OOC Discussion

Mollisol said:
Alright, if that's okay with everyone else, we have one (important) order of business:


@Yiyel @Buckteeth I want to start doing History/Hx on Thursday, and hopefully Thursday or Friday we can start the game. Is that enough time for you two to make your characters?


Also, y'all + @Verdana @Tori_98 @Elephantom, here are the worldbuilding details I've worked out. Should give us a good idea of what our surroundings look like, and a better feel for the world and the world's psychic maelstrom:

Is there anything outside this city? The wasteland is made of concrete and steel, lying in tangles under and over your feet, prohibiting movement. Roads have heaved and split, buildings have crumbled, a skyscraper is in the shape of a C. Poisonous plants overgrow the debris with a purple-grey cast and if you look hard you can see monstrous scale-things loping and slithering around. Holds stand brazen, reinforced rubble reshaped into something habitable. They control what they keep close, but are you going to take your chances in the ruins? Maybe in the brush-waste? Everything you can get to with any ease has been picked clean.


The oldest remember how the golden age ended. The sky was red, and every structure moved like it had a mind of its own. Complex machines stopped working, computers exploded. The city collapsed. And the oldest know it was the same story everywhere.


Now what we need is scarce. Clean water. You can't drink that salt. Food. The scale-things eat the livestock, and nobody likes to share their plants. (Can you catch a scale-thing? Many can say and fewer know.) And something else. You can't put your finger on it, but you hear it in people's voices, the slang of this city made insular. See it when they walk like they're hunting.


What do you see when you look to the horizon at sunset? A city in spiral pieces, or the vast expanse of salt-poison sea? The endless brush-filled flatness full of eyes and teeth and scale-things and who the fuck knows? What smells waft to you on the wind? The cedar-ash scent of the plants overgrowing the outside tearing at each other? The occasional fire, and is that hope or fear? What wakes you from your daily slumber? The shriek of a scale-thing after it's torn apart its prey? Or gunshots, or some ungodly man-made tool drilling the wastes?


The best meal you've had this month is meat patty with wilted greens and bread. Fresh water is also more valuable than booze around here.


Catch yourself staring off and refocus your eyes, and you see a scale-thing wrapping around a matching angled tree to lure in prey. Another threat is outside your senses, outside perception. Water dancing in spires. Holding a candle in the eye of your palm and it doesn't hurt at all. Someone has a hand on your shoulder, shoving you forward with all that power. You don't know what they'll do if you don't walk.
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Mind if I suggest some ideas?


Firstly, I think there's a bit too much emphasis on scale-things or the creature they're supposed to imply. We might not want to divert the player from the fact that there are also cannibals, mobile hunting packs, and gung-ho raiders out in the wastelands.


Secondly, it'd be a great shame if everything were contained within singular places. I[SIZE= 12px]nstead of implying that most of the wasteland is just old steel, why not make the environs more of desert/barren-like? Skip the former sea, and replace it with salt flats? Emphasize more on the past ruins, the secrets they contain, and the people that have taken sanctuary in them? Fortified prisons, caverns, fallout bunkers, anything. Resource mines desired by the savvyheads, wells, distilleries and pipes wanted and controlled by the waterbearers, flat-out entertainment tools for the Show and the Skinners, and all of them wanted by the hardholders. Many skyscrapers destroyed, slanted, half-buried within the sand and picked to mere scraps by the scroungers and shit, time-worn bridges still standing and towering over the mud-eaters, the looming threat of bandits, mutants and only-god-knows-what-else always keeping the city-folks on their edges. [/SIZE]


[SIZE= 12px]In essence, I think we should try to capture a more dynamic world like Mad-Max/RAGE rather than an extremely hostile one like the Metro series.[/SIZE]


[SIZE= 12px]There's a lot of threat in a post-apocalyptic world, but that doesn't necessarily mean that one should forego the greed and adventure for it. [/SIZE]
 
Elephantom said:
Mind if I suggest some ideas?


Firstly, I think there's a bit too much emphasis on scale-things or the creature they're supposed to imply. We might not want to divert the player from the fact that there are also cannibals, mobile hunting packs, and gung-ho raiders out in the wastelands.


Secondly, it'd be a great shame if everything were contained within singular places. I[SIZE= 12px]nstead of implying that most of the wasteland is just old steel, why not make the environs more of desert/barren-like? Skip the former sea, and replace it with salt flats? Emphasize more on the past ruins, the secrets they contain, and the people that have taken sanctuary in them? Fortified prisons, caverns, fallout bunkers, anything. Resource mines desired by the savvyheads, wells, distilleries and pipes wanted and controlled by the waterbearers, flat-out entertainment tools for the Show and the Skinners, and all of them wanted by the hardholders. Many skyscrapers destroyed, slanted, half-buried within the sand and picked to mere scraps by the scroungers and shit, time-worn bridges still standing and towering over the mud-eaters, the looming threat of bandits, mutants and only-god-knows-what-else always keeping the city-folks on their edges. [/SIZE]


[SIZE= 12px]In essence, I think we should try to capture a more dynamic world like Mad-Max/RAGE rather than an extremely hostile one like the Metro series.[/SIZE]


[SIZE= 12px]There's a lot of threat in a post-apocalyptic world, but that doesn't necessarily mean that one should forego the greed and adventure for it. [/SIZE]
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I appreciate your suggestions.


This was made out of several "world building" questions that didn't explicitly cover interpersonal threats, but I do agree that, looking back, there should to be much more about them and the PCs' inevitable dynamics with them. So, there will be a violent cult-group-thing, disease vectors, raider gangs, and other brutes/grotesques/a warlord or two. I have several on the threat list, and I can put them here as well.


Alright, I think I can make something work where there are accessible environments outside the city labyrinth. A little more variety than steel/concrete waste would make sense and be fun. Salt flats are a go, and something else beyond city/brush-waste/salt flats. (I still do like the brush-waste; maybe I could turn it into a forest or some other place where a hunting pack uses deadly force against the scale-things and any humans unlucky enough to set up shop or wander nearby, instead of it just being an inaccessible mess.) And I can go into more detail about what's scavengeable/usable in the concrete.


Dynamic, more than hostile. Alright. I will keep that in mind.


I'm on my phone right now, but I will figure out a way to incorporate your suggestions later today or tonight. Thank you.
 
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@Elephantom I tried to focus on people instead of just badness this time. Is this more along the lines of what you were thinking? (See the edited post)
 
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Could I have a Faceless character, by any chance?


Or a Child-Thing ((Not necessarily a child...))?
 
Mollisol said:
The oldest remember how the golden age ended. The sky was red, and every structure moved like it had a mind of its own. Complex machines stopped working, computers exploded. The city collapsed. And the oldest know it was the same story everywhere.


Now what we need is scarce. Clean water. You can't drink that salt. Food. The scale-things eat the livestock, nobody likes to share their plants, and the raiders take what they want. (Can you catch a scale-thing? Many can say and fewer know.) And something else. You can't put your finger on it, but you hear it in people's voices, the slang of this city made insular. See it when they walk like they're hunting. The way people pass on diseases like possessions. The way people with resources treat their friends. The way White draws people in close so he can force the hate and desperation in the air into his discipline. The way the hunting pack of the brush-waste tears apart anything it can get its hands on.


This city is called The Spiral. It's made of concrete and steel, lying in tangles under and over your feet, prohibiting movement. Roads have heaved and split, buildings have tilted, bridges have crumbled, a skyscraper is in the shape of a C. Poisonous plants overgrow the debris with a purple-grey cast and if you look hard you can see monstrous scale-things loping and slithering around. Holds stand brazen, reinforced rubble reshaped into something habitable. They control what they protect, but are you going to take your chances in the salt flats? Maybe in the brush-waste?


It's not uninhabitable here. Outside the holds in rebuilt rubble or twisted fortresses, people make and work and love and enslave. Waterbearers find the pipes that aren't filled with black. Skinners and savvyheads scrounge for junk in the pits, and a show plays his songs under on a worn-out bridge. White and his family carve out their home from the military base. The Blues keep chronicles of the rootless mutants with their gas and bikes and bullets. Towers are slanted and picked to nothing but soon to be scraps, bullets, parts, tools, but the C-skyscraper has security intact, and what's inside?


To the east grows the brush-waste, trees and twists and eyes and teeth and scale-things and who the fuck knows. Bull Head and his gang hunt the scale-things and anything that comes near. Sometimes things don't have to come near. What happens when The Blues are too hungry to be sick of their shit? To the south are the salt flats, cracking open and covered in tents. Who'd want to live here? People who eat the food Dune makes. Whose blood spills when Dune finds out his girl has been with Cut Blue? And what are these people to you? What are you to them?


Wafting by on the wind is the cedar-ash scent of the plants overgrowing the outside tearing at each other. The occasional fire, and is that hope or fear? You're awakened by the shriek of a scale-thing after it's torn apart its prey as often as gunshots or some ungodly man-made tool drilling the wastes. The best meal you've had this month is meat patty with wilted greens and bread. Fresh water is also more valuable than booze around here.


Catch yourself staring off, and you see a mutant smearing another with mud. Another threat is outside your senses, outside perception. Water dancing in spires. Holding a candle in the eye of your palm and it doesn't hurt at all. Someone has a hand on your shoulder, shoving you forward with all that power. You don't know what they'll do if you don't walk.
Click to expand...



Sounds all dandy.
 
I wanna staaaaaaaaaaart!!!


Dont mind me, just so excited I'm growing impatient. Lol Are the others almost done with their characters? 
 
Tori_98 said:
I wanna staaaaaaaaaaart!!!


Dont mind me, just so excited I'm growing impatient. Lol Are the others almost done with their characters? 
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@Buckteeth @Yiyel how are y'all's characters coming along?


(If we don't have one or both posted by Friday evening, I'm gonna start doing history. They'll still be able to jump in later if they want, I can make a reason for their characters appearing late, but it's not fair to you guys if we wait much longer.)
 
Just a friendly reminder everyone, don't forget to follow the hx thread, otherwise we won't be able to see when each other post questions...
 
@Elephantom The Blues are a biker gang, a group of Brutes (still deciding what type, leaning towards Enforcers) that "protect" the Spiral from anyone they perceive as a threat. They try to have a horizontal structure, but the people who make the important decisions are Cut Blue, Stinky Blue, and Panther Blue. They control access to a supply of gasoline. They wear biker leathers in an odd, bleached-looking shade of blue, and are wary of pretty much everyone but Cherry.
 
Mollisol said:
@Elephantom The Blues are a biker gang, a group of Brutes (still deciding what type, leaning towards Enforcers) that "protect" the Spiral from anyone they perceive as a threat. They try to have a horizontal structure, but the people who make the important decisions are Cut Blue, Stinky Blue, and Panther Blue. They control access to a supply of gasoline. They wear biker leathers in an odd, bleached-looking shade of blue, and are wary of pretty much everyone but Cherry.
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Because... She's like a biker? Rowr Rawr?
 
I apologize for my absence. It's been a while...
Discord takes up so much time
 
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