Okay, citizens, to liven this forum up a bit I’m gonna try something. You know the idea of Dungeons and Dragons and know that it originated with pen and paper role-playing games. I’m going to try to bring that kicking and screaming into the 21st century. The basic idea is that one storyteller/dungeon master takes a few willing participants on a journey to another world. I don’t quite know hoe it’s going to work, but we’ll start off getting some participants. I’ll tell you how to join below. But first I’d like to tell you where I got this idea from.
omegle.com, a website like chatroulette but you can chat without video, has been used by many to create interesting stories for strangers. I’ve been posting the beginning of a story (see below) and I find 99% of people either log off straight away or ask for ‘asl’ (age, sex, location) and then log off. The few who do stay, are asked by me to decide what to do when placed in the tricky situation I describe until one of us either gets bored or has to do something else. What I hope to do here is do the same, but take it at a slower pace, and try and finish the story.
This is mostly a bit of an experiment. In the current age can people enjoy another world that is in their head rather than rendered beautifully on a screen? With just a keyboard the realm you play in is almost completely abstract, so the world is whatever you want it to be.
This is what I’ve been posting on omegle.com:
“You look around and see a dusty barren landscape. It is night, but you can see three large orbs of light. You deduce you are on another planet. You are wearing dirty rags, a belt is around your waist, with a rusty pistol in the holster, and an empty backpack is by your feet. You can see the lights of a large city behind you but it will take some time to reach it on foot. A railway runs towards the city to your left, but you can’t see or hear any trains. A bunker is in front of you, and it is quite close. Suddenly, to your right you hear some sort of creature howl. It is too dark to see it. What do you do?”
Shall we get this started then?
THE SETTING
Cast out into the wilderness surrounding one of the greatest cities of the planet Sol, Oberon, a group of friends and companions want to find out who unjustly threw them out. With nothing to their names apart from an empty backpack and banned from the city they became friends in, they must first learn to survive in the dangerous wilderness. The climate is cold, especially at night and shelter is key. The animals that roam the territory are dangerous so weapons are also a priority. Since the companions have lived in the area for years they know a lot of the area’s dangers, including what wildlife to avoid and what to eat. The only friendly face you’ve met in a long time is a guard from Oberon. Because of them something for each of the friends was smuggled out of the city and map of the wilderness was given to them to share.
HOW TO JOIN
From today (Sunday 3 April 2011) to next week (10 April 2011) post a character profile. This can be anything you want. No numbers (Attack 4 etc.) are needed, just some backstory to who your character is. Your character doesn’t have to be human, I just need to know a few things about your character so the situations can be built around them. Again, this is an experiment so post what you want (with in reason) and we’ll see how it goes. You can also choose one item to take with you. It can be no bigger than a shoebox. The first people to post sensible ideas in the week will be the players, up to four. Then, we’ll see how it goes. If a mod is kind enough we can post the story on the main page so others can follow the plight of these companions. Next Sunday I’ll put a post up so you know what to do. It won’t take up more than 30mins a week of you time.
Please, please, please exercise your imaginations so we can get the off the ground. I don’t want this to fail before it’s even started.
ANYONE’S WELCOME!!!
