Through the Rifts: Progeny
Do your people remember their homeland? The Plane from which they first came? It is called Gaia, a massive and beautiful world, full of life and magic, a world of swords and spells and mystery and longed-for beauty. Or, at least, it was. Before the Cataclysm ended that pretty old song.
We are the survivors of that Cataclysm. We are Gaia's disparate children, sent haphazardly through the Rifts- magical gateways that led us from the world of Gaia to new homes. Each one went somewhere different, a different Plane of existence. Our people were spread across countless extraplanar realms, some living in worlds wreathed in flame and inhabited by demons, others finding themselves lost in great green forests. We were spread apart, disconnected from each other and our home.
Now, five hundred years later, the Rifts have reopened. And we are beginning to find one another.
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General Idea
This is a fantasy spin-off of my successful science-fiction NRP, Through the Gateways: Humanity.
Now, for me, the most interesting part about NRP has always been the interactions between different cultures. How does the warmonger react to the pacifists? What happens when a group of religious faithful meet a society of atheists?
As we have in Gateways, that's what I want to focus on in this RP. But instead of sci-fi, we're going fantasy this time around. We're going to each be playing as a roughly medieval nation, descended from the original settlers who were sent through the Rifts and into other Planes. The world we came from was the typical fantasy realm, where magic is real, and elves and dwarves probably hopped around. But when the Cataclysm happened, an apocalyptic event that caused the environment of Gaia to become uninhabitable, we were forced to open magical portals to other worlds and flee there instead. That's where your people have been living for 500 years.
Now think about what might have happened to them in this time. Did they land on a harsh plane, and used dark magic to survive? Are they ruled over by a ruthless tyrant? Have they made pacts with whatever creatures live there already? Or have they managed to stay true to some chivalrous, knight-like ideals? I want this to be heavily culture-focused, so your imagination is the limit. (As long as you don't break the medieval tech limits, don't be afraid to go somewhere that isn't typical fantasy.)
Now, for reasons unknown, the Rifts have reopened. All at once. For the first time in five centuries, our poor little countries will be sending their scouts into the Rifts and finding one another. And personally, I think it could be pretty fun to RP these early 'first contact' interactions. Seeing how our different people respond to one another. And as the RP goes on, I'm not opposed to anything; war, trade, diplomacy, or whatever else.
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How Do the Rifts Work?
Magically!
Alright, alright, more importantly, there are some rules that make this RP work. Like:
1.) All Rifts connect to all other Rifts
The Rifts magically offer anyone who enters them a choice on where they want to go, so long as their desired location also has a Rift. This means that every Plane can get to every other Plane, so that none of us are prevented from interacting with one another because we're not close enough together on a map
2.) There's no way of traveling throughout the Planes other then the Rifts
3.) Since the Cataclysm, the magic to create new Rifts has been lost.
This is to prevent anyone from spreading out into new Planes, so that the focus stays on us interacting with each other rather than trying to expand throughout the extraplanar worlds
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Magic and Technology:
This is a Medieval Fantasy RP. I'm imagining that the world of Gaia was in the Medieval Ages when we left for the rifts, probably around the equivalent of 12th century Europe. Hoooowever, what happened on the other side of those rifts is up to you. Maybe your people had an Enlightenment as soon as they got there. Or maybe the centuries of isolation have allowed them to forget much of what was once known, slipping them back into antiquity. As a result, I'm allowing tech levels to be anywhere from the early Iron Age to the very start of the Renaissance. (Guns, however, are a banned tech.)
All that said, I'm just one man, and I can't reasonably research, debate and rule on every technology. So when you fill out your NS, you only need to give me a general idea of what they know. As long as you're not coming at me with machine guns and tanks, or with sticks and stones, it'll probably be chill.
With magic, I'm going to play it by ear.
You can go high or low, from fireballs to simple card tricks, when imagining the magic that your people use. It may be that your Plane lends itself to a particular kind of magic- perhaps you live in a place where there are new gods that empower your wizards in new ways? Or, perhaps, the whole of the Plane seems to make mysticism fizzle out and spells go awry. Maybe the only spell that works in your world is the one that summons pink frogs. Use your imagination and give us something interesting!
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On Joining and Leaving:
If someone wants to join after the game has already begun, I've decided I'll just say that the Rift leading to their plane has only now opened. Likewise, if someone leaves or goes MIA, we can say the their plane's Rift just shut down as mysteriously as it had reactivated. In this way, the NRP should be able to accept new players whenever, and survive losses without grinding to a halt. It has worked so far for Gateways; here's hoping it'll work here too.
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Interested?
Worry not, you don't need to have been in Gateways to play with us here. The NS is below!
Also, here's the Discord link!: discord.gg/hxQVFpHZ
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Rules
1.) No godmodding, or controlling other player's characters/nations
A basic rule in any RP. You know it, you love it.
2.) Cannot fully conquer other player's nations without permission.
You can go to war with another player. But you will need the a-okay from them before I allow you to completely exterminate/assimilate/remove another nation from the game.
3.) If conflicts cannot be decided, the GM will arbitrate.
This goes for IC and OOC conflicts. I always prefer for people to work things out mutually. Ideally, everyone can agree about who wins/loses wars, or who has the upper hand in trade, or so on. But if you can't, I'll step in to try playing judge fairly.
4.) When using concept art for your NS/posts, avoid anime pictures.
I'll allow some! But I don't want the RP to feel too anime, so try to keep it light. (This one is less of a rule and more of a guideline.)
5.) No way to stop others from entering the Rift into your plane
You can set up defenses around it, of course. But you can't actually prevent someone from entering their Rift and heading through to yours. You'll just have to stab them when they get there. (This is so that wars and other fun interactions don't just grind to a halt with a player saying "I'm closing my Rift!")
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