The Scotsman

Firewatch: The Multi-User Novel

Apologies for the spamming, thought I'd ping you all though, just in case.

@Chaotic Chao@Prizrak@Amaralyn@Graviloquence@Little Italy

Firewatch: The Multi-User Novel

Here we go!

http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/136617-firewatch-the-multi-user-novel/ooc

Firewatch: The Multi-User Novel

Firewatch: The Multi-User Novel

The summer of 1986 was one of nationally publicised forest fires and the underwhelming force required to control the rampant waves of tonguing flames. The giant snail trails of ash criss-crossing their way across the forests marked a reminder that nature may do as it will, but humanity still needed it, if even just for the beauty. Char and ash was unsightly, at best. So in the winter of '86 and and the spring of '87, the National Forest Service sent out one of the largest seasonal advertisement runs in history. Forest technicians, smokejumpers, park rangers were all hired for the summer, in the great effort to preserve the land bestowed to us by evolution and rapid hunting of millions of species to extinction. And sitting in their lonely lookout towers, miles and miles from any reasonable person, were the fire lookouts. Those that, with nothing other to do or an inane need to finish a poorly written book, sat in their towers and watched. You are one of these fire lookouts, and your job this summer is to watch vigilant over the Santiam State Forest in Oregon. Keep an eye out for fire hazards, natural fire occurrences, and generally doing your best to preserve the Santiam Forest.

Things To Know:

1) I'm bullshitting most of this stuff here. Historical inaccuracies will be present. I don't know if 1987 was even a hot year, but it is now, so run with it. Try and keep most of the political, technological, and pop culture references as chronologically accurate as possible, but I'm not going to go ape if it isn't (I probably wouldn't even know, to be fair).
2) While the game Firewatch is a heavy influence, real life was also an influence on the game. Thus, this is based on real life (or the first half of the game if that helps you in any way). The characters are not present, and this has absolutely zero ties to the game, but 'firewatch' is a cool title. Also, this story will be following roughly the same age guidelines as the game, so be wary of innuendo (nothing too heavy, of course), strong language, and possible violence (not murder, but injury detail etc).
3) There will be no other characters in the game besides your characters, the radio operator, and the park ranger, the two last one's I'll be playing. There is also no plot, not yet anyway. In the beginning, we'll be doing standard fire lookout stuff, patrolling the area and keeping watch to ensure nothing dangerous was happening, as well as growing our characters and developing relationships. If we begin to tire of this, I'll be more than happy to work with all of you to decide on a vague plot point to pursue within the park.
4) I absolutely 10000000% encourage you to write most of your posts as collabs. About 80-90%, in fact. One thing I have actually learned is that collabs are not only easier, they make the entire story run infinitely smoother. No longer do people have to flick between posts to follow a poorly understood conversation. Characters can further develop plot points and push the story further than if it were just them as they no longer have the restriction of controlling other peoples characters (another big red no). Collaborations are some of the best posts a story can have, so I encourage you to pursue them. Not only do they help build a rapport between the writers, it also helps to smooth out some of the natural incontinuities that come with writing in a post-by-post format. Collaborating with other writers means not only is there a larger output, but a smoother one too. This is a great site for this use: https://titanpad.com/.
5) This is a weird one, but it's something I've only just realised; a healthy RP needs shit-posting. I don't care if you're posting awful meme's or just chatting with the other writers in the group, an active OOC means people become friends, and people becoming friends means there's a much higher chance of the story staying alive than if the OOC were purely for business. The OOC is the backbone of any IC, so please don't be afraid to keep it active.

Rules:

1) Act reasonable. Actually that's it. I won't insult your intelligence by carrying on because you've seen the list a million times. Everything you've seen on a standard 'rules' list before applies here. Don't be a dick.

Your Character

Character Sheet

Name:
Age:
Gender:
Appearance (No anime. Picture and/or written description):
From:
Likes:
Dislikes:
Skills:
Other:

Be reasonable with your character. Remember, that anarchy punk character you've had stored for months and is pleading to get out may not fit with the theme of the story. Your character may be someone looking for experience, someone that cares deeply for nature, someone who's parents are sick of them fiddling with their 'game box thingymajig' and forces them to experience something. The gang kid who's life is involved in drugs and guns isn't going to pack his bags and hike through the Oregon forests. The greaser isn't going to volunteer his summer for this job. I'll call you out if it doesn't fit, in which case you have the opportunity to present your case and inform me why you're correct.

Your Home

As Santiam Forest doesn't have any active lookout towers, I'm making one up. See Things to know #1. Say hello to Tower Duniway, named after Abigail Scott Duniway, Journalist and woman-suffrage leader; lived in Lafayette.

It's gorgeous

Where We Start

You're dropped off at the gravel parking entrance to Santiam State Forest, with instructions received in the post that you would meet your group there and would do the six-hour hike together up to the lookout tower.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me or post below.

Firewatch: The Multi-User Novel

Good news, wonderful people, my night out was cancelled (I didn't want to go because fuck that noise), so I'm here to start out OOC!

Firewatch: The Multi-User Novel

I'll be honest, I haven't played the game, but the 80's are where it's at and I love the concept if you'll have me aboard!

@Little Italy

No need to play the game, it's just a frame of reference. If you know what a fire lookout is and what the job entails, you're already qualified to write with us! The 80's won't have too much influence, but there won't be any mobile phones, certain music will be popular, fashion will be in. Something to set the scene is all. Welcome aboard though! Glad to have you!

Ladies, Gentlemen, we are officially full. I'll keep you all in touch over the next few days and will let you all know when the OOC is active. Until then, have fun, do your thang, and I'll see you then!

Firewatch: The Multi-User Novel

This sounds really fun! I liked the game, as it had some really interesting concepts, and I'd love to join if that's possible.

@Graviloquence

Absolutely, welcome aboard!

That meets my minimum requirement. I'll allow one other person if they want to join, but that's as far as I'm willing to go unfortunately. I'll start tomorrow evening or Sunday evening (night out tomorrow), but it should be up sometime in the first few days of next week. Glad to have you all here!

Firewatch: The Multi-User Novel

I loved Firewatch and would be interested in seeing how this goes.

@Amaralyn

Fantastic, we're glad to have you! One or two more people and I'll start the OOC!

Firewatch: The Multi-User Novel

Interesting, Firewatch as a nice game as well.

@Chaotic Chao

Great stuff! Glad to have you.

Never played Firewatch but the setting was very interesting to me. I've always been a sucker for the 80's though so I would be willing to give this a shot If you'll have me. I'm not really used to playing younger characters but I'm sure I can make it work. So count me as interested for sure, and I'm excited to see where this goes.

@Prizrak

Firewatch is the closest thing I could relate it to without posting the Wiki page for the job, but you don't have to have any knowledge of the game for this to proceed, at all. The 80's are my favourite era of the later half of the century, before that is the 40's and 50's (I like both, and I won't choose), but I figured those were a bit too far away. Of course I'll have you, the more the merrier (up until that isn't true anymore...). If you have a charcater that is a little older but is still close enough or fits in, then I may consider it, but this really is about these big fish in a small pond moving up into the big pond, and this is the liminal time when these transitions occur, where the younguns have to work and live and function almost independently. Or something like that. It's not my novel, it's everyone's. Make it your own. That's the idea I had when I was writing this Int. Chk. but that doesn't make it totally true. Nonetheless, I'll keep you posted.

Firewatch: The Multi-User Novel

The summer of '87 spelled languid summers and natural dangers for the youth. Many had turned to the cool radiation of their freezers and popsicles, while others were thrust into the uninhibited, minimalist life of a fire lookout.

Firstly, historical inaccuracies are present. I have no idea if the summer of 1987 was even that hot. But I really like the romanticised idea of the 80's, and Firewatch had already used 1989. Also, there would normally be just one lookout in each tower, but I'm the kinda guy that says 'fuck you rules', so we'll have more than that. Secondly, this is based a lot around the first half of the game Firewatch. I really liked the conversations and banter, and want to replicate that with between 3 and 5 other writers. Thirdly, this will be roughly the same rating as Firewatch. Some innuendo (nothing too heavy), strong language, maybe some violence or danger (not like a serial killer or anything, but if someone snaps their ankle and you want to get descriptive).

Glad we got that out the way.

Actually, that's about all I have to say. To sum up, we'll be a group of young adults 18-20 etc nearing the end of childhood and wanting to experience something unique one last time before life becomes the typical drab regime of 'work, sleep, shit', or a sheltered kid who's being thrust into something totally outwith their comfort zone by parents sick of them on their 'stupid nintendo box or whatever it's called'. Something along those lines, but not limited to. Your only contact with the outside world will be the radio operator and the occasional bumping into of the park ranger doing his job in the area. Y'all gotta live together, work together, and work to save the forests together.

I'm wanting to avoid the second half plot of Firewatch as it wasn't really for me (loved the game as a whole, but the first half was so excellent it carried the second imho), but if we're beginning to get a little tired of the character interactions and the events happening, I'd be more than happy to introduce something that's occurring in the park. Later date stuff though.

If you have any questions, let me know.

Ѧasks

I have heard your concerns of speedposting. Fear not, my brethren, for I have received divine commandments to shepherd us through this fear.

1. Instead of clogging up the OOC, I'd like us to have a chat, either on skype or a chatroom. That way, we can have conversations the same length as a few pages of OOC in a matter of minutes. PMing would also be easier this way.

2. Instead of conversations being posted as two players post over one another, any post that isn't totally solo will be a collab post with the other players involved on titanpad or something.

3. Instead of short posts with a quick pacing, our RP will have long posts with a slow pacing. I'm about to start training for a job, so five days out of seven I'll be away from the computer twelve hours for work, one hour for commuting, and seven hours for sleeping. Taking into account my busy schedule of doing drugs, this leaves little time for me to post for the next week, so no rushing allowed.

Thoughts?

@DeadBeatWalking

I've sent you an add on Skype, so I'm all up for the chat. Collab's are pretty cool too, I enjoy them. Did you saying doing drugs??