This game will be using the flashback system, here is the information from a previous post. I will be adding more to this thread in the next few days to explain the flashback rules.
thsi game will use my idea for 'œflashback' type character background/history concept. Meaning the players will start together (say level 3) and will have known each other from before. But at the exact same time, each character will be given a thread for their background and will play up to that level 3 point where the characters are together. This will prove difficult as the players will have to be purposely vague, in some of their role playing until their character background is fulfilled.
A rough (very rough, and undetailed, purposely) script of how the backgrounds will be laid out, to guide the threads.
Example Script: jasper is a mutant hamster that was grown in a lab using during growth hormone testing, He was locked in a lab for years, experimented on, abused, and neglected. He now is 400 pounds and a vigilante that fights with a club and rides a Harley.
Example Live thread: 'œjasper the mutant hamster is trapped, he fell into the trap unknowingly and panic is setting in, claustrophobia building, he loses his strength, and cries for the others to help! Screaming like a little girl. (the player or gm assumes his captivity caused some kind of trauma due to the script)
Example background: 'œjaspers growth over night was extreme, he was stuck in the cage, his face pressed against the metal, he could not move'¦ he was stuck this way for 2 days the bars bending to his mighty girth, panic left him after the first day, all that remained was pain, agony and the metal bars against his body, it took many weeks before he could eat, he could only sit in fetal position crying.
By this example, the live thread or the background thread could have happened first, the players/gm can create situations in the past that help the players/characters define their own character. If the background thread happened after this situation, the caged situation explains the future.
To make this work, the players would be able to help with the script, for instance, the player says 'œJasper is afraid of cages for some reason in his past' the GM would create the situation, to help the background develop, as the player is 'œplaying it'
This background system will challange players and the gm... fun!
Each character will have an OOC thread where we "discuss" his plot and how it will merge with the future
Each character will have their own thread. This thread is for generating the background, and how you got to level "three"
Each character will be together at the begining of the game and can post there.
The three threads will allow you to post as much and as often as you like, when you are waiting for the other players in the main game, you can post to your flashback thread, when that becomes slow you can post to your discussion thread.
This will allow a very interesting and thought provoking game history.
Eventually the flashback threads will start to merge, and characters will actually end in the point where the game starts.
As soon as your character has a basic cause of mutation, and a name, I will create the "background discussion thread" for your character, we can then get ready for the flashback phase, and the launch of the main game.
Remember this... The flashback game is a little different than the main game.
In a way, its like you have wrote a basic idea for a story, and I will take your "cliffnotes" and turn it into a story.
Once everyone is ready and the real game starts, remember there is a bit of "self fulfiling prophecy" that can happen.
For instance:
Lets pretend that we have a player named Phil, who has a character Jasper the hampster. We have another player named Fred, who has a mutant kangaroo, named Buck.
In the flash back threads these two characters have never met, dont know each other etc...
but in the live thread they do, and to add color, Phil says this in the live game "Jasper looks to his team mates, and then to his longest friend buck, he remembers their battles together, and knows buck has a tendancy to fight agressivly if backed in a corner"
If Phil and Fread are in agreement on this, then this is now a prophecy that must be completed in the "flashback" phase.
So the GM (me) would have to make a situation where the two meet first, then also make a situation where buck is cornered... then Buck would have to come out fighting while jasper whitnesses it.
As you can see, you must be carful what you depict in the live game, as it will affect your flashback.
This gives the players ALOT of control of the flashback game, and the ability to change the past... It will also make a way for the GM to play the game almost as a player, as you are in essence GM'ing your past.
'œFor example of a good live thread background paradox look at this;
He thinks to himself as he awaits the onset of the battle; "'He is not very different from the day I met him... I remember it well. He thought me nothing but a drunken bodyguard for the farmer. Little did he know that I had been training since I could walk for occasions like that. He was not much younger than I was now. He was a good soul, but he had lost his way, but I taught him the true path to enlightenment and honor.'"
See this is not an impossibility A ninja fights a monk and the monk wins
Now for a bad example of a background; Bob the mutant Weasel decides that to add flavor to a post by saying
" 'bob remembers the time when he saved himself and 5 others from an incoming artillery barrage by making all of the shells hit him. And the shells bounced harmlessly to the ground' "
As you can see this is not possible even in the realm of fantasy unless of course you happen to be named Clark Kent and you run around in a cape and blue tights'¦
Hey sempai this is just a little bit of help for the GM with the flashback system you are using. Consider it a thank you for all the help you gave me with the character (cross dressing chimps wow)
Here, you hold this jar of acid and the rattlesnake. I've got to hop on the unicycle and get this chainsaw revved up.
I need to get in on some of this live thread stuff before too long. I am really liking the idea of the flashback system. It seems like the best background just hints at a bigger story. A simple "Oh no, not again" or "This isn't the first time I've (fill in the blank)" should lead to some interesting background.
I'm waiting on killroy and tet, I might start the live game with you current three then have them start a live thread together when they are ready, then merge the two. I'm not sure when they are joining.
The flasback system is fun for me too, as it helps you guide me to your characters history in a way I'm playing, as I have to discover how to make it all happen and merge together, which is fun.
