HeySeuss

ASoIaF Roleplay: A Fistful of Dragons - A Sellsword Adventure (Closed for the moment)

I'll sign on for this. I've played the mercenary theme before, and I'm also a fan of the Hundred Years War and the War of the Roses. I have thoughts on an individual character in the way of sellsword longbowman (and sometime bandit.)

Out of curiosity, would this start in the Seven Kingdoms or in the Free Cities...and is this a new company or an established one?

Brainstorming, Collaboration and Fun Writing

Been reading a lot of Stephen King, which is recharging my batteries, and so...

Brainstorming, Collaboration and Fun Writing

So this is another bump.

Brainstorming, Collaboration and Fun Writing

Yes, that is a Tony Montana bump.

Brainstorming, Collaboration and Fun Writing

Now seeking: Partner in Crime/Collaborator.

Bear in mind that what I have written below is mutable and essentially that I am willing to adapt. If you have an interest and you pitch it, I will consider it. I'm open-minded.


_{Why a pic of Keef and Mick? Because some of the best music out there came from active collaboration. Which is sort of the point for what follows.}

My Proposition

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Longtime user just getting back into the swing here and looking for some chat, a little collaboration and some fun writing with new faces.

Let's face it, I've been here a long time, I know a bunch of people here but a lot of them seem to be not RPing, which means that I have to run into some new people.

I'm mostly marketing this to the odd random and interesting person that might be checking these interest checks the way I sometimes do without posting an actual check. Some of you are old hands, some of you are brand new.

Hi, you, drop a line! If interested, please PM or tag @HeySeuss so I get a notification or HMU at HeySeuss#6650 on Discord! Otherwise, I'll check the page, see if I have notifications and perhaps not get back to you as quickly as if you pop a flare.

My Baggage

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Baggage tldr

After years of slogging it out in kitchens and doing things not really related to having a college (university to the non-Americans) degree, I finally have one of those cushy desk jobs. Sometimes, life gets crowded, but I have been working on a couple 1x1's for a minute and have learned to just focus on those and not group RP's. I collaborate best with similarly busy people where we don't get bent out of shape over silence for a period. I've also learned to just be up front if an idea is only lukewarm for me, so I don't leave someone hanging. Note: As of right now, I'm proud to say that I'm actually caught up on the RP's I should be writing.

Also, since this is about baggage. I'm a former mod here. I resigned, and I'm mostly active socially with relics from the late 2000's who still lurk here. I still absolutely collaborate with new partners, but I am no longer worrying about administrative matters on the Guild so long as I can RP in peace.

My Interests

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Interests tldr

Honestly, I'm versatile. For amusement, I often like to cross genres and find ways to blend elements of a given genre into something else. I think a plot is more important than a genre in a lot of ways to me. I enjoy the thrill of collaboration and combining perspectives.

I'm not very good at fandoms for the most part, though I draw liberally from inspirations and try to make something out of that. Sometimes I'll venture into something off the beaten path (including high school) though I like RP's that try out different perspectives and unusual twists. I'm into self-improvement as a writer, so I like to constantly shift my gears. I love a good conversation about where we are channeling our muse from on a given piece of writing, because I think inspirations are important, but they can also come from all sorts of places.

My Immensely Long List of Rules (Disclaimer: Sarcasm)

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_{(OBEY OBEY OBEY)}

The Quite Long List of Hard and Fast Rules

I adhere to the site rules that are posted and we can negotiate and converse about the rest. I'm sure you're breathing easy, because I can't count the number of times I say, "okay, looks good" and then WHAM -- a huge long list of rules.

Oh, and when PM'ing, please post a writing sample, list of references, your favorite doughnut flavor and what you put in your coffee. You will be judged harshly upon this basis. No, seriously, don't do that. These days, I look for like a good concept sentence, similar to a hypothesis, for a character idea. The rest can be fleshed out, but I don't want to be hung up on waiting for character sheets that suck up all the creativity that should be going into the RP.

Plot Prompts

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_{Each idea has an interest check associated with it, which provides more substantial info than the prompt. There's a lot in there.}

Actual list this time

-[Star Wars/Rebellion Era] The Rebel Alliance is a diverse group welded together from local resistance groups and sector alliances. This results in a wide array of talent to draw from, and unexpected surprises. Then there are Mandalorians -- an ancient warrior culture that refuses to die and has risen from the ashes multiple times. They have a controversial history of independence at odds with both the Jedi and Sith, not to mention with the Republic and the Empire and even with civil war between competing philosophies of the Mando'ade and ties with the underworld mean that they are not necessarily trusted, even if some were to fight for the Rebellion. This is the tale of a squad of such beings.(Source)
-[Fantasy] Brand of the Nightwood was a renowned ranger and steward of the Vendish frontier, until King Harold included him in his campaign of vengeance against upstart barons. Brand was in the winter of his life when he was executed by the mercenaries and assorted soldiers of the King. The thing was, Brand raised, in his lifetime, a diverse brood of adopted children, all trained as rangers under his expert tutelage, and all eager for vengeance against Bloody Harold. They're coming home. (Source)
- [Fantasy/Piracy/Space Opera] A strange magical sailing ship, a crew of former slaves that managed to free themselves somehow and a strange sort of space to sail upon. The characters find themselves in the middle of events as a starport upon an asteroid oasis in space declares itself a pirate republic. Their origins are part of the key to the Republic's survival against many different enemies. (Source)
- [Sci-Fi, Parody] It's Douglas Adams + the Rolling Stones 1972 tour. Aliens fake a rock band's death in order to put them on tour in space. They get probed, but it's probably consensual. They experiment with space drugs. There's a crowd of aliens waving lighters in their tentacles and throwing panties with way too many holes up on stage. The humans are forced to adapt. (Source)
- [1960's Bikers, Werewolves]This is the saga of the Wild Hunt, the Werewolf biker gang, and its fight against the cabals and conspiracies of the world arrayed against them. (Source)
- [Modern Fantasy] Magic returns to the world after a long slumber, and an unprepared world freaks out. Two magic users have to make their way through an altered social landscape while keeping their secrets. (Source)
- [Science Fiction] Military contractors wake up to find themselves far from Uzbekistan, where they thought they were going, and fighting as mercenaries for aliens that think Humanity's propensity for violence and creativity will make them a force to be reckoned with on insterstellar battlefields.(Source)
- [Modern/Horror] A tropical island turns into a hellish landscape of war between natives and a rapacious corporation with the characters caught in the middle. And then they discover the horror manipulating it all to its own foul ends. (Source)
- [Historical] 1943/44: Two teenagers are part of the Resistance against the German occupation of France in World War II. _{This sort of thing actually happened; kids as young as 14-15 were actually fighting the Germans in 1944, and prior to that even younger kids were assisting the Resistance. So yes, this is realistic.}(Source)
- [Post-Apocalyptic/Sci-Fi] The world was destroyed in the fire of nuclear weaponry, and the survivors live in a world lit only by fire. However, that changes when invaders from space arrive, supporting some kingdoms against others. (Source)
- [Vampire Horror/Cyberpunk] With their power uncontested for thousands of years, vampires rule humanity from the shadows, using them as pawns and cattle in their sadistic game. Many organizations have tried, and failed, to fight the vampires effectively, until one organization, after centuries of planning, information gathering and investment in research and development, makes breakthroughs in cybernetics that allow a human to have a fair chance of fighting individual vampires. The organization's first operation with this technology is the revenge killing against a specific vampire... If you can't stand Twilight, you'll enjoy this. (Source)
- [Fantasy] Two adventurers promoted to the governing council of their city-state must now investigate the assassination of their predecessors while unravelling mysteries of their past that have come back to haunt them. (Source)
- [Modern/Slice of Life]Two childhood friends that shared the sandbox together grew apart in high school and further in adult life; one is getting serious about settling down with someone her parents approve of but that she has doubts about, the other is a dedicated musician that is about to make it beyond his wildest dreams. They're both about to get what they wish for and find it wanting. (Source)
- [Historical] A Jewish man hunts one of the SS officers responsible for the death of his family during the Holocaust and follows the trail into the French Foreign Legion, fighting a guerrilla war in Indochina (Vietnam). When wounded, he meets the German man's wife, a nurse that has no idea about her husband's past. (Source)
- [Sci-Fi] A colony of humanity's is lost but eventually finds itself at its destination centuries late. The colonists, accomplished scientists and researchers at the top of their field, establish a high tech colony that is capable of self sufficiency and far more, thanks to the experimental artificial intelligence and support systems it brings along. It is not aware how much time has passed or how much has changed since they departed Earth. (Source
- [Post-Apocalyptic/Fantasy] The world is not destroyed in a nuclear fire, but by a magical one as dragons and other beasts of myth return, sweeping the world and leaving devastation in its wake. In the former US State of Minnesota, facing an invasion of goblinkind, two enemies, products of two different communities, unite to try and face down the oncoming horde, putting their antipathies behind in order to survive.
- [Sci Fi or Fantasy] A disgraced figure in history (either long dead or imprisoned/executed) is brought back by the heir of a monarchy from either another plane (fantasy) or galaxy (sci-fi) to provide the natural talent only he has while earning his redemption and rehabilitation in the process. (Source)
- [Modern Alternate History] In 2013 (or thereabouts, maybe later?) the Soviet Union invades the United States. The US military is set back on its heels, but the Soviets face a new problem -- the American guerrilla resistance. Based heavily on the first Red Dawn rather than that remake. (source)
- [Modern Fantasy] The city of Camden faces the rise of the dread Lord Nemsemet, an ancient sorcerer who rallies much of the supernatural community to his standard to overpower the hereditary nobility of the courts and establish his own rule of terror in the city. Meanwhile, the supernatural beings of Camden against Nemsemet are unable to call for help or leave, due to some fell enchantment... (Source)
- [Fantasy] The saga of the much reviled and often-underrated Orcish mercenary company Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi as they struggle with the enemies they're hired to fight as well as the scumbags that hire them and try to stiff them afterward. It ain't easy being green. (Source)
- [Star Wars] During the Mandalorian Wars, the Jedi knight Revan sets out with followers to fight for the Republic's survival against the warriors of Mandalore's neo-crusader movement. This is their tale, with a tragic ending... (Source)

These plots are distilled from larger plots for RP's that I have done (or have never done but would like to do.) I have a wide range of interests and if you want me to try a different plot, I will certainly consider the plot. If it strikes a chord of creativity for me, I'll be happy to work with you on it. So pitch it, because I am adaptable.

Staring Back with Chrome Eyes [Cyberpunk/Vampires]

Getting a real Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter vibe from this, which I'm really digging.

Plus, who'd give up the chance to shoot Edward Cullen through his sparkly face?

@Cleverbird

Yeah, though I think we're looking at more advanced than that, seeing as we're in cybernetic mod territory, but drone warfare and other technologies in that game series are definitely on the table here.

I'm open to speculation and creativity in this regard. This should have a real "Syndicate" type vibe to it.

Staring Back with Chrome Eyes [Cyberpunk/Vampires]

Please see stub system on character sheet area. This is meant to allow people to give essential info on their characters but keep the secrets to themselves. Please character generate responsibly and justify the trust/discretion. :)

@The Narrator@Blenheim

Staring Back with Chrome Eyes [Cyberpunk/Vampires]

Post-op, cybernetic implant surgery...

Instructions:

• Using the provided template, please create a character sheet and post it here.
• All other posts to the OOC tab. Thanks.

Possible Character Concepts

• Talent - At least one human with paranormal abilities; telekinesis, pyrokinesis, telepathy...something of that nature. We're talking about a one in a thousand. This person probably won't be as heavily augmented as some of the others, but the augs they do possess will be the kind that boost their abilities...and probably turn them somewhat twitchy and unstable.
• Warden - A former law enforcement officer (preferably a detective/federal law enforcement type) that was scapegoated for a scandal that involved some sort of coverup of what was actually responsible. This dishonored individual was, perhaps, maimed in the process. They might well be working as a consultant or private investigator. They understand how government works; perhaps part of a DOJ task force investigating corruption that went awry of the vampires.
• Fixer - An ex-criminal of some sort, working for a cartel or organization as a specialist, perhaps as a high tech burglar or smuggler. This person knows the streets, the corruption of people, how to grease palms and get things through security. They know how people are connected in the underworld and where to put the pressure on. These sorts of organizations are often used as fronts for the vampires and their more unsavory activities, such as feeding. Perhaps this character got in too deep, objected and was left for dead. The Vigil is not an organization concerned with legality -- it is at war, and a soldier that knows the enemy is valuable.
• Face - someone, probably a woman, that caught the attentions of a vampire that prized her looks and social grace, but was overcome by his urges and left her bleeding somewhere, clinging barely to life when the Vigil found her. She had a high flying social life and a respected career, perhaps as a lawyer or a corporate executive or even an actress or known personality before the event. Her skills, her ability to control herself and put on a persona allows her to smooth her way into places where a hundred men with guns would be foiled. Her ability to manipulate people with the pheromone and emotional manipulation implants she has received have taken her natural talents at persuasion and turned her irresistible.
• Come up with something and make it yours -- that's always a good sign. ;)

Also, here is a list of sample mods and equipment (feel free to invent stuff):

Sample Equipment

• Cybermod: Communications suite, HUD and neural-computer, all standard issue – Vigil agents are able to text by thinking it among each other on a heavily encrypted wireless network. In fact, the computer works off brain impulses and is easily one of the most sophisticated and useful implants they have; what's more, its capabilities have yet to be fully exploited. The downside of this implant is that it includes a cortex bomb with an anti-tampering device. A captured agent can set it off, destroying the hardware inside, or a signal from control can do the same. This is to prevent the enemy from learning the capabilities of implanted agents.
• Cybermod: Internal air supply and aerial toxin filter -- this also has the added advantage of making the agent immune to vampire pheromones, as some types of vampires are known to use this to seduce their prey.
• Cybermod: Blood/liquid toxin filter -- the obvious is at work here -- vampires use their blood as a means of controlling mortals, and this system (and everyone, even non field agents, in the Vigil organization have this implant) screens out one of most subtle weapons a vampire has, rendering them functionally immune to being controlled through ingested blood the way mortal thralls of a vampire might be.
• Cybermod: Eye augmentation; a HUD showing all sorts of system data, such as the status of implants, as well as allowing for low-light and ultra-sound modes of vision, the latter being thought to be more effective than thermographics when dealing with vampires, who tend to run cold if they haven't fed lately.
• Equipment: Mimetic Camouflage (Predator) coat, though this is designed to look more like a trenchcoat -- no doubt some project engineer with a penchant for the dramatic, or an interest in fashion design. The coat is actually stylish, which serves a dual purpose as vampires tend to dress stylishly and surround themselves with the stylishly dressed. This allows Vigil agents one more edge. Of course, they call it the Predator Coat. Because the engineers are geeks. (This is a standard issue Vigil item)
• Equipment: Modular, caseless assault rifle/carbine. Bullpup, caseless ammunition, synched with existing implants and capable of mounting a variety of accessories including a 25mm grenade launcher whose munitions range from conventional high explosive to nano-guided scattered mines. It also syncs with HUD implants for improved accuracy in a mechanism similar to a bluetooth link. The trigger is electric and the weapon includes a biometric security system; anyone but someone authorized to handle it and it will blow; that is a standard feature on most any weapon the Vigil has in service with its teams. (This is a standard issue Vigil item)
• Equipment: A number of electronic accessories, including a PDA tablet and other items to assist in making physical connection with computer equipment. (This is a standard issue Vigil item)
• Equipment: Grenades, mostly white phosphorus. The organization has designed a 'grenade' that involves a strobing UV light that damages vampires -- it is known as 'the disco ball'.

Character Stub

Name:
Character Profile:

You can be as lengthy or succinct as you want, but the character info we need is the character's history of vampire encounters, a brief description of their abilities and role and any additional biographic details you want to add. This can be done in a single paragraph. Should include an overview of cybernetic modifications that support their role on the kill-team.

Staring Back with Chrome Eyes [Cyberpunk/Vampires]

He who fights with monsters should look to it
that he himself does not become a monster.
And when you gaze long into an abyss
the abyss also gazes into you.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
"Beyond Good and Evil" (1886)


Cybersurgery...

TL;DR Summary:

• DISCORD Link!
• Near future, year 2026, modified Earth setting (to account for a variation in technological development.)
• Vampires exist, as they have for a long, long time, ageless and hard to kill and thus fancy themselves apex predators who use their resources and influence to ensure that they cannot be assailed by common humanity.
• Society does not know this, or the way the Eternal, as the Vampires call themselves, have maintained a policy of culling humanity but not destroying it, to profit from it. Through the long centuries, the initial cull policies of removing the brightest, the most creative for turning have morphed into a policy of turning beautiful people into vampires. The eldest were the great minds of their time, but they've also become set in their ways.
• The Vigil has also existed from ancient times in a variety of forms, collecting information as best it could against Vampires, though it found few successes in hunting them. They have, instead in secret, cultivated the wealth and resources necessary to eventually confront vampires when the opportunity arose. Vampires have long since dismissed the Vigil as being a passive organization and a non-threat, as a second-rate Illuminati that focuses on economic interests and corporate affairs. They never bothered to crush the Vigil and the Vigil has been very good about masquerading as an organization that has long since abandoned its original goals in preference of simply pursuing profit, while faking scientist deaths and undertaking other operations to 'move the needle' toward their actual goals.
• Through the course of the 20th and early 21st century, the Vigil has been content to continue this policy of appearing harmless, even as it took to the bleeding edge of technological research; a combination of extensive corporate espionage and sponsored research and development have yielded considerable leaps forward in a variety of technological fields. The Vampires, in their arrogance, do not realize that the plan is to advance to a point where they can level the playing field against vampires and fight them toe to toe.
• The recruits are your characters -- they have a variety of skills, backgrounds and reasons for associating with the Vigil; they are all victims of vampires who have survived their encounters, and have been modified to be able to even the score.
• These characters are sent forth, armed with the best equipment their very rich patrons can provide as a kill-team; their orders are to assassinate vampires. Ideally, they are to preserve their secrecy as much as possible, but killing vampires is the priority.
• Oh, and the first operation will be killing an Edward Cullen type. How cool is that?
• Specifics of technology will be discussed, but I have a general idea of where I want to draw the line.
• Inspirations; Movies - Munich, Blade Runner, Blade, The Lost Boys, Escape from New York. Books - the works of William Gibson, Dracula and Twilight, at least for the idea of killing an Edward Cullen type first. :)
• No thank you on half-vampires and daywalkers. This is about the victims.

In Character Info:

Vampires have styled themselves the apex predators, the ones that take the predator that kills all the other life on Earth, and have fallen into this pattern of considering humanity prey. Some of them try to view humanity as a threat, but the oldest, the ones in charge, are set in their ways and sometimes have a hard time adapting to the idea of humans advancing beyond the means of the time that they were made into a vampire, a time when they were rampant over the earth. Hunters have come and hunters have gone, but with limited means to do damage to the Eternal, their name for themselves.

Organizations too, have come and gone, hunters trying to eradicate vampires under the auspices of the church and some kings, but they have failed, largely due to the inability to match the vampires unparalleled strength, speed and powers; the natural abilities that make them the predator and humans the prey.

One organization has watched and waited, understanding that until the day arrived that they were able to match these strengths and perhaps overcome them the fell rule of the Eternal from the shadows would continue unabated. Through the long centuries, members lived and died, compiling and securing information on their enemies, but not moving against them hastily. They invested assets wisely, cultivated research and learning, infiltrated institutions, worked with a slow purpose and a goal that spanned many lifetimes of effort, waiting for when science would allow them to match or even outmatch the vampires. The vampires, in addressing more overt threats, violent threats, derided the Vigil as timid scholars. The Vigil played the long game, looking for a time when there would be a means to fight the vampires effectively. The world slowly changed, but the Eternal did not change with the times as well as the Vigil did.

Now, in 2026, that reckoning has come.

Out of Character Info

The characters are essentially a team of hunters enhanced with cybernetics that are hunting vampires; the cybernetics are still a prototype phase, but they work and the enhancements are considerable in their performance and scary in their implications -- the characters are giving up their humanity to fight the inhuman, and that Niezstchean element of the RP should not be forgotten. They are more like what they fight than they wish to admit.

Characters are selected for many reasons, but they boil down to the basic imperatives of 'skills' and 'motivation.' Vampires are more visceral and are not, generally, creatures of training and self-discipline. While a few are brought into the fold for their skills, they are more often picked by their masters out of some sort of lust, and so there are quite a few artist and beautiful people types among the vampires. The Vigil, by contrast, looked at their recruits carefully for the skillset and mentality of those they are enhancing to fight the vampires -- they can build the body, after all.

Therefore, the characters are picked for what's in their heads; not just military types, but sharp investigators, cyberwarfare and hacking experts and people that can move easily through most places and speak the native languages. The implants enhance these abilities, but the characters quickly come to realize that the implants give them a fighting chance, but they do not assure victory. Only creative thinking and their skills can do that.

All the same, for a variety of reasons ranging from wanting revenge to desiring the ability to walk again without a wheelchair or even an idealistic desire to free humanity of this scourge, the characters signed on for the long haul, with their flesh and blood as down payment.

Staring Back with Chrome Eyes [Cyberpunk/Vampires]

@Blenheim I am not familiar with that, but will take a look!