Heart of Desire Discussion Thread

EVERYBODY FIND A STEPHEN KING BOOK NOW.

In all seriousness, i'll be heartily amused if we essentially get sponsored by Stephen King with this RP's references.

I'll be shocked if he does it himself, but that's near impossible to happen. Excluding sockpuppets.

On another note, save landing in South America, i have absolutely no clue what else i have to post about. I would've assumed earlier i could've written in a group of explorers/dreamers that Alan tags along with, but that's less plausible now.

"You lost, Dio. You lost for one simple reason - you were using charcoal." - Hank Hill

Nah, I'm fine with New Purpose; just mentioning my surprise. But seriously, I'm fine with it NP

Thanks ^u^! Dylan's a great character too, from what I saw in his bio :)

I've only ever bought one of his books- I should get more. But you're right. I think Stephen King's going to be our official mascot soon enough

Also, I think throughout the journey Lorna might be leaning on everyone heavily due to her blindess. Just a thought :/

When I walk on the street counting my steps, magic keeps silent and reality stalks me.

Hm... I can have Terry say "Sometimes, dead is better." at some point, but in a completely different context, given his shtick.

Speaking of which, I might make Terry an antagonist given the fact that he's gonna go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.

edited 5th Jan '12 4:14:54 PM by Psyga315

Well, Lorna is most definitely an antagonist, at the very least Type IV Antihero.

When I walk on the street counting my steps, magic keeps silent and reality stalks me.

Travis is our potential Big Bad. Taking that into consideration, I have a bit of a question about some powers I was thinking about. You said everyone had a unique power, so I wanted to clear mine, make sure it's okay.

Basically, Travis can affect cause and effect. He can either Affirm, which erases the cause of the effect, or Deny, which erases the effect of the cause. This is pretty broken at face value, but it has a very exploitable weakness. It's tied directly to his own expectations. Let's say a building falls on him. His powers would erase the effect, because he'd probably think something like, "There's no way a normal person like me could die like this". Conversely, if he finds himself under thr impression that he couldn't possibly defend himself against someone (probably someone who just flat out terrified him), his powers would probably be useless, because he expects himself to be defeated.

How does this sound?

I've got new mythological machinery, and very handsome supernatural scenery. Goodfae: a mafia web serial

So in other words, Travis has a literal version of the Law Of Attraction?

That's definitely interesting, especially when countering in the fact that his expectations dictate the effects. The Affirm bit is still a bit dodgy to me, though...:/

So, kinda like reality warping?

Except he can affect others as well? :D

edited 5th Jan '12 6:29:43 PM by Aralyn

When I walk on the street counting my steps, magic keeps silent and reality stalks me.

Assuming you were looking for general opinions...

I'm very skeptical, bordering on personally inputting 'No. (But not in a rude way, as that might suggest)' to the idea.

I'm not trying to shoot you down or anything, as i'm not a GM, but my personal opinion is it's more broken than you seem to think.

The main problem is, you're apparently, judging by a sole running by of this idea to everyone else, not considering the distinguishing difference between direct and indirect causes.

The example you gave is a direct cause, and the issues there you seem to be very well aware of.

But consider this: Alan makes an action in the RP related to the plot or something else. This, in turn, affects another character's judgement, causing them to act in some way. For the purpose of shortening this, it now affects Travis, but not until far afterward.

Affirming the situation and removing the source of the problem heads back to Character X. However, action there produces no result, as Alan's actions are still in effect. So it goes farther back, and changes what Alan does. That works, but now you unravelled the plot from when Alan made that action and/or whatever else was affected by that.

Denying the effect generally deals with a direct source, like an effective 'Remove object from play.' That, i don't pick out any problems with now.

---

Assuming you weren't looking for general input, i'll remove that later.

edited 5th Jan '12 6:49:04 PM by InfiniteParagon

"You lost, Dio. You lost for one simple reason - you were using charcoal." - Hank Hill

You misunderstand, at least the intent. Basically, Affirm would be something like creating an effect which doesn't have a cause, so direct only, not indirect. Say the cause is an explosion, and the effect is a door being blown off its hinges. Affirm would be blowing the door off its hinges, but with no explosion.

But if you don't like it still, I can remove it or tinker with it. I just thought, y'know, Big Bad needs big powers.

edited 5th Jan '12 7:35:32 PM by KSPAM

I've got new mythological machinery, and very handsome supernatural scenery. Goodfae: a mafia web serial

Okay, so assuming expectations are as they are for this:

• Alan fires a shot off at Travis. Travis sees the bullet, but his expectations mean any Affirm action fails, and he gets hit. If his expectations were different, Alan would never have shot a round, but a bullet would've hit Travis.
• Travis causes a Deny action, making Alan's gun discharge but the bullet's still in the chamber like it was never fired. Different expectations would obviously have no effect on the gun.

Assuming that's right, it begins to make more sense, but i do worry about how his powers would play out in varying situations.

I'll roll with it, if the GM allows it. My concerns have largely been addressed.

"You lost, Dio. You lost for one simple reason - you were using charcoal." - Hank Hill

That is pretty much it, yes. Although, for the second one, as more of a semantics thing, the bullet would probably hit, it just wouldn't have an effect. Travis wouldn't see it as "he can't shoot me, so the gun doesn't discharge", but probably something more like, "a bullet can't hurt me, so I'm unharmed".

That is assuming that the godlike megalomania that comes with such powers would have set in by that point. If Travis was first discovering his powers, someone could probably still shoot him and kill him. But let's say through some freak accident, like the falling building I described earlier, Travis discovers that things that really should kill him mysteriously can't. Now that he knows a falling building can't kill him, he probably wouldn't believe a bullet could.

That make any sense?

I've got new mythological machinery, and very handsome supernatural scenery. Goodfae: a mafia web serial

Neopie: OK

Infinite Paragon: I should really get started on a post that ties everyone in Peru together and sets them off

Stephen King: The only book I've read is 'Cycle of the Werewolf'. Then again, that has an appropriate quote: 'Love is like dying'.

KSPAM: Okay, that's just about permissible. Just so long as you use it to a reasonable extent, I'm gonna allow it.

By the way, is Lorna going to get a letter? :/ I think she probably should...then again, I guess she could afford tickets anyway. It's just there's not much natural motivation for her to go, except for curiosity, maybe. But I'll make a reason if necessary.

edited 6th Jan '12 12:33:52 AM by Aralyn

When I walk on the street counting my steps, magic keeps silent and reality stalks me.

I'll send a letter.

Great! I'll post a response as soon as I can.

edited 6th Jan '12 1:04:21 AM by Aralyn

When I walk on the street counting my steps, magic keeps silent and reality stalks me.

Sorry the letter took so long, neopie. I was meaning to get around to it, but forgot. Not good, I know.

Ehe, that reminds me, I still have so many R Ps to post into. My idea for Dylan's future powers were...

Well, mind control, mostly. I'm still trying to figure out how to limit this.

I ship it.

Let's cross that bridge when we come to it.

Mine was going to be Persuasion Powers through music and possibly through speech, though she can alter emotions too. I mean, people were meant to be able to withstand them, as she was sort of playing on doubts and stuff, but it was going to get to a point where she could turn people again her own will...probably closer to the end of the RP? ?

When I walk on the street counting my steps, magic keeps silent and reality stalks me.

Wow, our chacters are similar.

I ship it.

I'm gonna go for Super-Speed for Terry. I just need to make it more personalized and offensive.

edited 6th Jan '12 3:36:21 PM by Psyga315

Evil counterpart, perhaps?

But seriously though, we should focus on the present before thinking about powers. Tomorrow morning, I'm gonna try and shift the RP into gear. I expect every man, woman and pet to do their part!

edited 6th Jan '12 3:37:29 PM by LizardOfAus

But they're both evil/antiheroes.

I ship it.

I have to admit...that my character's personality and backstory was based around what powers I'd imagine he'd have...

I found the line "I expect every man, woman and pet to do their part! To be humourous due to what will happen to John when he gets his powers...

edited 6th Jan '12 4:08:35 PM by JustaUsername

Some people say I'm lazy. It's hard to disagree.

Hey Liz, our character didn't get one of those weird letters when you put up the second letter-sending post. Just FYI.

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