Plot Ideas, Take 2!

[Curiosity]

You all know the drill. Tell me what you want to see (particularly on a wider scale, but smaller-scale plot ideas are welcome too). Winter break's coming up soon...who knows, your stray wizard kitty might end up wandering back for a while, or at least stop by long enough to attempt to organize something fun. I really liked the Quest last winter, and wouldn't be opposed to another TP that involved finding 'clues' or meeting other checkpoints - any ideas along those lines?

I have to admit, with the cougars being even more active than the wolves right now, the idea brought up a while back about having jaguars (or some other south-of-the-border species) come visit for whatever reason might have some possibility to it. But while I want to provide fun RP for already-active groups, I also want to find something that will breathe life back into the other groups on the MUCK (wolves, horses, dogs, etc -- I know the wolf packs are coming up on their loose "deadline" to find new leaders, so that could be involved in a TP as well)...so hit me with your best shots, folks. Nothing's too outrageous to at least be mentioned. Who knows, I might like it enough to start RPing again for a while.

[Ashen]

One idea to get other species active, perhaps have spirits of different species that only appear to and interact with the living of their own species(horse spirit to horses, wolf spirit to wolves, etc.). Perhaps giving species-specific warnings, or pieces of some bigger puzzle. Maybe warnings and hints on how to survive an upcoming drought or some other disaster.

Very vague, I know. Just something to potentially poke around with.

[dunderhead]

You know, I was just jokingly thinking 'Chesmu comes back as a zombie to eat people's braaaaaains!' (I was also thinking, 'How about instead of Jaguars visiting from South America, we have Lovecraftian entities visiting from the outer reaches of space covered in slime?')

But you know what might actually be fun? If we had, just for a week or so, a non-canonical semi OOC TP where we get to do something ridiculous, such as, well, a bunch of player's old dead characters coming back from the dead as zombies trying to eat everyone else's braaaains. It'd be a fun romp of nostalgia for those who've been around for a while, explore the delicate intricacies of talking-animal-zombie-horror-fiction (you don't see that every day!), let us explore or distort our characters in ways impossible ICly, and, I donno, probably be a lot of fun. It could either be classic horror or just light hearted fun depending on how we'd like to play it. Due to its nature, folks truly not interested in this sort of thing can completely ignore what is going on ICly as if it is not going on, because, well, canonically it isn't. And after the TP is over, everything goes back to normal as if nothing had ever happened. Sort of like a Treehouse of Horror episode on The Simpsons.

This is how my brain works.

[temperance]

I think we need to @toad characters who haven't connected in over 100 days to really get a feel for who's left and who isn't -- maybe shoot off some emails to people, letting them know their characters are in danger of being removed from the game.

After we do that, it will be easier to look at @groups and see which ones are still viable and which aren't. Any plots we attempt to start from there should either involve the surviving groups or ICly explain why so many characters have disappeared.

I like the idea of jaguars. There's a lot that can be done with them, and it would provide an exterior force for the cougars to contend with... which will be a nice change from what Amaranth has had to deal with these past couple months. ;)

I've also always wanted to see a semi-permanent conflict on the MUCK that provides an over-arching storyline everyone can feasibly get involved with. I have a couple ideas kicking around for this, but again, it's gonna depend on what our numbers really look like, and what species people predominately want to play.

[abyss]

I'm guessing it'll be spring or summer IC by the time the break rolls around, so a drought might be interesting. It could inspire either conflict or cooperation between different species. If it was severe enough, some of the groups might even be forced out of their territories in search of water.

Nov 4, 2008 18:45:33 GMT -5 @temperance said:

I've also always wanted to see a semi-permanent conflict on the MUCK that provides an over-arching storyline everyone can feasibly get involved with. I have a couple ideas kicking around for this, but again, it's gonna depend on what our numbers really look like, and what species people predominately want to play.

I'd really like to see this happen. Also, it seems that the dogs have had a spike of activity recently... I know I've been neglecting my poor pup Rem, but maybe it's finally time for the canines to form a group of their own?

[dunderhead]

Oh, yeah, well, that's what I was thinking, really. It'd be relatively short and certainly wouldn't replace any grand TP that folks want, since, of course, most people would like long-lasting consequences and means to developing their characters and such, which I certainly understand appeals to the vast majority of you (myself included). It was never my intention to suggest doing something silly instead of or as the Winter TP. I guess I didn't make that too clear though.

Anyway, I like all the ideas, except probably for any that pander exclusively to the cougar group since they kind of sort of had enough excitement lately compared to the rest of us, unless it's something that will involve everyone else too anyway.

It would be an interesting idea to bring a -sympathetic- human character in for a little while. Someone else had the idea of an ex-veterinarian painter moving in to the old barn to work on paintings. And I think it'd be kind of neat if a wright-brother-esque plane, perhaps slightly more sophisticated (some pre-WWI model), crashed into a tree in the forest making some of the more inquisitive animals try to make sense of it, perhaps introducing its wounded human occupants who stumble around for a few days. Neither of these ideas would make a TP (the last TP already involved humans anyway, apparently), but might make for a couple interesting plots.

It stands to reason that, after nasty humans and a nasty sickness, a natural disaster would be the next big thing that would affect all animals and pit them against each other or force them to work together. A drought, a famine, a flood, or a fire could all have lasting consequences. I think of these my favorite ideas are a drought and a flood. A forest fire would probably have -too- lasting of consequences and I don't really want to see what will happen between species when they realize they can't simply catch non-players as food so easily anymore... but it might be interesting.

But I would also really like to see some kind of TP idea which doesn't have to involve a whole bunch of characters dying like it appears most previous TPs have. This is probably one of the reasons why I like the salmon run and indian spirit ideas, the latter most of all. I mean, I like bittersweet stories (holy crap, I liked the Plague Dogs movie -- a movie based on a book by the author of Watership Down and animated by the same folks who did the Watership Down movie, which is about the most horrifically teary-eyed depressing miserable movie about utter hopelessness you could possibly watch and I don't recommend it to anyone who isn't specifically wanting to bawl their poor eyes out), but I like variety and depth doesn't always have to involve horrible suffering, does it?

Anyway, those are my comments. Kind of grew into a bigger post I thought it'd be. Cheers.

[Curiosity]

As the programs I'm having Asrohc work on now are directly related to my original idea posted here (though I do approve of all of the other mentioned ones!), I want to get another sort of feeler out there for what people think of South American animals making a brief appearance on our grid.

They would -not- become playable character species, and they would leave again at the end of the TP. Also, South American does not mean specifically jaguar (though it doesn't exclude them either). But if you have suggestions for a particular type of species you think would mesh well with the plot, feel free to suggest it. Also, this is another TP that would affect essentially most of the grid (or at least those interested in the TP) and involve puzzle-like aspects, like the very successful Quest TP last winter.

But overall, would most of you be interested in dealing with South American characters for a TP, or would you prefer to do something else for the winter TP?

The other popularly mentioned idea so far has been a drought, but seeing as how the upcoming RL winter would coincide with IC spring and not a hot summer, it might be best to put that off until our 3(!)-year anniversary TP.

(Also, as for the mentioned "spirit" ideas, those were also used heavily in the Quest TP last winter, and are still used by the Amaranth on occasion, so that's not exactly something new and unique to focus on solely for our next TP, but rather something that can be used in various other plots alongside the main storyline.)

[dunderhead]

Well. I guess I can trust you folks to make it interesting. But the idea of animals appearing south of the boarder doesn't really appeal to me. It just doesn't seem too interesting in its own right. There are new pred species for prey animals to avoid, and maybe the others look a little goofy. But once the player characters get over their initial shock and curiosity, it jaguar NPCs or whathaveyou don't really seem like anything new that'll spark more interesting plots than doing something to force player characters to interact with other player characters rather than with NPCs... at least that's what I imagine. I've been reading the last TP and it seemed to have gone very well.

The one way I can really see it get interesting is if a jaguar pack or some other species comes in and threatens the cougar's dominance. I think that was mentioned before. But again, that is sort of going to be a cougar-centric TP. And maybe they'll come in and try to take over the forest area instead, maybe shove a few other animals around -- but, with the activity of the wolf pack waning, and no real other groups floating about at the moment, I kind of doubt how much we'd really get out of it. I'd also like to hear some good real reason for them to come up so far north -- maybe a big part of the jungle burned down or something forcing them up? Maybe they're experiencing a famine of their own? I suppose I could see both of those working adequately. Then, I'm completely confident all of that would be thoroughly thought out, yeah.

Of course, I'm new here. I don't really know what to expect. This is just my initial reaction. I'm sure it could be made interesting in ways I couldn't expect. But, I might just be speaking for myself, I doubt I'd be really interacting much with them, and maybe the ones who would are the territorial groups on the MUCK -- which seem to be pretty much exclusively the cougars at the moment. *shrugs*

Then, maybe I don't have much of an imagination. I guess after writing all that a few ideas do come to mind. I could spoof one of these en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pud%C3%BA and get a plot going on trying to get a few smaller animals to try and help it out while there are cougars and jaguars about in the unfamiliar forest. Pudus are absolutely adorable!

So I guess we'll see. I have the tendency to have doubts about good ideas and have them slowly grow on me.

P.S.: spring might not be a good time for a drought, but it's a perfect time for a flood :3 Just sayin'

[dunderhead]

Actually, I thought that too, but I was just reading Wikipedia on the subject. Read the "Distribution and Habitat" section.

"In the early 1900s, the jaguar's range extended as far north as Southern California."

Their past and present ranges.



So actually, it would be purely justifiable to make a TP based on the jaguars. The early 1900s is the epoch where humans pushed Jaguars out and destroyed their habitat in much of where they used to reside in North America at that time. The plot could revolve around some jaguars deciding not to move back south, but to move north instead, and to try to survive there, but ultimately failing. The end of the TP would probably involve them dying out, rather than going back home.

[Cael]

I'm still sort've... eh... on the jaguar/South American animal idea, just because I never thought we were that close to a southern border (of course, we are, I just never pictured it that way). Anyway, Dunder made an interesting point that managed to creep it's way through my sleepy brain.

A sympathetic human character.

I like it. It sort've melds with the time when Curiosity brought Skylar into the grid... it implied a human presence that wasn't necessarily bad. What about a caravaning family coming across the old farm and trying to bring it back to life during the spring? They'd affect those animals still hanging around the farm, I'm sure they'd go into the forest for hunting (a degree of NOT good presence, sure), they might come across the horse herd, heck, Nico' might go back to farm work ;D Eh. Just an expansion, albeit a sleepy one, of Dunder's idea.

Again. The South American thing makes me... eh. I just don't see a reason they'd travel so far north, unless something absolutely catastrophic happened to make them migrate out (but if that's the case they wouldn't migrate back). The only marginally feasible idea I could come up with was an animal or two getting out of a traveling circus caravan, or something (but I'm pretty sure we discussed that a long time ago and nixed the idea, but I could be wrong).

Edit: Looks like Dunder posted juuuuuust before me and beat my ambivolence to the ground ;D Ah, well. <3

[Curiosity]

Braxton: That's why I kept emphasizing -South- American species that would be -temporary-.

Nicodemus: We extend into Texas (our southern border is Mexico), so yes, we are that far south.

And Skylar isn't really from -good- humans...neutral at best, considering they were hunters, and my original intentions with him would have played into that aspect a lot more. XD Regardless, I'm going to veto humans for a while, as we just had them en masse during the summer, and a lot of players prefer the limited human contact.

But if you guys don't want the South American species involvement yet, then we won't use them. I can potentially think of some different sort of species (maybe even Canadian, or eastern US) coming in and involving the same sort of ideas that would involve the 'puzzle' ideas forming in my head, as I do think the idea I have regarding that would be a lot of fun, and I'd rather do it over the winter when I have more free time available than next summer, when I'll be busy again.

[Tala]

I like the idea that Nico came up with about the humans an the farm. True we just had the RP with the hunters an all but it seemed to bring more players on, at least that's what I thought.

I don't fully agre with the introduction of South American animals, unless there could be another reason why they was around, not that they came up from SA and just happened into Meadows an all. If people are still interested in the thought of bring Jaguar's then perhaps another way to do it. What about a travling circus type show, and the jaguar's or what ever was able to escape and wandered deep into the forest? This has happened before IRL in different places around the world so it could be possible.

[dunderhead]

Personally, I find integrity of setting to be one of the most important aspects of fiction.

But I am warming to the idea of Jaguars in Meadows for a brief period provided the reason is because of human destruction of their environment in Mexico, as it turns out it actually makes some sense chronologically and geographically (as said in my last post). In fact, through a little research, it looks like it fits really well in with the time period. It'd be interesting to play up the futility of their efforts to find a new home and the inevitability of them being unable to survive there. Though it'd be a little sad. So if we do have some external species coming in at all it'd makes sense to me that it would be them.

I also really like the circus idea, by the way. Half a dozen exotic animals who have -no- idea how to act like animals could be introduce to the forest for a brief period of time. Maybe there can be a seal that will juggle rocks for the ferals *chuckles*. It reminds me a bit of A Bug's Life ;D Not really sure how broad a TP that could account for, though.

So yeah, it's all good. I think I am just gonna sit back and see what you guys come up with.

[Ashen]

If we're doing a plot for the cougars, than the not-so-nice-roving-band of jaguars would be interesting...

The "WTF are those spotted cougar things?!" factor would give it life for a bit, but it needs something more. The best plots always screw with the status quo, so I think it would be more interesting if they actually displaced Amaranth. This would open up all sorts of smaller plots in the meanwhile... "Are our current leaders good enough?" Good timing, as the leadership did just recently change. "Where are we going to live now?" Most of the land is claimed by somebody or another. Who would open their home to a bunch of cougars? Or would anyone? "Oh I remember something similar happening before" Stories to the younger generation about why Amaranth came to the mountains originally. Because lore RP is always fun.

I'll leave the "WHY" about jaguars up to you guys. I'm just here to throw ideas out there. XD

I have a few ideas on the natural disaster angle, but I'll get back on that.

[leejakobson]

here is another thought or idear what if we did a plot where a traveling zoos has a bunch of escaped animals go into the wild for a bit. of course it would not be a permenant thing they be rounded up or eaten but it would leave open interaction with more excotic animals and allow for an interesting set of rp