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I know a lot of people might say it's a fad, but myself and a couple others are very serious about the idea of making a game based on the world that Pacific Rim is set in. So far, the basic idea is a pan-fandom game, NOT an AU setting as some might expect. Characters are brought to the world from their own and given different roles within it, and the kaiju are still active. But since a game cannot run entirely on the concept of "giant robot fight giant alien" there will be other threats and complications posed to the characters to solve and get involved with. So when we say that the game would be "based" on Pacific Rim, we really stress the "based" part; the root of the world is Pacific Rim, but it won't be purely Pacific Rim. However, we don't plan to stray too far from the mythos and conflict of the movie, because that is a large part of the appeal.

There is a massive amount of detail that's already been worked out that I'm not disclosing as of right now, but it's still in the very young stages of development and will likely take at least a month to even start advertising the game in it's completed form. So while we are just starting out on the project, we want to hear from the RP community what they think! How interested are you in this kind of game and what would you like to see happen in it?

want: http://rpanons.dreamwidth.org/33359.html?thread=97260879#cmt97260879 everything in this thread

don't want: any nefarious military or big brother out to fuck everyone over overarching plots. alternatives could be changes to the environment caused by the rift, alien spies, some people could be clones unknowingly created by the aliens to collect data for them. anything other than the group taking care of all the PCs being nefarious covert big bads.

also should still be set in hong kong cause hong kong's bitching

Additionally, a very strict AC system. Since part of the concept relies on one (or more) extremely close CR, you don't want to encourage squatters. On the flipside, cliques may or may not become a problem, but as long as two characters aren't only threading with each other, I think that's alright.

You may want to consider a reward based system wherein those who are proactive get hooks into plot or some kind of IC reward (that makes sense).

If this is going to be a plot heavy game, don't be afraid to keep it small~medium sized. It'll be easier for the mods to run.

I was thinking vaguely about this the other day. A twist might be to just drop every new arrival in the slums of Hong Kong. No communicators magically appearing in their pocket. Just - them or perhaps sometimes random clumps of them all appearing in the same spot and clueless. Dropped into a new situation where they have to figure it out themselves and all they've got is a bunch of people native to the world that have no idea about other world dimensions, just that life is rough and there are giant monsters that stomp the city and would you like to buy some bone powder? The whole point would be working their way up, the more active, the more they can develop their position in the world. Slum dweller to kaiju parts dealer? government enforcer? person that trawls the slums looking for new arrivals (for helpful or hurtful reasons)? eventual jaejer pilot? And all the while you've got monster attacks, street thugs, rent collectors? going on as well. The problem would be that especially at first until players started filling the spots, the mods would have to NPC a lot of the characters for interaction purposes. I agree Hong Kong as the spot because there's so much going on there.

I'd go with reward over a generic strict AC, because let's face it. Some positions are going to be more relevant than others. Katie the cafeteria line cook (who might be an awesome character, brings a great deal of interesting CR, and just rocks all around) is never going to be as important as Rob the Jaegar pilot. And nobody wants 100% Jaegar pilots.

Or have a tier system that's explained ahead of time so everyone understands it for AC. Merely existing in the setting? 15 comments split across two threads. Reasonably important mechanic or scientist but not the lead of a crew? 30 comments, two threads. Jaegar pilot? One interaction of some kind with your partner, 30 comments, one post. (This is just an example, so change it up accordingly.) With IC power comes OOC responsibility, in short. If Katie does shit she shouldn't be kicked out, but the entire extremely close CR won't really impact her as a line cook as it does Rob.

*jaeger

In my defense I...got distracted by stuff.

...yeah...

That sounds like a good system.

I'm just going to reply to everyone who had something to say in this sub-thread 8). We were already of the mindset that a reasonable AC along with a rewards system to encourage activity was the best way to go. By "reasonable" we mean something like 30 or so comments spread across at least two to three posts, of course, this is just an example, we could increase or decrease those numbers if they are not suitable. As for the rewards system, we think all your ideas are great and we'll be working on a good system everyone can understand and feel good about.

Additionally, I am compiling a list of details and answers to some questions presented in this thread regarding how the game will work, the setting and how we are modifying it etc. An anon below asked a bunch of those questions all in one comment below, so that is where I will be putting all this information, so keep an eye out, or I can reply again with a link.

Ah, I don't check rpanons that often, so I wasn't aware that someone had already presented the idea. I'm reading the thread now and there are a lot of good things here. I don't know if absolutely everything can be incorporated, but I believe what we do have in mind and the things from the thread you linked that we've picked out that will work with our current design will be to your satisfaction. I'm working on compiling a list of points and details that have been asked by people in this thread to give everyone an idea of what we have planned already and what we are willing to incorporate to try and satisfy as many people as possible. Keep in mind, we won't be able to make everyone happy, but we'll damn well try. I will reply to your comment again with a link to the list if you like.

As of now, we see military/big brother out to fuck with everyone plots as implausible considering the nature of the movie canon. Your ideas for changes to the environment caused by the rift etc. etc. are all awesome and we've actually had thoughts like that of our own, so thankfully we seem to be on the same wavelength.

And it will definitely be set in Hong Kong. ;)

I'm just gonna post a smattering of thoughts and questions I have. I don't necessarily want a straight answer to all of this, I'd just like to share my thoughts, see if the stuff I'm thinking of is also on anybody else's mind, open discussion, etc.

- Where are characters being brought from? Another rift? The same rift as the Kaiju? Is there going to be multiple rifts, and how often is stuff gonna be coming out of it? If we've got people coming in through rifts like the kaiju, how are the natives of this world gonna react to them?

- How many different kinds of characters are going to be appable? Just panfandom characters brought into this world from their own through X means? What about OCs? Fandom OCs? Native OCs and/or native AUs of panfandom characters? The canon characters from Pacific Rim itself? I feel like native OCs especially would be important for a game like this.

- Unless they have military experience, what's going to make the characters brought into the game from different worlds worth training and sticking into a Jaeger? Will their brains be whatever percentage more responsive to the drifting technology, allowing them to drift and pilot Jaegers more efficiently than natives?

- Are there going to be more kaiju and jaegers then the movie? They were down to four Jaegers by the time of the movie and kaiju always came out one at a time - a "double event" was completely unprecedented and the Jagers were built specifically to fight one Kaiju at a time, especially ones like Cherno Alpha, that were made to just dig in and grapple a single Kaiju to death, and we saw how quickly a second kaiju completely fucked that up. If there's more kaiju or they're coming more often, it'd obviously necessitate a HUGE shift in strategy in how the Jaegers are being built and deployed.

- Are all the kaiju and Jaegers gonna be the same size as the movie? Is there any room in the game for different classes of kaiju that can still cause trouble and different classes of Jaeger that can be deployed to deal with them? In my mind, this'd accomplish two things. It'd tie into the reward system that was mentioned (a pair starts off with a relatively small Jaeger, as they gain experience with drifting and their players do a good job keeping them active, they move up the ranks until they're piloting the big Gipsy Danger-class Jaegers, which as the most valuable resources, are reserved for the best of the best). It'd also give proper gravity to the massive city-destroying fights that the movie principally dealt with.

- Hong Kong may be a good place to set the game, because that's where most of the movie was set and it's where the Shatterdome is, but a point of Pacific Rim was that, prior to the main events of the movie, Jaegers were stationed EVERYWHERE because Kaijus were attacking everywhere. Given that the Kaijus are a global threat and the Jaegers are a global response to that threat, maybe this game could support a more decentralized setting than most DWRP games. The movie is called Pacific Rim, offhand, I think that leaves potential for a lot of fun locations to be explored.

- How many elbow rockets will there be? Will there be a limit to how many things can be elbow rocketed per month? For me, this is a dealbreaker.

These are just a few thoughts. More than anything I would just really like to see a game with a strong vision behind it and mods who are dedicated to that vision, because this is a really cool universe that could offer a lot to DWRP if a good game was built around it.

Thank you for posting your thoughts, it's very much appreciated. I'll hit each of your points as well as I can and don't be afraid to follow up with any more questions or confirmations. We are here to assist.

- Because the Kaiju's rift is specifically aligned with the Kaiju's DNA structure, characters will not be coming from that rift. The basic idea is a kind of collapse between the fabric that holds all the dimensions in their places. There is no one rift that people travel through, but rather, the stability of the walls between all the dimensions occasionally destabilizes and unlucky souls fall through. It's a little like the season 5 finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I apologize if some don't understand this reference), but on a much smaller scale and in temporary bursts. The reason this is happening is ironically because of the extreme solution they used to collapse the Kaiju's rift. Using comic book science, we're saying that the nuclear blast on that sensitive gateway threw everything out of alignment and now shit's gotten worse. And of course, with the walls collapsing as they are, not only can PCs fall through, but threats from their world, as well as other worlds can as well. How often this happens will be at least once or twice a month depending on what the plot demands, but definitely once a month to bring characters into the game. As for how people will react to the characters, well, we're talking about a world that has been under attack by aliens from another dimension for a while now and we believe that the general reaction to more people/aliens/beings from other dimensions will not be that great. We can expand on that point, but it won't be a universal case of "everyone hates the PCs" because people are people and have varying opinions on things. There will likely be groups that support them as well.

- We have decided that you can apply for any fandom character you can think of so long as there is enough background for them to be considered playable. You can't apply for a real person unless they are fictionalized like Abraham Lincoln in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. You CAN apply for an OC, however, because the walls are collapsing between dimensions in this game, we will need an immense amount of detail about the world that an OC comes from, which will make an OC application more difficult than a fandom application. Fandom OCs won't be accepted. Canon AUs are allowed, such as MCU Tony Stark and Marvel 616 Tony Stark, however out of respect for muns who may not want duplicates for their character in game, if MCU Tony Stark is already in the game someone who wants to apply for 616 Tony Stark must ask MCU Tony Stark for permission first. We don't want to clog the game with too many duplicates either, so we won't be allowing fan created AUs. Characters from Pacific Rim will be appable as NPCs, and any native OCs will be NPCs that somewhere along the line we will allow to be appable.

- Obviously, as you said, characters with military experience will have the advantage. And of course, not everyone is going to be a Jeager pilot. But the things that will make a character more inclined towards being a Jaeger pilot are: any kind of combat experience, but also if they have some kind of power. The idea is that when characters gets to this world, if they had a power (be it magical or mutant or what have you), the power is seemingly gone, but something about the Jaeger technology awakens the power and through a Jaeger, a pilot can use their power in some way to make the Jaeger stronger. The finer details of this will be worked out on a case by case basis. But at some point, the natives will figure this out and possibly seek out characters who had a special ability in their home world to try and train them. But we don't want any overpowered Jaegers running around, so there will be limits set and such. As of right now, those are the only things that could make a PC valuable as a Jaeger pilot without the PC trying their damndest to become one anyway. If your character has no powers, combat experience or military history, it is still possible for them to become a pilot, if they ICly want to. It will just take much longer and a lot of work on their part.

- The short answer is yes, there will be more Jaegers and more Kaiju than in the movie. The long answer is: because of the collapsing walls between dimensions, not only will PCs and other threats be falling through, but so will resources and NPCs with engineering ability. Some of those worlds will be a bit more advanced, so bits and pieces of technology will come through that will allow for faster Jaeger production. It will also allow people to develop Jaegers that can handle more than one Kaiju at a time, but we are not going to have an army of Jaegers, that would be overkill. The number of available Jaegers will be limited at all times and will grow slowly and steadily as time progresses, but can also suddenly decrease depending on how many get destroyed in a battle. In the beginning of the game, the Kaiju's portal will be damaged and only allow one Kaiju out at a time until they can repair it and continue their colonization plan. This is for continuity's sake and to give PCs and NPCs time to produce Jaegers because at the end of the film, all the Jaegers were pretty much obliterated.

- That's actually a fantastic idea. For right now, I'm going to say that we like the idea of slightly smaller Kaiju and Jaegers. We don't know how small you were thinking, but we could see a 25% decrease in size of Jaeger and Kaiju. It makes sense given we haven't seen every single Kaiju out there and at first, smaller Jaegers may be all that can be made with limited time and resources at their disposal. We would love it if other anons gave their opinion on this point.

- Oh most definitely, many locations around the world will be explored in this game. However, we need Hong Kong as a base and we feel that keeping PCs confined to Hong Kong the majority of the time (except when a mission needs to be carried out elsewhere) must happen. This is to encourage CR, because if characters are given free reign to roam wherever they want on an entire planet, they simply won't run into each other and form bonds etc. The way we've thought of to deal with this is by simply saying that the U.N. transports them to Hong Kong when they appear wherever their dimension brushed with this one (which could be anywhere in the world) in order to contain them in case they are potentially dangerous (and let's face it, with some of the villains in some fandoms, some very well could be). They are kept in Hong Kong indefinitely and traffic in and out of the city is tightly controlled. Of course, a PC could escape from the city, because no security is perfect, but they will be eventually tracked down and returned to H.K. Now on to the next point: How do Jaegers get sent to places around the world from H.K.? Well, let's just say that (once again, using comic book science) technology was developed that could manipulate the dimensional and time flow instability going on around the globe. This technology is faulty and has some kinks in it. Think of it like catching a wave when surfing: you need to get it at the right moment that the wave peaks and ride it as far as you can to your destination. So if the dimensional fluxes are like waves in the fabric of reality, they can be caught with the right "board" and ridden to any place on the globe. So far, the technology is only safe to use on a Jaeger. The pilots inside are protected by the Jaeger, but anything else they try to send gets obliterated.

- I suppose it depends on what you want to elbow rocket! If it's a Kaiju or other threat, then there is no limit. Elbow Rocket to your heart's content.

We sincerely hope that our answers have given you a nice detailed picture and that our vision is strong enough. So far, we are quite dedicated to this vision as well as dedicated to creating a game that as many people can enjoy. If anyone has any issue with anything said in this comment, or notices a kink in the cogs of our reasoning, don't hesitate to speak up and add ideas and all of that, we welcome your opinions. We won't be able to please everyone but as I said in another comment, we will damn well try.

Also, we have reserved the game's community names on DW, they are as follows (they are also not set up at all yet, though the coding is in the works as we speak, so if you visit them don't expect anything fancy haha):
MAIN: theriftrpg
LOGS: theriftlogs
OOC: theriftooc
We're just letting everyone know as a safety net because we're laying out a lot of our ideas in this comment and thus run the risk of someone stealing them (though unlikely, we just want to be safe). So, as you can see, the game will be called THE RIFT and it will be held at those community names. If these ideas pop up under another name, then it is not us. We would appreciate if that didn't happen because we've worked very hard, thanks everyone :D

ALSO, if you want to keep up on the progress of this project, we made a mod plurk:

riftmods. Feel free to follow it, friend it, PM it and ask us questions or give ideas, we are all about communication with our potential players. We will make our first plurk about the game, with more details and such for everyone to see and spread around/replurk sometime in the next two weeks.

not only will PCs and other threats be falling through, but so will resources and NPCs with engineering ability.

/Quietly waits for someone to app a Gundam character.

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PACIFIC RIM BASED PAN-FANDOM (WARNING: MILD SPOILERS)

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