Afterworld (Experimental New System Guinea Pig RP Signups)

RP-related discussion otherwise not covered in the Character Closet.
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Spleen
I put a BOMB inside EVERY BAD GUY!
 
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Afterworld (Experimental New System Guinea Pig RP Signups)

Unread postby Spleen » Mon May 05, 2008 5:20 pm

"As far as we know, when most people die, they wind up in heaven or hell. I say 'as far as we know', because we know for a fact - we, meaning the dead - that heaven and hell exist. Well, okay, we know about hell and sort of suspect heaven...the point is that no one's shown us a map and if there are more than four places - Earth, Heaven, Hell, and this dump where we are - we're blissfully ignorant about the fifth (probably a good thing). This dump is the Afterworld, where you've become stuck. I say 'stuck' because it's rare that you get sent here purposely - with all your papers stamped, let's say - and rarer still that you're going to improve your metaphysical situation while you're here. So, stuck. To develop the stamped papers analogy, let's say you have a filing cabinet, with Heaven being the top drawer and Hell being the bottom, or maybe the paper shredder. The Afterworld is the space behind the cabinet - things that get lost and things the bureaucrats don't want to think about.

You died on Earth. You might have died praising Caesar or Pharoah in the face of an enemy, or you might have died in a plane crash or an industrial accident or on the Titanic or in a mugging in a bad neighborhood in Philadelphia after a Sixers game, but probably you died suddenly and violently. All you probably remember of your death is a brief instant of pain and then suddenly being here, and you should count yourself lucky for that. And now you're in the Afterworld and you're bare-ass naked under a hazy purple sky. But that's okay, because you get used to the sky here and most people are willing to lend out some pants to Newborn - that's what you're called if you're still naked, and the pun came about by chance. 'Born' is what the natives here call human souls who wind up in the Afterworld, because they find sexual reproduction an incredibly bizarre idea. You would, too, if you were them.

You're gonna find that it works differently here. If you were a physicist in life, go put your head under a rock, it'll be easier than some of what you come across here.

Your body is different. Your mind is different. Because you no longer have to follow the rules your brain and your muscles followed on Earth, before long on the Afterworld you'll probably wind up with a strange set of abilities indeed. Telekinesis, for instance, is so common among the Born - especially adventurers - that you might get a weird look if someone finds out that you've been around the block and don't have any ability with it. Flying, predicting the future, punching holes in stone, if you work at any of it you'll get it eventually. And that's just the powers you WANT...others will just sneak up on you.

With me so far?

Now, you might ask what there's to adventure for in the Afterworld. After all, you're dead, you can't get any more dead, right? First of all, while that's true, it takes surprisingly little to wind up with your ass in hell, and while that's not as bad a thing as if you wound up there in chains like a sinner and there are plenty of places in the Afterworld where your friends can bribe a demon for your return, it's not a fun place and I don't recommend spending a whole lot of time there, and definitely not eternity. Second of all, although none of them can KILL you, the Afterworld is not a place devoid of pain, or even of hunger, thirst, fatigue, loneliness, or the presence of annoying people. Heaven might be. Enough people believe that to be so that journeys to find the Door - there's a certain way of saying the word, a kind of reverence and an emphasis that makes it the focus of the sentence, that leaves no doubt which one you mean - are fairly common. Because if it exists, it's the one way you're getting to True Heaven from the Afterworld.

So access to heaven might be a reason to get as strong as possible - the way is fraught with danger, after all. There are other reasons to, of course; danger and scarcity (of food or comfort) leads to government, and maybe you wanna establish a kingdom of your own. Or fight against those who would. Or protect the weak from horrors from beyond the mortal world (you might be surprised to find that hell is not the worst place you can go...winding up inside one of them probably wins THAT award; being eaten isn't fun).

So focus your mind, steel your will, maybe do a couple toe-touches to get the blood flowing (you've still got blood, you can check) and get going.

Oh, yeah, and welcome to the Afterworld."

-A few words from an old inhabitant of the Afterworld


So what this is is a system and setting that I've been working on for a couple weeks now, mostly after finishing Stephen King's Dark Tower (if I can distill the unique flavor of that series into this setting, I'll count myself lucky). Very little in the system is entirely banged out, so anyone who joins has the unique circumstance of being able to decide a lot of what their character can do (with approval) and possibly have it implemented into the system when it's finished; of course, anyone who joins is also at the whim of the changes I make in the system, so an ability you've relied on in one game might be altogether gone in the next. It's going to be experimental, and you're going to be my guinea pigs.

I'm looking for probably four or five, for chat. Post availabilities. If you need more information, shoot me an IM (DeusFio is the screenname).
"Tell you what, Leto, I won't fight with you. Zeus' wives are pretty tough customers. You have my permission to boast openly that you have beaten the daylights out of me."
-Hermes, the Iliad (Stanley Lombardo, translator) Book 21

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PriamNevhausten
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Unread postby PriamNevhausten » Mon May 05, 2008 10:30 pm

You know I am down with this. I am generally available after 8 PM (EDT) most nights, with some variance. And I can always be reached via YIM, though my responsiveness is questionable since I have it on while I'm doing work.
"You haven't told me what I'm looking for."
"Anything that might be of interest to Slitscan. Which is to say, anything that might be of interest to Slitscan's audience. Which is best visualized as a vicious, lazy, profoundly ignorant, perpetually hungry organism craving the warm god-flesh of the anointed. Personally I like to imagine something the size of a baby hippo, the color of a week-old boiled potato, that lives by itself, in the dark, in a double-wide on the outskirts of Topeka. It's covered with eyes and it sweats constantly. The sweat runs into those eyes and makes them sting. It has no mouth, Laney, no genitals, and can only express its mute extremes of murderous rage and infantile desire by changing the channels on a universal remote. Or by voting in presidential elections."
--Colin Laney and Kathy Torrance, William Gibson's Idoru

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Kelne
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Unread postby Kelne » Thu May 08, 2008 9:11 pm

Looks interesting, but no reliable chat availability, and probably a few too many commitments anyway. Let us know how it goes.

Geesi
I fix problems.
 
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Unread postby Geesi » Fri May 09, 2008 10:45 am

Hey, this looks neat.

Post-8PM Eastern on weekdays is workable, and most times on weekends if there's enough advanced warning.


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