It has been five years since the release of Emerald Odyssey in Japan. Lauded highly for its engaging gameplay, story, and high level of customization coupled with an affordable price and multi-platform integration, this MMO has made a stake for itself in the ever-shrinking PC game market of the nation. And this day, of course, marked the release of their newest expansion.

With the maintenance slated to start at midnight, many players were busy handling whatever needed to be handled before the servers went down. But as the clock ticked down and the minutes passed by, an odd phenomenon began to occur—players simply began to disappear without a trace. The number was small enough to warrant minor concern, but in the end every one of those missing now was simply marked as such.

And life went on.

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Of course, those who had disappeared had not simply been 'erased from existence', but had instead been transposed into the world of Emerald Odyssey—within the bodies of their characters, no less. With no clue what had just occurred, these former players must now come to terms with their new situation and carve their own path from here on.

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There's not much else to really say about this, when you think about it; it's a Log Horizon-style RP, which in other words is simply an extension of the isekai genre. Surprising, I know.

The RP itself will run with, ideally, mid-level characters (despite the talk about a new expansion in the opener), and will be co-GMed by me and @VitaVitaAR. Now, for a quick rundown of the relevant mechanics for the RP...

In terms of skills, we're probably going to be fairly lenient so long as things fall within the realm of 'feasible for a given class at a given level'. Doesn't hurt to run things by us first, though.

Player-created NPCs do exist, and like in Overlord, anything written about them has thus become reality. Or something like that.

The relative technology level of the things in the game are about on par with medieval Europe reaching into Renaissance-era things like cannons. There is one exception to this rule thus far, which will be elaborated upon when it becomes relevant in story.

Menus and hammerspace inventories do exist for the sake of convenience. This includes things like a chat button, call function, and even silly things like achievements.

In any case, here's a form if people want to get started early.


Any questions? Pop in and ask away.

@VitaVitaAR@Rin@Saarebas@Vulkan@DocRock@Bone Father@Rabidporcupine@KoL
Here we are.

Co-GM reporting again!

Working on my ditzy sword-y demongirl, hopefully she'll be done before this actually starts!

Present and accounted for. Dragonoid Artificer will be hopefully ready within six hours, still working on ideas in my head. Do you want us to put the unapproved sheets here in OOC, or just PM them?

Either or is fine.

So what server is this on? Because I think I remember them all being connected somehow, but the country you start in means some classes and stuff are different. Like... I think there's a thing where most places have the pirate class, but in Japan it's replaced by Samurai? It might not have been pirate, but I know there were a bunch of region specific class replacements, and I don't wanna accidentally pick one of the wrong ones.

@Rabidporcupine: I think I mentioned 'inspired' but not 'directly analogous to' Log Horizon.
So don't worry about that. Assume an entirely new game, with an entirely new world removed from anything in Log Horizon.

This includes skills, classes, etc.;

Ooooohhhh, ok. Don't know how I missed that bit actually, because now I can see how you've said that pretty much everywhere...

I have to admit, i've been intrigued by the genre, but i've never actually watched any Isekai anime. (unless you count Sword Art Online Abridged)

This might be a challenge.

I'm interested if there's still room

Yeah, there's room.

Edit: SAO Abridged works better if you've seen how bad the original is IMO, but it shouldn't be too bad.
I'd still say Log Horizon s1 is worth a watch if you have time. It holds up well quality-wise.
Don't touch s2. It doesn't.

This is a bit of a WIP, mostly because I'd like feedback. Did my best to adapt the Artificer class to the setting of the MMO, made Dragonborn a Dragonkin(And a cash shop item, if that's fine), if pictures are needed for Meg and Chris, I can try and get them. I actually lowkey based Meg on a CC from another series, at least appearance wise. While she's a hunter currently, may change her to a bard. Didn't know if we needed a space for items, but if we do, I'll add that later. Artificers are basically magical crafters and inventors, their board counterpart has some fun inventions, like folding boats(aka a small box that can turn into two types of boats, a small row boat I think, and a larger sailing vessel), or night vision goggles(enchanted stuff). I'm not that indepth with Log Horizon themed stuff, but I had a friend who knows Log Horizon(Bone Daddy in fact), help a bit. I'll take this upper bit out for the final draft.

Name (Former): Christian Light
Name (Character): Indiana Jones(an inside joke on his part, due to his love of adventuring, and now he's stuck with it)
Age: 22
Appearance: Standing at an imposing seven feet due to his race of Dragonkin, Indiana was presumably a fire dragonkin, due to his red scale color, with a toothed snout and small, yet free moving eyes in his skull. He often wore traveling clothes, and while having horns, often tried to perch a fedora atop his head, one of the few times he bought an item that had almost no direct benefits in gameplay for personal appeal. He almost always has a crossbow handy, and various assorted items ready for usage, but thanks to the storage system, isn't usually visible.
Character Level: 40
Character Class: Artificer
Personality: A kind hearted player who despite his fearsome appearance, had a love for helping others. Whereas some who went his route did so for the power that came with being able to craft valuable magical items, he did it out of a love for adventure, to aid others. Why charismatic and confident in the game, this hides a nervous fellow, who was always nervous about fitting in, and in part took a path to stand out to inspire others. Studious and observant, his tendency to binge read information makes him both a valuable source of data, and a dangerous foe due to his extensive knowledge. While most players will just run in and slash, Chris will carefully investigate his surroundings, looking for hidden monsters, doors, or treasures. Or traps. He makes mental notes, and will, if able, leave markers for other players to know where to not step, or where hidden enemies are. Always check the ceiling, never know what's up there.
Abilities:
Dragon's Breath - A racial skill that allowed the player to breath an element tied to their race's heritage. In Indy's case, it was traditional flames, in a spread like pattern. However, it could only be used once a day.
Dragonscale - Takes reduced damage due to his dragonic nature. Unless its a weak spot, then its normal damage.
Identify - A basic spell that allows one to identify an item of a magical nature, its akin to appraisal.
Detect Magic - An omnidirectional spell that tells a user if any magic is present in an area, can be used to detect magical items, or opponents with magic, or hidden spells.
Other abilities will be implemented as needed or thought up(Not limiting myself here now, so much as I am just moving carefully, no need to be super crazy all at once).

Skills:
As a more hybrid-esque class, Artificers have a skill tree that revolves around the production of items, magical or not, but primarily magical. Combining features commonly found in crafting and artisan related classes, a good Artificer benefits from careful resource management, and careful time management. Not recommended as a class for beginners, or casual players, or for the more aggressive playing style of some. The Artificer takes their time, and as such, are seen as a valuable commodity in the game's economy, due to the ability of high level artificers to make incredibly rare and powerful items. Artificers are most commonly found in hub areas, but some can be found in the wilderness, seeking out dungeons or areas overlooked for rare items to add to their collection. While incredibly valuable, they aren't good for direct combat, instead relying on ranged combat or simple weapons, and are best when supporting a tank type class, or as the loot carrier in a party. While unclear what would happen with them in the new expansion, the adventurous nature of Artificers, and their overall usefulness as crafters, would likely benefit.

Backstory:
An American player, who moved to Japan as part of his studies, and was part of Heaven's Door, a crafting guild dedicated attaining status as one of the top guilds in the game via various trades. An aspiring archeologist in the outside world, and a college student in his final year, Chris was a lore fanatic, digging into the game's secrets whenever new information came out, using his love for exploration to roam the world, whether by himself or with others. While Dragonkin weren't as common as other players, due to being in part, seen as "ugly" by most, Chris's own love for dragons, especially the western types drew him to the often overlooked type. Mix in his love of adventure, and it explains his pick of the more recently added artificer. In part why he named himself Indiana Jones. He was frugal with his ingame resources, only buying accessories he felt were really needed, though it wasn't unheard of him to spend a lot of game currency on rare magical items or components, partly making him a lower ranked member of the guild, despite being the valuable Artificer class. He tended to keep to himself even with the guild, often spending long times away, with only one or two other members tagging along. But those were his friends, who he cherished, and took care of. He often gave them the magical items he made, preferring the support role, due to a slight aversion to extreme violence. For him, it wasn't about being the best, but about enjoying the journey along the way, and a small blog he ran when not playing, chronicled his experiences from just going out and enjoying the world the developers had crafted, seeking out the lesser visited areas, even if it meant hours of work just to get the perfect picture.

As the hours ticked down towards the servers going down to add in the new update, Chris had returned his character to his workshop at the Guild Headquarters, for safety reasons, adding finishing touches to an NPC he'd been working on incase he ever had to go out by himself again, as admittedly, the long hours aloe did in fact, bother him, having no one else to share them with in real time, even if a creature he had made, as opposed to a friend, was that person. It didn't bother him, perhaps a clue to his own aloofness, or his desire for well, a sibling. That was the curse of an only child, let alone a stranger in a foreign land. So he had created a hunter NPC elf named Meg, after another game character, or at least their nickname, and as the time slipped away that night, he had turned from working on her skill tree, racial traits, and equipment, to personality. It was easy enough to code in the character's personality to be a bit of a big sister type figure, but not in the aggressive "I'm going to beat the crap out of you if you don't behave," but more the "We're in this together, so let's get going." A fellow explorer in other words. He had no idea just what was waiting around the corner for him, for while he was aware of the strange bug, due to commentary in the chat rooms, he had paid it no mind, chalking it up to a random bug that would be fixed come the new expansion. And such things always happen to other people, right?

Other:
Chris, despite not being one to spend resources where they were not "needed", decided to invest time, patience, and resources into making his NPC Meg, perhaps a hint to his own occasional sense of loneliness. Meg, being an elf he programmed to be like well, a friend and a sister. So imagine his surprise when she came to life, and started playing the part of a sister. His extensive knowledge of the game's lore and inner workings, and exporative nature means he's been almost everywhere a level forty player can go, and well, he's gathered information from others. While unaware of what's to come, that knowledge is going to come in handy later.

@DocRock: Well, if it's feedback you want, it's feedback you'll get. Lessee...

I'd recommend reading the form out loud to catch any grammatical or spelling errors, but let's dig into the form itself.

1. Japanese server, American player? I do believe proxies are a thing, but I guess it's on us for not implying that there were global servers. If you can come up with justification (e.g. transfer student or study abroad or something), it's fine.
2. You can get away with being relatively vague in regards to what a character can or cannot do in terms of abilities or skills. Hell, I'm expecting a lot of people to make stuff up on the fly, so no need to explicitly limit yourself to what you have there. It's fine to be vague.
(Besides, MMO skill trees are giant. No need to make it a list, basically.)
2.5. I think I'd consider 'investigation' a personality trait more than a skill, but details.
3. You can cut out most of the stuff after the character gets chucked into the game world and use that as an intro instead. No need to place that into the backstory when it isn't really 'backstory' as much as it is current events.

That's my 2AM two cents.

Edit: Right. No cash shop races. That's NG. I'd appreciate if you could tweak that.

One more question before I start my cs, was Emerald Odyssey a vrmmo, or just a normal computer one? Because I'm planning a good ol' orc battle chef, but I want to know if the food they made was just an item on a computer game, or a virtual reality (anime style virtual reality, of course) item that a pc could actually eat and taste?

@Rabidporcupine: Regular MMO, not VRMMO.

@VitaVitaAR
Nice, then this'll be a whole new adventure, filled with cool fantasy ingredients!

Also, seeing as this isn't actually Log Horizon, I'm one hundred percent saying my guy watched it and therefore has some ideas on how he can go about this, like the whole capturing animals to butcher them properly instead of killing them for drops.

@DocRock: Well, if it's feedback you want, it's feedback you'll get. Lessee...

I'd recommend reading the form out loud to catch any grammatical or spelling errors, but let's dig into the form itself.

1. Japanese server, American player? I do believe proxies are a thing, but I guess it's on us for not implying that there were global servers. If you can come up with justification (e.g. transfer student or study abroad or something), it's fine.
2. You can get away with being relatively vague in regards to what a character can or cannot do in terms of abilities or skills. Hell, I'm expecting a lot of people to make stuff up on the fly, so no need to explicitly limit yourself to what you have there. It's fine to be vague.
(Besides, MMO skill trees are giant. No need to make it a list, basically.)
2.5. I think I'd consider 'investigation' a personality trait more than a skill, but details.
3. You can cut out most of the stuff after the character gets chucked into the game world and use that as an intro instead. No need to place that into the backstory when it isn't really 'backstory' as much as it is current events.

That's my 2AM two cents.

Edit: Right. No cash shop races. That's NG. I'd appreciate if you could tweak that.

Alright thanks, tbh, I was writing it at about one am myself, and rushing(since at the time I had to get off early), so if I did overlook some spelling or grammar errors, whoops. I can fix up the skills, and change stuff that are implied or outright stated as cash shop to normal stuff. I can also slip investigation into personality, and go for transfer student route. Same for removing the bit at the end about arrival. Anything else? I'll make the changes when I get back from my winter term class, early morning college courses are painful.

Ok, so here's my guy! I just wanna explain right now that, while his goal was to play a villain for fun, he's gonna abandon that pretty much immediately in the shift, probably try to rebrand and change his guild into one of monster hunting battle chefs so no one starves to death, and the food doesn't suck like it did originally in the anime. Also I know I kind of made some assumptions with the games fantasy metals, but I'll change them if you want. And yeah, just let me know if anything else sucks and needs to be changed!