Welcome, welcome my friends! I am Master GlyphGryph, though some simply call me Threads. Please, have a seat, let me retrieve you some tea, yes... you have heard of the newcomers, aren't you? Wonderful pieces they will be, I'm sure... but I dally! You probably want to know why I brought you here, my fellows, why I summoned you to this place. Well, worry not, there is a grand game we are going to play, and I'm sure you will find yourself enjoying the twists and turns, and perhaps adding a few of your own... while you are all invited to watch, I'm sure some of you are eager to get a bit more involved. No fear, there is certainly a place for you here! So let us raise our glasses, (First Sporing, a perfect toast for new beginnings), and I will explain how things are going to work...So, I'm doing it. I'm making it happen. I'm going to try to start up an
Echo Bazaar RP! But I'm not going to be doing it alone - I can't, I don't have the time with my other games, nor do I have the desire. Luckily, I've got a few things I've been wanting to try, and this is a wonderful opportunity. So here we go. Need Inspiration?
Try the WikiThe three ways to get involved:Option 1:
- Become A Master - Submit "adventure" ideas to me. These should be fairly short adventures, take less than an hour to play in IRC, at most. You can submit adventure
chains, eventually, too, but we'll get to that later. By doing so, you earn the right to become a Master of the Bazaar - to be referred to as such when you post in this thread, to choose an appellation to go along with it, and to post special story bits in a colour of your own. All of us in this thread are technically masters, of course, and the RP here will mostly be limited to schemes and banter and rules discussions. We are all in a delightful conspiracy, so enjoy.
There will definitely be more here as time goes by, but a few rules:
- Have a clearly defined goal (or multiple goals a player can choose from)
- An overview of any important players involved, and what their involvement entails
- A few suggested routes through the adventure, and the skills likely tested along the way for each
- Consequences for various failures, and rewards for various successes
- Let me know if this is going to be a Storylet (one off) or Story Chain (it will belong to a sequence, either linear or branching)
- and whether or not you want it to be unique (attempt/success), limited(attempt/success), or unrestricted - Unique means it can only be attempted/accomplished once, ever, by any player. Limited means each player can attempt/succeed once. Unrestricted means any player can have the chance of playing it any time. You can also combine these if you wish - perhaps an adventure is Limited on attempts (each player can only attempt once) and Unique on success? (once a player has completed the storylet, it is permanently retired.)
- Say if it will be one player, or more. Most should be one player, but the the occasional 2 or 3 is fine. Please submit at least 2 single-person adventures before considering this though!
Once an Adventure is retired, it will be posted here for all to see. Regular adventures may retired if there are far more adventures than Pieces and Players to take care of them in the rotation and we want to make room for others.
Option 2:
- Become a Player of the Game - By which I mean, volunteer to host Story's for people. I'll be doing this as well, but I assure you hosts will always be needed. You DON'T need to host over IRC or chat, though thats preferred - you can host adventures through the forum message system as well.
Give me times, if needed, preferred method of communicating, etc. and so on. While familiarity with Echo Bazaar is obviously preferred for this role, it is by no means required - the Adventures should be well enough written to see you through, after all.
Option 3:
- Sponsor a Piece in the Game - Ah, and now we come to the meat of it, truth be told. This is the players in the actual roleplaying bit. Create a character here, and then bring it over to the RP thread for some asynchronous roleplayer, and hook up with Players of the Game to experience the joy of Adventures. Thread RP will be generally rules-light, while the Adventures will be much stricter. I'll expound more on the rules here when I get the chance, but for now a brief overview. Rules have obviously been tweaked from the game to be more playable.
Note well: You cannot, really, die in the 'neath. Not for good, anyways. You can, however, fade away if your ambition leaves you. However, there are consequences for failure, and they are best avoided.Ambition - Your most important stat. You will choose an ultimate goal, a reason for being, something that drives you. I'll go more into this later, but it will sometimes be just as much a bad stat as a good stat - Storylets and Events fueled by your ambition can NOT be rejected unless
you have a Quirk that overcomes it. On the other hand, a high ambition lets you gain levels in your other main stats faster, and unlocks certain special circumstances. The only way to truly 'die' is to have your ambition drop to zero - your character gives up, and leaves the Game. There may be ways in game to pick up additional Ambitions - if you ever succeed at your primary ambition, you will need at least one of these in reserve to continue playing. You will start with 10 levels in an ambition of your choice, and Master's will be encouraged to write Story's pertaining to it. Feel free to ask for advice if you are having difficulty coming up with one! You can pick something fairly broad to start with and narrow it down as you learn more about it to limit its effect on you.
Shadowy
Dangerous
Watchful
Persuasive
You can't start with these, but they'll be quite important - in addition to unlocking new routes and opportunities, they will provide a much needed check against your ambition. These can be earned by completing certain stories in certain ways.
Examples include:
Heartless
What? It's none of my affair.
Magnanimous
Perhaps you have hidden motives for your kindness. But you've done good things.
Melancholy
There is a sadness on you.
Steadfast
You have been known to keep your word.
Ruthless
Nothing can be allowed to stand between you and your goals.
Subtle
You often go round a problem rather than through it.
Daring
You have shown yourself dauntless - or rash.
Hedonist
The pursuit of pleasure is increasingly a distraction for you.
Forceful
When faced with difficulties, you prefer the direct approach.
Austere
You have been known to resist the lures and temptations of earthly pleasures.
These represent the various dangers you'll face. If any of these get too high, you'll face special consequences, a significant potential loss in ambition, and, maybe, unlock special opportunities and Adventures. They include, but are not limited to, the following:
Nightmares - Is the madness of the 'Neath finally creeping into your mind?
Wounds - Don't worry, it will heal... well, maybe not heal, but you should at least live through it... right?
Scandal - Earn the ire of society, and you may find yourself Exiled.
Suspicion - Are the police watching? Be careful, lest you end up in New Newgate.
See the game for details. We'll probably have a limited list, to be honest, since we're not psychologically manipulating our base here. Many of the 'currency only' options (like glim, rostygold, silk, moonpearls, deep amber) will probably just count as straight Echoes for number crunching purposes, though rarer objects like Street Signs might come into play, and obviously we'll have a bevy of unique items.
There will be additional rules as well, but I'll add them later.
Suggestions, comments and ideas are all welcome!Player of the Game Availability List:GlyphGryph - CallMeMasterThreads@gmail.comAvailable: Always by PM or e-mail, occassionaly available for instant session Wednesday-Sunday after 5pm EST. If you see me online at the above name, hit me up.