If you don't think musicals are baloney
And/or want to win a Tony
Come be a part of something really corny!
Come on, it will be funny
I'm not asking you for money
It will be a weird thing indeed!
And/or want to win a Tony
Come be a part of something really corny!
Come on, it will be funny
I'm not asking you for money
It will be a weird thing indeed!
YES, WE ARE ACCEPTING CHARACTERS!
Premise
Songs and Sorcery (Also: RPG: The Musical) is an affectionate parody of fantasy RPGs (mainly D&D and Pathfinder): its tropes, characters, plots and rules, by way of a Broadway musical.
An innocent party of newbie adventurers is forced to ensue in a legendary journey to save the world from an evil cult who wishes to harness the power of a mythical dragon and rule the Earth with an iron fist. Expect lots of cliches, fourth wall breaks, and songs. Lots and lots of songs.
How To Sing
You, dear player, don't need to physically sing anything. Your character does, though. Here's how it works:
- Any character can start singing a musical number at any time (so long as they don't overuse it) by just posting an IC post with lyrics. Doing so will give your character their time in the spotlight for a solo musical number.
- If you want to give details about the actions your character does during the song, how it is sung, or the backing track, you can do so in parenthesis, for instance: (Piano riff), (Sudden pause), (Quick)
- If you want other players to join you, simply write instructions at the bottom of your post about what exactly you need under a "Join in" label. This could be anything from number of lines, number of verses, the character(s) who may join in, etc. Others can quote the post and add to it.
- The songwriter decides when a song is done by simply moving on with the plot (or by posting OOC). However, if a song is too long, I might ask the songwriter to cut it prematurely.
Guidelines
- Tone. The tone should be kept light and comical. While violence can and will occur, it is exaggerated and used for comedic effect. Blood is either ridiculous and exaggerated or absent, depending on the situation. Graphic descriptions are, however, forbidden unless they are somewhat generalized ("heads on a wall" for example). Dark and mature themes should be left out, although dark undertones are fine.
- Profanity. Generally fine, as long as your character's vocab doesn't consist entirely of it. It is also worth considering that the dramatic effect of, say, dropping an F-bomb, is severely reduced if your character does it all the time. "Keep it at a PG13 level" is pretty decent advise: keep the F-word to a minimum, S-words and dick jokes are fine generally.
- Fourth wall. The characters are all aware that they are in a musical, and they're also Genre Savvy, meaning that they have extensive knowledge of the tropes and cliches of the genre. The characters are NOT aware that they're fictional, and they're not aware they're in an RP. I would not advise leaning on the fourth wall frequently, as the joke might get tiresome.
- Archetypes and Personality. On par with the previous point, and with the fact that this is a parody, characters should be exaggerated and quirky. This includes everything from personality to backstory. While using "established" and popular D&D archetypes is recommended for the full parody experience, it's not mandatory. I also recommend making parts of your character intentionally generic (e.g. a "family was killed" backstory).
- Combat. Resolved by making flashy moves rather than dice rolls (feel free to make dice roll jokes though).
There is no initiative or combat mechanics - canonically, everyone acts at the same time, and whatever they say happens (of course GM has the final say, and can veto you if you do something impossible or unreasonable).
Your average mook can be defeated by a good Rouge backstab; your BBEG? Well, that's a few more posts.
Note: it is possible that plot developments in the RP may override or contradict with some or all of the above guidelines, at which case the tone of the RP takes first priority.
The Most Important Rule
Personally, the most important rule in any RP is Rule Zero, which simply states:
"Roleplaying games are entertainment; your goal as a group is to make your games as entertaining as possible."
There is no denying that this RP is highly experimental, and may become an explosive mess very quickly. Frankly I don't care if this ends up being a plot hole-ridden mess with unresolved arcs or a professional Broadway play, I don't care if people write 5 paragraphs or one line per post, as long as we're having fun, nothing should matter.
