Children & Organs -- Miscellaneous Workshop

[Juicy]

I'll be frank; there's a definitive lack of collaboration of what I've seen on these boards, at least with in-progress ideas. Interest checks boil down to literal shows of "I'd join"s or "I might join"s with vague, if any, reasons for why.

The fun of roleplaying for me personally comes from the process: throwing ideas back and forth, discussing what's there or what should be there, asking questions, offering criticisms and overall making the out-of-character feel more than just a means to an end. The fact of the matter is that I'm a developing writer and I yearn for more than waiting a few weeks for in-character proceedings to possibly start after spending a few hours on a character design the GM deigned "acceptable" and nothing more. How else am I supposed to improve if no one is willing to say anything about a character without being under the visage of one themselves? If I just wanted to write in the first place, I'd open an empty document and start doing so. Roleplaying should offer a unique experience.

Any longer of a diatribe would be solely indulgent; this thread has a purpose: to provide two of my roleplay concepts and to hopefully inspire some conversation. It's lovely to know if you would join a RP in the manner of the concepts I propose, but I'd gain more from hearing why, hearing suggestions of what directions I should take in developing them, and hearing insight on what has worked before and what hasn't, if even applicable.

Idea A: The 'Children'

• On the subject of "indulgence," there's nothing more pleasantly escapist than attractive teenagers with magical powers. I do like elements and I do like basing characters from elements. I've seen many RPs here, especially those tagged as 'Casual', which offer a list of elements to 'claim' and I see such as restricting characters to essentially "roles"; if there can only be one true Fire element, for example, he or she is either going to have the temperamental personality commonly associated with pyromancers or be a banal subversion of such. I would want elements to be broad, encompassing, and pliable based on a character or altogether dependent on a player.
• Combat is an area I'd like to practice in so there would be emphasis placed upon it. I've also been drawn to the idea of slaughtering giant monsters recently.
• Rick Riordan popularized the "children-born-of-gods" idea, bittersweet in its simultaneous adulation of ancient myth and trivialization of it; gods are not literal beings. They are the products of culture, and when culture shifted, so did interpretations. With this in mind, I may want to tackle the whole "demigod" debacle, rather than have children be born of ultra-powerful people in the clouds.
• The magic combat school setting is a popular one, but I've noticed little thought often goes into developing such a setting. I've always liked the idea of an open campus, essentially a high school functioning more as a college would. Another optimal setting for me would not be a school at all, though to the cast of characters, it would be, as far as they were concerned. I'm envisioning a fax machine with TOKYO ACADEMY sardonically scrawled across it pumping out ill-explained objectives for impressionable kids who just happen to wield improbable powers. Why not?
• And this is incredibly loose but I would like to encourage players to think of their characters as children if the nature of the RP calls for them all to be teenaged. As in, they've yet to truly discover themselves; they're not conveniently-prettier adults.

Idea B: The 'Organs'

• Another combat-oriented RP with elements of magic, though the main draw revolves around the ability to either summon entities or activate mystic spells by temporarily sacrificing a bodily organ. The longevity of the summon/activation, as well as its ferocity, is all dependent on the necessity of the organ. If a character sacrifices his heart, for example, the effect would likely be powerful, albeit short-lived. And, of course, the character would get his heart back in the end; something that would adequately supplant a heart, at the least.
• I imagine a fantasy setting taking after either feudal Japan or Hindu mythology though I can't necessarily explain why; I suppose the aesthetics of either and possibly recurring themes would coincide. That, or it could all take place in Hell. Constructing a world inspired by it has always fascinated me.
• Death or some universal idea incorporating it would definitely be a recurring theme and motif.

Details About Me as a GM: What I would strive to do

• Emphasis would be placed on developing creative writing skills as a group.
• I oftentimes see named mechanics as compulsory, a way of maintaining structure and enforcing themes. For example, if "teamwork" is important, I'd incorporate an incentive for players to work together.
• I like writing samples more than I like long apps and I would always give commentary on every app.
• I hate off-forum secrecy when it doesn't revolve around immediate discussion. I also hate in-active out-of-character threads, though that doesn't seem to be common here, from what I've perceived.
• I would not want players to feel rushed in making characters. I love bouncing character concepts off of other people as well.
• Reservations are the bane of roleplaying.

What a terrible thread
I'll be developing these nonetheless intermittently but saw this as an opportunity to encourage more of what I'd like to see here and within roleplaying communities in-general.

[Polybius]

Idea B: The 'Organs'

• Another combat-oriented RP with elements of magic, though the main draw revolves around the ability to either summon entities or activate mystic spells by temporarily sacrificing a bodily organ. The longevity of the summon/activation, as well as its ferocity, is all dependent on the necessity of the organ. If a character sacrifices his heart, for example, the effect would likely be powerful, albeit short-lived. And, of course, the character would get his heart back in the end; something that would adequately supplant a heart, at the least.
• I imagine a fantasy setting taking after either feudal Japan or Hindu mythology though I can't necessarily explain why; I suppose the aesthetics of either and possibly recurring themes would coincide. That, or it could all take place in Hell. Constructing a world inspired by it has always fascinated me.
• Death or some universal idea incorporating it would definitely be a recurring theme and motif.

@Juicy

Hi Juicy. I like this idea and would love to see it advanced to some degree. You could even throw in pre-spanish meso-america as a cultural influence to draw from, soaring ziggurats where powerful shamans literally sacrifice limbs to achieve some sort of magical effect. Maybe ancient babylonian or Sumerian or a mash-up of all of them would be a good place to start. So many fantasy worlds rely on the Medieval European staples that have come to dominate fantasy in film and books, it would be really something to create something unique. I wish you the best of luck in finding some writing partners, I'll be around as well.

[Force and Fury]

I don't have a helluva lot to add, but your observations about elemental magic did pique my interest. One of the concepts that I've been bandying around which I think shares a wavelength with yours is that magic shouldn't come from nowhere. It is a reaction to an action. It's energy, of a sort. I view it as a 'draw' and a 'cast' process.

Further, I've been thinking about substituting the predictability of 'elements' and the traits that inevitably attach themselves to these with different schools based upon the source of the drawn energy: Kinetic, Arcane (which would be mainly radiative energy), Chemical, Dark (Atomic), Magnetic, and Blood (metabolic energy and sacrificial). Those are my thoughts, and they may evolve into an RPG of my own someday, but I thought that I'd put them out there since we seem to be of like mind or at least in the same neighbourhood with regards to magic use and making it a bit less... hackneyed.

In terms of setting, what I'd love to see is something truly unique (which, I acknowledge, may be difficult given that basically everything that we think stems from existing frameworks of reference). Ideas so often carry the tone and flavour of actual historical regions, cultures, and time periods. How about a culture obsessed with making everything circular? One that's powerfully Gnostic, wants to destroy its sky deity, and builds interconnected lattices of spires with ribbed stonework everywhere? Maybe another that is normally almost eerily harmonious, but purposely culls its best and brightest in mass orgies of slaughter at unpredictable intervals (and not based on some goofy Mayan-type calendar) in order to preserve a level of mediocrity that prevents a class of privileged elites from taking root and keeps most people from feeling inferior? I'm pretty much just spitballing, but you seem to have, at once, the creativity, capability, and desire to do something totally original, so I figured I'd lob a few your way!