(Mostly) Epics with consequences (f for GM)

[victoria4]

The ideas that are churning around in my mind - best for a longer term, to allow choices to have consequences, to see the effects of actions.  These aren't just smut, although smut - primarly NC or "pseudo-NC" - is wonderful!

I prefer to play by Forum, email, or PM, roughly in that order.  IM doesn't work for the way I snatch writing time here and there.  Not keen on discord.  I generally post at bare minimum twice weekly, and never disappear without a word.

If anything grabs your interest, please send me a PM!  Also: these ideas were all developed with player-and-GM style of play in mind, but I'd be open to small groups, perhaps.  Let's talk.

The Agent of the Goddess - taken by the devious & talented Snow Nymph, but open to another

The gods are powerful, but they are shaped by the thoughts and actions of mortals.  "Everyone knows" that the numbers and zeal of a god's clergy and worshippers largely determine the god's raw power.  But there is an unknown (to mortals), even more ancient connection that defines the gods' roles and natures: periodically (every 1000 years?) each god forms a connection with one representative among the mortals, secretly granting that agent a tiny fraction of the god's power, then letting them go through the world, unwittingly championing the god's cause.

When the world was new, this was how the gods gained their various portfolios.  The god of the hunt happened to have formed a connection with a hunter, that of war with a warrior, and so on.  Once these natures were established, the gods naturally chose a sterling example of their "kind", the god of the hunt picking a born hunter, etc.  Thereby the god's roles were crystallized - but change is still possible, keeping the gods vulnerable to the vagaries of life among mortals.  If a chosen hunter is injured, and during convalescence develops a taste for the harp, the god of the hunt may acquire an aspect responsible for musicians, but may even lose their connection to hunting if their agent turns their back on the vocation wholly.  At the same time, any changes among the gods are reflected back in the mortal world - hunters may find that music is necessary to ensure success in the hunt, or hunters may suddenly have no god representing their interests at all, leading to hardship until another god assumes this portfolio.

My idea - my dream - is to play such an agent, such an avatar if you will.  Someone chosen because her personality and nature are close to that of a goddess.  I'm thinking something like Athena's connection to warriors and righteous war, but likely broader, dovetailing with a lone adventurer-type, out to right wrongs and fight for those who can't do so themselves.  There are several possible scenarios that leap to mind to make things difficult:

In the last 1000 years, perhaps society's view of male & female roles has changed, and many would rather women stayed home and let the men do the dirty work, so our heroine faces resentment and even opposition from the common people, even as she helps them.

Or perhaps an opposing goddess, despite the "rules" that there can be no direct intervention, wishes to diminish her rival by assuring that some of her followers oppose & undermine the heroine through overt and secret means.

Or maybe it's simply a challenge to fight the good fight, while holding on to one's warmer nature - if the goddess has purview over both fighting and nurturing, for instance.

Well, it's an idea, the first I've ever posted on Elliquiy.  I know it's grandiose, and asks a great deal of a partner, but if anyone's curious and would like to discuss it or variations on the theme, I'd love to receive a PM!

Adventurers make great teachers

The setting: probably nonspecific fantasy (swords & magic), though it might work in other settings.

The idea: our bold and quite mighty heroine is doing well.  She's made a name for herself, has saved countless innocents, and earned the gratitude of a monarch or other high mucky-muck.  Many other girls and women look up to her, and increasing numbers are considering following in her footsteps, taking up weapons to be adventurers, soldiers, or just to defend themselves.  Now, with the backing of the monarch, she is realizing her dream to open a school to help those eager young women to break out of old molds, to learn to fight.  This - for many of the men traditionally filling these rolls, and those enjoying the status quo - is a problem.  It was bad enough when, every time the heroine passed through a village, one or two girls would declare their intent to be just like heroine X someday.  But now there's a focal point, a place for all the stubborn, independent-minded young women to come together and support each other.  It has the potential to permanently change the face of the land.

It's also an opportunity.  They're all together, and just what they learn... might not be what they expect.

I suspect some sort of "SimSchool" is hardly a gripping concept for many!  And, frankly, I'd like the heroine to still be a reasonably active heroine, still spending some time out slaying ogres or whatever.  But she has a "home", too, a developing school she wants to shape the right way.  Though the more time she's away, the more opportunities for undesirables to mess with that school... even to be appointed to positions of power within the school.  While the heroine is a sort of "chancellor for life", she doesn't own the school, she can't simply dictate everything.  She has to rely on others... and there are power plays, where those (women?) she trusts risk domination by the seemingly allied (male?) administrators forced on her by the local lord... a man who must seem to obey the monarch, but in his own way, with his own goals.  I'd prefer this change in tone be somewhat gradual, not that things go completely South the moment she steps out the door!  But that's flexible.

I'd prefer one main character to play.  But obviously there'd be goings-on back home, with quite significant consequences for the condition the school's in when the heroine returns.  Possibly these could be played out, or could be "off-camera", with us left to learn of them by their effects when the heroine returns.

For smut, there'd be plenty of opportunities for the heroine to be waylaid - in fact, if she lets the wrong person know where she's going, they're likely to send messengers ahead to make sure she's waylaid, delayed, thoroughly screwed.  There are many who want to see just that... and every time it happens, her influence weakens, her example becomes less inspirational and more of a cautionary tale.  And of course, there's a school-full of others to learn to appreciate the virtues of obedience and deference, and to learn useful skills.

The ending of the tale is yet to be written - quite possibly the heroine ultimately triumphs, or quite possibly her effort is worse than a failure, and she herself is discredited and lost.  Either way it'll be a rocky road to that destination, but a fun one I think.

Paladin's "helper" (not really interested at the moment)

Everybody loves paladins: they aid the weak, right wrongs, battle the forces of darkness, and look good doing it.  What's not to like?

But my paladin has a problem: someone has it in for her.  Someone keeps tipping off her foes, tampering with her equipment, spreading nasty rumours, generally setting her up to fail - and fall.  Someone who surely has magical means at their command, as they are able to interfere with her right under her nose, and under the nose of her faithful squire/friend/sidekick/hanger-on/intelligent sword/whatever.  It couldn't be that "helper" themselves, since they often suffer from the same dark acts.  Perhaps the two of them are even forced to do shameful things with each other, things which may feel wonderful, but are clearly wrong.

I'm looking for a "GM" who'd like to be that companion, someone who wants to see the Paladin compromised for whatever reason... jealousy?  Revenge?  Twisted love, hoping the paladin will turn to them?  Subordination by an evil, opposing god?  Simple lust?  Schadenfreude?  In any event, someone who doesn't mind seeing the paladin go through all sorts of things, but doesn't want her simply killed.

Superheroine vs. her suit

(Thanks to indarkestknight for some of this idea's development)
My character is a neophyte superheroine, her abilities granted by virtue of wielding a super-powered suit.  Perhaps it was found, perhaps it found her, but she is glad to put it to good use.  The suit molds itself to fit her, perhaps a little too well!

But there are a couple of wrinkles: the suit's agenda and hers are not quite aligned.  To whit: she wants to fight crime.  It wants to absorb spunk, or feed off her arousal, or some similarly lewd goal.  If it had its way, she'd be dressed in the most enticing manner, giving people all sorts of naughty ideas, and it's only her will, her vision of herself, that overrides this and gives her a more-or-less decent costume to wear.  There's a bit of feedback in this: when things are going well, her confidence is high, the suit is all she'd wish it to be.  When, to the contrary, things have gone poorly, or she's tired, distracted, or her will is otherwise weakened, the suit is able to assert itself a little more, reshaping itself or otherwise furthering its own ends.

The other wrinkle, in keeping with the "consequences" theme, is that the citizenry of her city regard the heroine more or less highly based on her success... and show more or less respect.  To the point where the suit gets what it wants....

Adventuress against the world - always interested

Well, not really against the world, but it seems like the world's against her.  This can easily work with a modern/superheroine/SF setting too, but below I'm picturing a classic fantasy heroine, having grown up dreaming of getting off the farm and becoming a glory-wrapped heroine, in a world where adventuring is men's work.  She's competent, and successful enough, although many she meets - even many of those she helps - would just as soon she returned to a more traditional role and stopped making waves.

There would be quite a bit of casual sexism in this RP; examples might include nobles refusing to hire her directly - insisting on working through a male "sponsor" (who gets the lion's share of the reward and credit), lewd comments, molestation for which the local guard is no help, and anything else ranging up to townsfolk taking advantage of her in any way possible, when the opportunity arises.

Some days, when all she has left to wear is the chainmail bikini a leering shopkeeper sold her as "all he had in her size", when her last two "job offers" were men inviting her into dark alleys for some quick coin (if they weren't really luring her into a trap), when all she's eaten for two days is the "local specialty" porridge that so many innkeepers seem to offer (strange at first, but she's starting to acquire a taste for it)... some days, she's just so frustrated she could punch the next man who pinches her ass in the marketplace, except that he's likely to be one of the local guardsmen.  Even the women she meets are no help... most are under the thumbs of the men, some seem to resent her freedom and join in wanting to see her brought low.  Yet she still hopes for better, hopes that attitudes will turn around; besides, she's never going back to the farm life as some peasant's wife.

The heroine might travel with others some of the time, but I wouldn't be looking at a regular companion - I'm hoping for a solo adventurer-and-GM arrangement.  Although I suppose sharing adventure and peril with another woman could be entertaining, too.

VR/RL crossover

This could be an "add-on" to any of the above, or a separate concept entirely.  The skinny: a virtual reality (probably technological, though it could be created by magic instead), in which our heroine enjoys a "game" of some highly immersive sort.  But things go wrong, the VR world becomes a darker, more perilous place.  The game keeps players trapped within, or perhaps lets them out but keeps pulling them back periodically.

The crossover part: the sinister machinations are not confined to mucking with the game.  There is a real-world purpose, perhaps simply keeping the players "out of the way", perhaps allowing access to them (for whatever reason) while they are helplessly logged in, perhaps as part of some scheme to alter them, mold them, control them.  We would see both, which is why this might work best as a game that can keep pulling people back in every so often (darn those implants/spells/whatever plot device).

Tabletop adventures

A bit of a blast from my past, though taken to extremes....

I suspect other girl gamers from the "old school" D&D-around-a-table days had similar experiences to mine: either the group was super-careful not to give any offence, or someone in the group couldn't resist, every session, suggesting various ways one's character could wind up in a compromising position.  Well, this idea is taking the latter approach, and running over the horizon with it.  Into a darker place, I should add.

The premise is a game within a game ... a tabletop roleplaying session, with "real" people playing characters.  The people are definitely inclined to get a character or characters into compromising positions... but that predilection extends into the "real" world too.  So the players are expected to shed clothing, to answer to the humiliating name their character somehow got saddled with, to act out what's happening in-game.  There are various possibilities to justify this - perhaps it's just the "house rules", perhaps its identification with the characters taken too far.  It might make sense to say drugs are involved to blur that line, to make players susceptible to suggestion so they lose themselves as the game goes on.  Or not!

I'd rather play a character that isn't perfectly happy about this sort of thing - she would never do such things normally.  Perhaps that's why she was invited in the first place.  But why would a girl go along with this?  Possibilities could be discussed, but might include simply not realizing what's happening - if drugs are involved, for instance.  Or magic spilling into the real world?  Or having no choice - blackmail?  Overconfidence, at first... but then there'd still have to be justification for carrying on when things got out of hand.  And, over time, there's just less possibility of resistance, as she becomes more and more a plaything to be used and abused.

I'd probably prefer this be a somewhat gradual escalation, not a "Five minutes in, time for everyone to strip naked" type of affair.  It could even run over multiple "real world" sessions - again, there would need to be something to keep drawing our heroine back.  If drugged, she might not even know what happened, so she returns innocently again.  If not, perhaps the video of the previous session is an effective lure, going down the blackmail path again.  I'm sure there are other possibilities if preferred - heck, there could even be magic in the "real world".

I had thought of this as a my-heroine-and-a-GM thing, but it also has room for other characters if multiple players are interested.

So, this idea is probably smuttier than most, and perhaps less epic.  Though there's always the possibility to fully play the "game within the game", using system or freeform, and just occasionally triggering naughty hijinks.  I can be flexible!

Balance

An odd one perhaps, and with room to flesh it out.  Setting indeterminate.
My heroine is blessed with certain powers thanks to a link to a demon, or chaotic god, or some other supernatural power.  She herself is glad to use these powers for good, for the betterment of her world and all the deserving people in it.  What she doesn't know - and what she remains blissfully ignorant of as the story proceeds - is that the connected spirit/deity/whatever is all about balance, between good and evil, fortune and misfortune, something along those lines.

As a result, although the heroine does unquestionably good things, they are offset by damage wrought at the same time, or as a result of the good.  She saves a kitten from a tree - and the spikes of her boots tear the bark, causing the tree to succumb to disease a month later.  She roots out a den of bandits plaguing a village, and the village guards now use their leisure and safety to plunder the village and its women as soon as her back is turned.

Some of the benefits and harms might fall on the heroine herself, potentially - Pyrrhic victories where she defeats a beast, but limping home is set upon, robbed and debauched by petty criminals she could normally dispatch without breaking a sweat.  Or, on the other hand, she is defeated by Villain X, and in his crowing celebration, he leaves himself open to a quick sword-thrust by another adventurer who just happened by, stealing the glory and reward, but rescuing her in the process.

So, strange, and inchoate, but perhaps amusing.  I'd be happy to develop it more, or just to incorporate this concept, in some form, into another larger plot.  I'm nearly always open to talk about these things!

What doesn't kill you, makes you weaker?

The basics: a magical power, or deity, or super-suit, or alien something off-camera, selects a heroine/champion, transforming an ordinary mortal into a powerful force for good.  And if she falls... selecting another.
The problem, at least from the villains' perspective: The heroine (or replacement) keeps coming back, they can never be permanently rid of her.
The solution: Undercut her power and effectiveness in ways that don't trigger a replacement... so when she comes back, she isn't such a pain in the ass.

So... a very broad idea, rife with possibilities of corruption and manipulation.  I've only begun to develop this idea, and am happy to discuss it, but here are a few thoughts:

• Killing the heroine is useless, providing just a short delay before another pops up.
• Severe injury... either would heal relatively rapidly, buying more time than killing but nothing permanent, or if too severe would just trigger a replacement.
• Locking the heroine away is an obvious solution, but too easy to be fun.  Perhaps the heroine needs to "report back" every week or two, nipping into some pocket dimension or something.  So while she can be stuffed into a hole for a while, that only works for a week or so, and then she's either replaced or teleported away.  But one can use that time creatively....
• One can, however, mess with her mind to reduce her effectiveness.  Shatter her confidence, or (hooray for smut) molest the sensitive heroine in such a way that her arousal interferes with her duties.  A heroine that has learned that defeat leads to climax is going to have that on her mind.  Conditioning to respond to certain stimuli, perhaps?  Touch her in the right way and the battle's as good as over.  I admit, this is much of the draw for me.
• One might also work on her indirectly, through others... subvert possible allies, ruin public opinion of the heroine so she has little support... get people rooting for her defeat as then they might get a crack at her themselves?
• If the heroine has an "alter ego", in a transformation/magic setting, perhaps target her there instead or in addition, with the effects carrying over to her more powerful form?  So deplete her first, leaving her in no condition to fight, or use the opportunity for further conditioning perhaps?

This concept could easily work in almost any setting... fantasy, sci-fi, superhero/magical girl, etc.  The idea actually came after I was pointed at some "giant robot" and "giant heroine" stories, where this "power settles on a normal person" idea is fairly common.  A new genre for me, and I'm open to it, but not wedded to it.  But in honour of that, here's a quick image, not a particular NSFW one:

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

.  I'm eager to discuss any variations on this idea at all!  Perhaps we can flesh it out together?

(new) Starting superheroine, slice of life, potential home issues in a modern or maybe pre-modern setting

(thanks to Jkk129 for much of this)

This is an adventure that just didn't get off the ground, but I still feel the urge to run with it ... you can see the start of it here: https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=350798.msg16467082

Basically, my character is a young neophyte superheroine, only recently discovering her powers and still learning and growing with them.  There are others like her, some of whom have gone to the dark side, others are trying to use their powers for good, while the normal people are just trying to get by and don't really trust any of these new mutants.

She still needs to finish her education, will need gainful employment - superheroic vigilantism is on the edge of illegal, and certainly not profitable.  Her single mother is a politician campaigning on an anti-crime, anti-mutant platform and doesn't know what her daughter has just become.  So our heroine has to keep her secret even from family, and blackmail is a possible issue.

Worst of all, potentially, one of her mother's biggest financial backers is secretly one of the major crime kingpins of the city, and our heroine can't reveal him without destroying her mother's career - especially as he has learned her identity at the same time.  And for the icing on the cake, he may also soon marry the mother, putting our heroine in an extremely awkward situation (hence the "family issues" kind of incest-y potential, though this can easily be left out).

As always, I'm open to any sorts of changes or adaptations.  I was wondering if a setting just before cellphones might be best, to remove the "instant easy communication" aspect of a modern setting.

These are the ideas I've developed so far - and obviously there are some common themes here, but those aren't my only interests.  If you'd like to suggest something similar or entirely different, perhaps based on my Ons/Offs, who am I to stop you?  I'm always happy to discuss things and meet people with shared interests, though I'm not looking for romance (for myself or my characters!).


I can only think of three "offs" to particularly mention here (but of course, check out my O/O in the .sig down below!):

• While there's nothing wrong with being overstimulated and losing control, I'd prefer effects on my character to be mostly physical, rather than some sort of direct mind control.  A little mind control is fine for spice and variety, but I wouldn't want this to be a major theme of any roleplay.  It comes down to this: I'd like to be able to play a character who will likely change with time, but organically... not be magically told "this is now your character".  :-)
  
• "Canon" settings and characters really don't sit well with me.  Either I don't know the setting well enough to contribute properly, or I do know it, and get "weirded out" by thinking of beloved characters in any way connected to the darkish E contexts that I prefer.
  
• I am not interested in playing someone who immediately becomes either a slut, or a slave.  Capture and imprisonment &/or enslavement might certainly occur, but it would have to be either quite temporary, or an end-game situation - ten or twenty posts in a row as a prisoner and I would lose interest.  And my character would not be a bed-hopping bunny at all; she could we molded that way perhaps, with the right pressure, but that would require a gradual transformation, and wouldn't be an early-game occurrence.  No femme fatales or sultry seductresses from me I'm afraid... sorry.
  

[victoria4]

Added VR/RL Crossover

[victoria4]

Added Tabletop adventures

[victoria4]

Added Balance, edited a few things while I was at it.

[victoria4]

Added What Doesn't Kill You...

[victoria4]

Added Starting Superheroine