On the prowl for a story again! (Lord, seeking Lady)

[TheUltramarine]

There are times that you have so many good ideas, and you want to have a good story but you don't have a partner to share it with. That's exactly the situation I've been in the last few days, so I thought I should revamp my thread, hoping that some fellow writer might take interest in what I have to offer.

I'll try to organize my plot ideas and thoughts in a way that you can run through them quickly and read only the ones that could interest you, in order to save you some time, rather than having you read a great-wall-of-China text. If there is any question, any idea you want to discuss, things you want to change or anything, please feel free to contact me. I'm very pm friendly, so there's no reason for you to hesitate even if you simply wish to say hi :)

At this point, I should also point out that I'm looking for plot-heavy stories and not just smut. Erotic scenes can occur, of course, and I am perfectly fine with them, I enjoy them even, but they have to be justified and well fitted in the story. Apart from that, I would like my partner(s) to be at least somewhat dedicated to the story. That doesn't mean I'll pester you to post daily, but a post or two every week is not too much to ask, is it? Of course, I realize that some may have a loaded schedule and for that reason I value good communication. I want to believe I'm not unreasonable, so feel free to tell me if for some reason you are too busy to post, or if for any reason you're losing interest and you want to make changes to the story etc. We can work things out instead of pretending we don't see each other. Last but not least, especially since I'm looking for story driven roleplays, I expect my partner to be fluent in their writing and at least put some effort in their posts. I'm not a native English speaker myself, thus not perfect with the use of English, but I'm at least trying hard to offer the best result possible. I would appreciate at lease some effort from your side as well.

Finally, as far as the posting method is concerned, I am rather flexible. We could write our story here on the forums, or on some IM, email, or any other platform you might like (like Google Docs for example - which I have to admit I've become very fond of). It's a matter that we can talk about, in order to find a solution that satisfies both.

But let's move to the possible stories we could play together:

   

It's the end of the world as we know it
Setting: Modern, Post Apocalyptic, Survival, Possibly Horror
Character Race: Most likely Human

What would you do if you were the last person on earth - or at least you thought you were? This scenario is something I've been really craving to do  lately, and as you can guess it has to do with one of the numerous possible ways mankind could be brought to the brink of extinction. It has a few alternatives, mostly depending on the reason that caused the disaster, but the basic principals of the story are the same. You survived! You have no idea how many more have had the same fate as you, but you certainly need to find a way to sustain yourself, and if you're the kind of person that wants to team up, you also have to find a way of finding more survivors. You need to combine your skills, your education, the different traits of your personalities, only to make it through each day and hopefully live long enough to get familiar with this hostile new world you're so violently introduced to. Are you a scavenger, an engineer, a craftsman, a doctor, a fighter? What can you offer to others and how can you convince them to take you aboard or follow you? But most importantly... can you trust them? In a grim situation like that, even when you face the same enemies, be it hunger, thirst, or hostile beings that want to eat you alive, not every person wants to help you, even if they seem friendly at first. The life in the wasteland, or the city that was turned to a jungle of "haunted" concrete giants, life is tough and you have to be tougher, faster, stronger and smarter if you want to survive. Are you going to make it?

Alternatives:
Down with the sickness: Biological warfare is a nasty thing. Not only because it kills people in much more horrible ways than guns, silently, without a trace and of course without sparing the women, children or anyone else, but also for the simple reason that a gun cannot escape during manufacturing and kill everyone in its path. On the contrary, a mutated virus can. Just like that, what started as a rather nasty flu that spread a bit too much this winter, ended up to be the stuff of nightmares. In a matter of weeks, 80-90% of the global population lies dead in their homes, cars, shops, even on the streets. Even when the public realized what they were dealing with, it was already too late. Being one of the very few immune to the disease is a mixed blessing. Watching everyone you ever knew dieing around you is not an easy burden to carry. Move on, or join them in an eternal sleep? A macabre choice to be made, for sure.

Braaaaaaaaains: That has to be a classic by now. Yes, the dead are walking again. And yes, it ain't pretty, at all! This idea can easily be combined with the one above, making the virus have 3 possible outcomes on a human being: it either kills it, it doesn't affect it at all, or if it's weak enough to become a host but strong enough not to die for a period of time, it turns it into a mindless husk. But it doesn't have to be a virus that gives birth to things that want to rip you apart and eat you. No... It could be radiation for example. A nuclear war that filled certain areas with so much radiation that the living beings in those areas actually mutated to a point that they became whole new species (read bellow).

War... War never changes: This one doesn't have to be based on the game series from which this very famous line was shamelessly stolen, but I hope it gave you an idea about what I'm going to suggest. From the very beginning of human history, man was creating, manufacturing and perfecting methods and tools with which to annihilate other human beings more effectively. It is well expected that a full scale war between the world's most powerful nations could mean the end of an era. It's hard to imagine how someone might survive such a thing, but maybe, just maybe, you somehow survive. Was it because your family had the money or the connections to end up living in an underground vault with outer walls of steel, a few feet thick? Was it because you were somehow lucky enough to be at a safe distance from the major events when the world blew itself to pieces? What matters is that you survived, but now nothing is the same anymore...



To infinity and beyond!

   

Setting: Sci-fi, Futuristic, Adventure
Character Race: Preferably Human but open for discussion

This setting has lots of options that could be played, but all of them have one thing in common: they take place in space and on countless known and unknown worlds that we could land and explore. There's an adventure in every corner, and the possibilities are limitless. The sky is the limit. In fact, not even the sky is in this case.

The idea of venturing the galaxy on board a spaceship is an idea I've been wanting to play for a long long while. If you have played the Mass Effect series, I assume you might share my passion for this idea. What I was thinking, was slowly building a crew, even starting from scratch on top of a small planet, gathering the people we need for the mission - whichever that may be. The process by itself may prove to be quite the interesting story, but once the ship takes off and starts touring the stars, it's going to be even more fascinating. You want to be the captain, the pilot, the navigator, or simply someone with other skills or knowledge that would help on the journey? Everything is welcome and each of those options offers a different, epic story to be told. The purpose of the journey? Well let's see...

Space Cowboys: Keeping things safe on one planet is tricky enough, but having to ensure the safety of billions of citizens on multiple planets and systems must be a really tricky job, especially when laws are not the same from planet to planet and the bad guys enjoy hopping from one to the next. That's where bounty hunters come in. People who make a living by hunting down and capturing, or neutralizing dangerous criminals of all kinds, risking their life on daily basis each for their own reasons, be it justice, fame, money or whatever else might drive a person to that line of work. Are you aspiring to become a bounty hunter because of your idealistic fervor to bring some justice to a corrupt system? Are you simply in it for the money? Maybe you're looking for a new addition to your crew, or you're starting one right now and rumors or reputation brought you to me. Or maybe, we are rivals... What shall it be?

Once a marine...: Another way to travel across the stars and face all kinds of action is to be in the galactic army of course. But in this case, I was thinking, maybe some kind of special team that comes only when things are really bad. Like REALLY bad. Think a bit Mass Effect, but then again not exactly. In any case, we can either start with gathering the crew from scratch or we could start with a crew already and simply decide on what kind of events our adventures would lead us.

The treasure hunt: There was an old tale about a planet baring an old civilization with technology so advanced, that our spaceships look like steam engines in comparison. They say there were powerful, wealthy and wise beyond your wildest dreams. And then... all of a sudden, they vanished! The whole planet and their colonies disappeared, wiped out to the point that their existence is considered more of a legend and a fable than fact. How could a whole planet disappear anyway? But lately, rumors have been circulating about some unearthed clues that might lead to the mysterious homeworld of that fabled race, and maybe, their treasures as well. Who knows what one might find there... no one does, yet many brave rogues and fortune seekers have already gone on the hunt for those clues, they are after whatever treasure they can unearth and they are not going to let anyone get in their way...

Uninvited guest: You run a small small vessel, that often travels from world to world and in many cases, not visiting the most... luxurious travel destinations if you know what I mean. Yeah you often have to visit places your mom probably told you to avoid as a kid, but one has to make a living somehow, right? Why you do that? Maybe trading, scavenging, mining, fixing stuff... that sort of thing. It all depends on who you really are. Your ship is not the biggest, or let's say it's just rather small and you preferably run it alone, with the help of your ship's AI. A girl alone in a cruel world like that... it's a tough life. To make matters worse, the government of the system is rather crooked, everyone in their good minds try to fly under the radar so to speak and not to believe the garbage they say on the news, which most of the time is the worst kind of propaganda. Rebellions started quite a few, but were soon put down by the mighty emperor and his armies of much more, much better trained and better equipped soldiers. Of course, those rebels were responsible for the worst of crimes against the empire and humanity, so they were executed promptly. Another rebellion has started only a few months ago, things are pretty tense. But the only thing reaching the headlines the past few days other than the atrocities committed by the rebels, is the escape of a very dangerous murderer who was about to be court-martialed. He is armed and extremely dangerous. You should watch out. Imagine if he tried to smuggle himself out of the planet on board your ship...

   

Might and Magic
Setting: High Fantasy, Adventure
Character Race: Elf

This story, is originally based on Warcraft. And when I say Warcraft I mean the lore BEFORE WoW. It includes quite some lore-bending to make it easier to play and more enjoyable and of course the re-living of some of the most breath taking moments of the lore as the story progresses forward. You might be able to tell from the banner, but my favorite race has always been the elves, and to be exact, the High Elves or Quel'Dorei as they are called in their native language. The reason why I require you to play an elf as well for this story, is because it practically tells the tale of the elven race after almost being annihilated by the Scourge. You are going to be one of the very few survivors of Quel'Thalas (the elven homeland) who after losing everything, they also have to deal with numerous events, including a demonic invasion on Azeroth, while at the same time dealing with the corruption of the Sunwell and being deprived of its arcane energies, which causes lots of trouble to the elves, especially those who use magic. Your partner in this fight for your life, will be a young Ranger who somehow managed to make it all the way through the battle in one piece, even if he sustained quite a few serious wounds. The question that remains is, what are you going to be?

I think giving more details about this story in here would be boring to most so I will stop here. Before starting this story though there are lots of things to be discussed as you can imagine, including the starting point of the story. If you want to enjoy yourself a bit before things turn grim, we could start before the attack. Should you wish to go straight to action we could start at the beginning or during the attack. Finally, if you want to skip something that's pretty much set on how it will end, we can go straight to the end, the moment the undead start pouring inside Silvermoon, focusing on how our characters met and made it out. This story requires at least a bit of knowledge about what's going on. If you're not familiar with Warcraft but this setting still got your attention, I could tell you exactly what you need to know, but that would require some time and patience from your side.

NON-Warcraft alternative: Of course, the fantasy setting is not only about Warcraft! It gives lots and lots of options and adventures to be had. Do you want to be an adventurer, a magician, a treasure hunter, or even a highly esteemed noble? There are many ideas I could offer depending on what you want to play, but the magic in all this is that depending on the character you choose, there are nearly infinite possibilities to what we could do. Also, the race is not strictly restricted to elves for this one and is open for discussion.


Note for all stories: I am not really a good GM myself, but if you feel like taking control of the entire world of a story, that's also something I'm willing to try. Also, if there is some kind of system that you'd like to use in order to give our story a bit of extra... RPG taste, please let me know, I would be very interested in hearing what you have to offer.

More ideas to be added soon, stay tuned!

Feel free to message me with questions or requests! =) Thank you for reading!