A Difficult Winter

[hahtalekin]

Given our own winter this year in the old USA, perhaps something similar can strike the Muck. Unusually cold, unusually long - the kind of winter you tell your grandkids about as the world become an impenetrable sheet of white.

Hunting is poor, the snow is so heavy it's exhausting just to try and find a trail to follow, and the wind carries away the scents.
Good forage is all but impossible to find, the unforgivingly low temperatures draining even the dried old leaves and bark of what little nutrients they have.

Predators and prey alike will need to travel far and travel often to seek out what little sustinence is out there, bringing the carnivores into direct challenge for the few remaining meals, and herbivores will need to venture into places they've never dared go, always being followed by hungry stomachs waiting for them to fall.

I figured something like this would be a nice, realistic way to try and encourage the groups on the Muck to get out there and mingle, be it for good or bad, and give everyone something to help drive some new ideas and plots while the seasons of winter last.

[avalikia]

The Umber herd is thinking about using this as an excuse for our two halves to temporarily become whole, perhaps by saying the weather has made it so that there's only one decent place left for deer food so we all have to live together whether we like it or not. But we're also very interested in getting involved with any other plots other people come up with either as a group or as individuals. Hopefully not as dinner, as I'm guessing nobody's interested in killing off their characters, though if there's any non-lethal way deer can be of assistance, speak up!

[Curiosity]

Mar 3, 2010 23:54:12 GMT -5 @avalikia said:

The Umber herd is thinking about using this as an excuse for our two halves to temporarily become whole, perhaps by saying the weather has made it so that there's only one decent place left for deer food so we all have to live together whether we like it or not. But we're also very interested in getting involved with any other plots other people come up with either as a group or as individuals. Hopefully not as dinner, as I'm guessing nobody's interested in killing off their characters, though if there's any non-lethal way deer can be of assistance, speak up!

I think even if no PCs actually get killed off, the tension between the herds (both deer and horse) and the packs and other predators in such a hungry time would probably make for some interesting scenes...even if it only means an NPC (or some unlucky PC, for drama's sake) gets picked off here and there during the winter hunts.

[avalikia]

Yes! This would be a good opportunity for the groups to interact. I imagine that some of the predatory groups might send scouts over looking for food in the herdlands. I don't know what the other deer players think (or horses, for that matter), but I wouldn't be opposed to more scenes of my characters being hunted - they actually don't get enough of that, if you ask me. However, I think it'd be more interesting if there were also some peaceful interactions, if anyone has any ideas about that. Hunting scenes would be fun and all, but it's easy for a prey player to get sick of it and I'd like to think that's not the best we can do. Of course, I don't really have any ideas so perhaps it is.

[hahtalekin]

I whole-heartedly agreed, and I hoped to see as much when I proposed the idea. They 'groups' on the Muck are, well, segregated.. and for wholly natural reasons - predators are not going to just happily share a meal together, no more than the herbivores are all going to cluster together and fight over the same berry bush.

But with the growing difficult conditions, folks are likely going to bump shoulders for the few remaining food sources. I've already been trying to get some interaction planned in the future between the Ute and the cougars, as Haht IC is not reassured about trying to raise a cougar all winter long, a critter who will out-eat and out-grow the pack rather easily. And yes, this is my own alt, which is why I'm also aiming to get a split. There has also been talk IC about the packs touching base with one another and determine the most likely sources of food and even some sort of agreement through the winter to keep things, well, fair and civil.

As for the bears, well, folks are welcome to come and bother them! They are rather secluded right now, but, the Viridian valley they've occupied seems to be a generously lush area and might prove a place for some groups to venture into seeking food and shelter.

[Ishara]

Sounds really interesting..

I don't know about you guys, but it makes things so much more dramatic and brings out a more realistic response from my roleplaying when something happens to a character *my* characters were close to, or even just interacted with a few times. NPCs, while capable of working in a pinch, just don't offer me that emotional connection.

When I came back, I hacked off a couple characters I had that I didn't feel had any real potential, or were just simply too old to enjoy bringing back into RP. Since they're technically gone already, perhaps I could spoof some of them back for an RP or two, in which they actually.. get nom'd?
Kole is an old dog, so he wouldn't be a real battle, and he was really involved with the dog pack.
Jade could be fun though.. she's an *evil* adult cougaress that picked on a few characters that are quite major now, like Roscoe and Niabi, and it would be a fun little fight for a few (or a whole group) of those species to get a sort of revenge as well as the chance to gang up. I've had a couple others, too; a cat, a coyote, etc, that I could bring up for eatage.

In saying that, I also don't mind just spoofing the victims in general as NPCs. I don't see the winter plot as being especially successful in getting people to RP if there isn't much balance in the life/death situation. If everyone lives.. then its just winter. A really cold winter.