Young Writers Society

I keep going back to this place being some kind of gateway in between the different dimensions.

When I played Lego Star Wars way back in the day, it was kind of fun because your base was Mos Eisley and there were doors to the different worlds. Somehow we end up there, and the doors are locked.

The secrets are a good idea. We could do something similar to Wicked Fantasy, maybe there’s something we drink and we each get a turn in our characters’ world. But I wouldn’t want it to be the exact same as that roleplay, so maybe there’s a twist?

Would Shadow-Man be behind it all? @soundofmind

Oooh I did a similar roleplay (outside of YWS) way back in the day that was kinda similar to that too, @Magebird! It was super fun writing characters who were all childhood friends. Then they all went their own way, but then reconciled as adults only to find out that they're all different and harbor a big secret from each other. I'm down for having revealing secrets here too, but I do think we need a legit reason to share them; seems p random to share out of the blue just cuz. unless we'll do like 30 pages of just talking with each other, which I would be fine with, but idk if anyone else would be lol

I like the idea of going through each character's homeworld but that's also the premise of the Wayfarer's RP, and as much as I love it, it's been two months and we've barely scratched the surface of 1 out of 5 characters. It can be a slow process, and we have a bigger cast here, so I wouldn't want to fizzle out, ya know?

Playing on Wayfarers though, I like how the "villain" stems from our character's fears that they need to overcome. I'd totally be down for doing a similar concept!

That would definitely be fun, @Elinor! I like the idea of having some kind of villain, but I also feel like I've done that a lot lately between Wicked Fantasy and Wayfarers.

I also agree with @Carina's point about how slow the roleplay is going - it's definitely gotten a little slow lately.

Maybe we could just have different bars/taverns/restaurants that are parts of each character's world and just have some lowkey, casual conversations between them? We could always add plot in if the roleplay starts stalling, but I think conversations between characters might be a good place to start! The old roleplay I did like that was pretty active for at least a year - I think we got the rp up to 40 pages!

I get what you're saying, but I find that it's harder for me to get invested in something if there isn't some form of conflict. We can draw it out, but maybe there isn't a physical villain, rather it stems from our own fears, like Carina suggested.

I thought Winter Wonderland did this effectively in that the conflict came from the characters and their dynamics. Maybe the different restaurants/sitting areas tie into significant moments in our character's life?

So if Amy's is an outdoor ice cream shop in Los Angeles that she used to go with her mother, maybe she wakes up and no one's there, everything feels fake, and it almost feels like a movie set or a studio back lot.

She walks into the main/central area, and I'm not too set on what this place looks like but I'm imagining a sort of indoor garden for whatever reason.

And maybe the longer we're there the more real things start to feel? I also imagine it's tied to some kind of wheel and spoke design, and the hallways to the central area from each place are unique to each character and represent their fears, hopes and dreams.

Thoughts? I think we can get going with this and explore and discuss ways we may want to up the conflict as we go forward.

That makes sense, @Elinor! I'm still really hesitant to do something built on a character's fears - mainly because that's what I'm doing with @soundofmind and @Carina in The Wayfarers right now, and we're currently dealing with my character's fears. I'd really like for this roleplay to be different; I'm not sure it'd be all that enjoyable for me if that was the main conflict in the story.

But I do love the idea of the room feeling like a movie set! I also really love the idea of it becoming more real as time goes on.

(Also I completely forgot to mention this earlier, but I was imagining Lego Star Wars, too! Shey and I used to play that game all the time - I even remember making brand new characters for my stories through it's customizable character options. )

Since we haven't heard from sound, @AstralHunter, @ThePatchworkPilgrims and @Vincian for a bit, what are your thoughts on a potential plot for this story? I feel like Elinor, Carina and I have been able to come up with a good starting point, but I'd love to hear what you had in mind when we first started scheming up this roleplay/what you're thinking of right now!

Edit: I didn't realize it until I finished posting, but the character I'm using in this has a very similar fear/dark part of his life to the character I'm using in Wayfarers. I'd really really love to use this one character, so I'd prefer if we didn't go with the fear route!

(Unless the fear was less existential and more basic, since my character has a tendency to overreact the moment ghosts are brought into the equation. It's not that he has some dark side to his story involving ghosts - he's just really scared of them. )

My edit to my last post got me thinking: what if the rooms coming off of the main room really basic fears? Maybe it's because I'm on the Halloween brain right now, but I feel like we haven't ever really had a roleplay that threw a series of basic, common fears at characters - like heights, spiders, ghosts, needles, etc. Obviously the fears might be a little different on each person's room, but I like the idea of the fears not necessarily being as deep and potentially being a little more lighthearted!

(We could even gear the fear rooms towards each character - like the creepy ghost-filled place looks like where my character is from, someone who's afraid of heights has a view from a tall building in their world, and someone who's afraid of spiders sees them swarming a place of comfort like their bedroom. Each fear would be its own room.)

There would still be plenty of room to explore deeper fears, but it also wouldn't be something that absolutely has to happen.

@Elinor, what do you think of that?

That could work, although maybe rather than fears it could be either secrets or vulnerable moments in the character’s life? Either way I feel like the basis is here and we can figure out the rest as we go.

I'm really down for our characters waking a room that focuses on a general fear! I know exactly which one Bo would wake up in and then they escape to the big general room?

If we go the general fear "escape room" route, we have the perfect ideas for both our potential characters. Particularly our Kenku character, Storm Crow, has something part of his character that lends well to this type of scenario (and in contrast, our Psion, Grisarda, has a part of her character that fits in well with the secrets/vulnerable moments scenario)

We also agree with @Elinor that we just prefer a villain/obstacle to overcome, at least to keep the ball rolling once it starts.

Speaking of getting the ball rolling- have we decided when we're going to start this rp? At least the initial posts? We think that if it's there in front of us, and not just discussions, it could help in getting everyone to commit more to the rp

If ya'll need a villain we can use my shadowman (as elinor suggested) who is basically just an evil entity who likes to watch people suffer lol

I can start the roleplay this weekend! I just wanted to make the basics ironed out before we kicked it off.

I'm in a hurry so I"ll make a more detailed post of my thought of the discussion so far later asdklfjhkalsdhflk but instead of playing with our character's fear (since Mage, sound, and I are doing that already in Wayfarers) maybe we can all take turns bringing in our character's enemy (or another living breathing person that they don't along with)? and the whole premise would be to iron out that relationship rather than ironing out their fears n stuff

I like that idea a lot, @Carina! Amy definitely has a lot of unresolved baggage/tension with her father which could be interesting to play out...

But I really think we should just get going with it because like @ThePatchworkPilgrims said it will be more fun once we just start.

That would be interesting, @Carina! I feel like it might end up matching up with one of my character's fears because early high school me really loved dramatic story lines but I can definitely get creative with who I go with. I could even have him join in with Amy on the "unresolved issues with a parent" thing. >>

I'm totally wiped from bingewriting my entry for NaNo, so I'll get the roleplay up tomorrow instead of this afternoon.

I can't wait to get this started!

Everyone who's shown interest in this roleplay or DT should have gotten a notification already from the cast list I created, but The Cantina is now up! Since we haven't entirely decided on the plot, I thought I'd leave the description of the roleplay vague for now. I also tried to find some kind of trippy photo that didn't focus on a specific character's normal setting and could apply to everyone - hopefully, I succeeded with the one I settled on!

I probably won't be able to get a post up until later today, but feel free to beat me to posting! I think the plan right now is to have our characters end up in a place they had been intending to enter, but the place is empty/feels wrong.