One Piece Interestest and Discussion Thread! Brainstorming Time!

[Jabber]

Welcome, young pirate, to the world of One Piece!

Here, you shall be exposed to an age of romanticism filled with adventure and piracy. No prior knowledge of the One Piece world is needed, but if any one feel like reading up, you may access this site: One Piece

Premise:

Premise

Over half a decade has passed since the last Pirate King roamed the seas. Monkey D. Luffy and his band of merry men were notorious throughout the world for traversing the mysterious Grand Line, conquering the New World and obtaining the truth about the origins of both the World Government and the network of sailors who call themselves, Pirates. Towards the end of his journey, Luffy had obtained the respect of many islands and focused his attention on cleaning up the seas of those who he deemed to be 'bad'. However, although he managed to rid the world of many evil Pirates and Marines alike, the world inevitably keeps turning and history continues to repeat itself in the form of new dreamers setting sail onto the greatest sea in the world. Not long after he ascended to the seat of Pirate King, the greatest crew in the world simply vanished. Without a trace or word, there was nobody left alive who could account for the whereabouts of the Straw-Hats, some hypothesized that in order to live a peaceful life the Straw-Hats had took it upon themselves to flee to Raftel, or one of the Sky-Islands, where they would forever remain undisturbed till the end of their days. On the year of the turtle, Luffy declared that he had left the greatest treasure ever to have existed, One Piece, in its rightful place, waiting there for the next crew who were destined to become the new kings of the sea. Ushering the world into the next era, whispers float through the Grand Line and the Blues, the seat of Pirate-King is once again up for grabs and those who seek power, fame and fortune are once again sailing towards their dreams.

The race for One Piece has once again, begun.

Your Role in the Story:

Role

So, you'll be playing as rookie pirates, seeking adventure or hoping to accomplish certain goals, who'll eventually be in a single crew. In terms of how dark this RP will be, you can probably go as far as you want as long as you're not disobeying any RP Corner Rules. Be as cunning as Law, reckless as Luffy, profane as Bartholomeo, or as merciless and bloodthirsty as Kid or Akainu; your choice really. And if you're not sure what Stat to get, you can ask around or just request for help like just asking for a random Devil Fruit.

Character Sheet: Please send them to me via PM. Otherwise, they will not be entertained.

Character Sheet

Name: What people call you. A name and not a moniker or epithet.
Age: Nothing too young or old. Its not fun seeing the elderly get beaten up; same goes for kids.
Gender: One or the other, but if you have other options, could you let us know?
Race:  For now, I'm only allowing Humans.
Height and Weight: Since size varies in the One Piece world, its gonna be helpful to have an idea how large or small your character is.

[Appearance]

 
Bounty: 0 Beli
Personality: Tell us what makes you tick. 
History: Everyone likes a good story. Also, the RP is going to start at Lougetown.

Abilities: You are capable of what again? You get one. This could be a Devil Fruit, a fight style, or anything of the like. Please don't go overboard though; you guys are rookie pirates.
Techniques: No need to fill this up right a way. Its just a place to dump the moves you'll probably repeatedly use over the course of the story.
Traits: Just leave this blank for now.
Inventory: Only the important stuff. Having a picture of your father isn't important to me.

[Archmage MC]

Hey. I can help out with that. First...

1. One Crew, unless you give every crew someone who can use rapid transportation. Running more than one crew doesn't work in such a closed world like One Piece. If this was say, Naruto, Bleach, or the like where rapid transport is a thing and/or the world is the size of japan instead of say, the size of the WORLD, you can have different factions.

2. A Heroes Journey might be the best storytyping to keep everyone together. If people wanna be the temporary bad guy, you can let them no prob, but the main chars should just be the 'straw hats', if that makes sense while you handle the arcs and stuff, with other players maybe making villains if they so wish.

3. DO NOT be anal about powersets or characters. The less restrictive you are on stuff that aren't outright broken, the better things will be. Lots of RPs died after starting due to being too restrictive on character design.

[Rin]

Ah, I love One Piece RPs but they never seem to last long. ^^; Think the best idea would be to start with a small group as the main crew and build up from there. Like, do occassional recruitment drives to introduce new crew members. Just don't go overboard on the amount of PCs, basically. XD

And... Yeah, just have the players be part of one crew, like the Straw Hats, since having everyone all over the place... Really, something like One Piece could maybe work as a sandbox if you put a lot of work into it, but it'd be a lot easier to keep track of everyone if it's more tightly plotted.

Also, start off small in terms of power and work up, since it's more fun and rewarding to gradually gain power than to start off godlike. Basically, no Logias, Mythic Zoans, etc.

DO NOT be anal about powersets or characters. The less restrictive you are on stuff that aren't outright broken, the better things will be. Lots of RPs died after starting due to being too restrictive on character design.

@Archmage MC

Going to be honest: the one I know you're thinking of doesn't make sense in One Piece. ^^;

[Archmage MC]

<Snipped quote by Archmage MC>

Going to be honest: the one I know you're thinking of doesn't make sense in One Piece. ^^;

@Rin

well TBH One Piece is a Japanese Western Superhero show with Pirates instead of Superheroes. So anything can happen.

[Rin]

@Archmage MCLet's see now...

Firstly, I don't think television exists in the world. Thus, cartoons don't exist, thus "being a living cartoon character" doesn't make much sense. But even if I'm mistaken, uh...

See the thing about devil fruit powers is that they kind of can easily be summed up in a single sentence, which gives you a good rough idea of what they're capable of. "You're now made of rubber," "you can detach your body parts", "you can turn into lightning", "you can turn into a bull", etc. Nice, simple, give you a good rough idea of what the power can do. "You're a living cartoon character!" doesn't really do that. It could mean anything, and from what I've seen in the past in your case it's anything but simple. That and as it's been pointed out in other RPs (even superhero ones) despite your attempts at "balancing" it, uh... It doesn't sound all that balanced at all. Really, um... When so many people reject it you should probably start taking the hint and maybe try something else for a change? ^^;

Also, it's a pretty cartoonish world to begin with, so it seems a bit redundant really. And... Kind of think your description there is a bit flawed but not going to go there since it's beside the point.

EDIT: And really, um... Honestly, if you like the character so much and the only thing that people object to is the powerset, why not just use her personality without the powers? Could always give her something like the Gum-Gum Fruit to at least gain the intended effect, maybe? Roleplaying's like every other group activity, remember: you need to compromise sometimes. XD

[Jabber]

Appreciate the suggestions dude. I'll definitely keep those in mind. Most of what you suggested are things I've already thought of, so its good to see that I think in a similar was as someone else. I hope more would show interest though.

[Jabber]

Anyways, healthy conversations aside, would you guys prefer to have an NPC captain or a PC one?

[Zeroth]

Can't say whether or not I'm interested yet, as I don't know for sure if I'll have time for another RP, but I feel like I could offer some advice.

What seems to get most fans of One Piece to stick around are three primary things--the fights are probably the biggest one, followed by the sense of exploration, and then the characters. To make interesting fights, you have to have interesting villains. And when I say interesting, I don't just mean their powersets and fighting style, although that's also a big part of it. A good villain has to have impact and importance. Impact means that their actions affect the world around them, and importance is relative to the good guys. A mad scientist you've never met, who wants to take over the world, may not be as "important" as the petty mobster who forced a character's father/best friend/lover to go into debt and now threatens them when they don't have the money. You have to have a villain who can put up a fight, but they also have to be a villain that the characters REALLY want to fight in the first place. If they are recurrent villains, however, you have to consistently make them threatening so they don't end up like Team Rocket.

To establish a sense of exploration is hard in an RP format, I've found. One Piece has a lot of islands you can build on, and you can always put a lot of work into describing an environment or use nice pictures to get some visual aid going, but it's hard to synthesize player goals with "a place" as opposed to a "person or thing." In other words, the players are most likely going to be on an island to fight somebody, get a special item, or do something mundane like stock up on supplies. If you can come up with ways to make those goals tie into the environment you want them to explore, it'll probably be easier--for instance, to fight someone, maybe they have to find the hideout that's hidden in the vast jungle. Same thing with the item, maybe it's sealed inside an ancient temple. Even the gathering of supplies--maybe one of the characters is like Luffy, a huge glutton, and they hear about this island that has these specially raised cattle that make the most succulent steaks on the high seas. Then they find out that these steaks are insanely expensive, and the only way they might be able to get one is if they help the local cattle farmer drive off some rustler bandits.

Basically, turn "exploring the environment" into an adventure in itself.

Finally, the characters. This will heavily depend on your players themselves and their skills as writers. But, one thing you can do to help is communicate with them regularly, and often. Especially in this case--Character Arcs. One Piece has an Arc for each and every one of its primary crew characters that also serve to establish bits and pieces of the overall story. If you encourage and talk to your players about their backstories, their character's personal beliefs and likes and dislikes, you might be able to help them come up with ideas for their own arcs, which you would then execute alongside them, or you could create an arc based around them by yourself and just ask them if they're cool with you creating events/villains/NPCs that are related to them in some way. The only problem with this is that, in an RP, everyone wants to share the spotlight equally. So you'd either have to come up with a set order that everyone agrees with--"Okay, we'll do Bob's arc first, then Jane's, then Jim's, then Sally's"-- or else you'll end up with multiple arcs running concurrently, which is very hard to handle both from a GM and player perspective.

As for your question about an NPC captain or a PC one, keep in mind two things about Luffy as the captain of his own crew--on the one hand, he doesn't really do "captainy" things most of the time. On the other hand, he's ALWAYS the one who solves the primary problem. Like any main character in any story, it falls to him to handle the biggest threat while everyone else has their own opponents--which is another thing I should have discussed in the villain section. When you make a villain, make sure to give them plenty of lackeys so everyone can have their own 1-on-1 fair fight instead of a gangbang chaotic mess of everyone attacking one villain at once. But anyway, whether or not the captain is an NPC or a PC should address those things. Remember, in an RP everyone shares the "main character" slot. So your captain can't be the one to resolve all the problems. At the same time, the captain is the one that runs the ship. You'll need to decide "to what degree or standard does he hold order on his/her ship?" And depending on those factors you might find it easier to decide if it should be an NPC, a PC, or even a character made by another player instead of the GM.

Hope this helps and wasn't too long winded.

[Archmage MC]

BTW, if I do join, I'll either join as a toon sorta person. (Reason being is that the alternative, regeneration on its own, is actually stronger as it doesn't have as many weaknesses) Or as another char that will make you have to really think about your villains, otherwise he'll just oneshot them due to basic logic.

[clanjos]

Archmage wants to use some vaguely defined "toon force" thing, take a shot.

[Rin]

Anyways, healthy conversations aside, would you guys prefer to have an NPC captain or a PC one?

@Jabber

I was going to say something about this but @Zeroth summed up pretty much any points I would've made quite nicely. XD

@Archmage MC...Not even going to consider anything I said? I'm just trying to help. :(

[VitaVitaAR]

Given how few RP's "toon powers" ever fit in, and even in those they would be heavily broken, I think it might be about time you started considering other characters you want to play. I'm sure you can't only ever have one idea.

... Anyway, um...

I'll be honest and say I don't know One Piece super-well but over-the-top crazy pirate stuff seems fun to try again so why not. ^^;

[Archmage MC]

I mean, if you want, I can just make it straight regeneration. However that more or less keeps her the same, but makes her lose almost all her weaknesses. toonforce actually kinda nerfs her except if going against reality warping powers. If you want that, I can do it sure, but remember, no more weaknesses. Also makes her a bit more run of the mill tbh.

[Mixtape Ghost N]

I've never done a One Piece RP before, but I think I'll try to give this a shot.

[Jabber]

Good to see that there's a good amount of interest being gathered. I'll try to have something up in a few hours. I'll be only accepting a few players to get a hang of things with the GMing and whatnot. I'm open minded but I prefer that everything be kept as One Piece-ish as possible.

[Jabber]

Just throwing it out there, but would anyone be interested in a premise like this one:

Setting would be several decades into the future where little to no canon characters exist. Its a world where the justice had lost. Piracy was victorious and pirates simply roamed the seas doing as they pleased. You'll be RPing as recruits in the new marines. Unlike the old one, this organization is sponsored by individuals who wannt to restore peace to the seas. Their ranks would be made up of former marines, bounty hunters, ex-pirates and the like.

Any takers?

[Rin]

@JabberEh... I'd rather do an AU kind of thing where we take the place of the Straw Hats, really. ^^; That premise doesn't seem to be doing anything for me, honestly.

[Archmage MC]

@JabberEh... I'd rather do an AU kind of thing where we take the place of the Straw Hats, really. ^^; That premise doesn't seem to be doing anything for me, honestly.

@Rin

This.

[Zeroth]

Just throwing it out there, but would anyone be interested in a premise like this one:

Setting would be several decades into the future where little to no canon characters exist. Its a world where the justice had lost. Piracy was victorious and pirates simply roamed the seas doing as they pleased. You'll be RPing as recruits in the new marines. Unlike the old one, this organization is sponsored by individuals who wannt to restore peace to the seas. Their ranks would be made up of former marines, bounty hunters, ex-pirates and the like.

Any takers?

@Jabber

Honestly the entire point of a One Piece RP seems to be going on adventures like the Straw Hats do and pursuing all the different goals--find One Piece, find All Blue, become the strongest swordsman, etc--so removing the whole "do what you want cause a pirate is free, you are a pirate!" aspect of it would kind of defeat the purpose in my opinion. Unless these new marines have undergone vast reforms and aren't as Knight Templar as they are in the canon, being Pirates would probably suit the story much better.

As for whether it should be set in the future of canon or an AU, my vote goes to an AU where the canon characters have simply all been replaced by either player characters or NPCs of some sort. This would allow the GM to create their own Seven Warlords, Four Kings, so on and so forth. It would, however, be more work for the GM. Again, this is where communication with players can come in handy--you could potentially offer players that you think would do a good job of it the task of designing such important setting NPCs, as long as they don't end up doing things like "I call dibs on making a Four Kings character!" and try to use that as their MAIN player character. It'd be a balancing act to make sure people don't powerplay or intentionally bring the fleet of a warlord down on some first timer pirates just for funsies and to make themselves look "so extra special badass and cool."

[Archmage MC]

<Snipped quote by Jabber>

Honestly the entire point of a One Piece RP seems to be going on adventures like the Straw Hats do and pursuing all the different goals--find One Piece, find All Blue, become the strongest swordsman, etc--so removing the whole "do what you want cause a pirate is free, you are a pirate!" aspect of it would kind of defeat the purpose in my opinion. Unless these new marines have undergone vast reforms and aren't as Knight Templar as they are in the canon, being Pirates would probably suit the story much better.

As for whether it should be set in the future of canon or an AU, my vote goes to an AU where the canon characters have simply all been replaced by either player characters or NPCs of some sort. This would allow the GM to create their own Seven Warlords, Four Kings, so on and so forth. It would, however, be more work for the GM. Again, this is where communication with players can come in handy--you could potentially offer players that you think would do a good job of it the task of designing such important setting NPCs, as long as they don't end up doing things like "I call dibs on making a Four Kings character!" and try to use that as their MAIN player character. It'd be a balancing act to make sure people don't powerplay or intentionally bring the fleet of a warlord down on some first timer pirates just for funsies and to make themselves look "so extra special badass and cool."

@Zeroth

remember if your doing all the warlords and emperors or whatnot, you don't need to do them all at once, only bring them up when relevant. Just like the show!