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The Bad Country - Horror-ish "Magical World" RP

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SomethingRandom113 That Friend Nobody Likes from R'lyeh, the Pacific Ocean Since: Aug, 2017 Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
That Friend Nobody Likes
#1: Jul 14th 2018 at 8:35:36 PM

There are many worlds other than our own. Most of them are distant from ours and only rarely bleed in. The Bad Country is not one of those.

The bad country is almost always mixing with our world. Intermingling with it. Sending its twisted tendrils into it.

The bad country exists somewhere "in" the southwestern United States and Mexico, although "in" is not truly the right word. "Parallel to" is probably a better description. Most of the points where the two worlds intermingle are in that area, and the Bad Country appears to be a reflection of that part of our world.

Well, a dark, twisted reflection. In the Bad Country, everything seems familiar to the people who've been to the area it is a reflection of, yet different and wrong on a fundamental level. It is always sunset in the Bad Country, and any devices used for time-telling or navigation, no matter how basic, seem to malfunction in bizarre and disturbing ways.

However, the land isn't the only thing that's twisted in the bad country. Everything it touches warps and twists. Plants, animals, even people, although its effect on them is usually dampened. Usually.

When two worlds intermingle like our world and the Bad Country, things are bound to slip in and, if they're lucky, slip out. Your characters are some of the unlucky ones to find themselves in the bad country. At 8:23 P.M., June 21, 2018, they somehow found themselves at the same place, which just so happened to be the wrong place at the wrong time.

It was in the middle of a ghost town somewhere in the Arizona desert. Perhaps their car broke down. Perhaps they were on a bus that decided to take a detour to avoid traffic. Perhaps they were off doing some rural exploration. Perhaps they just got lost. Whatever the reason, they somehow ended up slipping into the Bad Country, and now they must find a way out before they become the dinner of something that stalks the desert of this twisted land... or the land itself takes an interest in ensuring their grisly deaths.

Character Sheet Template:

  • Name:
  • Age:
  • Gender:
  • Personality:
  • Appearance: (picture links and descriptions both acceptable. Kindly avoid putting in a link to the "Mein Herz Brennt" music video).
  • Skills: Things your character is good at. Kindly avoid making them overpowered.
  • Flaw: One defining physical, mental, social, or other flaw that is not explicitly supernatural. Being unlucky is acceptable, but, well...
  • Blessing: Those who go into the bad country are warped, sometimes in beneficial ways, sometimes in detrimental ways. For the sake of simplicity, you get one of each, a "blessing" and a "curse" as it were. Most blessings are either Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane (although their origin is definitively magical) or lovecraftian superpowers, and usually just effect little things. They can sometimes be detrimental, but are usually a positive thing.
    • Yes: Night Vision, Voice Changeling, Beneficial Deformities (Claws, Semi-Functional Gills, Natural Armor), Danger Sense
    • No: Superhero stuff (Energy Manipulation or "Kinesis" of any Kind, Hollywood Science, Flashy Superpowers), Overpowered shit (Telepathy, Invisibility, Reality Warping, Invulnerability), Supernatural Social Skills, Animal Affinity (that can go under skills, though)
  • Curse: Like blessings, only sort of the opposite. They follow similar rules, and can sometimes be beneficial, but are usually detrimental.
    • Yes: Something Intangible About You That Creeps People Out on an Instinctual Level, Harmful Deformities, Paranoia, Weakened by the Light
    • No: Stupid or Random Weaknesses (Cell Phones, Birthday Cakes, Specific Breeds of Cockroach), Curses Intended For Comedic Effect (Gasshole, Amusing Injuries, Neat Freak), Underwhelming Curses (Being Mildly Irritated by Grass, Irrational Hatred of Red Bull Cans, Being Weakened By Late Night Infomercials on Local TV), Curses that Only Interact With Your Blessing and Nothing Else
  • Stuff: Your character's Stuff & Thangs
  • Backstory:
  • Misc/Other:

Edited by SomethingRandom113 on Jul 17th 2018 at 7:23:10 AM

Umm... so, I was here, I guess. If I wasn't, someone hacked my account. So, yeah.
NickTheSwing Since: Aug, 2009
#2: Jul 15th 2018 at 9:43:30 PM

This sounds somewhat like Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey...might have some ideas here.

Is Mastema an asshat here too?

Edited by NickTheSwing on Jul 15th 2018 at 9:43:26 AM

SomethingRandom113 That Friend Nobody Likes from R'lyeh, the Pacific Ocean Since: Aug, 2017 Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
That Friend Nobody Likes
#3: Jul 15th 2018 at 10:14:53 PM

[up] ???

Umm... so, I was here, I guess. If I wasn't, someone hacked my account. So, yeah.
NickTheSwing Since: Aug, 2009
#4: Jul 16th 2018 at 12:15:25 AM

[up] Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey.

Have a look - its remarkably similar to your idea of a dark, distorted world emerging suddenly and people having to go and investigate it.

Edited by NickTheSwing on Jul 16th 2018 at 12:17:06 PM

SomethingRandom113 That Friend Nobody Likes from R'lyeh, the Pacific Ocean Since: Aug, 2017 Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
That Friend Nobody Likes
#5: Jul 16th 2018 at 9:15:21 AM

[up] Not quite. Here, it was an accident, and their only goal is to get the fuck out before the Bad Country kills them.

Umm... so, I was here, I guess. If I wasn't, someone hacked my account. So, yeah.
NickTheSwing Since: Aug, 2009
#6: Jul 17th 2018 at 1:45:02 AM

  • Name: Shay Bennett
  • Age: 22
  • Gender: Male
  • Personality: One might expect that a rebellious man who went into the army for the sake of a job might've been pounded into shape and put to order. Shay dispels any notion of such - he's a decidedly maverick personality who puts doing what he considers right well ahead of military doctrine. He highly values his freedom, and will not censor himself or let himself be made quiet. While this does tend to make him seem somewhat inconsiderate at times, he considers saying what needs to be said to be more important than fearing being rude. While he was raised religiously, he puts his freedom and identity as an American first and religion far behind. He seems to have some curiosity about the "Bad Country", or as some of his new acquaintances and or enemies have called it "The Dark World". He believes there's something deeper in it that needs to be investigated, and does not seem to feel fear of this place as he should.
  • Appearance: Shay is a tall, muscular ruddy haired man, wearing his army tags around his neck and with some distinctive tattoos that mark him as a soldier. His body type is muscular and athletic, mostly from the army training he went through. He indicates he went from a skinny rebel to a more muscular army man. He wears a street camo jacket, a tight short sleeved camo shirt, jeans, and heavy duty boots.
  • Skills: Very capable at fighting, crack shot with his gun, capable at dealing with some of the entities found in the Bad Country - let's just say he already made a friend - and a skilled driver owing to his army training.
  • Flaw: Entirely too rebellious and prone to wanting to go his own way.
  • Blessing: Increasingly Demonic Physiology: He is capable of displays of strength, endurance, and stamina beyond the normal human capability. His skin is starting to become resistant to damage though the effect is small at present and not consequential of yet, and he's far less susceptible to the Bad Country's more deleterious effects. He could theoretically absorb other entities into himself to become even stronger, but such is, shall we say, not in his prerogatives as well as him being squicked out by the very idea of subsuming the will of another being.
  • Curse: Owing to how exactly he got his Blessing, his Curse is the effect of his Blessing on his Mind. He is gradually becoming more violent, and he cannot visit certain holy places. He is vulnerable to all the same things that would damage other beings from these dark places.
  • Stuff: Sig Sauer Hand Gun, Baton, Car & Car Keys, Wallet
  • Backstory: He was just in town to visit a friend for his birthday party. That was all, he kept telling them. At 8:23 he was brought into a very specific part of the Bad Country, a mysterious zone under the control of a being called Pothos, The Yearner. Pothos did...things...to Shay. Things that blurred the distinction between magic and science. What resulted was an infusion of the dark sorts of entities that live in the "Dark World" into Shay. He was rescued by a rogue monster calling itself Caerbahn that speaks mostly in Hulk Speak due to its own abuse by Pothos. Resolving to team up, Shay and Caerbahn escaped the "Facility of Yearning" together and worked their way to find others.
  • Misc/Other: Shay and Caerbahn, owing to their shared suffering at the hands of Pothos, are very good friends - Shay isn't sure what he intends to do if he has to return to the world of Man and Caerbahn cannot join him...

Edited by NickTheSwing on Jul 17th 2018 at 6:14:11 AM

SomethingRandom113 That Friend Nobody Likes from R'lyeh, the Pacific Ocean Since: Aug, 2017 Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
That Friend Nobody Likes
#7: Jul 17th 2018 at 4:03:50 AM

[up] Okay.

That blessing is just way too powerful. Otherwise, the character is just awesome, and gets two thumbs up, but dial the character's blessing down a few notches.

As a side note, I was going for slightly more Native American folklore here, but all that means is you might find your character more averse to Native American holy ground instead of Abrahamic Religions' Holy Ground (yes, I know most Native American Religions didn't really have full-fledged demons).

Umm... so, I was here, I guess. If I wasn't, someone hacked my account. So, yeah.
NickTheSwing Since: Aug, 2009
#8: Jul 17th 2018 at 4:16:14 PM

[up] Got rid of the speed enhancement.

I did have some ideas related to that, the conflict between older, polytheistic religions and the Abrahamic Religions.

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