Blitz

The Neighborhood Watch

I'm really loving the brainstorming and flexibility from everyone!

Out of curiosity, how would y'all feel about young adults as our age group—like around college age (18-mid 20s)? Obviously characters wouldn't have to be in college. They'd be old enough for autonomy and freedom, but young enough that there's plenty of edginess and drama, and still of course room for there to be one's family involved as well. I've played college age folks before and there's certainly potential for some good ole messiness there.

Also, a couple quick announcements:

• I will try to put up a character sheet soon for y'all to play around with. Not a 100% guarantee it'll be the final version, but you most likely won't have to discard anything if the format changes. I had one yesterday but forgot to save it, ugh.
• Today and tomorrow are exceptionally busy for me as I'm hosting a friend who I need to keep entertained, lol. I should be back to the usual by Sunday.

To that end, I may have enough free time today to hop back on and eke out the character sheet skeleton, so stay tuned!

UPDATE: I added the skeleton to the first post. I think I have the formatting down. Feel free to let me know if not - I'll debug later!

The Neighborhood Watch

The looks interesting, but the horror tag makes me nervous.

@Crimson Flame

Rightfully so! I'm not sure what your personal tolerance for horror is, but this isn't going be overdone. This is why I said supernatural/horror-esque. Think tension without gratuitous violence or ick. Fairy Tale by Stephen King, which is not on the same level as some of his other works, is probably a comparable level. If it helps, I'm somewhat unexperienced at writing scary prose anyway, so perhaps my attempts to do so won't land the same as an expert's would.

I'm interested in this.

The setup seems perfect for a group of late teens/high school students, who would both have more free time to get involved in weird goings on around town, and probably be more willing to go along with solving mysteries with super powers; they'd probably have more interpersonal drama too. But since most RPs tend to have teenaged characters, I wouldn't mind playing an adult for a change either.

@King Cosmos

These were my thoughts exactly, actually. Let's keep this in the back of our minds for the time being.

Anyway, I'm glad there's interest so far! No worries about not having solid character ideas yet. This can be workshopped later. I was just trying to gauge if anyone had a burning desire of a character that we can work with.

The Neighborhood Watch

THE NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH

Link to RP page

Narrative Premise

The town of Redstone always seemed like an ordinary place — until Grace's Grotto, a cozy little café that seemed to pop up overnight, became the heart of the community. Grace, the warm but reserved owner, served coffee that seemed to brighten your day in uncanny ways. Maybe you felt more confident after a cup. Maybe your back pain vanished. Maybe you just walked away feeling... better.

Then, as quickly as it appeared, the café closed and was gone. The space was empty, Grace had vanished, and no record of her café could be found. In the weeks that followed, some folks began noticing... changes — odd instincts, strange talents, or heightened awareness. These gifts seemed small at first, but they weren’t without consequence.

Worse still, strange things started happening around town — flickering shadows, whispers echoing down empty streets, and townsfolk claiming to see impossible things.

That's when the Neighborhood Watch was formed — a motley crew of locals who stepped up to investigate the strange happenings around Redstone. As one of them, you’ll need to balance everyday life, the strange abilities you've started to manifest... and whatever else is happening around town.

OOC Introduction

Welcome! The Neighborhood Watch is a roleplay where ordinary folk develop unique abilities after drinking coffee from Grace's Grotto. Not everyone who had the coffee developed powers - as far as we know - but everyone who does have show strangge abilities all share one thing in common: they had a cup at some point. This roleplay blends slice-of-life elements with supernatural/horror-esque mystery. Alongside a larger plot, expect character-driven subplots and growth, problem-solving, and teamwork. This isn’t about power fantasies or endless combat. You'll be navigating real relationships and the unexpected weight of newfound abilities.

Player Prospects and Expectations

• I aim for this to be both a character- and story-driven narrative. I obviously expect good etiquette from players, but I reserve the right as GM to do things like say what happens to you and describe outcomes, environmental shifts, and NPC reactions in order to drive the plot if necessary.
• This is casual. Still, aim for quality over quantity. I’d prefer thoughtful, engaging posts rather than lengthy walls of text.

Character Creation

Your character will be an ordinary (more or less) resident of Redstone, a city inspired by Sedona, Arizona. Our main characters will likely do a lot together as a group. We don't need to force similarities onto our characters, but if it's easier, we can try to aim for things such as similar age range, common membership of other group (school, work), or something else.

Each character will develop a supernatural ability — this power should reflect their personality, background, or emotional state. The power can be whatever you want (within reason), but it would be helpful if the power can aid in self-defense or teamwork in some capacity. I'd like to avoid "lone wolves." The Watch thrives on teamwork and community.

How far will you go to protect your town?

---

If you’re interested, reply below or shoot me a DM. If possible, try to mention any character ideas you have! I plan on developing/add more information if there's interest and we transition to a new thread.

Quick note on me...

• You can do the math - I've been here for a real long time. I've been on an extremely extended break, but even before then I wasn't super, super active. More so than previously, I have quite a busy life but am willing to make a good effort attempt at maintaining the story and roleplay. In any case, I will try to keep communication clear!
• I suck at BBCode but will try to make posts pretty.

As for me, I'm considering a student (high school, or local community college), a stay-at-home mom, or a local government official like a mayor. But I'm flexible.

---

Character Sheet Skeleton

Play around with the below character sheet skeleton to help with your budding ideas.

[center][h2][b](full name)[/b][/h2][/center]
[center][img](url to a picture of your character - optional but highly encouraged)[/img][/center]

[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Gender:[/b]
[b]Occupation:[/b] (student, mechanic, exiled royalty, etc.)

[b]Appearance:[/b] (can be redundant with photo but try to include things obviously from the imagery, such as height, tattoos, etc.)

[b]Personality:[/b] (how does your character behave? what are their strengths and flaws?)

[b]Background:[/b] (how did the past lead to your character today?)

[b]Connections:[/b] (family, friends, rivals, or any notable ties to the town or other characters. collaboration with other interested parties is encouraged)

[b]Emerging Power:[/b] (what supernatural ability has started manifesting in your character? it should be subtle at first with growth potential and tied to their personality, background, or emotions. be creative but balanced!)

[b]Personal Motivations:[/b] (why does your character join the Neighborhood Watch? what drives them to investigate the town’s mysteries?)

[b]Additional Notes:[/b]

[b]Personal Hex Code:[/b] (#XXXXXX - optionally theme your character and dialogue with this color)

Post a random fact about yourself.

this is my first post here in half a decade

Ban the Person above you

Banned because fluorescent lights make my retinas boil

Post a random fact about yourself.

I broke my intermittent fasting regime for a fortune cookie today

Worth it

Take a Look

Welcome!

Please, take a seat and make yourself comfortable. No, not there! Use the chair right here by me. Can I get you something to drink whilst we chat? Coffee? Tea? A serving of frothing Red Bull in a chilled glass? Ah, excellent choice, excellent choice. Now then... Where shall we begin?

Oh, where are my manners? I ought to introduce myself properly to you before all else. I suppose that, then, should be an acceptable segue into clarifying what exactly I am looking for and if we would be a good match for each other. Here is your drink, by the way—you'll find no finer concoction of caffeine and sucrose anywhere else.

• My name, as you probably already know, is Blitz. I'm flexibly open to any possible nicknames, though. I'm an early-twenties male living comfortably within the Eastern Standard Timezone of the United States (now on Daylight Savings Time, of course). The time zone in which I reside is liable to some change, but currently that will not be likely within the foreseeable future.
• My scheduling can range anywhere between being free to the point of boredom to being so busy that piercing my brain with knives would be a refreshing means of relaxation. In this moment, my schedule is more or less free but that will most likely change in the near future. Of course I, as your potential roleplaying partner, will try my best to inform you of any happenings in my life that affect my availability, planned or unplanned.

Hmm... It feels a bit strange that I could present an entire personal introduction in just two bullet points. Well, if I left something out that requires an answer, simply ask and you shall receive.

Next, I will outline what exactly I am seeking with this interest check thread. I advise that you read this section carefully, or at least more carefully than the section above, because I suspect that what I am looking for may differ to some degree from what others in the 1x1 section desire, and the last thing either of us needs is a misunderstanding.

Why I Write
I joined the Guild and, by extension, posted this interest check for two overarching reasons. One, I wish to become a better writer. As we all know, writing like any skill is a muscle that must be exercised in order to grow. Sure, I could sit down and write out a subpar novel on my own, but... well, that leads me to the second motive. It's difficult to go the gym on your own all the time—it's much more motivating and fun to have a partner or a group to go with. In other words, I'm here to enjoy myself and write with others so that we may improve together while having a good time in the meantime.

What I Seek in a Roleplay
I want to craft a story with you. I want to write something that's just as engaging to write as it is to read it over again. I want to craft memorable characters and exciting plots alongside you, bounce ideas off each other and then plunge our characters into strange situations to see how they react and how it drives the story forward. I want our work to be a true collaboration, you see.

And so, because of this, there is an important point I wish to clarify for you: the sex. Unfortunately, my personal rules for this subject matter are not clear-cut or well-defined. In most cases, I do prefer a "fade to black" scenario, because I believe that the actual writing of the smut adds very little if anything to a story that cannot already be portrayed in the build-up to such lewdness or in any kind of sexual tension. That said, as acknowledged in my use of "in most cases," there are exceptions to this, in which case I would be okay with writing out such things. In any case, such limitations only apply to the actual doing of the act (so to say); I am a huge fan of romance, inappropriate humor and jokes, as well as sexual tension, sexual frustration, sexual confusion, and any other such [sexual + "mental discomfort"] parameters.

As far as genres go, I do have my preferences, but if you come to me with an interesting idea outside of my comfort zone and can aptly lobby for it, I will more than likely give it a try before informing you of my invested interest of lack thereof. Later on, I will provide a list of general premises from which you can probably deduce the kinds of genres I prefer.

It is also worth mentioning that I am not very into fandom RPs. This is mostly because I don't watch enough anime/shows to know about most fandoms, honestly. The only show I know best (but still haven't even finished) is Naruto, so... Take that as you will.

Medium and Communication
I prefer to keep my roleplays here, especially (but not strictly) within the PMs. However, I do enjoy active real-time prose collaboration, in which I am willing to use GoogleDocs, TitanPad, or some other site like that, after which I will probably affix whatever was written to the original PM/thread. This way, we are free to add to the story at our own leisure, with room for active collaborative efforts in between.

Furthermore, if you find at any point during the writing process that you hate what we're doing or don't like the direction we're going in, just tell me. It will not hurt my feelings. We can try to work out a new idea, a new plot/story, or we can simply go our separate ways—whatever works. I also understand, however, that life is busy and/or confrontation is difficult, so if you stop replying all of a sudden, I won't be upset either; I'll assume you lost interest or are taking a Guild hiatus (we've all been there).

Writing Level
Contrary to what the length of this interest check may suggest, I am most comfortable working at casual-level writing. This is because I notice my quality tends to decay the more I try to stretch things out in a post. However, this heavily depends on my level of inspiration and where we are in a story. I may crank out a whole brick of text or a few paragraphs of prose.

I, like many others, am also prone to some spelling or syntax errors here and there but I will try to keep these incidences to a minimum and to amend them as soon as I (or you) catch them!

Now, active collaboration is a different story. Since we'll be working together to write something larger-than-normal together, I think one- or two-liners are perfectly okay (especially during dialogue-heavy moments), because in the end they add up to something big. Take the following fabricated excerpt for example (authors denoted in different colors).

Collaboration Example

Gareth glared down at her, his eyes brimming with rage and contempt. The tip of his sword was pressed against her neck and a crimson trickle emerged from beneath the steel. One swift move would spell out the end her life.
"Do it," Ursa growled hoarsely. "I know you won't."
Gareth shut his eyes. He knew she was right. Why was she always right?

Some Story Genres

Now for the good bit. As mentioned previously, I want to write a fleshed-out story so I'm afraid I am not super keen on doing strict pairings. But since you've come here as a guest, I do owe you some ideas at the very least for you to peruse.

Lowish Fantasy

Plot Motivations
Fantasy plots are flexible given the nature of this genre. This can be a quest of some sort, a rescue mission, exacting revenge, slaying a dragon, saving the world... etc.

Modern or Realistic

Plot Motivations
These plots are a bit more restricted to the realm of plausible realism, but still quite enjoyable to write out. Ideas include but are not limited to: high school/college/work drama as it relates to love/relationships, mental illness, death of loved ones, moving to a new city, getting fired from your job, waking up next to a stranger after a night of partying... etc.

Urban Fantasy

Mystery (Murder or otherwise)

Futuristic/Post-Apocalyptic

Historical (disclaimer: I am not a huge history buff)

Horror

The last few genres are more difficult to generate plot motivations for (on their own), and so I am completely open to discussing ideas with you if any of them catches your eye. These are purposefully lacking; to reiterate, I want to build the meat of the plot together!

Have you finished your drink? Excellent. No, I'll take your glass. Well, I hope you enjoyed this little chat. If you're interested in writing with me please shoot me a PM, as it may slip my mind to check here for comments. So long!