The World of Zhor

[Rune]

I found this website...

http://www.pornhome.com/stories/zhor/world.htm

I was thinking that it would be a fun setting for a game, but I'm not entirely sure what to do with it more than your typical master/slave scenario.

Would anyone be interested in running a game in this setting? Maybe we can brainstorm on plot ideas.

[Max]

Not sure about running, but would be interested in playing such a game.

[craeric]

I would be willing to play or try to run as well.  I have not GM'd in a while though, so should warn of that. 

I see many stories available, but lets be honest slave/master would certainly play a heavy role. 

[shii]

This seems cool. I have read most of the Gor books so this would be a fun spin on it. Im game.

[craeric]

Would you guys like me to try to GM? i'll try to think up a starting tale if so.  but well would need to know basically what kind of characters your planning- if all of you are serum girls, it would be very differant than say a warrior fearful of the fate.

[shii]

If you are up to GMing that would be great. I would like to play two male characters. One master (who is a highly accomplished commander of an army perhaps) and one male slave (undecided as to what type).

[craeric]

problem with that beign there are no male zhorian slaves :).  Its a part of the setting.  Now, a captive to be made a serum girl is a different possibility.  Unless we alter the setting- which all involved, if anyone else is (Sigh) woudl have to agree to.

[Max]

I would prefer to keep to the lore of Zhor, ie, no actual male slaves.  Maybe he would be submissive, pretending to be a slave in the privacy of their home?.  But, the "gods" of the world are opposed to men being slaves, hence, the serum to transform males to females.  But, it is not a dealbreaker to me.

I had thought about maybe setting the game in a Zhorian version of a paga den or a pleasure house.  The Masters would be patrons, and the girls would be slaves working there.  Or maybe a slave club or slave camp.  But either way, yeah, will be playing a new serum slave girl or newly transformed serum girl.

[shii]

I'm  out.

[Swordsman18]

Max is a veteran of the setting and I have run stuff with him in the past. But the other thing people need to consider is that it is technically a scifi setting with barbaric combat so there is much variety more than just buggering serum girls. A man could make a rival his slave girl. And then they both end up serum girls after losing in a conflict. Remember to die is better than to be a serum girl in terms of the society. You would rather die honorably than end up as a serum girl who is at the bottom of society.

[Melkart]

I think that the concept of the ever present danger of becoming a serum girl is what makes this setting interesting. It's a funny subversion of Gor's "girl are slaves" to "girls are slaves but anybody can become one".

I like Sword and Sorcery settings but I've always felt that some of them are a bit unbalanced as the sense of danger is less acute for male characters than for female characters. This is why I like those settings in which both male and female characters feel the danger the same way. That both male and female characters can be defeated and enslaved.

[Max]

Sorry, I was not offering to run the game, not really have the time to do that.  Just tossing out some ideas for such a game.

[Wenterburn]

May I suggest a plot? Maybe a variation of this story, from this collection of stories / taken from this caption:

Acteon Cradle - Failed Coup D'etat   ---   http://fictionmania.tv/stories/readtextstory.html?storyID=13592897346532873

The story here is that five officials who engineered a coup on the hero by turning him into a slave girl.
However, the hero returned and took his revenge by turning all five of them into slavegirls, but with karmic vengeance.
For example, the supremacist became a member of his despised minority, the philanderer became a very fertile breeder; the rumourmonger-whisperer became unable to speak, the main plotter became easily aroused and distracted even by the rustle of wind or the brush of clothes.

We could set it up like a murder mystery; a group of conspirators meeting to try to win royal favour.
One by one, we are ruked and revenged upon, and we each meet our ends. The first to be ruked could spend a bit more time playing slave, while the others panic and try to find out what is going on.

Swordsy, I suspect you'd not be super keen to play a serum girl, so maybe you'd like to play the hero who faked his own demise, that might work?

[Kyra tg]

Sounds interesting.

A small warband raiding a nearby town are captured and ransomed back to their families. Those that don’t have their ransoms paid are ruked and sent home. The public shame of being a serum girl / descent into new role. Disgrace.

Visiting a seedy tavern that has a side trade in ruking and selling patrons that won’t be missed. Shipping, auctioning and breaking in. Trying to escape.

A hunt for forest girls goes south. Captured. Ruked. Mocked. By girls! Sold to their competitors. Gloating and mockery.

Criminal underworld gets a shake up with new players ruking the established players. Ending up in their own pleasure houses / amongst former conquests.

Voluntarily ruked to become spies and sold to a rival lord. Secret agent hijinks.

[Max]

So many good ideas.  So hard to choose.

[Kyra tg]

I kind of like the war band one. The captain might not be ransomed as it’s his fault, except maybe he was betrayed by a rival. Their lord only has enough for part of the ransom so they have to draw straws. A bit of intrigue, cheating or self sacrifice.

Happy to GM. Start in a bar the night before to set up some city relationships. Friends, lovers, rivals. A bit of a count of monte christo vibe...

[craeric]

i'd be glad to play a ruked soldier...

[Kyra tg]

I’m happy to go along with the consensus on the game theme...

[Wenterburn]

Kyra is a ridiculously great storyteller. Pleased to go with whatever they write.

I like the idea of the warband doing a small coup and being on the run. Someone's after them as they try to get back to their Lord. Some fall along the way, some get taken at the end, but in the end they all end up ruked, either in their home city or the city they stole from

[Max]

I like.  I will play a ruked soldier as well.

[Melkart]

I would like to play this scenario too.

I like the idea of a warband ending in trouble.

[Kyra tg]

Seems we have the numbers. So all the soldiers captured at once or the war band whittled away slowly ... sounds like the latter is preferred. Sort of a “predator” scenario / 10 little indians https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Then_There_Were_None

Might need some overlord technology to do that... or superior enemy numbers... or specially trained enemies. Serum darts and the like being employed. Or something similar. Some fighting but also some suspense. I hope.

[Melkart]

I think it should be slow to add suspense. Nobody would know who is next.

Also I think it would be interesting if the warriors were winning first (the raid into enemy territory being successful and capturing prisoners to sell) and then finding themselves in a desperate retreat.

[Wenterburn]

I agree.

Kyra, is there some way you want us to set up/describe our characters? Maybe physical descriptions, strength, and then secret crime or shame or fetish?

[Max]

I don't think it is necessary that they have super high tech or the like.  Perhaps our band was routed and scattered, and we fall one by one, the slowest or least able to hide getting caught first?

The idea that we were at one point winning and then had turned around is fine with me. 

Also, how long does the transformation take? 

[Wenterburn]

Ah, I was suggesting something like a Murder on the Orient Express sort of thing.

The group of us succeeded in a coup or heist, and are being pursued, perhaps together or scattered. But while we're together we are suspicious and distrustful, maybe even sabotage each other. Eventually we are captured and shamed anyway

[Kyra tg]

Time of change is important. I’m a fan of knock out wake up changed. Not slow but quick. Where are other people sitting. I know it’s meant to be a week in the Zhor universe but I’m thinking an hour max.

[Kyra tg]

And yeah. Characters for the war band.

Name

Age

Rank

Description / physical / personality

Ons

Offs

Speed of change

[Max]

Think we should agree on how long the change takes place before hand.  To be truthful, has been awhile since I looked at the Zhor stuff, but it seemed to me that the change took a bit of time, maybe a couple of days or so.  Not sure.  But not, "Oh, I got hit with this dart...  Eek, I am a woman!" type things.  And that that the change would knock out the victim while it happened.  So, if the change does take a long time, if we are doing the picked off one by one thing, the ones that are ruked will be out of play for quite a while.

[Kyra tg]

The darts can be laced with a sedative so being knocked out is optional. The process is painful and debilitating and takes about a week.

I prefer an hour to say six to change to keep the players in game. And a painless one though not one where much physical action can occur - unless absolutely necessary. It’s tiring and hungry making. Knock out would be undesirable... except perhaps at night. Making camp... etc. But we should have horses so the party will not leave people if the change is in the day. Short time jumps of an hour to six will be easy I expect. An hour or six of mad riding from an enemy can be compressed in an encounter. And the need to quietly hide for some time might come up.

[Wenterburn]

Name: Edgard Vault

Age: 36

Rank: Line Leader, Second Horse Lancer Troop of Prydferth

Description / physical / personality: Edgard is a tall, athletic man, with a physique most resembling a climber than a brute soldier. Enemies underestimate his slimmer frame, but his great reach and surprising strength has left many a corpse in the street -- as well as his surprising ability to gain vertical clearance in a vault befitting his name. As a Line Leader of the Horse Lancer Troop, he is an excellent rider and has crushed hundreds of men in charges. The infamous Horse Lancers are so well-regarded that he easily makes connections with soldiers and wannabe aristocrats (who dream about being soldiers), and so when not fighting he serves as "the man who knows a man" among the conspirators. He is a philanderer especially with soft noblewomen, and often presses them to try passion nectar or work as a dexing girl for a weekend.

Ons
+ Lash mistresses, slave auctions, being bought by former girlfriends
+ Being second, please!
+ Reduced to low status, being put on show, maybe even forbidden clothes

Offs
+ Pain, pregnancy,

Speed of change
+ Slow is good. Progressive changes?
+ Only request is not to be the first to be changed.

[Max]

Hi there.  Still interested in a Zhorian game, but not so much the current idea, sorry.

[Wenterburn]

sure. that last idea seems less popular too.

what kind of story were you thinking?

[Max]

I do like Kyra's idea of of the players visiting a seedy tavern and getting ruked and having to try to escape. 

I also like the idea of hunting forest girls and getting caught and ruked by them.  Or perhaps criminals who are on the losing side and ruked by the new criminal master criminals.

Or maybe we are criminals, ruked for our crimes and sold at public auction?

Or perhaps we are all patrons or slaves at the Zhorian version of a paga den?

[Kyra tg]

I’m open to all of those. You decide Max. They all sound fun.

[Swordsman18]

I wondered if using a system for something like Zhor would appeal to anyone?

[Wenterburn]

What system would you suggest swords

[Swordsman18]

Ones I am familiar with and can run:
Dungeons and Dragons 5e
Dungeon World
Savage Worlds


Never ran but interested:
Open Legend RPG (Fully customizable and open source)


If we want to go super basic:
Risus (Cliches = Classes)
3:16 (Only 2 stats, Fighting Ability and Non-Fighting Ability)
Murderhobos (Very basic system based off killing things)

[Max]

I like the seedy tavern story idea the best. 

As for the idea of using a system, I am not opposed, but have absolutely no experience with any of those systems.  I do not own any of them.  Is D&D 5E available on pdf?  Not that I really have any preference for any other them.

Not saying that I am opposed, just that I don't have any of them or any experience with them, so would need lots of help.

[Kyra tg]

I’m happy to play in a simple rule based game. Don’t want to gm one though. Charisma, intelligence and physical prowess stats.

[Swordsman18]

I was not trying to usurp you, Kyra. I was just wondering if people were system interested.

[Max]

I am fine with either a system or free form game.

[Kyra tg]

Sorry if I came across wrong - I’m Not upset or anything swordsman. The contrary. I’m just not good at system online games - don’t think I’d make it work - so would not want to run one. I’m in on the game regardless though. Happy to abdicate to another if it keeps things going with more people. The more the merrier ;) - I thought this idea had died so anything that keeps it going and breathes life into it is great.

[craeric]

I'm still interested, simply been unsure what to say or do.  Personally I lean to the serum slave side myself but i'm game.  For myself the idea of a ruked dualist- a kind of russian roulette with five placebo's and the serum for a masive bet, the looser (Transformed) sent to market to help pay the winners, sounds a fun backstory too.

[Wenterburn]

Hey all!
So it sounds like Swords has an interest in running a systemed game -- and if he runs that most people would be generally OK so long as the rules were laid out and all.

Alternatively, Max and Kyra and Craeric all have potential settings for the game.

If I'm honest, it sounds like everybody is on board with whoever is prepared to run the game. So, any volunteers? :D