Tin Dragon Detective Agency is accepting applications! Renowned for cracking the great Juniper Seed murder case, exposing the Order of the Laughing Sparrow for human trafficking, and for establishing trade relations with the United Treaties of Sharkwater, Tin Dragon pride ourselves on integrity, courage, wit, and curiosity. Applicants should be intelligent, headstrong, and willing to do what it takes to complete an assignment. Training will be provided; no experience necessary.
Tin Dragon
Tin Dragon, in the old days, was an alchemists' guild known for its adventurous members and historic discoveries of new plants, minerals, and mythical creatures. Eventually they expanded their specialization into trailblazing and field research, until the archaic pursuit of alchemy was all but forgotten. Members today wear a tin badge etched with an ouroboros to honor the agency's origin.
Concept
Character sheets will be filled out as applications for a position among the famous Tin Dragon Detectives, considered publicly to be the best in the field of crime-solving and trailblazing. The latest news, however, is a cryptic report of the deaths of several Tin Dragon agents, after which the help-wanted ad was published. Upon acceptance of their applications, characters will earn a percentage of client fees per completed assignment, which could range from finding missing fairies to catching serial-killers to discovering the lairs of dangerous monsters.
World
Comet-by-the-Sea: Home of most mechanical and architectural advancements, known for its astronomers, researchers, novelists, and its prosperous population of cats.
Woondaly: Named for the sound the local shorebirds make, a trading hub known for its bright colors, stage plays, experimental music and spicy cuisine.
Four Stones: Named for the four ancient boulders balanced impossibly at the town center, known for its fish, oysters, shipbuilders and weaponsmiths.
Timber Moren: A hunting and logging town known for its beer, wine, generous hospitality, silly holidays and bloody history.
The Howl: A high-security prison and asylum, rumored to be violently haunted.
The Repository: The Tin Dragon Detective Agency headquarters, which location is secret to all but its agents, built under an equally secret drop-gate in the northern hills. The ouroboros badges are the only gate keys.
Woondaly: Named for the sound the local shorebirds make, a trading hub known for its bright colors, stage plays, experimental music and spicy cuisine.
Four Stones: Named for the four ancient boulders balanced impossibly at the town center, known for its fish, oysters, shipbuilders and weaponsmiths.
Timber Moren: A hunting and logging town known for its beer, wine, generous hospitality, silly holidays and bloody history.
The Howl: A high-security prison and asylum, rumored to be violently haunted.
The Repository: The Tin Dragon Detective Agency headquarters, which location is secret to all but its agents, built under an equally secret drop-gate in the northern hills. The ouroboros badges are the only gate keys.
Most of this continent is forested, rife with all manner of beasts and settlements and intelligent creatures. The wilderness harbors everything from sky-jellyfish to mountain-colossi, and is littered with the relics and ruins of a forgotten time.
Within the towns and cities there's a level of technology that resembles the real-world Renaissance: gears, clocks, architecture, etc. Each major location has been built around a drop-gate (noted on the map as a star-circle): ancient stone circles of unknown origin that will teleport someone to any other drop-gate when the corresponding key is inserted.
Other than the drop-gates and some unusual properties of plants and wildlife, magic is not usually readily available for human use. Some mechanical advancements have been able to incorporate certain rare stones as a power source, and certain plants are cultivated by healers and assassins for their remarkable effects, but there is no such thing as casting a spell or enchanting an object.
The Drop-Gates
Each large town is built around its own drop-gate. The drop-gates are ancient circles of astranechite (a diamond-hard mineral, violet-black marbleized with pale green, one of only three minerals known to perpetually generate energy) embedded upright in the ground. A wide stone platform has been built around each drop-gate, and two gatekeepers posted as its sentry.Each origin gatekeeper keeps a set of keys, one for each known drop-gate. Keys are circular, about the size of the palm of a hand, and usually made of metal or stone. The surface of the key is usually embellished with the insignia of the corresponding town or city. The underside of the key is a raised delicate pattern of lines and circles, entirely unique to each drop-gate.
The gatekeeper will usually charge a fee (sometimes very high) for passage through the gate. Upon acceptance of the fee, the gatekeeper will insert the corresponding key into a circular cavity on the side of the drop-gate. The marbleized stone will hum and vibrate slightly, but there is no other indication of activation. For exactly ten seconds after the key has been inserted, anyone or anything that passes through the drop-gate will step out on the other side of the gate at the chosen destination. Those unaccustomed to gate travel will, upon stepping through, experience a sense of vertigo and falling, which may last up to a few hours after travel.
The destination gatekeeper greets incoming travelers, gives directions, and calls for a wheelchair if the "dropped" traveler is unable to stand.
Character Applications
Characters may be human or any species of your choosing. Please keep the following stipulations in mind:
- No magic except as a power source or as an herbal supplement, no matter your species.
- I will ask you to tone down your species advantages if they could disrupt the balance of gameplay or if they don't fit in with what is possible in the world.
- Characters with no advantages at all are awesome, too!
- Keep in mind that absolutely everything except the character itself will be forfeit to the GM. Any species histories or hometown descriptions or family members or mentors are not your own. My suggestion is to keep these things vague, if they must be mentioned at all.
- Under no circumstances should any secrets be kept from the GM at any time, for any reason. This includes mysterious things about your character that you haven't decided yet.
Please fill out the below application form in-character. Your character's job application is also your character sheet. If your character feels a desperate need to divulge more information than is asked for, they are free to attach a cover letter. Post completed applications in the OOC. Upon approval, you may copy/paste into the Characters tab.
Rules
Aside from the above character rules:
- Control nothing but your character and your character alone. NPCs, environments, and especially plot are off-limits. Make no assumptions. Of course there are exceptions where it's a matter of common sense, but always ask in the OOC before posting.
- Read everyone's posts, or at least skim them.
- Remain courteous, kind, and family-friendly in the OOC at all times.
- Any grievances or problems with me or with other players should be sent to my PM box to be handled privately -- and I do make every effort to help and change things where needed. Hostile comments in the OOC, against other players or against the GM, are not tolerated.
- I reserve the right to kick any disruptive player according to my judgment. It happens rarely, but it happens.
- If, during the application process or during gameplay, it's clear you're expecting a different sort of RP than the one I'm planning, I will let you know. I can't cater to everyone's preferences, and I don't want to waste your time.
- During gameplay it may become necessary to rearrange the timelines of some posts, or ignore small parts of posts entirely, in order to ensure everything flows and makes sense in the grander scene. The chain of events will be outlined in the GM post -- it's very rare you will be asked to edit your posts for the sake of the timeline.
About the GM
Hi, I'm Mok, I'm a slow poster and I don't like sharing power. (MUAHAHAHA *cough*) When a new RP starts out, posts roll fast and hard and I'll tend to respond to groups of people at a time. As things slow down and the characters start developing, my mod posts will start to focus on each individual character. A posting speed goal might be once a week or after two people have posted, whichever comes later.
I am a reactionary poster: I require some action, some decision, some prompt from your character from which to launch my post. I will take what you do and run with it. Characters who simply react to what I type and add nothing are very difficult for me to moderate. Every little thing in every mod post -- especially in this RP about investigation -- is something that your character could focus on and move forward with. If at any time you feel I haven't given you enough to act on, let me know in the OOC. I'll work with you to add to the post. My job as GM is to give you a writing prompt. If you're not inspired to write, let me know what sort of thing inspires you.
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