Grey Matters [Fantasy w/Horror themes | Guided Storytelling] - Open Recruitment

[RampantDesires]

Little Ramble of HOW This Happened

So I was going to be good and not put up a group request for awhile.  Then WotC previewed this gross and wonderful thing:



And MY brain was immediately like YES.  Remember how cool Elder Brains and Mindflayers are? The way you squeed at the Neverwinter trailer? You could have so much fun, like psionics and mind control stuff is generally a pain in the ass in game, but here on E you could just hand wave and be like 'nah it works this way' or even better yet have a very very light flat 20 dice roll to determine how things go.

It wouldn't shut up. 

For days.

Just an endless parade of 'hey how about this too' 'what if we ___' 

I was going to put this up in my 1v1 request thread, but thought I'd try floating group interest first.  Here we go, welcome to the insanity...

     What is it?
An extreme non-system game here on E set in a fairly generic fantasy world where players will start as the mindless drones of a powerful psychic entity who somehow takes them in thrall and then sends them out into the nearby town to do its bidding.  After a crushing defeat and almost death it has come to a new region, intent on solidifying its power base, and perhaps most importantly feeding and recovering. As things progress characters will break this control, remember bits of their past, and in theory someday rise up to challenge the foul thing that enslaved them.  Posting will start in small groups or pairs and then weave together.  It should be a pretty fluid thing allowing people to join and drop along the way without causing too much of a disturbance in the flow.

     Non-system?  But you just mentioned dice.
Yeah.  I'm kinda calling it lightly guided storytelling.  Knowing and deciding how and when everything is going to happen gets boring, and who doesn't like rolling dice upon occasion?  But I didn't want to bring an actual system into this.  There will be no attributes or big character sheets, no complicated rolls or any modifiers.  Everything is a flat d20 roll.  The target/difficulty goes down by one each time you roll.  There is no 'punishment' for a failed roll, it just means that you did not meet your objective or make it to the next stage, so bad luck can only hold you back for so long before your story bit progresses.  If this doesn't make sense to you yet, don't freak out there will be examples later and it is a very low key/low maintenance thing designed to be very user-friendly. Mostly it lets me stay more hands off as a GM, the dice tell you if you're successful or not and when it is time to move into the next phase.

But I hate dice and/or the dicebot
Dunno what to tell ya.  I'm happy to do rolls for people who don't want to mess with the dicebot, but that means you'll have to wait for me to check in and do it.  If you're cool with that so am I.  But I'm pretty set on the whole ... 'guided by d20 roll' aspect of this. 

     Character Creation
Pending actual interest I'll put up a lightweight character sheet.  However everyone starts as a mindless drone.  So picking your cover story/first assignment is actually the most important part of character creation.  There are no real classes, no stats, I'm relying on you to make a character that you find interesting that still fits in with the general theme.  All characters should be humanoid with a strong preference to mostly human-looking (traditional fantasy races, humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, etc are all somewhat common but as per the usual humans are the most prolific 'dominant' race though they are widly varying in look and demeanor as well).  More exotic species are a possibility but they require more discussion and planning and will actually hamper your options down the road.  This thing's goal is to NOT draw attention to itself, it needs agents who fit in seamlessly with the local population. 

Who you WERE can be fleshed out as we play, but I'd like for you to have a general idea/archetype in mind just so we don't over load in one direction. 

     Early Progression
Automaton/Drone - As previously stated your character starts completely dominated by this being.  They have no thoughts, no will of their own.  There is only the mission they have been sent on and their desire to serve this god that they've been blessed by.  Posts in this stage will ...likely go a dark place.  Your objectives and the flavor of how you'll do them might be different but there are some general constants.  It wants information on the town and surrounding area, wants assurances that it is safe, and it wants to eat.  You'll likely be sending people off to their death along with reports.  It's impressed upon you the need for stealth, you can't just grab people off the street, it will be most displeased if you call attention to yourselves and thereby it.  Your job will be to find those vulnerable and desperate, those that won't be missed, or to craft believable stories to cover for other disappearances of more prominent town members.  There won't likely be a ton of like on screen murder at this point.

<Every Xnumber of posts you'll make a roll.  Does your character break out of this automaton state?  I'm leaning toward every other or every three posts. I don't want it to be ALL the time, but I don't want people to feel stuck in one place forever.  We'll discuss and finetune this as we go.  So it would go:
Two in character posts ---> DC20 roll ---->Two in character posts---->DC19 roll----> Two in character posts----> DC18 roll
And so on and so forth until you make a successful (meet or beat) roll.

This means that people will be breaking out of their states at different times, and that is a good thing I think.

Personal Needs and Desires - After you break free from that first state feelings and desires start to emerge.  You want things.  Comforts, entertainment, connection to others.  Maybe you start to feel bad about some of the more distasteful and violent things that your programing demands of you.  You'll still DO it, the need to please your master is still there, but you're starting to question why.  If you're looking for some hedonism this is the place for it, you're somewhat untethered by morality, it's all about what you want and what feels good while still staying in the general parameters of your compulsion.

The difficulty rolls reset here back to 20 and you post for awhile this way until you make another successful roll.

Memory and Guilt - You remember who you are.  Well who you were at least because surely the things that you've done in the past <however long> have changed you.  How do you manage the guilt of feeding this monster?  Do you rush back to your old life? (in which case that's pretty much an exit from the game at least temporarily because we're staying focused on town events) Do you try to save the other's still held in thrall?  Do you start working on planning revenge against the thing that took your life from you?
(We can add an optional "you gain your memories but not full control of your actions/fighting off last of the programing" stage here at the end if people are interested, but again this is a ways down the road so there will be time to see how things are going first before deciding.)



All of that is kept deliberately kind of vague and fluid.  It's up to YOU to decide how things manifest for your character.  Do their memories come crashing back all at once? Is it a slow dream reveal?  Do they see or hear something that triggers it?  You work out the how, the dice decide the when.

Some people may progress through these stages rapidly, we'll have to see how it starts to shake out as we write, but I have plans for 'assisting' other thralls (where you could essentially both roll and take the better result letting them break free faster as well).



I'm going to cut off the ramble a little bit here because while I DO have plans for how 'mid game' stuff would work once a few people have broken free I don't want to dive too far into it before basic interest is established.  Rest assured it is there in the tangled thing called Rampant's Brain.  Realistically it'll probably take us a few months to get there.



     Is this D&D
No.  Inspired by it because that's my jam, but it's going to be an evolving mishmash of things that make the story work.  While the big bad is indeed called an Elder Brain in planning in practice I might very well call it something else.  There are no stat blocks or even assumptions of 'this is how it works'. It is whatever the story needs it to be and calling it an Elder Brain is just easier than 'emorphous psychic horror'.  We can discuss flavor and specifics along the way. 
I would probably class it as a low to mid level magic world. Monsters are real. Magic exists. Everyone knows that, but people who USE it are fairly uncommon (though your characters can have this ability they are not going to be archwizards or high priests and the like, middle management at best, again this thing is recruiting GOOD drones not problem children who will undoubtedly bite him in the ass later ...though there will still be ass biting... I'm going to sush now).

     What are some of the early missions/drone assignments?
Glad you asked.  The short answer is anything we find interesting.  When I was initially thinking about looking at this as a 1v1 it was going to be:
Minor Nobles/Wealthy Citizens - You and your partner are assigned to live together as wealthy but very minor nobility. You will host lavish parties and gather information about the town's most well off individuals.  Members of your staff and the occasional guest will go missing as you send them on to your god.

Other options might include
Law Enforcement - You and your partner are to integrate yourself into the local constabulary.  You will pay attention to any reports of disturbances or missing persons in the area and do your best to smother any information that would lead back to your master.  Where possible vagrants and naredowells should be sent along as food.

Local Thieves Guild - You and yours are set to infiltrate and eventually take over the local crime scene.  Rivals should be sent as tribute rather than killed where possible.

Medical/Mortician - You are required to place yourself in a position to dispose of bodies quickly and without raising alarm.  Patients will be told that they are sicker than they really are, and tragic 'deaths' will occur as you send more of them to your master. 

There is ... a lot.  Like so many but again I don't want to overwhelm people with detail and stuff.  All of this is subject to change and clarification as the discussion evolves :-) Totally suggest your own initial set up!
     You say 'partners' a lot up there.  What gives?
Ideally that's how I'd like to start things.  I've never understood the drive to join a group game as a loner character.  I want there to be an early established tie between characters.  Maybe they think they're a couple, or they're related, just friends/colleagues.  It doesn't matter HOW just that our brain sent you out in at least a pairing (but probably no more than four) and told you to serve in that specific capacity.  Each assignment would have its own game thread to keep things tidy, though as people broke free there would be more overlapping and involvement with others.
These ties are things that we would work out in this interest thread and eventually the OOC thread if it gets off the ground.  This kind of set up allows us to have different speeds and posting styles.  I'll do my best to help match you with people who have similar interests and writing expectations, but nothing is perfect.  The more flexible you can be in your needs here, the happier you'll end up being overall I think.

     How heavy is GM involvement going to be?
I'm here on E pretty much every day and in a good writing place so I should be able to devote a fair amount of time and attention into getting this off the ground.  Once it launches and we settle in however it should be a fairly smoothly running thing that doesn't require a lot of GM intervention.  There will be no GM controlled NPCS, no like story telling, time gatekeeping posts.  It's less about me guiding you through a story and more me writing along side you as we let the dice kind of shape the direction of things.

My happiest place GMing here on E is when I get to be a behind the scenes coordinator and tracker rather than the person that everyone is waiting on a post from and I feel like this set up lets me do that.

    Sounds kinda dark.  Is there going to be murder and PvP n'stuff?
*blows out a breath slowly*  Yeah, but no?  It IS going to go dark places which is why I'm not even considering putting it anywhere but Extreme.  However I don't like built in player vrs player things.  If you WANT to include it and the other writer says yes you absolutely can but that's between the two of you.  For example in my nobility set up if my lady got her memories back first and decided she was going to help her partner regain his she might try to lock him in a room/tie him up until he too breaks free.  Is there a way to MAKE this happen?  No, I send the PM, partner says yay or nay, we start writing.  Maybe it works out well and rolls make it successful, maybe it drags on as that domination holds on and he tries to break out/harm her in some way.  Is it a prolonged struggle?  Does one of them end up heavily damaged or dead?  Work it out with your partner. What you're comfortable with is all decided behind the scenes. 

    What's with the title?
I like puns.  A lot.  And this tickles my sleep-deprived soul.  Grey matter as in brains.  Grey matter as in shady dealings and dark happenings.  I'm not like MARRIED to the title and I spent exactly two minutes on that graphic, so if others have a better idea I'm open to possibly changing it.  It has absolutely nothing to do with the movie that google tells me is a thing but I have never seen.

    That's a lot of words already, will you please calm down and stop talking for a minute?
Okay, can do...

[RampantDesires]

World Building Longer Character Ramble
For real, all the information you need to make a character should be ↑

The Sheet

Additional images if you want them go over hither

Your 'Main' character picture
Everyone's got to have at
least one, this will be used
in character lists etc

<Thrall/Hedonist/Conflicted/Freed>
Where are you on the dice path? Everyone starts at Thrall

Name (Current): The name your character goes by in active scenes. For those who are still dominated this is the name of their 'cover' identity, the fiction, the drone. If/when you break control this will be your old name.
Name (Former): Dominated? = your old life's name, Freed? = the name assigned to you that you used to go by
Physical Description: Basics, build, hair color, distinctive markings scars.  How old do they look?  How do they carry themselves? What do they smell like.  Put whatever you want here really, whatever you think makes them stand out or things that you want to remember about your own character.  What?  I can't be the only one who has been like 'fuck how tall was she again?'  This bit of the sheet to the rescue!
Perk : <Skilled/Wealthy/Magical>.  What's your character's brand of awesome and how does /will it in theory manifest.
History/Archetype: Please have some idea of who you were before all this.  This can be as detailed as you'd like to make it or just a basic outline to be fleshed out later as we write, but you need something here.
Assigment/Cover Story: Just who do you think you are and what are you in town doing?



Vices: Unbound by morality what revs your character's engine?  Drink? Gaming? Sex? Adrenaline? What are they likely going to indulge in
Sexual Preferences: It's E, go ahead and link your ons and offs if you want to and make some note of a few things that you want to highlight here.
Expectations:  Just how full do you want that sex cup? A lot?  A little?  Play it by ear?  Not really keen at all but if it makes sense maybe?  Generally how wild do you want your character to go.
Hard Limits: Things that you're not at all interested in writing, please don't ask.



The Struggle: Tentative 'it'd be cool if' plans for how your character's old life bleeds into the new one. 



The Goal:  Do you have so ideas for your characters' long-term contributions to 'the group' once freed from compulsion.  Keep in mind this is totally changeable, but it's nice to have at least a vague idea of  a direction you'd like to see it go.

Code (Blank Sheet) Select Expand

[float=right][img height=100 padding=2]http://www.unl.edu/physics/nophoto-man_0.png[/img][img height=100 padding=2]http://www.unl.edu/physics/nophoto-man_0.png[/img][img height=100 padding=2]http://www.unl.edu/physics/nophoto-man_0.png[/img][/float][float=left][img height=250 padding=4]http://www.unl.edu/physics/nophoto-man_0.png[/img][/float]
[center][size=14pt][b][font=georgia]<Thrall/Hedonist/Conflicted/Freed> [/font][/b][/size][/center]
[b][size=14pt]Name (Current):Name Here[/size][/b] 
[b]Name (Former)[/b]:
[b]Physical Description[/b]:   
[b]Perk [/b]: <Skilled/Wealthy/Magical>
[b]History/Archetype:[/b]
[b]Assigment/Cover Story[/b]:

[hr]

[b]Vices[/b]:
[b]Sexual Preferences[/b]:
[b]Expectations[/b]: 
[b]Hard Limits[/b]:

[hr]

[b]The Struggle[/b]:

[hr]

[b]The Goal[/b]: 

Claims

	Player		Face Claim		History/Archetype		Starting Assignment
	Rampant		Eoin Macken		Tattoo artist		Sculptor/Artist
	Remiel		Angus McFayden		Tavern Owner		Way Creepier Tavern Owner ;)
	Rampant		Jenna Coleman		noble		Barmaid (criminal element)

Active Characters

			Character		Player		Requests		Mental State (DC)
			Valrika Elven Hero/Prince Mysterious Mercenary		RedPhoenix		<None>		Thrall (20)
			Letitia Mentat/Scholar Visiting Noble		ihinka		<None>		Thrall (20)
			Dedrick Augmented Monster Hunter Sheriff Elect		Wyatt		<None>		Thrall (20)
			Evangeline Half Siren Prostitute		RainyHigh		<None>		Thrall (20)
			Diana Ice Mage Minor Noble		Vi Violet		<None>		Thrall (20)
			Devia Religious Healer Doctor		CurvyKitten		<None>		Thrall (20)
			Jix Thief Exotic Goods Trader		CurvyKitten		<None>		Thrall (20)
			Reynold Gypsy Tattoo Artist Artist in Residence		Rampant		<None>		Thrall (20)

[AribethAmkiir]

*Raises hand.  Then shakes it wildly.  Then jumps up and down waving said hand around with excessive enthusiasm*

Been awhile since I was in one of your games.  This one sounds fun.

[Amarlo]

I am intrigued and will definitely be keeping an eye on this... o.o

[RampantDesires]

Yay.  Glad you two stopped in :-)  I've learned some lessons from group games past and am trying to avoid them here.  Instead of a massive open world things will be focused on this singular town and characters (at least initially) will all be limited to assigned drones.  This MAY change as game play progresses.  I like the possibility of being able to write/recruit specifically designed characters to help neutralize our psychic abomination, but it would take some time before this becomes a factor.

I also very much want it to be a collaborative storytelling venture which is why I'm staying away from GM characters and hoping that we can all just work together behind the scenes to move things forward in a direction we're all happy with.

I think I'd limit the number of starting characters to two, require that they be in different assignments and then we'd re-evaluate at some point in the future based on general game speed and availability.

The biggest logistic challenge I see here is tracking game time and making it so that people can weave their threads together.  I think it'll be one of those "when you start new scenes assume X Things have already happened" so that there is no room for jumping back in time and changing events.  You can react to them, but not alter what's already written.

In terms of look and feel I'm a big fan of face claims and realistic art, so I'd probably ask for that to stay consistent through all characters.  No anime art.

For the big bad I DO like the dragon thing that originally inspired this.  It would be taking two somewhat known things in the world and mashing them together into a new horror, so as your character try to research the thing after breaking free you'd find that yes, there are dragons, and there are stories of psychic monsters that feed on brains, terror, and discontent, but this will be the first time anyone has seen them together (the parasite things usually take over humanoid hosts). 

Anyway, I'm gonna stop rambling again.  Am thrilled to see you both interested and I look forward to seeing where this goes.  I will tinker with a World Building thread maybe in the next few days/over the weekend and see what comes out, but as per the always feel free to make suggestions. 

[Amarlo]

It honestly sounds very neat. This is a unique concept and I'm pretty about it.

[RedPhoenix]

This is me, raising my hand.

And also saying that this is a crazy cool and unique concept for a game.

[CurvyKitten]

This is dark and creepy. Color me interested! Lol

[ArtemisHighmore]

Places reminder stick note to read later.

[RampantDesires]

Yasssss *vibrates with happiness and excitement*  Nice to see you Red, Curvy, and Artie <3

I am a little behind schedule with World Building portion of this, at least getting it up here on E.  Sometimes sitting down with a notebook and a pen is super cathartic. 

The plan is:
General World History
     - Little gods and monsters break down
     - Religion and magic in day to day life
Town/Regional Information
     - Feel and look
     - A few notable NPC types but most of this will be fleshed out as we write
Character Creation
     - Sheet and samples
Starting Assignments
General Plot/Rolling Outline


Profit?

I never quite seem to make it to that last step, but it's an enjoyable ride none the less.  Am working on getting caught up on my 1v1's first and then will devote rest of day to  blocking this out.



Tossing this out there for discussion, but as part of Character Creation I'm pretty keen on the idea of having each one pick one of three 'perks'.  The thing that makes your character shine/special.  The options would be:

     Skilled - You were highly trained in a thing (Master Craftsman, Swordsman of some reknown, Respected Academic)  Pick whatever focus you want, but you are GOOD at it. More than enough to make a comfortable living.  You likely wouldn't be FROM this region since it is trying to avoid drawing attention to itself and it doesn't want you to be recognized, but rather you've been plucked from your comfortable life, reprogrammed  (likely with a much different background/skillset), and sent off on your mission in new town.  As you remember your life you can use these skills to help you get your revenge and work against the thing that took your life.
     Wealthy/Connected/Nobility - You were someone important.  You have vast resources and a wide web of social connections, though you don't remember them.   Maybe people from your past come looking for you (are the dice kind? does that help you break free or are they just a convenient food source for you to send on to your master? there's a reward out there for your safe return and you have to laugh at the ludicrous notion that you might be that person, please, you would love to be a merchant princess, but sorry just a barmaid) After breaking free from the control you'll be able to tap into those stores again, funding projects, bringing in specialized NPCS, hell start raising an army if you want, you have that kind of pull.
     Magical Talent - So I'm not going to get into how magic works here because that's it's own little blurb.  But you've got it.  The spark, an ability.  While this is rare in the general population I'm cool with quite a few of you taking it as long as you realize that it is not phenomenal cosmic power and you need to be specific about how it manifests for you.  "My person can manipulate electricity"  "This character has the ability to heal physical wounds with a touch".  You will not have access to this while dominated, but it can be introduced as your memories return and you regain control of your actions and brain space :P


Keep in mind that none of these are 'more useful' than the other.  There are no stats, it's a flat d20 roll to do stuff and is the same for everyone. It is all flavor and making an interesting character and story.  I just divided them up into three sections so that we hopefully get a wide mix of characters and yeah, to be honest to keep people from overloading on their background/skills in the beginning.  While I get the desire to want to be an all-around badass no one can do everything.  Everyone brings something to the table and has something cool to contribute as things progress, you guys need each other and to work together to get shit done.



Thank you for your interest and continued patience as I mash all this together <3

[RedPhoenix]

I'd be leaning towards maybe playing as one of the team of heroes or mercenaries that nearly killed the bad guy and made them flee the last spot they were in, so probably a "Skilled" warrior or assassin type?

[Vi Violet]

I just wanted to say that sounds like a pretty cool concept!

[RampantDesires]

I'd be leaning towards maybe playing as one of the team of heroes or mercenaries that nearly killed the bad guy and made them flee the last spot they were in, so probably a "Skilled" warrior or assassin type?

Awww yus, I was hoping someone would want to go that route.  Either someone directly involved in his last defeat or someone close to them.  Revenge is delicious. 

That's an excellent option <3



Thanks Vi Violet.  I'm glad you like it.

Sadly my mamma has been in the hospital since Wednesday.  A worried Rampant is not an organized or productive Rampant and words just .... aren't doing the things I need them to do right now.  She's hopeful that they've got her stuff sorted and she might get to go home today *crosses all the fingers knocks on all the wood* so that is yay.  Big write up thing is coming along and should be up soon, it's just *gestures toward life stuff* that.  Why is it always that?

In the meantime have some chattiness and random hugs if you want them because I'm still here, this is still happening, just, you know.. speed bump in what was once a smooth road :P




Added an Academic assignment - You and your partner are tasked with seeking out histories and resources that might prove beneficial to those opposing your master and not simply eliminating them, but spreading misinformation as well.

Is it bad that I like this because it directly fucks over people later?  Trying to sort fact from fiction, a race to find unaltered information

I've got a light ... Threat Tracking proposal almost done for this.  Basically the longer people stay as thralls, the more they feed him and work toward his goals the more of a threat he is.  As people break free and actively start working against him that number's going to go down as they gather resources/learn vulnerabilities /and generally, you know, do good guy stuff.

Am pretty much going to keep recruitment open forever, so there can and will be new thralls coming in to undo all your good work, but things SHOULD swing rapidly in favor of those freed as long as, you know, we're actively writing them doing that stuff.

This lets us in theory have a 'final battle' when you guys think you're ready to take on our Big Bad.  Which is all, you know, a long way away, but I'd rather have a tentative system upfront that we can evaluate and alter as we go (or even scrap if it just isn't working/interesting) than to try and pull one together at the midway point and hand wave stuff.

[RedPhoenix]

Ooooh I like all I'm reading, other than the real life stuff which I hope gets better soon. :(

Question - how much of our character's personalities and such are altered by this brainswashing? Are we just puppets on strings in every sense or are we still the same person just with altered goals and motivations?

[RampantDesires]

I like the mismatch personally, but I'm not going to REQUIRE it. 

Thing feeds not just on brains but on ... discord, negative emotion, angst and general badness, so fundamentally rewriting them isn't practical, but it is fun.  Especially for those that may have wronged it in the past it might want to be especially creative. 

But yeah, up to you really if you want a similar/complimentary assignment to the original personality or if you want something completely different.

[Chou chou rheastar]

Ok you got me I’m interested but Ive never used dice so I may need help?

[ihinka]

has been lurking

[RampantDesires]

Yay <3  We'd be super happy to have you. It's going to be very dice lite I promise, like maybe the perfect intro to using dicebot just because it is so simple.  And if anyone's hung up on that bit am happy to do/track that stuff for ya you'd just need to edit your post/sheet.



Speaking of sheets ... guys.


*hangs head*

I can't ... I am unable to half ass anything.

I only have a whole rather plush butt that demands everything be big and pretty, with sub-sections and samples and headers.  So even now with free time it is taking a little longer than I'd like to mash together.

I honestly meant for this to be quick "here's a tiny inspiration sheet, lets get to writin'!"  And then I started like transcribing notes and formatting them into ... well something that is turning into a bigger thing than I anticipated. 

Am trying to keep it streamlined and user-friendly I promise.  And there's a lot of stuff that is optional and that's going to be fleshed out as we play.


Can't help it.

I've still got to pull together examples of starting assignments and like sample character sheets.  But that should be done today and then we'll see how it goes I guess. 

*waves to the lurker and gets extra chair so they're comfy*

Oh, that reminds me though.  There is no set like recruitment time for this, people are always welcome to make new and different characters.  I understand the wanting to see things in action first or it just not being the right time to join.  It should be easy to jump into the writing/planning at any point though you might miss out on some of the more formative feedback driven introduction stuff.  For people who enjoy a more polished product waiting is a great option ;)  Lurk all ya like, I'm just super chuffed that y'all like my weird little brain baby enough to be here in the first place <3

[RampantDesires]

So I'm testing out the character sheet thing it to see if it works out visually and logistically and because examples are always a good thing right

The first one went a weird place

Samples
What it looks like in motion...

<Thrall>

Name (Current Identity): Iarlaith Kilroy
Name (Former/Real): Hugo Cox
Physical Description: Standing a solid six three he is used to being one of the taller most physically imposing men in the room.  Blonde hair with a natural wave is kept long but often tied back.  He has oddly rough hands for a nobleman and not all of his clothing seems perfectly tailored for his large frame, though he's currently working on fixing that fact.  At ease and quick to smile he is quickly the life of any gathering and flirts effortlessly with the ladies ... and some of the gentlemen present. 
Perk : Skilled/Physical Augmentation - Strength - His body is naturally stronger and more resilient than most humans.  All brawn and healthy as the metaphorical horse.
History/Archetype: Pauper to Prince ~ Hugo was once your generic farm boy from a nearby homestead taken from the field by small monsterous creatures.
Assigment/Cover Story: Minor Noble - the Kilroys are an old well-established family in Kissella, a sprawling city state in the north known for its jewel craft and trade.  Iarlaith a blacksheep of the family and is currently serving out a small period of exile of seducing the wrong man's daughter.

     Looking for - Wife/Sister/other family member to partner with for his assignment

Undiscovered

Vices: Drink, anything with alcohol in it really but a special fondness for flavored brandy.  Women
Sexual Preferences: Yes.  He is a virile eager to experiment guy into both male and female partners.
Expectations: Sex is gonna happen, or he's going to try to make it happen whenever he can.  Am open to dubcon set ups with the right partner, but I'm not sure how that'd would work exactly.
Hard Limits: Anything dark like mutilation or full-on rape is a no.



The Struggle: This feels wrong, his mother would be ashamed.  He's supposed to settle down and marry and nice girl, but women are baffling confusing creatures and he's often tongue tied in their mere presence.  These clothes are stupid and uncomfortable and it's shameful to sit around idle all day.

He'll be all kinds of horrified by the things he's done while under compulsion ... but deep down kinda into it too.  The sex was great at least and it'll be hard for him to go back to that sheltered vanilla life.  Would channeling his inner Iarlaith be so bad?



The Goal: The brute squad.  Hugo will likely be quick to try and help other thralls once freed and he's very good at being pretty and lifting heavy things.  Get him a sword and some training and he'll likely do well enough. Open to romance and long term planning in addition to, you know, sex stuff.

The bad?
Hugo Cox?  Seriously name generator, why you do me like this?  I was already going to make him into a sterotypical bumpkin turned lothario but you amped it up to the next level.  It's pretty cliche but there's nothing like wrong wrong with that.  Still finding partners to play with that mix of over the topness could be difficult, but hopefully not impossible.

The good?
Just... options.  There's lots of stuff for him to do, it'll be super easy to network ole Hugo.  There are baked-in ties, he's actively looking for connections, has some idea of the things he might want to write as things progress without being ULTRA specific. Makes his sex and violence lines pretty clear so that potential partners aren't blindsided by the direction things go.  If you're not down to write sexings frequently don't sign up with ole Hugo.

Names have been blurred out to protect the innocent.. or not so innocent.  I have not been to bed yet so my brain is an extra 40% weird right now and that's what hitting random name steered to toward. 

I think he still works as a cliche example. 

Keep in mind that is NOT a character I myself is looking to play, anyone who wants to use pieces of it "man -I- wanted Chris Hemsworth as a playby" totally feel free "I want to be the sexy farmhand"  Sure knock yourself out.  Just, maybe don't hit random name and smooth out some edges.

I promise I will make more serious/relevant samples as soon as I get some food .. and probably more coffee in me.  But information and start of a character sheet is up Here in the WorldBuilding Thread.  I'll copy it over here when I get back. 

You can feel free to start tossing out ideas and claims even before finishing sheet.  Keep in mind that not all sections need to be filled out immediately and the undiscovered parts can be tweaked and changed as we go along.  As ole Kilroy/Hugo there progressed through successful rolls and stages he'd just move the spoiler tag down and reveal a new section each time to highlight the stuff that his character is currently interested in/working on/dealing with. 

So his first successful roll that tag on the top would move on to Hedonist, you'd see the Vices Sex section.

Second successful roll he's Conflicted.  Old nice guy Hugo is starting to wake up emerge, at odds with manwhore Kilroy.

Third success he is Freed from compulsion, ready to help out those still enthralled and eventually punch a draconic abomination in the face.

It doesn't HAVE to happen that way.  Writing is an organic thing.  I just want to know that you have some ideas of things you're interested in maybe seeing happen going forward.

[Vi Violet]

Someone has been busy :3

[Chou chou rheastar]

You are a force of nature!

[AribethAmkiir]

Hope your mom's doing better. 

[ihinka]

gets off from her lurker chair and raises a hand in attendance I mean what's the worst that could happen?! The d20 hates... I mean... loves me ;D

[Vi Violet]

I'll admit I'm interested but I never really did any group plays before.

[RampantDesires]

Aww thank you guys!  Mom is indeed settling in at home nicely and seems to be feeling better over all.  Which is yay.

Cerigo made me take a nap earlier which yes, was absolutely for the best, I feel better and my brain is less RAWR all over the place.  Am going to settle in now and start on those 'real' sample sheets so that it will hopefully make more sense and give people a better idea of how the group will flow together.

Yay ihinka!  The dice are indeed a cruel mistress sometimes, but happily for this group there's no inherent downside to rolling poorly.  You can't botch anything, not making a successful roll just means that you write longer in your current state, you'll make it out eventually, other players can help you to give more rolling chances and the DC goes down with each failure, so everyone will get there eventually.  The roll is just adding an element of unpredictability and helping script things behind the scenes.



This should be a pretty new to group friendly experience Vi. That's the goal at least. Groups CAN be a little hard to break into sometimes.  I wrote on here for YEARS without dipping my toe into any group games.

I've tried to deliberately set this up so that it is a little more... intimate and guided in the beginning than some groups and different from projects I've tried to run in the past.  I love the concept of an open world that is ripe for exploration and a wide cast of characters to play in it, but I've found that those big projects can be difficult to guide and get characters together, story bits can feel isolated and sometimes players struggle with where to go and what to do next and then things just stall out.

As a freshly minted drone everyone here is starting under the same set of circumstances and in the same location (relatively speaking).  Additionally, I'll be looking to put people into their opening assignment in pairs or small groups with coordinated 'missions' and cover stories.  So it will somewhat feel like you're writing in a more one on one or small collaboration at first, there will just be a wider OOC dialogue about or collective storytelling goals and chatter about how things did or did not go the way we were anticipating. 

As characters progress through each stage there will be more mixing into other threads and story arcs, but at the end of the day it's all about you and the story that you want to tell with your character. Pick the stuff that interests you, don't feel like you need to dip into the stuff that doesn't.  There is room for as much, or as little wide group interaction as you want.  The writing that you do will still advance and impact the overall story. 



I'm gonna stop rambling right now and go get to work on those sheets :-)  But again, super excited that y'all are interested and I can't wait to see where this goes <3