One Crew to Rule it All (Fantasy Gangland) - Closed for now.

Started by Revenent, August 16, 2012, 08:31:26 PM

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Revenent

NOTE: If you read this topic before the Closed sign went up and were interested or working on a character, you can still post an application, even if you hadn't posted in the thread yet. Honor system.

Recruitment
Gehenna (Gang HQ)
OOC Thread
Character List
Lilith's Cave (Gang HQ) [Old]
Middle City (Gang Activities) [Old]
Character Thread [Old]

===

The Setting:



Welcome to Middle City, where even the angels aren't sacred. A bright metropolitan core surrounded by layers of crime and poverty, humans aren't the only race here. More than any other, this city is a melting pot for races from all over the world, from dwarves and elves, to orcs and goblins, nymphs and fairies, and even our winged friends from Heaven and Hell. The city is practically owned by the more than half a dozen gangs that operate within it, divided up more by species than anything else. The dwarves run the underground, the elves run the rooftops, the angels own the business sector and the Middle City Paladin Department, and everything else is so much battle and bloodshed over control of a few measly drug and whorehouses.

Maybe you were part of one of these gangs; maybe you were an independent career criminal, or maybe you never even wanted to be pulled into this kind of filth. But now a former member of the Brothers Fallen, the local demon mafia, is calling together men and women of all races and skills. It sounds like he wants to form a new gang, but can anyone really expect to build up any turf in a town where you get shot or burned with magic for walking down someone else's sidewalk? Couldn't hurt to check it out, though...

The Gangs:

The Gravediggers: The dwarven clan, whose turf lies in the subways, sewers, and maintenance tunnels under the city, plus whatever they can dig out themselves. These bearded bangers excel at breaking into even the most well-defended ground-level bank vaults, so robberies are a huge chunk of their income.

The Striders: The elves, who excel at marksmanship and make their bases mainly on the rooftops all across the city. Being friends with all living creatures and wildlife, it's rare to find a Strider without a vicious doberman, Rottweiler, or pit bull as a companion.

The Unleashed: This gang is run by an elite group of centaur, but they take in all variety of sub-human riff-raff, including your more animalistic cobolds and werewolves, to your lesser nekos and kitsune. They make great drugrunners. They spread like the plague throughout the cities sub-human slums.

The Maidenhood: An almost entirely female gang of nymphs, elementals, and Fae folk, they're actually a lot more threatening than the other gangs give them credit for. One shouldn't trifle with creatures of magic. Their main business is in prostitution (sometimes of their own members, who are usually willing).

The Brothers Fallen: A mafia-like group led by a family of demon-possessed gangsters, this is the second-most powerful gang in the city, if only because they accept even the worst of the worst: dark wizards, necromancers, vampires, soul-snatchers, they're all here.

The Light of Dawn: The most powerful group in the city, they've managed to pull in a huge number of do-good followers from across the state thanks to their guise of good-will and charity. In reality, this group of angels is corrupt as Hell (pun intended) and practically owns the city's entire business district. Thanks to their army of knights, paladins, and priests, not even the Brothers Fallen can loosen their grip on the city.

Us: That story hasn't been told yet, has it?

Info:

So after some difficulties that involved a few members wandering off, some important (and some falling off the site completely), this RP is not only open for business again, but we've decided to do a full reboot so we can have a whole swath of new dynamics between characters, and since the old one didn't get too far along to make such a thing difficult. The setting is more important to know than the plot right now, as that will become apparent as the RP progresses. If the concept interests you, or you're tentatively interested, but have some questions, here's the place to make it known. If you don't have any questions, feel free to post up a character for approval using this format:

[b]Name:[/b] Self-explanitory, I hope.

[b]Age:[/b] See above.

[b]Race:[/b] If it hasn't already been mentioned in the original post or throughout the topic, just go ahead with it or ask me about it. I'm generally pretty lenient about what I'll allow.

[b]Appearance:[/b] Clothing, physical details, specific qualities that stand out, etc. Feel free to either write it or use an image.

[b]Sexual Preference:[/b] Any and all are welcome. If you want to leave it blank until you've had a chance to feel the character out, go ahead.

[b]Former Gang:[/b] If applicable. If you want to say your character was previously in another gang, or currently is and has to be recruited, take your pick. If you want to make up a gang that they were in, like before, just go for it or check with me.

[b]Gang Position:[/b] Are they a leader, a soldier, a hitman, a dealer, an ambassador, a spy, a healer, a drug alchemist, a weapons-maker, or the ever-popular prostitute? Not limited to just what's listed here, either.

[b]Weapon of Choice:[/b] If you're character is a fighter of any kind, tell us how they bring the pain. Can include blades, bows, gun, magic, or whatever else you can think of. Feel free to include a class, if you wish.

[b]Additional Skills:[/b] From negotiation skills and sneakiness, to non-combatitive magic and alchemy, any abilities your person has that don't directly involve spilling blood, unless they're an interrogator. :P

[b]Personality:[/b] Feel free to be vague here. I know I tend to change my character's personality as I use them more, so just give a general idea of what they might be like, at least at first.

[b]Bio:[/b] How they ended up in the city, what they did with the other gangs, how they ended up falling out, why they're here now, and whatever other details you might find important. Anything from one paragraph to ten is fine, as long as you're willing to elaborate more as the RP goes on.

[b]Theme Song (optional):[/b] Just for a bit of extra fun.


Happy trails. ;)

MzHyde

By full reboot, what do you mean? Are you just recruiting new folks to come in, or is the whole story starting over?

Revenent

We're starting the whole thing over, since the story at that point was partly reliant on some people who ended up disappearing, plus we were early on, so it's easier for new players to join in, and it's easier than us figuring a way to write the missing players out.

Kaisude


persephone325

This doesn't have to end in a fight, Buck.
It always ends in a fight.
You pulled me from the river. Why?
I don't know.
"Don't dwell on those who hold you down. Instead, cherish those who helped you up."

Lithium

I'm very interested as long as the group is kept to a reasonable size. Checking through the old Character Thread, I counted about 17 characters, which in my opinion is simply unmanageable and dooms an RP to failure from the start. >.>

Pink Professional

Quote from: Lithium on August 17, 2012, 04:38:19 AM
I'm very interested as long as the group is kept to a reasonable size. Checking through the old Character Thread, I counted about 17 characters, which in my opinion is simply unmanageable and dooms an RP to failure from the start. >.>

I do agree this was one of the main problems. That and letting one or two characters become over-important to the story.

Sadly, hindsight is 20/20, and a bitch no less.

Hi by-the-way. I am Pink Professional, aka PP. I'm one of the original cast members and the one who suggested a full reboot for all you lovelies. I look forward to meeting you all and greeting you all in greater depth.

*Gives his finest Wolfy grin*

Zaer Darkwail

I am interested also, interesting premise. Kind bit like shadowrun setting? Anyways need ponder on concept....

Revenent

Quote from: Lithium on August 17, 2012, 04:38:19 AM
I'm very interested as long as the group is kept to a reasonable size. Checking through the old Character Thread, I counted about 17 characters, which in my opinion is simply unmanageable and dooms an RP to failure from the start. >.>

Believe me, if all of those people were still involved, I wouldn't be recruiting again. Of those players, I would say only about six are currently reliable, with a couple more promising posts but not for sure reliable.

However, despite what Pink said, I really don't think even a group that size was truly unmanageable, especially for a game with this scope. Firstly, for a while, people were mainly able to manage interactions between each other just fine to keep the replies flowing and wait for their involvement as the main activities were set up.

Secondly, I seek to recruit an above-average group on the assumption that the same thing will happen that happens in literally every other group game: people will wander off without a word. That happened, of course, but because a scene dragged on too long that focused on a single player, and none of the others were interacting on their own, we lost a bit too many, in an error I certainly won't repeat.

Now, is the amount of players we currently have already a reasonable amount for running a game like this? It's possible, but my players think getting a few more would help reinvigorate the game, so I'm going to trust in their judgment on this one. At the very least, we're running very low on the lady front. :-)

If you join, I will find a role for you to fill. Don't have any doubt about that.

Quote from: Zaer Darkwail on August 17, 2012, 05:48:07 AM
I am interested also, interesting premise. Kind bit like shadowrun setting? Anyways need ponder on concept....

*checks Wikipedia* Yes, very similar. ;D Just in the 21st century, and elves, dwarves, orcs, fae, and all the others have existed for just as long as humans. I imagine that around the world, there are nations/continents filled with each race, with America (or whatever country Middle City is in) acting as the same sort of cultural melting pot it does in the real world. Angels and demons operate on the different rules, of course; they probably only appear in places of extreme sanctity, or extreme impurity (guess which our city is).

Lithium

Fair enough, it is your game after all and you've had the experience of running it once already so you're in the best position to know what would work best. =]

Pink Professional

Don't get me wrong, the game was incredibly fun when it was up, and I do hope this one will be equally joyous. It's just that there were a lot of Niche groups, for lack of a better term. You could flit between the Elementals sitting in the corner, and the people at the bar and a certain loner Vampire... *Grumble grumble grumble*

As long as we don't get imbalances in power and what not...As long as no single character gets too much power or focus, then I think we'll have a smooth, enjoyable process.

Also, whilst you people are drumming up mental images of characters and such: I'll be remaking, updating and expanding on my character. I'll be sure to post that up soon, should any people require inspiration.

Revenent

Quote from: Lithium on August 17, 2012, 07:24:38 AM
Fair enough, it is your game after all and you've had the experience of running it once already so you're in the best position to know what would work best. =]

I'm always willing to take other people's opinions into account (which is why I'm rebooting in the first place). I'm just going to see if this works out for the best now.

Quote from: Pink Professional on August 17, 2012, 07:28:57 AM
Don't get me wrong, the game was incredibly fun when it was up, and I do hope this one will be equally joyous. It's just that there were a lot of Niche groups, for lack of a better term. You could flit between the Elementals sitting in the corner, and the people at the bar and a certain loner Vampire... *Grumble grumble grumble*

Well, it's not like we could just have everyone sit in one big group. Even though it was slow starting, it really wasn't a long period over which those groups had their conversations. That's the problem with group games: most of them take absurdly long amounts of time to even get past the first day of in-game time, depending on how the game is styled.

MzHyde

Name: Shizuru

Age: 3000+

Race: Demon

Appearance: A few inches over six feet tall, Shizuru usually stands a head above the rest of the crowd. Her bat-like wings and spiraling horns, coupled with her constantly relaxed (and perhaps bored) demeanor make her a fairly intimidating sight to behold. The same could be said of most demons, but where most hellspawn intimidate with snarling, growling, and menacing, Shizuru manages to do so with an unnervingly calm and quiet demeanor. Her eyes are an unnaturally bright golden color and looking into them, one can tell that she is a being of unnatural origin and power. Her eye color is also the only thing she cannot change about herself with her limited shape-shifting ability, so any form she takes will have those strange golden eyes. Her manner of dress varies, usually something casual; a dress shirt, leather pants and boots, and a tie are her usual fare. If she's in the mood, she'll wear a jacket as well.

Sexual Preference: Bisexual (Women Preferred, Very Picky With Men)

Former Gang: None. While Shizuru has worked for most of the gangs in the city at some point, it is only as a gun-for-hire. She hates taking orders from others and will only take jobs she feels like doing and even then, only if the price is right. She is notoriously wishy-washy and has a habit of switching sides if the mood strikes her, ie; if the people she's working for rub her the wrong way or if something happens that makes her change her mind. Despite this, her reputation is mostly good and she is viewed as an expensive, finicky, but reliable and capable mercenary. If word on the street is that Shizuru has been hired, it's a sure sign that a gang is in a desperate situation that can only be solved with a frightening amount of violence.

Gang Position: None; Freelance

Weapon of Choice: Koryu; a katana created by a famous Japanese swordsmith explicitly for Shizuru around 1200AD. The name means 'Little Dragon'. It is her most treasured possession. She has tempered it with some of her blood, endowing the blade with a fraction of her demonic essence, allowing it to cut through mortals and supernatural beings alike.

Additional Skills:
-Supernatural Being: As a demon, mortal weapons reduced effect on her. She can take an enormous amount of punishment. Her strength and speed are both above peak human. Her claws can cleave stone, she is fast enough to chase down any human, and with her strength she could heft a small sedan with ease.

-Fire Manipulation: Shizuru can do a lot of showy things with fire. Summon it, manipulate existing flames, shape it, or even cause flames to trail behind her as she moves. Her greater powers are sealed away while she is in the mortal realm, so she won't be causing any firestorms, but she can still light an object on fire with the snap of her fingers.

-Conjuring, Minor: Again, with her magic mostly sealed, she is relegated to smaller feats. She can summon just about anything that is the size of a bedroom or smaller. The caveat is that the object cannot be too complex. If it has moving parts, it needs to be relatively small. A motorcycle is the most complex object she can muster. A full bedroom set for a romantic evening, by comparison, would be much easier for her.

Personality: Shizuru possesses a mellow and somewhat cynical personality, reflected by her easygoing (and at times bored) facial expression. Shizuru practices a tough love approach with those she cares about, causing her to be stern yet loving towards them. Though she tends to stay out of other peoples' business, if she feels like she needs to take matters into her own hands, she will do so. She's not afraid to use brute force when necessary. She has a romantic side, but that tends to be reserved for her lovers. She's embarrassed to be caught getting all 'lovey dovey' around other people. In a lot of ways, Shizuru is like a cat; she comes and goes when she pleases and tends to wander off when bored. She rarely listens to others and prefers her freedom above anything else.

Bio: Shizuru is a demoness that has been bouncing back and forth between the mortal realm and the underworld for thousands of years. Sometimes she is summoned (sometimes mistakenly) and sometimes she manages to find a way over herself. These trips usually lasted anywhere from a few months to a year or two; her longest was in ancient Japan, where she stayed for a few hundred years, first from 600AD to 700AD and again from about 1200AD to 1650AD. In that time she developed a frightening reputation for herself thanks to her swordplay and a touch of fire-based showmanship. In those periods she accomplished many great deeds; training Tomoe Gozen, training under Miyamoto Mushashi, fighting under Oda Nobunaga, and even being mistaken for Amaterasu.  Shizuru often pines for those quieter, much simpler times. Times where she could walk for days without seeing a single building. Frankly, she considers most technology to be an eyesore (though she has a soft spot for cars and motorcycles). These days she finds rather little to do. She still works freelance, but, as stated above, her prices are exorbitant and gangs tend to leave her alone unless the situation is desperate. Today she owns a bar with no name, behind an unmarked door, in a nondescript building, down a plain staircase. It is a quiet place to have a good drink. No radio, no TV's, no cellphones. It is open when she feels like it.

Theme Song:http://youtu.be/G9bHNph1zcQ

*I'm aware she may seem very powerful, but she is also a very old demoness with thousands of years of experience. She will also be doing very little or no fighting unless the story really calls for it. Her role these days is mostly as someone who gives advice and she has such a colorful reputation she tends to intimidate by merely being present anyhow. Her bar can be a neutral ground where all the characters could converge to converse and interact.

Revenent

Shizuru - Approved

A new character thread is up, so you can go ahead and put here there. If any of you are concerned because you don't know who in the old thread isn't taking part anymore, and you had a character idea similar to one of them, keep an eye on the new character thread or just ask me and I'll let you know if the niche is open.

Pink Professional

As I said, I'm pretty much filling out my sheet again: Adding detail and expanding on points I wasn't previously happy with. The finished product will be up before the hour is done.

Edit: And here we are: One updated character sheet, for all you lovely roleplay people.

______________________

Name: Jack 'Jackyl' Mason.

Age: Physically and permanently locked in his late 20’s. He’s lived for around two centuries.

Race: Werewolf

Appearance:  In his human disguise, Jack Is a rather average man. He is a meagre Six foot tall, with a handsome yet easily ignored face; angular, thin, with stubble lining his chin. His skin is a dark olive. It has a strange feel to it, almost like it’s thicker than a human’s skin should be. A slight hint of what lies underneath. His body is above average for a human, handsome, thin, and reasonably muscular: But again, he remains easy to ignore or forget, and even easier to underestimate. His hair is a shaggy mess of brown strands, uncontrolled and unkempt. His eyes are a bright green colour, glinting with intellect and brilliance. On his left forearm is a rather prominent scar: thick and jagged, to the more experienced fighter type criminals, it’s an obvious knife wound, indicating a thick jagged cut that would have taken a fair time to make. Not the work of a single cut.

The Lycanthropic form has multiple stages of transformation, depending on a variety of factors including the Lunar cycle, his level of control, to name a few. It can vary from a more literal form, in which he takes the appearance of a large wolf with Thick brown fur, matted with odd shades of maroon and reds. At other times, he can take on a form closer resembling that of the typical film Werewolf. Size varies in this form, depending on aforementioned points, but the main points remain the same. His bulk will rapidly increase; his face becomes that of a dog, with sharp teeth, strong claws and a physique that could cripple a Minotaur. The smallest he will be in this form is slightly over Ten foot tall, the size of a normal Werewolf’s peak, and his own peak being at least double this. He becomes a mountain of muscle and fur: retaining the same brown furs.

Sexual Preference: Bisexual, with a strong lean towards women.

Former Gang: Currently unaffiliated and Incarcerated: He ran a reasonably successful gang of his own for a while, close to 40 years ago: Until he was busted after a sting operation.

Gang Position: Both forms of Jack have variable roles to play. Capable as both a thinker and a do-er, Jack has a charming versatility. If you want a scientist, Jack’s human form works well with that, and if you want a Juggernaut of destruction, the beast is happy to oblige.

Weapon of Choice: Jack as a human is pretty mediocre as a fighter. He is skilled with small arms, able to blast holes at a far enough pace to be above the average cannon fodder, yet compared to the career criminals, he is a modest shot, to say the least. The same could be said for his close quarter combat skills: He is slightly above cannon fodder levels, but against a seasoned fighter: He’d be easy prey.

Yet the obvious advantage is Jack’s transformative state. A Lycanthrope has no need for any man-made weapons, since his natural weapons are so damn potent. His claws can rend through flesh and bone. His fists are like clubs, and his fangs are deadly to a point. He is strong, fast and dangerous. Offering normal opposition little chance of survival. Sadly though, control can quickly become an issue. And prolonged transformation can unleash ‘Hyde’.

Hyde is Jack’s second personality. Created during a freak incident prior to his self-induced transformation into the Lycanthropic monster that he is today, Hyde is the manifestation of Jack’s ID. His only purpose is to self-service in every way possible. Greed becomes a major habit, and Hyde will emanate unto what it desires. Be it food, flesh or the glory of the hunt. Hyde has far greater combat ability than Jack himself, but his uncontrollability can make him a liability. The only known way to pacify Hyde is through appeasement or, if given enough time, Internal enslavement. Long story short: when Hyde comes out, he’ll either get what he wants, or rampage around for a time until Jack comes to the fore.

Additional Skills:

-Scientific Mind: Jack was and has always remained a man of science.  Born into the industrial age, he was surrounded by progress and, at one point in his life, gave that progress life himself. His ageless self has kept up to date with the scientific processes of the modern world, and has adapted as such. He has skills with computers, the art of medicine and other sciences.

-Extraordinary Willpower: Dealing with Hyde, his second personality, Jack has had to bolster his willpower to a superhuman level. Combine that with dealing with the Full moon’s curse, and you have an ungodly amount of willpower inside Jack.

-Regeneration: One of his curses most renowned gifts, Jack has a great regenerative gift. If the wound is made by anything other than; Silver, Werewolf venom or wolf-bane , or if the ‘wounds’ leave him with less than 20% of his original tissue, then he can, over a period of time, regenerate his wounds. This might take anything from a few seconds to a few days, but it’s a daunting task to kill Jack Mason without extensive preparation.

Personality:  Jack is an oddity. At face value, he is slightly arrogant, fairly witty and more than a little self-centred. His desires are generally quite linear; food, alcohol, sex and power. He doesn’t appear to have much motivation. Yet when one delves a little deeper, Jack is an delightfully twisted contradiction, riddled with crippling personal issues and a few personality disorders that could easily get him sanctioned in a white jacket. Overall though, Jack is a reasonably lazy, witty person: He takes delight in showing off, especially to the people who interest him most.

Bio: Born before the dawn of technology, Jack Mason lived in an era of glorious industrial revolution, as a human. His life was normal and he had a certain talent for scientific arts. He was poised to lead the future of technology, especially revolving around the supernatural creatures that dominated so much of the world. He worked under one of the early incarnations of the light of dawn, working on a project long since lost to the worlds.
Sadly though, knowledge is power and, if any one group could gain more information than another: More power than another, the status quo would be misbalanced. Controlling the city and even more than that would be a much easier task. Eventually, the Brother's Fallen, the only group that could compete with the Light, decided that letting the Light have such an advantage wasn't quite in their best interest. A squad of hunters were sent to retrieve Jack's research...Along with Jack's head.

Sadly for the hunter demons though, Jack was less than a useless soul. He managed to escape death that day by purposefully injecting himself with the Lycanthropic gene. No one knows why, but the gene itself was incredibly potent, forging Jack into some unnatural alpha of the Lycanthropic kind. The demons were not prepared, nor were any other scientists, and Jack’s first transformation left a bloody trail throughout the facility. No one survived, except the newly corrupted Jack.

The Transformation left Jack in an interesting place. No longer human, and no longer fully in control, Jack fled the world’s sight for a century: Striving to gain some control over his form. He was fairly successful, and over that century, gained a fairly high loathing for the Brother’s fallen.
Jack made a home of Middle city, when the equilibrium of power amongst gangs was in a state of volatile shock. Gangs were forming and being crushed daily. And Jack made a name for himself with his own ‘pack’: A gang which went by the name ‘Smiling moon.’ Jack caused a lot of havoc, disturbing the equilibrium and shaking the foundations of Middle City’s underworld. His bias against the Brother’s Fallen became clear in his pack’s actions; Multiple raids on their business, multiple assassinations of the Brother’s key members, and a lot of turf wars. Sadly, like so many men, Jack was a creature of habit, and a creature of vice. He made common trips to a certain Maidenhood brothel and, sadly for him, it was used against him.

Being paid a sizable fortune, the Maidenhood worked with the Brother’s Fallen in an attempt to assassinate the wolf. Even to this day, rumours surround the events like fireflies; some say that Jack slaughtered more than twenty of the Brother’s finest assassins, and that he fucked his way through the entire brothel, and that he consumed more alcohol than most men do in a year that night. All that is known officially is that the assassination was a failure. Jack lived, but was arrested in the aftermath and thrown in jail for 50 years so far. Prison staff members say he is reported to have a ‘violent streak’, what this really means is that several assassination attempts whilst in prison have resulted in fatal failure for the would be assassins. To this day, Jack remains in Prison, destined; it seems, to rot for eternity, a warning and a matyr. With a hatred for the Brother's Fallen that can only be sated with blood.

Jack

Werewolf

Theme Song: Disturbed - The Animal [Official Music Video] (A rather easy one really)

Revenent

Jack Mason Redux - Approved

Very nice improvements, PP. I look forward to seeing Jack in action again.

Pink Professional


MzHyde

Holy crap that's a big werewolf. He may need to watch where he shape-shifts or he's going to get his head stuck in the ceiling.

Pink Professional

He is a clever cookie too!

well...mostly. Jackyl is clever anyway.

Pink Professional

-Double Post-

As a side note, I love both new characters. Interesting people are always cool. If we have all our characters being of this calabre, I'll be pretty damn happy.

Sadly though, Jack seems to be out of luck somewhat.

Healergirl

Lovely setting.  Everybody is in a gang, then?  It occurs to me that a mutually agreed safe ground for meetings and negotiation is useful, with an honest broker as middle(wo)man.   

A bar or road house would work.  Owned by somebody not terribly enthusiastic about the fact that her place has been chosen for such things, and keenly aware of what can happen to people caught in the middle when tempers flare.  But protection, real protection not just the scam?  Her place gets it.  And business is steady.  But when things break down and the gangs really go to war all bets might be off because well... she knows a few things about everybody, and nobody really wants her to tell such things to anybody.

Pink Professional

Interesting you should mention that. In the previous itteration, we had a bar controlled by an NPC, known as Lillith's Bar. The premise that an actual character could control the bar is pretty interesting actually. It obviously adds interesting dynamics in the form of relationships with characters, romancability, brib-ability (Not sure if actual word >_>)

I can't speak as a GM, but as a Roleplayer, I'd say that sounds like a fantastic idea!

Cold Heritage

I was thinking of a werebear, but do you think that steps on your toes, Pink Professional?
Thank you, fellow Elliquiyan, and have a wonderful day.

Pink Professional

I personally don't think it steps on toes. As long as it fills more than just 'I am mr Smashin' stuff'.

As long as the character is interesting, do whatever the hell you like!

AribethAmkiir

I thought all the characters were eventually going to join or form one gang?