"You are but a s̔̽p͉̙ͯ̉͌ē̺͔̙͍͆̅ͅc̓̂ͥ̇͏ķ͓̲̝͒̾ͦ.̶̥ An infinitesimal waste of cosmic dust pressed into a humanoid figure and given breath, e͈̯̫̱̯̼ͤ͆x̛̝̗͕̖̞̙ͬͨ̓̅͌ṗ̘̲͑ͥẹ̟͍͈̗͛͢l̊͗̅͂͏l̓̋ͤ̉ͭ҉e̥͙̙̟̲d͙̈̊̈́̃ͩͥ into a world you cannot begin to fathom and left to toil until your fleshy shell decays into the dust from which you came...
Yet even the most insignificant of spanners can stop the works of a w͍̲ͬ̋̉̇e̷̟̖̦̳̣̓̈̍l҉̻͈̲͈͓̯l̳͑ͩ̉͂͆̿͌-̩̰͖ͦ̈̍o̵̟̫̱̘̳íͮ̈̏ͤ́̈҉͇l̥̜̮̽̅ͪͥ̓ē̢͊ḍ͍̭̤̈́̔͒́̈̍ ̙̜͈̬̺̫ͯ̿̒ṃ̵͓̳̮̪̘̇͗ͦ̚ͅa̗̼͇̫͉ͥ́ċͩ̾̐̕h͑ͫi͉̫̻̾̄ͥn͕̬̘̭̯̹̊̀̾̌͘e̘̺̜̜̲ͨ̉̅̄ͭ͜.͔͕͈̗̣̺̉"
-I0-N4, 159th termination cycle
Wonderful question, strawperson roleplayer. Thank you for your input.
Lunacy C-9 is an idea for a roleplay. I've fished around for interest elsewhere, but it's come up fairly flat and I've moved it to similar but distinct pastures to give it another go, so bear with me. This is where its similarities to most roleplays comes to an end, for better or worse. There is no tavern to meet in, there are no long and twisted backstories to dump on your fellow adventurers and there is no kingdom to save. Instead, the focus is on discovering where your character is, what path to take in terms of survival, and how to best avoid being turned into a puddle of chunky salsa and shot out of the nearest airlock in the style of popular survival horror games mixed with tabletop roleplaying and a healthy portion of action-adventure. Drawing inspiration from sources like Paranoia, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, System Shock, Myst and Dead Space can make for a very interesting mash-up of motivations and plot elements.
Most people aren't particularly fond of the idea of losing a character they've worked on for hours on end, which is why that will be taken out of any player's hands almost entirely. Players will be given a chance to state what gender they wish to play as and a general direction they'd like their character to take -- "Someone in a position of power" or "Someone with a working knowledge of the sciences," for example -- and are then twisted around, run through a random component generator, and spat out as a shiny new character for you to play. The specifics are up to you, but clones and matter creation are not perfect. Your character's first body may be a muscled security expert, only to catch a stray gauss gun slug through the skull and end up an asthmatic engineer. Of course, individual descriptions after the randomization are still up to the player and it is their job to portray the new form as properly as possible, but there is plenty of wiggle room for individual quirks, habits, and personality.
Your character will remember their past life, of course, but it doesn't mean they'll know how to act on what they've learned in a direct way. It'll take teamwork and planning to keep your bodies together in whatever strange immaculately-scrubbed complex they inhabit, between mechanical mishaps, roving robots, and cosmic creations with an affinity for [expunged record].
Let's break this down, then. This roleplay requires of you:
- A working imagination
- Willingness to lose your character at any time
- Further willingness to play a randomly-minted character with various attributes, looks, pros, and cons
- Familiarity with roleplaying concepts
- A love of psychological horror, blood, guts, intrigue, conspiracies, insane artificial intelligences and sci-fi in general
- A very strong grasp of the English language
- Enjoyment (or willingness to attempt) posts in irregular formats ("10-NA is only accepting queries in the form of a 1980s adventure game parser," for example)
Optional elements up for debate:
- Specifics of the character randomization process (Maybe you want randomized genders, or maybe you want to be able to have a little more control over individual jobs)
- Statistic-based systems (Not a fan for proper roleplays, but it's on the table)
- Amount of psychological tomfoolery (But it's still going to get weird)
There won't be much hand-holding; even the OOC will not truly be OOC, as I won't answer any plot questions there.* Everything will be parsed as if the roleplay's friendly neighborhood AI were responding to a query, which means you're going to have to wade through lies and twisted programming to find whatever scraps of truth might or might not exist in the first place. The AI functions as the handler for the roleplay as well as the main antagonist, but will involve many other non-player aspects that you'll just have to meet yourself. On the other hand, my co-GM will be playing a helper of sorts should your characters need a friend in their most desperate hours.
The setting is left intentionally vague, but know that it is wholesale science fiction in a technologically advanced station of some kind. Starting off with characters fresh out of brain-scrubbers, you have to figure out who you are, first and foremost, then meet up with other workers (or survivors, or horrific mutants) to escape from the prison (or workplace?) you have become stranded in -- and why the heartless station monitor is flash-growing new bodies for the rising stack of corpses stacked in the maintenance closet.
Third-person posts. Elements of horror and survival. Death. Confusion. What's not to love? That's for you to tell me.
*i will clarify hazy posts on request, unless there are mind-altering substances being used on your character**
**10-N4 will not tell you if you are under the effects of mind-altering substances***
***10-N4 would never drug you
