Online Collaborative Fiction - Heroes 5th - ICONS - Casting Call

From: "china.pittenger@gmail.com" <china.pittenger@gmail.com>

Date: Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:54:01 +0000

www.nextgenrpg.com (Serious Games for Dedicated Gamers)

What would you do if you were given unbelievable power? An army of
loyal
fanatics? Lands and monies and as many husbands or wives as you
wanted?
How would you change the world? Would you change the world?

Posting Requirements: (Please see additional GM note towards the
bottom.) ICONS is a 5th Editions Champions game that requires good
writing skills and the ability to post to the site a MINIMUM of two
times a week. If you cannot meet the posting requirement due to real
life obligations, then please do not apply for this game. Being a
scarred veteran of the online gaming community, I've learned a few
lessons about what works and what doesn't. And one of the things I've
learned is that nothing kills a game faster than Real Time.

How do I submit: Please send all submissions to gamerawaved@me.com |
All
characters need to be in either .doc or .hdc format (Word or Hero
Designer). If you don't have access to Word or HD, please email me and
let me know, and we'll work out something else. It is VERY IMPORTANT
that your character be as detailed as possible. Please also identify
the one person in the world (living or dead) that your character
trusts
beyond all others - and give me some meaty background on this person
as
well. The game will consist of 5 players, with a variable number of
Supporting Cast.

Deadline: Character's must be submitted no later than March 15th, and
I
will announce the Main Cast on March 22nd. Game start date will be
April
7th. A Supporting Cast call will be announced after the Main Cast has
been confirmed. Supporting Cast characters will be announced April
1st.
A Supporting Cast call will be announced after the Main Cast has been
confirmed. Supporting Cast characters will be announced April 1st.

Your Points: The players will start out as skilled normals with a 50
point base, and up to 25 points in disadvantages. A detailed
background
of the character including body cast will be required upon submission.

The Game World: This game will deal with morality and choice on an
epic
scale. The characters have the capacity to become the leaders and
founders of empires very easily. I will not dictate how you choose to
behave in the game world =96 however all actions have consequences,
and I just ask that you be prepared to suffer them, come what may.
That
being said, this is not a snuff film or your outlet for writing that
great American porn novel =96 adult themes will exist, and death will
occur, but let's not examine them too closely =96 think of the
camera fading to black as the axe comes down, or the clothes come off.
And please make sure to label your posts as Adult if the themes you
are
exploring are Adult ones =96 if only to make sure we aren't
upsetting someone's kids.

Your characters origin: The characters originate from the every day
world you and I know and recognize. It is April 2009, and the country
is
suffering through a serious economic crises. All of that jazz. Your
character can come from anywhere on the planet =96 you are NOT limited
to a United States origin =96 please however be prepared to play a
different ethnicity realistically, and to assist your GM if he needs
your help to retain that unique non-American point of view. Things
will
start out normally =96 expect them to change fairly radically and
fairly soon after play begins.

Your characters age: Minimum of 8, maximum of 80.

Your characters gender: up to you.

Your characters sexuality: up to you.

Your characters moral center: In developing your characters, the sky
is
the limit. You can be feelthy rich. You can be on death row. You can
be
a child, a paraplegic, a savant. Let your imagination take hold...
just
have it make sense.

Your characters powers: I will build these for you =96 however, I will
require that each player provide me with their dream set of powers. I
need to know what power set you would truly love above all others - I
just ask that your concept be sound and not totally random. "I want to
be a telepath" or "I want to fly" or "I want to teleport" or "I want
to
bend steel with me bare hands" or "I want to magnetically rape the
earth"... that sort of thing. Superman might be pushing it a bit from
a
"how's that all work again?" perspective, and a purely
Batman-type wouldn't survive. Other than that, run with it! I will
also be providing you with your disadvantages. And no, I won't tell
you what those are=85 I'm evil. So sue me.

Additional GM Notes: It is entirely possible that the characters will
not interact directly with each other for up to one full year of real
time. This is by design, so when considering applying to this game,
understand that JP's and whatnot will not be available. It will be
you and me, with your fellow players sitting on the sidelines munching
popcorn and rooting for your success or demise. That will change over
time, but it may be a while.

ICONS will, in an effort to make the game world more interesting and
the
NPC's more realistic, be introducing the concept of "Supporting
Cast". These are NPC's that are controlled by other players
=96 characters that interact with the PC's regularly but may end
up being left behind, killed, turning coat, that sort of thing. These
will be for the most part skilled normals, with the occasional
lower-powered super thrown in for good measure. These folks can be
played by anyone on the site, and are perfect for those who either
want
to get their feet wet or just want to join in on the fun for a little
bit. Applications will be required, and will be vetted by the GM and
the
Player for their particular Supporting Cast members.

You will, as a player, need to be very watchful of not using player
knowledge when interacting with the other players =96 if and when you
do so.

Extra experience points for the game can be earned by providing the
following:
1. Character Diaries - 1 point per entry - must consist of at least
1 'page' of text.
2. Artwork - 1-5 pts - pictures, maps or images of the game world and
its inhabitants.

Tense: All posts will be in the third person, past tense. Example:
"She opened the door and looked outside, curious as to what made the
noise." Not "She opens the door and looks outside", or
"I go and open the door".

Let me explain the Posting Requirements: Say you've got five players
at
the start of your game... each of these players is posting according
to
the established posting rules laid out by their GM. Now one of the
players, a good three weeks after the start of the campaign, begins to
slack a little in their replies. The other four, being reasonable
folks,
don't raise too much of a fuss at first, understanding that sometimes
real life intervenes, or writers block creeps up, or (fill in the
blank).

Real Time passes. The game goes from multiple posts a day, to a sort
of
stop/start thing as our four understanding players wait for our one
slow
poster to be able to reply.

More Real Time passes, and now we're down to just a few posts a week
instead of a day... momentum begins to die. And with that lack of
momentum the four understanding players begin to get frustrated. This
frustration leads to a checking of the site less and less, and also
leads to a leaching of quality around the game itself as players try
to
remember where they were in their characters heads as of their last
reply (a week ago now)... eventually the whole thing just sort of
collapses... Game Death... (insert much wailing of teeth and gnashing
of
breasts... or something... here)

Now, GM's are as guilty of this as anyone, so I'm not just unloading
on
'the players' here. I'VE BEEN guilty of it! I just want to make sure
that I'm very clear in my expectations regarding posting so that there
are no surprises. I'm not pointing fingers. I'm not trying to make
subtle accusations. Honest! My commitment to my players is at least
two
replies to each of you per week. I think that it reasonable to ask the
same of each of you.