Character Development Thread--Discussion

From my experience, these kinds of settings tend to be a more casual affair. It centers around a (relatively) small central location where everybody walks around and interacts, as opposed to the great undefined expanse of author-generated possibility that a thread like Frontier offers. People need to be restrained, otherwise they might mess up the experience for other author characters. Threads like this have had explicit anti-violence protections in the past, and it seems there are some here too.

Okay, casual it is. I edited that on the thread page and on the Character Development Thread index. Makes sense really, as the robots especially would not want anyone messing up the ship, hence why combat will be restricted to the waste facility and the abandoned theater which are more durable than the rest of the ship.

Which segways nicely into the issue of Kkutwar's new character. Some hacking of the electronic systems is okay (I plan on having my group of five do some of that as well), but if the safety and functionality of the ship is compromised, the robots will be set on finding your character and stopping him (same goes for anyone who tries to damage the ship).

Oh, I have a character who's going to love the arcade right up until the staff politely but firmly asks him to leave.

Generally, I think it's better to rely more on the OOU request to keep things casual/nonviolent than any sort of in-universe mechanism - otherwise there's a risk that a troublemaking character might be more than a match for any number of security robots. Not that they can't exist, just that they should be there more for flavor while the real means of keeping the thread under control is Doylist.

Also, posts coming tonight.

So, is there a good place to plot someone down into Dream, or is it a complex web of interconnecting plots with enough momentum that introductions would be disruptive.

Some areas in Dream seem open to new characters - but I haven't been paying as close attention as I should, so I'm not sure which ones.

Also, I'm having a ton of internet connectivity problems right now. I'm writing my posts offline, but I don't know when I'll actually be able to post them.

edited 21st Jan '17 10:47:04 PM by nrjxll

The Heart Forge and the Twilight Ball are definitely open, and possibly the Marble Corridor as well. The Forest of Bone could use a new character as well now that Ethoya has left. Or you could just create a new location and hope that others would join it.

I was under the weather yesterday. I'll begin prepping a post for Frontier now.

@ladytanuki: Awesome job you've done on the star liner. Bloody awesome.

I agree. I can't wait to get one of my characters in the ship.

Posted. Stuff is happening.

And I took a look at the Star Liner page too. It's looking really nice.

Made my post. I really hope Sinistra does not suddenly die because the souls got unstable debris of life, as that was kinda inevitable, as far as both the spirit's behavior and the laws of my magic system go.

The Golden Being never was boasting or lying, so why do all the characters assume he's being arrogant? Though regarding being similar to the Golden Being: Ultimately only a fellow Gift (aka Golden Being's 'kind') can be like a Gift. Things could seem similar, but the natures of a Gift is too unique to be duplicated.

Besides that, exactly what effects does Sentinel's post have on everything? Just wanting to be certain the whole "death vision" isn't the only thing to account for.

There wont be a death vision anymore, as much as a sensation that transcends senses but does not overwhelm them. Other characters also were affected by the spirit's power, which opposes the mist's effects without nulifying them. How that is supposed to work for each character is something for each author to decide IMO.

On the spirit being similar to the Golden Being, that is because it also has a nature of Defiance that transcends the universe. However it is not as "pure" or "bright". A comparison that while very incomplete may make sense for the uninitiated is that the spirit's power is closer to moon while the Golden Being is closer to the sun, but even that crumbles under closer inspecion.

edited 22nd Jan '17 12:01:22 PM by EternaMemoria

Oh right, the only reason Golden Being looks golden is because that's Armory Knight's (broken) soul leaking through. Regarding the Death & Life sensations, are there any specific guidelines to work off of? I wanted to do something regarding Patches' origins, yet Armory Knight's peculiar nature (and the fact Golden Being is experiencing the effects through their connection) leaves me uncertain.

Well, the death sensation is supposed to be mostly focused on emptyness and meaningless, while the sensation of life is a sensation of movement and vibration, be it violent/painful or beautiful/pleasurable, as well as defiance.

edited 22nd Jan '17 12:33:15 PM by EternaMemoria

Wow, that's a lot of locations. But I guess the ship itself is fairly compact.

I'm pretty sure we stopped having a distinction between "casual" and "main" threads a while ago. I feel like it would be arbitrary to restrict violence in-thread. People just need to show restraint and not, y'know, attack the ship with tanks or summon ice golems out of nowhere or whatever.

Which isn't to say I'm against a more casual affair - I'd still say Catina II and Resort are probably two of our most successful threads (even though I wasn't there for the former and I was barely there for the latter). I'm just against actually having the casualness be an in-universe restriction.

Didn't we do a mix of casual and non-casual last time with Archipelago?

Like there could be areas of the ship where no fighting is allowed and other areas where characters can beat the ever loving shit out of each other.

I'm puzzled as to how designated "fighting allowed" areas would work for anyone other than a culture that (still) has formalised duelling - by the time they got to the fighting area, most impulsive spontaneous fighters would've calmed down... and that's assuming they don't have to wait when they get there.

The whole "meet you at noon and settle this mano e mano" stuff is only a small - somewhat outmoded - subset of interpersonal violence.

Well, to be fair there is a certain Romantism to formalized duels and I think we can assume the ship carries people from many cultures and planets, even if it was apparently made on Earth.

But even then, I would prefer if the waste zone and the abandoned areas had combat allowed simply because they are outside supervision, and should be entered at your own peril. That for me makes slightly more sense than areas made to be designated combat zones.

edited 22nd Jan '17 2:36:39 PM by EternaMemoria

If there should be any "safe" fight areas, they should be in a fight arena with sparring matches and sanctioned fights.

My characters have a tendency of Fights Like a Normal until someone shows they aren't completely normal. You don't want to necessarily light your would be mugger on fire, punch through a wall, or pull a Hand Cannon on them if a roundhouse kick to the head works.

edited 22nd Jan '17 3:13:47 PM by WillDeRegio

Which then begs the question of why such areas exist in an otherwise fully functional and luxurious ship that is presumably charging money for passage from one place to another. Especially one staffed by robots that presumably don't tire, get sick or slack off.

That makes more sense than random "non-functioning areas".

edited 22nd Jan '17 3:09:00 PM by Wolf1066

I just noticed Sentinel "died" twice in the same fight scene. I am unsure if that means or anything or is worth mentioning, but I wanted to mention it.

edited 22nd Jan '17 3:27:30 PM by EternaMemoria

I need to find more constructive things to do with my time...

I swear I'm going to post in the next few hours.

Well. Barring something really improbable.