So I'mma cut to the chase: I'mma open a new Roleplay. Narrative details are dependent on what sort of framing this RP will be set in, which will be decided by you. But the over-all premise I am proposing for you all is this: political disputes in a developing nation or region set during a period technologically analogous to the late 1800's, about 1880 or 1890; or even further back if I arbitrarily decide or further ahead. This is a fictional world, where there is a nascent magic in the world, details on that to follow. But the important thing to sussing out any further details will be how this world becomes framed, so I submit to you:

- 1: A people trying to break out of colonialism - For several centuries a distant and foreign occupier has been occupying the nation and swept aside many of the old kingdoms and polities that presided there in this land. The foreign adventures began benign enough with simple trading missions at the important cities. But they quickly became greedy and sought greater concessions until soon a whole mix of peoples fell under their flag. Since, all peoples - colonizer and colonized alike - have become subject to the ebb and flows of international politics and the colony may have even traded hands. Never the less, growing consciousness and tensions with the mother-country have reached their crescendo and separatism is a common sentiment among the dutifully alert and aware. The masters will have to fight back.

- 2: A people free, but behind in the times - Long ago the nation went by unaware of history far away from themselves, until that history caught up. This is an adjustment of the above framing prompt, but assumes for some time the nation has already become free of colonial tyranny and is free in the world. But because it has won independence does not mean that it has overcome its problems. The nation is poor, with the retreat of the colonial regime much of the wealth disappeared, or even was dried up under the influence of the colonizer. Tensions exist within the nation, between numerous groups and their legacies as well as direction for the country. But as it seeks to catch up and bring the modern world to it, it risks upsetting the age-old balance of tradition to the alienation, wonder, and bewilderment of the peasants and other such groups of the nation.




It is best to see the change in elevation (as the ground gets lighter) as a sort of "average" or relative idea of how much higher that area is over all compared to what's around it. None of those mountains are plateaus as depicted, but may be many peaks all the same.



So I know I said this is a fictional world and there is magic. But unlike other RPs that run a hard-magic system I would like to run a soft magic system, that means I'm not going to bother with how it's even going to work in a metaphysical since. But that also at the same time it's not really a present force, no one can use magic, magic happens to them. Otherwise, everyone has to abide by the wondrous world of AM: Actual Machines. I will dole out the moments of FM: Fucking Magic. I will do this by keeping a list of named characters with an assigned number and every so often use a random number generator to pick a name out. I'll probably do a few other things to set up parameters on my end and when next to roll the dice. When everything is done the recipient will get a PM from me telling them one of their characters have been magick'd and now they have to write about it depending on the parameters I have set.

If this is too much bullshit, we can strike it. But for the most part I would like to run with it as an added layer of "nothing is as true as it may seem", due in part to either prompt relying on society being at such a sudden shift such random occurrences would not be out of the normal anymore. After all, what is real when everything known before is suddenly dead and gone?

This also sets up a case where I don't feel I myself can be a participant. But also if anyone doesn't mind, then I can skip out on being a passive participant and take a more active role. Or we can all figure out a totally different model.

I think it's somewhat misleading to put this in the NRP section when close inspection makes it look as though this will be a character-driven RP where we're all in just one colonial nation that's presumably detached to some extent (whether by their backward status as in point 2 or their own will and isolationism if in point 1) from the old world and most other nations in this world.

Your idea for magic seems unique, I'm not sure whether I like it or not; maybe some examples of what you might do would help me to decide.

I'm mildly interested in this and might join, but no guarantees from me yet. For the record I do prefer option 2.

@Cyclone

While it's nominally one country that doesn't preclude mass politics at a group level, which is what this is oriented towards. The idea is a player-shared nation with players having groups with characters within those groups, acting out the political intrigues of their regions or group interests. These may even involve cessation from the cessation itself to recreate old kingdoms or polities otherwise lost during the colonial period but can be realized later. Small nations, but nations all the same. Or smaller struggles in the way of towns, communities, provinces, and so on. Overlapping groups, groups with hard borders between.

Soooo, in other words, we play as a series of characters in a political struggle to gain independence, from the "Homeland/Imperial Power" in a series of political intrigues, Etc... Kinds of remembers me of an idea I had a long time ago but that is not the talk right now. the magic system is a bit confusing for me although I can wrap around the concept of being soft, although is a bit of a brand term, so you need to be more specific.

Soooo, in other words, we play as a series of characters in a political struggle to gain independence, from the "Homeland/Imperial Power" in a series of political intrigues, Etc... Kinds of remembers me of an idea I had a long time ago but that is not the talk right now. the magic system is a bit confusing for me although I can wrap around the concept of being soft, although is a bit of a brand term, so you need to be more specific.

"Soft" as in there's no hard system. No science about it. It's a thing. Given the scope of the project I can't play it as a literary thing very much like Lord of the Rings where the magical qualities of say The One Ring can not be explained in a objective manner but as a characteristic to the struggles of Frodo. Or as the random and surreal circumstances of something like Hundred Years of Solitude, which is the primary inspiration and where it's magical events happen as commentary and contextualizing the story on the surrealism of turn-of-the-century Columbia.

But instead of unleashing it out on all the players by fear of abuse, it's a GM power. Meaning I'll take a series of steps to enact it occasionally with as much random chance as I can muster.