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Post by Celebes on Jan 11, 2019 9:34:41 GMT -5
I would say it is just as real as Narnia is to the Pevensies. Not that that was any particular inspiration...ha. I put that suggestion in there half-jokingly, but I do think that it would make for a fun story, if a bit ambitious relative to our average activity levels. It would probably take a few writers to be dedicated over a few months to really flesh it out. Painted Paws and even Crystal Caves I could see working better as a larger group, drop-in-drop-out kind of Rp, but usually it seems with those we have a lot more people dropping out than in.
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Post by Barkfur on Jan 11, 2019 19:23:03 GMT -5
I'd like painted paws. It seems like a good way to pick up in our current DAB storyline. New family, Barkfur still relatively shady, the aftermath of a feast, seems like a good idea to me. I vouch for painted paws.
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Post by Isaiah on Jan 16, 2019 22:44:50 GMT -5
These are really nice! I agree that Painted Paws seems like the easiest to get into, and maybe once we have momentum going (or momentum on Painted Paws starts to wear out) we can try out one of your other wonderful ideas!
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Post by Celebes on Jan 18, 2019 11:54:17 GMT -5
Sounds good to me, I'll work on getting up Painted Paws then. I'm tempted to experiment with having both my characters in the room at once, although I'm wondering how hard it would be to write for both. Challenge accepted! (?)
Also, I realize that when I was proposing the idea I messed up our unofficial timeline, since the Mole/Vole family showed up for the tour when our characters were adults. Ah well, I guess these kinds of things are a common occurrence in Mossflower. Perhaps this time it's two voles with a baby mole.
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Post by Isaiah on Jan 18, 2019 21:35:26 GMT -5
I want to see Burfle roleplay with all three of his characters in the room at once.
That could probably be a whole RP to itself, honestly.
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Post by Burfle, Brookfill & Madrigal on Jan 19, 2019 11:57:08 GMT -5
I'm afraid that's impossible Isaiah. Due to many instances of theft and destruction of books, along with his generally being a nuisance, Maddy has renegotiated an RP contract whereby she does not have to appear in the same post as Burfle for more than two sentences. Burfle said that he never wanted to play with the smelly foxpaws anyway, and it's descended into a rather heated argument from there. Brooky has been caught in the middle of all of this, and decided to go swimming in the pond until the others cool off.
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Post by Barkfur on Jan 19, 2019 18:55:49 GMT -5
Well Isaiah, maybe I could give RPing with 3 characters a try, though you may encounter a few of them popping in and out at times. Side effects may include Chaos, whiny arguments, Insults Extreme sarcasam, and writers block. It's worth a shot, and challenge accepted.
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Post by Celebes on Feb 7, 2019 13:06:19 GMT -5
Great Beasts of Old [Quest Hook]"Well, I don't know how to start my news, tellin' yah that it is good or bad, so I'll just get to startin' and you gentlebeasts can decide for yourselves," the aging hedgehog told his hosts. An uneasy silence hung in the air, causing the speaker to pause. He couldn't have been aware that the with Abbey elders had just heard a report that a warband lead by the infamous Red Rouge was cutting its way through Mossflower, any news would seem good in comparison.
"Go on, Peat," the Abbot replied with a seasoned facade of calm.
"Yes, yes Father. I came running here as soon as it happened, on me oath. Walking down through Mossflower I was, not too long ago, thinking about what I should be bringin' home for supper. The little hogs, see, are always found of the mulberries growin' about this time of year, an' I figred that bein' on the road wasn't a half bad place to start lookin' for 'em. They always grow along the path, fat and fresh.
So I made my way to the path that runs easterly to your Abbey. It has a bend near our creek, you know. The track was still a fair piece muddier, it was, accountin' for the rains we had last night. Sides'd all dried out, but the middle was still a goodly bit gooshy. Poor drainin' my brother always says. So picking berries I was, and in evenin' light it was getting bright to keep facin' west towards the bushes. Sunsets are pretty, but they can hurt an old hogs eyes if we admire too long. Turned back towards the road I did to clear my gazers. And do you know what I saw? Right there, gobbled in mud? I'll tell you. Prints, huge ones. Bigger than any beast has any right to be makin'! Tracks that took a good leap by me to jump across."
Peat paused, spreading his paws wide in illustration. The stony silence of earlier was broken by mutterings between the elders that sat in council with the Abbot. One voice rising above the murmurs to become audible. "Well Peat, what shape were they then? Mouse tracks? Fox tracks? Or maybe a spotty wagon rut?"
"No wagon, sir. I knows what those look like, these were bonafied tracks I say! Clear as the ones I made walkin' across your lawn. Can't say they were like any I've ever seen, but whatever paws made them are sure to walk funny. They were...moon shaped, that's right. With the curve facin' forwards, I'd wager."
Immediately a chuckle followed from some of the more impertinent councilors. "Moon shaped?" said one, "why, a beast like that would always be fallen backwards where he hasn't got paw!"
"Yeah," a second chimed in, "ain't sounding like anybeast I've ever heard or seen. Maybe Peaty missed seeing his wings and fire breath too, hah ha!" The joking seemed to ameliorate the stress of some of the councilors, willing to use the humorous moment to release some of the pent-up worries that had been brewing since they had heard the news of the Red Rogue. That the remarks were at Peat's expense, no beast seemed to notice.
"It's true, good beasts! I coulds give my little grand hog a proper bath in on of them prints!" Peat exclaimed in his defense, which drew more chortling.
Amidst the jesting, two voices were notably absent. The Abbot was sharing a silent glance with the Abbey's recorder. Although he was uncomfortable with the mocking of Peat's supposedly sincere beliefs, that was not what troubled the leader of Redwall. At the slightest of nods from old recorder, the Abbot turned to address the others, raising his paws for order. "Please, please, my friends. We cannot discount Peat's words just because we can't explain them," the Abbot said, more pleadingly than sagely. The council, ever deferential to their leader, muted the much of their chatter. Having earned their attention, the Abbot made a gesture towards the recorder, an unspoken behest to explain their previously unspoken thoughts.
The recorder stirred in his chair, opening his mouth more than once as if to speak, before getting seemingly lost in thought. Some started to suppose that the elderly scribe hadn't heard the question. But when it had almost appeared the the old mouse had become lost in a daze, he spoke up, calmly. "I think we have been happened upon by a great beast of old." Hoi everybeast! So we all know that Mossflower has the occasional visitor that only earns a mention once or twice in the canon. Often these beasts, due to their scale, seem like they would beyond the scope of what Redwallers would normally interact with. One such was the horse the showed up briefly in Redwall. Although he was only seen at the very beginning of the story, he was pivotal to the plot, first in bringing Cluny and his band to the Abbey, and second by having brought the cart that Cluny used for his siege works. Another example would be the wolf, in pelt form, that was in The Bellmaker. Although we never see the beast alive, the mere fact that other beasts recognize the wolf skin that the fox wears shows that they know what a wolf is, and that it is a beast to be feared. The unfortunate canine shaped the villains arc without even being there to do it.
I figured this might be worth exploring a little bit more. What if the Abbey, in a moment of need, decides to send a small party out to try and enlist the help of one of these great beasts? No doubt that there is some vague awareness of what deer, bears, goats and the like are, but their chance encounters would probably only be better known to the dedicated student of history. For every beast else, with their short lifespans and even shorter distances traveled, these big creatures would probably seem mythic. Why, they may even be as much as a fable as dragons. Hence, the great beasts of old. For some added flavor, perhaps we could have a small band of vermin, sent by Red, mirroring the actions of the Redwallers. What if they were seeking to follow the same tracks as the their counterparts to try and recruit that great beast, or perhaps another, to their side? Naturally, these vermin would have to be somewhat more elite to withstand the usual curb-stomping encounter that happens when the bad guys run into our heroes. But they could offer an interesting recurring dynamic as the Redwallers proceed in their quest to find their great champion. What does everyone think about this for a quest hook? I realize that we have one and a half other quests on the back burner, but I figure that, like Rp's, maybe something fresh will get things going. If there is some interest, I'll work on making a proper planning thread under the quest tab so we can iron out some of the details. If not, at least this was a fun bit of prose to write.
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Post by Barkfur on Feb 7, 2019 20:34:17 GMT -5
It seems quite nice, sending a party to recruit a creature. If i had to choose which creature, i'd pick a stag, due to Basil stag hare mentioning it once. But worry not, Barkfur is on the case!
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Post by Isaiah on Feb 9, 2019 1:34:55 GMT -5
Ooh, this is interesting. I like playing with the Redwall mythos. Nicely written hook too I think the main thing to be ironed out (and something that should be ironed out for every quest) is the motivation behind seeking out this great beast. What are the stakes? If we can figure out something good here it'll minimize the risk of the quest just us making a few posts about setting out on a trip and then boredom ensuing. I want excitement! So, a rival vermin band is definitely a good idea to raise the stakes (once we figure out what they are) even more.
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Post by Celebes on Feb 9, 2019 13:20:15 GMT -5
I agree 3,000% Isaiah, these things always tend to peter out after a few posts of excitement if there is nothing but travel posts. In my incredibly, awesomely, fantastically humble experience, a couple of things tend to always bog group narratives down. One is that there are no time lapses, or rather no one is really willing to be the one who makes one since they don't want to preempt someone's idea. So it just turns into post after post with nothing really changing, until someone feels obligated to mention that we should probably eat or sleep. This issue could probably be minimized through a bit of timeline planning, and an iron-pawed GM. Another issue is that writers end up trapped in conversations with other writers who, for whatever reason, stop posting consistently. So that active writer's character is frozen in interaction with someone who isn't replying, making it a bit awkward as to whether they should continue to wait or just leave. Usually they end up waiting, and the Rp bogs down with endless chains of waiting. This problem is a bit harder to ameliorate due to the fact that there are very justifiable reasons for everyone to not be giving an Rp their 100% life attention. The only things I can think of helping are if people joined the story with a couple of characters, and always kept their actions somewhat apart. That way, if one character is tied down, they still can write with the other. Having a non-rigid posting order may also help, as long as we aren't ninja-ing each other. Now for the part you actually wanted to discuss, the motives for the story! I'd say in order for the Redwallers to want to go and find this great beast, they'd have to think that they wouldn't be able to fight off a threat the traditional way. Perhaps there is no one up to warrior standard, or perhaps the Red Rogue's army is insurmountably large. I'm debating whether it would work having the Red Rogue already have a great beast like a wolf helping him out, but I feel that would be a bit harder to write. There is always the deux ex machima option of a prophecy or a Martin dream telling of a great beast, but that seems a bit out of place since Martin always encourages beasts to help themselves. I'm leaning towards the idea that perhaps the Redwallers have come to believe that finding a great beast is a sort of a "silver bullet" to their problems. A fix-all solution that will eliminate the threat without risking any Mossflower lives. You could make a crude metaphor to the US and the atom bomb at the end of WWII which saved the country from having to invade. What are your guys thoughts? Regarding the plucky villain search squad, I thought it might be an interesting dynamic if the team was lead by a mercenary/rogue former Long Patrol hare. The could help explain the squad's more advanced skill, and provide an interesting personality dynamic beyond the classic Badnose/Badtooth/Badtail archetypes. Red Rogue would have to know that the Redwallers are seeking a great beast, and sent this team to race for it.
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Post by Isaiah on Feb 9, 2019 14:57:19 GMT -5
I agree 3,000% Isaiah, these things always tend to peter out after a few posts of excitement if there is nothing but travel posts. In my incredibly, awesomely, fantastically humble experience, a couple of things tend to always bog group narratives down. One is that there are no time lapses, or rather no one is really willing to be the one who makes one since they don't want to preempt someone's idea. So it just turns into post after post with nothing really changing, until someone feels obligated to mention that we should probably eat or sleep. This issue could probably be minimized through a bit of timeline planning, and an iron-pawed GM. Another issue is that writers end up trapped in conversations with other writers who, for whatever reason, stop posting consistently. So that active writer's character is frozen in interaction with someone who isn't replying, making it a bit awkward as to whether they should continue to wait or just leave. Usually they end up waiting, and the Rp bogs down with endless chains of waiting. This problem is a bit harder to ameliorate due to the fact that there are very justifiable reasons for everyone to not be giving an Rp their 100% life attention. The only things I can think of helping are if people joined the story with a couple of characters, and always kept their actions somewhat apart. That way, if one character is tied down, they still can write with the other. Having a non-rigid posting order may also help, as long as we aren't ninja-ing each other. I think for the first part, we just need to collectively be more okay with making decisions/progressing the RP without fear of stepping on people's toes. Or, at the very least, make liberal use of the Planning Thread to make sure people are good with actions like time lapses. That, or we need a dedicated person who decides when the RP progresses. Maybe less ideal for this kind of quest/RP, as I think it's doable making it a group duty. The introducing multiple characters is a good solution for that. We shouldn't be afraid of having characters just fade into the background. Like, canonically they can still be there, we just assume they're doing automatic sensible things, like NPCs. Also, if it looks like a character will be stuck in a conversation indefinitely, I don't think there's any shame in being like "after a thorough conversation with X, Isaiah returned to moving rocks." As far as motivations and quest premise, I like what you laid out so far. I'll think about it and post ideas later today.
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Post by Barkfur on Feb 9, 2019 15:27:54 GMT -5
I apologize on making my reply so short. I'll make up for lost space now. My main question is where will they quest for the creature? For forest animals like the deer, they might be in Mossflower, but for dragons, they may be in the Redwall equivalent of the Mediterranean. My suggestion is rather similar to the journey of Jason and the Argonauts, but instead of looking for the golden fleece, the protagonists are looking for that creature of old, with encounters with friends and foe along the way, and the occasional skirmish with the red rouge.
Another one of my questions is the species of the creature of old, which links directly to my former question. If it's a dragon, we may need Thorn and a quiver full of his explosive arrows, but if the creature is a stag, all we need is Willow's persuasiveness. It's the identity of the creature that'll decide the course of the Quest.
Finally, my last question is the identity of the Red rouge. Is he an outcast,shamefully cast away from Salamandastron, or is he a mercenary with a dark past? Something severe must've happened for a woodlander to turn against hes/her fellow goodbeasts.
These conclude my questions (for now anyway.).
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Post by Celebes on Feb 9, 2019 17:26:52 GMT -5
Isaiah I agree, I think that proper planning and flexibility will be key to making this narrative work. If we are able to establish some sorts of checkpoints/objectives that we are all writing towards, it will help everyone keep track of where we are in the story. Constantly updating the planning thread will helpful, if we can use it as a sort of OOC area for the quest to make sure we are on track, and make updates as we think of them. Once we have the basic groundwork laid out in here, we can throw the planning thread up as our next step. Barkfur Not a problem! I apologize for being overly verbose most the time, I need to learn to edit. As for the setting, I wasn't imaging anything overly epic in terms of a new area to explore. The idea is that the party would be following the path that any reasonable larger forest animal would follow, so likely not up volcanos or across seas. I doubt we'll need the party following literal tracks the entire way, but they will have to be following some sort of clues I figure. For a bit of variety, perhaps the journey could take them up into some highlands? Mountains, cliffs, gorges and such? As for what the great beast is, I actually had my heart set on a deer from the premise, so good on you. I was using the dragon as an example of how some Redwallers might not actually believe in a deer any more than they would a dragon just because they have never seen neither one. If we determine that the vermin are after a different beast, rather than just trying to convince the same deer to join their side/stop the Redwallers, we could say they are trying to convince a wolf or some other predator. The Red Rogue I hadn't thought much about yet, other than him being some sort of warband leader. Likely a fox, just because of his name, but even that can be subject to change. I wasn't imagining him actually being part of the vermin trackers, rather he would just be ordering a team that was lead by the aforementioned hare. The Red Rogue would be more of a background character that is actually conducting the siege at Redwall. The hare, well, perhaps he was just motivated by greed to join the vermin's warband. What could be darker than the allure of money? (wait, currency in Redwall?) It may make him even harder to sway if the Redwallers tried to turn him, if he is motivated by callous self-interest rather than past hurt feelings.
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Post by Aquamarine on Feb 9, 2019 17:58:54 GMT -5
Ooh, this is a fun idea. And very tempting even though I ought to be focusing my energy on work.... still, I'd love to give it a shot since I haven't RPed in so long. Plus (non-Red) rogue former Long Patrol hare? This sounds like all kinds of fun character conflicts for a certain long-eared alt of mine. And that might add a sense of urgency too -- supposing August is there, he could run to Salamandastron for help, so presumably there's a reason (probably time-related?) he can't. I think your ideas about objectives/planning/flexibility etc. will be helpful for keeping it moving. Having a direction and people who are willing to take some initiative and move the plot forward is key, at least in my experience.
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