Orphanage Roleplay (Interest Check)

[PhoenixPhyre]

I've been in the mood to play a "Li'l Orphan Annie" style orphanage RP, with a very strict and cruel Director and a group of children who constantly try to escape. Due to the parameters of the RP, they would most often be caught and returned to the orphanage, but there is room for story and plot development of kids who manage to make it out on their own or possibly find families. It is a story of unfortunates who dream of something greater.

The ages of the characters can be anywhere from 6 to 16, which shouldn't be a problem since this is a non-adult RP. I am thinking that there may be an older "ring-leader" type orphan who is the mastermind behind most of the escape attempts. There may be scenes of corporal punishment due to the nature of the Director, but these are to be taken in a strictly non-sexual context. I may also need someone to play the Director, since I'm not always so good with that ^^;

Anyway, let me know if this sounds interesting to anyone. I'd accept characters that are either orphans (veterans or "new kids") or other adults who are involved with them somehow (policeman, laundry man, orphanage inspector, etc).

If this gets a lot of supporters, I'll draw up a character sheet for you guys.

[Jakobos]

I'm interested. Do you have any ideas on the setting? Would this be modern? Near future? Recent past? Distant past? Roughly where would it be located?

I've got a few ideas...
• A withdrawn, almost lightly-autistic boy whose obsessions include a few helpful things (maybe lockpicking, tech-related, or (wouldn't this be ironic?) psychology).
• A jaded, somewhat sarcastic older girl who's been through the system all her life and knows all its ins and outs (and has trouble caring anymore).
• A sympathetic janitor who'd be happy to adopt if his salary and home life permitted it, and instead tries to make life as tolerable as possible for the "tenants".

[PhoenixPhyre]

All excellent ideas, I love them :)

As for the setting, I was going for Industrial Era.. Either in a place like London or New York City. So late 1800's-early 1900's is kinda what I'm going for, where the kids kinda dress in rag-tag clothes like torn linen shirts and suspenders, pants with holes or patches in them, but before the advent of jeans. Good picture?

[Jakobos]

That works! It's always a little trickier to write in a non-modern time period, but I'm sure I can come up with something. The janitor idea is out, probably... did they have janitors back then? Was there any knowledge of the autism spectrum? Were there any foster homes? Were there many prospective adopters? Modern-day, I feel I'd have a pretty good handle on these things. Here, I'd just have to wing it.

[PhoenixPhyre]

The orphans would have been expected to clean the boarding house, but there would have been a laundry man that came by to collect all the laundry. There wasn't any knowledge of the autism spectrum - most kids with autism were diagnosed as "childhood schizophrenia" and it was thought later on to be a result of a cold or unloving maternal figure. But in the time period for the story, a child on the autism spectrum would have been institutionalized (in severe cases), or just thought of as peculiar, in cases such as Asperger's. There wasn't a foster care system back then - orphans lived in an orphanage, but there were occasional parents who came to orphanages looking to adopt. Does that answer your questions sufficiently?