Thinking of a new shoujo-ai RP?

[Xiulin]

I want to know what you guys really think. Be honest, because I don't want to pursue an idea in which people have no interest.

I am thinking of starting a new shoujo-ai RP site. Another fantasy, since those are my favorites. It's the most complicated and in-depth story I've come up with, so there are a lot of bugs to work out if there's enough interest in doing it. I also expect semi-literacy from the members. Punctuation, attempts at proper grammar and spelling, and no one-liners, no text-speak. I would say I want literacy, but then I'd be excluding myself. XD

Here's what I have:
The world is called Elphame. Life exists almost solely on a single continent, the majority of land having been destroyed in a series of natural disasters about 200 years ago. Civilization was brought to its knees. From the ruin, a new kind of human being with supernatural abilities was born. However, only women seem to possess these strange powers.

Weapons, as they are known, are diverse and have a wide range of abilities. However, they do not have direct access to these abilities. For this, they need the Knights. Knights only have the ability to channel the powers of the Weapons with whom they have made a Contract. Knights may have Contracts with as many Weapons as they wish while Weapons must choose their Knights wisely. Once a Weapon enters a Contract, she must obey the will of her Knight and cannot exit the Contract unless her Knight is defeated or her Knight voids the Contract.

The world is ruled by the institution known as Hive, the government. However, the Knights and Weapons listen only to the Queen, the strongest Knight. Knights gain influence through power, the strongest Weapons are necessary to make it to the top.

Elphame is separated into four regions. The first is Cerolia, the city. This is where Hive is located. Cerolia City is the home of the wealthy, powerful, and influential. It is surrounded by thick walls and built atop a hill in the center of the continent. The surrounding region is known as Ilaria where the ordinary live. Outside of Ilaria is the Dumps (name subject to change if I can come up with something more creative), home of society's unwanted: the poor, the neglected, the criminal. And surrounding the Dumps is Kalysto, the region the rests against the shoreline. It is a resort where very few people actually live, but which houses the resorts and summer homes of the wealthy inhabitants of Cerolia.

I don't have an actual story line, I suppose. No real direction. I need one. I just have a bunch of people fighting each other and falling in love with each other. I do know that the Queen is trying to change the social system, but with no actual political power has been unable to do anything.

Nothing is really concrete. >.< What do you guys think? Any suggestions? Is it even worth pursuing? Would anyone consider joining if I did this?

[Anactoria IV]

It's an interesting set up, it just needs a plot to tie it together.

I want to make sure I got it straight though: Weapons are the ones with the actual powers but they can't use them alone. Knights only have the power to channel the weapons ablities, right? So if Sue is a weapon with fire powers and she makes a contact with Beth who is a knight, does that mean Beth gets to use sue's fire powers? Or can sue use them now that she has a knight? Or both? And if it's the knight getting all the powers, what's in it for the weapon? Are the knights expected to take care of / provide for their weapons? Is the relationship between knight and weapon master/servant or owner/slave? Is their any kind classism or bigotry displayed by one side or the other?

Sore about all the questions I just want to make sure. I understand the setting.

[Xiulin]

Yay! Thanks for saying something! I need discussion to help give me ideas. So don't be sorry about the questions, they really help me.

If Sue makes a Contract with Beth, Beth can use Sue's powers. If Beth gives Sue permission, Sue can use her own powers as well. The rest of this, I'm pretty much coming up with on a whim, so if it doesn't sound good, tell me.

Knights protect and take care of Weapons. The relationship between them is sort of strange. Weapons choose who they make Contracts with, but after the point of Contract very little is up to them. I suppose it's a little owner/slave. Not sure how much I realized that or how much I like that. I also need a way to explain this better. >.<

As far as Classism and Bigotry is concerned, it depends on the individual. For the most part, it is a feeling of mutual respect. Knights and Weapons rely on each other and mostly respect that relationship. Without Knights, Weapons wouldn't have any special abilities and without Weapons, the Knights wouldn't have any abilities either. Of course, there would be some on either side who think they're 'better' than the other. Abusive Knights who feel elite because they have the control and elitist Weapons who think that they're 'better' because they have the power.

Maybe I should make it the Queens, instead of Queen, since the Knights need the Weapons in order to gain power. Also still thinking of a plot. I was thinking of maybe having the Queens frustrated with their lack of political influence and maybe sending out a challenge to find people who would be more suitable as Queens. But that doesn't sit quite right with me....

[karida]

Going over this I'm seeing all sorts of similarities to stories and worlds, but I'm over-read so it's hard to find anything entirely original. As a concept for a single story or series of work it is interesting, however I have issues on how it works as a multi-person rp. Perhaps it's only me but I've found doing any forum rp with more than two people to be cumbersome at best and completely impossible at worst.

The reason this comes up is that if Knights and Weapons are so very codependant(despite the Knights ability to form multiple contracts) then the result is that any thread of conflict or beyond a quick conversation will bring the Knight and the Weapon into play, plus whoever they are talking to, which may be another Knight and Weapon.

That said, I've never been one to shy away from a challenging rp. You have my support.

[Xiulin]

To tell the truth, after I first came up with the ideas and told Sai about them, I realized all the similarities to anime/manga. I think a lot of it is a combination of a bunch of manga/anime that I liked. Which annoys me, but I recognize that I have very few actually original ideas, if any.

I hadn't thought of that, actually. And it's a very good point. I think that fights would be the only problem with that, wouldn't it? A fight thread would require at least 4 people if I keep things the way that they are. I don't really see it as a problem in other situations (unless I'm missing something).

I'll be trying to think of a way around fight scenes requiring ridiculous amounts of active people per thread. I'll talk to Sai, see if maybe she has any ideas. The only thing I can think of at the top of my head is some sort of way for the Contract to be activated without the immediate presence of the other(s) involved. But that might be strange and would pose its own problems as well. >.< [head explodes]

[edit]Now that I'm thinking about it, I don't think I'd really mind the idea of people being able activate the Contracts from a distance. It might solve the problem of needing multiple people per thread. Maybe when people form a Contract, a mark shows up and they can somehow use this mark to activate the Contract? Very cliche, I know, but a lot of parts of this story are cliche.

Also thinking of a plot. Perhaps the Queens, frustrated at their inability to do anything productive, have stepped down. This is a rare occurrence as usually the new Queens earn their positions by challenging and defeating the former Queens. It's the only time in history that there are no Queens.... I'm not sure about this one either. >.<

[Dusty Dawson]

So far, it sounds like a cool concept. As Iphie said, it sounds like combat could be a bit tricky. I was wondering how the Weapons and Knights interact. Is it like Soul Eater where the Weapons become actual weapons or is it like shitsurakuen where the Knights would be able to use power or weapon because they yoink it out of the Weapon?

Basically I'm just curious of the mechanics behind everything. As for originality, I wouldn't get so hung up on it. There was a really good article on io9.com that was talking about originality in story, just run with whatever idea you've got. The article explains all that much better than I can so I'll send it to ya, if I can dig it up.

Aaaaannny how, I like what ya got so far. Don't have any plot ideas m'self, but if anything pops in my head, I'll let ya know!

[Anactoria IV]

Aspects of the idea put forth so far remind me of My-Hime and the Pokegirl World. Which is cool since I like both, and I was never able to get any of my attempts at a Pokegirls RP to take off.

Still needs a unifying plot to tie the players together though. Instead of in-fighting between Queens and Knight, perhaps they need to band together against some kind of external threat. You say this takes place on one continent. Suppose will took page out of Radiant Historia's playbook and introduce some kind of unknown force that's causing a gradual but unmistakeable reduction in land usable for farming (like desertification -- its a real word! Look it up!)

[iphigenia]

I was guessing it would be closer to Negima where the relationship is the caster must focus on casting and the fighter must protect the vulnerable and occupied mage. I don't know how accurate that would be though. The Pokegirl idea I hadn't thought of but wouldn't that be a bit boring? I don't know all that much about the universe but in regular pokemon it's really only one person making decisions and trying to get things done.

Also, I've heard that there is only one story and everything else is a variation. I disagree, and so do many but the oint is, everyone is pulling stories from other stories. Don't feel bad about it. Just make it enjoyable and it's all ok.

[Dusty Dawson]

Oh yeah, PokeGirls!

I think I tried to get in on RP like that. Had a half-decent character, too, but sadly never got the chance to actually play her out.

Anyhow, a single unifying threat could be something that's threatening the civilization again. Maybe some ancient enemy that's been forgotten, sorta like the Reapers in From Mass Effect, or some sanity munching Lovecraftian beasties. But, I'm more or less reiterating Annie's point.

Another thought could be some other civilization that somehow survived the disaster and is looking to take over the continent. A lost Atlantis-esque city full of folks looking to show those surface dwellers what-for!

[Sablerose]

May 25, 2011 13:07:20 GMT -5 iphigenia said:

I was guessing it would be closer to Negima where the relationship is the caster must focus on casting and the fighter must protect the vulnerable and occupied mage.

That was my first thought when reading it. Not that it's a bad thing. I've been told that there are only about 7 actually plots in all of writing; everything is just a variation of those plots.

However, the one problem I see is what happens here sometimes. If the two are going to be that dependent on each other, then if one writer steps away, that might leave someone hanging for a very long time. Now, granted you do give them the option of being able to break the contract, so that gives the one writer an possible out.

What I might do is actually allow the Weapon to have the power initially and use it. But it gets amplified by the contract with the Knight. The knight, though, would have to have some kind of fighting skill to make up for the lack of direct power herself, and to protect the knight.

A few years ago, I remember reading a series where several individuals had magical abilities based on elements, and there was a contest to let the strongest and best group become the rulers. I think it was 3 girls and 2 guys or something like that. They all had powers, but when the girls slept with the guys, those powers were amplified considerably.

Can't remember the name of the series, though.

[iphigenia]

I'd be happy to be the unifying enemy, I may not be dominant but I think I can manage evil and possibly even sadistic. So congrats, you've got me hooked.

[Anactoria IV]

May 25, 2011 13:07:20 GMT -5 iphigenia said:

The Pokegirl idea I hadn't thought of but wouldn't that be a bit boring? I don't know all that much about the universe but in regular pokemon it's really only one person making decisions and trying to get things done

Well there a good SFW link about Pokegirls in my last post if you're curious (it goes to TV tropes), but for the most part pokegirls are full sentient when tamed. How intelligent they are depends greatly on their breed and upbringing though. But we arent here to talk about Pokegirls. I can start a new thread about them or just PM you with more details if you'd like.

[Lita]

I've seen that page before but admittedly I don't know a lot about the world. A pm will do me fine. The point I was making is that an rp where one player simply follows the orders of another most of the time is a bit dull for the one who only follows orders.