Zharia: City of Ruins DT

Checking in! I hope Terry's profile is okay

Sorry for my lack of replies!

I'm busy for the next couple of days, but then I'll have a look over profiles and check everything is in order.

In my humble opinion, this story book is going to be really hard to follow with this many active participants unless a "post order" is established.

People often drop off during storybooks, so I doubt everyone will remain active.

However, I have put a full notice on the storybook and won't be accepting any more profiles. Like I said up above, I'll be focusing everything on this in a couple of days; I don't have the time at the moment.

A post order is a decent idea in theory, but could slow down the storybook a lot if a person doesn't post when it's their turn.

On the other hand, it could motivate more people to participate if they know their turn is coming up. Often when I've tried to role play with people, I'm hesitant to jump in and ruin the flow. Additionally, I've seen many story books falter due to only certain characters interacting with each other.

I think that a post order would perhaps slow down activity, but if you're going to be committed to a story book, a post order is a good way to keep that commitment and keep the story moving/interesting with many different points of view.

Hi everybody.

Sorry for the lack of activity on this -- I've had a busy last few days.

I think I'll be posting the starting post on Sunday. It will be reasonably lengthy, and will also explain a lot of things -- why the Silversword Merchant Consortium is going to Zharia, why it has been forced to hire outside help, and where your characters are.

A couple of character related issues I've currently got:

Grif: I don't like your sudden change and I don't think you should have two characters. Having a Gryphon in the story will just be weird and it always makes it awkward for other characters to interact with. I quite liked the idea of Marlon Grey as Stanndrik's rival, so I'd prefer if you used Marlon and got rid of Wyndomain.

BLUEMUPPET: I think you mean your character's race is halfelf! He's 6 foot and his parents were a human and an elf, so I assume that's just a slipup. Otherwise I quite like the concept.

This goes against the grain...

Wyndomain is history, I'll shelve her for another time...

So is this ever happening?

Yep. Soon. Very very soon.

I am writing the introductory post now.

Patience.

FIRST POST IS UP.

To summarise: I've started the storybook in media res to speed things up. Otherwise we'd spend far too long introducing one another. Which is boring.

So, the group is already together. The Consortium accepted you had enough talents to justify a place on the mission to Zharia. You've been sailing together for several weeks.

Unfortunately, as sometimes happens on the White Sea, a huge dense fog appeared. In the haste to get to Zharia first before anybody else (because you may not be the only ones hunting for this special artifact) your ship set out without the necessary magic for an everburning fog lantern.

As explained in the post, dropping anchor in a fog can be as dangerous as sailing through it! Stanndrik chose the latter, and the ship crashed into some rocks.

So. Shipwreck.

Everybody's character survives and is washed up on the shores of Zharia. The rest of the crew dies in the crash. Thus, Stanndrik (and Marlon) are without the rest of the Silversword Mercenaries.

Your first post should describe your character awakening on the shore. Do this however you like. Your weapons and possessions have all been lost [with the exception of anything your character might deem very valuable -- I will allow things they keep on their persons at all times, keepsakes, jewellery, etc.] Some may wash up, but it is unlikely. Everyone will probably have to work together in order to survive.

When describing Zharia, imagine mostly barren land with little wildlife. The beach you land on will be stony. You will feel vulnerable on the shore, as you can probably been seen from miles away. It is morning and the sun is shining.

Feel free in your past to use flashbacks to talk about how your character was inducted into the group. This would have happened in Prospero (a huge trade port located next to a mountain). Stanndrik would have tested your skills. Also feel free to talk about anything which you think might have happened on the journey to your character (e.g. arguments with others in the group, etc. Be creative. Feel free to contact others to discuss potential subplots like this.)

Good luck and have fun!

Super excited

The topic is locked...

Indeed, waiting for the topic to unlock

I'm guessing that Firestarter locked it to prevent people from posting while he was working on the first post. Given his excitement that we start posting and a lack of any chatter on mod forums about this post, I'm going to unlock it.

I'm calling dibs on (Terry) being that body that body that Griffinkeeper mentioned.. If no one minds