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Interested?
Yes 5 (71.4%)
No 0 (0%)
Maybe 2 (28.6%)
Total Votes: 7
Fire Emblem RP: 13th Division; A short RP of only a few sessions for something fun to do until we do something major
Topic Started: April 1, 2015, 4:49 pm (301 Views)
NTNP
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Hello everyone, since it seems as though the site is rather bored I decided to offer up something my vaults for you guys that is ready for consumption as desired. This RP will be mechanically based on Fire Emblem, the real time strategy game based around ancient warfare, a delicate class balancing system and numerical calculations. As players, you would be required to create FE styled characters with stats, items, weapons and (breaking from tradition) armor along with choosing a class from a precreated list by yours truly. For anyone who has ever played FE, it’s the basic system. Ally Phase: Move- attack – counter attack – resolution. Then Enemy phase where it repeats again until the map is finished.

Narratively speaking, we would be taking the role of a recently commissioned squad for a poor, socially divided country known as Trodan in the Feudal Lands. Our characters will be from one of two basic starting points: Either as enlisted soldiers or command candidates. As Enlisted, you are either soldiers finishing up their basic training and admittance to the military, transferred soldiers or veterans re-enlisted to army and then assigned to this newly made military unit. Alternatively the Command Candidates are officers in training given their first assignments, newly graduated officers from an academy or even experienced officers facing demotion to a lower rank. We will be starting these two groups off separately, but in time you will “come together” during the first mission to create our division. If you want to take a leadership role- character wise- join the command group. If you want to make a follower or non-leadership sort, join the enlisted. Neither will have major differences mechanically or gameplay wise (baring the command types taking the functional skills of the lord classes but still in their own original class if desired).

In the end, the story asks a simple question: Is it better to support a harsh system that world to maintain stability at the cost of innocents suffering or to change the system, even if that might mean a worse fate for the people you want to save? Trodan has suffered economically due to a three year war with a neighboring country. Eventually managing an unsteady peace treaty after multiple bloody defeats, Trodan surrendered and was forced to pay considerable restitutions to their enemies leaving the nation almost bankrupt. Under the rule of King Galleon, the military has tried to recover by raising taxes and reestablishing trade with the rest of the world. The army has started generating up strength by recruiting the youth of the nation, yet that weakened the people- farms were left untended, shops shut down and the lower class suffered. To pay for the military’s growth, the lower class had to take the burden of high taxation all with the claim that, without a strong military that any further wars would result in their kingdom’s destruction. With taxes high and tensions higher as the neighboring nation continues to develop their military strength which many consider a precursor for war, there are whispers among the common folk of rebellion against King Galleon. Our unit will be tasked with investigating this rebellion and bringing it to an end before it can threaten the stability of our nation. Or- potentially- decide that the rebellion is what should be supported and decide to join it instead. In the end, our unit has the possibility to tip the scales of power for Trodan…

The only question left is- do you want to change the history of a nation with only a few swords? Are you ready to serve in Trodan’s 13th division?
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Person A
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Best to sleep on it.
Maybe, leaning towards no. For a few reasons. Some personal, some RP-related. Keep in mind that this is not me yelling or arguing, it's my explanation for things, written in as professional a way as possible. It is not meant to insult or ridicule, so please keep that in mind.

First Reason
 
If the Narrator doesn’t care about what a particular character and RPer is doing, then you should butt the hell out of it. It’s the same reason why if you don’t agree with a particular RPer’s philosophies about stories, you shouldn’t join their RPs. Take me for example- you know a few things going in if you join one of my stories. There will be stats and a relatively complex character creation system focused on balance. You will have to do addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in the story to keep track of your HP, MP etc totals. You will have limited options creating your own storylines and I’m going to put you on some tracks that can lead to multiple places but do nothing for you if you wander off of it. Say if I was running Pokemon- all the mons would have pre-selected moves, stats and growth rates along with an active EXP system. Your characters would, functionally, have a pair of rails for storyline A, B and C going on. A is dealing with the evil organization storyline. B is about taking on the major plot battles such as gyms. C would involve legendary pokemon wandering around and wanting to see it’s influence in the world. At will, you can jump between the storylines and land between them, but if you aren’t doing what I wanted- like say you decide it would be a good plan to explore say, the starting town in detail I would basically ignore you and not give any EXP. Alternatively I would probably give a bonus EXP boost to the first character who challenged a gym leader and granted a TM for the first group that defeated Cypher’s goons. That’s MY style of narrating. You’d have a GMPC with each party, who would help you as needed and would be facing very relatively challenging encounters, often with incremental rewards greater than usual.


I disagree with the entirety of that philosophy. It's literally just "I'm going to ignore you if you decide to do something I don't like." "I'm going to limit the amount of character development that you can have, pick a railroad and follow it." "If you want some character development outside of the railroad, I'm going to just pretend you're not participating anymore and show favoritism to people that are."

What I'm hearing is that there's no room to work anything with you. The plot has to follow this railroad, and if there's something that would benefit the character's growth - liberate a particular location, kill a particular enemy, go off on their own for some self-discovery - then that's too bad.

Second Reason. Stats. I'm incredibly familiar with Fire Emblem, yes. It's one of my favorite series. But, at the same time? It's not something that I would want in a Roleplay. My personal reason for roleplaying is to develop a story, not to show off how strong my character is or take a chance at how my character would do against others. I'd just play Fire Emblem for that. Literally, my 3DS is in arm's reach, the box and cartridge is on a shelf above my desk, and it takes about 30 seconds to get Awakening booted up.

It's not adding anything to the roleplay except limitations to a community that doesn't need those limitations. And just because Onime's said that he thinks there are examples doesn't mean there are, since, y'know, he still hasn't given me any specific examples that this community has for that. Sure, I can think up some examples, but that doesn't justify the solution for stats.

With that said? If the only limitation on Magic - since you and Onime keep demanding limitations on it - is the durability system, then sure, I'll bite. As long as, y'know, the stats aren't too intrusive.

Third Reason. Your time investment. I'm going to be honest, I feel you're barely part of the community. And that's OK! You're sectioning off work and play and adult responsibilities and your wife getting sick. But at the same time, you're just... there. And then your posts end up with some... glorified idea that you thought up in your head and demand that the people that are participating follow through with, too. Maybe that's harsh wording, but it's still really annoying to...

Let's use a specific example. THE END. It honestly sounded like you thought it up in your spare time, got vague permission for something that probably was written off as tame, and then blew it up as hammy and anime as possible. Without any clearance from the GM in question.

What I'm getting at is, it really just seems like you put your time more into "awesome" ideas and less... the people who you're actually working with.

Which leads me to a minor point (That you shot down in the chat box). In my eyes, a Roleplay is a novel that all of us are writing, controlling different characters instead of the entirety of it all. When we all work together and bring that story to life - just a story, just a narrative - that's what I enjoy. Seeing it all come together. And when you just... don't do that, it really puts some doubt in my head that you're actually able to run a RP that'll agree with me.

Fourth Reason. Your writing.

OK, you work with mentally disabled students. That's fine. But corrupting words continuously in every post just leads me to... really bang my head on the wall sometimes. Like I seriously didn't even understand your post - the portion that I quoted - about DRAKENGARD until I realized you were talking about DRAGARDE. And there are other things that just make me shake my head and wonder if you just don't... look back and read what you wrote, check for any errors.

And, yes, that's just me.

But what about your posts? I don't exactly want to read tons of paragraphs about something that I'm supposed to feel invested in, because the way you write it... isn't interesting. I've tried to keep up with your Pokemon posts, I failed miserably. I tried to read Valen, Varen, Valren, Varlen's backstory, and I had to step back for a moment and really, really have to understand what was important about it. I feel like I could've chopped off half of Valen/Varen/Valren/Varlen's history and it would've made much, much more sense and be more interesting to read.

What I'm getting at is that posts that are, for a lack of a better phrase, fuck-off huge every time is not appealing, and you running a RP pretty much just leads me to believe that it's not going to get any better.

Fifth Reason.

Gods Among Us. Chrono Chamber. Megido Effect. And now this.

Your track record is incredibly abysmal for the year and a half that I've been around. Sad to say, but I'm not exactly going to trust you to run a RP at this point, especially when I've made characters for the latter two and they led my hopes into a ditch.
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Mover, Shaker,
Brute and Breaker.

Master, Tinker,
Blaster and Thinker,

Striker, Changer,
Trump and Stranger.

Worm: Power Classifications
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NTNP
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So, solid no from Person A. And no worries about detailed post above, you explained most of it very professionally and maturely. You and I, from a basic perspective of what RPing is about, look at things differently and that is ok. I look at it more like being the DM of a game, like say Dungeons and Dragons or as a short story author where the audience chooses their adventure. I create the majority of the story and you alter where it goes from there. Take this offering- you are given the basic rails of "be in the military, decide to support and be antagonistic to the rebellion and local government" and I will give you the ways to do that. You'll have moments where you can "branch" the story off to make things happen as you want it too. Say early on, you’ll meet a charismatic leader of the rebellion and could spare his life by capturing him, kill him or let him go. That’s my take on “altering the storyline” and will create three possible changes to the story based on that. I reward those decisions by granting more to those who are contributing- say if two characters argue about it, making good logical points and then a third finally “chooses” the path then I would probably grant all three a bonus for doing something. That’s basic behaviorism at work; You reward what you want. I want you to stay on the rails and hit the switches where you desire, to create an end result that will be fun for all.

However if you decided to go full "I want out of the military, they are jerks" and went into another plotline that I don't really think helps the story, I'd accept that you'd left the for a while. If you were still around and contributing in minor ways, as if an NPC, I would be fine with that but wouldn't actively reward it in hopes of you rejoining the game in the role you signed in for. If you sign in as a fighter, who will be out there slaying monsters then I expect you to keep in that job. Deciding to duck out and becoming a shop keeper or into a depressive drunken stupor will just result in the team being without their comrade for a while. It’s interesting and fine to do, but I’ll consider your character MIA in regards to rewards, levels, etc until they sober up. Afterward I will probably reward them heavier to get them back into shape and to nurture your decision to get back into the storyline.

As far as other stuff, the proof reading- the paying attention to details etc, it's true I slack sometimes. This is especially true on subjects that aren't directly tied to what I am doing or those with unique spellings, or are purely fantasy in nature. If it's my RP, I set the jargon and terminology. Most of the time, which means I set it in simple English to the best of my ability. We will be going to Megacorp, not some strange fantasy sounding story made from lots of syllables. We are working for the Royal Army against the Rebellion, not the Abysmal Guard, Abyssal Guard etc that sounds similar. For those who want to focus heavily on thematic and linguistic details to fit a region that's awesome for them. It's a little challenging to me and something I personally avoid in my own works. But again, that’s fine and everyone chooses their own paths which is a great thing.

As far as track records for big RPs, yeah I haven't delivered. Hence something smaller, until someone gets something better out there and afterward so when we are bored there is something to post in. Maybe a few campaigns, to decide which path we would take in supporting the kingdom or the rebellion and then calling it a day. It's something small to get people something to do- using a system that already exists for ease. But either way, it's a personal choice. If you aren't interested, I'm no going to take it personally. You and I don't look at things the same way, and there's nothing wrong with that. If someone wants to RP my way, I welcome them. We are different and don’t go about things in similar manners which is to be expected. And to be honest, if our roles were reversed I probably wouldn't be thrilled to join your RP with your style, and again, that's ok.
Edited by NTNP, April 1, 2015, 6:32 pm.
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Onime No Ryu
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I'll be your Undertaker this evening
where's Megido Effect

NTNP please

don't make me photoshop Izanagi holding a sign
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Person A
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Best to sleep on it.
Onime No Ryu
April 1, 2015, 7:55 pm
where's Megido Effect

NTNP please

don't make me photoshop Izanagi holding a sign
Here's your sign.

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On a more related note, I will say that I do respect you for the storylines you come up with. That's about the only thing that interests me in just about any RP. It's pretty much why I made character profiles for said latter two stillborn RPs.
Posted Image
Mover, Shaker,
Brute and Breaker.

Master, Tinker,
Blaster and Thinker,

Striker, Changer,
Trump and Stranger.

Worm: Power Classifications
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Perascamin
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A Legendary Ocean
I would probably join this RP if you were able to run it. I love character building in FE format and its unique style of RPing.
In War; Victory. In Peace; Vigilance. In Death; Sacrifice.

Dawn Eros (hot mama):
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Onime No Ryu
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I'll be your Undertaker this evening
look what you made me do

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Kazemitsu
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Assassin
You guys know this is supposed to be a short thing until finals/exams/ stuff that seems to distract you guys goes away >.>
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