HeySeuss

Blackshields: The Horus Heresy [Warhammer 30K]

I'd like a status check from whomever is left so we can plan for the RP's restructuring accordingly.

Adieu

Good luck with your next steps!

And good luck with the struggle. We all have our things to wrestle with, and if getting off this place aids that cause, go for it!

What is the hardest thing you've ever done?

Career change right after a medical emergency that nearly killed me (not my first, but probably one of my worst), while coping with a hostile work environment -and- learning to handle an anxiety disorder. It sounds more harrowing than it was in retrospect, because I was my own worst enemy here in a lot of ways.

(That's not entirely true, the executive chef was and is a violent lunatic, and he probably was the actual worst enemy. ;) )

I learned that anxiety is a bitch but a lot of people have it. Understanding it helped me to control it. I also learned that knowing when to cut people off is important, though I still struggle with that. That lively sense of 'don't give a fuck about your haters' is an important element of serenity in life. Shutting down the toxicity of others and guarding against it in yourself is probably an evolving fight. Letting it go has a lot to do with that.

Above all, mistakes will be made but learning from 'em is what counts.

Shadowed Apotheosis [Sword and Sandals Fantasy-Magical Apocalypse]

Of course. I assumed there would be some collaboration with the ideas you already have vs. ideas I could contribute. My only fear here is whether or not the RP could hold some surprises. I would love to offer some creative input but I also don't want to entirely show my hand, or to fully see what's in everyone else's.

@Life in Stasis

My experience is that once players trust each other with scenarios, surprises are fun to pull and plot twists are cool. The trick is to make sure that the innovations on plot don't abuse the trust.

Shadowed Apotheosis [Sword and Sandals Fantasy-Magical Apocalypse]

Low fantasy, secrets to uncover, collaborative GMing? Count me in.

@Life in Stasis

I tried to lay down the bones of a plot but I am also open to people having thoughts on how to structure the RP. There are plenty of options I have in mind, but I also figure that the idea here is to see who bites and what ideas they have. I have to unlimber the notes on the setting that I've had in the past, but that's also a discussion and brainstorming thing.

Shadowed Apotheosis [Sword and Sandals Fantasy-Magical Apocalypse]

I hope you feel this RP as I do; I am passionate about it. I am prepared to do it with one or two other people, if they are engaged in the creative process. I have a Discord for chatting and brainstorming. I have a Trello with setting notes already established.


_{This rocks. This is by JJcanvas.}

TL;DR Summary

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• Dark, Apocalyptic.
• Robert Howard-inspired, with Low Fantasy roots. A dusty world of desperation and brutality. Life is nasty, brutish and short. People call to gods, but they do not hear or answer.
• Into this, magic springs out of nowhere, in the hands of tyrants and conquerors, what was only myth. It exists, but the characters do not know how to use it. The enemy does, that is why they're so dominant.
• Magic will be learned by the characters, but the price is paid in blood and tears.
• Many kingdoms have fallen, a few remain.
• Characters are part of a much larger party that lost many members trying to make it to a dungeon that holds secrets to their salvation, or damnation.
• Not first come, first serve. There is an application to join the RP, and character sheets need to go up fast.
• GMing duties will be collaborative.

In Character Info

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The world is strewn with ancient ruins, reminding everyone of a shrouded history that only left fragments behind for those that came after to study. The gods died, so the tales went, and magic with it. That was a fanciful tale people told to make sense of life. People made their religions, kept traditions, but their prayers were not answered substantially. People did not call lightning from their hands.

The Vukash were considered a savage people of the hinterlands, but when they overran their first kingdom, and then their second, and kept going, the world realized with a growing horror that they could call fire and death, that the Emperor Bozash called on legions of fell beasts from legends, including the ferocious trokals.

The kingdoms of the world fell one by one. Those on the front line were besieged and brought down, and the armies that were sent out by kingdoms further back came back whittled down and telling tales of horror and defeat; often, these proud warriors came back both maimed and mad from what they witnessed.

The source of the magic, which only the Vukash knew, was unknown, but the scholars of all remaining kingdoms worked feverishly and identified a place where they could find answers. If one myth, magic, could be true, and the trokals were undisputed, why couldn't other stories? While the kingdoms fell, scribes, scholars, wise men and witches all studied fervently, tried many different methods to tap magic, but couldn't. There were terrible things done in calls to dead deities; sacrifices and experimentation in terrible desperation. One rumor among many was the Dark Library of Dihira, a long dead goddess. No one could locate it. It was one of many desperate legends that the scholars and scribblers spoke of, hesitantly, while civilizations were swept away by a fell hand of magical tyranny.

Until a man came back. It was thought that he was just another raving survivor of a massacre, but he brought something, a piece of crystal shaped like a seed that glowed with lightning within. The man ranted of the Dark Library, and the horrors within. He was interrogated, stripped of all his knowledge in desperation until he was no longer. But the scribes, they wrote everything, however disjointed.

The seed was studied. Someone tried to split it with an axe. It wasn't even scratched. No one was sure what the secret was, though it was dipped in blood, prayed over and so many other things done to it. But when it faced some directions, the light within died out. When it faced a given direction, it glowed again. And as it moved away, it grew dimmer. As it was taken in the right direction, it grew in warmth. The madman raved of the World Tree. The seed pointed the way.

A party of the most intrepid souls that could be found was assembled, it followed the seed's lead into territory held by the enemy. They tried to slip in by stealth, they tried to fight on the move. So many died on their way before the party arrived at the World Tree, a long-fossilized wonder of the world that was once a site of holy significance, but in the lands overrun by the Vukash. Only a few survived to see it. Guided by the ravings of the tortured madman, they found the entrance. Doubts plagued the party, very little held them together besides a common cause, and yet they took the fateful step in...

Out of Character Info

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So the story starts with the mid-point of an arduous journey. A band of heroes(?) stands before the World Tree. The gate to the Dark Library, cunningly hidden, was only the first secret to unravel. The next steps are into the unknown, of their world's history, of the enigma of magic and the darkness of their own souls.

The setting is a dusty low-fantasy sort of setting in the mold of Robert Howard, a place of terrible secrets that lay entombed, waiting to be unleashed. A lot hasn't been fleshed out because it's very important to give the players the room to grow their own backstories and write in what they feel inspired with.

The Dark Library and its perils are a starting point, but the RP is meant to spring from what happens in there, so it's almost a prologue. It's possible to write it as prologue, in fact, and move to what happens afterward. I am flexible as to how to arrange the RP and what a good starting point is.

The idea here is that there isn't really a GM calling all the shots, but rather a consensus on how to write a good plot. I am not looking for a lot of people, but I am looking for a couple highly engaged collaborators that feel this RP and want to take the idea and run with it. To that end, I intend to set up an application that involves character sheets, but also a solicitation of people's ideas on where to take the plot, how to create a story collaboratively. Instead of a GM just imagining challenges, we talk about how to write the scenes and spring things on each other. To that end, the people accepted into this RP are colleagues, and are encouraged to write as many characters and NPC's as they need. They are free to invent the enemies and keep everyone else on their toes. The idea is to work together to make the story better.

While it starts with a dungeon full of secrets, it by no means has to end there. There is a world burning, after all, and it's entirely possible that the characters will emerge with secrets from the Dark Library and very different ideas on how to use them. Perhaps they won't even wait that long to start turning on each other...

If that's of interest to you, start brainstorming -- this won't be first come, first served, this will be "the most creative and enthusiastic will get the nod."

Blackshields: The Horus Heresy [Warhammer 30K]

So I don't really know how to make this rp cool by myself...........................

@Wraithblade6

If necessary, we can discuss how to restructure the RP to keep it going. I am open to that discussion because I am trying not to do what I can to keep RP's going on my part. Right now, we have a house of horrors like situation where the enemy troops are turning into more formidable opponents, and I think having less of a cakewalk and more of a sanity-bending encounter with raw chaos is a great way to add challenge.

The Hidden People

Post is up. You are totally allowed to kill the Herald of Nemsemet. I mean, you'd expect Rusty to do it, but if anyone wants to devise a funnier killing that is totally up to you.

Hopefully, we can all get our characters to Sally's, BTW, I'm not ready to split groups off yet. I feel like we allowed enough time from the breakup of the party to brunch at Sally's to give time for people to discover that they can't leave New Camnden and circle back around for Plan B.

The Hidden People

Daylight was traditionally downtime for the supernatural for primal and practical reasons, not the least of which being that it was easier to conceal oneself in the dark and less humans were around to witness...or were easier to off in the dark in smaller numbers. Vampires favored it too, and the court tended to set their watches by them as they were most influential within its power structures, having eternal-ish life and the inclination to play politics.

So no one really expected the Herald of Nemsemet to show up at Sally's Diner, off Allard Park, a place that harkened back to the 1950's ideal of a diner, down to the servers who had up-done buns and horn-rimmed glasses. Sally, perhaps as a self-defensive measure to lessen the impact of her own powers which were volatile, tended to hide in baggy work attire and affect the same look when she was running her business. One almost expected bees to come out of the hair, and inevitably they were all dressed in the tackiest clash of colors though possible, perhaps as an homage to New Camden's working class culture.

Late morning brunch was underway, but it was mostly a supernatural crowd in Sally's, because it took a supernatural metabolism to handle the sweets. It was also notable that certain places, ever since Nemsemet started making his waves, seemed to ward off humans, though the few that were around were complaining of nightmares and planning to stay more indoors than ever. A few raving types, possibly from drink, drugs or mental illness, warned of more dire things, but there were still humans in the place, getting in their saturday morning hangover brunch in the form of various incarnations of eggs, bacon and hash browns, or other trimmings.

That was, until a bunch of them fell asleep, face-in-plates. A few people had to have their heads turned by the ones left standing who were, as far as Rusty could tell, supernaturals. The place had a high level of patronage after all.

A boyish figure strutted in, goat-hair legs and hooves, but decked out in a cheesy sort of Egyptian regalia, including a big old pharaohnic hood and some sort of chestpiece with a bird and feathers, in what looked to be some sort of fake gold. It was practically a halloween costume, but it worked like a herald's banner to let one know whom the satyr spoke for.

"The dread lord Nemsemet wishes to announce that the rule of the Court is hereby absolved. His rule is law and eternal. All who swear loyalty will be allowed to go about their business, but must stand ready to do the Eternal Lord's bidding..."

The Hidden People

Post half-written and skeletonized so I can finish it sooner or later. I'm going to get characters to assemble at Sally's, even if they split for a little bit.