Kubla Con - Transformations & Fanfictions Galore (Shared Setting)

[thymoit]

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

But Kubla Con was a much different story... On the November long weekend during some indeterminate year Eric Winters, a rich and somewhat eccentric man, decides to bankroll a costume contest at the Kubla Con convention—known for it's costumes and somewhat wild nature. That year the con is overflowing, and Eric Winters himself brings an ancient Native American artifact – a raven mask. At the start of the awards ceremony he dons the mask and a blast of magic flashes out, effecting the entire convention center and its grounds, turning thousands of people into the characters of their costumes. Eric Winters himself turns completely into a raven.

For those of you familiar with the Buffy Halloween episode, same concept.  Throughout the con, everyone was transformed into their costume character.  The big difference from Buffy - they never turned back.

The Setting, background, how the transformation works, a summary of the fallout and stories based in this setting can be found here:
http://shifti.org/wiki/Xanadu_%28setting%29

I offered this up as solo one-on-one game, but no one took me up on it, possibly because of the fandom that I wanted.  I'm posting it in groups to see if there is any interest in this as a group roleplay.  I think that the Kubla Con (Xanadu) setting would be a perfect one for an Elliquiy group roleplay.  Because of the chaos unleashed, it isn't needed to keep strict track of the timeflow of events.  There are thousands of stories playing out all at once.  That would make it possible for players to start in one thread, interact with another, go off with a third, worrying too much about breaking continuity.

At this point this is an interest check.  If someone wants to take over and GM - power to you.  If there is interest, I've got some ideas about how to set this up so I act more as a moderator and the story is player driven.  I don't have the time or the bandwidth to create villains and plots for player characters.  However, because of the chaos involved I think it can be set up to mostly self-maintaining.  The main point of the Kubla Con setting is playing out transformation stories, how does your character come to grips with the transformation.  It's also a chance to play your favorite characters from all of fiction.  The point of making it a group setting is to give that internal story something to play against - namely the chaos unleashed.  It also allows for any crossover imaginable.  If enough people are interested, I'll share my thoughts about how to set it up as a shared world where I provide the setting and players drive their own plots.

So... would there be any interest?  The possibilities for characters are almost endless.  You can play any character from out of fiction and bring them to life.  Play them with their fictional friends, or play any crossover you want to see.  Perhaps you have a character from a story on Elliquiy that ended too soon?  They too could find a new life at Kubla Con.



UPDATE:  This concept did not gather enough interest to launch a group game.  I am offering this up as a Shared Setting.  That means that individuals can post stories in this setting, running their own solo threads.  Which is almost like normal solo threads.  Except that the threads might sometimes cross-over if players agree.  See below post for more details.

[Kaedia]

I'm very interested in the transformation aspect of this potential story. Don't really know anything about Buffy, though. I'll mark down my interest and keep an eye on this thread.

[thymoit]

I'm very interested in the transformation aspect of this potential story. Don't really know anything about Buffy, though. I'll mark down my interest and keep an eye on this thread.

The reference to Buffy the Vampire Slayer isn't important.  The important thing is big burst of magic changes everyone into the character represented by the costume they were.  Since there were more than ten thousand people present at the convention, that means just about any character could possibly be brought to life - with varying degrees of understanding that they used to be a person just wearing a costume.   Anyway, glad to have someone interested.

[Neysha]

Looks like an interesting concept. I tried playing something like this before as a one on one but it fell through in the discussion phase. Though that one had a bit of a Halloween and Horror theme to it. :)

[thymoit]

Anyway, I'm glad you like the Kubla Con concept.  If I can get five or six people who are interested, I'll launch it.   I've got an idea on how to manager the stories that will hopefully require minimal GM plotting.

[ReijiTabibito]

I'm familiar with the KCon stories (though last time I checked, the site I found them on had only two), this would be in the same universe, then?  What would be the focus of the story?

[thymoit]

Since I'm getting some interest, I'll go ahead and share how I was thinking it could work.  I've noticed that two big problems with group stories in forum-based games (not an Elliquiy specific problem).  The first is that players often are waiting for GMs to provide something to react to: a NPC, a villain or an event.  For some games with a very involved GM or set of GMs that works.  I don't have the bandwidth to do that.  The other problem I've seen is that players will get stranded and wander around trying to connect with someone, be it another player or NPC.  So I had an idea for how to do that.

I'll manage Kubla Con as a shared setting, but I won't be acting as a GM providing major plot elements.  Players will join as writing teams of at least two people.  Larger teams are possible, but I expect most will have two people.  That way no one is ever isolated.  They always have at least one writing partner.  Each writing team will have the personal story of their transformation - and this being Elliquiy probably a sexual relationship among the team members.

Now, you're probably thinking anyone can do that.  You don't need a GM.  That's where the shared setting comes into place.  I'll be setting up shared threads based on location and time.
Examples:
Ceremony Room - Pre Event
Ceremony Room - Chaos time, Event to Midnight
Ceremony Room - Imposing Order, Midnight to Morning

Writing teams could visit any of the shared setting rooms (really room+time) where they could meet and interact with other players or not.  Each of the rooms is huge and the Chaos level is off the scale.  You have more than ten thousand people having a collective freak out - a huge percentage of them having some kind of power or magic.  I would be willing to post some NPCs or events to give things a nudge, but I would also encourage every player to create NPCs or events to react to.  In most games, this would be a problem if every player could create whatever NPC they felt like.  What makes the Kubla Con setting pretty unique, is that kind of chaos would be accurate to what was unfolding at the time.  So if one person says there is a Rocket Racoon with a big gun having a freak out - no problem.  The people present can react to it.

The group rooms would be structured to allow people to progress through time at the pace they choose.  So when you decide enough time has passed for your characters, you can move them to your own room or a personal thread.  The point of the group rooms is the fun of interaction, plus giving the internal stories (transformation + hookups) a switch-off plot.

How about an example to make this clear.  Bob and Julie decide to join as a writing team.  Both want to play characters from completely different backgrounds.  Bob comes as Mario (of Mario Brothers) while Julie decides to come as Malificent.  Since those characters have nothing to do with each other, they decide they were boyfriend/girlfriend.  Now they have a weird little personal transformation story, each adapting to their own transformation.  As Malificent, Julie fights her evil urges (or takes them out by a little bondage play with Mario).  Meanwhile Mario has to deal with almost being a joke character who can jump really high and has access to hammerspace.

Bob and Julie start writing by creating their own thread where they do their introduction and lay out their relationship prior to the Con.
They then choose to join in some of the pre-event rooms, walking around talking to other PCs and getting a feel for their characters before the change.
When they're ready, they choose to go to one of the Chaos Time rooms.  In there, they become their characters and deal with the extremely chaotic first few hours - with other players writing at the time.
When they're ready, they can retreat to their own thread for some one-on-one roleplay, or move on to one of the next time zones: establishing order

So my part in this is mostly going to be setting up the group zones that people can play together in.  There will still be a lot of personal stories of transformation in sex.  Which is where admitting people in teams comes in.  I think we might also have some swapping around of teams, but as long as we don't have people orphaned without a writing partner, I don't think the setting will need the constant input of a GM to keep a story going.

I have some vague ideas for what might happen after "Imposing Order"  The Shifti stories describe a government barricade and the different transformees sorting out into groups:  Jedi Council, the Mermaid pond, Starfleet, Imperials, MIB & Aliens.  So day two would be mostly about finding a new home with your new 'type'.  I'd be open to players taking on a co-GM role of those threads (Yoda for Jedi Council, etc.)

Most of the people stay in quaranteen for a few days, so there would be multiple time zones to advance through.  Stories in Shifti after the first few days mostly deal with a villain, which gets back to a personal plot that would be done by the writing team, but I'd be open to some threats to the entire community.

Anyway, that's the rough concept.  I'm open to suggestions on how to flesh this out.

[Neysha]

Well there might have to be an indexing of the personal threads. Maybe a bit of a chronology so we know what events are occurring at what times in what areas since each player/couple is going at their own pace.

[Icowom]

Showing interest here ~

[Icowom]

Also, If I may say my own two cents.

What you're basically proposing is a very long winded explanation for separate 'rooms', or threads for characters to mill about. Some seem to be 'personal rooms' to initially get their introductions and TF scene's in, while the more 'public rooms' are to be used to have the actual adventures.

That's all fun and good, in theory. What worries me is how are we going to get partner's together? what happens in a pairing doesn't work out, what is the remaining player expected to do? And for the idea of self-governing rooms without a GM'ed plot, how are we going to decide what arc to follow? If everyone wants to go do their thing (which honestly happens more often than one thinks) it's going to be a waiting game of seeing which person IC will slowly warm up to the idea and negotiate.

That said, if we do manage to make this work like an actual gorup discussion which happens in actual conversation, I'd be sooo happy :3

[thymoit]

First, let me thank you for your interest.

Second, I'm drawing inspiration from other group games on Elliquiy where there isn't so much a GM as a shared setting.  Games where people are writing in a shared universe with a writing partner(s) and sometimes the threads never cross.  Games like Nekomata: The Game of Kitties
https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?board=358.0

So how partners get together would be much the same.  There would be a character recruitment thread.  Something approripriate like "Con Registration" where people post interest in the kind of fictional characters they would be running.  For example, I'd be interested in playing a Harry Potter in a Harry Potter/Hermione Granger pairing where the Hermione character might or might not be a MtF transformation.  Since I have no nibbles for that, I wouldn't start, but I could open up by suggesting others.  Like I think a John Snow & Daenerys Targaryen pair up would be interesting (largely because I think they are going to be the final winners - my pet theory).

When a pairing doesn't work out, the "orphaned" character could return to the Con Registration thread and look for another partner and/or ask to join someone else's thread.  I know it isn't the best solution, but at least there would be the shared rooms where your character might have met some other players and gotten involved in their stories.

>And for the idea of self-governing rooms without a GM'ed plot, how are we going to decide what arc to follow?

The arc you follow is always your story of coping with your transformation + your relationship (be it romantic, lust or whatever) with your writing partner.  The shared rooms aren't plot arcs.  They're pacing events, subplots, things to be resolved that help space out the tension on the main plot.

>If everyone wants to go do their thing (which honestly happens more often than one thinks) it's going to be a waiting game of seeing which person IC will slowly warm up to the idea and negotiate.

Hmm, you have a point.  Since everyone starts with their own personal writing team thread - there is no hard rule they have to crossover.  Game of Kitties plays like this.  The threads rarely cross over.  Going to one of the shared areas is asking to crossover with others.  I suppose everyone could stand around like middle school kids at a dance and ignore the others - if so, why bother to show in the shared thread, but I can see it happening.  My answer to that would be if others let you down, your writing partner should be your anchor.  I'm building the shared rooms to create the possibility of crossovers.  I'm not going to try to force a team to come into existence by having a communal threat attack.  I would hope that players could use an OOC thread to talk about how to crossover, but as I'm trying to set up a very freeform setting, there is the possibility it can fail.

And to answer Neysha's point - yes, as moderator I would probably have to provide a time line to help everyone keep things straight.  Although fortunately because of the chaos of the setting if things are confusing - then that is probably accurate.  Things should be confusing as hell.  I don't think the stories posted on Shifti really capture the raw chaos unleashed when more than ten thousand people are transformed at once.

[thymoit]

So after a week we have only five people interested:  Myself, Zefie, Neysha, ReijiTabibito, & Icoworm (3 Lords and 2 Ladies).  I would call that an interest check fail.  I won't be trying to set up group threads and manage this as a group game  After exchanging some PMs with Neysha (who I've roleplayed with before), we have started a solo thread based in the Xanada/Kubla Con setting:

Kubla Con: A Very Potter Convention (Thymoit & Neysha)  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=213072.0

I could just could just leave it at that.  However, I still like the idea of a shared setting.  If the others who have expressed interest want to start solo threads of their own based in the Kubla Con setting - then maybe we could have crossovers where our characters visit each other's threads.  So not quite a group game, just different people playing solo roleplays that could cross over if all parties agree.

Since we don't really have enough interest for a group game, I won't open another thread for an OOC thread.  Instead, I offer this thread for people to post character concepts on who they might like to play pre and post tranformation.  This is not restricted to just the players who have expressed interest before.  If anyone is interested in the concept where they show up at a convention to cosplay and end up magically end up transformed to their characters, you can post here seeking partners.

If people do match up and launch solo threads, please let me know.  I'll post links to all threads here so that the participants in various solo threads can discuss possible crossovers.