As You Wish
Disclaimer: This RP is inspired by one I helped to develop on another site that never really took off. The original concept is strongly inspired by one created by the user Lyssa on RoleplayGateway. Credit where credit is due, and all that.
What would you do if you were offered a chance to change your life completely? A chance to erase the regrets of your past - a chance to become the person you've always wanted to be - a chance, in brief, to do or be almost anything you could possibly imagine? An impossible fantasy, but it's one we've all entertained at some point or another, when our lives have been at their most bleak and hopeless.
But what if it was more than that? What if, in the palm of your hand, you had the means to change your life entirely? What would you do then? Wouldn't you leave that hated "reality" behind you and start anew?
Just like that, the impossible becomes possible for a select few people, who are chosen by a mysterious individual known only as JOKER to take part in a "game." The conditions for selection are somewhat nebulous, but each of his players has one thing in common - they have a dream that they would give anything to see come true. In order to participate, they'll be granted a special app that will grant any wish they input into it, with just a few conditions. Using this power, they are to seek to "win the game," although what exactly that means, JOKER hasn't clarified. If they do, they'll lose all their memories of playing, and their app will be passed on to a new user - but all the wishes and changes they've made will become permanent, allowing them to live the life they always wanted without being tied to the past they've left behind them. However, if they lose, on the other hand, their wishes will be canceled - or worse - and they'll have lost their chance to change things for good, along with all their knowledge of the game and the chance they had.
The conditions of the game are as follows.
1: JOKER reserves the right to interpret your wishes how he sees fit. If you don't like it, then you should have been more specific!
2: The number of wishes you receive is finite, but as to what that number is, it's up to JOKER to decide. Once you run out of wishes, your participation in JOKER's game will officially come to an end, and he'll decide whether you've won or lost. Regardless, it's best to think carefully before you act - any wish could be your last.
3: Wishes deemed by JOKER to be "too grand" - becoming emperor of the world, changing the laws of physics, etc. - will be rejected, and will not be granted. Changing your life is fine, but rewriting the whole world on a whim is just a hassle.
4: Any time a wish is made, the memories of everyone influenced by it will be altered in accordance with that wish. For example, if a dead person is brought back to life, then everyone will remember that person as having always been there, since they were not "resurrected," but rather they "never died." However, the app holder will still retain their old memories, so it's important not to get confused between the past-that-is and the past-that-was.
5: App holders can only be specifically affected by wishes they themselves make, with one exception - any app holder can spend a wish to undo a wish made by another app holder. As such, if one app holder changes the past, another app holder will remember how things were prior to their wish rather than how things supposedly have been after it. However, app holders also can't deliberately eliminate each other by simply wishing that the other didn't know about them, had never received the app, or didn't exist, and canceling each other's wishes will also deplete your own. Be careful! The greatest threat to your performance in this game might just be your fellow players. ;)
6: Finally... This game is a secret, you understand? If any outsiders find out about the existence of this app, it will immediately be deleted from your phone, all your wishes will be canceled, your memories of this game will be erased, and you'll be left living a life you detest. Of course, other app holders are the exception, since they're already in the know... but it's not like they're going to be forthcoming about letting you know who they are when they face the exact same penalties. On the other hand, if anyone outside of the game manages to figure out about its existence, they'll be rewarded... by receiving the app taken from the one they found out, and a chance to have their own wishes come true. Win or lose, the game must go on!
A Summary
So, the premise is pretty simple. A few people in the modern day are contacted by a mysterious benefactor and given the chance to play the game. Make your wishes carefully, don't use them all up too quickly, don't waste them on impossible or impractical things, and above all else, don't get found out. With that, I wish you all the best of fortune and hope you find success within the game!
As far as players are concerned, anywhere from 4-8 would be fine. I'd prefer an even number and roughly balanced gender ratios, but I'll take what I can get. And, if we don't get a very large cast of characters, I or any willing players can always fill in with NPC roles on the side to give people a diverse cast to interact with. This is where things get a touch complicated, however. Every character in the RP could be a potential app holder, but they won't all receive the app at once. After all, we need some normal characters out of the loop for the app holders to try to hide their secrets from, right? In the event that we get 4 players, I'm thinking we'd start with 1-2 app holders. If we get 6, it'd be 2-3. And if we get 8, it'd be 3-4. I'd rather not have any more players than eight or so since that'd be hard to manage, but I doubt that'll be an issue, because who actually reads my interest checks anyway? :P However, I also want to give everyone an equal chance of starting with the app, so how I'm planning on doing things currently is just rolling a die and assigning app holders randomly. Rest assured, those who don't start with the app will get a chance to use it once the other characters have used up their wishes or been outed, since the app will continue changing hands throughout the RP. However, if you'd rather not have the app right off the bat - or even at all - then just tell me. I'll take that into account when assigning who gets it and who doesn't.
Depending on player opinions, these results may be made public, or kept entirely secret to prevent metagaming, with all conversations between the holders and JOKER kept to PMs with me and the results of their wishes announced anonymously. However, that seems like a pain, so right now I'm probably going to just keep it public unless people have strong opinions otherwise.
For setting, I'm thinking a high school would be fine. However, I certainly don't want to get bogged down in spending months on detailing every single event of a single day, going from class to class and what have you. Rather, what's important is the interactions between characters before, between, and after classes, and as such, we'll be pretty freely skipping between major encounters and stuff that's actually important to the plot, like characters' dark hidden secrets and the effects of their wishes.
Also, characters don't have to just be limited to students, so if you feel restricted by that role, there's really no need to stick to it. Teachers and school staff are also perfectly fair game. You want to be the jaded school janitor who once had a promising career as an entrepreneur but lost everything in a stock market crash and has to do odd jobs to get by? Go right ahead! Sounds like it could be interesting. Basically, all you really need is a reason to be in contact with the other characters - to add risk of being discovered - and some way you'd like to change your life. It also doesn't have to all be sob stories, dead parents you'd want to bring back, or other stuff like that. You could just be a lazy git who wants to coast through life without having to work, or a spiteful character who'd use all their wishes avenging themselves by making someone else miserable! Basically, just because you want the power to change things doesn't mean you have to be a goody two-shoes, although it also obviously doesn't mean you have to be a total heel. Furthermore, if you don't want your characters' motivations to be immediately apparent, then feel free to keep them hidden in your bio and simply send them to me privately. Since this is a character drama shrouded in mystery and people hiding their true selves behind masks, having secret plot twists or aspects of your character nobody else knows about is a perfect way to make things more interesting!
Anyway, I think I've just about rambled long enough. You all have the basic gist of things, so I'll leave off here. If you like this idea and would be interested in participating, drop a comment here and I'll keep track of everyone's interest! Assuming we get enough people, I'll start as soon as I can.
Thanks for reading!
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