The WW Planning Thread

[zipp]

I'm writing a quickie right now. Me and Simey, or me and Beo may need to do an MSN chat sometime to role play out the next encounter (that's how me and Slavemaster made our interactions flow so well... little secret... it was all RPGing!)

My MSN is [e-mail].

[Simey]

Apr 11, 2010 14:50:24 GMT -5 Beowuuf said:

Unless the army being attacked by Chaos creatures forced the rag-tag remnants on the outskirts dealing with Cloe to be pushed into Eshnar.

Ferl children to the left of themn, chaos creatures to the right of them, and everyone ready to distrust everyone else naturally or thanks to the chaos critter effect.... might that be a way to do this?

Yeah, that's good. Perhaps NH's last stand could be the only reason that anyone gets away at all. Realised after I'd invented Knight-Commander Behlen that NH hasn't been metioned and that Simony Bryont should perhaps be in overall charge of the Durenese....? I really need to look up the knight ranks somewhere.

Going with that order of events, the Cloe situation would be unresolved when the attack happens, and so people - including her - would be forced together as they escape. The ruins of Eshnar would have to be the only viable shelter on offer, I suppose.


EDIT:

Apr 11, 2010 21:18:06 GMT -5 zipp said:

There was nothing left in that city and probably hadn't been for years, if her senses were speaking to her correctly.

I realise you're not making a definite statement there, Zipp, so I could be reading into it wrong, but just to be clear: The extra-destruction of Eshnar - whether by Xog before the CM got him or by the CM himself - that has left the surrounding land blasted happened shortly after Beowuuf, Simey and Armadalus headed for Holmgard. That was just a few short weeks ago. I know we want a little bit of a disconnect with the previous WW, but personally I am not thinking that a load of time has passed - apart from anything else it makes no sense for no one to have investigated the city before this army. So in my mind, Eshnar's scars are fresh, and resonances of the dire forces unleashed there in recent times could well still have influence amongst the ruins.

[zipp]

This is Cloe's senses, not neccessarily reality. If you recall, when Hazelae left Eshnar, it was left a mess, but oddly "clean" spiritually. Just... empty. Xog was blasted from the earth by CM and was masking his presence anyways, not to mention he wasn't in Eshnar long enough to leave his spiritual impression.

So Eshnar would be eerily silent.

I'll make some adjustments, though.

[eviltb]

guys Im really quite stuck on what to write next. I cant seem to make anything work for the "secret chaos cult in Temel" without it turning into Silent Hill. Although SH is awesome, it feels like Im just ripping it off as a premise for a sub-plot. So any sort of ideas or assistance would be great thankyouplease.

[Beowuuf]

Make the secret cult that finds eviltb end up being the resistance to the completely turned to Chaos city of Temel? They could be criminals, etc who are driven enough to not want to be subjected to Chaos.

[zipp]

Well, the first question to ask yourself in any plot line is how you want your character to develop. Then you place them in a situation that can foster that change/development/reinforcement. From there, you can make all sorts of twists and turns.

For Sera's character, I want her to walk the fine line (as do most of my characters) between morality. Cloe is doing the same thing, but from a completely different perspective. Cloe is a character who has gained an appreciation of life now that she's one of the most hated personalities on Magnamund (to those that remember who she is). That discrimination, as well as her natural haughtiness, pressures her to turn back to her selfish ways.

Sera, on the other hand, is being taught a bizarre way to gain inner strength: through holding power over other people. Thus, I think her plot line needs to put her in a position of power.

Evil TB is pretty tough now, right? What's his modus operandi? Does he still stealth around or is he strong enough to just start murdering people to get his way?

Because another interesting dynamic could be had in HOW Evil and Sera take over the city. If Evil is more brutal, Sera could show a surprising aptitude for politics. The two could become engaged in their own sort of war over the best way to control the city and could each take hold of different factions.

So Evil and Sera would be fighting each other, in some twisted way. But it would probably all be part of Evil's plot to train her.

[eviltb]

well you've seen from previous posts that ETB isnt afraid of holding back, he will kill when required and even just for kicks (see what happened to Lorkan after all the help he gave!). Its safe to say the ETB probably thinks he is "the right hand of Naar", the only other NAK he has encountered being Dark Sonar back in Kaag and as far as the story goes, other NAKs are MIA.

How much of a story would it be if him and Sera just walked into Temel, found the mayor or whoever and just gutted him and sat in his chair? ETB isnt Chaotic Evil, Im trying to make him more Lawful. If he was CE, then he'd just be on the side of the C'Master and therfore wouldnt be serving Naar. ETB will eventually want to turn Sera into an NAK, so thats one plot point. His main aim is to topple the CM, for the glory of Naar. Just trying to figure out/justify how taking over a small Sommerlending village gets him closer to that...

[Beowuuf]

and we're back to the cult being the resistance, and the government quietly already chaos's minions

[Beowuuf]

Also, while I understand plotting out a character arc is good for the smaller collaborative stories, my understanding was we'd dynamited the previous arcs, etc in order to have a shared storyline. So really, we should have a theme that joins everyone, not just two or three characters. The arc for each character is then surely how they react to this theme - how they initially take it, where it pushes them, how they resist or change because of it, and what they are like on the other side.

And, of course, then at the end of that arc you've got alot of changed characters ready to clash together again as they realise how everyone else has changed and re-evaluate themselves .

So yeah, basically that's why I stopped writing Beowuuf in this new situation. The general themes as they could be here did not seem to be something groundbreaking compared to his previous arc, and any storyline with Cloe seemed to only work by making it a personal arc and introducing alot of insular history.

Whereas Sahmas, as a less formed character and a younger character is more apt to being shaped by the themes. If it becomes duty versus free will (doing what people tell you is right versus actually acting in the best interests of the world) then Shamas is well placed to have a past that saw him with a broader view of the world than his current assignment. If the theme is as simple as law versus chaos, then of course you have the knightly order versus Sahmas's curiosity with Beowuuf's adopted species and other things form his past.

Anyway, so I think what we need to do is to actually say, explicitly, what the theme and arc of all this is supposed to be. Is it change versus stagnation? Is it external morality and duty versus person freedoms and codes?

What echo of this is each character facing? What theme basically encompasses as many of the current characters as broadly as possible - from say Doomy and Sahmas trying to prove themselves, to Al's old warhorse coming back out into active service into a changing world, to Simey and his personal demons, to Cloe and her reajusting morality, to eviltb and his code versus brutality and hatred, to Sera and her quest for purpose.

Whatever that broad theme is should certainly be embodied in Temel, and could certainly echo in the disintergration of the army. IF we're really on our game, both the terrible new order of Temel and the destruction of the order of the army should be the two opposing extremes that al the characters are seeking some middle ground in.

[zipp]

To my mind, then, Temel should represent (ironically) order! The army, which was supposed to be ordered, falls into chaos... Temel, taken over by evil, becomes a bastion of resistance to the Chaos because Evil TB keeps things so ordered.

[Beowuuf]

I like the idea of the 'ordered' Temel actually haven fallen to Chaos, and when Temel is toppled by eviltb into chaos, it's the ordered natural chaos of living under eviltb's disctatorship. Or something.

[zipp]

It seems that if anyone could stave off chaos with his will, it would be a Nad Adez Konkor: someone with the discipline of the Kai and the lack of emotions of the Darklords.

It would provide an interesting twist to things, too, if a bastion of Evil was actually the one thing that was successfully fighting off Chaos. Would allow for some writing partnerships that would otherwise be impossible, while including a lot of tension and possibilities of betrayal.

[eviltb]

I do like this idea chaps. Now to actually put pen to paper... or fingers to keyboard at least!

[zipp]

For those who I am writing with, I thought it would be helpful to give you guys a quick breakdown of my characters' current attitudes so that you guys have an easier time writing them into your posts. The best, of course, is always to actually chat over MSN or AIM, but baring that, these will at least be helpful.

Sera: Sera is much more confident now and much bolder with Backhand, asking him questions regularly and dodging his slaps while simultaneously ignoring them. I suspect this is actually fine with Evil TB and a sign that his lessons are working, so he'll probably adjust his behavior somewhat accordingly, but that's just a guess on my part, not an ultimatum. Sera will particularly be interested in knowing what they are going to do next and will seem pleased with the notion of meeting other people, though the thought will surprise her and result in a quick contemplative silence, accompanied by a grimace (she's not sure she wants to deal with other people right now). She will readily agree to do anything that puts her in a position of responsibility.

Cloe: Cloe is nervous and tense at the moment. She doesn't know what's going on or even what year it is, though she will not let on to these facts. Her moods and answers are all calculated based on who she's talking to. If she is with the general public, she will mostly stay silent, trying to pick up what information she can and then later pretend that she knew some, if not most, of this already. She's basically filling in the gaps of her knowledge.

Cloe's current goal is to figure out what is wanted from her in this life. She will not mention the Chaos Creature that pointed her towards the camp and will only talk about Beowuuf if pressured, then only mentioning that he is dead and she found the body. She had retained, from her past life, a liking for secrets and privacy that keeps her closed off from revealing everything she knows. She suspects that somewhere in this army she will find direction, so she's keeping her eyes open.

With people who try to boss her around, she will become quickly intolerant. Enough of her memories of the power she once controlled have stuck with her that she retains somewhat of a haughtiness around those who are in positions of authority. However, she's lost her general disdain for the lower class and will not order people around herself, preferring to be insular around the general public.

Those who engage her in intellectual conversation will find her a willing talking companion. Cloe has a keen understanding of human nature and an almost prophetic ability to read people's intentions and plans. She's very intelligent and may be able to provide answers to situations that others can't read.

If someone, like Armadalus, approaches her claiming to recognize her, Cloe will go on the defensive. She will not forcibly deny being the same Cloe that walked Magnamund in prior years, but she will not go into detail about the events either, nor try to explain herself. If only a single person claims to know her, she will, in public, say they are mistaken or that they are crazy, though in private she will try and meet with them and explain what's going on, to some degree. She will instantly suspect that whoever knows her has something to do with her purpose in this life and that will become her focus.

[Beowuuf]

I guess I can write up a similar thing once I actually figure Sahmas out a little better!