[PbtA] Die Fabulous

[Touketsu]

Originally Posted by rhaiber

Also from experience, sometimes keeping a list of alternates on hand is useful in case one of your players has to back out. You can never predict when IRL will get in the way.

Absolutely this. I feel like 3/4 of the games I join on this site, someone winds up dropping out within the first week or two. Not sure why.

[ihinka]

Because players are tempted to over-commit just as much ad DMs Especially when it's something you really want to play, or someone you want to play with.

If Mundy hadn't set a slower post rate I would have just sat here and ugly cried, because I wouldn't be able to commit to another game at a faster pace.

[Kaigen]

PbP has a way of piling up, too. The longer you put off posting, the more other people's posts start piling up, giving you more to read and sort through. If you don't set a sustainable pace early, things can get away from you fast, and the format makes it all too easy to just ghost. It's been the case on every site I've played on. A Discord server at least makes it a little easier to check in on people, in my experience.

[Strangemund]

That's exactly why I went with the slow-burn pace! I feel like its more managaable for folks who are either busy with IRL obligations or who play in a lot of games here! It gives you enough time to read everybody's posts, and put the time in for what you wanna write without feeling you gotta rush it out! The only real con is that sometimes folks wait on each other to post, but that's easily fixed with a friendly nudge from my experience.

I also think having an OOC Discord helps manage the long wait time between posts as well. You can discuss what you wanna write/when you want to post/if the flirty tension should be higher--it just really improves the overall experience!

[SevenStones]

Agreed with all of the above. I think I'd rather be on the waitlist to join if someone drops out than to have too many people at the beginning or multiple groups at once. The setup of the campaign seems ideal to introduce new characters at just about any point.

And definitely agreed on OOC Discord. Most of the games I've played utilize it, and I really feel the absence when there's a game that doesn't.

[Strangemund]

Excellent! It looks like majority is on the same page! That works out great in my favor!!

So, we have about seventeen days left before I close applications!

I'm still going to let this bad boy sit just in case we get any late newcomers, as I think Outplay is finishing up pretty soon, and weekends are usually when folks are free to do as they please. But if this stays quiet for another week, then I am going stop taking any more apps, and let those who are still interested in the game work on their app until the deadline.

All the while, I'll be here, writing up bits and pieces of fluff for the campaign on the side~!

[ihinka]

I remember a trope I'm particularly fond of, though I'm not sure how applicable it would be to this sort of setting The lawwoman and the harlot Though, now that I think about it, it can work in any setting, it's just that in my head it belongs to a wild (wicked) west one

[Strangemund]

Ooh!! I do like that myself! It was one of my favorite tropes in the western genre. Here, it probably won't happen-- unless heavily requested-- but I do plan to include lawful NPCs to play as antagonist against our more 'morally-flexible' PCs, as I am admittedly a sucker for the incorruptible lawful figure plays cat and mouse against those who don't dance to the same tune! That tension can be really good.

The other trope I also obviously like is big parties, as this is my second game to include a masquerade-- I just decided to make it the end goal rather than the starter!

[Strangemund]

GAME UPDATE

I have decided to take on THREE more players instead of just two~!

That change has been updated on the Game Ad.

[ihinka]

Wee!

[Touketsu]

Yes! Peer pressure wins again!

Jk, but I'm stoked to hear our individuals chances of being selected just increased a bit.

[EmmaRae]

Woohoo ��!

[Strangemund]

Applications Close Friday!!

I will NOT be accepting any more applications after Friday, 11:49 PM Central Time, so post your interest before these fabulous gates close! Anyone who has posted interest or started an app has until September 4th to finish their work, but if you miss the Friday Final Call, then you'll just have to wait for the next ship, folks!

We are getting ever closer to that wondrous deadline that I find myself bouncing up-and-down with excitement~!

[DreamInverse]

Name: Khiara Clouded-Wind-of-Ruby-Snow aka "the Flameheart’s Sliver", "The Sliver"

Physical Appearance:

As is befitting the Chosen of the Deephive Temple, wherever she goes, Khiara is orbited by floating candles lighting her in flickering firelight. The flames illuminate the golden highlights in her long flowing waves of auburn hair and seem to make Khiara’s bright blue eyes sparkle from a light deep within. Years of training has given her soft features some athletic muscular tone though most only notice the curves of her body made prominent by corseting and exemplary seamstressing. “The Flameheart’s Sliver must be a beauty that draws all eyes like the three moons draw the stars.”

She is a luminous beauty, encircled by light. Though in truth, this is not at all what Khiara really looks like *dun dun dun* Once Khiara proved herself in the trial of the shadowed depths and became the chosen, she was blessed (or cursed) to always be orbited by at least one, usually a few, floating candles. Their light projects the image of Khiara that all see. No one, not even Khiara has seen her true form since the initiation and most believe this to be her true form - now and always.



Playbook: The Chosen

Concept:
At a young age, Khiara was marked by the arcane Deephive Temple as the chosen one of her generation. The Flamheheart’s Sliver. A sorceress prophesied to avert an ancient extremely complicated prophecy. Each generation’s sliver serves the temple and their community dealing with spiritual and mystical challenges and represents the Temple at religious and political functions yet none as yet have had to deal with the Prophecy.

Khiara loved magic and swordplay and took to her role and training with remarkable zeal and talent. Though her dream of what her life would be and what the temple demands have not mirrored each other exactly. While Khiara finally got to move to the big city, her duties and training don’t really give her any time to see it or live in it. Even if she does manage to have some free time, the expected behaviour of the chosen leaves her little room for the fun, exploration, and romance she secretly craves.


Your Fashion Style: Gold, white, and red are the colours of Flameheart’s Sliver and the temple spares no expense in making elaborate gowns to show off their chosen one. Khiara is always dressed in the ornate corsets, gowns and robes of her Temple. They are elaborately embroidered mystic sigils and runes are woven aftfully into all the designs to ensure the “Flameheart’s Sliver” is properly aligned and carries herself in manner befitting her station and to best align her mystic powers to bear at the many events, rituals, and challenges demanded of the chosen one. Khiara is grateful for such beautiful clothes but misses the freedom of having her own style.

Also while lovely, the elaborate religious trappings of her formal attire are not considered at all stylish by the denizens of Prism City. They have beauty but it’s museum beauty.


Your Sword: Sculpted from pearlescent ivory wax, Khiara’s broadsword seems more a work of art than a weapon. Along the length of the blade are elemental angels from the myths of the Deephive. Their wings extend from the blade creating a jagged, but artful flow to what would otherwise be a straight edge. The angels are carved as if in mid-flight whirling around the central mass of the sword which is chiseled more like a labyrinthine series of stairs leading to shimmering diamond portal that is the sword’s tip. The elaborate detail of the wax and the detail of the sculpt, make it seem as though the slightest touch my break portions of it off, yet when raised for combat, the wax heats to a fiery molten state and the carvings animate and flow with every swing bringing the edges of a thousand feathers and eldritch stairs across an enemy’s flesh. The sword is named “Queen’s Folly” and was forged especially for Khiara as the chosen one using the sword of her youth as the seed and the sacred waxes and alchemical mixtures of the Deephive.

Your Motivation: No one much remembers the original reason for the Party of the Century. It was a festival that surrounded an ancient rite tied to the DeepHive temple prophecy. A night of revels that aided in the mystical preparation to avoid the cataclysm of the Forsaken Return. Centuries have passed and that purpose was lost to time, the Deephive temple fell out of popular favor and is now recognized more out of tradition than any understanding or respect. The party has far outgrown and expanded beyond its ancient purpose. Even the temple elders have lost track of the exact importance of the party. Regardless, the organizers always prepare a special place for the temple’s contingent (away from hipper sections of the party) and the temple always sends a delegation to the party along with their chosen one.

So technically, Khiara is already invited to the party, but she doesn’t want to go as The Flameheart’s Sliver, She wants to go as Khiara. She has worked so long as the temple heroine, she just wants a night to be herself. Surely she’s earned that.

What tropes do you like as a player? Mixed messages, mistaken identities, role reversal, etiquette fiascos, love/hate shenaningans, romance interrupted, love letters, magical transformations of mind, heart or body, keeping up appearances, flirtation mid-disaster/combat, breaking into song, musical numbers.

Discord? Yes

ARE YOU READY TO PARTY!? In the lost texts of Zarnago, there is a 700 page aria entitled “ BRING IT ON!”

[DreamInverse]

I had to do a little fancy footwork to try and make a Chosen that would also be a nobody in terms of the city. Hope you like it.