Vinny Havoc
Stilwater Angel
I don't have any synopsis or plans or plots or anything built yet. In short I have nothing to present, to show anyone, because I don't want to go to that effort only for it to fall flat as crickets chirp and tumbleweeds roll. What I want to do is try and gauge interest in a broad concept, one I haven't seen much of on the site (although I could just be missing it). What few I've found are small, and stalled out.
Urban Fantasy.
The idea is, the world is pretty much just like the real world, except where noted; however there's a lot of notes. Urban fantasy often involves a masquerade, hidden societies and cultures just under the surface and it tends to have a pretty thin veil; Most folks really interested in pulling back the curtain have a pretty good chance, with determination and luck, to actually find something.
Unlike the few urban fantasy threads I've found, it wouldn't focus on just one kind of supernatural creature. The world being entirely like real life, except for ONE special monster seems, to me, to be a little difficult to swallow. Why is that one myth true when every single other one is false? My idea of an urban fantasy setting would have a blending of supernatural and paranormal creatures and phenomenon, which makes it very hard to separate fact from fiction in the old myths and legends. If werewolves and vampires are real, how about dragons? Turns out, no, dragons aren't real but there are zombies, but not the hollywood zombies, voodoo zombies that use some actual magic in combination with drugs... and so on and so forth.
It's a world where skeptics have an excessively hard time of it, trying to convince people to not believe EVERYTHING just because some things happen to be true. Where existence of unrelated paranatural phenomenon is used as justification for blind belief in other ideas that lead to atrocities, or where flat earth atheists continue to insist nothing not normal doesn't exist, and might suffer a blue-screen reaction when witnessing a werewolf transformation.
A world that could potentially be so chaotic, this has to be balanced with some amount of structure; specific monsters and creatures would have specific rules players would follow and, to the best of my abilities, they would pay homage to many of the old folk tales, but never quite match up exactly either.
It's also a place where it may be very easy to have 'special snowflake' characters and mary sues, as a setting where so many folktales are true opens a lot of doors; many of them will have to be carefully regulated or approved.
To start with, I was thinking of a few classic monsters and beings of folklore and acknowledgement of certain phenomenon.
Vampires, self styled lords of the undead, with extreme abilities but also many weaknesses
Werewolves, and other werebeasts, the bridge between civilization and the wild
Fae, the fair folk, an incomprehensible collection of races that exist parallel to this physical world
Djinn, beings of fire, air and smoke that exist on the other side of this physical world
Psychics, humans with unlocked psionic potential such as channellers, aura readers, mediums and seers.
Magicians, magos, normal humans who have learned a magical art through ritual, craft, or study
In addition to these well known or potentially global phenomenon, I'd want to involve more localized traditions and folklore, which means if there is interest in this, and someone has a more esoteric concept they want to play with (such as a native american skinwalker, subset of a magician but much less subtle) it would need a good write up and approval, but so long as it sounds good and seems to fit with the atmosphere, I'd be inclined to accept it.
If there is only a little interest, I'm likely to narrow the focus to just werewolves, vampires and psychics (though with the implications other things could exist, just not happening here) and of course I would encourage, strongly, that normal humans be involved as well, because half the fun is in the discovery of the unknown.
As for setting, while a city is common for so-called urban fantasy, it isn't necessary; urban mostly refers to modern day society where urban development can occur and is common. Ideas can be batted back and forth for ideas, I'm partial to Portland Oregon for personal reasons. It's where I live, and it takes pride in being weird, and is a very vibrant place; like New York City in Men in Black, Portland is one of those places where weird things would be seen and easily dismissed. Other ideas would, of course, be welcome.
It wouldn't be combat focused, though conflict could happen; I'd much rather focus on the social and cultural aspects and difficulties of these hidden communities alongside intrigue and possible adventure. Conflict between vampires and werewolves is a common motif, or involvement from monster hunters or investigators and skeptics determined to prove or disprove a thing.
Thoughts? Input? Interest? Feedback? Suggestions?
Might this be a thing? Could be a pretty cool thing, I think. Just needs people. If there's actual interest in the broad scope of the genre, I'd be more disposed to start putting together a more coherent synopsis.
Urban Fantasy.
The idea is, the world is pretty much just like the real world, except where noted; however there's a lot of notes. Urban fantasy often involves a masquerade, hidden societies and cultures just under the surface and it tends to have a pretty thin veil; Most folks really interested in pulling back the curtain have a pretty good chance, with determination and luck, to actually find something.
Unlike the few urban fantasy threads I've found, it wouldn't focus on just one kind of supernatural creature. The world being entirely like real life, except for ONE special monster seems, to me, to be a little difficult to swallow. Why is that one myth true when every single other one is false? My idea of an urban fantasy setting would have a blending of supernatural and paranormal creatures and phenomenon, which makes it very hard to separate fact from fiction in the old myths and legends. If werewolves and vampires are real, how about dragons? Turns out, no, dragons aren't real but there are zombies, but not the hollywood zombies, voodoo zombies that use some actual magic in combination with drugs... and so on and so forth.
It's a world where skeptics have an excessively hard time of it, trying to convince people to not believe EVERYTHING just because some things happen to be true. Where existence of unrelated paranatural phenomenon is used as justification for blind belief in other ideas that lead to atrocities, or where flat earth atheists continue to insist nothing not normal doesn't exist, and might suffer a blue-screen reaction when witnessing a werewolf transformation.
A world that could potentially be so chaotic, this has to be balanced with some amount of structure; specific monsters and creatures would have specific rules players would follow and, to the best of my abilities, they would pay homage to many of the old folk tales, but never quite match up exactly either.
It's also a place where it may be very easy to have 'special snowflake' characters and mary sues, as a setting where so many folktales are true opens a lot of doors; many of them will have to be carefully regulated or approved.
To start with, I was thinking of a few classic monsters and beings of folklore and acknowledgement of certain phenomenon.
Vampires, self styled lords of the undead, with extreme abilities but also many weaknesses
Werewolves, and other werebeasts, the bridge between civilization and the wild
Fae, the fair folk, an incomprehensible collection of races that exist parallel to this physical world
Djinn, beings of fire, air and smoke that exist on the other side of this physical world
Psychics, humans with unlocked psionic potential such as channellers, aura readers, mediums and seers.
Magicians, magos, normal humans who have learned a magical art through ritual, craft, or study
In addition to these well known or potentially global phenomenon, I'd want to involve more localized traditions and folklore, which means if there is interest in this, and someone has a more esoteric concept they want to play with (such as a native american skinwalker, subset of a magician but much less subtle) it would need a good write up and approval, but so long as it sounds good and seems to fit with the atmosphere, I'd be inclined to accept it.
If there is only a little interest, I'm likely to narrow the focus to just werewolves, vampires and psychics (though with the implications other things could exist, just not happening here) and of course I would encourage, strongly, that normal humans be involved as well, because half the fun is in the discovery of the unknown.
As for setting, while a city is common for so-called urban fantasy, it isn't necessary; urban mostly refers to modern day society where urban development can occur and is common. Ideas can be batted back and forth for ideas, I'm partial to Portland Oregon for personal reasons. It's where I live, and it takes pride in being weird, and is a very vibrant place; like New York City in Men in Black, Portland is one of those places where weird things would be seen and easily dismissed. Other ideas would, of course, be welcome.
It wouldn't be combat focused, though conflict could happen; I'd much rather focus on the social and cultural aspects and difficulties of these hidden communities alongside intrigue and possible adventure. Conflict between vampires and werewolves is a common motif, or involvement from monster hunters or investigators and skeptics determined to prove or disprove a thing.
Thoughts? Input? Interest? Feedback? Suggestions?
Might this be a thing? Could be a pretty cool thing, I think. Just needs people. If there's actual interest in the broad scope of the genre, I'd be more disposed to start putting together a more coherent synopsis.
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