[moans]

[socksuke_uchiha]

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Comments

Regains: The Game

[(Anonymous)]

Reposting from the last post because I was late, and I'm starting to get way more attached to this idea than I thought I'd be.

"Characters are pulled into a world that's (maybe literally) a blank canvas. Each character that's apped gets to add one detail to the setting pulled from their own canon. It can be anything from scenery (a forest, a beach/ocean, a city) to creatures (native monsters or friendlier species) to concepts (magic systems, what happens when characters die, etc). Characters would also be able to make changes to the setting once a month as a reward for AC. Game events would be based around how new aspects of the setting are integrated, and sometimes those aspects would start out "wrong" and cause problems before sorting itself out. All powers would be nerfed until aspects are introduced that would allow those powers to work, and adding a system to allow powers could also open up the possibility of other characters being able to use those powers. Newly apped characters would probably be restricted to just scenery and creatures to prevent everyone from playing their fully-powered superheroes in a completely blank setting.

There would probably have to be a system to prevent any one canon from taking over too, like maybe the world gets overwhelmed when it takes on too many changes from the same source and older changes start to fall apart to make room. That might cause drama within big casts, though, if they max out their casts' influence and someone has to give up a change for someone else to add a new one."

Some other details I've thought about since then:

- Regaining powers would happen in chunks and probably be more broad ideas at first rather than specific powersets or canon abilities. Maybe it would have to be a group effort from multiple characters before going into effect? IE. the basic concept of "mana" would be introduced, and any characters with powers that involve using or sensing a mana-like force would gain access to that resource, but they wouldn't be able to do anything substantial with it until that concept was built upon further. Characters/players would have to work together to regain big things like that or introduce major concept to the setting so it wouldn't just be big shit getting added all the time or one person claiming credit for a huge part of the game or whatever.

- Changes added to the setting would be based on characters' canons, but wouldn't be 1:1 copies every time. Similar things would be combined or altered to fit with the current state of the setting, especially for things that would overlap with canon powers and the like. Also, I don't want any players nitpicking how things get implemented because they play from Wildly Overcomplicated Canon X and gave me a 10-page essay on how Magic System Y is supposed to work, things are getting simplified and combined where needed.

- I think it'd be cool to have an IC mechanic for characters to add features to the setting. Maybe it wouldn't be apparent at first but they could figure it out on their own, or a character could add something to the setting that naturally allows characters to direct their influence. This wouldn't work 100% so stuff could still be added without an IC excuse.

- It would start out as a jamjar, but I would be all for it if someone came up with a combination of features that allowed characters to go back to their own worlds or even travel between them. Something about the setting would still "draw" characters into it and there might be the possibility of that world-hopping featuring losing its effects, but I'd like to encourage and reward player creativity. If someone figures out how to "solve" the jamjar, they should be allowed to do that. The same goes for any other crazy ideas players can come up with.

- I'd probably have to start with a hard game cap so I don't get overwhelmed, and so the setting doesn't turn into a total clusterfuck day 1. I imagine changes to the setting would be implemented in waves each month anyway, with bigger changes being used for events and more minor changes used as filler, but I'd hate to skimp on anyone's contributions due to a lack of time. Probably 30-50 characters to start with, maybe a little higher later on depending on how much help I can get and how I decide to pace setting changes/regains.

- Speaking of setting changes. Everyone gets a freebie on their app, they can pick 1-3 possible additions to the setting (scenery/creatures only, nothing too huge), mods pick from the suggestions in case someone else picks something really similar or one of the suggestions doesn't work for whatever reason. Passing AC would give a "point", or maybe threads of a certain length would be counted as a point and tracked by the players. Points would be spent on regains or setting changes. Passing AC would be enough for a single item regain, the next step up would be scenery/creatures, and the most expensive would be broader concepts and other things that would change the game's mechanics. Each character is limited to one change per month, so they can't request a whole ton of things at once, but they can still save up points to use later if they want to request something bigger. I also wanna say you have to pass AC for that month to be able to add new changes or regains. I really want to reward players who are active and discourage the types of players who cruise by on hiatuses and minimum AC.

- There would definitely be a system in place to "phase out" older changes when necessary, mainly geared towards changes from huge casts and dropped characters. I think I'd like to keep as much as possible, so maybe scenery/creatures would always stay and only broader concepts would be phased out when things get too complicated or characters get dropped for a long time. The setting can always expand physically or combine older details into newer ones, but it'd be a pain to have something like a complicated magic system that an old cast put together if none of that cast is still in the game. Maybe exceptions would be made for something that's really popular or used a lot ICly, but it would also keep things from getting too stale if features can get dropped over time.

- I'm bad at coming up with names. Any suggestions?

Re: Regains: The Game

[(Anonymous)]

I really love this idea! I'm not too good at names myself but I think you've got something pretty good along the 'blank canvas' route? That's just me though.

Re: Regains: The Game

[(Anonymous)]

I'm glad other people like it! I was thinking about an unwritten book kind of aesthetic too, but I know there's at least one storybook-themed RP going on right now... They really wouldn't have much to do with each other, but I want to make sure it's distinct since the setting is basically "I suck at worldbuilding so I'll make everyone else do it for me."

sa

[(Anonymous)]

Also, maybe to restrict anyone from dominating the setting, you can offer (X) Alteration upon app'ing, (X) alteration after So Many months of AC, (X) after a bit longer than the previous AC amount and so on until they reach whatever limit you want to put in place.

But rather than cut them off entirely, since that would really suck, people can get extra money, or extra clothes, furniture, etc.

Just a thought! Hope this helps even a bit!

Re: sa

[tabularasa_mods]

Oh, I had something similar in mind but forgot to mention it! Regains like basic items and animal companions and the like would be added in the same way as broader setting changes, but they would be much cheaper and wouldn't count against your feature limit for the month. Basic regains would have to follow the same setting rules as the characters, so if you regained a magic sword but the setting didn't allow for magic, it would just be a regular sword. If you regained a pet cat it wouldn't introduce cats as a species to the setting either, you would just have the one specific cat. Does that make sense?

[(Anonymous)]

omnium gatherum?
defined as a collection of miscellaneous people or things

also this is a really cool game idea

[(Anonymous)]

Man, on one hand I'm really tired of random latin game titles purely to make it sound fancier. On the other hand, my best idea so far is to call it "insert game here," so yours is definitely better.

I'm glad you like it! I'll try my best to make it a reality, because I think it's cool too.

Re: Regains: The Game

[(Anonymous)]

a hard cast cap would also be necessary. this stops any one canon from dominating the universe, and also keeps infighting to a minimum (because people won't fight over what influences are kept/removed)

Re: Regains: The Game

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah I think that's gonna have to be necessary. As much as I dislike cast caps as a player (and I say that as someone who plays LCW almost exclusively) a game like this really would get overrun by a single cast if it wasn't kept in check, plus the fact that a low game cap would make big cast issues even worse. I wanna say 25% of the game cap, so around 8-10 characters per cast.

I'd probably break some norms and lump extended universe canons together too, like marvel 616/MCU and maybe things like final fantasy. Since its the setting that's being pulled from it wouldn't make much sense to allow those canons to be separate when a lot of setting features are going to be the same. At best maybe keep them separate but at a lower cast cap so it balances out somewhat.

ayrt

[(Anonymous)]

imo final fantasy is harder to lump together (every game usually exists in its own standalone universe) but so long as you're consistent on how you police it, i can't imagine you'll get into much trouble for enforcing it

i'm excited for the game either way and look forward to seeing your progress!

Re: ayrt

[tabularasa_mods]

My logic is that even if they're standalone universes, all games under the Final Fantasy umbrella tend to share a lot of basic traits, like magic systems, races/species, crystals, etc. You're right that it's not really the same as something like Marvel, though. Maybe it'd be better to go the smaller cast cap route for series like FF, and stuff like Marvel or The Untamed/Mo Dao Zu Shi would be counted as one canon with multiple AUs under the same cap.

And glad to hear it! I made a plurk account (tabularasa) so you're welcome to follow it for whenever I get around to putting up an interest check there. I'll keep rpanons updated as well once I make some real progress!

Re: Regains: The Game

[(Anonymous)]

Call it tabula rasa

Re: Regains: The Game

[tabularasa_mods]

I thought I remembered there being an old game named Tabula Rasa before, but I just went to look for it and it turns out it was a Buffy LJ game from 2005... now I really feel old. I don't think anyone is going to be that confused since it's been years and it's not really a fandom-specific name, though.

I'm a sucker for simple names like that, so thank you!

AYRT

[(Anonymous)]

ahhhh, nice! I’m glad I could give you a good suggestion!

Re: Regains: The Game

[(Anonymous)]

I thought Tabula Rasa was one of the LJ layout themes you could pick!

Re: Regains: The Game

[(Anonymous)]

there was another tabula rasa around long ago and it was panfandom iirc! the-blank-slate i think? i was never in it but friends of mine were (jesus i feel old) and the concepts were totally different

this sounds neat, anon!

Re: Regains: The Game

[(Anonymous)]

Amalgamarium: from the word "amalgamation" and the suffix "-arium."


amalgamation: the action, process, or result of combining or uniting

-arium: a suffix occurring in nouns denoting an artificial environment for plants or animals.

Re: Regains: The Game

[tabularasa_mods]

I was really close to picking this, but it's a bit of a mouthful and I couldn't pass up the Tabula Rasa suggestion. Thank you for the suggestion, though! Amalgamation is definitely a fitting word to work with here, I'll have to remember that one.

[(Anonymous)]

I like it! Reminds me of a game I was in way back on LJ, which had a similar “setting steals its scenery and ideas from the characters’ canons” thing going, except yours is a bit bigger in scope with the power nerfing and need for characters to work together to build on particular ideas.

Does make me think that you’ll need a solid mod team, however. It will be a pain to keep organized.

[tabularasa_mods]

I was thinking of games like The Wake and Entranceway when I was looking for ideas. There's one other game that comes to mind as well, but I can't remember the name of it. I think it maybe had void in the name? Not sure, it might've just been another game idea that never came to be, but it was basically the same concept of the setting being built up from pieces of the character's worlds. Maybe it was the game you're thinking of?

And would you believe me if I settled on this idea because I figured it would easier? Honestly, I've been dying to make my own game for awhile now but every time I come up with an idea, I get to the part where I have to build a plot and a world and I completely lose interest. I like playing in games with big plots, but actually running one? I'd hate to make my dream game and then get stuck playing a bunch of NPCs. I've been in too many games the plot slowed to a halt because everything depended too much on NPCs, or the mods treated their NPCs too much like characters, I don't want to fall down the same pitfalls and have my game suffer for it. But trying to come up with an interesting setting that has no room for NPCs is harder than I thought it'd be, so I leaned into the mechanics instead.

Besides that, I've always been the kind of player that picks characters with weird power sets and spends hours trying to figure out how they would work within x setting. What sort of changes would have to be made, what limits would it have, how would it interact with other characters from different worlds... and I also love running events as a player, and finding ways to mess with a game's setting. I'm that player that asks really weird questions on the FAQ and spends 6 months building up to a player event because I want it to have a real impact. How I see it, this game would be a lot of what I normally do anyway, just for everyone's characters. I'm trying to play to my own strengths, so to speak.

You're still right that it's going to take a lot of organizing, though, especially if it's just me. I'm going to be looking for another mod or two to have someone to bounce ideas off of at the very least. I also don't want the game to fall into the trap of complex mechanics that players have to constantly ask for specifics about. For a lot of things I'm going to try to let people play fast and loose with it. Instead of agonizing about a player assuming something exists when I as a mod would've said it doesn't, I think it's easier to just let little things like that be. It's pretty obvious when someone is trying to cheat or game the system vs someone who's just trying to have fun and maybe didn't think too hard about it at the time. The setting is supposed to be adapting to characters anyway, so it makes sense that little details or changes would come up gradually. I don't want to be stuck answering inane questions all the time, and I don't want players to feel stuck waiting on mod answers for every little thing about the setting.

Anyway, I hope that gives everyone a better idea of where I'm coming from and what I'm aiming for. I'm glad a lot of people seem to be interested in the idea. And if anyone would interested in helping mod this thing, send me a PM!

Re: Regains: The Game

[(Anonymous)]

I LOVE THIS! i remember being in a tiny musebox that played around with this idea of "world bleed" which is similar to what you've got there

a few thoughts:
- what if the attributes characters bring in to the world are set to expire after XX amount of time unless players/characters use their ac points to make a new bid to keep it? that gives you a way to gradually phase out any accumulations from old/huge casts without creating drama since it's fair for all
- aside from the worlds colliding concept, are you thinking of sketching out the metaplot of why it's happening in the first place so that characters aren't just chilling around admiring the vista?
- name idea: Still Point (from the still point of the turning world, etc)

Re: Regains: The Game

[tabularasa_mods]

Ooh, I really like that first suggestion! I like the idea of some details staying even after characters leave because they become such a staple of the setting, but I was struggling to come up with how that would be decided mechanically. Maybe all features added by characters are temporary to start with and get phased out over time as newer features overlap, but instead of spending AC points on new features characters can strengthen existing ones. Things like canon-specific magic systems probably wouldn't become permanent-permanent, but places and plants/animals would become permanent once enough points have been put into it. It would also make sure only characters that have been in the game for awhile and put a lot of investment into their activity would be the ones leaving a lasting impact on the setting.

Metaplot is a bit of a weird one here, but I've thought about it. How I see it is that the setting itself doesn't have a reason for anything to be happening, it just is. It's kind of a spooky existential anomaly in that sense. But I'm also in love with the idea of characters coming up with their own theories and those ideas also bleeding into the setting. If enough people are absolutely convinced some higher power must be pulling the strings, the setting will accommodate that explanation in some form. It wouldn't be like "surprise, it was all a social experiment crafted by aliens and you're actually in a simulation!" but more like "you were so sure that aliens were behind everything that a race of aliens have emerged into existence and now have direct control over the setting".

There wouldn't be an obvious "goal" to the setting, aside from the usual "characters want to go back home", but I think in a broader sense the goal is that this world needs a purpose and that's why it draws things into itself. Maybe help this weird dimension attain sentience or something, idk.

I already settled on a name and claimed a bunch of usernames, but thank you for that suggestion anyway!

Re: Regains: The Game

[(Anonymous)]

I have nothing meaningful to contribute, but I just want to say that this concept is really interesting! I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for more news.

Re: Regains: The Game

[tabularasa_mods]

The fact that you're interested in it makes it meaningful to me! Though I'll probably stop replying to every comment so I'm not just repeating myself lol. But really, I appreciate it!

Tabula Rasa - Preliminary FAQ & Interest Check

[tabularasa_mods]

Hello again, rpanons!

We (yes, we!) have put together a Preliminary FAQ about Tabula Rasa to hopefully cover a lot of questions you all might have about it, as well as provide a space for further discussion so we're not clogging up flatview. We've been doing a lot of brainstorming over the past few days and we'd really like to make this game a reality, so please give it a skim!

We've also posted an interest check on Plurk. If you have a Plurk account, we'd really appreciate it if you gave us a replurk to spread the word! You can also follow our mod account (tabularasa) where we'll be posting about progress and updates as they come.

A big thank you to everyone who has expressed interest in the game so far and given their suggestions! We certainly wouldn't have come this far with the idea without all of your support.