Sword Art Redux (Seeking F Characters for Group Balance)

[Daril]

Edit: Since the details of this game have largely been worked out, I'm reworking this first post into a general info post.

Details

This is a Sword Art Online RPG set during the Aincrad arc.  The GM for this game will be Pendarious.

The game will start on Floor 1 with Kayaba's announcement.  Players will be given a brief window to post their reaction to this, then the game will skip to Floor 2 (where the characters will be at level 10-14).  Presuming the game goes on long term there will be occasional time skips to higher floors.

Interested players should submit a character sheet for their character as they are at the very beginning of the game. Here is a sample starting profile based on a character created by Pendarious.

Player (Real world identity): Yuuya Saitou

Screen Name: Kenjirou (Kenji for short)

Age: 22

Appearance:

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Personality: Kenjirou is to put it bluntly a cynical yet goofy person. He seems laid back and easy going with a love of teasing people and flirting with girls though he often goes a bit too far in terms of teasing (though he's always careful with physical contact to avoid setting off the harassment alarm) once he enters battle though he is well more serious than usual.

Floor 1:

Level: 1

HP: 1000

Equipment:

Iron Battle Axe

Cotton shirt
Cotton pants
Leather boots
Fingerless leather gloves

Skills:

Two Handed Battle Axe: 0/1000

Sword Skills:

Slant
Vertical
Horizontal
Uppercut

Players may find the following links useful for developing their characters.

http://swordartonline.wikia.com/wiki/Skills

http://swordartonline.wikia.com/wiki/Sword_Skills

Please note that Unique Skills are off limits and that Special Skills (like Katana) will not become available until Level 2 at the earliest.

Current Players and Characters

Pendarious -Yuuya Saitou/Kenjiro (male axe wielder)
Jebble212 -Ken Sugisaki/Herald (male polearm fighter)
Daril -Hiroko Tsukino/Robin (female archer)
Zergmuncher -Daniel Artkiser/Theondithas Shieldhart (male swordsman)

[Vaulera]

I loved my last sword art online roleplay, would love to do another one! I would probably play a bruiser type character, with some comedy tossed in for good measure. No one too serious, despite the nature of SAO

[apygoos]

ID love to do an SAO RP, i cant remember if youguys were inteh one that i was in that fell silent. we made the opening setting floor 50, heh

[Daril]

The SAO roleplay I got involved in started on Floor Eight I think, so the one you were involved in must have been a different one.  I think Vaulera was involved in the one I was in though.

I loved my last sword art online roleplay, would love to do another one! I would probably play a bruiser type character, with some comedy tossed in for good measure. No one too serious, despite the nature of SAO

A bit of comedy wouldn't be a bad thing.

[pendarious]

*chuckles* I remember that game. I'm game for trying again. I'll just revive my previous character because he was a lot of fun to play. He was mostly there for comic relief.

[Daril]

Good to have you aboard, Pendarious.  ;)

One thing we'll need to consider if we get a mix of people from both the previous games is what sort of character sheet to use.   Maybe we should work that part out while we wait to see if anyone else expresses interest?  (Should we give it til the end of the week maybe, then try to launch on the weekend or next week?)

[evangel]

I'm down. No clue who I'd use yet, but I can figure that out later.

[Daril]

This seems to be attracting a lot of the same people as the first game.  ;D

Anyway, a few more questions to consider.  First of all, how do we want to start things off?  Do we want to start with a boss raid like in Sabre's game, or try something different this time?  And who's going to be the GM?  I suppose as the guy who suggested this I should be prepared to step up and fill that role myself, but I'd prefer to give it to someone who is more confident in their GMing abilities if at all possible.

I'm also wondering if a separate OOC thread would be a better place to discuss these issues than this thread, since what I'm getting here is primarily expressions of interest.  (Which is one of the things I'd been looking for, but I'd also originally intended for this to be a discussion thread as well.)

[apygoos]

well i for one definitely think that we should be on a higher floor, better gear and established profession, etc.

[pendarious]

well Daril if you don't want to Gm I suppose I could....as for what floor we'd start on if I were GM well it would probably be somewhere around floor 22-25 because floor 22 is beautiful...and floor 25 because well the light novel explicitly states that this is the floor they first encountered a boss that was so difficult that the raid party took heavy casualties....and that could be a bunch of fun to work with since I'm a bit of a sadist on the inside.....

[apygoos]

i remember the RP we had going started on floor 50, all our characters between level 70 and 80

[pendarious]

we could start there too if you guys preferred *shrugs*

[Daril]

apygoos would like a high floor for the better stats and gear, I'd like to do a low floor so that its easy to explain why we have a bunch of characters who aren't in any guilds and haven't met before (I didn't particularly like some of the backstory I had for my character and why she was without a guild last time).  Maybe we should see what the others have to say?

[Charlemagne]

In order to address both of those opinions, you could stick with the high level plan, but, just like Kirito, you could have the characters all be solo players. Thus, they only know a little bit about each other thanks to boss meetings.

Or.

They belong to different guilds, and just like if they were solo players, they all knew each other from brief meetings before boss fights.

Or.

People can PM each other with sub plots, stating whether or not their characters know each other or not, and then you can already have a few relationships/friendships made up before the game even starts.

I dunno. That's my two cents.

[Tydorei]

I'm interested... and my two cents would be to start low as well. I would like roleplay the feeling of still coming to grips that your stuck in a video game... and you can die in it. If start at higher lvl's that that role play is already gone. Also your role and job and whatever would be settled, we would be playing people who know what they're doing... less to role play in my opinion. Also, making a big collaborative backstory would be harder in my opinion. (All other alternatives like everyone being solo players till high lvls is weird. Why party now after being a loner for so long. It would also 'trap' or personality to a few types.)

I say we start out low lvl. And then we can time jump a few lvls at a time. just like the show does.

[pendarious]

Alright hmm........how about this:

We'll have a few rounds of posts early where everyone is getting used to being stuck in Aincrad and getting to know each other then after that I pick some random times and floors to jump that way we can get the "Shock" factor Role Play out of the way but still quickly move along to the higher levels after all I think Tydorei has a few good points. If you guys are fine with that then cool if not let's hear your feedback eh?

[Daril]

I'm interested... and my two cents would be to start low as well. I would like roleplay the feeling of still coming to grips that your stuck in a video game... and you can die in it. If start at higher lvl's that that role play is already gone. Also your role and job and whatever would be settled, we would be playing people who know what they're doing... less to role play in my opinion. Also, making a big collaborative backstory would be harder in my opinion. (All other alternatives like everyone being solo players till high lvls is weird. Why party now after being a loner for so long. It would also 'trap' or personality to a few types.)

I say we start out low lvl. And then we can time jump a few lvls at a time. just like the show does.

I kind of like this idea, though I'm wondering just how low level you intend to start.  I'd been thinking of maybe level four to five or so, but you sound kind of like you might want to do something even earlier than that.

Alright hmm........how about this:

We'll have a few rounds of posts early where everyone is getting used to being stuck in Aincrad and getting to know each other then after that I pick some random times and floors to jump that way we can get the "Shock" factor Role Play out of the way but still quickly move along to the higher levels after all I think Tydorei has a few good points. If you guys are fine with that then cool if not let's hear your feedback eh?

I wouldn't want to climb too quickly because I think that would lead to a lot of missed opportunity on the lower levels.  Though then again if we do a slow level climb we may never get to the high levels that apygoos wants to play at...

I'm actually thinking it might be a good idea to send everyone who is on board with this so far a PM asking where and how they'd like to start (as well as anything else we need to clarify in order to get the ball rolling).  With a group this large we're more likely to get these issues sorted out in a timely fashion if we prompt people.

[Daril]

Something to add here: although I personally prefer lower level RPs, we'll need to give some thought to how our characters will get together if we do one.  If we're still on the really early levels where everyone is still coming to terms with being in a death game maybe we should pass on starting off with a boss fight.  If that's the case, maybe it would be easiest to form a few small groups which run into each other later instead of trying to arrange for everyone to meet in one place?

[Daril]

I'm going to take a few minutes here to respond to my own survey (if you're signed up for this you should have gotten the survey via PM).

1) What level or general range of levels do you think the game should start at? I generally favor playing at low levels with a slow level climb.  I was thinking of starting at around level three to five or so, but Tydorei's suggestion has me thinking it could be interesting to start right at the beginning when everyone has just found out they're trapped in a death game.
2) How do you think the characters should meet? It would take a little pre-planning, but I'm in favor of having a few separate meetings of individual characters, who might later be able to link up to form a larger group or groups.
3) What kind of character do you intend to play? I intend to play a girl who tries to adapt her skills as a former high school archery champion to the world of SAO (with some initial difficulty since SAO combat is a lot more fluid than an archery competition).
4) What are your content preferences? With this character, probably f/f and fairly light.  I don't expect those to necessarily be what the group as a whole goes with though.

There isn't a heck of a lot that's new there, but I figured it would be good to post an example.  Besides this reiterates some stuff that was previously scattered through the thread, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

[apygoos]

1) I'm generally fine with any level, whatever the level though i feel if we start at a low level, the focus of teh RP will be more social than combat, which is perfectly fine.
2)it would be pretty neat if the group started off in separate pairs and whatnot and eventually met up and formed one big guild
3)I plan to play a male who was in the beta [which will only really matter if we start at low levels]. his advance class would be in dual wielding [sword and axe]. He will happily help people choose combat and profession roles to whatever seems like most fun for them. He would insist that despite their being trapped, they still need to have fun, and live, and since those abilities and professions become your life in the world, its important to make those first few choices wisely.
4) m/f mostly for this character, I enjoy smut, but some story and character development with it is best. any bondage involved on the smut side of things should be consensual. I enjoy combat scenes, as long as they're not all over the place. the fights that take place should mean something.

[Tydorei]

1) What level or general range of levels do you think the game should start at?  (There's been some discussion on the pros and cons of various starting points in the thread.)

Anywhere between 2-8. 2

2) How do you think the characters should meet? (Tavern?  Boss raid?  Meet as small groups initially then link up into a larger group later?)

I know i want my character to at least know one of the players 'In Real World". hence partying with them from start. Meeting the others can be anything really.

3) What kind of character do you intend to play?

My character will kind of be the opposite of apy's. Being frustrated that she's stuck in a game and can't continue her 'Real Life' unless she 'beats' the game to free herself from this 'Fake' world. More than a bit mad.

4) What are your content preferences? (M/f? F/f? Light? NC?)

Yum to all, if my character can ever get in the mood. heh heh.

[evangel]

1) What level or general range of levels do you think the game should start at?
I'm down for starting at the nigh-beginning at first, and then jumping after a set amount of time or after doing a few quests just like the show. Keeps things fresh instead of being bogged down.

2) How do you think the characters should meet?
Link up everything right away by putting everyone in a quest. If it's too isolated then it may slow down.

3) What kind of character do you intend to play?
I don't know yet. I've been playing lumbering brutes in recent RPGs revolving around RPGs for a change of pace, but I think it's become my current pace. Probably become a powerhouse tank again!

4) What are your content preferences?
NC.

[pendarious]

ok so it seems we have a general sense of "I don't Care" or "Low Level" for the beginning.....so here is what I'm looking at then

we will start with Akahiko Kayaba announcing the death game and we will play a few rounds (each of us posts a few times) to react to the announcement. Characters will start individually or in pairs depending on each players choice fighting their way to the tower for the first boss. After the first boss is defeated we will skip up to about floor 8-9 and progressively skip at small but random intervals that way so that we are never stuck in one place for too long but we don't waste too much of the potential that each floor has for an adventure.

how does that sound to you guys?


also Apygoos I have to more or less say you need to change your plans for your character because Dual Wielding can only be held by ONE person period as explained by Kayaba himself on floor 75 of AINCRAD. I know this is an RP and we have a bunch of creative licensing at our disposal because of this but we are still playing in a world that has some clearly established rules and as such I can't allow Dual wielding for anyone unless we are playing mostly outside of cannon (Meaning that this is an AU where the main cast of SAO does not exist)  and even then we would have to come up with a fair way to decide who got Dual wielding.

[apygoos]

he'd probably have 2 different styles then, sword and shield, and greatsword

[Daril]

I'm not sure there's a lot of point in doing the first floor boss fight as it was covered on screen.  Kayaba's announcement might be useful as a way of getting the ball rolling though.  It'll give people a chance to get into the game even as they continue to work out the details (particularly which characters are going to party with which other characters).  Or we could just start on level 2.  At any rate, I think it would be good to get a play thread going, as well as an OOC thread and a Character thread.

As for first meetings, anyone interested in pairing their character up with the newly revised Robin/Hiroko?  Like last time I'm planning for her to end up in a compromising position during her first meeting with her new companion(s).  Given that the game's just started its easy to imagine that she doesn't know about clothing durability stats and therefore has her worn out outfit disintegrate on her in the middle of a battle. ;D Or maybe she decided to test what swimming in game was like and let her guard down.  (While she's a good archer and definitely not stupid, I intend to play my character as a bit of an inadvertent miss fan service.)