Log Horizon RP: Interest Check

Alright, I finished the first season of Log Horizon last week, and feel like RP set in that verse would be fun. I saw an abandoned signup sheet/Interest Check when I did a quick search, so I thought I'd throw this out there.

For those not familiar the setting is a somewhat different take on the whole "trapped in a videogame" premise. On the release of a new patch for an MMO, the players currently logged in to the server when the patch goes live find themselves transported to a world that functions using MMO mechanics. So rather than "being trapped in a VR experience" it's more "transported to another dimension, that happens to be built upon the MMO Elder Tale, for both history and world mechanics." Tone-wise, there's also less focus on trying to get out/home, and more on integrating into and dealing with the new reality.

So... interest? We can also discuss other things here, like the starting city and server location. The world of the game is a half-scale replica of Earth, and the supplementary materials mention that character classes vary depending on which server you're on (ie Japan has samurai and shrine priestesses as selectable classes, the Scandinavian server has Vikings). Also open for discussion are other parts of the setting, like NPC (now sentient) political structure and other parts of the world.

Log Horizon Wiki Link (Be wary of spoilers)

Link Page on the ''Elder Tale'' game.

edited 30th Nov '14 5:09:58 PM by zzzdragon

I'm definitely interested.

As to the location....I dunno. Somewhere in America (or the Land of Wen), maybe? I have a soft spot for the American Southwest, and could probably help with a lot of stuff there. Or Europe would also be a good location, I think.

Europe.

Hmmm South America may be interesting but probably would need another character. Europe is quite nice I believe as a setting or indeed, Japan like in the series.

Anyway I am totally in and already got a character worked up.

One scenario I thought up for Europe that might be interesting to explore is having the People Of the Land/NP Cs/whatever other name we could call them since it's not Japan in a situation akin to just after the fall of a Roman Empire stand in, with several regional powers in a cold war (at the beginning), some with ambitions to re-unite the empire, others just wanting independence.

Another thing that occurred to me about Europe is that it's much bigger than Japan, which may make things awkward if one person wants to play an Italian and another wants to play someone from British Isles. There's also no reason we can't have a similar empire-collapse scenario elsewhere if we want the conflict to stay more regional.

Actually, how about the fall of rome? I have to agree that sounds like a great time period, what with the Germanic tribes stoll clashing with the fading strength of rome.

edited 30th Nov '14 8:11:34 PM by TroyandHawk

Hmm...yeah. The Roman analogue being effectively split into two separate countries, each with their own people wanting things to stay that way/return to the way they were. To the north is the pseudo-Germanic tribes biting away pieces of empire, and of course Monsters are everywhere, a constant danger. The "Rome" (Gloriantiqua?) stands as a fading monument to what the empire used to be.

Or something like that for the backdrop. It's unlikely that the conflict would necessarily involve our P Cs at that level until much later on, if any. Perhaps starting out in a northern town somewhere on the border between "the empire" (which one, or both?) and the Barbarian lands to the north? Lots of hooks due to being on the frontier, and politics due to said position?

Why don't you do South East Australia? [/biased]

But yeah, if we are going for an ideal area, it probably should be somewhere with a decent density of people like the West or East Coast of America or the United Kingdom. Considering that the lore isn't totally based on past history in Elder Tale, we don't have to go for somewhere with a deep culture.

Overall though, I'd go for either the Western Europe, North America or Oceania servers as they're ones of Western Culture, which I'm guessing most people here are part of.

Do Middle East I'm not that biased.
That said, interest.

So I was browsing the wiki some more for All There in the Manual info, and it looks like there is some lore for Western Europe and some other places. Not that we necessarily need to abide by it, (and it doesn't necessarily conflict the ongoing discussion and setup) but there is the option of choosing a location with no lore for freedom purposes.

Linky

EDIT: So apparently that is a different wiki. Interesting, I got there by googling.

edited 1st Dec '14 6:53:52 AM by zzzdragon

Oceania would be interesting. Ships and stuff, you know?

Hmm, color me interested. I'll have to read LH real quick and brainstorm me up a character concept...

Interested, but I'm going to have to read more of LH.

So today I spent some time and thought up two basic outlines on two possibilities of regions to use as a setting. Anywhere you see real-world names that aren't a reference I'd replace with some other name.

— Western Europe —

There are 6 hub cities on the Western Europe Server, corresponding roughly in location to Rome, Toulouse, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, and Constantinople/Istanbul (Greek and Turkish players love to argue about this). Southern Germany and the Alps are well known as the some of the most dangerous zones on the server (packs of high-level werebeasts stalk the area in numbers), as a general rule players don't try to get from Southern Europe to Northern Europe until they are around level 70. Southern Europe is more new-player friendly, and the farther north you go the tougher things tend to get. The hub city that corresponds to Berlin is where many raid guilds like to operate out of since the dungeons there give the best loot as well.

Politically, there are several major entities among the Landers. The Balkans and Greece are ruled by a single empire, the Alvian Dominion, which purports to be a successor state to the extinct Alvs themselves. The region is stable for the common folk, though deadly games of court intrigue have hampered the ability of the dominion to spread its influence. In northern Germany along the Baltic is the Kingdom of the Pom, isolated by the were-forests, whose tough inhabitants have managed to survive by learning to tame wargs, and still keep their polytheistic relgion. Gallia (France) is divided into Aquios in the South and Vrakos in the North, ruled by kings who both seek each others lands. Andaland, the Iberian Peninsula, is ruled by several small duchies, united in keeping the influence Gallia out, but otherwise focused on keeping their own independence. The Italian peninsula is divided up into city-states, each vying for power with no clear leader.

Unease is forming among the regions inhabitants, as the number of werebeast raids has sharply increased as of late, and rumors of black ships seen in the Southern Seas.

— Oceania —

The major hub cities of Oceania in locations corresponding roughly to Modern Day Sydney, Austrailia, Wellington, New Zealand, and Port Moseby, in Papua New Guinea. Most of what is in our world Australia is a vast, black desert, with filled with all sorts of high-level undead, collectively referred to as the sand-spawn. However the habitable portions are gorgeous, and filled with unique monsters. Also unique to Oceania is that instead of griffons, the raid-boss flying mount is a huge golden sea-eagle, easily capable of getting single travelers from one Island to the next. The server is also famous for having the best naval combat on any server, clashes between large fleets were the most common form of PvP.

Currently the self-styled "King of the Seas" rules over the entirety of the major Lander populations, though many of the small pacific Islands remain de-facto independent. The King however, is getting old. New Zealand and New Guinea are each ruled by a governor; the king's twin sons. Many fear the King's death may be a spark that could plunge the region into war for the throne.

Anyone else who wants to type up a little blurb for a region and suggest it certainly can. Unless everyone decides tonight that we should do one region or another, then I'll leave it open for a while and make a decision tomorrow or Wednesday (I'll be drafting up the sign-up sheet (probably plagiarizing the abandoned one, it was really quite good) in the meantime so we can start as soon as a region is locked down). How does that sound?

My thoughts: There's definitely more variety and a larger region with Europe, but the larger size may also create an issue keeping the party together, so to speak. In Oceania has a lot of potential for naval combat and sailing around to various Islands in search of treasure, perhaps with a bit of piracy on the side.

edited 1st Dec '14 5:58:44 PM by zzzdragon

I started watching Log Horizon just to see what this RP was based off of, and after seeing a few episodes I am definitely interested in this.

In many ways, I think that it's a bit easier for Oceania to allow for a more episodic-style of storytelling, since any given arc can always end with "and they sailed away onto the next adventure". That's not a good or bad thing, but something to consider.

I think I have an idea what the starting areas would be like in both Europe and Oceania.

Ireland could be the starter island, with Great Britain being the next island of progress before being able to access the rest of Western Europe.

The Island of Tasmania could be the beginner island in the Oceania server, where one starts in Hobart and journeys up to Launceston to get on a boat and head to Melbourne, the first city which has access to a variety of ports.

These are just ideas I'm throwing out. If we do go for that, maybe some guild tries to take over these ports and force the locked newcomers to join their guild.

Or we could be a roving band of mercenaries brought into some big political clusterfuck.

I'd vote for Europe as naval combat doesn't sound that fun for me in particular, and Europe seems nicely mixed and with interesting locales. Londonheim and other locales of Britain also sound like the would be good places to play in.

The thing is that the Nothern Europe server is Great Britain and the environs. So that doesn't work there.

That's a viable options, but I don't quite see it working I'll get back to this in a moment.

More idea-spinning: My assumption is that we'll start at the Catastrophe. Assuming that's the case, then the initial plotlines would more or less involve A) adjusting to the new world, and B) establishing some sort of order among adventurers. Lander Politics would really only come into play later, since I imagine the approximate sequence of events that happened in Akihabara would happen most other places - Adventurers spend time getting their shit together, and then after they've stabilized, the local Lander powerbase(s) start cautiously extending diplomatic probes. Eventually, Adventurer and Lander trade and cooperation start happening, Adventurers are dragged into Lander politics, etc.

Now, digressing back for a moment, I don't actually know how being a mercenary guild would work in the context of the game pre-Catastrophe, and it would only really work afterwards with warring Lander factions I think, meaning that for the most part, there's a large gap in that timeline where Adventurers would be focused on Adventurers.

But yeah, that's something to consider.

edited 1st Dec '14 8:33:38 PM by Krika

Ohhhh, I've been waiting for this! Definitely interested.

I'm of the opinion that Western Europe would be best, mainly because I'm personally more familiar with European geography and so forth, but also because it'd be a lot easier to change locales to another "server" if we ever felt like it, whereas the Pacific and Oceania are fairly far removed from the rest of the world. Then again, there are the Fairy Rings... I've got some ideas for characters either way, though, so it's all good.

edited 1st Dec '14 10:55:54 PM by darksidevoid

I count two votes for Europe (note that according to some sources I found Great Britain is in the Northern Europe/Scandinavia server, though it could be the first stop for an extra-server excursion) and no votes for Oceania.

Unless someone objects vocally I'm going to adjusting my draft signup to use the special classes from the European server, and hopefully post it tonight.

Europe...Also is any previous knowledge of Log Horizon required?

I'm not going to ban you for not watching, and am more than happy to help out with the character building process.

Although if you have access to crunchyroll and have a free hour then watching the first episode or two for background definitely wouldn't hurt if for no other reason than helping you understand the tone a bit better.

edited 2nd Dec '14 5:33:23 PM by zzzdragon

Okay, cool.