Palace Caprae (Sburblike RP)

So, okay, being a Homestuck fan, I kind of think Sburb is really cool. Like, it's a big huge multiple-world game setting, chock full of convoluted game mechanics and secrets, and its content is tailored to its players on a fundamental level. It seems like it'd be really cool to run a roleplay in that setting- and as evidenced by like, there (formerly) being a whole Trollslum board over at MSPA Forums, a lot of people had the same idea.

But it's kind of played out by now, really. Like, Homestuck's more or less already exposited how the quest framework and overarching story works, and the "everyone is a hero of destiny" shtick is tricky to pull off in a general-purpose sense without being super juvenile about it. There's still some fun to be had, but there's a definite staleness to the concept. (Also, if I have to read one more character introduction that starts with "Your name is CAPITAL LETTERS, and here is ALL THE RELEVANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOU", I'm going to do an acrobatic pirouette off the other Homestuck meme I'm sick of.)

Palace Caprae is an attempt to put some of the mystery and life back into the whole Sburb RP thing... by totally throwing out like, practically everything about Sburb. A brand new cosmology, game world, symbology, mechanics set, narrative framework... essentially redoing the whole biz, as if you rewound your memory back to Act 1 and nobody knew anything about how Sburb was supposed to go.

Things that are sort of still the same:
-A group of people get together to play a video game, which ends up transporting them to a new and mysterious world.
-Players accelerate in gaining power and significance as the world opens up and increases in scale.
-There exists an esoteric alchemical crafting system.
-Game tropes and structure pervade the world the players are exploring.
-Features a convoluted yet flexible library of mythological concepts and symbols.
-The act of playing the game poses a catastrophic threat to the players' native planet that the players may or may not be responsible for.

Things that are not the same:
-Pretty much anything else.
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So that's the pitch! There is a problem with the pitch, though!

In order to preserve the whole mystery and discovery thing, I've gotta keep the majority of what the deal is under wraps. Which is to say, I need to dole out discoveries over the course of gameplay, with actual players. Which is to say, I need to play the role of GM to a bunch of players. Which is to say, there is a problem because I've never done anything like that.

I've done a bunch of reading on the subject- from Giant in the Playground and Darths and Droids and /tg/ and forum adventures? But I don't actually have experience doing that kind of stuff, and my campaign notes are kind of all over the place. Like, literally all over the place, there's like two notebooks and a couple of untitled text files and some tumblr posts and a sync.in and some of it is missing. I've got like pages and pages of ridiculous game mechanics and adaptive worldbuilding stuff, but I'm not totally sure how it'll all play out.

But whatever, I'm thinking I have to start somewhere and I'm fairly confident I can avoid fucking up.

I'm thinking I'd run it primarily over IRC, with logs and notes and stuff posted in a central thread- for a freeform thing without dice or whatever, I'm assuming that's the way it's done? For hidden secret plot and symbology reasons, I'd prefer to have eight players, but that'd be biting off more than I can chew so I'd probably go with 4 (or more, if there's more interest than I'm anticipating.)

So that's what I want to do- I'll hold off on more specific details about the game's hook and what I'd need from players until I know whether this is like, a good idea that could work.

Oooh, this sounds cool!!!

I think that the best way to learn how to GM is to go forth for it, we are all pals here and as long as you don't do anything I have ever done you should be a-okay!!!

I should probably write up a list of all the shit i've done so that no one does it, but most of it IS more mafia related ha ha ha...

But uh, anyway, Yea!! this seems neat and In All Honesty is A Sort Of thing I've had a thought of so ye ye yea!!!

(if you havent you should promote it on tumblr, im sure some peeps there would likes this sorta thang)

Was this the thing I said I'd totally be game for? Because I'd totally be game for this.

this sounds like a cool thing which I think that I would be interested in doing (and that's at least four people already! hooray!)

I've long thought that taking the basic elements of Homestuck and applying them in a new way is a better idea than just copying the style outright. I'm pretty interested in seeing how it turns out.

And you say it's a "freeform thing without dice or whatever"... that sounds like the sort of roleplay I prefer. I'll sign up, too.

I'm tentatively interested, put me down as a prospective.

SIIIIGN ME UUUUP

Yeah I can see me being interested in this too?

Seems pretty interesting and I do like the concept you've got going so far.

This sounds pretty dang neat and I would like to express interest.

Bit hesitant to actively participate, but definitely supporting the idea. It's a concept that has interested me in the past, and I'd love to see it in action.

Yes this is great and I'll reserve.

Hope I'm not too late.

Huh, yeah, this sounds cool. I'd be interested.

Oh hey, overwhelming positive reaction! I didn't see you come in! I'm excite now. (Yes Schaz that is the game for thing.) Guess now it's time to drop deets about characters and what I need to start the game. So here's the skinny. Or, well, I don't want to perpetuate unhealthy body-image standards... here's the information-of-any-body-type,-all-of-which-are-equally-beautiful.

The game features an entry process not unlike Sburb's, except insofar as it's completely unlike Sburb's. Palace Caprae is billed as an augmented reality game (of the sort where you pull out your iPhone and it superimposes like a game thing over the camera feed), and while IC players are encouraged by the game's instructions to play their first game at home, OOC players are encouraged by me to play their (spoilers: only) game from whatever location is the most interesting.
See, here's the big hook: Upon entry, the location you've selected isn't just dropped into some magic planet. The location you've selected becomes the magic Land of X and Y analogue (except it's not a planetoid and also very little else is the same). The whole place is interpreted by the game engine (read: the GM) and converted to a game world. Showerheads become waterfalls, stovetops become sacrificial magma pits, housepets become giant roaming boss monsters, etc.

This means that in addition to information on one's character, players have to provide information on their player's environment. The entry phase of the game, which involves a lot of scrambling around said environment, is one way for me to gather info on the player's in-game surroundings, but I imagine not everyone's going to want to go through that whole sequence, so a map/blueprint or detailed description ahead of time would be helpful- but not necessary if the player isn't familiar with the location they're playing from, since then I can just make stuff up.

hahaha i'm already asking people to draw maps what

e: like the level of detail should be proportional to how much you want your character to know how things are laid out? except wait really i could just draw up a map and then your character would retroactively know about that layout?

yknow what forget maps unless you want to draw a map and see how it converts, i can prolly just come up with stuff /e

So onto actual characters. While players will end up with a mythological role in the game world, it's not like Sburb where your sprite just tells you "you are the Heir of Breath" and that's What You Have To Be. There's a bunch of convoluted components to it, but ultimately your character becomes whatever you make your character into. Abilities and powers and such will typically be presented as choices between "do this to get this power, or this other thing to get a different one", or more robust character-building choices- or granted as rewards for doing clever or interesting stuff the scenario didn't consider.
There's no particular restrictions on characters- they'll need to get their hands on a mobile communication device somehow, and be humans from Earth, but otherwise go nuts. I'm pretty sure y'all are good enough writers to come up with interesting and compelling PCs.

e: oh and since at first most characters are gonna communicate over irc prolly you should come up with screen names for em as well as regular names- not like pesterchum format because geddoudaheah but something that helps characterize by "this is what they would call themselves", but yeah do whatever you want to do w/that stuff, i gotta get to class /e

I guess if you want in, post a character bio in the thread here? I have some plans for fitting in as many players as necessary, although I dunno maybe I should still just limit it to 8 so I don't get overwhelmed? Nah, I'll like, power through or whatever. It'll be a learning experience.

Oh hey this thread is up finally? Awesome.

Anyways yup I'm in, I've been hyped up for this for a while. Probably going to make a character who lived in a geothermal reactor (probably without permission) that powered an entire planned city.

(Well, either that or someone who started the game up in a bar. Oceans of alcohol would be /interesting/.)

E: Okay apparently since we already have a character who likes hiding in places without permission I might as well do something totally different.

Character profile in spoilers below.

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SpoilerJonas Bentham Jr. (online handle Culture-Scorch), age 20, is rich. Filthy rich. The kind of rich that you can smell with your /eyeballs/, that's how rich he is. Rich enough to buy a small island and declare himself the dictator of a small island nation, or bribe half of any government he wants into obeying his every command, or build a death ray on the moon...

...Or engineer and build a theoretical geothermal power plant with a planned city around it, instead of all those other ghastly things.

You see, Mr. Bentham Jr. had no intention of hoarding his money or fighting tooth and nail with other corporations for even more money to hoard- unlike his father, Jonas Bentham Sr., CEO of a wildly successful weapons manufacturing company which was responsible in its heyday for provoking quite a few little skirmishes and ethnic cleansings to make an extra buck or billion.

Jonas, naturally, loathed his father in every way. After Bentham Sr. died, Jonas decided that wasting all of his newly inherited capital on a venture to revolutionize and provide renewable energy to the world at no personal profit was both a good way of redeeming the Bentham name /and/ a good way to snub his father's ghost from beyond the grave. And it worked, too- the planned city of Vesuvius is absolutely /thriving/, run by a team of engineers and experts of administration of all kinds, paid with the excess energy produced by the geothermal plant that could be exported to the ever energy-hungry outside world.

Yes, everything was going great in Jonas Bentham Jr.'s life. Nothing to worry about, no ruthless father driving him to succeed in the mathematics and statistics he oh so loathed. Just chatting online with friends, reading the latest critique of altruist ethics and scoffing, and playing the occasional virtual-reality video game in a while.

Say, there's that one game that he was really hyped for, wasn't there? Palace of Caprice, or something?

Figure I might sign up as well! I will think of said biograph post-haste.

e:
Larry Fairfax, Laissez_Armstrong if you prefer, 19, a man without direction. He dropped out of school a couple years back, and since then has been working at a small restaurant - food prep during the week, playing guitar every Saturday evening. Every month or so he takes a trip to a forest near the outskirts of town; aside from that, most of his life is spent working or just sort of floating about.

He doesn't mind it much, really. There are worse things he could be doing with his life, and at least he has a roof over his head and food on the table. But he does have a sense of regret, and late at night, he sometimes wonders where the hell he's going.

He lives alone, in a decent apartment (subsidized by his parents) in a large town. It's a pretty busy area - lots of shops with neon signs, nearby subway station, a few office buildings down the way. Not much plant life, be it in terms of individual trees, hedges, or parks, nearby. He spends a fair amount of time at home out on a balcony, staring up at the sky; on a good night, there's not quite enough light pollution to drown out the stars.

I like the idea, yeah. Locale-as-environs is deffers different and potentially interesting. Got an idea of a guy already... He was not well thought out. Here is a better idea of a guy:

Zachary Baker

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SpoilerZachary Baker is a very lucky boy.

When he was three, a gas main rupture caused his house to burn down. Zach was found huddled in the front yard, latched to his teddy bear. He was assured that he'd be able to go back home real soon.

When he was six, his father was entered into the Witness Protection Program, and later died when their new home was set on fire in an unprovably-related accident. He was assured that Dad had just gone away for a while, and he'd be back once things settled down.

When he was ten, faulty wiring in their new apartment caused yet another fire, which led to the collapse of part of the building. Zach and his sister were sent to an orphanage, where they were assured that their mother was in a better place, and they'd find a new family real soon.

When he was eleven, he was assured by the firefighters next door that the orphanage couldn't possibly burn down, what with the fire department right next door. When he was thirteen, rioters set fire to the fire department, which spread to the orphanage (and over a quarter of the city besides). He doesn't know what happened to his sister.

This time, Zach ran away before anyone could assure him of anything.

Reconstruction of the city goes slowly; only a little over half the burnt-out ruins have been cleared and restored in the five years since the fire. A smattering of drifters populate the debris, our hero among them. Zachary, now eighteen, is a pale, malnourished and disheveled child, cursed with an abundance of nerves, imagination, and curiosity. He lives alone in an abandoned, partly-collapsed subway station on the city limits. It's not a super great existence, generally speaking.

Living away from society has significantly reduced his exposure to fire and bullshit, though. So there's that, at least.

The Subway isn't so bad an abode if you don't mind the dark, damp or cold. Someone was even thoughtful enough to abandon a pair of train cars there! Technically the whole train is there, but most of it falls within the "partly collapsed" portion of the station. Still, the seats make a serviceable bed, and the engine car is great for pretending to be able to escape this shitty universe.

Zach doesn't have much to his name, most of his possessions having burned down repeatedly. What little cash he has he gets doing odd jobs around the nearby city, and all the stuff he has on him now was acquired on a budget of next-to-nothing. Of note: a mid-size shoulder bag, an artist's notebook, a solar-rechargeable flashlight, a comb, and a smartphone.

The smartphone isn't to keep, but to be pawned off as with previous acquisitions. Look, it's faster cash than odd jobs, okay? Being a homeless orphan is hard.

Theodore remains a constant companion and friend, and Zach will often relate his adventures to the scruffy thing in a misguided attempt to keep sane.


Zachary Baker is a very lucky boy, but he'll be the first to remind you that quality and quantity are not one and the same.

Legacy Character: William (Billy, TK, Bebop) Roberts

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SpoilerBilly is twelve years old.

He lives in a mid-size suburban home with his parents, elder sister, and younger brother. A "difficult child," who "would excel at his studies if he only applied himself," most of his time is spent playin' vidjagames or doodling. He gets frustrated when people try to shut down his creative outlets, and as a result avoids the issue by burrowing deeper into them. Vicious cycle ensues.

Billy might not have so many people on his case if his hobby time didn't so often overlap with his school time. He's argued that it's the school's fault for not being interesting enough, but nobody listens to him 'cause he's just a kid. Whatever.

<TKBebop> began a career in Let's Plays about a year ago when he realized Gettin' Mad At Vidjagames was both appreciated by the internet at large and a thing he already did in private. He enjoys mild popularity, but isn't really doing it for the subscribers.

Emily Hunter, aka "Connie Spires", "Dee Truth", "Alia N.", among others

Emily is 15, and she knows they're out to get her.

She's changed her story on who "they" are more than a few times. "They" can be the government, her parents, her teachers, that shop that shortchanged her by a penny and wouldn't give it back, or some combination of the above.

Emily's smart enough not to post her various theories under her own name, or from her home computer. She uses multiple pseudonyms (though "Connie Spires" is her personal favorite) and regularly goes to different libraries to use their computers, often in disguise. Most of the time she tries to pass herself off as a boy, just to throw "them" off.

Emily's not as good at disguises as she thinks, though. It's not that she's easily recognized, more of that she tends to look like she's wearing a disguise. Most of the librarians have caught on to her trick; they don't know her actual identity, but they do know "oh, it's this kid again".

She also has a blind spot in all her precautions: she never goes anywhere without her cell phone. If there actually was a multinational conspiracy that considered her a threat, they could probably track her down fairly easily through it.

Sometimes, generally when her parents are out of town, Emily hides in a library until after closing time, then makes a late-night post. Apparently she thinks this will throw "them" off. That's her plan tonight.

Aight! These is good stuff- I'm thinking I'll open up an IRC channel sometime soon, like say either when we reach eight players, or later if there's more signups before I'm ready to kick things off. Probably have a discussion about how to organize stuff and get started, and then transition to a Q+A session with the game's IC developers.

Oh yeah, note about the game itself from an IC perspective- Neodynic Studios, the game's developer, has been generating buzz about their new title- Neodynic's Palace Championship. Unless your character has been following gaming news, they're likely to be surprised when they receive a notification that they're invited to an exclusive alpha. That is, the game isn't available for purchase at the time thing stuff begins. (Or, that's how I conceived of things- stuff might change after the IRC discussion thing?)

Anyway yeah I'll try to set a time to get this thing off the ground. i am excite

Geoffrey Wilson aka The Black Claw Of Death:

He is a teenager of around 17ish years. He has never revealed his actual birthday to people, denouncing them as being "too happy for him". He is a perpetual frowner, so much so that he already has quite a few frown lines developing. His eyebrows are permanently furrowed in a world-hating snarl, and they are lined with countless piercings. His hair is a jet-black mohawk, dyed from the former preppy blonde. He hates being a natural blonde.

He's basically that one emo kid that sits in the back of the classroom, and he would sooner give you a death glare and maybe a few choice words than divulge anything else about him. Some people, including his counselor, suspect a dark past or an abusive family, but the truth is that he comes from a fairly average family. He does has an older brother who is an honors student at college, and has everything going for him.

He is a bit into video games, but he hates online multiplayers. He prefers long-running RPG series, games where he can escape to an alternate fantasy, because anything is better than reality. So, when he got an invite to an "immersive" game, he naturally leaped at the chance. Grumpily.

[9:40pm]bigro: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaslowinternet
[9:41pm] bigro: my arch nemesis
[9:42pm] bigro: someone do me a tight one and tell benedict that I can't post a character for his game thingo on ET due to the page taking an hour and a half to load

Name: Delia Jain
Age: 22 - or so she claims. 19 in reality.
Location: The IP she is using today says Saint Paul. Yesterday's said Palo Alto. The day before said Berlin.
Username: HN_Delly
Occupation: Amateur hacker. Well, officially she is a [REDACTED], but let's just say she's a mere hacker.
Appearance: Small unassuming female. Brown eyes, brown hair, unhealthily pale skin. Always wears a perfectly normal plastic flower barrette (so it seems) on the right side of her face, and a bright blue jacket with a zipper worn from being chewed on, and pockets big enough to hold a small notebook. She carries a leather satchel around her shoulder which she keeps her computer and its paraphernalia inside of. Everything she needs is kept in her satchel.
Personality: Delia has always been suspicious of people in general. She's very cynical, and fears that she will be backstabbed by anyone at any time. Therefore she builds a contingency plan into everything she does. She doesn't even trust herself to carry out necessary tasks, so she writes notes to herself constantly to reinforce her memory. She's softened up ever since she started making friends anonymously online, she has become much more trusting, and made the first friends she had ever made. Delia never used to smile, and even now it is a rare sight.
Even through her cynicism, Delia has a strong sense of morals. She identifies herself as chaotic good, and she lives up to that. By any means necessary, she will go out of her way to give aid to those she cares about, even if those necessary means are not necessarily legal. If you ask Delia, meddlesome authority could shut the fuck up and make way for those with practical knowledge, not some pie in the sky bullshit. Little concessions should be made in the name of pushing for her (generally not malevolent) goals. Teensy tiny concessions like writing a computer worm that she spread through Neodynic Studios, one of the biggest games publishers in the world. Easy as 3.1415962 yadda yadda. ^_^
One thing though. Although Delia is able to write C among the best of them, she will never manipulate the data she obtains in any way. She prefers to leave as small a footprint as possible behind when she goes in for the data. She hacks like it's a game to her; when she gains information, she wins, but being caught is a major loss. By this point, she knows how to leave the smallest train possible when breaking in to a system. She won't bash open password locks with password resets in superuser mode, or let her code trigger brute force detection mechanisms; instead, she has written a general purpose program to crack open password locks with rainbow tables and counter resets. The counter reset program is her magnum opus, and has led her into becoming nearly untraceable but very powerful.
Accomplishments: Recently, Delia started getting into online gaming, and learned how to hack the network, not for advantage, but for information. Who needs to play games the "normal" way? Delia likes to give herself a little silent background challenge here and there. Pscht, Neodynic Studios ain't got nothing on Delia Jain. She has the whole source code for the system not only available to her, but figured out and hers for the manipulating. She reads through the information on the servers in order to gain insight into how the gamers think. Neodynic Studios isn't the first nor the hardest of the supposedly "secure" networks she's cracked; Delia has broken into countless networks, including a powerful government agency known as [REDACTED]. She's still proud of that little accomplishment.

Environment: Delia's home is a simple, bare apartment. It has an unused bedroom which contains only a wardrobe, a bathroom, a tiny kitchen with a sink, a toaster oven, a fridge, and a microwave, and a living room with a fold-out couch where she sleeps. There is a small flower vase on the windowsill, filled with plastic orchids. It is the only vanity to speak of in her home.

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Spoiler
OOC: Okay I've never really roleplayed before. This seems interesting, may as well take a shot. I should develop my creative writing style now too. Also, my personality is really different from Delia. This'll be interesting. I'd much appreciate feedback!

Hm, 6 characters so far. We're definitely getting close to the maximum. I'm guessing that if we go above that limit you'll have to start picking the best character profiles to use, Benedict?

ive got a character idea but no time to write it
if i get a chance ill probably have it tomorrow or saturday, even if it is through silly means

Hm, 6 characters so far. We're definitely getting close to the maximum. I'm guessing that if we go above that limit you'll have to start picking the best character profiles to use, Benedict?

Yeah that sounds like a good idea. Story-wise I could accommodate more than eight via fancy mechanics shenanigans, but I don't want to have to GM more than eight players at once, like, that's probably asking for trouble.

also yaaaay sol and mathgirl

I'm willing to bow out for now and substitute in if a slot becomes vacant or whatever-- I still want to participate, but there's a lot of other people who deserve a shot more than I do.