Persistent Worlds?

Hello fellow Blue Mooners,

I've been wandering around for a bit and I've been thinking about creating a "persistent world". It is a basic backdrop, completely with it's own backstory, settings and environments for roleplayers to experiment and play with, as long as there is an apparent link to each other in some form or fashion.

The concept, I believe, would be an excellent one for BMR, as it gives everyone a chance to work together creating stories situated within the reality we wish to create.

Anyone with me on this one, or have ideas for one?

I have a lot of ideas. But I'd like to hear more about the one you discussed with me on chat--it sounded really interesting.

EDIT: Which isn't to say that other people shouldn't give their ideas. A BMR setting might be pretty fucking fantastic, to tell the truth.

Well, you could always have a multi-verse, couldn't you? Like, set it up so that various worlds are connected via space station/portal and not everyone knows about it... unless specifically cleared by the organization... You know, just to get all the different genres and whatnot.

Why lock down the one way to get from dimension to dimension? There could be a variety of ways. In some realities people could be entirely ignorant and in others people could be regularly hopping back and forth and everything in between.

But.

Yeah, BMR multiverse sounds awesome. People should start positing ideas.

How about a setting where it's always twilight, sometimes darker, sometimes lighter. It's a city, but nobody has seen the edges. There's parks that somehow thrive without clear light, and there's people of all sorts, and animals, and animal-people, and... other things. The buildings are daub and wattle, like ancient Babylonian structures, but they house wonders. In a bazaar market, you can find wooden spoons and clay pots next to nanotechnology dispensers and disruptor beams. Innkeepers work mostly in barter, but some accept any of a billion different forms of currency, and some even have electronic transaction machines. People and gear from all times and places seem to meet here, interact. There are fights, but no wars. People set up shop by wandering until they find an empty building and then moving in. Nobody knows where the place came from, who maintains it, but they make use of it. It's a crossroads, like the Tavern at the End of the World in the Sandman series. And it houses whatever those who pass through are looking for.

My idea is one I'm toying with. The WIP title is "Obliteration Street" and the concept was that humanity went through a decline so terrible that all civilisation was destroyed, save for several small towns built from junk. The denizens are trying to prosper and grow, but where there are good intentions, there are bad people. The occasional gunfight and death occur until the ones assigned to save everyone from falling insane step in and break it up.

Obviously, I'm still thinking about where the idea could go, what people could do. Maybe figure out where the main direction of this forum (Sexual Roleplaying) can fit in, as well; perhaps one player saves another player in one thread and then they interact in their own thread.

Hmmm... That's true. There could be any number of ways this could go. You know, once there's a sort of base for it - a place open to every member, maybe like a town center or something with shops, etc like Mr Master suggested - there could be spinoffs in the same forum? Or not, depending on the kinks, I guess... <shrugs> I really like this idea. An open world that gets more and more... Although one of the differences between your idea and his is that there would be violence... Maybe even a list of gangs or something. I'm getting excited!

If such a thing was to happen the thing I would desire most from it is there to be actual consequences for people's actions.

I also like MM's idea and will probably steal a bit from it.

Would the admins and moderators/people of status have any "offical" titles or parts in the city?

That would be fun!

Nice thread, BWA! And WOW to all the the follow up responses. THIS kind of thing is exactly what this section is all about!!! People help each other and inspiration just... well... happens.

And titles? OH MY! *wonders what hers would be*
EEEP!
>.<

I would really hate to see this idea die off, it does fascinate me.

Where would we put the multiverse?

Would Mr. Master's world be the hub through which you go from one world to the next?

I am new here and as such, I am sure that my opinion holds no weight but it sounds to be as though Mr. Master's city would be the ideal central crossroads from which a multi-verse could expand. If there are going to be multiple worlds all with multiple manners of beings, creatures, and varying cultures/technologies then such a central point would be a fantastic place for inter-dimensional travellers to find all manner of exotic pets, devices, and slaves (for those with the connections to darker markets). If this is the kind of direction that this site is seriously considering going then I am ecstatic that I joined when I did. It's always nice to get on the ground floor of revolutionary ideas.

My idea is that it's a kind of twilight, para-dimensional commonworld. That's why it's like a timeless ancient city with no bounds, but contains things from many worlds and times. Humans, aliens, demons, angels... If you walk far enough, you find the buildings change until you're in a real-world city. But what world? Some learn how to navigate from world to world, some get lost, some never find their way back to the space between. Like I said, it's like the Inn At The End Of The World from the Sandman books.

It just seems that that way, we can pull in any characters we want, with the option to go to whatever environment we want. The city doesn't have to be a focus of the adventure, it can be just a convenient place to meet. Maybe someone can be a guide, know the back streets of the city, and where to go from world to world...

Just a thought. I'm not locked in to it, but I think it has potential.

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I don't know that the site as a whole will do such a thing, but I see no reason we can't promote it as a self-created public option. So anyone can use the playground if they want to, but it's not like you're required to.

Hey, MM reminds me of a short story by Lovecraft, I just can't remember the name of it at the moment.

This will require me to scour my collection.

It was the short story He.

This would be interesting. I tried actually integrating a similar concept, having my roleplays be interconnected in someway. Whether it'd be a a mult-verse or the same world.

Heh, meta-plot.

The crucial thing with any chaotic setting though is that it needs rules and regulations more so then a set setting, other wise you get people like me losing what little bits of frayed sanity they have left.

If this is an idea people are very serious about, how about making a poll and posing it to the masses? Then perhaps a new RP forum for this can be added? Just a thought. I suggest trying to consolidate your ideas in an informative and readable way and then having one of you write everything up in one single thread. From there, we can see what people think. If the response is good......... new RP forum.

This sounds like it would be the perfect world for me to run a muck in ... and naked
count me in

Well, I doubt that I would run naked through any inter-dimensional portals... let alone the city that would allegedly connect them all but I'll offer my full support and limited resources to this idea. I wholeheartedly think that we're onto something here. I'm sure we've all had character before whom we wish we could pull from one Rp and slide into another if only as a side-character. This would give perfect justification.

Well, if we actually need to write something up, I volunteer to come up with the initial draft. As evidence of my capacity in this regard, I submit this: my setting description for an RPG I have had running here.

Well, a write up of sorts will help me see what exactly the majority of you are looking for. Given that, it'll then help me see how to best structure the forum for you and what not in terms of rules and such.

Are we talking about a whole new forum? Or would it just be open threads on this forum, similar to the open role play section?
And regardless, the first thing in either case I believe people should have a list of there character of characters so as there moving from world to world we would know who we are dealing with.

I see it as a sub-forum to the already existing Roleplay forum. So, it would be similar to sections like General Roleplay, Taboo Roleplay, Group Roleplay, etc etc. It would just be it's own category with it's own rules and what not.

And as for the character thing. That would fall under the rules set up for the section once it's established. These rules can be determined by those of you interested in doing this (as well as in accordance with overall site/forum rules). I want this catered to you guys since it's your collective thing. I'll just make it pretty for you and see that what you want is enforced once newer people not involved in this 'creation process' come along in the future. Because we all know they will.

I should specify; I was talking in my offering of my old work about the setting description work I did there. Someone already asked me about the game mechanic section, and while I'm proud of my game mechanics, no, that wasn't what I was referring to.

I don't expect this "shared world" concept to be a game, I don't expect people will administer it (beyond the usual checking that goes on regarding posts here), I just figure if people want to use a "shared world" concept for their own stories, we can make a unified baseline description. In TV series, they call it a "bible," a write-up of the setting and characters. Well, we won't define characters (other than perhaps a few NPCs people can use as background, maybe), but we can talk about the setting in comparative detail.

It doesn't have to be my idea, even if I end up writing the basic description, and it should be sufficiently flexible to allow for a wide variety of characters, settings, and interactions. The only constant would be the background, which therefore needs to be adaptable to a wide array of stories. I think we can do that, and then if anyone wants to set one of their RPs in that setting, then they're welcome to use what we write up in the "bible."

Of course, besides the basic setting itself, there is also the potential for player-made developments to make their way into the "bible" if they prove interesting and popular enough. In a situation like that, I would think someone other than the player who wrote it up might want to describe it; there's too much opportunity for an originator to use phrases like "the best" and "without compare" and the like, and that's the kind of ultimate conclusion that really should be a taste thing.

Anyway, just wanted to add that observation. I'm off to update my links, now.