Awakening of the Stone Dragons <modern fantasy>
Here is an idea I have mostly fleshed out and am very eager to start, but I would like some suggestions on a few things.
Premise:
The idea behind this roleplay is that dragons did exist, once, but eventually all dragons were either slain or, as the RP focuses on, sealed away by the power of mages into stone figurines. These figurines, although they looked and felt just like ordinary stone, did indeed contain a dragon that looked like the figurine- each one completely dormant, practically dead, or at least as good as dead. At any rate, they remained dormant for thousands of years, leading up to the modern day. By then, of course, no one believes that dragons exist, or rather existed. The RP is basically set in the world as we know it. What happens is, the seal on the figurines begins to break, and the breaking seal is, for some reason, accelerated by the presence of a human. The RP premise is that the figurines will be found by human characters (still figuring out how) and the seal will begin to break while they are in possession of the figurines. Now, the seals break in stages- in the first stage, the dragon is conscious, and can communicate with the human through telepathy basically, but they're still just a stone figure that can't move. In the second stage, they gain a physical body, but they're still the size of the figurine. There's another stage or two of intermediate sizes, the exact number I have not yet determined, and then the seal is completely broken when the dragon is at full size and full strength. The RP is about the reactions the humans, and dragons (who will also be played by RPers) will have to the situation at hand as the seals continue to break. The humans have sort of stumbled across living, breathing dragons, and will need to figure out what the hell to do with them. The dragons will have to figure out what happened to them, adapt to thousands of years gone by without them, and focus on freeing themselves and pursuing their desires.
There's a lot of potential, I think, but I still have some holes to patch up. I should point out now that this RP is technically a remake, albeit it had a lot of design flaws in the original that caused it to fail, that I'm making sure to fix this time around, hence why I'm asking these questions. Here's what I'd like to have figured out before I start the OOC;
Questions:
1) What accelerates the breaking of the seal? I want to avoid a vague explanation, since, with the players and even myself not sure what to do, well, that's one of the reasons why the original didn't fare well. I want a clear explanation of what causes it, this time.
2) Number of stages for awakening? I gave a brief description of the 'stages' to the breaking seals in my short synopsis, but I did mention I wasn't sure on the exact amount. The original had the first two aforementioned stages, then an intermediate stage (about the size of a horse), then full awakening. Though, I was considering adding a stage between the 2nd and intermediate stages this time, which, in my head, I've been calling the "pet stage" since it's about the size of a dog or cat. Adding more stages would make transition seem more, I dunno, smoother? Since going from a few inches tall to horse-sized might seem a bit odd. But, I fear that adding too many stages will only make the RP slower. I'm leaving this up to you guys- which would you rather have?
3) Overarching plot/direction/goal/antagonist? Like I said, it was the vagueness and lack-of-direction behind the original that killed it. This time, I want some sort of direction or antagonist put in place, as opposed to just "now there are dragons coming to life that keep getting bigger, go crazy". I really don't know what I want in terms of a plot and/or antagonist, so for now, just toss out any suggestions.
4) How did these guys get their hands on the dragons? This isn't exactly completely necessary to the survival of the RP, just a big plothole that's bugging me. These little figurines, that used to be actual dragons... how did our human characters come across them? I'm really not sure. Kind of looking for an explanation that makes sense.
So yeah, kinda want the above terms (or at least the first three) sorted out before we start. Feel free to comment if you have any ideas, or even just any questions or suggestions about the RP in general- I like getting questions, especially when I'm still fleshing out the idea, myself. Questions help me think. And of course feel free to post even if this just looks interesting to you. Planning for a long-lasting RP this time. :thumbsup2:
