[Interest Check] A City Unseen (RP inspired by Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere)

[Revenent]

To those of you who have not read or even heard of the book up there in the topic title, nor indeed seen the TV miniseries or the live-action play it spawned, here's what you need to know about the world set up in Neverwhere:

There are two layers of society in the world, one of which goes completely and literally unseen and unheard by those "normal" people who live on the surface. Beneath the oldest and most culturally or historically significant cities you can find, there are parallel civilizations made up of strange beings whose existence you'll only remember until you look away from them, and who have influenced the crafting of our world right down to the very names of our subway stations. They live in our sewers and abandoned subway stations, as well as places they built long before the city up above existed, and sometimes just in plain sight of everyone on the surface.

These beings come with a staggering variety of stories, each as strange and nonsensical as the next. Why, in London Below alone, you can find tribes of homeless who can speak with and worship the rats that travel up on the surface, telekinetic mercenaries whose personal flairs make pro wrestlers look refined, old storybook figures such as the Marquis de Carabas, two ancient gentlemen assassins who burned Rome and are quicker than sight, an imprisoned angel, the Earl of Earlscourt Station, the friars of Blackfriar station, and countless others.

This RP will not be going to London Below, however, and the challenges faced there by a young Scottish businessman, a girl with a murdered family, and a cunning cat-lover will have no importance here. No, this RP will be set in Paris Below, with a whole new set of locations and characters that require no more knowledge of the original novel than what I just posted up there.

So, if you happen to be interested in a bit of a faux-modern dark fantasy with influences from both fairy tales (the original, twisted versions) and various other forms of fantasy, drop a post, and don't be afraid to ask for any details or clarifications you need. :-)

IMPORTANT NOTE: For those of you concerned, this is NOT just another RP where people in the modern world have magical powers or whatever. Neverwhere had very little to do with the surface world outside of stuff that had to do with the main character (since he was from there), and I don't plan for this story it involve it very much, if at all. Consider it not a modern fantasy, but a fantasy where modern stuff might be happening somewhere else unrelated.

[Starlequin]

Most definitely interested here, amigo. Will there be plot, or just sandbox play?

[Callie Del Noire]

Ooooo.. definitely interested. :D

[Revenent]

The exact schematics of how group direction and interaction will work is still being thought over, but there will most definitely be a plot, with one of the Seven Sisters being a major player, if you read the book and know who they are. If you haven't, no worries, since the book says little more about them than that they're apparently a big deal.

I suspect there will be a bit of a sandbox element in the characters being allowed to move freely around Paris Below most of the time, even coming up with their own locations to visit based on the landmarks in the city (with my approval, of course). One thing I forgot to mention is that most of the major places in London Below were based on the city above, such as the Night's Bridge below Knightsbridge or the aforementioned subway station-based locations, so it is entirely feasible for people other than me to come up with cool areas to visit.

I also suspect characters will spend most of the time moving around in smaller groups of, say, three to six. This is mostly for writing focus' sake, since the story is going to have more of a large-scale focus than the book, and I figure some posters (not all, since it's each own's preference) will be playing more than one character to cover a larger area. Depending on how many individual groups we end up with any time, I may switch over to a multi-thread format for extra focus, but now I'm getting way ahead of myself.

What You Need to Know: There will be a plot, how everything else works is completely up for change while I see how much interest this thing even gets.

[Callie Del Noire]

I had an idea of someone who 'traded' their life for someone from 'down below'.. waking up as someone from London Below could be fun.. with talents they weren't aware of and history/past that they will have to deal with. :d

[Revenent]

Sounds fine to me. I'll probably wait until we get another person or two interested to set up a character sheet, but feel free to think about your characters, and if you want to discuss them openly here or with me through PM, that's perfectly fine.

[SargentToughie]

hrm... It certainly seems like it's a very interesting subject, but I don't really know if it's up my alley just yet.

I'll get back to you after I've thought on it a bit more.

[Revenent]

Well, it looks like we're not going to get much more interest on this, so I'm probably going to call it a bust if we don't get anyone else interested within the next day or so. :-( Sorry to those who were interested.

[Callie Del Noire]

Pout.. sure you can't use the smaller group you got?

[Revenent]

Well, assuming Starlequin is still in, that's still only three people, which isn't much to work with.

[Starlequin]

Actually, I'd still be interested, but I agree we'd need a few more than we've got now. Probably about...six or so? Assuming that the antagonists and such were PCs and werent all NPC'ed by Revenent.

[Revenent]

If this does get started, that would probably turn out to be the way I do it. I find RPs draw people in significantly more when they're allowed to play a big part in the plot and have plenty of freedom to come up with their own scenes and plots twists, rather than just be railroaded around by the GM.

[Phoenixrisen]

I find this idea very interesting, if there's even a chance of you still getting it up and running. Having never read the book though, I would have no real idea where to start with thinking on a character.

[Revenent]

There's really not a whole lot of limitations when it comes to Neverwhere. The characters in the book ranged from nobles with magical abilities to huntresses who fought giant creatures across the world to Roman legionaries to the Marquis de Carabas from the tale of Puss in Boots. They could be historical, they could be literary, they could be fantastical, or they could even be modern if you have a good enough excuse and don't go on about the modern world too much.

[CarnivorousBunny]

WAIT! Don't shut this down!  I want to join, haha! :D

[Callie Del Noire]

For example.. my idea is a person from 'London Above' who accidently traded their life for one in 'Down Below'. Waking up in the Market and finding out you've inherited more than a pendant from your 'deal' with the person you met in 'Above'.

[Revenent]

I'd like to see if we could get one more person interested before we started up to make it an even six, but I'd be willing to start with five if it doesn't look like we're getting that.