Collaborative Story Requests and Discussion...

Discussion in 'Works in Progress' started by Paul Bellow, May 16, 2017.

  1. Paul Bellow

    Paul Bellow Forum Game Master Staff Member LitRPG Author Shop Owner Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    If you're not in the LitRPG Author group, but you would like to create your own collaborative story, leave a comment and let me know.

    Or, feel free to PM me with your idea. You can either copy the four sentence at a time format we already have going or come up with your own set of rules.

    The first one is going rather well, in my humble opinion. @Readsalot is basically saving it with every post, making it a stronger, more interesting story.

    I have a feeling this feature is going to become one of the cornerstones of LitRPG Forum. What do YOU think?
     
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  2. Jenny Haviland

    Jenny Haviland Level 5 (Veteran) Citizen

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    I think itsfun and a way for the non authors amongst us to get a taste of the creative process
     
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  3. Readsalot

    Readsalot Level 13 (Assassin) Citizen

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    I like it. I love writing, but I'm too lazy to write a whole book. I usually come up with a great idea and write furiously for a day or two, then lose interest. So this collaboration process is a lot of fun for me.
     
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  4. Jenny Haviland

    Jenny Haviland Level 5 (Veteran) Citizen

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    I can't even come up with an idea to write a book so this is great for me, I get to steal someone else's idea and contribute to a story.

    Wouldn't it be great if we write is publishable and we can join the author's group through it?
     
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  5. Paul Bellow

    Paul Bellow Forum Game Master Staff Member LitRPG Author Shop Owner Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    Author Guilds are coming soon. You'll be able to interact with participating authors there if all goes to plan.

    For mine, I think I'm going to publish this or my next novel for readers who join my guild. I'll make an announcement once it's up and running. Hopefully other authors will start up their own.
     
  6. Readsalot

    Readsalot Level 13 (Assassin) Citizen

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    I have an idea for the story we are collaborating on, since we seem to have stumbled on a Game World that features shapeshifting. At the moment we are introducing new characters and classes, but we don't really have a framework to work from.

    What if we start defining our characters based on classes we are familiar with, so that when we introduce our characters we have an idea what kind of skills and abilities to give them? We can create a new thread, separate from the story thread, where we start laying down the framework for the RPG world we are creating.

    For example, here is a rough division of classes, based on my less-than-expert knowledge and familiarity with games, and obviously more than open to suggestions.

    Class suggestions:

    If you choose a Big Cat Race, the following classes are available:

    Male:

    Tiger - biggest and strongest players, Berserker/Barbarian, maybe not very good team players? They could get penalties for joining a group and bonuses for solitary play.

    Lions - second biggest and strongest class, Paladin/Warrior/Fighter, team and group player bonuses?

    Jaguars - third strongest class, Mystic/Monk, fastest and most agile of male classes.

    Female

    Leopards/Panthers - strongest and biggest of the female classes, Ranger/Druid, almost as strong as Jaguars, slightly faster and more agile

    Cougars - not as strong as panthers, Cleric/Bard, slightly faster and more agile

    Cheetahs - weakest of the classes, Rogue/Thief, most agile and fastest of all the Big Cat classes.

    Still need to think about Sorcerers/Mage/Wizard.
     
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  7. Readsalot

    Readsalot Level 13 (Assassin) Citizen

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    I copied this from https://www.giantbomb.com/classes/3015-405/

    It seems like a useful, fairly basic classification that we can use to build and expand on.
    • Warrior / Fighter: The melee hack-and-slash class that is often the hero of the game.
    • Knight / Paladin: A class clad in heavy armor, made to absorb all that enemies dish out.
    • Barbarian / Berzerker: The big guy with an equally big weapon, used to smash enemies.
    • Monk / Martial Artist: A melee class that forgoes weapons for their powerful fists and martial arts.
    • Archer / Ranger: The ranged class with bows or guns. This role can also be taken by the Rogue or Hunter classes.
    • Thief / Rogue / Assassin: The sneaky bandit with itchy fingers and a nose for treasure, and wields a mean dagger.
    • Priest / Healer: The class who makes sure the party survives the encounter with their heals and revives.
    • Mage / Wizard: The class with the spells to burn, freeze, electrify, or just make enemies disappear.
    • Summoner / Necromancer / Druid: Minions galore with the summoning powers of this class.
    I'm not entirely happy with the classes above, which is why I'm just using it as a suggestion. I want to make sure we can include more flexibility, like allowing the Panther class to choose a Melee class as well, something like Drizzt Do'Urden's Dual-Wielding class.
     
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  8. Paul Bellow

    Paul Bellow Forum Game Master Staff Member LitRPG Author Shop Owner Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    Here's 50 gold for mentioning Drizzt! (And his famous panther.)
     
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  9. Jenny Haviland

    Jenny Haviland Level 5 (Veteran) Citizen

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    I love this suggestion of a lace we can do a framework for char development etc.

    I Would make some adjustments to you race split tho as you have the strongest female weaker than the weakest male. That would come across way to sexist especially in an online game where everyone should be even.

    If you choose a Big Cat Race, the following classes are available:

    Male:

    Tiger - Melee DPS, can become agility based for rogue like or strength based for barbarian like

    Lions - Tank like, Big enough to soak up the damage but still can do good damage

    Jaguars - Ranger/Druid, get a second choice as to concentrating on agility for hunter like or mana for healer or mage

    Female

    Leopards/Panthers - Ranger/Druid, get a second choice as to concentrating on agility for hunter like or mana for healer or mage

    Cougars - Tank like, Big enough to soak up the damage but still can do good damage

    Cheetahs - Melee DPS, can become agility based for rogue like or strength based for barbarian like

    Whilst the female and male characters have different names they can become the same development plan

    Either that or make it one of those where you can learn any skill. Therefore everyone can become anything. I like those types but would definitely need a separate post to keep the skills and char sheet updated.

    If we do that I wonder if it is possible to give two people the ability to edit the one post to save having to repost the whole thing every time and keep a running updated sheet. - Or maybe it would be better to have the separate posts so we have the sheets at various times so if the story works out any good they could be added and the story published.
     
  10. Readsalot

    Readsalot Level 13 (Assassin) Citizen

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    I am going to see if I can convince you otherwise. Not because I believe I'm right, but because I think the more we debate the clearer our vision of Shifting Worlds will become and the better we will be able to develop the game play and the characters and the richer the world will be. I am definitely not stuck on my ideas and I think your argument is totally valid.

    (BTW, I just threw in Shifting Worlds as a name for the game, doesn't mean that has to be the name ;))

    So, let me see if I can make my case.

    What if one of the taglines for the game is: "The female of the species is more deadly than the male."

    See link to poem by Rudyard Kipling here: http://www.potw.org/archive/potw96.html

    The way I see it is, just like in nature, the males are bigger and stronger than the females, but that does not make them more deadly. In fact, rather the opposite is true. In this scenario, in a battle the males would be the Tanks, while the females would be the DPS. Both male and female would be able to play Healers.

    Important: Just because you are male, does not mean you have to play with a female character or toon, and vice versa. If you are female and you want to play a Tank, you just choose a male toon to play with. For instance, when I play DC Universe Online, my main character is a female toon - simply because I like seeing her saunter into a battle, hands on her hips, then proceed to put fiery boot to ass.

    This would also allow for a lot of humour to be included in the story, as of course there is no guarantee that Piper, for instance, is actually a male in real life. Might be just a smart game player who deliberately chose a sexy female toon to distract opponents, finding it hilarious and ruthlessly exploiting the advantage it gives him.

    (BTW 2 This has happened to me more than once in DC Universe Online and I always find it amusing. Since I don't play with a microphone it's not possible to tell that I'm actually male. And since my toon is a hot girl every now and again I find people wanting to group up with me or adding me to their friends list - only to suddenly mumble an excuse and hastily disappear or log off when they eventually find out that my character is simply that - a character.)

    (BTW 3 This also happened in Log Horizon, one of my favourite animes. SPOILER if you haven't seen it:

    When all the players suddenly got stuck as their toons one of the main characters had a very funny scene where she needed to find a magic potion that would allow her to transform her toon back into a girl, as she didn't want to be stuck as a boy for the rest of her life.)

    That's why I arranged the classes (as a preliminary idea) the way I did. I thought it might be an interesting exercise to design the game to copy nature as closely as possible, that way nature has done most of the work and we just copy what has evolved to work and incorporate it into the game world we design.

    In this world, there is no guarantee that if a (female) leopard character duels a (male) lion character, the stronger character would win and the smaller character would lose. The lion's size and strength would enable him to take a lot of punishment, but it would also make him slow. If the leopard was skilled enough in this scenario she would be able to beat the lion, eventually, as long as she stayed out of reach and wore him down. Of course, if the lion managed to close the distance and stun her, or trap her in a small space where she wouldn't be able to use her speed and agility, then she would be in a world of trouble.

    Some of this is based on the Drizzt books, of course, where Drizzt frequently faced opponents bigger and stronger than him. That's why he developed his fighting style to negate and overcome those handicaps. Same with Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Selene (Underworld), Black Widow (Marvel), Alice (Resident Evil), River (Serenity), Lisbeth (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Miho (Sin City), Modesty Blaise, etc.
     
  11. Jenny Haviland

    Jenny Haviland Level 5 (Veteran) Citizen

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    Must admit I had to look up Drizzt, was never a D & D fan,my interest in RPG started with WOW. Not sure if I am typical of an average reader or even of an average female reader but without the knowledge of the books etc it would just turn me off if I read the strongest female was weaker then the weakest male. You would totally want to hope I had seen a same level female take down a male before I saw that. Especially if I had a male MC.

    By the way I like shifting world as a name however I think we have already blown it away by having Jason shocked at the panther shifting in front of him.

    Maybe have the world called something else but the area they are in be called Shifter nation. Or maybe if we have this as part fantasy and part sci fi have this world as Shifter world but the whole game as something else. Jason was therefore shocked as he did not know he started on Shifter world.

    Maybe call the game Infinity as everything is possible. It just depends on what world you are on. Would make for a great series as the MC goes to different worlds for different types of adventures.

    That could maybe make this shifter world ok with the male stronger as another world could have females stronger.Good debate anyway and something I believe we should set now if we want to get serious about what we are writing.
     
    Last edited: May 17, 2017
  12. Readsalot

    Readsalot Level 13 (Assassin) Citizen

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    My apologies - I'm not sure I understand you correctly. Are you talking about purely physical strength? Would you be be happy if the strongest female class was equivalent to the weakest male class, strength wise - or even stronger?

    Or are you talking about "strength" as a measurement of how powerful the character is in the game? Because, as I said, the way I see it if two characters are on the same level then they should be quite fairly matched. Even though they might not have the same physical characteristics, their other abilities and skills should cancel that out so that in the end the better player should win in a duel if he or she plays the character to its full potential.

    I have to admit, strength never really played a big factor when I level up a character, so i never really thought much about it. As a kid who grew up reading about Drizzt I always preferred the faster, more agile characters and I usually go for dual-wielding rather than heavy, slow weapons or armour. In fact, as I mentioned, in DCUO I deliberately created a smaller, faster female character rather than a big, hulking He-Man character simply because it suited my play style more. :D
     
  13. Jenny Haviland

    Jenny Haviland Level 5 (Veteran) Citizen

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    maybe I misinterpreted your post but you spoke of the Jaguar as the third strongest class, and the Leopards as almost as strong as the Jaguars with the rest of the females getting weaker from there. I took that to be overall strength, but if I read your last post correctly that is not what you mean. Maybe if we reword the descriptions to something else other than strength because if I jumped there I believe many others would as well
     
  14. Readsalot

    Readsalot Level 13 (Assassin) Citizen

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    Ah yes, many, many apologies, the fault is completely mine.

    For me physical strength has nothing to do with how powerful a class or a character is. It simply means you can pick up heavy, unwieldy objects, like a huge two-handed sword or a breastplate made of solid steel.

    Perhaps this would explain it better - here is a rough draft of a diagram I've been playing with, showing how you can follow different paths, based on the class you play with, while still being equal to other classes of the same level.

    [​IMG]
     
  15. Jenny Haviland

    Jenny Haviland Level 5 (Veteran) Citizen

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    Now that I like a lot.

    If we wanted to build in a cheat for our mc we could change rare to Advanced and leave elite and under normal put a rare variance with a small chance of getting on completion of the quest for the change ability. One available to both male and female. Called a Panwere. A panwere is a shifter with the ability to shift into any of the other normal classes so could fill any required role.

    Maybe that would be why Funakoshi is so respected. Because he is a rare Panwere.

    As a side note I can't pronounce let alone remember these character names. I think they look good but you will see me make knick names out of them like Mula so I can remember them. Just FYI
     
    Last edited: May 17, 2017
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  16. Elbryan

    Elbryan Level 5 (Veteran) Beta Reader Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    It should be interesting. Do you have the link to the current ongoing project story?
     
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  17. Readsalot

    Readsalot Level 13 (Assassin) Citizen

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    Excellent! I really like your idea of Advanced instead of Rare, it works much better. And I LOVE the idea of a Panwere. I think that will make Jason's character a lot of fun. But would it be okay if we change the Panwere to somebody else, maybe somebody he meets on the quest, or maybe after the battle with the White Wolves, rather than Funakoshi?

    Let me explain why I ask. I was thinking of basing Funakoshi on the Funakoshi who became famous as the father of modern karate. You can read about him here http://www.ilovegkr.com/pages/essays/20principles.html

    Maybe a descendant or somebody. He is a monk in this world and he teaches his clan The Way of the Jaguar, which is based on the 20 Principles of Karate formulated by the original Funakoshi.

    Something like this:

    [​IMG]

    Let me know what you think!
     
  18. Paul Bellow

    Paul Bellow Forum Game Master Staff Member LitRPG Author Shop Owner Citizen Aspiring Writer

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  19. Jenny Haviland

    Jenny Haviland Level 5 (Veteran) Citizen

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    Yes I like that, so leave Funakoshi as a Jaguar and we will introduce a char to be the Panwere.

    I will leave Funakoshi's name alone but be warned any other name is fair game for a knick name :p

    If we are going to have set classes then we will need to look at the stats and what they can do as well as set up skill trees for each, because set classes mean we probably wouldn't be going with the anyone can learn any skill thing then.

    Would we want to go with set spells/skills at set levels and one own choice per 10 levels like WOW currently has or do a bigger skill tree and everyone makes there own choices all down the line for more variety ie skill B has skill as prerequisite however skill 2 has skill 1 as its prerequisite that way you could go all 1 tree or mix and match a bit.

    Or a third way is you get skill/spell points per level and purchase the skills/spells you want, some might have prerequisites, but most dont
     
  20. Readsalot

    Readsalot Level 13 (Assassin) Citizen

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    Actually, I enjoyed the fact that Piper felt comfortable enough to give another player a nickname. It shows that she is confident and yet playful. I have a suspicion that she is in fact a serious badass, and that she enjoys teasing Ntwadumela because he, and she, knows that if she wanted to she could kick his butt all the way from here to Timbuktu.

    I am not sure she would be confident enough to tease Funakoshi, maybe out of respect or maybe he could kick HER ass... But it might be fun to find out! He might even secretly enjoy being given an affectionate nickname by her, even though he pretends not to ;)

    What do you think? I'm open to suggestions. I think the more flexibility the better, within limits. For instance, if you look at our preliminary Panther class, I think the fact that you play a Druid or a Ranger rather than a Dual-Wielder or a Samurai will basically come down to how you choose to utilise your Skill Points and Level Points when you get them. Right? You choose certain abilities, Magical or Physical, and you learn certain skills to maximise those abilities.

    I never played WOW, though my brother did for a long time, so I have a broad idea of how it works but I don't know all the specifics.
     




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