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Link to the setup threadquote:For a long time, we were at war with The Jackals. Now, finally, we've driven them off, and we're left with this: a year of relative peace. One quiet year, with which to build our community up and learn again how to work together. Come Winter, the Frost Shepherds will arrive and we might not survive the encounter. This is when it will end. But we don't know about that yet. What we know is that right now, in this moment, there is an opportunity to build something. I'm not going to put an explanation of the rules here, for that refer to the setup thread. Instead, I think its best if we jump right in. Before we can do anything else, we need to determine what out setting looks like, in broad strokes. Is our community located in the middle of a landlocked desert, surrounded by the ruins of cities? In a crater slowly being filled by the ocean? On a tropical island reminiscent of Bermuda? What's the climate like? Do we have weird climate? Or is the climate fairly normal? Feel free to use real world references, or just describe, in broad strokes, what you want to see. Once everyone has chipped in, the facilitator (me) will write a brief, coherent description of the community's surroundings, climate etc, based on what everyone has said. If everyone's happy, the facilitator makes the basic map, showing the rough lay of the land and suggesting where the community lives. I leave you guys to start it off!
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Oct 2, 2015 12:50
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| # ? May 7, 2024 18:12 |
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I guess I'll start  So, I'm thinking about water, which leads me to think about climate change. A world where the ice caps have melted almost in their entirety, leading to far higher water levels, maybe? With such a harsh change in the ecosystem so (relatively, in planet terms) quickly, it'd cause a lot of problems with agriculture and just gently caress things up generally, which could lead to some interesting scenarios. We don't necessarily have to be on an island or coastal, though that could be cool -- maybe we're near a river that's overflown and created a lot of (again, relatively) new swampland/bog? I dunno, just throwing out some ideas to get things rolling.
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Oct 2, 2015 17:16
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Oh, great! I was thinking melted ice caps as well! I'm going to throw out that maybe the swamp had grown out of the ruins of a giant city. A partially submerged New York or something. It's a cool visual imagining this community living in small stilt houses under the shadows of fallen skyscrapers. Have people paddling boats down deeply flooded streets and alleys.
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Oct 2, 2015 17:42
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Tyrannosaurus posted:Oh, great! I was thinking melted ice caps as well! I'm going to throw out that maybe the swamp had grown out of the ruins of a giant city. A partially submerged New York or something. It's a cool visual imagining this community living in small stilt houses under the shadows of fallen skyscrapers. Have people paddling boats down deeply flooded streets and alleys. I like the sound of this (which shouldn't be shocking)! Going ruined-metropolis opens up so many possibilities for exploration, discovery and danger, and we can get this whole "trying to pick up the pieces of what civilization once was" vibe going. At least, that's where I'd be tempted to take it.
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Oct 2, 2015 20:47
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I like the idea of this kind of world. So it's pretty much like that PS4 game? (Though I've not played it myself) Lots of opportunity for looting and discovery I'm sure! And as for civilisation, rooftop farms and such sounds pretty cool. Hard to find soil though! stevey666 fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Oct 2, 2015 |
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Oct 2, 2015 21:59
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I have no idea what PS4 game that is but now I wish I had a PS4 so I could play it
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Oct 3, 2015 02:55
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So it looks like we're pretty much in agreement that its going to be a swamp of some-kind, perhaps with a river running through it, with a ruined city shadowing over our community. It seems likely that there are the remains of a once advanced people in the city, which provide opportunities for peril and discovery. There's also the idea that this change is fairly recent, its upset the balance of the area. Change means upheaval, and it may be good or bad. I got the impression, although I might be wrong, that we were tending towards a temperate, perhaps even tropical climate. The idea that soil might be scarce was floated, and we'll explore that further when we get to the resources phase. Does this sound right so far? We haven't heard anything from goodness yet, although there's still plenty of time to chip in. If there are any more broad ideas/tweaks/etc, this is the time!
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Oct 3, 2015 03:59
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No idea what that game is either but it looks great. Edit: We could go tropical I suppose. I wouldn't care if we did. But I think I would prefer if we were living in a place with real seasons so a little further North than the tropics. Maybe a faux New Orleans or Atlanta? That would explain the explosion of swamps Tyrannosaurus fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Oct 3, 2015 |
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Oct 3, 2015 03:59
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Tyrannosaurus posted:No idea what that game is either but it looks great. Reverse google image search reveals that it's called Submerged! This is where my knowledge of this game ends!
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Oct 3, 2015 04:02
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Tyrannosaurus posted:No idea what that game is either but it looks great. I'm okay with this.
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Oct 3, 2015 05:33
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Had some long shifts, you guys have done great so far. New Orleans inspired climate/area will be fun. Some creepy or voodoo artifacts hidden beneath us  The community could be located on top of a large dome that they thought was an island but turns out to be part of the city. goodness fucked around with this message at 13:24 on Oct 3, 2015 |
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Oct 3, 2015 09:55
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Id say it would be better to have this city originally being on a hawaii like island, but then again i suppose thats another phase.. adding in a mountainous area. What was the cause of the flooding? Ice caps or crazy voodoo? Also i would have linked the game but the mystery over it was somewhat satisfying!
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Oct 3, 2015 12:35
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So we've agreed then, that our community is in a new-orleans type climate, in a flooded valley, in the shadow of a city. There is ancient technology, magical and wondrous and voodoo artifacts scattered thought the valley. The flooding has disrupted the local ecosystem, and the change will create difficulties for our community. Movement is difficult as the area is flooded. I imagine that the humidity means that insects swarm, and there's a tendency for mist and fog in the summer and spring, and that as we head towards autumn we'll start seeing rain and ice. But perhaps the climate might be further disrupted thanks to the melting of the icecaps... or voodoo magic. I further imagine entire forests now partially submerged, the tops of the trees sticking out from the flooded strand, looking desolate. Whatever wildlife lived here originally has scattered, with more water bound creatures starting to take up inhabitance in the valley. We don't really need to establish the *why* necessarily, our community deals with what's transpired, for them, it doesn't matter if the valley has flooded due to a curse or due to natural events, or because a dam burst upstream. Although the why's may come to light during play, its more important to establish they whats. If we're all ok with how this stands now, I'll draw a map. The map will feature 1.) A river 2.) The fact that the majority of the valley is flooded 3.) A ruined city 4.) Buried voodoo artifacts 5.) A flooded strand. Finally, of course, our community. A couple inspirational images:   This sound good to everyone? If no one objects I'll get the map up tonight, and we'll do the resource phase next.
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Oct 3, 2015 14:09
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Heck yeah, that sounds great to me. 
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Oct 3, 2015 14:19
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I'm good
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Oct 3, 2015 14:43
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I like it! Something to think about, what is the shape/material of the valley that causes the community to not move to a higher ground.
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Oct 4, 2015 00:25
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It's "where they've always lived" I dunno
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Oct 4, 2015 02:58
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If we're going with the whole voudoun-esque vibe, maybe they have beliefs about their homeland/the land where their ancestors are buried that keep them tied there, emotionally? Such that they feel strongly enough to keep trying to make a life there, despite the hardships created by the changing environment?
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Oct 4, 2015 04:48
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Someone Awful! posted:If we're going with the whole voudoun-esque vibe, maybe they have beliefs about their homeland/the land where their ancestors are buried that keep them tied there, emotionally? Such that they feel strongly enough to keep trying to make a life there, despite the hardships created by the changing environment? That's... way better than my idea
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Oct 4, 2015 05:09
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Ancestral ties work. I have this Tue/Wed off and will be able to spend some quality time on world building/posting here.
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Oct 5, 2015 04:02
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First of all, apologies for the delay. My weekend was busy! Here's a map!  For the purpose of drawing on the map, you guys are going to have to register on realtimeboard and give me the email you've registered with (via PM) so I can share the map with you. Its free and it'll let you draw when its your turn to draw. I've given an idea of what drawings can look like, but you can also import images from google, if (like me) drawing isn't your thing. As you can see, the map has a river, that leads into a flooded valley, there's a city in the center, and a flooded strand off to the side. Inland there's a voodoo artifact, probably not the only one, but the one our community knows about. As the game goes on, someone might use their action to discover another one or start a project to recover that specific one. Now we have three things before the game proper starts, first we must decide where on the map we'd like our community to be, secondly we must each pick a resource, by picking these resources, we automatically make them important for our community. For example, if someone picked Health the fact that our community has a scarcity or abundance of it would be a driving force in the game. Similarly, if we had a Scarcity of rum, our community would consider rum important and the fact we didn't have much would be a source of hardship, projects would probably be undertaken to alleviate it and it would be a source of social change perhaps. Once we've each picked a resource, we pick one to be in abundance, and the rest to be a scarcity. This is also a good time to make Lines and Veils. Basically, a Line is something you're not comfortable seeing in the story at all, for whatever reason. Things that squick you out. E.g. Cannibalim. These things are not allowed in the story at all, for the comfort of all involved. Veils are things that make us uncomfortable but we're ok just talking over, just not in detail, for example, if the topic were "Sexual Violence" we'd be ok with mentioning rape, but not with describing it at all, or making it a central part of the story. We don't need to have any, but this is a good time to bring them up if we have them, just so we can all enjoy the game. goodness posted:Ancestral ties work. I have this Tue/Wed off and will be able to spend some quality time on world building/posting here. I'm going to caution against wordlbuilding, this game has a very rigid architecture of how we discover and create as the game goes on, and establishing too much ahead of time spoils the impact of discussions and discoveries. For example, at some point in spring, its likely we'll have a discussion about "Who in our society is the most respected and why?", if we've already established that, then the discussion loses a lot of its potency. There's also a lot of cards that let players straight up decide facts like this, which means that if we establish them ahead of time, we strip players of their autonomy. A lot of the fun in this game is the clash between different ideas and running with what other players have laid down. Its a little different from other games of its genre, so this can be a little hard to grok at first, just trust that this will make more sense when we start seeing the spring cards. TheCog fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Oct 5, 2015 |
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Oct 5, 2015 18:03
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TheCog posted:
By worldbuilding I meant community building and working on my basic ideas  Thanks for clarifying that though! I like the idea of the community being a floating town that has slowly been growing. Gives a reason for sticking around, they can't exactly pilot a group of scrapped together house platforms up the river. Currently "anchored" near the strand or city. I'll think on a Resource goodness fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Oct 5, 2015 |
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Oct 5, 2015 19:03
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Resource: Insects The humid warmth has created a fertile breeding ground for biting flies, mosquitoes, and other nuisance bugs. They spread disease and pestilence. They damage our grasses, maize and other crops. However, some species, like the crickets, cicadas and dragonflies, have become a valuable source of protein in these desperate times. Scarcity has taught us to do away with many unnecessary taboos. (Are we supposed to do a map feature, also?)
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Oct 6, 2015 03:44
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Just making sure I can understand this correctly, insects are now an important part of the game?
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Oct 6, 2015 04:35
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As far as I understand, yes. For good or ill, they are something we'll have to think about now.
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Oct 6, 2015 04:46
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Ooooookay. I pick boats.
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Oct 6, 2015 04:56
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Resource: Potable Water Anyone ever see Pirates of the Dark Water as a kid? The black water was kind of a sentient, spreading corruption that pulled you under if you touched it and definitely was not drinkable. 
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Oct 7, 2015 14:52
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Resource: Flotsam All kinds of stuff comes up from the depths! Mostly wood and junk though. But hey, gotta build things out of something right?
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Oct 7, 2015 19:16
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Just a reminder, since its easy to overlook Once we've each picked a resource, we pick one to be in abundance, and the rest to be a scarcity. Also, once I have everyone's email for the board I can talk about the next phase, which is adding a feature. For my resource I'm picking Optimism
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Oct 7, 2015 19:20
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Are we waiting on someone's resource or should we vote on abundances and scarcities?
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Oct 9, 2015 04:07
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Nope, we're good to go, I was going to post earlier but the site went down! We need to decide one abundance between Boats Insects Optimism Flotsam Potable Water I vote for flotasm, because I think insects would be an interesting scarcity. Maybe our community has this thing going where insects are somehow tied to their belief in ancestors, and the scarcity is causing them worry, as its a bad portent. Or maybe the absence of insects is a sign that the climate is really changing and a portent of bad things to come. I like the idea of this dower community lacking resources, where everything looks grim, and how things start to shape up... or don't depending. At this point we should each add a feature to the map. When you add it, please write a small summary saying what the feature is. Once that's done we'll start with spring. I'll add mine at some point tomorrow because its late here and i'm phone posting.
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Oct 9, 2015 04:20
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TheCog posted:Nope, we're good to go, I was going to post earlier but the site went down! Did some thinking and I can agree with this. A lack of insects creates all sorts of problems re: agriculture and also if we have superstitions about it it would be bad times all around??? And an abundance of flotsam indicates that while there might be someone out there in the water, things are not going well for them! Like, at all!  Will think on a feature and post/add it shortly.
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Oct 9, 2015 05:24
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Another vote for flotsam and for having a community of pessimistic, thirsty, boatless waterfolk.
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Oct 9, 2015 05:32
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 Feature: The Old Boneyard Mausoleums and monuments to the lost and loved stand in silent remembrance -- another luxury lost. Moss, mushrooms and mold have the run of the place these days, but some of the weathered inscriptions on the artfully-carved headstones are still legible, if one were to feel the need to pay their respects. Unfortunately the ground in this reverent place isn't as dry as it once was... The sheer ornamentation of the still-standing statues suggests that these folk may have been buried with their material possessions, but would any dare rob the graves of their own long-ago kin?  (hope i'm doing this right!)
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Oct 9, 2015 08:58
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Someone Awful! posted:
Yep, this is the right way to do it! Feature: The Madman's Raft No one knows who he is, or how he got here. But here he lives. He rides around the swamp, refusing to join civilized society. His rickety wooden raft is also his home. He survives by trading with local communities, trading potions and trinkets, charms and prophecy for basic necessities. All kind of superstitions follow the Madman. Is he harmless, or is there something to his frantic search for the "Last Words"? Regardless, the Madman is as much a part of the ecosystem as the fish... 
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Oct 10, 2015 08:33
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Feature: The Egg In the way back times, they say the Egg had been a shelter. When the rains came and didn't stop and the waters rose to cover the world, the people fled to it. Lived in it. Died in it. It was a house for warriors and a fortress against the world. Now it sits, abandoned, surrounded by deep water. Now it is little more than shiny, white dome peeking out from crashing waves. Nothing grows on top of it. Perhaps something grows within it. After all, it is called the Egg. And there's always something inside eggs, right? 
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Oct 11, 2015 23:50
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I'll get my feature up by the end of tonight.
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Oct 12, 2015 02:16
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Feature: The Mute Thinker The Mute Thinker stares longingly towards the South East. An old old and rather immense statue but particularly weathered. Some days smoke is seen rising from around the base.
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Oct 12, 2015 11:03
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Feature: The Whirling Doom Discovered soon after the fall of civilization, this deep whirlpool has been a dark spot on the map. At first it was just a minor nuisance, pulling what little resources were available away from the community and into its depths. After a time it was observed that the whirlpool was growing larger and more intense. Nowadays it holds the name The Whirling Doom, exerting it's vast pull on anything that mistakenly drifts too close. Many a family has woken to the roaring sound of the whirlpool sucking them under,having forgotten to anchor at night. goodness fucked around with this message at 04:47 on Oct 14, 2015 |
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Oct 12, 2015 19:37
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| # ? May 7, 2024 18:12 |
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Features look good! UnCO3 has kindly set up our deck, so that's here: https://app.roll20.net/join/1066752/d-BniA We've decided that our abundance is Flotsam, so our resources currently look like this: Abundance Flotsam Scarcity Boats Insects Optimism Potable Water The map looks like this  I drew the first card, and got quote:Where does everyone sleep? Who is unhappy with this arrangement and why? The valley used to be safe, before the flood, but with the water something sinister moved into the valley. At first it started with missing people, attributed to those being swept off by the Doom, but the numbers soon grew, it had to be something else. Then one of our hunters came back, carrying the corpse of a deformed and horrible creature. He claimed it had taken two of its sons in its tentacles and drowned them before he could spear it to death. The creature resembles nothing more than the mix of a crocodile and an octopus, eight long tentacles paired with a long body and a row of sharp teeth. Its preferred technique seems to be to lie in ambush and drown its pray, which includes us... (I added some tentacles to the map to represent this!) Now I must choose to Start a project, Discover something or Hold a discussion, as a rule of thumb, Projects are how we solve issues, Discoveries are how we complicate things, and Discussions are how we assess where we're at. Action – Start a Project: With the swamp flooded as it is, and lacking potable water, we need to find an alternate source of water. Some of our best hunters will venture into the city to see if there's a source of clean water there, or a way to purify water. We all need to vote on how long this project will take. Because of the scope of the project, I think 3 weeks is a reasonable time to scout. Once that's done the next person it turn order can go. Using the magic of random.org's list randomizer, the order is TheCog Tyrannosaurus Someone Awful! stevey666 goodness Once we've decided on a time, Tyrannosaurus feels free to draw a card! TheCog fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Oct 14, 2015 |
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Oct 13, 2015 23:51
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