Second Sphere

Enclave => Online Roleplaying => Topic started by: Carrelio on December 22, 2012, 05:56:54 AM

Title: Roleplay Help!
Post by: Carrelio on December 22, 2012, 05:56:54 AM
Hey guys!  As some of you might remember from the last time I posted a thread like this, I am an avid roleplayer and have created many an online roleplay and D&D setting.  I am about to embark on another one and quite frankly I need a little help bringing it all together at the end.  I figured one of you bright inventive people could help me come up with an idea!

Ready?  Its a vast expanse of steampunk fantasy so brace yourself...

Our story takes place in your classic steampunk fantasy world; everything is going surprisingly well for our little industrial revolutionaries.  They even invent flying ships!

However, when they take to the skies, their theoretical physics becomes realized, when they find a substance known as pneumaura.  Pneumaura is very unique in that its raw energy that follows fluid dynamics.  It flows like a liquid based on the path of least resistance, and it
Title: Re: Roleplay Help!
Post by: Ravager Zero on December 22, 2012, 07:04:11 AM
Firstly, have you got anymore history on the Sky Knight commander?
For a really good reason, you need to go back
Title: Re: Roleplay Help!
Post by: Naser Al-Istikhara Cyrus on December 22, 2012, 10:48:56 PM
Depends on the magnitude you're prepared to take between the different tiers of your game.

Most RP sessions have a certain kind of...size...that all the relative events take place in. In typical D&D terms, characters are initially only concerned about their home town and the area directly surrounding it. However, as the characters get stronger and start working through these quests, they realise that what they displaced was only a pawn to what's going to happen on a much larger scale. This is usually where characters get to ~level 10ish (In D&D terms again), where the setting will expand to perhaps not just the town, but the entire country/continent the town is in. Perhaps a small chain of islands even.

Anyway, in comparison to your campaign now; it's all down to the magnitude you wish to include in the situation. Perhaps this particular sky-knight is working for a (currently unknown) overlord, who runs a demonic empire underneath the earth's surface, who wants to secrete the miasma through the ground into every settlement on the planet. Perhaps he works for (or is) an alien from another planet, who wish to invade the planet, and believe that this would successfully reduce the fighting capability of the guardians of earth. Or perhaps he's working for an evil warlord from another plane of existance (perhaps there is a dimensional rift in that gap through the ozone layer that's growing bigger...)

Hopefully this helped give you some ideas on using magnitude to really create those "ahhhhhhhhh crap" reactions from the players :P

Zambia
Title: Re: Roleplay Help!
Post by: Carrelio on December 23, 2012, 12:48:57 AM
Well, the Sky Knights are a global organization, so the world is their concern.  I will be starting players out in missions related to one specific town (which eventually gets overrun by miasma and the monsters that reside within it).  They will still have access to resources and npcs in other places, and eventually will be traveling all over the world to solve the mystery that is occurring around them.  So the scale is large, and I am willing to make it something earth shattering in its nature... but the important point to remember is that I want the bad guy to be relatable, so he's not going to be serving some malevolent force to doom the world, he'd be doing whatever he is doing for a relative greater good.

Ravager's idea of doing it out of love is closer, but it's too small scale.  It doesn't endanger the world in any real way, it's a nasty thing to do to the 100 or so people he's kidnapped and is using in the miasma filter... but it's in no means a matter of global crisis, just a small scale moral one with big issues.

It needs to be large scale, like your idea Zambia, but more relatable like Ravagers idea.
Title: Re: Roleplay Help!
Post by: Scout Sergeant Mkoll on December 23, 2012, 12:56:26 AM
Here's a thought: What if it's not the Commander, but one of his lieutenants who feels he's been overlooked/hard done to?

it could be made into a global catastrophe by saying that the World Leaders vote on who should command the Sky Knights every X often, the current Commander is younger and has been a member of the Order for less time, but was chosen over the bad guy, now the bad guy is plotting all this behind his back to get revenge on the man who took "his" role and the people who put him there.
Title: Re: Roleplay Help!
Post by: Carrelio on December 24, 2012, 05:01:36 AM
Alright, after conferring with sources all over the internet, I've made a part of my decision.  Not all my problems are solved yet... but to keep everyone posted it's time for an update!

The leader of the Sky Knights is looking for a cure to the miasma problem as a whole, not just the corrupting effect on people, but the world as well, and he's going to get that cure from the other world.

Now, I really like this idea, because it will let me create a part 2 in a whole other world (including a dragon vs skyship fight)... but it does beg some questions of its own...

Namely, how does he know the other world is any better off than his own?
Is he just gambling that it is? That's an awful big gamble.
Did he find some relic from when the world were last in contact (probably around the time the world they are in was settled in the first place)?
Did he find some technique to test the world before completing this plan?

Anyone have any ideas?
Title: Re: Roleplay Help!
Post by: crisis_vyper on December 24, 2012, 06:04:57 AM
Quote from: Carrelio on December 22, 2012, 05:56:54 AM
Now, one of the purposes of the Sky Knights falling under the study of pneumaura is to find others with the potential to use pneumaura and support their gift by training them to use pneumaura efficiently and responsibly.  In actuality, the leader of the Sky Knights has an ulterior motive for individuals the Sky Knights locate; those that don
Title: Re: Roleplay Help!
Post by: Ravager Zero on December 24, 2012, 06:07:33 AM
Quote from: Carrelio on December 24, 2012, 05:01:36 AM
Alright, after conferring with sources all over the internet, I've made a part of my decision.  Not all my problems are solved yet... but to keep everyone posted it's time for an update!

The leader of the Sky Knights is looking for a cure to the miasma problem as a whole, not just the corrupting effect on people, but the world as well, and he's going to get that cure from the other world.

Now, I really like this idea, because it will let me create a part 2 in a whole other world (including a dragon vs skyship fight)... but it does beg some questions of its own...

Namely, how does he know the other world is any better off than his own?
Is he just gambling that it is? That's an awful big gamble.
Did he find some relic from when the world were last in contact (probably around the time the world they are in was settled in the first place)?
Did he find some technique to test the world before completing this plan?

Anyone have any ideas?
Okay, let's throw some idea together here.
1. He doesn't know the other world is better off. In fact, it may be worse off now. However, when he first formulated this plan, back when the worlds were in contact, the other world was in much better shape.
2. It's a calculated risk. He doesn't know how far downhill it's gone, but he thinks it can't be worse than his world.
3. He found something, a device maybe, that links both worlds, or allows flashes of either side to break through. This possibly creates an aura of madness about the device, so it's kept carefully guarded.
4. Using the device above, it might just be possible to see the other world as it is now, but he would be unable to see very much of it.
Title: Re: Roleplay Help!
Post by: Carrelio on December 24, 2012, 06:28:00 AM
Alright, I like where that is going...
it's a pretty good assumption to think that the commander is not operating alone on this project, so we can assume that there are at least a small group of the sky knights who are using him as a puppet in their overall plan.  I'd even be willing to say it's a plot that is pervasive of the entire upper echelon of the organization.

The commander really is out to save the world; his chief advisers (the top ranking sky knights) see it as an opportunity to take their rightful place as the real rulers, and basically convince him that this plan is the right one and will work out to save the world (presenting him with evidence of the other world being miasma free, and proposing that it must have a solution to the problem).

So he builds his miasma cannon, and commences firing it, right as the players show up to stop him.  The cannon goes off, the players kill the commander, and the world fills with miasma from the cannon's aftermath.  The players flee into the other world in an attempt to find the cure the commander had been looking for in the first place.  Meanwhile, back in the original world, the leaders of the Sky Knights, use their mastery over pneumaura to ward the miasma off from their own area (likely by pumping fresh air down from the sky), they declare themselves rulers, and give people the option of serve, or die in the miasma.