I’m thinking about a van helsing vampire hunter idea, although possibly with a choice to become a vampire at some point, not sure how i could do that without it becoming two stories though… Also haven’t thought of a name yet…
[quote=BenTGaidin]Chrysanthemum (working title)
I’m working on a theme of social upheavals, on changing notions of violence and honor, magic and humanity, and how people (and specifically characters) react as old roles no longer fit into society. On the other hand, it’s also a fun excuse to play with swords and mysticism, peasants and tax collectors, broken towers and burnt ravens, and a whole host of other nifty things I want to share with people.
It’s going to be somewhat Japanese-flavored (reading about the history and evolution of the samurai is what got me started on some of the ideas) and have a focus on martial prowess, otherworldly skills, or political connections, depending on the player’s interests and inclinations. And in keeping with the theme I want to play with, as characters move forward, the way these work in the world is going to change as they continue. Ideally, I’d like a full three-act structure for the entire thing, but I think the first third is going to be plenty to keep me busy setting up for now. (I’ve got a convenient vacation to let me fill a notebook with ideas and outlines while I wait for access to the actual tools. grins)[/quote]
You had me at “samurai”. XD Will this be a Meiji-era setting?
I had another idea, one I think I’ll have an easier time translating into a Nexus game.
Cirque
A post-nuclear-apocalypse circus/freak show that travels from one Mad Max-style town to another performing until the people have nothing more to give, or they kick the show out. (No Thunderdomes planned, though. Sorry.) You progress while Walking the Endless Road as one of three character types: a disfigured worker who might someday become one of the show’s “stars”, a drifter following the circus to learn its secrets (though you have your own), or a New Born Soldier bent on destroying the circus and the evil it represents. Not everything (or everyone) is as it seems, and the “right” choice isn’t always obvious.
BenTGaidlen - I was pretty much caught on ‘Japanese’ because they have the most interesting myths - well, I think so, as I’ve grown up being exposed to our myths and ones from across the world are new and interesting. And now I want to do a myth game, where your character gets sucked into a place where all these myths are real, of all countries. Could even be educational. Ish.
RageBox Alice - Yeah, that one will probably be easier than your house one. It sounds interesting anyway - funny, the story I’m currently favouring was described as ‘Mad Max like’, but I’ve never seen Mad Max so I’ve no idea why.
Thanks Alice, Laurels; it’s actually going to start out pre-Meiji era, although it’ll likely get there by the end of things – although it’s not going to be set in a “historical” Japan per se. (I’m envisioning the setting as a fantasy Japan in the same way a lot of things are fantasy Europe; stealing the social mores and cultural context without necessarily any connective geography. Also means I’ll likely be looking for a lot of feedback to make sure I get those things closer to accurate.) But yeah, I’m also looking forward to playing with bits of odd mythology there too, as another way to get at flavor.
Ragebox Alice: I like the circus idea (possibly because was just re-reading The Night Circus) so it’d be interesting to see a more involved game on that theme; I’ll look forward to my own two-headed mutant chess exhibition. grins
How does a fantastical empire-era-styled open-world story of privateers and pirates sound to everyone?
In possible not-entirely-unrelated news, I’m scrapping my plans for Maelstrom: The Voyage of the Pioneer and just making a chunk of regular Maelstrom. Be a captain and command your own corsair in this strange world of islands floating in space where culture, language and design are inexplicably similar to 17th century Earth.
I’m working on a low-powered somewhat-modern setting with some Lovecraft influence in which the character (I keep wanting to write “the characters”, being used to doing games and stories for groups, and am actually finding that doing something where things are as written down as they are in StoryNexus is being deeply problematic for me) is a cat dealing with the uncanny elements of the world.
(I have many problems with Lovecraft. His fondness for cats was not one of them.)
First on my backburner is a future-that-never-was post-apocalyptic setting in Toronto. It might never get off the backburner, though, because I am a longtime fan of the Fallout setting and games and I’m not sure I wouldn’t be spitting out something that wasn’t a knock-off.
L&c,
F
edited by Torrain on 8/17/2012
Is a cat. Stares at the walls all day, prompting my owner to dig through walls and down into the earth,
I’m writing a space-opera type of plot while going for the feel and flavour of Serenity/Firefly. The character will interact with different generic factions while being nudged by the main plot to uncover the mystery of a dangerous organization. Game will include constant space travel between several star systems, with different ships for the player to eventually command.
Sounds good. :) Just one thing - why do the factions have to be generic? Give them personality and make them memorable.
Hmm. I don’t know if I could pull it off, I signed up for the beta yesterday on a whim and I never managed to finish writing anythign (although I have a ton of unfinished project taking space on my hard drive…) But I’ve had this idea in mind for a while of a city of ghost. Mort-Real (a bad pun off the name of my city of Montreal), the City of the Royal Dead. Basically, you would play a recently-deceased Ghost just arrived in tow, and the main conflict would be whether to let go of life, resolve what made you a ghost in the first place and go on to whatever comes after, or stay in the City and make your place in the byzantine society of the dead.
Just wondering if there’s a date we should be looking at - I’ve part of my project already nearing completion - and am hoping wildly (and eagerly) that I can get to utilise the tools soon.
(Please let me be selected :) )
Oh, hey, Montreal. waves Would you tie it in to the physical makeup of the city–the Basilica and the graveyards, f’r ex?
Weirdly, that might actually tie in to a couple of the ideas that arose out of discussion this last week… I’ve been kicking around Nitocris (Lovecraft’s version, I mean, and inspiration related to her), as well as Bast and Sekmet and Yeats’s description of a creature “at my left side just out of the range of sight, a brazen winged beast which I associated with laughing, ecstatic destruction.”
So yes. Apparently there is more room for things to occur underground than I was previously considering. (Owners are being a pain to integrate, though. I have set that aside for the moment, sadly. Meanwhile, if there are things of great import underground, I can throw in a ghoul tunnel or something…)
L&c,
F
Oh, hey, Montreal. waves Would you tie it in to the physical makeup of the city–the Basilica and the graveyards, f’r ex?[/quote]
I’m thinking about it. There’s a lot of cool locations around the city that would be good for a ghost-themed game. As mentioned, I’m still in the “Dreaming Wildly” stage, without anything written down or a team or anything. But I’m thinking very seriously about asking people I know and see if we can’t make this happen.
Word is that the tools will be released next week! Everyone get ready to put your plans into action! is gleefully waiting for a crack at them
rubs hands together Exxxccellent. Smithers, prepare my writing gauntlets.
I’m afraid they were deemed illegal, Sir.
Damn those human rights activists. Shove another one on the fire!
Right away, Sir.
Hopefully not Friday of next week… :p
Hi all, I’m completely new to this, but when I found out that StoryNexus is looking for new adventures, one instantly popped into my brain and refused to let go. I don’t have a good idea for the title yet, so I’m just calling it Deep Space Mercenaries. As that suggests, it’s a science fiction setting, with hyperdrive engines and lots of opportunities for adventure and exploration. There will be varying types of aliens to interact with, which will have various conflicts occurring between one another. The players will be humans who are in the middle of these conflicts, and they will have the option to either pick a side and help them win, stay neutral and try to negotiate peace, or stay neutral and try to profit from the conflict. So the four basic stats would be Combat/Dogfighting, Diplomacy, Haggling, and Ingenuity. Ingenuity would be a kind of “Luck” stat where if the player didn’t like the other options in a given storylet, they could try to be creative and take a third (less clear) option.
The alien factions I have so far are:
Osiri Robot Corps: ORCs for short, these are emotionless automatons whose AI became advanced enough to overthrow and genocide their original creators. Now they are out to conquer everything, and feel no remorse for the fleshbags that are currently using THEIR resources. Those who wish to join them will have to undergo The Transition, where their consciousness is transferred into an empty robot body.
Genetically Engineered Life Forms: GELFs are the end result of an eon of tinkering with DNA until they have become specialized to the point where their superiority complex is rather justified. They are beautiful, strong, geniuses that view the humans as innately inferior but tolerate their presence, assuming that nature in its infinite wisdom will quietly make them extinct in its own time. There’s rumors of treatments that can turn humans into GELFs, but the GELFs won’t discuss it and the humans professing to know sound a lot like snake oil salesmen. (Yes, the idea is lifted almost directly from Red Dwarf, although with my own spin placed on it.)
The Hive: A species evolved from bees that shares one mind. Very difficult to communicate with, extremely lethal to try to combat, and very poorly understood. Very much like the Buggers in Ender’s Game.
I’m still debating whether or not I want to put some more traditional alien types into the mix (Grays, Lizard-people), or have more “descended from X” races (Cat-people, Lizard-people… hmmm). I also can envision using some kind of life form composed solely of energy, or of information, or exsisting on fewer (or more) dimensions than the four humans inhabit.
Anyway, that’s the basic idea. I haven’t gone over the manual yet or anything, but like I said the idea won’t go away.
As everyone, I fancied a lot of possibilities since the StoryNexus first announcement.
But here’s my current favourite.
I’m (also) a literature teacher and I’m thinking about an educational project. This year, I’m supposed to study Lorenzaccio with my 18 yo students. It’s a French play by Alfred de Musset (yes, I’m French), set in a corrupted Florence of the 16th century, ruled by a debauched and bastard Medici. It includes romance, politics, lies, murders, revenges and so on.
I’d like to create a StoryNexus game from the play, partly because that would be fun, partly to help students explore the intricate world of the play, its many conflicts as well as the rejected possibilities (it’s also a story about words and actions, and the price to pay for them.)
The play is from the 19th century, so I don’t think there would be any legal problems to use it.
Since the play is in a national program, it could interest other students all around FRance.
Two problems, though:
- That would be written in French, since some of my students aren’t skilled enough in English (and I teach French literature, after all. The play’s in French, that would seem quite unproductive to translate it.)
- That would be quite urgent, since I’ll study the play from next week till January and their final exam’s in June. So I’ll have to write it and build it quite soon, especially since I don’t have access to full beta.
I don’t know what the Failbetter team will think about it. Please let me know.
[quote=DawnStarlight] …The play is from the 19th century, so I don’t think there would be any legal problems to use it.
…That would be written in French, since some of my students aren’t skilled enough in English (and I teach French literature, after all. The play’s in French, that would seem quite unproductive to translate it.)
I don’t know what the Failbetter team will think about it. Please let me know.
[/quote]
Hello there.
We’ve got no problems with people writing in French or any other language. In fact, we’re very happy to have people making worlds in other languages.
But! There are a few problems. Firstly, the technology is based around English. So you’re probably going to have problems with things like gender inflections unless you assume all your characters are one gender. And all the signup and user interface messages will be in English.
We don’t have any plans of offering other language support in the near term. It’s something we’d love to be able to do at some stage, but it’s not an early priority.
As to copyright - it’s up to you to ensure that any work you make use of is out of copyright (or you have the appropriate permissions to use it anyway). A play that old is likely to be out of copyright, so no problem. And we did make use of the works of Dumas and Rostand for Cabinet Noir, so old French works are fine by us :-)