Welcome, one and all, to my little game. I hope you'll enjoy your stay.
This is one of those 'play by post' game things that you usually find in the 'Role-playing' sub forum. However, as this is not NGE-related, it is located here instead.
As the name indicates, I'm deriving inspiration mainly from Revolutionary Girl Utena, a series you can read about here, here, or here. However, if you don't want to click any links while reading this thread, I'll provide my own summary:
These swordfights are all conducted in a secret dueling arena hidden in a forest behind the school, only accessible to those possessing a rose signet ring. At the beginning of each duel, the Rose Bride pins a rose to the chest of both combatants. If this rose is removed during the duel, its owner has lost. Both the beginning and the end of a duel are signaled by the ringing of bells.
Another interesting fact of the system: while the challenger's sword can come from any source, the duelist currently in possession of the Rose Bride fights with the Sword of Dios, which he (or she) pulls from her chest.
That's what this story's all about. However, I do not intend to turn this RP into a rehash of the television series. I'm bringing my own ideas to it, along with almost everything I've found in fanfic and specula over the years - along with stuff that's just there to amuse me. Plot suggestions are also welcome, though I can't promise their implementation.
And I should emphasize: NO KNOWLEDGE OF UTENA IS NEEDED. In fact, it'll be better that way, since you won't be expecting a lot of what I'll throw at you - although there'll be plenty of surprises for folks familiar with the series.
2. The outcome of combat will be determined by an anonymous vote of the non-participating players. However, the losing competitor gets to write the scene. (If you don't like this mechanic, please inform me - a large part of the problem will be that we may have too few players...)
3. As part of this RP, you will occasionally receive in-character messages from me. They will be marked as such.
4. I'd advise anyone interested in joining to read this post. (Requires an RPGnet account to access; if you don't have one and don't wish to make one, I'll quote it below.)
5. I reserve the right to alter the rules as the game continues.
6.(NEW) Posting works on a "first come, first served" policy. If you take too long a time to post, other people can swoop in and do what they want—including messing with your plans. There's no time-jumping to account for posts that happen between yours and the one you're responding to.
- Describe your character any way you want, but please include the following elements: age, gender, preferred sword, and hair color(YES, IT'S IMPORTANT).
- Since swordfighting will be big, a background in fencing or kendo is also useful.
- Fairytale motifs are also big, especially the archetypes of the prince, the princess, and the witch. A fixation on one of these can be a significant part of a character's personality.
- Include a reason for the character wanting to bring revolution to the world. A traumatic past is one possibility, but another is a beautiful past to which the character longs to return.
The layout of Ohtori Academy:
However, the layout is fluid and mostly dictated by me. I'll probably just include the dormitories on-campus for convenience.
Notable NPCs:
Her past is a mystery. Records show that she has a full scholarship to Ohtori - but how that scholarship was received, or who granted it, is unknown. She appears to have no family of any kind, and most students avoid her. She shows very little aptitude in school; although she attends classes, she rarely participates and shows substandard work when she does.
The Clown is a mysterious figure who has started showing up at Ohtori Academy at the same time as the duels. His mission seems to be to taunt the duellist and fan the flames of their doubts or aggressions. He only ever seems to show up to one duellist at a time though, and then only prior to a duel.
He has medium length snow white hair and wears a mask, almost always ‘comedy’, wearing a black sleeveless shirt, tight crimson pants and dark red gloves and boots. Can occasionally be seen brandishing knives.
Finally, accepted characters:
Sihaya Cherem (17)
Ryo Hayashi (17)
Kaijin Iwakaen (15)
Kayoji Hitomotori (15)
I'd like 3-4 players to begin the game, but I'll accept late arrivals.
Aaaand here's the linked post.
Shadowjack wrote:The hardest thing I have learned in PbP gaming, and I still struggle with, is how much to push. Because we don't have instant feedback like a face-to-face conversation, so it's terribly easy for a few "I stand around and wait" posts to turn into a weeks-long delay. I've been there, so many times. So I've been adapting my PbP style over the past couple of years to compensate; I'm still learning.
You may have noticed that I've been playing Rei and Ritsuko very aggressively. If I just do a "Rei says nothing" post, nothing happens. So I had Ritsuko's anchor descriptions forcing events forward and specifically calling out other people to give them something to riff off of, and I had Rei become unusually talkative, so that her conversation has a few hooks for the next person to grab onto, and I'd give trivial dialogue and reactions to NPCs who technically weren't under my control so that I could advance the important bits of the scene quickly instead of waiting for call-and-response.
I know most people don't play like this, but I do gamemaster like this now. Every post I make pushes things forward, sometimes gently, sometimes rapidly, and ends with: (A) a choice, or (B) an opening of options, or (C) a problem that must be responded to. In other words, I try to craft a post that can't be ignored, but has to be responded to, and hopefully that you want to respond to. Because if I don't, we sit around for a couple of weeks making "I wait for someone to do something" posts, and I hate that. So the knack of GMing for me becomes recognizing when the players are making their own fun, and when they're stuck or out of things to do, and adjusting the flow of new information from me to suit. And after GMing like this for a long time, I bring this attitude with me when I'm a player. I'm not just playing my character for myself, I'm trying to generate reactions from all the other characters. It's very meta.
But the risk of doing it this way, the path of aggressive scene advancement, is that you may push too hard and end up utterly dominating the play, forcing other player characters around and basically writing your own damn story, which of course is a bad thing in a role-playing game. ("Five years later, at Asuka's funeral, my character says…" "STOP! BACK UP!") Fear of that is one reason why I think we—people, I mean, 'cause I do it too—tend to default to "I nod and smile" posts in conversations, because we're waiting for something to grab onto, but are afraid to force things. This being Evangelion makes this behavior very, very ironic. Hedgehogs with dice!
This is one reason I've been, for me, unusually chatty in the OOC thread, because I'm trying to give feedback and trying to coax feedback out of others without having to force things IC. It's perfectly okay to riff off my posts, or grab my characters and drag them around on stage to set up your own spotlight scenes! But if I don't say that often, it's easy to forget, I think. If I ever think someone's going too far, I'll say so! Otherwise, I'll adapt and riff off of it. And if I'm pushing too hard, please, tell me! Or if I'm not giving you the hooks you need for a scene ("Why am I in this scene again?"), please, tell me!
That's where I'm at, anyway.
This playlist contains the entire OST of Utena; feel free to use it in your posts.
Last but not least, a link to the IC thread.