Fantasy tropes are numerous and widespread. Even if you’re not a fan of the genre, I’d wager you’re familiar with at least some of them – brilliant, but absent-minded wizards; rogues with a heart of gold; chance meetings that lead to great adventures, the list goes on and on…

Here’s the thing – what would happen if those tropes were turned on their head? What if the human-centric Empire isn’t a paragon of justice and light, but a nation of warmongering racists? What if Elves aren’t a noble and ancient race, but savages who live in the woods? Dwarves that aren’t orderly and ingenious, but deceitful and messy bastards who can’t hold their liquor? Orcs that are philosophers and paragons of the arts and so forth and so forth…

Next up is the plot, usually the heroes arrive Just in Time to stop the bad guys and triumph over evil. Well…what if our characters arrive after the momentous event? The call for heroes is put out, our guys arrive at their destination only to find out that the evil overlord has been overthrown, the crippling plague stopped and all the spoils already claimed.

Finally, the characters themselves. They should be typical and clichéd, with a twist – they will have a defining trait that subverts the trope. A weaponmaster of great skill, who happens to be a sworn pacifist; a powerful mage that is allergic to magic - you get the gist of it. To keep it interesting I propose we write up basic character sheets and then exchange them. Each of us will come up with a trait to subvert the other person’s trope.

Obviously, this is a humorous take on the typical fantasy setting, so silly and crazy ideas are always welcome!

An ancient empire has perpetually struggled to reclaim what they consider to be their holy city from foreign invaders in the name of their God. The conflict has stretched on for centuries, but the city has never fallen. Once powerful, this empire has now been reduced to a shadow of its former self, but driven by their religious zeal and fierce pride its people continue to wage a desperate war against ever more hopeless odds. Martial prowess and piety are the only important traits in this society, while religious ritual shapes everyday life. Honour is gained in the service of God and the greatest honour of all is giving one’s life on the quest to reclaim the holy city.

Over the centuries, countless Divine Marches have been called on the city - gatherings of soldiers, zealots and desperate men who march out in search of glory and redemption. Now, a new Divine March has been called. The Last March, some call it in hushed whispers, as it is unlikely the empire will ever be able to muster enough men again. Folks from all walks of life have flocked to its banners and prisoners have been given the familiar choice – the grave or redemption.

We’ll be playing downtrodden/disgraced characters, such as criminals and the like, who have joined the March for their own reasons. The way I envision this RP is for the March to fail at some point early on in the story, with only a few of the participants surviving, our characters among them. Stranded in foreign territory, with no chance of returning home (where they’ll most likely be executed), they’ll strike out for the holy city on their own.

What will they discover at their journey’s end? Hope? Redemption? Riches? Only one way to find out…

In the distant future humanity has spread across the stars. Humankind has now reached a point of development where there are enough resources for everyone to go around, hunger and extreme poverty, along with crippling diseases and genetic disorders have been eliminated and wars are but a fading memory. It’s far from perfect, with various factions, such as Galaxy-spanning conglomerates engaging in various underhanded activities in a bid for power, but the setting is more of a utopia rather than a dystopia.

Though other intelligent life as envisioned by ancient scientists was never found, ship captains occasionally stumble across planets that are home to primitive humans. These are descendants of the first wave of colonists sent outside our solar system - suspended in stasis and ferried to their new homes aboard massive ark ships. In the early years of human space travel, many of the ships were lost or crash-landed, with only a few managing to establish active colonies. Now, thousands of years later, these people have formed societies in various stages of development, mirroring periods from Earth’s history.

At first, humans intended to uplift their primitive cousins - sometimes forcibly, sometimes acting as benevolent protectors, but it was quickly discovered that the process rarely went as planned and usually resulted in huge loss of life. After a few setbacks, it was agreed that humans would not directly influence the natives’ development, unless they were under threat of extinction and even then, it had to be done without leaving a trace. This led to the forming of the Progressors – part anthropologists, part secret agents, whose job is to monitor developing planets and safeguard them from outside threats.

We’ll be taking the role of two Progressors sent to a feudal planet, still stuck in a medieval age. A conflict of some sort is brewing on the planet or perhaps the threat of an apocalypse has spurred the various factions to action. At any rate, the locals intend to get their hands on an ancient artefact of magnificent power. In reality this is a part of the old ark ship that brought them there. If activated, this device could obliterate life on the entire planet.

This is where our characters come in – they’ll have to find, disable and extract the device, while keeping their presence there the utmost secret.

The Last Battle was supposed to be a triumph for humanity - a final stand against the forces of darkness, the end of which would herald the dawn of a new age. Instead, it resulted in the breaking of the world. Cities were levelled and entire civilisations were lost. The seas boiled, the earth quaked, mountains groaned, millions died and all sorts of Nasty Stuff™ happened.

That happened so long ago that these days nobody remembers who fought who, or why the battle was waged in the first place. The descendants of those who survived now eke out a living in this ruined world, which nature has slowly, but surely begun to reclaim. Society has reverted to something resembling our Dark Ages, where oral tradition, superstition and mysticism are the rule of the day. The written word is exceedingly rare and education is synonymous with magic.

I envision this as a more free-form RP, one that doesn't rely on a central plot to drag us along. In the vein of sword & sorcery classics, we'll be taking on the role of two (or more) adventurers, daring opportunists who are not always on the right side of the law. Will we pick the bones of long-dead empires in search of treasure? Will we get embroiled in a world-changing conflict or go on a mad quest at the behest of a warlock? The opportunities are endless.

TBD is the greatest city in the world. A melting pots of cultures, with trade from all over the land flowing through its busy canals and streets. People from all walks of life can be seen during the day, a flurry of colours, smells and dialects, intermixed with the hoarse shouting of street peddlers. At night, however, this city takes on a darker guise. Fog from the nearby lake engulfs the darkened streets and the night air is pierced by strange, seductive melodies. For hundreds of years a carnival of sin has taken place under the moonlight, each and every night. The participants don masks, concealing their identities, which frees them from any inhibitions and restraints.

Sex, alcohol and drugs are commonplace; the city provides for all, even the strangest of desires are fulfilled here. Passion and lust drive the revellers, fuelling not just romantic pursuits, but duels, assassinations and brawls. While masked, one is free from the consequences of their actions, they are attributed to the mask, not the person behind it. A faithful couple may cheat on each other regularly and they would not consider it unnatural. They didn’t do it, it was the masks.

Wearing a mask frees the wearer of restrictions, but also imposes its own. Each type of mask has its own unique personality. Harlequin is witty and mischievous, the Lover is an overly dramatic, hopeless romantic. Every person determines which mask to wear, but once they do so, they have to stay in character at all time. Removing one’s mask during the masquerade is a great shame and, in the higher political classes, usually results in assassination.

The city knows no king, instead it is ruled by a council of Masked Lords, who stay in character at all times, be it day or night. They are engaged in an endless war for dominance in the shadows and actively plot against each other. The masks they wear are unique - it is said they bestow powers upon their wearers and, over the years, change their personality until they become an exact copy of what the mask represents.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Masked Lords are considered immortal. After all, the personality of the wearer doesn’t matter, only that of the mask. The relationship between the Masked Lords are intricate and often based on events that happened generations ago. Some masks are more powerful than others and this drives the conflict. A Lord’s mask may be usurped by killing them, thus taking their place. Upon doing this, the old mask is discarded and passed on. This is a binding secret and only the new and old wearer know of it. Even the bitterest of foes would never reveal it, as that would be out of character!

Now, however, a new mask has emerged. Nobody knows who this newcomer is, but their legend is already growing. The new Masked Lord has broken the sacred rules of the game – they keep the masks of those they have slain. This has sent ripples throughout the city and this is where our story will pick up.

We’ll either be playing Masked Lords or perhaps foreigners who get dragged into the conflict. Or maybe a mix of both, up to us!

(I should note that I have almost no clue about masks and their meanings, apart from some I’ve read about/seen on trips to Venice. We’ll have to do some research or come up with our own.)

The times are changing. Some fifty years ago a young man invented the steam engine, forever changing the face of the world. Horse-drawn carts were replaced by steel-clad locomotives, huge manufactories supplanted crafter’s guilds and soldiers put aside the sword in favour of the musket. Across the land superstition and religion were ousted by science. For the first time in memory, mankind had the reins of destiny in their own hands.

Naturally, this clashed with the views of mages, practitioners of the arcane who had been undisputed rulers of the world until that point. They were not alone in their opposition of technology, as many kings were afraid that the common people now had too much tools at their disposal to change the status quo. As more and more cities broke away from the crumbling empires, the adherents of the old ways mustered their forces and waged war on the technologists.

This resulted in a complete victory for the technology-aligned forces. In the end, even the mighty mages were powerless to do anything. Many of them lost their lives and the rest fled in seclusion. Technological advances were adopted in most places, though a few kingdoms still remain steadfast in their dedication to the old ways. With every passing year, however, they slip ever farther into obscurity, unable to cope with the reality of the new world.

In this setting, technology and magic are polar opposites. Magic manipulates reality by bending or suppressing the physical laws of the world. The strength of a spell is directly proportional to the caster’s resolve. Technology, on the other hand, reinforces those laws. In essence, by the continuous use of technology magic diminishes, as reality becomes more “resistant” to the effects of magic.

When these two forces meet the results can be volatile, depending on how strongly they affect the local environment. In most cases, a mage’s spell might fizzle if they are close to a technological object, but around powerful magic that very same object will stop working. In a worst case scenario, say a strong mage working his spells near a steam engine, the results are usually fatal.

Ok, so with that out of the way, I want to talk about the structure of this RP and why I’ve marked it down as being unusual. I envision this as two solo writing projects, linked together by an overreaching narrative. One of us will play a mage, the other a technologist. These characters will get started on their adventure, form relationships and work towards their goals separately from each other. In this first stage of the RP, one person will essentially be writing a fantasy story and the other a steampunk one. This is done in order to build up that “two worlds” feel hinted in the title.

That is not to say that we can’t take on the roles of NPC’s or secondary characters in each other’s stories, but the protagonists will remain apart. After a period of time, in which we’ve established both characters and their companions, we’ll transition to a more traditional RP and have them meet. Though I don’t have a set plot in mind, what I’m thinking is that it will force these two distinct groups to work together to ensure their mutual survival.

Obviously, this project will require quite some independence and the ability to drive the plot in each respective story solo. Due to its nature it’s not something that can be wrapped up in a couple of months. Patience and a long-attention span are an absolute must!

I have a preference towards playing the mage, but can take on either role.

A young noble finds themselves banished to a remote region of the Empire. Once a prosperous trading-hub, this place is now absent from most maps and only the most desperate of traders would try to peddle their goods here. Under orders from the Emperor, the new administrator will have to breathe life into the town and restore the ancient castle on a nearby hill.

The task sounds easy enough, but the sturdy locals have grown accustomed to their independence and will not take kindly to a new authority figure. Coupled with bands of brigands roaming the wilderness, ancient secrets lurking in forgotten ruins and rumours of a mythical beast in the mountains and things may not be as straightforward as they first appeared!

Right, so this is a weird one, as you may have guessed by the “city-builder” part in the title. What exactly do I mean by that? Well, I want to work some mechanics into the RP. Nothing complex and certainly no dice rolls, nevertheless I want us to have something to structure the RP. Right now, I’m thinking of having two concepts in place:

Turns –> each post will (usually) cover the events of a week. 1 post = 1 turn. At the start of each week, we'll increase the turn count by one. After a pre-determined amount of time certain events will occur. For example an emissary from the Emperor will arrive on turn 16 to gauge our progress.

Tasks -> events which the administrator will choose to undertake at the start of their turn. We’ll have two categories of tasks – active and on-going ones. Active ones usually take a single turn, while on-going ones will require more than one turn to complete. As an example, an active task would be going to recruit stonemasons for the restoration of the castle. An on-going task would be restoring the castle’s barracks, something which obviously takes more than a week to complete. Tasks are going to branch out, some are going to be mutually exclusive or time-based, forcing the administrator to choose what to focus on. Competition of a task will bring rewards, such as opening up new tasks, gaining a free turn or affecting the town’s level of development.

(These are not set in stone by any means, they are just here so that you can get a general idea of what I'm aiming for)

Due to the structure of the RP, it will require a separation of roles – the player character, which would be the young noble/administrator and a sort of GM. The GM will have to come up with the tasks and their consequences on their own to keep it interesting for the player. Since I’m proposing this, I’m fine with taking the role of the GM and will not have a character of my own. Instead, I’ll be playing the various NPC throughout the story – village elders, merchants, town guards, envoys, etc.

I have to admit that this is not something I’ve successfully done before. I once participated in a RP that tried to do something similar, but it died off very quickly. I don’t know how this will translate into practice, so this is strictly for people that want to experiment. We’ll need to bring our A-game and think hard on how to implement this! OOC communication and brainstorming will be paramount to this RP’s success. I can't stress this enough - if you just want to dive into the RP then this is definitely not for you.

Finally, you may be wondering "Why the hell does this guy want to do this? Can't we just do a normal RP?" Good question! Apart from writing, I'm a passionate gamer and I've played a lot of tabletop in the past. Some of my best RP moments are when I've had to react to events outside my control. When doing pure writing we all too often fall into the trap of planning ahead and charting our character's course. Sure, our character may fail, but that's because we intended it! Well, what happens if they fail when we've not planned for it? What happens when we can't tackle all the challenges? That's the beauty of such a system, in my opinion. By "gamifying" it we put some rules in place, so we as writers don't have complete control of the world, we have to abide by the mechanics.

It sounds like a challenge to me and I love challenges. If it sounds interesting to you too, you know what to do ;)