New: A.R.K. (free, closed-ended, email, www, human, modern, rpg) From: donotreply@pbm.com (PBM List Autoposter) Date: Fri, 08 Aug 2003 07:13:04 +0000 Name: A.R.K. Costs: free Frequency: every 2 days Email: sarkyflump@yahoo.co.uk Type: modern/horror/reality gameshow Last-Update: 2003Aug07 Keywords: free, closed-ended, email, www, human, modern, rpg Description: A R K Six strangers. Gathered together. One house. "Welcome ladies and gentlemen," the bearded, pinch-faced host smiles to each guest in turn. The padded velvet dressing gown he wears, the monacle squeezed between cheek and brow, and the quirky loops at the ends of his pencil thin moustache all suggestive of an overtly eccentric personality. "Welcome to the ARK." What is the ARK? Nobody knows. Only the monacled host, Andreas Anderton. He knows what the ARK means, what it entails, where it is. All you know is what you've read, what you've seen in the advertisements on television. It's not quite reality TV as you know it, but it sounds like fun. Six strangers will spend six weeks in an unexplained location known simply as 'the ARK'. Each week the six will get to nominate fellow contestants for 'eviction'. A jury of celebrities, nominated by the public, will decide who goes and who stays based on the week's nominations. Only one stranger will remain at the end of the game. He or she will win a staggering $10million prize. PLAYING IN THE ARK The ARK is a dark and compelling fantasy rpg based in modern times. Players who wish to enter the ARK should email me at the above address in order to receive character creation rules. Players should be confident writers with an interest in storytelling. Age isn't important, neither is gender. Narrative and characterisation are integral parts of all the rpgs I run, hack and slash or monosyllabic posts are not. Plot, gameplay and tactics do come a close second however. Staying power on your part is also a good selling point. My other open ended rpgs have been running for close to three years, hopefully an indication of my own staying power. I always have new projects in the pipeline and good writers with strong imaginations are almost always invited back to participate. This may seem a little bit elitest but it does guarantee a great group of rpers with already proven staying power. ARK is a mixture of horror/modern thriller and will include graphic artwork matching the genre. Some of the artwork could be deemed 'strong' at times. Nothing worse than you might see in any modern horror flick, certainly not blood and gore or similar bad taste imagery, but I figure the warning should be made before players decide whether or not to play :) The game is close ended as the intro suggests, with posts coming, hopefully, at least once every two days using a group mailing list on the internet. Your time in the game depends on how you play. Nominations will be made each in-game week (which could be anything up to and beyond one real time month, depending on the average speed of play). The 'celebrity jury' will be myself and a group of lurkers, all friends of mine to ensure no jury drop outs. It goes without saying, this is a pbem. The $10million prize is pure fantasy (sorry to disappoint you ;), but the winner will get the satisfaction of knowing he/she won and if the game proves successful I'll be posting winners past and present on a website to be thrown together at a later time. The list will also remain testament to the winning player's endeavours. One last thing I feel is important to stress at this point: player characters will be nominated by other player characters. Players will not nominate other players. Similarly players will not nominate player characters. PC attitudes to one another will dictate who they vote for, not players opinions of other players or players opinions of characters in the game. Therefore a good understanding of the differences between in-character roleplay and out-of-character knowledge or opinion is an important asset on your part. Players shouldn't feel concerned that they may be judged on their own personality, in other words. This won't be the case and the eviction jury will be deciding who goes and who stays based on an overview of the whole game and all PCs involved. RL personalities will not figure in the process. Lurkers are always more than welcome [ This is a new entry for the PBM List. You can find the list itself, and instructions for adding games or comments, at http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/pbm_list/ -- greg ] Up