Plotbunny shelter.

Any ideas that you've had, but don't plan to use? Leave them here for adoption.

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This one was copypasted from one of my posts on Gaia Online. Someone mentioned that they basically wanted to create a new twist on the Celestial Bureaucracy story, but couldn't find a way to do it. Or something like that, it was several months ago and I don't remember it that well. Anyway, here was my response:

Well, how about creating a world where magic works that way?

Write a story where your brave, good-looking young young hero embarks on an epic quest to defeat an evil overlord...

But first has to take an eye test, find a notary for forms 328-A through 541-B (registration and concealed carry permits for enchanted amulets above 5 inches in diameter and proof of neutering and vaccinations for talking animal companions), attend 48 hours of mandatory staff-handling courses, re-take his certification test 5 times, and wrangle over his birth certificates with the bitter old witch at the front desk who smells like obnoxious perfume and cabbage.

He hits more obstacles when he has trouble finding an insurance policy that will cover fire elementals under 30 years of age, and when he does find one, he has to pay twice as much gold per month in premiums.

He then gets dropped when they discover that he sometimes has trouble controlling his powers, which counts as a pre-existing condition.

When he finally gets his paperwork sorted out and finds an insurance policy, the evil overlord has long since slaughtered his family, had his way with the princess, and taken over the world.

Disheartened, our hero takes up heroin.

x2 if the photo on his Sorcerer's license is really unflattering.

edited 25th Aug '10 2:35:55 PM by Wheezy

1) Crash-landing my protagonists ship on some fringe planet in the 'Verse, complete with killing off a few of the characters. Never wrote it down, but it did float around in my head for the last several weeks.

2) Also, killing the Old Guy who runs the group. I considered doing just that, but rather have decided to illustrate his ailing health instead. It would seem that killing off the old guy is a common trope.

3) Almost killed off the entire cast, save for the protagonist and his UST co-pilot, after a rival criminal organization razed the hideout to the ground. Deleted that twenty pages of badly-written angsting and revenge-seeking, after I foudn that it just didn't work that well.

I've had an idea for a plot that's a subversion of the typical Empire vs Rebels concept. I think it'd only work in cinema though. Hmm, should I?

Autarch: That sounds like it could be awesome in writing too. Go for it!

This may be a bit dated now, but I remember a silly one I thought was funny from the Na No Wri Mo forums:

Kanye West has a time machine and interrupts various famous speeches throughout history.

^^Ahahaha. Sounds awesome.

^^LMAO!

What if Light had survived and had a family with Misa? Or, what if Misa was pregnant when Light died?

(Actually I already wrote a story on the theme of the second one. Only piece of fanfiction I ever completed, as a matter of fact.)

Wheezy: ABC Comics played with that idea in Smax, a spin-off of Top Ten. Worth a look.

Also, I had this idea of music being literally magic, with musicians being sorcerer-celebrities, weaponized instruments, the human population at war with monsters who physically can't stand music, live music being more potent and powerful than recorded ones, and a boy who has the ability to nullify all sound.

A child named Edward Cullen meets a child named Bella Swan. They both hate Twilight, because people are always like "Liek frum twilite lulz".

They end up getting together because of how much they hate Twilight. And as such, they sort of live out Twilight.

@krrackknut: The Spellsinger series features music=magic, but it's a Standard Fantasy Setting with Funny Animals. Your idea in a modern setting would be cool.

This thread is a really good idea. I'll just leave these here, since I'll probably never have time to develop them myself.

• The Tropeverse: a fictional world that's literally made of TV Tropes. The Hollywood Atlas is the atlas. Hollywood History is the history. Etc. The characters are all Everyone Calls Her Trope Name. In particular, the TV Tropes Superhero Team actually is a superhero team. When writing stories, things should be described in terms of tropes as much as possible.
• Fiction in Collision: a Massive Multiplayer Crisis Crossover. A Metafictional disaster — fictional worlds are colliding with Real Life and each other. The results are somewhat like Torg, with bits of fictional reality overlaying bits of Real Life, and somewhat like Rifts, with lots of Cool Gates allowing fictional characters to invade Real Life and each others' worlds. Includes whatever fictional works you want.
• Superworld: some sort of Negative Space Wedgie turns every human being on Earth into a Flying Brick. The social consequences are explored in detail.

edited 26th Aug '10 7:26:51 PM by RichM90071

^what if they were called Edward Swann and Bella Culen?

I have one where a lost princess (anastasia style) is discovered living as a slave in the woods. she then has to defeat the big bad with the help of four friends, each with power of a different element. (the princess herself is "heart".) Captain planet meets Anastasia??

I've got the final for LHP all planned out (just need the stuff between the beginning and the final now), and to get there I've gone through a lot of ideas that I've discarded. Most of them are relatively minor changes (the details in the Herald's plan has changed a few times, the setting has changed from the original idea), but some were a bit...out there. One idea was that the final battle was going to be between the Herald and...Santa Claus. Who was actually an avatar of Nodens, the Lord of the Abyss. Yeah, I'm not sure what I was thinking. Another idea I had but decided to drop was an epiloque telling what happened to the characters after the story. It was mostly the standard stuff about them getting jobs or making amends with their estranged parents etc, but it would mention that several hundred years later Zaran would succeed her father as the Overlord and manage to unite the warring demonic legions...With the common goal of conquering Earth and enslaving mankind. Which they proceeded to do. And the Herald returning and offering to help humans battle the demons but actually just manipulating them into releasing the very same Eldritch Abomination the heroes prevented from being released, which the proceeds to kill everything on Earth. I also intended to do (and might still do) a separate story about the events of that war.

Oooh. I may adopt something that pops up here...but it's more likely that I'll leave one or two ideas here. However there's other thinky stuff on my mind right now. I just wanted to say that this is cool, the ideas left here so far are cool, and probably more than one person was tempted to start a thread like this but didn't have the guts.

So yeah. Yay!

There is a person that lives in two universes, one as a girl, one as a boy. Both are part of the person, and in each world, the other one seems like a dream. Psychology ensues as you see the same person grow up in two very different environments due to gender.

Two people, a guy and a girl, switch bodies, making the genderbender go full circle as both have to learn what it's like in another gender's body.

edited 28th Aug '10 10:47:29 AM by A_H_R

Here's a story that I'd like to write, but I lack the necessary understanding of politics:

The protagonist can drain memories from a person's mind. It's basically Laser-Guided Amnesia, but somewhat less precise - he'll grab out a bunch of related memories depending on the target's cognitive style. For example, if the person tends to link together memories by place, all memories of a certain place would be removed together. If they link them by time, then a time period will be removed. If they link them by topic, all knowledge of a certain topic will be removed. He receives these memories and has them as clear in his mind as they were in the target's mind.

He works for a totalitarian government, dealing with people who 'know too much'. Of course, this means he ends up being in on a pile of secrets, which makes him a danger to them, so he's closely monitored. And then, they find another person with his powers, and he realizes they're going to get rid of him as soon as they've settled this new guy into his job.

I was thinking it would keep alternating chapters between the protagonist's experiences and the memories he'd stolen.

Just a power to go to a good home, but Offscreen Teleportation as a character's explicit power. She can teleport as much as she wants but if somebody is paying attention to her she can't. Some magicbabble about how their attention creates a low level psychic anchor that keeps her from using her powers.

edited 29th Aug '10 12:21:41 AM by Alkthash

I had a pretty similar idea! Except mine was a bit different...

It takes place on an alternate Earth where Magic Music not only exists, but is the driving force of the world. Battles of the bands are the number one sport, surpassing even soccer.

As opposed to most uses of Magic Music, this world's magic relies heavily on teamwork and harmony - e.g.: One guy with a guitar can't do much, but a Five-Man Band can take on a SWAT team, and the Polyphonic Spree could level entire city blocks at a time.

The magic is primarily song-based, and different pieces, as well as the instruments they're played on, can have WILDLY different effects, based on the mood of the music and the folklore and culture surrounding its genre.

Just a few examples:

• The Power of Rock takes several different forms.
  • Death metal is very useful for summoning.
  • Fast and well-executed guitar solos have been known to melt peoples' faces.
  • And 80s metal can change the physical properties of things. (The part I'm shouting out to starts at 4:12.)
• Taiko drumming has been known to cause seismic activity, as have slap bass and timpani solos.
• The most skilled turntablists can manipulate time - in small amounts (e.g.: Backspinning a record can push the clock back about 30 seconds, but that might be all you keep a bandmate from getting killed, or get a second chance at a battle you lost).
• Spirituals (from multiple cultures) can be used to contact the dead.
• Throat singers can communicate with animals.
• Zeusaphone (a sound-producing tesla coil) music has a pretty predictable use.
• ... As do vuvuzelas, but they're banned from competiton and primarily used in street fights.
• And finally, gospel is considered a complete Game-Breaker and is banned from normal use, but the things that the greatest choirs have been able to do in combat is the stuff of legend.

To make things a bit more awesome, Dance Battlers often work with bands, using Mickey Mousing to coordinate their attacks and taking literal theme music power ups.

Every four years, the musical equivalent of the Olympics is held in a randomly selected World city that attracts thousands of the most talented music groups from all over the world to participate in a variety of competitions, culminating in a massive Battle of the Bands that draws more attention than pretty much any other sporting event.

The protagonist I had in mind was an aspiring tournament-level electro musician whose primary instrument was a sampling drum machine.

The only problem I had was that, in order for two bands to fight each other, they'd have to play different songs at the same time, which would just be noise. So I haven't figured that out yet.

I might do this after I'm done with my current project (Dreams and Daydreams etc. etc.), as an antidote to said project's complexity and relative seriousness, but that's a long way off, so if anyone REALLY wants it that much, you can take it. And I'll gladly serve as a plot consultant.

edited 16th Oct '11 4:23:44 PM by Wheezy

Excuse me while I steal just a few of your ideas (namely time-warper DJ and a Glory Gospel Cannon), Wheezy.

Also, instead of playing two different songs, why not the same song at the same time? Maybe there's a "perfect" pitch or a "celestial vibration" that when reached is sure to destroy the other side?

edited 30th Aug '10 4:09:44 AM by krrackknut

Either that or it's turn-based? Or similar-natured music can redirect or defend.

Edit: Here's one that might spark somebody's imagination...or make them think me insane. A joke essay and/or serious story that explores a fusion of Final Fantasy VII...and Earthbound. Based on the idea that Pokey (or Porky) is his game and fandom's closest equivalent to Sephiroth.

Just one idea of many, and a highly unoriginal one.

edited 31st Aug '10 1:01:24 PM by voiderofwarranties

@Nomic

Is this what gave you the idea of Santa Claus as an Elder God? An omake from an Evangelion x Cthulhu myhos crossover.

Either that or it's turn-based?

I considered that, but since all the good attacks are music-based, and the bands are competing directly against each other, that means whatever band goes first would be warping reality, shooting fire out of their amps, summoning demons, etc. while the other band would have to defend themselves by... I don't know, throwing drumsticks or something.

edited 2nd Sep '10 2:19:49 PM by Wheezy

...Very true. Hmm.

What about a verse-versus-verse method?

edited 2nd Sep '10 10:53:58 AM by voiderofwarranties

A child named Edward Cullen meets a child named Bella Swan. They both hate Twilight, because people are always like "Liek frum twilite lulz".

They end up getting together because of how much they hate Twilight. And as such, they sort of live out Twilight.

I had an idea recently where it's discovered that all vampires throughout history have sparkled. The real reason they avoid the sunlight is not because it would kill them, but fear of "looking gay."

edited 6th Sep '10 1:58:00 AM by Wheezy