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The Idea Blender



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Ordeith

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I take no credit for this; the original thread was Orion's.
I'm merely following through with a suggestion he made.
Listen to this while reading.


The Idea Blender
Semi-Original Roleplaying


As a roleplayer and a writer, I've often found that the best ideas often come from the mixing of several preexisting ideas and themes. Now, by that, I don't mean to say that productions like Godzilla vs King Kong are quality work. Rather, something like Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Trilogy, which combines many unique concepts with many timeless ones, is a good example of this. "The Batman Complex", while not a completely original concept, is also a fairly good example.

The point I'm trying to make is that brainstorming starts at the familiar level. We start by drawing upon things that we know--and by the time we've finished, something completely new has sprung up from that little conceptual seed. My hope is that, through this method, new original roleplays can be created--instead of the same canon universes being used again and again.

The process is very simple:

1. Choose at least three different published works that you enjoy. By "published works", I'm referring to anything that has been released for mass enjoyment. Books, movies, video games, songs, and poetry are all eligible.

2. Try to think of the most homogenous mixture of these 3+ works. If you end up drawing many details from one--but tweaking or deviating from another--that's perfectly fine. (My own "crazy mash-up" featured a protagonist very close to the character Gregory House, but a setting that was only loosely based on the society of GATTACA--although it was still based on it.)

3. After allowing these ideas to simmer, stew, and blend, fill out the following template with a few basic descriptions:
Spoiler Spoiler Show

4. See what sort of response your blended brainchild receives. If you feel that it has "taken off", create a new thread for it in the Roleplaying section, or begin a collaboration with other interested parties. We should aspire to keep this thread as businesslike and clutter-free as possible.


That's all there is to it. I hope that this thread will serve its purpose well,
but we'll have to see. Until then . . .

Happy Blending!
 

Professor Ven

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Because I Said I Would, Wormwood, So Here It Is. My Idea. Eat It With Your Eyes Like It's Candy.

1. Choose at least three different published works that you enjoy. By "published works", I'm referring to anything that has been released for mass enjoyment. Books, movies, video games, songs, and poetry are all eligible.

(A) The Wheel of Time Series: by Robert Jordan [now deceased, the remainder of the series is being completed by Mistborn and Way of Kings author, Brandon Sanderson.]

(B) The Dragonlance Chronicles: ergo, a written example of the old AD&D (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons module in testing, if I remember correctly), of a party of characters saving the world Krynn. Co-written by Tracy & Laura Hickman, Margaret Weis, Jeff Grubb, Michael Willams, and possibly others - just calling them off the top of my head.

(C) World of Warcraft MMORPG - Dungeons & Dragons Tabletop - The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Generally are accepted by the majority populace to be the main hubs of "fantasy-esque" realms of fun/anger/hatred/OPness; I just jumble these three into one for the sake that LotR begat D&D from which came WoW. Different ideas/creators and so on, but they're examples of the majorly-accepted elements of the Fantasy genre.


2. Try to think of the most homogenous mixture of these 3+ works. If you end up drawing many details from one--but tweaking or deviating from another--that's perfectly fine. (My own "crazy mash-up" featured a protagonist very close to the character Gregory House, but a setting that was only loosely based on the society of GATTACA--although it was still based on it.)


Fantasy World in which a gaggle of characters must go on some kind of twisted adventure filled with death, over-glorified paladins, snooty clerics, and uncaring mages must save the world from ultimate destruction by the *cough* ultimate evil.

And all but two or three of the party off to save the world are Chaotic Neutral, so there's going to be internal struggles and general orphanage/village burning to the ground.

3. After allowing these ideas to simmer, stew, and blend, fill out the following template with a few basic descriptions:

Spoiler Spoiler Show

4. See what sort of response your blended brainchild receives. If you feel that it has "taken off", create a new thread for it in the Roleplaying section, or begin a collaboration with other interested parties. We should aspire to keep this thread as businesslike and clutter-free as possible.

*headdesks and awaits eagerly and expects buckets of text-filled fecal matter to be thrown*



-This is just a general summary of the idea; if I bothered to flesh it out, it would look horrendous and take up at least half of the page, and all of my fun time. If more information is necessary, it will be given with regard to my own wanting to give.
 

Ordeith

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Mmm....Scrumptious.

I definitely see a few difficult spots to work through (ie. filling every slot), but if those are worked through, I can envision a good, old-fashioned fantasy romp that travels far. Plus, I'd really love to see your brand of writing/thinking/roleplaying applied to an entire universe.

If the Lords of Oblivion end up being our own original versions of the Forsaken, I don't care how many finicky sci-fi purists we need to mow through in order to get it afloat. It will be done.
 

Professor Ven

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Mmm....Scrumptious.

I definitely see a few difficult spots to work through (ie. filling every slot), but if those are worked through, I can envision a good, old-fashioned fantasy romp that travels far. Plus, I'd really love to see your brand of writing/thinking/roleplaying applied to an entire universe.

If the Lords of Oblivion end up being our own original versions of the Forsaken, I don't care how many finicky sci-fi purists we need to mow through in order to get it afloat. It will be done.

We're going to need one hell of a lawnmower. Even then, filling every slot wouldn't be too tricky of a problem, given the idea that the Lords of Light themselves could simply be (and somewhat are) Valar-esque NPCs.

I might need to list more concerning the World itself - from which the issue arises that it might be too much information for some RPers.
 

Orion

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-Deus Ex: Human Revolution
-Gattaca
-I, Robot and/or Bicentennial Man

An awesome roleplay bursting at the seems with deep moral and ethical questions about the future of humanity, the nature of sentience and life, and how all three will choose or be forced to intermingle or destroy each other. The roleplay takes place in mid-21st century, during the earliest days of the technological singularity, as cybernetic augmentation, genetic modification and artificial intelligence all move beyond their early, crude forms and into fully-fledged sciences and industries of their own. The industrial world is a place of massive unrest, boiling beneath a thin layer of apparent tolerance as 'natural' humans protest, debate and war for the discontinuation of any efforts to advance or supercede the human body and mind. Meanwhile, the three seperate industries of TA, GM and AI wage a war of physical and corporate warfare, all advancing their own work and vying for private, governmental and military funding to make their science the dominant field of the future.

Roleplayers take on the role of technologically-augmented or genetically-modified humans, or an android possessing high-level artificial intelligence. How the humans came to their current state is up to their roleplayers: for the augmented - did a complication at birth require the replacement of limbs or organs, did they lose those parts of themselves in an accident, or did they simply buy them? For the modified - have they been this way from birth, are they accepting of who they are? For androids - what does their theoretical immortality, lighting-fast thoughts and perfect memory mean do them; do they yearn for imperfection or the randomness offered by a truly human experience? Throughout the events of the roleplay, the characters and the world will be examined through the lens of each major faction, and probing questions asked about the future of biology, technology and the human race.
 

Jozi

Du-dun-dananana Calibrations!
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Elfen Lied
Avatar the Last Airbender
Cthulhu Mythos.....

Oh....my.........god............





....Still got nothin'
 

Ordeith

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-Deus Ex: Human Revolution
-Gattaca
-I, Robot and/or Bicentennial Man

I'm already looking forward to the direction this is headed in.

Orion said:
An awesome roleplay bursting at the seems with deep moral and ethical questions about the future of humanity, the nature of sentience and life, and how all three will choose or be forced to intermingle or destroy each other. The roleplay takes place in mid-21st century, during the earliest days of the technological singularity, as cybernetic augmentation, genetic modification and artificial intelligence all move beyond their early, crude forms and into fully-fledged sciences and industries of their own. The industrial world is a place of massive unrest, boiling beneath a thin layer of apparent tolerance as 'natural' humans protest, debate and war for the discontinuation of any efforts to advance or supercede the human body and mind. Meanwhile, the three seperate industries of TA, GM and AI wage a war of physical and corporate warfare, all advancing their own work and vying for private, governmental and military funding to make their science the dominant field of the future.

This all looks excellent thus far--like an expanded version of the scenario in Deus Ex, with the social implications of Gattaca and The Bicentennial Man. If there are two major companies per industry, spread across the globe, that's already a wide variety in factions. I can't wait to develop the character and attitudes of these firms--and how that character influences their version of the technology.
Orion said:
Roleplayers take on the role of technologically-augmented or genetically-modified humans, or an android possessing high-level artificial intelligence.

While those three are obviously the more interesting groups, we might as well include boring old humans into the mix--and not just purists: Imagine the feelings of inadequacy and helplessness for people who are simply trying to get by. Furthermore, if this roleplay's society is anything like the society of Gattaca, imagine what they would do to bypass that rigid social order.
Orion said:
How the humans came to their current state is up to their roleplayers: for the augmented - did a complication at birth require the replacement of limbs or organs, did they lose those parts of themselves in an accident, or did they simply buy them? For the modified - have they been this way from birth, are they accepting of who they are? For androids - what does their theoretical immortality, lighting-fast thoughts and perfect memory mean do them; do they yearn for imperfection or the randomness offered by a truly human experience?

This is exactly the sort of roleplay that I love--full of choice and character growth. Another check.
Orion said:
Throughout the events of the roleplay, the characters and the world will be examined through the lens of each major faction, and probing questions asked about the future of biology, technology and the human race.

If we're going to create such a detailed setting (which, in and of itself, would be enough to spur characters into action), we might as well write a plot that's just as detailed. It should probably be some sort of conspiracy, in the style of Deus Ex--since "behind-the-scenes" events/intentions can shift more easily than major planned events.

This roleplay would be a monstrous wall of text, but I'm confident that it would succeed if some notable names were attached to it.
 

Professor Ven

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I have this really stupid idea of politics/aristocracy power struggles. Basically, everyone's out to gut each other, lots of tenuous alliances between lords/ladies (whathaveyou non-Fantasy-buff people - uh ROBOTS! YEAH! metalpeoplestompingaroundwithAUGMENTSSS) and any fun stuff to be crammed together inside this nasty giant turkey.

It's a raw idea, though I'm sure in any period/time/dimension/hooplah's plane of uber existence it can be easily implemented (provided that civilization they are set in is "civilized"), built upon, created, rebuilt after the plot-hole is discovered and torn off like a scab (because we all picked our scabs).


Just chucking into here because I think it's viable as an RP by itself (though it could get boring for some people [who like smashing other people with walls of text instead of 'witty words' hurr])

>.>


Intrigue. Power. Control Over A Populace. Greed. Wealth. Delicious Raspberries.


SUSPENSE!
 

Mistearea

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It's still kinda rough.

Spoiler Spoiler Show
 
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It's still kinda rough.

Spoiler Spoiler Show

I gotta say, I like your idea.
 
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