family has lived in this area since before Texas seceded from Mexico. You'll be damned if some fucked up monster is going to break that two centuries long streak.

You carried on, dogged, committed to this city. Just an unusually proud citizen of Fannin.

Then you triggered. Had the worst day of your life, and got powers for the experience. Better than what most people get for it.

You're not sure what to do, now, with your whole situation having changed comprehensively. You can almost feel your power thrumming in the back of your head like a rabid animal, eager for a fight, any fight. You know that you're going to have to feed that need sooner or later. It's just a matter of how.

Gender?
[ ] Male
[ ] Female

Age?
[ ] Minor (14-17)
[ ] Young Adult (18-25)
[ ] Adult (26-35)

Trigger Event?
[ ] Write-in.

With Behemoth's attack and the slow recovery of the city, there's a paucity of local groups. Only the Aryan Brotherhood is the sort who might be interested in you. The Monárquicos are Cuban-American, the Children of the Confederacy are isolationist, and the other groups are just making their homes here, not really operating in Fannin itself. There are no local heroes or independent villains you know of.

What's your general disposition? Which one of the following paths would you choose, given the choice?
[ ] Independent hero. No one else is currently a hero, and even if it's an uphill battle, you could do a lot of good by taking down the gangs.
[ ] Independent villain; play cops and robbers from the "robbers" point of view.
[ ] Villain leader. Start your own gang. The local scene is almost ideal for it, given the apparent absence of heroes and the small size of local parahuman groups.
[ ] Go rogue; chart your own path, try to find a way to capitalize on your power.
[ ] Join the Aryan Brotherhood, the only gang to have survived the Behemoth attack.
[ ] Write-in.

I've QMed (mostly over on /tg/), but not in the QQ/SB/SV diaspora, which I understand has somewhat different tendencies.

Anyway, this has been my interest check/advice solicitation. Peace.